I’d never thought of naming my core values before reading this question although I knew that I had engaged with them throughout my life. I started thinking about those values: gratitude, curiosity, learning, equity, and honesty. So for today I wanted to focus on gratitude and answer the daily question. Today I am grateful that I found this website and it offers an opportunity to think and write. So I would say that I am embodying that core value by writing this first response. Thanks to everyone involved!
My coworker had a dr apt first thing this morning and I gladly did some of her responsibilities even though I could have left them for her. She felt bad about it. To me it is all about helping each other out ✨☺️
On yesterday’s topic my Boss did not give me the goal of working 1x a month on week-end. Thank goodness, i would only have wanted to do it to help her out but I would be way too exhausted I think! Luckily I expressed that when we spoke about it. I like my week-end especially in the summer on the sailboat. My joy time!
Someone
recently
tried to explain to me
how some people
can act as with no conscience,
and I had a hard time
wrapping my head around it . . .
it’s almost impossible
to think
that a human being
could live a life in this world,
a world that is full of beauty,
ugliness
and consequences,
and not be heartbroken
by self-serving, cruel behavior
that he or she perpetrates.
But a little window in the garret
has squeaked open,
and I can see with horror
that this is a truth.
A person like that
has no ‘dark night of the soul’.
How vacuous,
how shallow
is that?
I had thought
that we were all imbued with
the concepts of kindness and generosity of spirit,
and it rather breaks my heart
that this is not true.
My own core values
get me through the day
and help me sleep at night . . .
they warm my heart
and make life worth living.
Because of that
perhaps
they are a part of what lives in me
and what I take out into the world . . .
I can’t imagine it
any other way. ♥
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s poem from yesterday comes to mind. It makes me think of my senses and how I take in sites, sounds, smells, touch and feelings. I wish to be conscious of my senses today and see if they align with my willingness to be open, non-judgemental, kind and compassionate. Here’s the daily poem she offered yesterday.
The Arrangement
Because touch is one way we offer praise,
this morning I touch my ears
to the see-sawing song of birds
in the tree beside me. I still myself
to focus on their song, and they stop
singing, as if to tease. I touch my ears
to the silence where the song is not.
Touch the warm tones of wind chimes
stirred by a breeze I barely feel.
Touch the hum of the cars
and the growl of a motorcycle I’d rather
shut out. I think of how my grandmother
used grass, even weeds in her flower arrangements.
She taught me you could make anything beautiful.
I try to stop slandering the traffic noise
and gather it into an audible bouquet complete
with birds, chimes, silence, my breath.
How to make the unwelcome welcome?
How to hold tension in ways that compliment?
All morning, all day, I practice opening
to what isn’t easy to love. I make a vase
of the moment. Add all the sound that’s here.
So much I’d rather not to listen to.
I think of my grandmother. I try to find
new ways to hear.
How serendipitous,
dear Carol Ann,
that you posted Rosemerry’s poem from yesterday . . .
it really spoke to me too
and I printed it up to keep.
I’ve been working for a long time
trying to embrace things that I normally don’t find pleasing,
like motorcycle going by
while I am meditating.
She described my struggle so well.
That sound
is now
part of my own audible bouquet.
It does very much apply
to today’s Question.
Thank you . . .
I was so pleased
that you felt the same way. ♥
I will be home all day today, getting caught up on some household and other tasks and interests that have fallen behind. I think the core value I will lean into will be patience – with myself, my husband and my dog. It is easy when we are all here together all day, when the weather is not conducive to letting us out for very long at a time, that we get on each other’s nerves and I get on my own nerves. I will try to remember to breathe, smile, and tell myself…”All will be well.”
How could I embody one of my core values today? One of my core values is kindness. I’m going to my portrait drawing class tonight. I know a lot of (most of) the people there. A few are friends. Most are acquaintances. I am very focused on my art, as are most people there, and I sometimes work through breaks. I try to take the breaks though, because I want to socialize, and although very engrossed in my work, I hate to miss the opportunity to socialize with other artists. Okay, getting to the point, I am kind of shy, and realize that part of my shyness is being self conscious. So I am thinking, what if I approach others with kindness rather than self consciousness. I could show interest in others instead of reticence. Kindness would embody my values and embody my authentic self in a way that shyness does not. Plus it would be a lot more fun. 😍
Sending love to all on this lovely Tuesday.
It went well, Mary. I reminded myself several times throughout the evening to focus on being kind. It’s wonderful to be with people and have kindness as my focus. It felt gentle and connecting.
Try it, Emmaleah. I’d love to hear how it works out for you. As for myself, I felt a warmth beyond what I normally feel with this group. I still had self consciousness, but it was less limiting. Also it can’t hurt to go into a group setting with the intention of being kind.
