A few weeks ago, a friend sent me an article about something called acedia. It is a term which means bored and listless, associated with an inability to motivate oneself, that arises from social isolation. Acedia comes from the Greek and means a ‘seizing up or freezing of feelings.’ It was described as far back as the 5th century AD and applied to monks who were shut away in monasteries for many months, without any outside contact.

The article goes on to state, “ This might strike you as a piece of interesting but irrevelant trivia. But having the precisely the right name for our emotions matters.

One, you’re less likely to feel there is something wrong with you if you know that humans have been growing listless when confined since before the fall of Rome. But two, modern research shows that accurately naming your feelings helps you deal with them better.

This capacity is called emotional granularity by psychologists, and as Lisa Feldman, author and head of Northwestern University’s Interdsiciplinary Affective Science Lab explains, putting the right word to your feelings “helps your brain figure out when to act… and what to do.. Your actions are better tailored to the situation you find yourself in.”

So next time you’re wandering around your house yawning for no apparent reason and struggling to persuade yourself to do one of the many positive things you know you should do, don’t call yourself depressed or lazy. Tell yourself you have acedia and that it’s 100% natural for humans to respond to physical and social isolation this way.

By feeling less defective and less alone, you just might gain an edge in actually beating your malaise.”

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/productivity-motivation-northwestern-acedia.html

I found all this information really helpful for understanding the way I feel some days. I have found the antidote for acedia, for me, is creativity. The trick is finding an easy access to creativity. For me, it is card making. I leave my card making materials out at all times so there are no impediments to sitting down and beginning to create. I invite you to give some thought to what is the easiest access to your own creativity. Once you know, I invite you to leave those materials out in the open. Once I start being creative, other ideas come, and within 30 minutes or so the acedia feelings have lifted. Give it a try!! I hope the same will happen for you!!

As you know, I value Rick Tamlyn’s input in my life. I recently attended his online seminar about how to be calm in the midst of ongoing crisis. Rick said something which really made me think, “Calm is when I feel creative with my world.” Hmmmm!!!

I decided to try this out yesterday in my studio. I hadn’t made any art for many months, so I took a big sheet of 200 lb watercolour paper, pulled out my watercolour crayons, and went to town creating a nice big bold piece of art. I painted for about 10 minutes, then stopped and asked myself if I felt calm or not. I realized that during the 10 minutes of painting, all I could do/did do, was to focus on my art making and it took my complete attention. I did feel calm and I did feel joyous, as nothing makes me happier in the moment than choosing beautiful colours and making an abstract painting with them.

After I asked myself if I was feeling calm, I started thinking about our world, wondering, for instance, what the COVID case count was for today in Ontario, in Canada, in the USA and in the world. I stopped my painting to check all this, and I felt my anxiety rise.

Then I went back to making my big piece of art. Very soon, I was focussing on my artmaking completely, and the feeling of calm returned.

Cool! I discovered that for me, calmness and creativity are very linked.

How do you exercise your creativity? Is it making a needlework piece?Is it making an abstract painting? Is it writing a poem? Is it gardening? Is it making a beautiful photograph? Is it making jewellry? Is it planning a workshop for others? There are so many different ways!

I invite you to try the same experiment. How do you feel inside when you are creating? If calm, then I invite you to ask yourself how you can find ways to expand the amount of time you spend creating in a day.

I am hopeful as we enter the fall and winter, that thinking about how to exercise our creativity will help us cope with the world situation in which we are immersed.

Dear Lord, please bless us all with the ability to endure and even sometimes, to thrive! Amen.

Today Father Richard Rohr wrote a heartfelt letter to readers of his daily meditations. The letter was called ‘Some simple but urgent guidance to get us through these next months.’ He wrote that an important source of guidance for him are words written by Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), a young Jewish woman who suffered greatly in a concentration camp. She wrote:

“There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too.. And that is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves.”

Reading these words reminded me of some words that I cherish, written by John O’Donohue in his book Anam Cara:

“You can search far and in hungry places for love. It is a great consolation to know that there is a wellspring of love within yourself. If you trust that this wellspring is there, you will then be able to invite it to awaken. The following exercise could help develop awareness of this capacity. When you have moments on your own or spaces in your time, just focus on the well at the root of your soul. Imagine that nourishing stream of belonging, ease, peace, and delight. Feel, with your visual imagination, the refreshing waters of that well gradually flowing up through the arid earth of the neglected side of your heart. It is helpful to imagine this particularly before you sleep. Then during the night you will be in a constant flow of enrichment and belonging. You will find that when you awake at dawn, there will be a lovely, quiet happiness in your spirit.” (pg 28 Anam Cara)

When I first read these words about 10 years ago, I did practise thinking of the wellspring just when I was falling asleep. I experienced that lovely, quiet happiness that John predicted would occur. I think I have pretty much internalized the knowledge of the wellspring of love and knowing it is there has always been utterly comforting, and even more so during these difficult days. I invite you to try the practice of focussing on the wellspring of love. I am hopeful you too will be encouraged, stabilized and comforted by connecting with it and by the sure knowledge and experience that it is, indeed, there!

