April 30--Let Go Like a Mirror

It's never so bad that it couldn't be worse.  --Madeline Miller

    This was one of my mother's regular utterances. Any journey into self-pity or discouragement would be met with that phase and specific examples designed to make me let go of my issues because things could be so much worse. Really, even now, when I look around, it's easy to see those who truly do have it much worse. 

    Spiritual director Caroline Oakes refers to "Jesus’ formula for waking up... his practice for deepening the soul’s awareness of and attunement with our innermost essence, the Divine within, as one of pause and release and return." I find that this is what I have been doing lately when I head down the path of negativity. I stop, bring my focus back to my breath, let the negative stuff go, and return to gratitude (my recent breathing mantra of grateful (inhale), breath (exhale)).

    I really like this mirror analogy on letting go by angel Kyodo williams:

We can see the thoughts that come up in our minds the same way a mirror “sees” things. A mirror just notices. It registers whatever passes in front of it without holding on to it in any way. It just lets go. It doesn’t think about it or have a long conversation about it. Since the mirror doesn’t cling to the object that it is reflecting, when the object goes, so does the reflection. It’s the same way with your mind. We don’t hold on to the random thoughts that arise over and over again in our minds and that can take us away from the full experience of now. We want to be aware only of our breath and nothing else. The moment that we become aware that a thought has taken form, we just relax and allow it to pass. We just notice the thoughts and we return to our breath. If nothing grabs onto the thoughts as they arise, they will keep on moving on, leaving no trace that they were ever there. Let your mind be like the mirror. Clear mirror, clear mind.  

    Breathe!

        Leta

April 29--Haircut and Pedicure Heaven

Always be nice to the person who is holding scissors next to your head. 
--Anonymous

    I was blessed on Thursday to have my monthly haircut and pedicure by Cris at Salon Bella in Mulvane. It's a long drive for me, but it's worth every mile. I met Cris when she was in Xenon cosmetology school in the 2007-08 time frame. She was changing careers. I had a friend who taught at the school, and I agreed to go there and be a practice client for the students. I lost track of Cris briefly after she completed school, then reconnected when she opened her first salon in Mulvane. 

    It is enormous good fortune to have a wonderful hair and nail person to play with. Cris always puts glitter sparkles on my toenails. We occasionally add streaks of color to my gray hair--when I went to Jamaica last December, she added black, green and yellow, the colors of the Jamaican flag. She gives wonderful leg, foot and head massages. She's just a bit younger than me, we have much in common, and several of my friends go to her also. We can gab easily for hours. 

    Thanks, Cris, for taking such good care of me these many wonderful years together!

        Leta

Cubs blue & red--my pedi for Opening Day 😍

April 28--Bored or Peaceful?

Dogs are our link to paradise. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring; it was peace.  --Milan Kundera

    While I love the dog reference of this quote, what struck me is the idea that those times which I consider boring could be much improved if I could see them simply as peaceful. I tend to think I'm bored far too often. 

    But the question arises... Am I peaceful? Oftentimes when I'm hanging out with myself in my own head, there's very little peace resting there. There tends to be a lot of "I should be _____" going on. Or I distract myself with my phone. Or I roam off into the future and worry. Something to practice... peace rather than boredom. 

    When I think about it, those times when I'm hanging with our dog Barney giving him bellyrubs--his peace and my peace are one. 

        Leta

 

This is a photo of my Chromebook screen. 
This is a drone shot of Wrigley Field (CUBS, Chicago)
at sunset. So cool and so peaceful!

April 27--Without Butter, Life Would Be Impossible

I don't trust anyone who doesn't eat butter.  --Leta Miller 😉😉

    I was visiting my in-laws a couple years ago, and my dear mother-in-law served waffles for breakfast. She saw me looking around and said, "You don't want butter for your waffle, do you?" I think my head probably snapped back. That's what the divots in the waffles are for, for heaven's sake!!! I just said politely, "Yes, please." 

    My family of origin worshiped butter. Mom bought it in the one-pound slabs--none of that fancy 4-stick packaging for her. She believed margarine to be evil, possibly to the level of a Communist plot. Homemade bread slathered in butter with fresh strawberry jam--it doesn't get any better than that. 