My family is my most important core value. My family loves me as I love them. But they just don’t have the ability to care for me emotionally. Today, I just want to sit with the feeling of hurt and continue to do what I can to support them. Because love is not that one never hurts each other, but love is whether, being hurt, we still care for one another.
Second answer to you written the next day.
Upon further reflection of your situation, Ngoc, a few other things come to mind for me.
I understand loving others, especially family members, in spite of their limitations.
Accepting my parents as they are, flaws and all, is a big part of loving them.
Accepting them actually helps me to accept myself with my own flaws.
And knowing that your family loves you is still a gift.
It would help me, if I were in your position, to look at this situation as a matter of accepting your family as they are.
Their behavior is not about whether or not you are lovable.
It is about their limitations. And then it is up to you to try to accept them as they are.
That’s how I would try to look at the situation.
At the same time I understand the pain of hurt feelings in all of this.
Pain, sadness, and disappointment are very real emotions. I would feel these emotions.
I hope you will extend your goodness and kindness to yourself as you feel the sadness
about your family’s lack of supportiveness.
That has got to hurt.
Sending more love your way, Ngoc. ♥️
Mary
First answer to you.
This sounds like a very difficult situation, Ngoc. And after reading Loc’s response to you, I can understand what you are dealing with a little better. I guess that there is not much you can do when family members are not supportive of you. Their lack of support as you live your life with so much love and kindness must be very hard on you. I hope that you can tell them that you disagree with them if they say things that are hurtful to you. I don’t know if that would be helpful to you or not. If it was me I think I would want to speak up. I do know, Ngoc, that problems with family members are especially painful and I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this. Sending much love to you, Ngoc, Mary
My joy for piano has returned with the new Menards work schedule. I’m going to focus on discipline and consistency moving forward by putting in some practice time. Even a good 15-30 minutes per day or so can go a long ways. That’s healthier than just going by inspiration, because it’s easy to go all in practicing hours on end for 1 day and go weeks disappearing.
Generosity pops up as a value to focus on today. There are so many ways to be generous and so many opportunities throughout a day. I open my heart and eyes to opportunities this day. ♥️
I hope I embody my core values every day. Acceptance. Compassion. Love. Respect. Presence. Gratitude. There are probably more, but those all come to mind this morning. I will embody them when I go and interact with others at the fitness center, first when I take a class and then when I teach one. And as I go about my day, however it unfolds.
Not so much a could, more like a will embody. I have begun irrigation. The snow pack was meager and the sloid is becoming fluid. Seeking its level, flowing from the great divide. The sound of water, the aliveness of water, the magical properties of water. One of the essential components of all life. I will continue being a good steward and not waste this precious gift. Agua es Vida. Peace, Love, Light, and may all have enough today.
I was thinking of you this morning ,Joseph, as they are predicting rain here for the next 4 days. We do need some rain but no where near like you do. Thank you for always reminding us that water is a precious gift we all should not waste.
Although I have water aplenty,
dear Joseph,
and wish I could send you some,
I use mine carefully,
keeping my seedlings moist,
but not wet.
There is such a thing,
believe it or not,
as an overabundance of water.
Because it is precious to you
it is even more precious to me. ♥
Yes, I know the results of too much water. I have seen farmers yellow up their crops by over irrigating during years with abundant snowpack. Also I have experienced too much rain during harvest . . . some times snow. Still, I never begrudge water from the sky, in this arid spot of the earth. No mud, no lotus. Namaste, dear Sparrow.
By completely eliminating the human mind world which is overlapping Truth- by letting go of the karma(my life lived -“pictures”-), habits – inherited from the ancestors, and the body I can become Truth in this lifetime. By cleansing my false illusion of a self – is repenting and becoming free from the darkness/tomb/ dead world/ falsness- and becoming free I’m accepting Truth in every moment.
Thank you Universe! You are always right here shining through and holding my hand. I love you and you love me we have never been separate.
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I’d never thought of naming my core values before reading this question although I knew that I had engaged with them throughout my life. I started thinking about those values: gratitude, curiosity, learning, equity, and honesty. So for today I wanted to focus on gratitude and answer the daily question. Today I am grateful that I found this website and it offers an opportunity to think and write. So I would say that I am embodying that core value by writing this first response. Thanks to everyone involved!
Welcome Enndee!
So happy to see you here, Enndee!
Welcome!
We, too, are glad you found us, Endee. Welcome.♥️
Welcome to this wonderful Grateful Community Enndee:)
Welcome, Enndee!
Welcome,
dear Enndee,
to this place . . .
I hope you will find a home here. ♥
Thank you, Enndee. This is a safe, non-judgmental, community of grateful, thoughtful folks.
