This morning early, I walked across the street to the small garden next to a local church and picked zinnias, lavender stalks and small white flowers to make myself a bouquet. Now I love to look at the beautiful vase on my table with these flowers. Lifts my spirits.
I made my son lunch on Friday afternoon while I worked from home. I was trying to think of some of his favorite things to have 💕
We have a Nor’easter going on currently so mostly laying low. I did go to a wild flower seed bomb event at the local libary and learned so much from a Master gardener. The flower bombs are placed any where and will hopefully germinate over the winter and possibly bloom in the spring!
My cousin was vacationing down the Outer Banks when it was first starting, then Sat make the drive back to Philly to get it again. I mentioned it to my daughter who had no idea. I’m always checking out the weather radar, esp living down here in FL. Stay safe.
Flower bombs sound fun!
That nor’easter has reached all the way down into northern Florida. Waves have been big and it’s been pretty windy, although it started to lighten up yesterday. I know it’s much different up the coast, and I hope all is well where you are. I saw a video of one of the Outer Banks piers getting beat up by 18ft waves. Yikes.
I think that there are as many ways to express love
as there are stars in the universe . . .
ways that we reach out with love
and don’t realize it for what it is.
It is an act of love . . .
I hug my teenage katsura tree
to honor the memory
of the beautiful elm that greeted me
when I first moved to this house.
I hug Phoebe
to honor the memory
of Sophie,
and all the other animals I’ve spent my love on.
I clean my home
to honor the Universe,
which saw fit for me to live here.
I plant flowers and eggplants
to honor the earth in which they were born.
So many things I do
are acts of love,
and it seems to me
when I think about it,
that love and gratitude
are inexorably linked
in ways that reach far beyond thinking.
I express my love to my chosen life partner
by listening when he wants to talk,
talking when he needs to listen,
helping when he needs help,
consoling when he needs consoling,
not taking his irritability personally,
by being a warm body to share the night with . . .
I love him
by allowing him to be him
and he returns that love to me.
by allowing me to be me.
I don’t know
what new I can offer,
except to love my life
and the world
in everything I do.
I am but a human being
with aches and pains
and weakness and foibles . . .
I am learning
to be content
with doing the very best that I can
in any given moment,
but always keeping my eyes on the sky
and my gaze upon the stars. ♥
I hadn’t thought of this before, it’s so true: “I love him
by allowing him to be him
and he returns that love to me.
by allowing me to be me.” –Thank you Sparrow.
How can I express love in a new way today? I can give myself love by relaxing today without feeling bad about not accomplishing things. I already do allow down time for myself. But even though I enjoy relaxing and just goofing off, I also usually also feel like there is lots to do and that I should be working on my to- do list. While I plan to accomplish a few things today, I would like to fill the whole day with gentleness and peaceful thoughts. I can express love for myself in this way.
While on my walk this morning, I met a 93 year old neighbor who lives about 1 1/2 blocks from my house. I don’t see her out often and I was thrilled to stop and visit with her. She said she traveled to a nearby town last night to see her great grandson play in a high school football game. You could tell how much she enjoyed doing that. We chatted for a while and I told her I would be having surgery in late November so she would not see me taking my walk for a few weeks in early December. She was immediately concerned and I explained that a need for improved quality of life is why I had agreed to the surgery. As we said good-bye, I realized that I must remember that I am part of my healing team. The doctors and nurses are not doing something to me but rather they are doing something with me. We are a healing team. My self-giving and caring are a big part of this medical process. Their medical wisdom is a gift for which I am very grateful. I am already loving and respecting this medical team and I still have not met them all!This realization is how I can express love today and everyday through out this medical procedure. As Nepun Mehta says in today’s quote: “What gives me hope is that life unfailingly responds to the advances of love.”
Richard Rohr’s meditation practice today is called “The Goodness of it All.” I’ve pasted the link below. If you have time, just scroll down past the quotes and you’ll find the practice. It’s so meaningful for today’s question
I like the perspective of a healing team as well. There really is a lot that goes into a surgery experience, isn’t there? The anticipation–a teacher in patience and grace. The event itself, with a great amount of skill and coordination. And the recovery: nourishing food, comfy rest, comedy movies (for me anyway), the loving and evolving relationship with the healing body part, PT, re-learning whatever is needed to re-learn, and so on. May it all go smoothly, Carol, and may you continue to experience love in the lead-up to the event.