    My husband has adapted nicely to my love of butter. He uses it appropriately in cooking, but if there is an opportunity where I would like more, for instance, a little butter pool in a mound of mashed potatoes, he sets the butter dish right in front of me. What a sweetie!

    Butter--mmm, mmm, good!

        Leta

Making me hungry!

April 26--Ode to Barney

If you don't own a dog, at least one, there may not necessarily be anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.  --Roger Caras

    I guess there was something wrong with my life for decades until we adopted Barney nearly four years ago. Picking out a name was fun. I am especially fond of the name "Zeus" for a dog, but we recognized early on that Barney was not a Zeus. He's a Barney of the "Barney Fife" type (Andy Griffith Show, yes, I'm dating myself). 

    Barney was scared of our stairs at first. My husband carried him up and down a few times before he figured it out. Now he races up and down nearly at the speed of light. For the first week we wondered if he could bark. He has turned into quite the talker. 

    We don't know what breed he is. We suspect a lot of border collie based on dog-knowing friends' proclamations and his intense desire to keep us safely herded under his watchful eye. When he sees another dog approaching, he lies down and waits, even in the middle of the street. He may hop up and greet the other dog, or not. 

    We have a very smart dog on our hands. My husband has trained him to run downstairs and yelp/squeak/bark at me when lunch or supper is ready. Barney takes this job quite seriously, because it means he will be fed also.

    Barney barks at everyone. EVERYONE. Even the neighbors and friends he has seen dozens of times. He does not like to have his head petted, and don't even think about touching his front paws. Then this happened. Barney and I were headed out for a walk, and our neighbor was sitting in her driveway chatting with a friend I had never seen before. Barney walked right up to the friend, no barking, let her pet his head, and just went ga-ga on her, tail wagging wildly. What?!!? My neighbor and I were stunned. 

    Dogs are a glorious mystery of love and devotion. 

        Leta

Did someone say W-A-L-K?

April 25--B-R-E-A-T-H-E

Every time we catch ourselves getting reactive, every time we catch ourselves acting as if the outcome of the situation has the authority to name who we are, we are to take a deep breath and remind ourselves that it’s not true.  --James Finley

    I was given this gem in my morning spiritual practice readings yesterday. It fits perfectly in my current state. My thoughts have been roaming way too much lately into negativity. To counteract that, I have been practicing this mantra: inhale to the word "grateful" and exhale to the word "breath." Simple but effective, it reminds me that breathing is the most important thing I do. 

    Breathing is the most important thing you do, too. Let us not take it for granted!

        Leta

Another fun kitchen towel I found 
during a Fort Collins shopping adventure.

April 24--Getting Real

All great spirituality is about letting go.  --Richard Rohr

    These are the writings of Anne Lamott relative to prayer, when one is so desperate that surrender is the only option:

Prayer … begins with stopping in our tracks, or with our backs against the wall, or when we are going under the waves, or when we are just so sick and tired of being physically sick and tired that we surrender, or at least we finally stop running away and at long last walk or lurch or crawl toward something. Or maybe, miraculously, we just release our grip slightly.

Prayer is talking to something or anything with which we seek union, even if we are bitter or insane or broken. (In fact, these are probably the best possible conditions under which to pray.) Prayer is taking a chance that against all odds and past history, we are loved and chosen, and do not have to get it together before we show up. The opposite may be true: We may not be able to get it together until after we show up in such miserable shape….

My belief is that when you’re telling the truth, you’re close to God. If you say to God, “I am exhausted and depressed beyond words, and I don’t like You at all right now, and I recoil from most people who believe in You,” that might be the most honest thing you’ve ever said. If you told me you had said to God, “It is all hopeless, and I don’t have a clue if You exist, but I could use a hand,” it would almost bring tears to my eyes, tears of pride in you, for the courage it takes to get real—really real. It would make me want to sit next to you at the dinner table.

So prayer is our sometimes real selves trying to communicate with the Real, with Truth, with the Light.

 

I've been there many times, and I can state that the other side of surrender is a good place to land.

        Leta

Letting go is nature's way.