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Gratefulness
My goal is to be a whole lot more like my dogs, able to live in the moment and just be grateful.
Kindness and time. I am still not 100% well, so a lot of my time is spent at home. I write letters to encourage friends, sometimes call. It is part of my mindful reaction in awareness that the proliferation of online communication has, if fact, caused us to lose sight of more hands on ways to connect. Sometimes we all need the sound of a voice or the arrival of a piece of mail that is not a bill!
I love my colors like I love my people lush vibrant full of contrast. Some pastel others jewel toned or electric and some the solid worth of browns or grays full of with nuance and shading. All essential to the Whole, we are a color web where all are equal and all are loved.
The first step is to listen not only with the ears but with the heart. Sometimes the thing another needs most is simply to be seen, to be heard, to have an interaction with a real human being remind them that their existence matters to the whole.
I have been blessed with some wonderful pastoral counselors as well as friends and practitioners of the healing arts who have helped me on this path. They have reminded me again and again that I am “not patient with the process,” and they are right. (Where’s my magic wand?!?) Still, they encourage me to keep moving forward in healing and impressing on me that reaching out for healing is a strength, not a weakness or cause for shame.
My husband also helps me live auth...
My husband also helps me live authentically. We both came from messed up families, and the majority of our true “growing up” has been done together, which has meant we’ve each seen the other in their times of struggle.
Lastly, my friends who have been sober for almost forty years inspire me, as do others walking that AA path. I find that those who have come to terms with their darkness and refuse to hide anymore are an inspiration to me not to hide from my own darkness as I recover from codependence. They choose to live authentically because they know firsthand the cost of not doing so. I bow before them.
Perhaps enough is the point at which my life is in flow rather than struggle?
I have been considering the question for some time and gradually whittling away from my life the things that are too much in one way or another.
Still, I have daily practice in reminders that it is not always possible to decide Enough, then walk away. It takes time, courage, processing, and patience, and healing of body, mine, and spirit.
The still, small Voice that tells me how much I am beloved and all the voices that echo that through my husband, animals, friends, and nature.
Routine. That may sound boring, but routine gives us a framework in which we know where to put our feet. It is calming and comforting, though often maligned.
I’ll take one! ???? Here’s one in return, Antoinette!
I have often wondered how Samuel Hahnemann convinced those around him to let him practice on them! ???? Homeopathy is fascinating to me. I have used it since I was a teen, and often the remedy needed will just sort of present itself to me for me or a loved one, as if it is speaking.
I am grateful for this practice, too. I marvel at how it has been handed down over so many centuries to meet me every week on my practitioner’s table. I think this is part of its healing power, that it has a lineage, a legacy of people healing others for 5,000 years. As Acupuncture treats the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, it is as if a loving healing force says, “I see your suffering, and I care.” ❤️❤️❤️
There is a wonderful sermon by Br. David Vryhof at the www.ssje.org site called YOU Give Them Something To Eat” from 2011 that speaks to this very topic. I loved the gentle style but powerful message that made it all seem more doable somehow.
I almost included Brene Brown on my list as well! I only found her work about a year ago, but it resonated so deeply. I love the humbleness of her heart, too, that she is with us in the process not teaching from an ivory tower.
Have you heard her CD “Men, Women, and Worthiness?” It is wonderful. My husband and I both got much out of it. I have not read her earlier books but have been reading Rising Strong. Awesome stuff!
How incredibly beautiful and full of love. The world needs more men like your stepfather!
If it helps any, so did Jesus! His brand of spiritual was very much not accepted by many of the people of his time and was a struggle as well. You’re in very good company!
I am grateful for the same thing in you, Pilgrim.
It is a special and sacred space we share.
Love to you both. That is a hard road.
Ooooh, I love that new word! I, too, have been in a time of much physical and emotional pain, and I could definitely use some Hopening up. Thank you for sharing your blessing, and I hope you feel better soon.
I’m not sure there isn’t enough love available, but I am very much certain we do not show it enough. Love itself is limitless by nature, but oh how bad we humans can be at sharing and expressing it!
Yesterday, I listened to a very good sermon from 2011 by Br. david Vryhof of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist near Boston. He broke it down beautifully, how the entirety of the task (at that time the famine was in Kenya and Somalia) is too large for any one person but t...
Yesterday, I listened to a very good sermon from 2011 by Br. david Vryhof of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist near Boston. He broke it down beautifully, how the entirety of the task (at that time the famine was in Kenya and Somalia) is too large for any one person but that when we give what we can, where we are, to who we can, this is multiplied to feed far more than we ever could on our own. It makes it more doable somehow, this consciousness that every act of love contributes to the whole. It gave me food for thought!
I agree!
Palm, I am not sure what tick bite fever is, but if it is anything like Lyme, it must have been bad!
For me, listening to the divine voice guiding the body has saved my life. I got infected with Lyme in 1987 but never knew until 2015 when my acupuncturist figured it out. It was confirmed by labs, so then I had a choice to make. Caught early, antibiotics are clearly the choice for Lyme, but after twenty-five years, not so much. We’ve basically been “listening” our way...
For me, listening to the divine voice guiding the body has saved my life. I got infected with Lyme in 1987 but never knew until 2015 when my acupuncturist figured it out. It was confirmed by labs, so then I had a choice to make. Caught early, antibiotics are clearly the choice for Lyme, but after twenty-five years, not so much. We’ve basically been “listening” our way through the healing process, my acupuncturist, herbalist, and I, too, am very glad for practitioners with this ability. (Keep up the good work, Ose!)
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