I love that you are looking at your procedure and those performing it as part of a healing team with you. You are very much a part of what will be happening, but I don’t think we normally look at things like this in that way. Thank you for that perspective. And you know you have all of us here on your healing team as well!
(I mistakenly thought,
dear Carol Ann,
that your surgery
was coming up at September’s end–
not November.)
I love that you were able to have a chat with your neighbor,
especially as you haven’t seen much of her lately.
What a joy it must have been for her
to get out to see her great-grandson play . . .
worth living for 93 years. 🙂
”…peacebuilding practice is an expression of spiritual virtues valued in most religious traditions, such as kindness, compassion, gentleness, generosity, patience, and respect for all people…The more of us adopt this goal as an intention for our lives, the more peace and harmony there will be in the world.”
I too,
strive to be a peacebuilder,
as do I think most people
who come to this grateful space. ♥
Sparrow, At first I was upset when I was told I would have to wait until November but there is a shortage of doctors who do this type of surgery at this clinic and I did not want to switch hospitals so I reminded myself that what is IS.
I’ll have to think about a “new way” of expressing love. But in the meantime I’ll continue to reach out and stay in touch with the people that are important to me and express the love that I have for them by continuing to care and support them.
I was going to say that I don’t need new ways to express love. Expressing it in tried and true ways is just fine! Then I thought of my husband’s back problems that give him pain. I can’t cure him with a massage but perhaps I could give him some temporary good feelings from a part of his body that’s mostly sending him bad signals these days. He’s always doing things for me, as he communicates love through acts of service every day. I can do this for him if he says he’d like that.
Something I have always remembered,
dear Drea,
was an instruction
to do at least one positive thing for someone
every day
and never tell a soul
about it. ♥
Sparrow, this sounds like a potent little practice. I may have to try it. To Loc’s point above, there is ego entwined with doing good things for people, and the practice you mentioned would certainly untangle that.
I wrapped up 4 days of sharing with 12 ladies at a retreat house. Our friendships go back 66 years. A “out of towner” stayed with me one night before she flew back to CA. This morning I found a lovely thank you note tucked under my pillow.
I don’t have a new way of expressing love but I can certainly take a former way and reach out.
We often make things more complicated than they need to be. Beating around the bush or fence-sitting will do that. “Loc Gets Straight to the Point” is intended to relax the mind. The mind controls everything. Nothing beats a relaxed mind. Staying true to who I am is my way of showing love. We can’t love others if we can’t love ourselves.
There’s a few friends I value deeply that I can send a love filled text to. They all live at a distance. Happy fall weekend to all! ☮️🍁🍂PS thank you Michele for the suggestion🌈
Michele’s response made me want to write a love note to my husband, so I think that is my answer! I am so grateful for him. The past 7 years together have been filled with so many experiences, and I appreciate that he wants to do the best for US, not just him.
I need to have a hard conversation, we have both postponed because of various life situations. I think the time has been healing for both and hope we can can have a conversation that will help us navigate separate lives. I hope to acknowledge love going forward even if it is different then it used to be and move in different lives with grace and friendship.
Give yourself the gift of free bi-monthly inspiration including uplifting articles, diverse stories, supportive practices, videos, and more, delivered with heart to your inbox.
This morning early, I walked across the street to the small garden next to a local church and picked zinnias, lavender stalks and small white flowers to make myself a bouquet. Now I love to look at the beautiful vase on my table with these flowers. Lifts my spirits.
I don´t know. I called my friends and my loved ones to express my friendship and love and all was fine.
I didn’t interact with many people today, but I did manage to say hello to people I don’t like, who happen to live in staff housing with me.
A kind hello can move like the wind Unseen but felt.
♥
I made my son lunch on Friday afternoon while I worked from home. I was trying to think of some of his favorite things to have 💕
We have a Nor’easter going on currently so mostly laying low. I did go to a wild flower seed bomb event at the local libary and learned so much from a Master gardener. The flower bombs are placed any where and will hopefully germinate over the winter and possibly bloom in the spring!
