Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Calm & Resilience


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Gently Tuning

Replacing effort and trying 

with releasing and allowing.

Engaging discipline.

Acknowledging capacity.

Values aligned.

Curiously listening.

Intuitively informed.

Soft not weak.

Strong not righteous.

Clear and present.


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Obstacles

I’m not always going to get my way,

but I’m always going to get what’s right for me.

When I let go of forcing outcomes,

stop relying on others for my happiness,

and see obstacles not as a sign of my worth but of my courage and strength,

even what seems like a paralyzing blockage

can be an invitation to take a different path,

go a different way,

or sit right where I am for a moment 

and reflect 

on the beauty, 

awe, 

and opportunity 

that exists right here,

right now,

just the way things are.

Much gratitude to Shari Irby for contributing this photo.


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Anticipation

Bursting with excitement.

Tempted by fear.

To hold back.

To bring less of my

intelligence,

beauty,

creativity,

power

so as not to overwhelm them.

But they feel it anyway.

They want it.

And there is a good chance they won’t be able to handle it.

But that shouldn’t stop me

from being all that I am.

My allness

is ready

to bloom,

in all

of

its

magnificence.


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Today

Tomorrow is not promised.

Align and open to the greatest gifts of today.

Open to your strengths.

Hold your wounds and weaknesses as reminders.

If you can remember these, you can remember you are something more.

You are something so much more.


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Beautiful

I am not broken.

Although, perhaps to some I may appear that way.

When I sit in stillness, in the quiet of my own heart, it is clear that I may be chipped.

I may be cracked.

Parts of me may be loose or wobbly,

but there is such a profound beauty

in all of the scars and markings of this worn and tired being, 

that I can only imagine 

if I were completely broken 

I would be even more beautiful.


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Grace

You are so wise

…and powerful,

beautiful,

kind,

…and attuned.

You do not have to be any stronger than you are.

You do not have to be more brave than you are.

You do not have to be more balanced than you are,

or flexible,

or creative.

You do not need to be anymore of anything right now.

There is power in peace,

clarity and confidence in grace.

Feel into your wild and free intuition.

Let it guide you unabashedly!!


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Accompaniment

I ask not that you change or conform.

You need not worry if who I am is not who you want me to be.

Let’s not need to hold hands in unity,

but hold hearts with respect.

I will not squash who I am,

or expect you to assimilate.

Even if I do not walk in your shoes, I offer you accompaniment,

so that we are both seen and heard and the rhythm and

harmony of our movement through life,

offers a flavorful contrast

for all the world to remember

the value of their own melody.


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Real Work

I stop to touch the tree trunk as I walk by.

My nose perceives the sweetness of bright white clusters of flowers on the horizon and the moistness of the ground beneath me.

I watch as stillness and movement come and go.

I sense the invisible currents of the air

that bring me sounds,

some familiar and many more curious.

This is the work of being on this earth.

Not leaving memories,

but making them.


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Struck

The current flows through me like a lightening bolt.

Jaggedly it rips at my center.

The burning wake of hollowness almost crumbles me to the ground.

As the charge hits the earth,

it dissipates,

diffuses,

extinguished in a flash.

Breath and smoldering flesh hang on.

Roots cling to the soil,

unhinged by the destruction.

The sky still dark,

the air now still,

droplets descend from the clouds as a small peace offering and attempt to soothe.

Shhhh….

calls out the rain.

You will prevail.

Forever changed, yes.

Wearing the beautiful mark

of challenge overcome,

and your willingness to be a conduit

for the powerful energy of

change.


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Conviction

If our morals and beliefs suggest that we should all

love,

support,

and guide one another,

then wouldn’t true,

authentic

moral conviction

show up in the form of

grace

and forgiveness,

not shackles?

A calling back of the misguided to the embrace of

patience and gentleness,

not humiliation

and chastisement.

The invitation

to not be isolated,

but to come closer.

To take accountability.

To grieve in communion

for the loss

of others wounded by their actions

and

for their own internal suffering.

To wail in the arms of

a community

that shoulders mistakes,

missteps,

and misdeeds,

with understanding and humility,

no matter how egregious

on the surface.

To shed tears together to cleanse,

not punish,

embrace,

not discard,

teach,

not convict.