Watching the sunrise is such an awe-inspiring experience. I hope you enjoy this and are inspired to walk into the world today with your heart leading the way!
After a life-shifting trip, I am missing the beautiful sunrises and sunsets on the Nile, so got up before dawn and moseyed myself down to the beach to catch this beautiful site. I am allowing the sun, Ra, to warm my heart and soul. I wish the same for all of you!
The Autumnal Equinox officially arrives at 2:50 am on Saturday. It’s on the 23rd in 2023. I love numbers and the number 23 is a path to find your divine passion. Follow you passion to the end and make your life count for all its worth!
A friend, Christina, reminds me to ask myself this question: What am I willing to take action on that I feel passionate about? I love that and am doing just that! How about you?
And what in the world does this picture have to do with the equinox? It’s a time of harvest and my husband’s nephew was married last weekend. We ate this wonderful meal which felt like a true southern harvest! It was made and served by Brother’s N Arms BBQ – a group of vets continuing to serve in a new way! They continue to follow their passion of service and we were so grateful to enjoy every bite! Little do they know, they also inspired me to take action!
This thought came to me today as I was on the beach searching for shells….”a balance between busy and be…busy and bee…like the busy bee that I seem to be and how it is often a challenge to find the balance between being busy busy busy and just allowing myself to be.
I realized about six weeks ago that I had become busy in my life again…and I thought I was happily busy. I love doing all that I am doing – running my own tutoring and mindfulness business for youth and adults, writing, creating materials, spending time with my family and friends….but there was something amiss once again…and I couldn’t see it right away. I kept hearing my friends saying that I was busy…and a little bell chimed in the back of my mind….I heard it clearly..it was a faint ding, somewhere far off in a world I thought I’d left behind.
As a public school educator and short-term building administrator, I lived my life for my profession, saw it as my identity, my livelihood, my existence, and purpose in this lifetime. After thirty years in brick and mortar schools that had changed so much, I finally realized it was time to change my outlook on my purpose, and see how that might unfold. I was blessed to be able to take a year of leave from work to make some decisions about my future and realized that education is my purpose, but it was in need of a different container.
Now that it’s been two and half years of creating my own business and working part-time with younger students, I find myself busy, busy,busy again, and have lost the time to just be. I have lost the time to be with my friends for longer periods of time than between 12:30 and 2:30 or just hang out for an entire day with my husband. I have lost the time to just be with me…in the woods, on the beach, on a trail, exploring the unknown and creating with colors and objects, and doing all the other things I love to do.
I am grateful for the times I have been sitting in meditation again and have had the presence of mind to turn my mind off and let my body feel. Within those times of feeling, words come…and specific ones at that. I was able to hear that it was okay to cut back at my part time teaching job and eventually to pass it on to someone else. I only have a few more weeks of this busy bee time, but am reminding myself to find ways to “be” in each day as I wait for the extra time in my days as I move forward. I stop and sit, look around at the beauty I see outside. I walk in the grass in my bare feet, look longer into my husband’s eyes, stretch my body….
I am surprised at how much “I know” and how much I do that is unknown, seeing myself creep back into the behaviors of a workaholic that I used to be. I thought I’d “moved past that” but am reminded that the old adage “old habits die hard” is a force on its own. As I move forward, I strive to make my life a true balance between “busy and be.” My jodibees – a hive of learning will continue to be a success and I’m sure even more so as I allow myself the times to be. I look forward to this next chapter of my life and hope I can help others continue to find this balance as well.
I am Orange
A Unique Concoction of Red and Yellow
Crimson, Flaming
Golden, Lemony
Fierce and Bright
Blended and Connected
Grounded in Action
My Core, my Nucleus
Fiercely Loyal
In Dynamic Fluctuation
Aspiring Creativity
Purposeful Passion
Juicy, Sweet
A freshly picked Cantaloupe
I am Orange
A scream….footsteps…I spring to my feet looking in all directions as my heartbeat increases to meet the urgency of the distress. I quickly walk to the back door of my Montessori preschool classroom. Before I get there, in rushes an assistant ushering in a frightened little one. With blood on his lower lip and tears streaming down his face, I understand at once that the previous fun of his loose tooth has turned its own corner. From fun to frightened after another boy’s elbow found his mouth while playing.
