Reflections

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  1. Ose
    Ose
    2 weeks ago

    What is, is, which is not.

  2. Cathie
    Cathie
    2 weeks ago

    I am facing a world that is in disorder and may be escalating into chaos. So I need to be present, with peace and calm, to the knowledge of more uncertainty.

  3. Robin Ann
    Robin Ann
    2 weeks ago

    Going back to work next week after having a week off and not feeling like it!

    On a happier note my daughter has been sober for a year and a half 💕

    1. Joseph
      Joseph McCann
      2 weeks ago

      Please give my positive thoughts and congratulations to your daughter, Robin Ann❤️.

      1. Robin Ann
        Robin Ann
        1 week ago

        Thank you Joseph 🥰

  4. shell
    Shell
    2 weeks ago

    Body weight
    Spending
    Water intake
    Nutrition

  5. L
    Lauryn
    2 weeks ago

    The fact that I’m going to be moving again soon, and the work I’ll need to do to prepare.

  6. Barb C
    Barb C
    2 weeks ago

    I’m not facing a very deep challenge. I have to face the need to get off the sofa, where a warm cat is sleeping on my feet, get dressed and start the day. It’s raining steadily so my gardening plans for the day are out the window but at least the plants are getting watered. We plan to go out to breakfast, then run some errands, then I’ll see what the rest of the day holds.

  7. Elizabeth H67151
    Elizabeth H
    2 weeks ago

    Time is limited. Or, to put it in words that feel more aligned with gratefulness, every moment is precious.

    1. sparrow51014
      sparrow
      2 weeks ago

      You are right,
      dear Elizabeth,
      and it is something we should all consider from time to time,
      but not in a morbid way . . .
      our time here is finite. ♥

  8. Carol Ann Conner
    Carol
    2 weeks ago

    I need to face the fact that I am feeling drawn to isolate myself as a physical issue becomes more pronounced. My need to control has reared its head big time so I know I have been drawn into the future and in my experience I go there alone because the strength I need in in the NOW. I’m very thankful for this question. Also, on Saturdays, the Richard Rohr meditation lifts quotes from this weeks daily meditations and then offers a practice. Today’s practice is titled “Joy begets joy.” I found it very helpful this morning and wanted to share the link:

    https://cac.org/daily-meditations/joy-and-resilience-weekly-summary/

    May we all surrender to joy!

    1. L
      Lauryn
      2 weeks ago

      Joy- It’s a decision to look around and recognize and value what is good, what is lovely, what is inspirational—and let that delight us. ✨️

      Thank you for sharing this Carol!

    2. sparrow51014
      sparrow
      2 weeks ago

      I am getting your feelings about isolating yourself,
      dear Carol,
      as I am in a similar position,
      also with a physical issue . . .
      I hold you especially just now
      in my heart.
      Namaste

      Thank you for sharing ‘Joy Begets Joy’ . . .
      I too,
      am finding it helpful. ♥

  9. Yram
    Yram
    2 weeks ago

    I have a pull going on in my body and soul.

  10. Charlie T
    Charlie T
    2 weeks ago

    I don’t think that there’s anything that I’m not facing, but things have a way of revealing themselves after the fact. Seeing things clearly and as they are, is a daily goal. So, I like to think that I have a pretty good view on life’s situations.
    Some things are in my control, and some things are not. It’s important that I discern the difference.

    1. L
      Loc Tran
      2 weeks ago

      I totally get you, Charlie. Details emerge at random times we least expect and never have even thought of before in the heat of the moment.

    2. Antoinette88615
      Antoinette
      2 weeks ago

      Nice Charlie! We can only decide how to respond to whatever comes up. Letting go letting . 🙌🌱

    3. Carol Ann Conner
      Carol
      2 weeks ago

      Amen, dear Charlie.

  11. Jenifer
    Jenifer
    2 weeks ago

    My brother injured his hand, he may have to have surgery. Im taking him to a specialist this morning. Please keep him in your thoughts. Thank you.

    1. Joseph
      Joseph McCann
      2 weeks ago

      May his injury heal promptly, dear Jenifer.

    2. Robin Ann
      Robin Ann
      2 weeks ago

      Sending healing wishes to your brother your way, hope all will be fine.

    3. sparrow51014
      sparrow
      2 weeks ago

      I pray that all is well with your brother,
      dear Jenifer . . . ♥

    4. Carol Ann Conner
      Carol
      2 weeks ago

      Will do…what is his name? Sending loving energy to you both.

  12. D
    Drea
    2 weeks ago

    I’m grateful to have a day off. Grief is with me today. I’m reminded of Francis Weller’s advice to “walk with grief.” Facing grief is a form of being with grief. I’ve pasted a practice below, from a past Grateful Gathering, that is really effective at helping one to walk with grief. Credit to Grateful.org and Joe Primo.

    Practice: Learning to Hold Grief in One Hand, Gratitude in the Other

    Step One: Read Adrift by Mark Nepo

    Adrift
    by Mark Nepo

    Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.
    This is how the heart makes a duet of
    wonder and grief. The light spraying
    through the lace of the fern is as delicate
    as the fibers of memory forming their web
    around the knot in my throat. The breeze
    makes the birds move from branch to branch
    as this ache makes me look for those I’ve lost
    in the next room, in the next song, in the laugh
    of the next stranger. In the very center, under
    it all, what we have that no one can take
    away and all that we’ve lost face each other.
    It is there that I’m adrift, feeling punctured
    by a holiness that exists inside everything.
    I am so sad and everything is beautiful.