Thanks for safe wishes, all is well. Mostly raining and never lost power 💦
My cousin was vacationing down the Outer Banks when it was first starting, then Sat make the drive back to Philly to get it again. I mentioned it to my daughter who had no idea. I’m always checking out the weather radar, esp living down here in FL. Stay safe.
Flower bombs sound fun!
That nor’easter has reached all the way down into northern Florida. Waves have been big and it’s been pretty windy, although it started to lighten up yesterday. I know it’s much different up the coast, and I hope all is well where you are. I saw a video of one of the Outer Banks piers getting beat up by 18ft waves. Yikes.
I had never heard of flower bombs,
dear Robin Ann,
so I had to look them up.
It sounds like they’d also be fun to make. ♥
ps. Stay safe.
I am getting rain from the nor-easter,
but the wind or other violent aspects.
I think that there are as many ways to express love
as there are stars in the universe . . .
ways that we reach out with love
and don’t realize it for what it is.
It is an act of love . . .
I hug my teenage katsura tree
to honor the memory
of the beautiful elm that greeted me
when I first moved to this house.
I hug Phoebe
to honor the memory
of Sophie,
and all the other animals I’ve spent my love on.
I clean my home
to honor the Universe,
which saw fit for me to live here.
I plant flowers and eggplants
to honor the earth in which they were born.
So many things I do
are acts of love,
and it seems to me
when I think about it,
that love and gratitude
are inexorably linked
in ways that reach far beyond thinking.
I express my love to my chosen life partner
by listening when he wants to talk,
talking when he needs to listen,
helping when he needs help,
consoling when he needs consoling,
not taking his irritability personally,
by being a warm body to share the night with . . .
I love him
by allowing him to be him
and he returns that love to me.
by allowing me to be me.
I don’t know
what new I can offer,
except to love my life
and the world
in everything I do.
I am but a human being
with aches and pains
and weakness and foibles . . .
I am learning
to be content
with doing the very best that I can
in any given moment,
but always keeping my eyes on the sky
and my gaze upon the stars. ♥
I hadn’t thought of this before, it’s so true: “I love him
by allowing him to be him
and he returns that love to me.
by allowing me to be me.” –Thank you Sparrow.
It sure beats
trying to change him,
dear Drea . . . . 🙂
Lots going on up there, that’s for sure, dear Sparrow.
In the stars
or my head,
dear Joseph? 🙂
Both 🌞
🙂
How can I express love in a new way today? I can give myself love by relaxing today without feeling bad about not accomplishing things. I already do allow down time for myself. But even though I enjoy relaxing and just goofing off, I also usually also feel like there is lots to do and that I should be working on my to- do list. While I plan to accomplish a few things today, I would like to fill the whole day with gentleness and peaceful thoughts. I can express love for myself in this way.
It’s okay to feel stressed about your to-do list, Mary. You’re not alone. A lot of us struggle with the balance.
While on my walk this morning, I met a 93 year old neighbor who lives about 1 1/2 blocks from my house. I don’t see her out often and I was thrilled to stop and visit with her. She said she traveled to a nearby town last night to see her great grandson play in a high school football game. You could tell how much she enjoyed doing that. We chatted for a while and I told her I would be having surgery in late November so she would not see me taking my walk for a few weeks in early December. She was immediately concerned and I explained that a need for improved quality of life is why I had agreed to the surgery. As we said good-bye, I realized that I must remember that I am part of my healing team. The doctors and nurses are not doing something to me but rather they are doing something with me. We are a healing team. My self-giving and caring are a big part of this medical process. Their medical wisdom is a gift for which I am very grateful. I am already loving and respecting this medical team and I still have not met them all!This realization is how I can express love today and everyday through out this medical procedure. As Nepun Mehta says in today’s quote: “What gives me hope is that life unfailingly responds to the advances of love.”
Richard Rohr’s meditation practice today is called “The Goodness of it All.” I’ve pasted the link below. If you have time, just scroll down past the quotes and you’ll find the practice. It’s so meaningful for today’s question
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/nonviolence-a-christian-calling-weekly-summary/
I like the perspective of a healing team as well. There really is a lot that goes into a surgery experience, isn’t there? The anticipation–a teacher in patience and grace. The event itself, with a great amount of skill and coordination. And the recovery: nourishing food, comfy rest, comedy movies (for me anyway), the loving and evolving relationship with the healing body part, PT, re-learning whatever is needed to re-learn, and so on. May it all go smoothly, Carol, and may you continue to experience love in the lead-up to the event.