My coworker had a dr apt first thing this morning and I gladly did some of her responsibilities even though I could have left them for her. She felt bad about it. To me it is all about helping each other out ✨☺️
On yesterday’s topic my Boss did not give me the goal of working 1x a month on week-end. Thank goodness, i would only have wanted to do it to help her out but I would be way too exhausted I think! Luckily I expressed that when we spoke about it. I like my week-end especially in the summer on the sailboat. My joy time!
Good for you, Robin Ann, for taking care of yourself.
Someone
recently
tried to explain to me
how some people
can act as with no conscience,
and I had a hard time
wrapping my head around it . . .
it’s almost impossible
to think
that a human being
could live a life in this world,
a world that is full of beauty,
ugliness
and consequences,
and not be heartbroken
by self-serving, cruel behavior
that he or she perpetrates.
But a little window in the garret
has squeaked open,
and I can see with horror
that this is a truth.
A person like that
has no ‘dark night of the soul’.
How vacuous,
how shallow
is that?
I had thought
that we were all imbued with
the concepts of kindness and generosity of spirit,
and it rather breaks my heart
that this is not true.
My own core values
get me through the day
and help me sleep at night . . .
they warm my heart
and make life worth living.
Because of that
perhaps
they are a part of what lives in me
and what I take out into the world . . .
I can’t imagine it
any other way. ♥
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s poem from yesterday comes to mind. It makes me think of my senses and how I take in sites, sounds, smells, touch and feelings. I wish to be conscious of my senses today and see if they align with my willingness to be open, non-judgemental, kind and compassionate. Here’s the daily poem she offered yesterday.
The Arrangement
Because touch is one way we offer praise,
this morning I touch my ears
to the see-sawing song of birds
in the tree beside me. I still myself
to focus on their song, and they stop
singing, as if to tease. I touch my ears
to the silence where the song is not.
Touch the warm tones of wind chimes
stirred by a breeze I barely feel.
Touch the hum of the cars
and the growl of a motorcycle I’d rather
shut out. I think of how my grandmother
used grass, even weeds in her flower arrangements.
She taught me you could make anything beautiful.
I try to stop slandering the traffic noise
and gather it into an audible bouquet complete
with birds, chimes, silence, my breath.
How to make the unwelcome welcome?
How to hold tension in ways that compliment?
All morning, all day, I practice opening
to what isn’t easy to love. I make a vase
of the moment. Add all the sound that’s here.
So much I’d rather not to listen to.
I think of my grandmother. I try to find
new ways to hear.
Thanks for posting this, Carol Ann. I feel moved (touched) by it. ♥️
Thank you Carol. I especially liked the sentence “I make a vase of the moment.”
me too!
How serendipitous,
dear Carol Ann,
that you posted Rosemerry’s poem from yesterday . . .
it really spoke to me too
and I printed it up to keep.
I’ve been working for a long time
trying to embrace things that I normally don’t find pleasing,
like motorcycle going by
while I am meditating.
She described my struggle so well.
That sound
is now
part of my own audible bouquet.
It does very much apply
to today’s Question.
Thank you . . .
I was so pleased
that you felt the same way. ♥
I will be home all day today, getting caught up on some household and other tasks and interests that have fallen behind. I think the core value I will lean into will be patience – with myself, my husband and my dog. It is easy when we are all here together all day, when the weather is not conducive to letting us out for very long at a time, that we get on each other’s nerves and I get on my own nerves. I will try to remember to breathe, smile, and tell myself…”All will be well.”
How could I embody one of my core values today? One of my core values is kindness. I’m going to my portrait drawing class tonight. I know a lot of (most of) the people there. A few are friends. Most are acquaintances. I am very focused on my art, as are most people there, and I sometimes work through breaks. I try to take the breaks though, because I want to socialize, and although very engrossed in my work, I hate to miss the opportunity to socialize with other artists. Okay, getting to the point, I am kind of shy, and realize that part of my shyness is being self conscious. So I am thinking, what if I approach others with kindness rather than self consciousness. I could show interest in others instead of reticence. Kindness would embody my values and embody my authentic self in a way that shyness does not. Plus it would be a lot more fun. 😍
Sending love to all on this lovely Tuesday.
How did it go, Mary? I understand the tendency.♥️
It went well, Mary. I reminded myself several times throughout the evening to focus on being kind. It’s wonderful to be with people and have kindness as my focus. It felt gentle and connecting.
I will be thinking of you this evening and sending loving energy your way.
Thank you Carol Ann. It went very well!
I love this idea, Mary! I am also quite shy and I think I might try your tactic as well. Thank you! 😊
Try it, Emmaleah. I’d love to hear how it works out for you. As for myself, I felt a warmth beyond what I normally feel with this group. I still had self consciousness, but it was less limiting. Also it can’t hurt to go into a group setting with the intention of being kind.
