Friday, November 8, 2013
Day Eight
New beginnings are happening all the time in our lives. Sometimes they are big new beginnings – a new family member, a new job, a new commitment – and sometimes they are unremarkable. Every day, new people enter our lives, new ideas and experiences are introduced to our minds, and new feelings and reactions spring out from our hearts. Even in the ends of things are beginnings – beginning a new way of life, a new approach to people and events, or a new pattern of action or thought.
What seeds of new beginnings are being planted in you right now? What is newly growing in your heart and soul today? What is new that you are grateful for?
Try offering a simple gratitude ritual to mark a new beginning in your life – something new that you are grateful for. This might be setting out a candle and lighting it at an important, quiet time tonight. It may be gathering people you care about to say a prayer together, perhaps before a meal. It may be creating a simple altar – an intentional place set aside in your home or workplace where a few photos or objects call this new beginning to mind for you. It may be reading a special poem, or piece of literature or scripture, aloud. Keep it simple – just do something that feels authentic for you, to help you mark time and gratitude for whatever new thing might be dawning in your life.
- Lee
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I am grateful for the time I am setting aside for myself each night after I ponder each days gratitude post. I choose lyrics from the song each day and every night I transform it into a form of art. It's been very mindful for me.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's been a year of new beginnings, and for all of these I am reminded, always, of the blessings of family and deeper connections. We welcomed a new baby into the family in July, along with the privilege of grandparenting yet another. In August, my mom moved closer to me. I now visit her, in her waning years, several times a week. In December, we'll welcome our youngest son back under our roof for awhile.
ReplyDeleteSo, today, as I do from time to time, I read the closing paragraphs of Norman Maclean's novella, "A River Runs Through It," a writing from the author's later years. To me, this passage expresses deep love and loss, and gratitude for being and living a life:
"Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them ....
"Like many fly fisherman in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
Becky's comments from "A River Runs Through It" remind me of a new experience I had yesterday. From Huamantla, I drove to the Malinche Forest Preserve and from there I drove on a dirt road to see the ex-Hacienda Miguel Baez. Along the road I noticed solitary trapezoidal mounds of grass covered dirt unlike anything I have ever seen except for hoodoos - those alien rock formations so precarious yet so long-standing - millenia probably. The road on which I drove could have been a river bed except that the carved sides made it obvious that it, as well as the strange mounds of dirt, were the product of a great and very powerful flash flood. There was even a tree standing on its long spidery roots with no dirt at all for perhaps a meter down. I was so astonished and alarmed that it didn't occur to me to take a photo. The new experience was fear. Flash floods are known to be unpredictable and immensely destructive. I was in no danger, but for some reason I was afraid. I asked two locals when the flood (inundación) had occurred, and they had no idea what I was talking about. It had to have happened long before their time and that of their story-telling grandparents.
ReplyDeleteThis is way too long, but during the same excursion, I had another new experience. I have often been offered the kindness to follow someone in their car to a location I couldn't find or the whereabouts of which I was uncertain - like yesterday - but it was the first time a cabellero on a burro leading two mules said "follow me (sigueme)." What fun!!
I'm suffering through one of my regular bouts of insomnia, and one of the things that I do when this happens is meditate for a long stretch of time, because even if I can't sleep (and you might think the meditation would put me to sleep, but it never does; nothing does until the insomnia runs its course) the meditation period gives me back not the whole night's lost rest, but several restorative hours where I feel as if I did sleep. Does that count as a new beginning in a way? ;-) I meditated for two hours and I'm now restored enough to work on my office/library again. That area will have an altar when I'm finished, so my current task involves working toward that goal even if it doesn't happen today.
ReplyDeleteI also read aloud the notes to a handfasting ritual that I wrote a few years ago...even though that particular handfasting ultimately didn't happen :-( (I have to remind myself that I did officiate at a childhood friend's handfasting *this* year so *there's* a new beginning for which I feel gratitude!). The reading is (of course) about love, but the themes in it are larger than just involving two people. In reading it, the meaning can be expanded into a more universal declaration of love. I used this reading recently as part of the invocation of Deity in a ritual I performed on behalf of a friend who desperately needed to repair a badly broken relationship. The friend involved was at serious risk of his actions resulting in divorce but he and his wife did work it out (at least for now) and this too is a new beginning to celebrate, and that is why I chose to re-read the words today
Is the reading you mentioned online anywhere? It sounds like I could use it for my broken relationship too. Take Care, Andrea
DeleteI don't have it online and I don't have it with me at the moment, but I'll try to get it posted for you by tomorrow.