Thank you, Drea. So much wisdom in your words.
I love that you are looking at your procedure and those performing it as part of a healing team with you. You are very much a part of what will be happening, but I don’t think we normally look at things like this in that way. Thank you for that perspective. And you know you have all of us here on your healing team as well!
Patti, Thank you. I feel the love and appreciate it so much.
(I mistakenly thought,
dear Carol Ann,
that your surgery
was coming up at September’s end–
not November.)
I love that you were able to have a chat with your neighbor,
especially as you haven’t seen much of her lately.
What a joy it must have been for her
to get out to see her great-grandson play . . .
worth living for 93 years. 🙂
”…peacebuilding practice is an expression of spiritual virtues valued in most religious traditions, such as kindness, compassion, gentleness, generosity, patience, and respect for all people…The more of us adopt this goal as an intention for our lives, the more peace and harmony there will be in the world.”
I too,
strive to be a peacebuilder,
as do I think most people
who come to this grateful space. ♥
Sparrow, At first I was upset when I was told I would have to wait until November but there is a shortage of doctors who do this type of surgery at this clinic and I did not want to switch hospitals so I reminded myself that what is IS.
♥
I’ll have to think about a “new way” of expressing love. But in the meantime I’ll continue to reach out and stay in touch with the people that are important to me and express the love that I have for them by continuing to care and support them.
I was going to say that I don’t need new ways to express love. Expressing it in tried and true ways is just fine! Then I thought of my husband’s back problems that give him pain. I can’t cure him with a massage but perhaps I could give him some temporary good feelings from a part of his body that’s mostly sending him bad signals these days. He’s always doing things for me, as he communicates love through acts of service every day. I can do this for him if he says he’d like that.
Your husband sounds like a sweetie, Barb. I’ve got one like that too.
Lovely, Barb.
Do helpful or kind things without needing acknowledgment.
Drea, that agenda and affirmation trap sounds familiar.
Yeah, it is in fact an ego trap. A good one to confront within myself.
Something I have always remembered,
dear Drea,
was an instruction
to do at least one positive thing for someone
every day
and never tell a soul
about it. ♥
Sparrow, this sounds like a potent little practice. I may have to try it. To Loc’s point above, there is ego entwined with doing good things for people, and the practice you mentioned would certainly untangle that.
Beautiful, Sparrow.
I wrapped up 4 days of sharing with 12 ladies at a retreat house. Our friendships go back 66 years. A “out of towner” stayed with me one night before she flew back to CA. This morning I found a lovely thank you note tucked under my pillow.
I don’t have a new way of expressing love but I can certainly take a former way and reach out.
My mother used to do that,
dear Yram,
when she visited my husband and me . . .
a practice
that I’ve carried on myself. ♥
🩵
We often make things more complicated than they need to be. Beating around the bush or fence-sitting will do that. “Loc Gets Straight to the Point” is intended to relax the mind. The mind controls everything. Nothing beats a relaxed mind. Staying true to who I am is my way of showing love. We can’t love others if we can’t love ourselves.
“Nothing beats a relaxed mind” – wise words Loc 🙂
There’s a few friends I value deeply that I can send a love filled text to. They all live at a distance. Happy fall weekend to all! ☮️🍁🍂PS thank you Michele for the suggestion🌈
You are so welcome – I am smiling reading everyone’s response too.
Michele’s response made me want to write a love note to my husband, so I think that is my answer! I am so grateful for him. The past 7 years together have been filled with so many experiences, and I appreciate that he wants to do the best for US, not just him.
Happy Saturday!
💗
I need to have a hard conversation, we have both postponed because of various life situations. I think the time has been healing for both and hope we can can have a conversation that will help us navigate separate lives. I hope to acknowledge love going forward even if it is different then it used to be and move in different lives with grace and friendship.
These are the experiences that we grow from. Not easy though. May you feel peace and love regardless of the outcome, Deann. ☀️
May you be present and wise,
dear Deann,
as you move forward with this
very hard thing.
Wounded feelings
are never easy. ♥