How Will I Greet This Day?

The Unity Daily Word for May 19 was Perspective. The meditation began with this question:

How will I greet this day? By the simple act of asking this question, I remind myself that I have a choice.

Starting on May 20th I started keeping a short list of notes each day. Using the Daily Word as my one word answer to the question, I found that my perspective stayed in tune with that word throughout the day.

For Friendly, I spent Thursday driving around beautiful Hunterdon County doing errands. Keeping my positive mental attitude, if I didn't complete one of them I did find out what to do next.   and though some of them weren't completed, I kept my positive attitude that I was finding out what to do next and it was a beautiful day to drive around Hunterdon County. For example, I made a bank deposit, I learned how to request a book through the Hunterdon County Library's Interlibrary Loan process, and learned the rules of the Dog Park by the Library. However I also wanted to get my "Real ID" from the NJ Department of Motor Vehicles but when I got there the officer in charge of the line said I had to have an appointment. No tantrum, just when I got back home I went online and found out that none of the NJ DMV locations are giving appointments for Real ID. So that's on hold.

How will I greet this day (Friday)? I will have the Clarity to see the blessings and beauty in front of me. Our electricity went off at 1:30 AM and continued off until mid morning. I am grateful that we have a generator so we have water, a cool refrigerator and some outlets that work so we could use fans in the heat. And I know to call on patience while the electric company workers do their repairs.

These are the pots on our porch. We have
more on our deck and we have four
in-ground areas.
Anticipation is delicious!

For Nurture, I am reminded to nurture myself so I can nurture those around me. On Saturday I was working outside, raking, cleaning up some gardens, planting wildflower seeds and watering. As it got hot, I got tired. I knew to stop working, go inside and drink some water. I've learned when enough is enough and, without apology, stop for the day.

For Faith, "I open my heart and mind to the harmony I know is possible even in the midst of apparent discord. My faith keeps me focused on God." I began reacting to the extreme heat the day before. When I feel puffy and uncomfortable from the heat, I Nurture myself. The forecast was for cooler weather the next day. Yea! in anticipation.

I can struggle to Forgive, especially when I am "caught up in thoughts about ... how something or someone should have been." I figured out on Monday to forgive myself for trying to make our new dog into our former dog and to forgive Maddi for not being just like Gus. That's not fair to her. The weather cooled on this day and I knew I should get outside and take a walk and I should call the trainer - but I did neither. I forgive myself. I just wasn't up to it this day.

How will I greet this day (Tuesday)? With Boldness and Clarity I tackled the separation anxiety trainer's long, involved questionnaire and emailed it to her. From Psalm 31:24 - Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.

Today how will I greet this day (Wednesday)? I will follow the Guidance of my heart. I talked to the trainer today and now have to decide how to proceed. The anxiety Maddi seems to feel is sometimes making her life and ours miserable.

I like the focus asking the question gives me at the start of each day. Maybe you will too.

~ Jean

Spiritual Strength

 Sunday’s Daily Word was Strength.

“…from “The Prayer of Faith” by Hannah More Kohaus: “God is my strength, unfailing, quick.” The strength of God is my strength, and it’s more than sufficient to meet my every need. More than toughness or forcefulness, spiritual strength is quiet fortitude, a rootedness in the inexhaustible wellspring of the Divine….bringing renewed clarity to my thoughts. The strength of God is my strength.”

Boy do I need that reminder.

My mom is 95 and had a minor stroke last May. Since then she’s lost vocabulary and some cognition though she still lives on her own with a companion coming in three days a week and one of my sisters another two days, each for a few hours to help prepare meals and keep her company and get her out on walks. Me, living 800 miles away, I can call most days and recently drove there to spend 2 weeks with her. It is difficult to be so far away as she struggles with fairly common daily events.

This is Maddi, all 10 pounds of her,
a toy size Chocolate Miniature Schnauzer

My husband and I adopted a dog in January. She was “rehomed” with us - she’s now in her 4^th home. She is now 1 year and 3 months old and seems to have separation anxiety. Four homes in that amount of time is a lot of upset. She also barks at everything that either walks or drives by our house – a trainer called her “on patrol.” She has many sweet qualities but these other not so sweet qualities are extremely challenging right now. We are committed to keeping her, working on these challenges and waiting, hoping she outgrows some of the anxiety when she’s been with us longer. (I have the names of a veterinary behaviorist and a separation anxiety trainer.)

The Covid-19 Pandemic (do I capitalize P?) has changed so much in my life (as it probably has in most other people’s lives) – either by eliminating my walks with the Hunterdon Hiking Club or by me doing some of the errands my husband usually did. Lunch with friends stopped. Being at home most of the last year and some months has had its up sides – I’ve been reading a lot and walking in the nearby park. It also has led to some “what do I do now” questions to keep me from sitting all day every day.

The above meditation from Unity and keeping in mind Courage which I remind myself every time I drive my car (see April 29 post) brings this clarity: Draw on my inner strength. I know it’s there; it has been my savior; it is me. So I talk to myself a lot, replacing negativity and fear with peace and calm. And breathe deeply regularly. 

