Tag Archives: signs

SIGNS, SYMBOLS, SPACE

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Reverb14 – Day 20

Today’s prompt comes from the phenomenal Jen Lee. Jen writes:

One thing I learned in 2014 was how to make space for joy and levity, even in the midst of challenging circumstances or sad times. 

How could you make space for joy in the year to come? How could you protect it?

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I hate to say I’m coming from behind, but that is what I am doing.  I appreciate the opportunity here on Kat’s Reverb14, to reflect on my past journey and to contemplate where I want to go in the new year.  Thank you for this space to reverb.

IMG_6937I’m trying hard, maybe too hard to find my words this morning.  I have laid them aside, neglected them too long and too often lately.  They are pouting and reluctant to come out. I will have to be patient but it is not easy – not with Sheba begging for attention.  She is throwing her rubber ducky onto my lap.  Play! Play!  The squealing purple duck is driving me insane.  What was I thinking when I bought it?  There is nothing else to do except acknowledge her and squeal the rubber ducky to her delight.  Afterall, she is my joy.

A little peace and quiet is restored, but my head is dazed and abuzzed with a swarm of bees.  My words have retreated even further into the recesses of my mind.  I rise to retrieve some laundry.  It is soothing to sort and fold and put them in their rightful drawer.  If one thing doesn’t work, I can do another.  I am creating space for the words to come out later. It’s better than wasting time and moaning about my upset applecart.

IMG_1178So here I am now at my keyboard.  My words are coming out one by one.  They are not perfect. They not my best words but at least they are dressed and showing up. What more can I ask from them?  They bring me clarity and meaning.  You need both to feel joy.  How else would I know when it comes?

 

 

Reverb14 – Day 19  Prompt from Kat McNally

Sometimes I feel like an intrepid explorer through the lush, terrifying, vibrant jungle that is daily life. When I am open, I start to notice clues everywhere; clues which guide me to questions that, in turn, lead to answers. I sense the very real possibility that I am not navigating my way on my own

 Recently I realised that I had been gravitating to hot pink. This realisation led me to a photo which, in turn, brought back some memories which then led me to understand something about a burden I’d been carrying for a long time. And in that discovery, I was freed.

 Today, I invite you to consider: what sorts of signs and symbols have recurred for you in 2014? Think: repeating colours, shapes, people, sayings, music, images, ideas. Where could they possibly be leading you?

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IMG_2062December can be a magical month, if you let it be, if you are not caught up in the ‘shoulds’ of Christmas frenzy.  I’m not saying to abandon the celebration of the birth of Christ.  I’m saying, pause and give a thought about how you really want to spend the season.  Do you have to be swept up with the crowd – in the malls and elsewhere, doing what THEY think you should do?

I’m not here to be an Ebinizer Scrooge and bah humbug Christmas.  But really a lot of the things for Christmas are commercial symbols of a religious celebration.  Think about it. The candy canes, the Poinsettas. the tree and decorations, Santa and the reindeers – what do they have to do with Jesus being born?  So why do so many of us feel compulsed to fit in with the general milieu?  And feel guilty if we don’t?

IMG_1686I try not to, though I have, through different years.  Afterall I like everyone else, want to fit in.  I still do but I am tired.  I have been for years.  Do I have to fit in at this stage in my life? Not really.  It’s time for me to stop. I’ve come to that crossroad.  I am all grown up.  I do not have to pretend, to do things just to fit in.

 

IMG_2920This has become my favourite sign.  When life becomes hectic and my head gets abuzz with bees, I see the STOP in my mind’s eye.  It stops and sooths me, clearing my head, mind and heart.  What I think, see and feel are not always the truth.  I can put a STOP to that steady stream of lies.  And in that STOP, that pause, there is space for truth and joy to enter.

JOY TO THE WORLD.  MAY PEACE AND LOVE FIND US ALL.

SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE SIGNS

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Do you realize that no matter where we are, we are surrounded by signs….man-made or in nature.  Quite often, we are oblivious to them, walking right by, paying no attention.  That’s how we are, always in a hurry to the next event, even though we have a million and one ways of saying we should stop and smell the coffee.

We rush on by  not wanting to be left behind, not wanting to miss something important.  But we miss the sign to paradise.

And it is so for myself, too.  I am also guilty of being blind to the many signs around me.  It is difficult sometimes to finally see and admit that a change is necessary.  And so we delay and delay and justify and justify….afraid to let go.

I am seeing so clearly now.  There are so many signs to show me the way…. that    work is not fulfilling me, that it is not healthy for me to continue at the present mode.  I see that in the patients that we have been getting in the last few weeks.  They are truck drivers even younger than myself.  They all present the similar symptoms – overweight, diabetic, poor circulatory systems…in short – heart attacks on wheels.  And there are good reasons for their conditions…long hours behind the wheel, eating to keep awake, eating at truck stops, etc., etc. They have to make a living.

All those things are applicable to my profession, too.  I am often too tired from 12 hour shifts, from night shifts.  I am often too stressed to do even necessary things or things for enjoyment.  At other times, I’m so used to be stressed and tired, I’m uncomfortable being rested and not stressed.  Try to understand that!  And lately, I’m coming home angry.  Sometimes I need a big fat example of what I could become to get the message.  There’s a life outside hospital corridors.  There’s a whole wide world out there.  There’s other ways of serving.  Thirty plus years are enough.