A haiku: what will I choose next? anger, outrage, thoughts of peace? so I shape my world
Living the Moments Well
Right now I’m working on a big, intensive writing project with a goal of revising many chapters over (very few) days. So I’ve been looking at my time in terms of large chunks and overall goals. How many chapters do I need to get done? How many pages each day? I keep pushing toward my…
The Dude does, truly, abide
This morning I read a wonderful interview with Jeff Bridges, as he talks with a writer for Tricycle magazine about his acting process, his mindful approach, and his peaceful way of being in the world. It’s worth a read–and a try! Here’s the link: https://tricycle.org/magazine/natural-2/
Life is sometimes squeaky
I love what author Sameet Kumar writes toward the end of his book, Grieving Mindfully: “Mindfulness helps you to feel the preciousness of life by heightening your experience of each passing moment. It is these fleeting moments that form the building blocks of your awareness of life. Breathing in, aware. Pausing. Breathing out, aware.” After…
A lovable chaos
Who among us doesn’t need peace as we stand in the midst of a flood of media streams, conflicting world views, and push-me-pull-you rhetoric? How do we settle down enough to find our center, to expand into a sense of silence and rest? That’s hard to do when we feel anxious, worried, unsafe. When chaos seems…
A simple breath
Thank goodness for mindfulness. It feels like the volume of the world (not to mention the speed) has been turned up lately–everywhere we go, we are inundated by headlines, worries, puzzles, challenges, losses. Are we remembering to catch our breath? Are we able to notice the beauty, the color, the comfort around us, right this very minute?…
Hello, beautiful! And a course
Isn’t it amazing that when we stop and bring our minds to this exact moment of Now, suddenly we notice all the beauty around us? The lilacs are beginning to blossom, filling the space and the air with deliciousness. My azalea bushes burst into satiny reds this week, and the tulips are finishing up and…
Befriending what is
So I woke up this morning irritated. Irritated that I have poison ivy again. Irritated that it is too early in the season to even have poison ivy. Irritated that I have to spend time fussing with Benadryl and calamine lotion and steroid cream and bandages so my work clothes don’t stick to me. Yuck….
Forced mindfulness
This morning, the drive in to the hospital was an experience in forced mindfulness. The fog was so thick I couldn’t see more than 20-30 feet in front of me at any given time. This meant I couldn’t long anticipate the school busses headed my way; couldn’t look ahead for the middle-schoolers standing by the road; couldn’t…
Lingering with what provokes you
In addition to my work as the chaplain and bereavement coordinator at Hancock Regional Hospice, I am also the pastor of Noblesville First Friends Church, a welcoming and peaceful Quaker meeting. Friends have a tradition of what is known as “unprogrammed worship,” which is also called silent worship. This sitting together in silence and waiting for…
The energy of the moment
This morning as I was driving in to work, I was thinking of all the pain in the air around us…the upset and uncertainty, the outrage and the resistance. It is a difficult time for many in America–and in fact all over the world. How do we embody that? How can we bring a little…
Mindfulness says, “Go ahead and eat that cookie”
Good news! Researchers have found that being mindful actually increases the likelihood that you will be aware of your inner desires (mmmm…something sweet and crunchy) and act on them. That means you might go back for a second–or third–iced Christmas cookie if they look good and you’re hungry and you’re feeling kindly toward yourself. What’s…
The Mindful Minute 