The handoff from assistant to teacher is complete and I grab a cup of cold water and ice pack . I hope to help alleviate the blood flow and even a bit of the pain. Still crying hysterically, I guide the wounded soldier into a chair all the while hearing through the sobs, “I don’t like this.” We chat briefly about how growing up is exciting and sometimes a challenge. When I hear him say once again through loud sobs and short, rapid breaths, “But I don’t like this,” my mindfulness toolbelt magically appears before my eyes.
This young man has practiced deep breathing and meditation with his classmates throughout this school year, so when I ask him to take a deep breath in, I watch him close his eyes. This alone makes me smile. Before closing mine, I ask him if he’d like us to hold hands while we breathe together. He nods, eyes still shut and I follow suit. We breathe in unison; his tears stop flowing and his breath lengthens.
Opening our eyes, I ask him if he’d like to try a new strategy to help him stay with this peaceful feeling inside. Having our breath work be such a success, he readily agrees. I teach him how to do the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), otherwise known as tapping. We go through the process together, saying things like, “Even though my tooth is falling out and I don’t like it, I am okay” and “Even though I don’t like the feeling in my mouth right now, I am safe.”
Somewhere in there… I had phoned his mother to pick him up (about 15 minutes early) and she is now at the door. In my experience, when an upset person appears calm and then sees a loved one, the floodgates start or reoccur. That’s what I’ve done in the past myself! To my surprise, this was not the case. He ran to his mom and hugged her, just holding on to his pure first love, feeling the safety of her embrace.
I’d like to think the breathing and tapping put him into such a peaceful space that he not only felt safe and okay, but truly felt it. I’m still smiling….
This is one of my favorite meditations. My version is adapted from various others I have experienced.
By repeating a series of statements, or mantras, either silently or aloud, the meditator will mentally send happiness, warmth, kindness and compassion to others as well as to themselves. When practicing this meditation, you may feel your heart fill with joy, an increase in your self-worth, increased empathy for others and so much more! You may even feel your mouth curl upward!
I always like to settle into myself as I prepare myself to meditate. I may close my eyes and connect with my breath, or place my feet firmly into the ground or onto the floor, feeling the connection of my body to the earth. However you like to begin a meditation, do so.
When you are ready, repeat these statements silently or aloud:
For you:
May I be happy.
May I be peaceful.
May I be well.
May I live with ease.
Thinking of another person you feel neutral about (a grocery cashier, bus driver…):
May you be happy.
May you be peaceful.
May you be well.
May you live with ease.
Thinking of another person you have negative feelings about:
May you be happy.
May you be peaceful.
May you be well.
May you live with ease.
Thinking of the world:
May we all be happy.
May we all be peaceful.
May we all be well.
May we all live with ease.
You may repeat these as many times as you’d like, or say them just once if you’d like. Whatever you choose to do will be the right thing for you at that moment.
A quick dart seen from the corner of my eye, I turn to see if I saw something go by. I look to the right, the left, up and down, All the way down to my feet and up to my crown. What is the motion that caught my attention? My head is spinning, was it my mind’s invention? There it is again, but now it’s still as can be, The first hummingbird of spring is what I see!
I have names for the two bookends in my life. Some may call them husband and daughter. I call them Rex and Miranda. They are the bookends that hold me up, keep me in their minds and hearts, hold me up on the shelf of life. I am a treasured book of a person. I am important. I am special. They make me feel like my words have meaning, are of value, others will want to ingest my words for thought and consideration.