    Step Two: Visualize — Hands Apart

    Holding your hands in front of you, palm up, attune to what it feels like to hold, simultaneously, both “all that you’ve lost” and “all that you have that no one can take away.” If comfortable doing so, close your eyes and spend at least a minute of silence with this visualization, focusing first on the grief you carry in one hand and then on the gifts you carry in the other.

    When you’re ready, pause to make note of what this felt like — what emotions arose, what you felt in your body and heart.

    Step Three: Visualize — Hands Together

    Close your eyes again and begin to visualize a meaningful relationship between the sorrows you hold in one hand and the joys you hold in the other. Bring your hands together, interlacing your fingers or gently cupping one hand within the other — whatever helps you envision the relationship you would like to nurture between grief and gratefulness. Pay attention to what this symbolizes and feels like for you.

    When you’re ready, pause to reflect.

    How might attuning to even the simplest gifts of life — the sunrise, one friend, one of your senses, the color of the sky — be nourishing for you as you’re grieving?

    How might allowing space for joy, for beauty, expand your capacity to carry grief? Not set it aside, not even shrink it necessarily — but carry it differently, perhaps even with more ease?

    Step Four: Take Note

    Take a moment to sit with or write down anything that emerged for you in this visualization and reflection. In your life right now, today, how might grief and gratefulness shape and inform each other? To close the practice, reread Mark Nepo’s poem and consider the ways your own heart can make “a duet of wonder and grief.”

    1. Robin Ann
      Robin Ann
      2 weeks ago

      Thank you for sharing this, I will save this.

      1. D
        Drea
        1 week ago

        Glad you found it useful, Robin Ann. It’s one I come back to again and again.

    2. sparrow51014
      sparrow
      2 weeks ago

      Thank you,
      dear Drea,
      for posting this . . .
      the poem by Mark Nepo
      is exquisite. ♥

      1. D
        Drea
        1 week ago

        It is exquisite, isn’t it?

    3. Barb C
      Barb C
      2 weeks ago

      Thank you for reminding me of this poem, Drea, and for the practice.

      On my blog I occasionally publish collections of poems on a theme. I’ve been building one with poems like this, that bring together beauty and pain, the contrast between how bad things can be and how beautiful. I’d read this before but hadn’t added it; it’s now in the draft. I build the collections over time, letting serendipity bring poems into my path, rather than going hunting, and this is a perfect way to rediscover one.

      1. D
        Drea
        1 week ago

        What a wonderful theme, Barb! I would love to read your poem collection someday.

    4. Carol Ann Conner
      Carol
      2 weeks ago

      Drea, Thank you…this exercise has been very helpful to me this morning.

      1. D
        Drea
        1 week ago

        Carol, I am very glad to hear that.

  13. A
    Antonia
    2 weeks ago

    Each new day can feel like a struggle as I face my anxiety and work through past trauma. On some days, my hypervigilance kicks into overdrive, and it’s exhausting.
    I try to not slip too far back into the past or spiral too far into the future. Right now, I focus on taking things one day at a time. And on the harder days, one minute at a time.
    Today, the sky is blue and the sun is shining, my dog is near by- All will be well.
    Peace to all, wherever you maybe in you day.

    1. Joseph
      Joseph McCann
      2 weeks ago

      Thank you Antonia, and Peace to you.

    2. sparrow51014
      sparrow
      2 weeks ago

      Peace to you too,
      dear Antonia . . .
      just soak in that sunshine
      and love your dog.
      All will indeed be well. ♥

    3. Charlie T
      Charlie T
      2 weeks ago

      Antonia, awareness is definite first step and it appears that you are on your way.
      To calm myself, I like to repeat to myself “right now, right here, everything is okay and I have what I need”. 🙏

    4. D
      Drea
      2 weeks ago

      Hang in there, Antonia. If you’re working on it, it can only get better.

  14. Laura
    Laura
    2 weeks ago

    I need to face the heat dome that is about to descend on us. It sounds apocalyptic, doesn’t it? Tasks in the yard await my attention today and maybe a bit tomorrow. Anything else for this week is out of the question. Any exercise will be in the gym.

    1. Patti
      sunnypatti
      2 weeks ago

      It already “felt like” 90 when we were walking the dogs around 8:30am this morning. High 90s and even 100 degrees forecasted in the week ahead for all of the southeast and then some! Crazy heatwave. Of course Tuesday is supposed to be the hottest day and we have tickets for a concert at an outdoor amphitheater. Lots and lots of water!!

    2. L
      Loc Tran
      2 weeks ago

      Laura, temps in the mid 90s in the Twin Cities this weekend with lows as high as 80.

    3. Barb C
      Barb C
      2 weeks ago

      This takes me back. We had a rare-for-us heat dome in the Pacific NW the year after we moved to Olympia. It did feel apocalyptic and people died as a result of it. We don’t have air conditioning and we have skylights that let the sun beat into the house. My husband built covers with some fabric we had on hand to block some of that. I wore exercise dresses (by Nuu-Muu that I absolutely love–they have pockets!) that I could wet down so I got some evaporative cooling. Take care!

    4. D
      Drea
      2 weeks ago

      I became a reluctant member of the 5 a.m. club for our heat dome. The rest of the day feels like hibernation. Good luck.

  15. Patti
    sunnypatti
    2 weeks ago

    I think I just need to face the day. It’s a bright, sunny morning here, and I think I’m going to go to a class to kick off International Yoga Day. I’m so grateful for yoga and all that it has offered me throughout the years and all that it continues to offer with each new day.
    Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. May all beings everywhere be happy and free.

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