For the past 6 weeks I have been participating in an online retreat offered by the Monastery of St Gertrude in Cottonwood, Idaho. The retreat was called “Now That We’re All Living LIke Monks : Lessons from St Benedict in a Time of Pandemic, Division and Reckoning.” I was really stretched and challenged by the retreat and particularly by the homework Sister Teresa assigned. But my favourite moment was the very last prayer/poem that she left us with as we finished up the retreat. The prayer was written by John of Dalyutha, a monk I had never heard of before. He lived from 690AD to 780AD, in Upper Mesopotamia. He lived in monasteries sometimes, but mostly he lived as a hermit in a cave. He was a prolific writer of sermons, treatises, maxims and letters. The letters have survived and have been translated into several languages in the centuries after his death. For a time they were banned, but then they were widely circulated throughout Asia, Africa and Europe. ( Wikipedia). You can order his works on Amazon today! It was a thrill to learn of this wonderful man.

Here is his beautiful prayer poem:

If you are tired and worn out by your labours for your Lord,

place your head upon his knee and rest awhile.

Recline upon his breast,

breathe in the fragrant spirit of life,

and allow life to permeate your being.

Rest upon him, for he is a table of refreshment

that will serve you the food of the divine Father.

What rest and refreshment John of Dalyutha provided for me today, and I hope for you too!

I had the pleasure of meeting with a dear friend for a picnic table in the park chat yesterday. It was a gorgeous September afternoon, we had not seen each other in person in many months and we wanted to share our hopes and dreams together. I didn’t know this friend was also a lover of drumming circles. Of course, we haven’t been able to participate in drumming circles for several months, but both of us remember the joy of coming together with others and how even people who have never drummed before are able to entrain with others, often with magical and beautiful results.

This rekindled my desire to host drumming circles in my expressive arts studio space as soon as the threat of COVID illness has passed. I am so hopeful that may occur as early as spring 2021. I talked with Mel, the wonderful woman who facilitates our circle and we decided that we would like to host a weekly circle in the spring as soon as it is feasible. We have set the intention, and a date to begin, and I pray with all my heart that it will be possible.

I picked up one of the books I have about drumming to try to find some words that would explain to you how wonderful drumming circles are, if you haven’t had the opportunity to participate in one as yet. In this book, The Art and Heart of Drum Circles, by Christine Stevens, I found a poem written by a twelve year old boy who loved attending a weekly drumming circle in his community. I thought his poem expressed what I feel far better than any prose I could write about it. His poem is found on pg 71 of her book:

When I Drum

By Sean Scheuring, age 12

When I drum I can hear my heart beat

I feel excitement from my head to my feet

It takes away my pain and worry

I don’t feel like I’m in such a hurry.

When I am drumming I feel free

My troubles fly away from me

And in comes all the peace and love

My spirit soars just like a dove.

When I am drumming with my friends

I feel like we are family

And when we drum we sound like one

One heart, one soul, one mind.

Mmmmmm!!!

I have been enjoying getting to know the work of Hannah Braime, a writing coach and blogger who lives in England. Her website is www.becomingwhoyou are.net. Now that I am on her mailing list, I am receiving her blogposts. Today’s was excellent!

She asked us to imagine a bow with two arrows, one of which has already been released. The first arrow represents a difficult life event, challenge or issue. The second arrow represents our judgment, criticism or negative thoughts about the first arrow, thoughts where we beat ourselves up or blame ourselves. If we choose to shoot the second arrow into the wound caused by the first arrow, it only makes the wound deeper, wider and more painful.

Hannah then tells us we have a choice! Instead of shooting the second arrow, we can choose to begin healing. How do we do that? By applying self- compassion, and self- kindness to ourselves, not self- blame or self- pity. Our inner critic usually doesn’t help us heal, but self- compassion does!

One way to access our self compassion is through journaling. Research has shown that when people spent as little as 3 minutes writing about a difficult experience, answering the question, ”Imagine that you are talking to yourself about this (weakness/action/ event etc) from a compassionate and understanding persepctive. What would you say?” , the participants felt better. That’s kind of cool!

At times like this in our world we can all use more self-kindess and self-compassion. When we feel it’s called for, we can pull out our journals and do a little writing, and expect to feel better. That is very good news!

Enjoy!

For me, September 1 has always been the ‘new year’. The kids are going back to school and we are all settling in to the new season as the leaves begin to change colour, we start getting out our fall and winter clothes, and our thoughts turn to what we want to achieve after the long lazy, hazy days of summer are over. We might decide to start something new like a new type of exercise or a a new course of study.

