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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.
I can listen. Sometimes what people need most is to be seen, to be heard, to feel that someone recognizes who they are or what they are going through. It takes no money to listen, only time.
In many ways, we never really know in the moment what is hindrance and what is furtherance. We certainly know what is pleasant or unpleasant, easy or hard, but it is generally not given to us to know where it fits in the grand scheme of our lives.
There is a section in C.S. Lewis’ book, “The Horse and His Boy,” which is one of the lesser known Chronicles of Narnia but probably my favorite. All sorts of things have happened to the main characters, and one of them is d...
There is a section in C.S. Lewis’ book, “The Horse and His Boy,” which is one of the lesser known Chronicles of Narnia but probably my favorite. All sorts of things have happened to the main characters, and one of them is discussing what had happened to him with Aslan. In that gentle conversation, the boy is shown how the very things that had terrified him had actually been for his ultimate good, his saving and not his destruction.
The smell of the first earth of spring. To me, that smell is full of hope and promise, of possibilities and joy!
I love so many, but I suppose Dogs, Cats, Horses, and Wolves would start my list. Each brings their own gift!
Experiencing my relationship with God as a friend, really getting to know my husband after all these years together, throwing pottery on the wheel, being in nature, writing, my animals, and hearing someone say the words, “You made me feel heard.” To me all these are humbling experiences as well as ones that bring me alive, for multiple reasons.
By connecting to my own needy, sometimes squirrelly humanity. When I give space for myself to feel the emotions of being human, even those I do not particularly like feeling, I can more effectively empathize with others going through similar feelings, and this inspires me to do something to reach out to another.
By choosing not to take things personally but, rather, to allow other people’s actions to be a manifestation of them rather than a reflection of me or what I deserved. The ego is all about deserving. I think the Higher Self is able to allow things to happen without there being any attachment to the self.
Maybe, um, everything? Our lives are spiritual paths, so nothing that has happened is wasted, extraneous, or without meaning to the whole.
I love to experience the ups, but I treasure how God has been there for me in the depths. I learned this year that the original form of “worship” was worth-ship, meaning that it was a method through which we could recognize the worth of God. In the Exodus story, Moses is told to tell Pharoah to let His people go into the wilderness so t...
I love to experience the ups, but I treasure how God has been there for me in the depths. I learned this year that the original form of “worship” was worth-ship, meaning that it was a method through which we could recognize the worth of God. In the Exodus story, Moses is told to tell Pharoah to let His people go into the wilderness so they may worship Him. Thus, when the Children of Israel were called to wander in the wilderness for forty years, they were really called to learn the worth of God during their time of struggle, to see the provision of water, manna, and quail, the leading, the guiding, the protection, and to learn to trust even when the end is not in sight.
To me, that is the path of life, in many ways, and thus the spiritual path that shapes me.
I love passing along something to others that will bless them but which no longer blesses me. It’s a total win-win!
Struggling with health issues from the Lyme has been teaching me a similar lesson as I have been unable to do what I think I *ought* to be able to do. I find this challenging. In my better moments of looking at this, I think that perhaps all that means is that we were needed to plow in a different field. God is perfectly capable of filling the slot I left and moving me to another slot. I don’t know why I struggle so sometimes! 😉
Amen…I, too, am working on learning Self-Compassion. I am finding it is far more connected to all things than I ever thought possible.
No, not easy at all! However, I think it IS getting easier with practice. 😉
That is an ouchy one.
Sounds like we might have been raised in similar denominations, Bleach. One of my turning points came when I was at a youth conference as a leader. We were in the leaders’ sessions, and one of the folks in there asked, “How can I learn how to be a better leader for the kids I work with?” The guy giving the seminar replied, “Read the Gospels. See how Jesus taught, how He treated people, and then do that.”
Well, that sounded logical to me, so I started readi...
Well, that sounded logical to me, so I started reading. What I found changed my life. Instead of the God that had been portrayed to me, I found a God I could connect with, one who treated others with love, kindness, respect, and who always had time for even the least of the least. When I dared contrast that example with what I had experienced in that church, my eyes were opened in new ways, and I could no longer stay there.
Leaving started me on a journey of an ever widening experience of God, inside another church for awhile, and then outside it, though one day I hope to find a community of like-minded folks. And the more I learned how much God loves me, the more I learned how much we are all loved, regardless of what name we use for God.
It also led me to the knowledge that God is bigger, WAY bigger, than any human conception could possibly contain. We haven’t scratched the surface yet!
Amen, Anna. There is a saying, though, that cracks “are how the light gets in.” It seems the most efficient way to learn our true worth to God is to become a bit banged up. Perhaps we must come to a place of feeling cracked and broken before our misunderstanding of who God is and how much we are the Beloved can be swept away and replaced with that transcendence and mercy of which you speak.
My pastoral counselor friend always says, “Everything is unfolding precisely as it is supposed to.” 🙂 It helps to remember this especially when you’re in the midst of a muddle where you are just positive someone screwed up somewhere for it to unfold that way.
The “and then I give no more thought to it” bit is the part I am working on! 😀
We’re in a time of transition here, too, and when I am concerned that our additional source of income will dry up, I remind myself that this is not the only way to make money in this world and that more opportunity may be awaiting if this one fizzles out. That helps in those darker fill in the blank moments! 🙂
Me, too. This is forefront at the moment for me in my healing journey as well. When a memory of what got put in place to give me these triggers comes up, it helps to step outside myself for a moment, to look not at how I WAS treated as a child but at how I would choose to treat that child were she in front of me now. Then it is much easier to see where the nurturing is needed and how it can help. We all function better with encouragement and appropriate compassion, yet how stingy we can be o...
Me, too. This is forefront at the moment for me in my healing journey as well. When a memory of what got put in place to give me these triggers comes up, it helps to step outside myself for a moment, to look not at how I WAS treated as a child but at how I would choose to treat that child were she in front of me now. Then it is much easier to see where the nurturing is needed and how it can help. We all function better with encouragement and appropriate compassion, yet how stingy we can be on giving it to ourselves!
One of the best gifts I ever got was being dumped by someone I thought I wanted. No, I would not change that for the world either! 🙂
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