I wish the same for all of you.

~ Jean

Compassion: Just Be Kind

Just a few months into the pandemic I stopped reading books about murder and revenge. In the past I sometimes turned to exactly those books because I knew with certainty that, though full of violence, in the end the hero would win, the bad guys would all be dead.

When looking for alternatives that felt better, I re-read animal stories by James Herriot and then moved on to audiobooks while I walked for exercise, to a couple of memoirs about humans finding and saving dogs: Finding Gobi and Craig and Fred.

I came across a discussion about compassion in, of all places, a book called Saving Simon by Jon Katz, the next audiobook I chose. The first half of the book was about Katz rescuing an abused, nearly dead donkey, who he named Simon. It was heartwarming and interesting to me, just what I needed to hear during the pandemic. What I hadn’t noticed was its subtitle, which truthfully I didn’t notice: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion.

When Katz decides to visit the farmer who originally had the donkey and treated him so badly, he ventures into the difficult issues of compassion. I think Katz describes what I thought “While I tended to be compassionate to people and animals I liked and who liked me, I found it hard to be compassionate or empathetic to people whose beliefs and actions were offensive or disturbing to me. Compassion, like freedom of speech, is one of those ideas we love to talk about until something vile happens, and then not so much. And yet, I thought, wasn’t compassion really about empathizing on a broader scale than that?”

A lot has been written about compassion. Katz names the Dalai Lama, Thomas Merton, Saint Francis of Assisi, Plato, Albert Einstein, and Albert Schweitzer. Thomas Merton writes: “The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved with one another.”

This post is about the compassion we all at Unity Spiritual Center need to feel for each other as we fill out the survey about our Center and its future. There are as many different and seemingly opposing feelings and opinions as there are people involved in this decision.

Katz, near the end of his book, writes: “There is a wonderful simplicity to compassion… All you need to do is ask yourself this: what kind of person do you want to be?”

I try to remind myself to be kind.

With love,

~ Jean

P.S. I got this image from a Facebook post lovethispic.com

Notes about the books: Finding Gobi. The True Story of a Little Dog and an Incredible Journey by Dion Leonard was the first. The writer is an ultra marathon runner and he encountered Gobi during a 155 mile multi-day run in China and Mongolia including across the Gobi Desert (thus the dog's name). They "fell in love" and Leonard decided to do whatever it took to bring Gobi, a small brown dog, home with him to the UK. I listened to this book during a 13 hour two-day drive to visit my mom.

Craig and Fred. A Marine, A Stray Dog, and How They Rescued Each Other by Craig Grossi. The writer was a Marine stationed in Afghanistan when he encountered Fred, a stray white dog. They too "fell in love" and Craig along with the help of his fellow Marines, a vet, his sister, a DHL crew and others smuggled Fred out of the country to the US where they are constant companions now.

Underlined Excerpts - April 2021

Every month I review all the passages I've underlined in that month's Daily Word. Here are April's underlined excerpts.

April 8 - Harmony - Affirmation: The harmony I seek begins with me. It's natural to want to live in harmony with other people and the world around me, but I cannot expect to find harmony around me if there is inharmony within. I search myself for anything that may be keeping me from living harmoniously... The best way to regain harmony is to tend to my spiritual life.

April 12 - Inner Peace - Breathing deeply, I find this infinite peace. From Luke 24:36 - While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."

These four babies are
only 1 or 2 days old.

April 19 - Faith - Affirmation: I have faith the highest and best outcomes are unfolding in my life. In these sacred moments, I breathe gently, releasing my fears and worries. From Mark 5:36 - But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe."

April 20 - Release - How many times have I [been] feeling fearful about whether I have the ability or talent to complete [a new endeavor] successfully? I rob myself of my power and agency when I dwell in the past or future... Releasing the past and future keeps my attention focused on the present moment.

April 21 - Divine Order - My life is an adventure in change...Everything in my life is working out for good. Through my faith in God, I believe my life - and all life - is moving in the direction of its most perfect expression.

April 23 - Forgive - As I release my heavy load, I breathe.

April 26 - World Peace - A peaceful world begins with my peaceful heart.

Yard signs I liked

So many of these messages are a reminder to me that harmony, peace, faith, self-doubt, forgiveness, fear and worries are my inner work, work that I can do. It is so good to reaffirm that when situations outside of me sometimes are so chaotic.

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I just returned from a two week visit with my mom in Illinois. It was great to see and be with her - it has been seven months since my last visit. Every morning before she woke up I took a walk in the neighborhoods around her townhouse.

These are two pictures from my walks. I also saw a Tiny Library in someone's front yard. I saw egrets, great blue herons, a beaver and a black-crowned night heron in the pond. I walked by the school where my nephew and his wife hope their special-needs 5-year-old son can safely re-start school in the fall. On audiobooks I listened to Jon Meacham's The Hope of Glory. A Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross, and Brene Brown's Braving the Wilderness. The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, both of which I recommend and which were inspirational in different ways.

~ Jean