In today’s reading from Simple Abundance Sarah Ban Breathnach says that January’s resolutions are made “when we are worn out in spirit, body and pocketbook, and when we have no real urge to do anything but rest.” I feel that way about New Year’s resolutions too!

The beauty of resolutions made in September is, Sarah says, that they are private and no one else knows we making them. I love this distinction! I am enjoying a few days at home on my own right now, sorting and pitching, maybe doing a little clothes shopping, and looking at which online courses I might like to take this fall. Ooooh! A postcard making course offered by the Monastery of St Gertrude in Idaho looks good to me.. a new way to make art that seems doable, easy and fun!

What are you inclined to sign up for this fall? Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it all!

I had the opportunity to go to my home town’s art gallery yesterday. What an amazing treat it was.

First of all, there is nothing like an art gallery or museum gift shop! It was a treat for the eyes to explore what was available to buy. I mostly wanted to buy the beautiful handmade Japanese paper they have, so I can continue making my own greeting cards. I have been enjoying that so much during the quiet home days of the pandemic.

Secondly, I got to see the art show. This was made up of a single piece from each of the artists we would normally visit in person on the fall studio tour. This year, we are having an online studio tour. It was lovely to see the work of artists I have known and loved for many years, and to become aware of a couple of artists with whom I was not familiar.

Gazing at these works of art, displayed in a beautiful setting, with soothing music playing in the background, had a marvellous effect on me. The more deeply I gazed, the more the tension I didn’t even know I was holding in my body released. I felt a quiet joy, a peace and a serenity that I haven’t experienced for awhile. It was wonderful!

In our city, the art gallery just reopened and they are allowing one person in at a time to view the art show and shop in the gift store, every 45 minutes. For me, it was a bonus to be there on my own, enjoying 45 minutes of what felt like therapy to me! What a blessing! I can highly recommend checking out if you can now go to your local art gallery. If so, I wish you as relaxing and enjoyable an experience as I had!

May you be blessed with peace and rest over the coming weekend.

Love, Sue

Every once in a while God shows Himself/Herself very obviously in our lives.

This week was one of those times!

Our daughter Martha was home visiting from Thunder Bay. She is a teacher at the university there. She was wondering whether to spend her winter in Thunder Bay or southern Ontario, due to all her teaching being online this year because of COVID. As her mom I could see pros and cons for either choice, but what I wasn’t at ease with was that she didn’t have a car, and could not easily make her way home from Thunder Bay if another lockdown occurred

Martha has recently finished a PHD program and that meant having and paying off a big student loan. She wasn’t in a position to spend a lot of money on a car, but she had to have a good enough car to get her back and forth safely from Thunder Bay when needed.

I asked a dear friend who is a used car salesman at a dealership in town to keep an eye out for just the right car. I let him know Martha’s dream car, being an outdoorswomen, would be a used Toyota Matrix. We then settled in to pray and wait.

To our surprise and delight, a good used Matrix came in to the dealership! It was low mileage, looked like new and was within Martha’s price range! The man who brought it in said his wife had passed away, and she just loved her car. He asked, “Could you try to find someone who will love this car as much as she did?” My salesman friend was able to say, “I am certain I have just the young woman!”

The icing on the cake was that the car came in with snow tires only. Lo and behold, I still had a set of almost new all season radial tires, with sport rims!!, in our garage, from my previous beloved Corolla. The tires fit Martha’s Matrix perfectly!

This week, Martha took possession of her new car and returned to Thunder Bay. Whether or not she decides to stay in Thunder Bay or to return home to Peterborough for the winter, I know she can go back and forth in safety. I love that our God is a practical God, who knows what we need and loves to provide it for us. Thank you, Lord!

Gbarielle Roth said that the four universal healing salves are dancing, singing, storytelling and silence. I have found her words to be true!

In the past few years, I haven’t gotten to sing much, but on Saturday I had so much fun singing with an old friend who brought a karaoke machine to our house. I loved the songs he chose to share with us—they brought back such great memories. The main benefit, I thought, though, was getting to sing at the top of my lungs!

John had us sing “Moonshadow” by Cat Stevens and that awakened memories of university days. We sang some Gordon Lightfoot tunes, such as “In the Early Morning Rain”, another great tune from my university years. Songs like “Welcome to my World” were new to me, and so sweet to be introduced to! There were some Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin tunes, which brought me memories of Mom and Dad’s living room and these songs being played by my Mom at full blast, while she vacuumed.

I haven’t given much thought to why singing is one of the four healing salves, but for now I would say one reason is that songs can evoke memories of happy days in the past, and the enjoyment of those memories is enhanced by singing with other people who love the same songs and have happy memories associated with them too.

I don’t know how I missed having a karaoke experience up until now, but I was so grateful for my introduction to it! During COVID times, when it is difficult to create opportunities for singing together, in person, safely, I look forward to the days when we can do so again!