Getting off with a Warning

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it..."
RUMI

This morning a man who has written a daily thought for years put in his opening the following quotation about worry:

“How would your life be different if…You stopped worrying about things you can’t control and started focusing on the things you can? Let today be the day…You free yourself from fruitless worry, seize the day and take effective action on things you can change.”

---Steve Maraboli, motivational speaker, author, academic, social philosopher, columnist; age not provided

goodreads.com (website)

He went on to write about one of his readers, a woman who is addicted to worry, and encouraged other readers to reply to his post (sharing ways we have been able to overcome worry.)

I shared the Daily Quote from Aaron that I had just received:

"The emotions are a major catalyst for humans. They're very powerful. They're painful. They're confusing. The best guideline I know is simply to ask yourself, 'What is my highest purpose here?' If the highest purpose leads you to enact the emotion, try it and see what happens. Perhaps insight will come that the emotion can arise without expressing it into the world, and without shame that it arose."

 

FYI—I grew up with a mother addicted to worry. I have that as basic training. Meditation has been for me the ability to hold my worried emotions without shame, allowing them to rise and fall without my having to get caught up in them. 

Yesterday, on my way to mediation group, I was stopped for speeding (30 in a 20). I had seen the flashing light, and I had dropped to 20 MPH. However, I had returned to a normal speed before completely leaving a school zone.

As I sat in my car while the officer ran my information, knowing I would be late coming into mediation and would miss the coveted opening words of my dear friend who hosts the group, I started tapping. (See information on the FREE tapping summit) 

As I tapped, I was able to forgive myself for being reckless. As I did, I genuinely felt gratitude for the job officers do every day. When the officer returned my drivers license and insurance and registration, I was deeply appreciative to be let off with a warning!

I tiptoed in to meditation with another student, took my seat, began to breathe deeply while also hearing others breathing. I appreciated watching my hyper mind slow from its ordeal. 

As we moved from meditation to sharing, I was able to tell my story when the conversation came right around to how you can often change the outcome by managing your state of being.

Perhaps overcoming the addiction to worry is like getting off with a warning! 

Happy Birthday Blessings

“You have not lived today

until you have done something for someone

who can never repay you.”

~John Bunyan

When my sister came to Florida on Friday she could not have known the details of the warm welcome awaiting her. Oh, sure, the morning of her arrival the area experienced heavy thunderstorms (complete with a tornado warning), but Saturday Pine Island put on her most beautiful face and everyone enjoyed a fun boat tour—including a visit to Cabbage Key where she got to touch a Gopher Tortoise!

Sunday’s delicious potluck cookout took place on the lanai (heavy winds were blowing, keeping even the Michiganders indoors), but even so, several Michigan friends were here to help celebrate her birthday.

We had an unseasonably cool day Monday, but we know it is nothing like the Arctic blast that is happening at home in Michigan.  Our landlord sent a text message, “You certainly picked a good week to enjoy Florida. It is bitter cold here.”Our warm thoughts reach out to all of our family and friends there.

One of the amazing gifts given to celebrate her birthday is the total generosity of our captain who took us on the boat tour of the Sound. I met his wife a couple of years ago. I was a stranger, just someone riding my bike down their street as she was tending to her garden. I stopped to chat because her dog played in the yard. When she found out we had spent several winters here but had not been out on the water she said simply, “When you get down here next year, give us a call and we will take you out.”

What allows some people to be so kind? 

This may not be the most memorable birthday of my sister’s entire life, but the way my brother-in-law proclaimed his bliss as we docked back at the house says a lot, “That was the most awesome adventure I’ve had in a long time!”

Thank you, Captain Chuck, and First Mate Dorene. I don’t know how I can ever repay you for the happy birthday blessing of that awesome boat ride you were willing to do for my sister!

Great Things Come in Small Packages!

When I found out I was going to be a grandma, I went kicking and screaming. I was only 39 years old, and I was way too busy to be a grandmother. 

Everything changed 26 years ago today, when I held Bradley Joseph Zelenak for the first time. He truly is an "Angel Baby!"

“Hi, I’m your Gammie,” slipped off my tongue like velvet when his newborn eyes looked into mine, and the euphemism "Gammie" stuck. To this day, all three of my grandchildren, plus many others who know me as their grandmother call me Gammie. 

(See my previous post: Truly Meaningful Gifts.) 

