Going on Hiatus

 Dear Unity friends, I have decided to take a break from posting to Unity's Touchstone. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season. With love, Jean

Mindfulness Exercise 4 - Appreciate the Imperfect

Fall is my favorite season. Whether it's sunny, breezy and cool or rainy, gray and cold, it's not perfect and yet, for me, it is. Looking around in the fall is one of my greatest pleasures. With that in mind, I revisited my copy of "see your way to mindfulness. Ideas and Inspiration to Open Your I" by David Schiller.

I wrote about Exercise 1: sit still and look until the you disappears in my June 10th post. I wrote about Exercise 3: look up in my July 22 post.

Today I'm loving Exercise 4: appreciate the imperfect. Sometimes I notice that the produce section in grocery stores looks like a work of art - each section of fruit and vegetables perfectly aligned and stacked. Off season we have to buy produce from grocery stores and I'm grateful for that - but every spring and summer I look forward to garden vegetables. The fruits, vegetables, and plants at a farmer's market or plucked from the garden look natural but not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Oh, but the taste! I love the taste of farmer's market tomatoes and and local orchard apples.

Farmer's market tomatoes: not perfect but yummy!

These are the four pots outside our front door.
We have to surround them with wire fencing
or the deer will eat them to the nubs.
They might look better without the fence
but we love the opportunity to plant
morning glory vines.

Then I looked at my recent pictures on my phone. Not perfect either but they tell my story and I love them.

Have a great fall everyone. With love,

~ Jean

Great Definition of Self Esteem

Esther Perel is a Belgian psychotherapist.

This definition was posted on Facebook recently by Sharon Martin LCSW.

Blessed with Free Will

Unity's Daily Word for yesterday was Blessed. Here's a quote from the meditation: "My very life is a blessing that I receive anew every day. Today I count my many blessings and feel grateful for all the good in my life... I am blessed with free will to choose how I respond to events, what I wish to learn, how I choose to serve, and what I choose to give."

Yesterday my husband and I each had our Pfizer Covid-19 booster shots. I'm not feeling any side effects this time; unfortunately he is - still we're both grateful for the shots.

This old dogwood tree
is one of the early changers.
I made it my phone's
lock screen picture.

Last night my mom told me a couple residents in her continuing care living community asked her about assisted living and how she decided to move. She has come to feel like she was the one to decide to move and she's very content. Plus she tells anyone who asks her now that it is good for her. This is a wonderful turn of events.

It's fall - since September 22 - and I'm so happy. I love the fall in all it's looks. Some of our days are bright and sunny and the leaves are (barely) beginning to change colors. Some of our days are gray and rainy and foggy. I love both kinds of days. When I step outside to walk my dog in the morning
I breathe in, look around, and feel the blessings of the early days of fall.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we take our doggie Maddi to doggie day care at The Puppy Patch in Lebanon, NJ. She loves going there and my husband and I appreciate having 5 hours of time each of those days to run our separate errands or work around the house and yard without needing to pay attention to our needy doggie. She doesn't like when I sit in my office working on my computer. A couple days ago while Maddi was playing with her buds at the Patch, I completed the first chapter of the family photobook I've been procrastinating over for at least two years. I'm thrilled and looking forward to getting on to the second chapter the next time Maddi is at day care.

Each day I make choices about how I will live my life. I love my free will and use it as wisely as I can. I am blessed. Thank you, God.

~ Jean

Underlined Excerpts - August and September 2021

I love going back over the last month or two of Unity's Daily Word to see what I underlined . Many of these excerpts remind me to pay attention - again. Here are some that I haven't written about in any of my other posts.

Starting on August 15 I was living with my mom in Illinois. My siblings and I had been trying to decide when and how to move my mom into an assisted living apartment with some "buy-in" from her. She regularly said, "No decision yet." "I'm going to stay here." She had a minor fall a week before I arrived and, thankfully, was not hurt (I wrote about it in my Through the Lens of Gratitude post.) Throughout my four weeks with her I was challenged to remain centered myself while also answering her doubts and questions and complaints and insecurities. The Unity Daily Word messages were my rock.

August 11 Unity Daily Word: Prepare. I make space in my world for God...decluttering my mind of busy thoughts.

August 14 DW: Possible. With God, I can truly do anything. When I believe in the divine power within me, all things are not only reasonable
but achievable! With God, all things are possible.

From Mark 10:27 - Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible."

August 17 DW: Tender. I am tender with myself and all others. Consideration and kindness are at the heart of tender living. I soften my words, those I speak to others as well as my self-talk. I look for ways to ease another's way and extend patience and grace to those who may be struggling. With a full and gentle heart, I am tender.

From 1 Peter 3:8 - Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

I was so grateful for this message which spoke especially to me about how to interact with my mom and with myself. The next day (Wednesday) she and I toured the assisted living facility, the day after that we chose an apartment and picked a move-in date of September 1st and the ball was rolling. Actually the roller coaster of emotions was rolling with ups and downs multiple times each day for several weeks.

