Tag Archives: heart

Success, Meeting the Goal

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A cool sunny October 9th. I’ve worked my way through the first week of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. And it was hard work, tapping wobbly through each day, searching and finding the words and thoughts. Now a week in, I’m a little more engaged and interested. I’m looking back at my purpose, my goals. I see that it is to cast off my malaise, my dis-interest. I want to see the world in technicolour again. I am weary of the dishwater grey.

I’ve succeeded somewhat. Yesterday was a lovely day. As I stepped into my front yard in the warmth of the afternoon, I felt alive for the first time in a long while. I breathed in and out, taking in the beautiful mess of autumn leaves on the ground, the bare branches reaching up to the blue of the sky. I felt part of the whole universe. I am the breath that is going in and out.

A small step towards the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. A week in and 3 more weeks to go. It’s a journey and any journey is a work of art. I have to put my heart into it and paint it with vibrant colours.

ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

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Sometimes ill winds blow even on sunny days. There is nothing I can do. I have learned over time to stand/sit tall and let them blow over me. I try to emulate Patience and Fortitude, the lions in front of the New York Public Library. I must with patience and fortitude retain the core of myself through all kinds of weather – sunshine or rain. Whatever comes my way, I’m ready. Bring it on! Amazing the power of words and self-talk! I love Mary Sarton’s words, her self talk.

“Keep busy with survival. Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.”

It is hard for me to let go. I tend to hang on with tooth and nail. My grip is loosening with age. The truth is I’ve worn my nails to the quick. Sometimes there is no choice but to let go. I have to confess I have lost some parts of myself on this life journey. I’m walking my own Camino Road to retrieve them. I’m much like Dorothy and her companions going down the Yellow Brick Road. The Scarecrow searching for a brain, the Tin Man a heart and the Lion courage. I’m searching for all three. There is happy ending for Dorothy and her friends. I believe there is one for me, too, though I wouldn’t call it ‘ending’.

I much prefer beginnings. I like the idea of waking every morning to a new day and another crack at things. I get to re-program myself. I would delete the stuff that didn’t work and try something new and different. Who wants to wake up to the same old, same old like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? No one but I have been without knowing it. I’m grateful to my ‘bad’ days. They tell me that I’m not having such a good time and things are not ticking along. My ducks are all out of alignment. It’s time to take a different path or pull over and take a rest.

Maybe, just maybe, I have all the stuff I’m looking for. Maybe I should search within myself. I could have been barking up the wrong tree, going down the wrong garden path all this time. Gee whiz, why don’t I watch where I am going?

 

BREATHING AND WRITING

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IMG_6947Life and writing are akin to me at times.  I struggle to get a letter on the page and taking a deep breath is difficult at times.  If I don’t try, the page remains blank, empty of the stories hidden within me.  And if I don’t take that deep inhale, my breathing is shallow, my chest tight, holding all the doubts and fears within.

I take the big breath, inhaling up the side of the imaginery square in my head.  Then comes the slow exhalation across the top, inhaling down the side of the square and exhaling across the bottom. I do this again, a little slower until I feel my self relaxing and expanding into the universe.  I am saved again.

IMG_6946Sheba and I are trudging along to our own pace through the desert of our winter.  There are so many ups and downs.  There are many twists and turns.  Life leaps and catches us unaware at the most inconvenient times.  But then, when is it convenient?  We have to buckle up, or is it buckle down – to grin and bear it.  I can feel myself baring my teeth into a sneer.  Best just to smile, nod and carry on.

We are both doing remarkably well considering. I have put both of us on a diet.  It’s difficult to make this journey with heavy hips and thighs.  A little less weight and a little more heart would be good.  I have added some Omega-3 fatty acids to give us more courage.  I hope it doesn’t make us burp and give us stinky breath. Wish us luck.  We have a long way to go.

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EMBRACING HEAVENLY CHI

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The skies are grey this morning but at least the air is not as heavy.  Funny how heavy the grey can sit on your shoulders, pressing you down. Funny how old feelings can come washing back over you and then you realize how important it is to be in the now of time and to live and create new feelings in the present moment.

I did my qigong routine from memory, all the 18 movements.  Practice did make perfect in this incident.  I breathed in and out, visualizing the sunrise, feeling the calm and the beginning of a new day…pushing out the chaos of my mind.  And the sun came, uncertainly at first, darting in and out of the clouds.  I raised my arms, embracing heavenly chi.  It formed a protective shield around me.  And I knew that all is copacetic.

Breakfast is done.  The dishes put away.  The day and life begins again, however where or how I am.  I do not want to wait for all my ducks to be in a row.  That day may never come or if it does, it will not stay.  I have time and I am not behind but I do not choose to wait.  There is no pleasure in the contemplation of perfection but it is satisfying to move, to do and make progress, even if it is only an inch.

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I am pretending I am the new FlyLady, buzzing around with my purple duster, putting things in order, not obsessing, just doing.  I am surprised to feel joy in the doing, in the folding, in the putting away…..There is comfort in the cleaning and drying, in the smoothing and folding and putting things away.  It is almost like finding the heart in myself again.