It is not uncommon to resist some of the best things life is bringing our way. Perhaps that is because we truly do not recognize the blessings until we have received them. 

For sure, being Gammie has been (and is) one of my greatest joys. 

I will try to remember you can welcome what you resist. Great things come in small packages!

Truly Meaningful Gifts

The idea of meaningful gifts has been on my mind and in my heart for a good long while. December 13, 2015, I shared a talk about the subject when I was guest speaker at Pilgrim Congregational Church. As usual, none of my pre-thinking did anything to inoculate me from enough tears to sink a battleship over the exchange of v-e-r-y meaningful gifts with family on Christmas day.

I love that our daughter and her kids draw names and make hand-crafted gifts. Witnessing this exchange has been such a joy in the past, last Christmas we decided to get in on the fun this year. A few of the truly remarkable gifts from this year included: arm-knitted infinity scarfs; a metal American flag; personalized bulletin board; a kitchen herb garden; colorful crayon art; and a year of monthly snacks! 

For six-weeks this past summer I attended Write2TheEnd focused on learning self-publishing skills. I was combining skill development with the creation of my gift for grandson, Bradley—a book of memories!

Beyond my wildest imagination, Bradley was at the same time creating an audio of words of love and affirmation from family and friends he put over special relaxation music, including some by my dear friend Pamela Chappell.

I loved each contribution, and I love every one of you who helped make this very meaningful gift. I hope you will enjoy Grandson Adam's words (based on the second "M" in G-A-M-M-I-E):

My Gammie, My Grandmother, My Hero, My Role Model, My Go-To, My Advice Giver, My Friend, My Family, My Guardian, My Laughter, My Fat Camp Instructor, My World Traveler, My Picture Taker, My Massage Therapist, My Healing Touch, My Counselor, My Helping Hand, My Sous Chef, My Cinnamon Toast Maker, My Supporter, My Biggest Fan, My Moon, My Red Balloon, My Minister, My Mentor, My Author, My One and Only Gammie.

OK, I admit I cried so hard my eyes hurt as I opened my heart and let the love flow in. Fortunately, we recognize how cathartic tears can be.Thank you, everyone, for giving and receiving truly meaningful gifts!

(You might appreciate knowing Bradley and I giving these gifts to one another this year was a total "God-thing." I did not draw Brad's name, nor did he draw mine! We each ended up with the others name because two other family members initiated a trade. The  resulting in our having this magical opportunity to express our deepest love for one another.) 

10-Year Itch

OMG - I just finished listening to Marie Forleo's interview with Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. In the interview, Gilbert is talking about Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. As a writer, I want to steal so many of her lines, but as a human being with a past littered with broken dreams, and crippled by feelings of failure, I want to curl up in her message and suck my thumb.

Ten years ago this month, we closed the doors at the Holistic Alliance. I knew letting that dream of a holistic center here in my home town of Saint Joseph, Michigan, go had been horribly painful, but I realized listening to Elizabeth that I had let what she calls the "murderer of all good things" stop me in my tracks: perfectionism. 

Gilbert called perfectionism a serial killer, saying it goes around killing joy, spontaneity, wonder, grace, and humility. She said perfectionism is fear in high-heeled shoes….

I wonder what I would have written had I been blogging at that time of my life. Something therapeutic occurs when you put your innermost tender parts out there for the world to witness.

It is much different to suck your thumb in public.

After listening to the interview, I asked Joel (Joel Bowman is the co-creator of Subtle Communication Systems) if Big Magic had helped him forgive us for not having our dreams for SCS come true. His reply was somewhat sobering: "I never had a sense of blame for SCS. My blame is more for things I haven't tried, or perhaps what we haven't tried, rather than things we did that didn't succeed." 

Gilbert said all love eventually becomes help and quoted her own mother's advice: "Done is better than good." 

Today, with Big Magic, I am more courageous about looking back. The dream of weaving together the threads of body, mind, and spirit is still alive in my heart—and every day you can look around in the world and see how much progress has been made. Fortunately, hearts only break in one direction: open. 

My heart is more open to celebrating each and every one of the many who came through the doors at 100 Church Street and found something meaningful there. I am thinking about those who studied energy medicine and the power of language with Joel and me. I love you all.

I vow to let my heart once again have wings and I am willing to stand tall and dance again with inspiration. Lets see what comes from that in the coming year. And so it is...