These bookends hold me up in so many ways. It’s been more than a year since I began my business and I am reflecting back on the beginning days. My bookends were hard at work supporting me, not only in heart, but in action. I recall hearing a knock at the back door of the building I started in. It’s my younger book, Miranda. She found a couple of wall hangings and a table that she thought I could use and was hauling them up the stairs and through the hallway for me. I then looked out the window and saw my older bookend, Rex. He was hauling a heavy container filled with sand with a mounted, brand new mailbox. Not only had he cut a wooden post and mounted the mailbox, he designed a container sturdy enough for our town’s requirements. When I went out to see him and look at all the wonderful work he did, I saw that he even placed number stickers on the mailbox for the address. That specific detail, although important, could easily have been overlooked. These bookends support this book, me. They are like a hug, wrapping their supportive arms around me.
My book is open, has been read by many people and has continued to be supported by my bookends. If my words reach others and make a difference that is wonderful. My book, me, will have done its small part to help serve the world. My book is on life’s shelf, ready to be taken off by those who are supposed to read it!
I’m one book or the many millions of books in the world. Each book is unique, has value and is worthy of being supported by loving bookends. Who are the two bookends in your life?
I opened my book “1,001 Ways to Live in the Moment” by Barbara Ann Kipfer and read the Nigerian Proverb: Hold a true friend with both hands.
This really spoke to me. Holding with both hands means being able to give and to receive. Receiving is often the hard part for many of us, and I know it is for me. It recently took me days to ask a friend for some help. As I processed it for the nth time, my husband finally said, ‘You know you’d do the exact same thing for her without hesitating.’ As soon as he said that, I gave myself permission to ask. I continue to work on not only asking for help, but also being able to receive from others. I am learning to give myself that permission more and more.
My mind continued to pop with bubbles of thought. Both hands….masculine and feminine. At what degree do I put action and effort into my friendships? …do I kindly empathize and lovingly support them?
Do I create friendships, occasions, items for my friends? Do I work for these friendships. I so love my dearest friends and feel satisfied with my reflections, but I often want to do more, connect deeper with others and wonder why I don’t. Is it a time factor? A place? The giving up something else in order to do so? I believe that I am always where I am supposed to be and with whom I’m supposed to be with. So, I need to remind myself that it is okay. All is okay. I hold my true friends with both hands – either in the past, present or future, and the amount of times makes no difference. Each interaction is special and meaningful in its own rite, as long as I use both. I will continue to give and be open to receiving all the gifts of friendship I encounter.
Our hands are an extension of our heart. Reach out and receive loving friendships with both hands. They may develop when you least expect them!
I am standing alone in a large black and white expanse…I don’t know where I am but know that no one is anywhere in the area. I can see no one, feel no one, hear nothing but my own breath. Where am I? All I know is I am alone and there is no one or nothing around me. I can reach no one and no one knows I am searching. I feel alone. I am alone.
I look at myself standing there, the little girl thinking she is all alone, her voice silent. Her heart breaking and shaking with fear. ‘What are you afraid of little one?’ I ask. She looks up at me with big watery eyes and I remind her, ‘You are not alone. You are surrounded by love, love from people near and far, those you don’t even know love you and those you’ve forgotten. Love is unending, never forgotten. It is always here, always in your heart if your mind forgets. Look into your heart and see that you are not alone. You are never alone. You are always connected to others.’
‘Now, listen to your breath. Listen with your heart, not your mind. Listen through your heart. Breathe in and out through your heart. Feel your breath. Feel love in each intake, love from the Universe, love from others, love from our own inner self and your grown self.’
I continue to breathe and feel love entering and leaving my heart, I feel that I am not alone, I am connected to others, near and far. I have the Universe as a family, so much love that I start to see it everywhere. As I continue to stand and breathe, I see color filling in on the horizons of my view, a rainbow of colors changing the landscape with plants, animals and people. I feel the love. I see through my heart that love coming to me from all around and from me to everyone and everything. I see so many people, I hear their hearts beating with love, I feel all the energies swirling around, so joyous. I look all around me. Where am I? I am at home, in my heart. I am not alone.
