Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Calm & Resilience

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To start again

To start something takes bravery and courage, but the body and mind usually have at least a base level of security, a feeling of excitement, curiosity, and anticipation about the great things that could potentially come.

To start again, to pick up where you left off — to overcome defeat, loss, pain — takes something even deeper and stronger than bravery or courage.  It takes a faith, a deep down belief in yourself that you are going to be OK, even though you and often many of those around you cannot see, feel, or imagine that.  Yet somehow, you find it – first faith, then hope, then courage.  The fog slowly begins to clear, the heart softly open again, the colors of the Universe gradually return to their vibrancy – and your resiliency buffs the patina of your soul and makes you to shine once again.

In the words of my dear friend, Susan Kerr, painter, sculptor, writer, coach, inspiration to so many, “and hope found me and I was able to start again.”

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start again. 

i had loved for years

i had held and cherished

and when she became sick

i had doctored and fed and wished and prayed

i had taken her back and forth

forth and back 

to doctors

i had cried

i had hoped

i had seen her recover

and wished beyond reason

and then the day came 

when i had to decide

and i had to let her go

to move on into this world of something else

we can transition, sleep, heaven?

and i did and so it was

and my heart fell out of my chest onto the floor

and it stayed there for days and months

nights were the hardest

as every day she would stay with me

lay with me

invite me to tenderness

she would see me

and i would hold her

and we would be

LOVE

LOVE

LOVE

and my broken heart one morning

saw the sun again

and another day some days later

it felt the sun again

and days later still

i was able to smile and later laugh

and even later still lift my face to that sun of all things miraculous

and then later still i picked up my paints

and hope found me

and i was able to 

start again.

                                                      – Susan Kerr

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Click on “Inspiring Images” to view Susan’s painting entitled “start again.”To view more paintings and poems by Susan Kerr, visit her website:

http://www.susankerrinspiration.com


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Starting…

Starting is so hard.

The line between fluttering butterflies and full-on nausea is often quite difficult to distinguish.

The anticipation of what is to come once you start can bring a huge smile to the face – a sparkle in the eyes –or it can paralyze even the strongest, most confident amongst us.

Why is it so difficult to take that first step?  To launch?  To just do it?

Is it an ability we perceive lacking in ourselves?  Is it faith we need more of?  Or, is it fear?  Oh, that darn fear!

The greatest safety tool our bodies provide is our physiological response to fear.  It tells us when to pump more blood through the body, when to send fighting cells out to protect us, when to run, when to hide, when we are in danger, and when we are OK.

The heart starts beating, the beads of sweat glisten on the skin, a rosy huge rushes over the cheeks and body.  The body is alive – sensing, feeling, sparkling!

But, as humans, we have also been blessed with rational thought.  As the body awakes to change with excitement, rational thought steps in with “what if,” “oh, no,” “there could be greater danger on the other side,” “there is a chance you can’t do this.”

Handy tools at times to protect us, but more often pesky little bugs that swarm around our heads and distract us from doing what we are meant to do.

So, maybe we can compromise.  Watch those pesky little bugs making patterns in the sky above our heads, give them space to flutter about more like butterflies than gnats, and call them courage.  In the end, inviting them to come with us, hover a little more at a distance, move us forward instead of holding us back.

Then, maybe we can sparkle a little more and starting won’t be so hard.

   If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed. 

–David Viscott

 

 


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A New Journey Begins

I am full of advice for anyone who will listen.  My words fill my head all the time.  And, yet, when faced with the simple task of how to start this blog, every single word, thought, and vision escapes me.

As best as I can, I hope to share with you each Monday a short thought, a quote, an inspiration, a nugget to nibble on, or a simple practice to try, to inspire your well-being and to help you find strength, joy, and richness in all that you do.

And, so, the journey begins…