In Assisi, in the place where S. Francesco heard Jesus on S. Damiano Cross speaking to him, and in the nearby Santa Clara Monastry.
The silence and the prayers of people seem to stop the passing of times.

Thank for the question, an to LJ saying she returns to her Great Buddha memory.
I should return to Assisi memory more often than what I usually do.
Maybe it is a new time for prayer, and this site, and all the people posting here has helped me to rediscover this spiritual aspect of my life.

Thank you dear Kristi.
I read your article just when I needed, isn’t it a strange coincidence? Sometimes I am confused, because when some of my friends tell their opinions, I feel a great envy for what they’re saying, for the way they express their ideas, while on the opposite I find hard to say what I really believe. During my vacations I felt this in a such a strong way, that it caused a pain inside me. The reason for the pain comes from this sequence of moods: while I am feeling envy, I would like to be the only one that says right things, but soon, as I realize this is a bad thought I roll down in a sadness valley, believing I have nothing to share, nothing intelligent to say.
You are offering me a key to transform this envy. I will pay more attention to what happens in those circumstances, and I will try to change.
With a great gratefulness for your work, the “hard work” that has inspired your article!
Anna

When I was 24 I understood I could’t go on the same path I’ve ever walked on; I had to change, to throw away some heavy chains, some heavy names, but I needed a professional help.
Once, during those hard times, a very enlightening picture appeared in my mind, born from my fantasy, or maybe as an actual God’s help. This picture was at the beginning of my new path: i just saw myself walking on a catwalk and I looked like the “Pollaiolo’s Lady”, a noble woman in a famous portrait at Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milano (you can find her in Wikipedia, if you want to see her). This woman looks ahead without presumption, but with a calm, quiet, sure attitude. So I felt, all my challenges on a lower level, I was right on a higher position.
What had I to let go? the name of “Anna always perfect, always good, always ready to other people, ready to learn, never to enjoy like other friends”.
Now:
I’m a daughter of aging parents; my new path is patience, responsibility;
I’m a mother of young boys, that could go away at one time or another, my new path is to hold my mothering in my heart, and give it to people who need it;
I’m a wife, that’ s a grace, I’m going on my pilgrimage with my husband, I hope for a long time. Sometime I find a hole, sometime my husband finds a hole. There are days of important difficulties. But if one of us stops and the other realizes to be alone, he/she comes back giving his/her hand to jump the hole.
I’m a worker; at a social level italian people are living new and difficult challenges, very important changes are happening in our welfare, so, while working in a company where some people are very very unkind, i I have to change my path. I don’t mean that I will go away from my company, as it’s impossible to find another job, I mean that I have to change my behavior: be braver, be more inspired by fantasy, walk without presumption, humbly, but on a catwalk, just like my wonderful Pollaiolo’s Lady.

Thanks dear Kristi for your wonderful article, and I don’t exaggerate, thanks also to other people sharing here their reflections; all are wonderful, deep and suggesting more and more reflections.
I’m in the midlife too, and I can but agree with you: I can face my issues with more patience than when I was young, I can feel calm very soon after a moment of anger. I can find balance between the opposite feelings in my daily life. It is not so easy, but I can.
And is not that like a Heaven?
Some days ago a very funny story on whatsapp has made the rounds of my friends mobiles and mine and we laughed so much: it was just about the weakness after the 50! Just a joke to say: we are aging but we are the best! we are not aging; we are “vintage people”!

I like so much your article Fabiana. I too have some health issues, and I need drugs. I can’t but use them, though my issues are not so serious, they put me in a very uncomfortable situation, and I am weak. I agree with you, there’s something in new alternative therapies that brings us to believe that we have a great power, just because we have chosen them. For me, humility is like admitting there are a lot of scientist studying about health issues, part of them following a “western” tradition, the others an “eastern” one. It is a gift if in this global work we can use them both, putting our trust in the studies and the tradition, and being allowed to take care of us.
I wish my best to you!

.Kevin, I’m both surprised and grateful for your post.
Surprised: reading demo.gratefulness.org I have often observed this special attitude towards nature, and above all, for trees. Your post is like a “paradigms” and I also remember a poem by Francine. I admit I have not your mindset. I live in a so built up area, but the real problem is the humanistic background we have in Italy, man- centered. Also if we honor Saint Francis of Assisi we don’t take Nature as a gift.
Grateful: thank you all because you help me growing in a more conscious love for nature.
More than lots of critical articles.
And please, have patience for my linguistic style! 🙂