DeleteHere's a link to the text: http://fav.me/d6tveif
DeleteThis works much better inside the context of a big bad-ass ritual...you know, just to drive the point home. Let me know if you need the ritual notes.
Today, without having read this until now, I contacted a realtor about buying a house. I've been contemplating this and have never owned a home before, so it's exciting and terrifying. I'm grateful that I have a partner I have trust and confidence in, that we can plan for this commitment. I'm also excited to soon offer my girls stability and a promise that we will be planted and invest in our community. Each stage of my life is interesting but I'm finding this particular decade to be the best. I'm grateful of the journey.
ReplyDeleteWhen my mom got sick at the start of the year, I rushed to be by her side. We were not sure if she had weeks or months, but either way, I wanted to be there for all them. I have spend at least half of my time since then in Boston caring for her... it's been incredibly rewarding, and incredibly busy. I feel myself pulled everyday in a million different directions, but somehow (for her!) I did it all.
ReplyDeleteShe is, miraculously, doing quite well right now. So well in fact that I am here in PA for 8 weeks, the longest I have been "home" since her diagnosis. Interestingly, my days feel a little empty... I fill them with stuff, of course, but the thing that's missing is my caring for her in a deliberate and concrete and constant way. I love being a nurturer... and I felt totally fulfilled with my plate stuffed, heaping full.
So the new beginning? We are thinking of getting a dog! I know, seems random, right? I want a dog right now so that I have something "else" to nurture that doesn't rip my insides out...(in the fear-of-loss kind of way that I feel about my mom right now) I want a thing to love that will be relatively easy and won't break my heart in the next months... years? What do we have, even? Anyway, that's our newest new beginning.. maybe getting a dog...
As for the task at hand, I keep a photo of my mom nurturing ME on the desk to remind myself of the beauty, depth, and love that I am giving, and receiving... it keeps me going and for that I am so very, very thankful.
Today I hung up 3 pictures of my partner and I on our wedding day. For 6 years the hallway upstairs has been void of decoration and I wanted to change that. I bought cheap frames and put wedding photos in them for my recent 4 year wedding anniversary. Even though our relationship is struggling right now, having these images in the hallway is a reminder to me of the joy that has been present in the past. I am still hopeful that we can find it again.
ReplyDeleteI don't dance. Virtually ever. I danced at our wedding, and I occasionally will do a slow dance with Kathy when we are at a wedding or other event... and I have promised our girls that I will dance with them at their weddings, should they get married. But beyond that. Dancing just isn't in my soul.
ReplyDeleteExcept that isn't quite true. I occasionally do feel the urge to "dance" - to move my body to music that I hear or just to move my body rhythmically "because". I almost always don't give in to this urge unless I'm alone or at home. (The kitchen while cooking is probably the place that I dance the most.)
So last night, while at the grocery store with Joy after taekwondo class, some music was on that made me want to dance a little - in a kind of funny, silly way. It wasn't crowded, but there were other people around, and I didn't let that stop me. It was just a few seconds of movement (me and Joy and a shopping cart) but it was dancing in public.
Having this practice in mind certainly helped me to go with the urge... and having Joy with me always helps to remove my inhibitions. (Joy is the one who - in the act of asking a simple question: "Daddy, why don't you sing in your own voice?" Made me finally start to do just that - after 43 years of life - instead of trying to closely mimic the style and intonation of the recording artists that I was singing along with. Since she asked me that nearly two years ago, I do find myself singing more and more in my own voice as I become comfortable with it.) And now, perhaps, I have a new beginning of starting to dance to the beat of my own rhythm as well.
Beautiful freedom. Like Ginny Owens sings in this song:
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaZwZt4kZ0g&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9D0JJbuQSIpeC4YWXjxDnNM
Maybe it will "move" you too.
Since I've not been successful with posting from my phone, I've gone old school and written in a journal and am now going back and posting for the days that I couldn't post before. :)
ReplyDeleteFor this day, I've decided to acknowledge my gratitude for WellSprings, as finding this community has felt like a new beginning in many ways. I've decided to use my new member gifts of the Energizer Bunny and packet of seeds as my visual reminders each morning to take the time to help focus my energy and intentions for each day. They will also help me draw upon the support and energy that I get each week from the services and community at WellSprings. I am so grateful to have discovered this special place.