My family is my most important core value. My family loves me as I love them. But they just don’t have the ability to care for me emotionally. Today, I just want to sit with the feeling of hurt and continue to do what I can to support them. Because love is not that one never hurts each other, but love is whether, being hurt, we still care for one another.
Second answer to you written the next day.
Upon further reflection of your situation, Ngoc, a few other things come to mind for me.
I understand loving others, especially family members, in spite of their limitations.
Accepting my parents as they are, flaws and all, is a big part of loving them.
Accepting them actually helps me to accept myself with my own flaws.
And knowing that your family loves you is still a gift.
It would help me, if I were in your position, to look at this situation as a matter of accepting your family as they are.
Their behavior is not about whether or not you are lovable.
It is about their limitations. And then it is up to you to try to accept them as they are.
That’s how I would try to look at the situation.
At the same time I understand the pain of hurt feelings in all of this.
Pain, sadness, and disappointment are very real emotions. I would feel these emotions.
I hope you will extend your goodness and kindness to yourself as you feel the sadness
about your family’s lack of supportiveness.
That has got to hurt.
Sending more love your way, Ngoc. ♥️
Mary
NGOC, Sometimes I have to separate the person from the behavior. I can choose to not like the behavior but still love the person.
”… love is whether, being hurt, we still care for one another.”
Yes,
it is,
dear Ngoc. ♥
First answer to you.
This sounds like a very difficult situation, Ngoc. And after reading Loc’s response to you, I can understand what you are dealing with a little better. I guess that there is not much you can do when family members are not supportive of you. Their lack of support as you live your life with so much love and kindness must be very hard on you. I hope that you can tell them that you disagree with them if they say things that are hurtful to you. I don’t know if that would be helpful to you or not. If it was me I think I would want to speak up. I do know, Ngoc, that problems with family members are especially painful and I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this. Sending much love to you, Ngoc, Mary
My Ngoc, having talked about before, emotional support is a big ask for those people, because the cultures and generations are different.
My joy for piano has returned with the new Menards work schedule. I’m going to focus on discipline and consistency moving forward by putting in some practice time. Even a good 15-30 minutes per day or so can go a long ways. That’s healthier than just going by inspiration, because it’s easy to go all in practicing hours on end for 1 day and go weeks disappearing.
Generosity pops up as a value to focus on today. There are so many ways to be generous and so many opportunities throughout a day. I open my heart and eyes to opportunities this day. ♥️
Mary Mantei, I know what you mean. Today is my Menards piano day playing for customers.
And that, is so generous Loc.♥️
That’s wonderful, Loc!
I will focus on presence and kindness today.
I hope I embody my core values every day. Acceptance. Compassion. Love. Respect. Presence. Gratitude. There are probably more, but those all come to mind this morning. I will embody them when I go and interact with others at the fitness center, first when I take a class and then when I teach one. And as I go about my day, however it unfolds.
By walking my talk of acceptance of others in my work place. Being a peacemaker in these challenging times. 🫶🏽☮️
Not so much a could, more like a will embody. I have begun irrigation. The snow pack was meager and the sloid is becoming fluid. Seeking its level, flowing from the great divide. The sound of water, the aliveness of water, the magical properties of water. One of the essential components of all life. I will continue being a good steward and not waste this precious gift. Agua es Vida. Peace, Love, Light, and may all have enough today.
Sending water 💦 to you from Norway !
I was thinking of you this morning ,Joseph, as they are predicting rain here for the next 4 days. We do need some rain but no where near like you do. Thank you for always reminding us that water is a precious gift we all should not waste.
Although I have water aplenty,
dear Joseph,
and wish I could send you some,
I use mine carefully,
keeping my seedlings moist,
but not wet.
There is such a thing,
believe it or not,
as an overabundance of water.
Because it is precious to you
it is even more precious to me. ♥
Yes, I know the results of too much water. I have seen farmers yellow up their crops by over irrigating during years with abundant snowpack. Also I have experienced too much rain during harvest . . . some times snow. Still, I never begrudge water from the sky, in this arid spot of the earth. No mud, no lotus. Namaste, dear Sparrow.
Genuine kindness with a simple smile for all today.
A Smile–the simplest form of meditation. 🙂
🙂
🙂
Smile, smile, smile. Thank you EJP.
Smiles to you too EJP ! 😊
By completely eliminating the human mind world which is overlapping Truth- by letting go of the karma(my life lived -“pictures”-), habits – inherited from the ancestors, and the body I can become Truth in this lifetime. By cleansing my false illusion of a self – is repenting and becoming free from the darkness/tomb/ dead world/ falsness- and becoming free I’m accepting Truth in every moment.
Thank you Universe! You are always right here shining through and holding my hand. I love you and you love me we have never been separate.
So true! dear Antoinette