August 18 DW: Thoughts. My positive thoughts create my world. When faced with chaos, I affirm: The peace of God is mine.

Through much of my time in Illinois I couldn't sleep very well, waking up in the middle of the night and unable to fall back asleep, my thoughts roiling around and around in my mind. I often used the above affirmation to help quiet my mind.

The peace of God is mine.

August 28 DW: Let Go, Let God. From Psalm 56:3 - When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

I wrote this Bible verse on a Post-it Note and put it on my mom's bathroom mirror. Moving day was approaching and her fear was growing. This verse helped us both. Our family hired a moving coordinator company to help with the packing, floor plan design and unpacking. Two members of the staff of this company who came to pack independently commented on the verse to me; they each said that their company wasn't just a business, it was also a ministry to help people make big changes in their living situations as smoothly as possible. The woman who packed my mom's bathroom, packed the Post-it too and when she unpacked and arranged mom's bathroom, placed it on the mirror in her new bathroom. It is there still.

September 5 DW: Balance. With God I live a life of balance.

This was the necessary message I needed to hear. Throughout my stay in Illinois, I attempted to have some balance in how I spent my time. I walked for an hour every morning (God bless audiobooks!) before my mom got out of bed. I interspersed activities like watching soccer on tv with time with my mom. On various days I went my sisters to musical, a local hawk watch, an outdoor art show, and an outdoor evening concert. On my mom's moving day, while she was having her first dinner in her new place, one of my sisters and I had dinner at a favorite restaurant on the patio. It was delicious and pleasant and a wonderful break. Then I spent that evening with mom in her new apartment for her first night there. The following evening I had dinner with my other sister at another outdoor restaurant, had a strawberry margarita and another delicious and pleasant dinner. Afterwards I spent that evening at my mom's for her second night in her new apartment. During the last week of my visit I went to one of my sister's to watch U.S. Open Tennis matches. That was fun and a nice break too. I honestly think that having that balance of time with my mom and time doing other things kept me sane.

This is all for now. I will finish September and October next month.

~ Jean

 

Protected!

How do I greet this day? Protected! And so are all my loved ones. To paraphrase the last sentence of today's Unity Daily Word meditation: The presence of God within them (and me) guides our steps today and will be with us through all our tomorrows.

The Protection Prayer that follows was written by James Freeman for all soldiers during World War II. It is a powerful today as it was then. I had not seen this longer version and I LOVE it.

Protection Prayer

The Light of God surrounds me. 
The Love of God enfolds me.
The Power of God protects me.
The Presence of God watches over me.
The Mind of God guides me.
The Life of God flows through me.
The Laws of God direct me.
The Power of God abides within me.
The Joy of God uplifts me.
The Strength of God renews me.
The Beauty of God inspires me.
Wherever I am, God is!

I had not seen this longer version before today and I LOVE it.

~ Jean

Source: Pinterest

A Gentle Look at Divine Order

On Wednesday September 15 I received the kind of text from a friend that one never wants. A friend of ours has a brain tumor and was undergoing surgery at Sloan in NYC. Two days later, it was confirmed  that the diagnosis is glioblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer that can occur in the brain or spinal cord.

I wrote in my journal that night: "2 yr to live max - John McCain, Beau Biden and Ted Kennedy all died from it - It's a devastating diagnosis." Even though I wrote that about 2 years, I don't know that to be true. But writing it and what follows shows the evolution of my thinking in the last week.

Friday's Unity Daily Word was Divine Order. The affirmation was

Divine order gives structure and purpose to life.

Over the weekend some of my journaling was about how I would feel and what I would do if I received that diagnosis. "Betrayed by my own body. Get it out of me." And some was about what I could do, if anything, for this friend. I also wrote: "What on earth do I say to this friend if she even wants to talk? I've been thinking of you - how are you? God will give me the words to say. Talk to her husband first? So sorry ... Dear God. Divine order ain't so great for everyone - in this human's opinion."

On Monday evening I wrote: "Woke up to DW Pray for Others - 'Instead of fretting or wishing I could do something, I turn within and pray ... Holding each dear one in my heart, I envision each enfolded in serenity ... comforted and guided with each step.'"

Later tonight I realized that divine order is for me to do what I can, it's me being present to my friend and her husband in any way that I can here and now. I also realized that my intention will be to focus on her serenity not her situation.

On Tuesday morning I called both my friend - no answer or voice mail - and her husband - voice mail but I didn't feel comfortable leaving a message. I put a card in the mail that day and will call again.

I don't know how the days ahead will be. If anyone has suggestions for gentle ways to interact with this friend, share in the Comments section.

With gratitude and humility,

~ Jean

Image: grammartop.com