May 19--He's Going With the Flow

Disconnect to reconnect. Unplug to get centered. Step away to come closer. Peaceful energy is just a breath away.  --Mary Davis

    Today's quote encourages getting away from our tech devices, and the larger reading suggests a "Tech Sabbath" one day a week. While I like the idea a lot, I can see that it would be, at least initially, a challenge for me. I would have to hide my phone. I shall ponder this idea more...

    My niece, two nephews and a great-nephew made the journey this weekend from Ohio to the boondocks of central Pennsylvania to release the ashes of my brother (their dad & grandpa) in the requested spot. Known in our family as "Doc Miller's dam," it is a small pond/dam in Stone Creek in Huntingdon County. My brother's idea is that he would then flow from Stone Creek into the Juniata River, then into the Susquehanna River, which eventually leads to the Atlantic, where his wife's ashes were released, and after all that, they would be reunited. In any case, he has a magnificently beautiful journey ahead through the mountains, forests and farmlands of PA. 

    I miss you, big brother!!

        Leta

The Juniata River, central PA, 
part of Arlie's beautiful journey

May 18--More Gentleness, Please

Send your light into the darkness and your peace into the world.  --Mary Davis

    Mary Davis wrote a lovely prayer in today's reading which sends blessings and peace to those touched by:

• war
• grief
• illness
• abuse
• discrimination
• depression
• poverty
• loneliness

    Unless you have been active military, most of us in the U.S. are clueless about the horrors of war. Any of the others listed, however, could hit very "close to home." I was with a friend last night whose mother and husband passed recently within a month of each other. We have both been alive around seven decades, and we agreed that grief and loneliness are just facts of life now. We have to work at it to get out of the house and be social, or depression too easily follows. 

    I would venture that most folks have been touched by one or more in the above list. Let us be gentle with one another!

        Leta

May 17--Appreciating Kindness

Kindness changes the world one heart at a time.  --Mary Davis

    My parking angels were lovingly laughing at me yesterday. I was meeting a friend for lunch at Larkspur in Old Town, and the angels cleared for me the perfect parking spot as close as I could be to the restaurant. This is very helpful as I am still regaining my walking strength. Long story short, I did not pay close attention to the text from my friend naming the restaurant, and I was in the wrong place, great parking space wasted. She warned me that parking at the correct establishment was "crazy." The folks at the first restaurant were very kind to me when I admitted my screw-up. Off I went to the intended spot, and my parking angels overlooked my dumb move and gave me another spot right next to the restaurant. How's that for kindness?!!?! My friend and I had a lovely visit despite starting a bit later than we had planned. 

    My almost-three grandson wears a cap that says, "Always Be Kind." 

        Leta

May 16--I'm OK with Boring

May the blessings of this day radiate through your smile, be helpful through your hands and shine through your heart.  --Mary Davis

    I'm noting that life is kind of boring right now, and I'll take that. My days routinely include a PT or chiropractor appointment, doing stretching and strengthening exercises, swimming, napping, watching baseball and basketball, and happy hour on our deck with my husband when he is not doing catering gigs. The big thing that is missing right now is pickleball, but I am determined to return to that passion. I am slowly "getting my life back." Having lost my usual level of activity for weeks has made me very determined to not take the simple ("boring") things of life for granted. 

    Time to stretch!

        Leta

The Denver Nuggets outstanding center court logo!

May 15--The Sacred Feminine

There is grace in the sunrise, in the light of a new day.  --Mary Davis

    This is "food for thought" from the Richard Rohr Daily Meditation from May 12:

Novelist Sue Monk Kidd describes why cultivating an image of the Sacred Feminine is so important, particularly for women raised within Christianity:  

A young girl learns Bible stories in which vital women are generally absent, in the background, or devoid of power. She learns that men go on quests, encounter God, and change history, while women support and wait for them. She hears sermons where traditional (nonthreatening) feminine roles are lifted up as God’s ideal. A girl is likely to see only a few women in the higher echelons of church power.  

And what does a girl, who is forming her identity, do with all the scriptures admonishing women to submission and silence? Having them “explained away” as the product of an ancient time does not entirely erase her unease. She also experiences herself missing from pronouns in scripture, hymns, and prayers. And most of all, as long as God “himself” is exclusively male, she will experience the otherness, the lessness of herself; all the pious talk in the world about females being equal to males will fail to compute in the deeper places inside her.

When we truly grasp for the first time that the symbol of woman can be a vessel of the sacred, that it too can be an image of the Divine, our lives will begin to pivot…. Internalizing the Divine Feminine provides women with the healing affirmation that they are persons in their own right, that they can make choices, that they are worthy and entitled and do not need permission. The internalization of the Sacred Feminine tells us our gender is a valuable and marvelous thing to be.

    I grew up with the "big scary male God." Having had a good relationship with my father, I realize that I tend to think of God as a "sugar Daddy." My concept of Something Bigger continues to develop, without modern-day religion, and that's a good thing. I am forever grateful to the 12-Step program for giving me permission to live within and connect with a Higher Power that works for me. 

        Leta

The entertaining sign of a local Wichita liquor store

May 14--"Monster Walking"

I am thankful for the blessings of this day and for the miracles that are yet to unfold.  --Mary Davis

    The first blessing and miracle of the day is that we are here breathing and primed (with coffee) for another day on planet Earth. Some of us will flow through it with ease; others will slog through it. It's a choice, and we can choose differently at any moment of the day. I am especially thankful for being able to sleep comfortably in my own bed after weeks of sleeping in a recliner.

    I have adopted this affirmation: "I am stronger every day." At PT this past Monday, the therapist started working with stretchy bands around my legs doing "monster walking." Given the sciatica-induced weakness in my left leg, these are very challenging. These are, however, the exercises that will restore my balance and get me back to pickleball. 

    It's time to do those exercises!

        Leta

My MELT band, roller and balls
are a huge part of my recovery!

May 13--All Parts Matter

    Today I am sharing a poem from the May 10 Richard Rohr "Daily Meditation." It was written by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

 Letter to the Parts of Me I Have Tried to Exile

I’m sorry. I thought banishing you
was the way to become better,
more perfect, more good, more free.
The irony: I thought if I cut you off
and cast you out, if I built the walls
high enough, then the parts left would be
more whole. As if the sweet orange
doesn’t need the toughened rind,
the bitter seed. As if the forest
doesn’t need the blue fury of fire.
It didn’t work, did it, the exile?
You were always here, jangling
the hinges, banging at the door,
whispering through the cracks.
Left to myself, I wouldn’t have known
to take down the walls,
nor would I have had the strength to do so.
That act was grace disguised as disaster.
But now that the walls are rubble,
it is also grace that teaches me to want
to embrace you, grace that guides me
to be gentle, even with the part of me
that would still try to exile any other part.
It is grace that invites me
to name all parts beloved.
How honest it all is. How human.
I promise to keep learning how
to know you as my own, to practice
opening to what at first feels unwanted,
meet it with understanding,
trust all belongs, welcome you home.

    This really speaks to me as there have been many parts I have tried to exile over the years. 

    Let us be loving and compassionate toward all our parts.

        Leta

At a temple in Bali...
be we frog, princess, or prince,
let us love all our parts!