I love this poem, written in the 14th century by an anonymous Japanese author :

The Edge of Center

All tempest has,

Like a navel,

A hole in its middle,

Through which

A gull can fly,

in silence.

I awoke this morning thinking about what a stirred up world we are living in right now. It can be difficult to find any place for our minds to settle down in peace. I was reminded of this favourite poem and sought it out to read and reflect on again. Yes, we are definitely living in a tempestuous times. Is there a quiet place in the center through which we can fly in silence, calm and inner peace?

This week is Holy Week for Christians. Normally, this week for me is characterized by shopping for the makings of Easter dinner. I am usually thinking of chocolate rabbits, turkey and cleaning the house in preparation for family coming, but not this year. We know it’s going to be another quiet Easter.

There is the possibility for quiet reflection, but what shall I reflect on? Thinking about Jesus suffering and dying is feeling too much for me to handle this year amidst so much suffering and so much dying. I do want to focus on Jesus, though.

I was reminded of the “I Am” statements that Jesus made, so I turned in my Bible to one of my favourite ones and read it again:
” I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep….I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” John 10: 14-15,17-18. New International Version

Ahhh! I read these words and I felt comforted. These words are the hole in the middle through which I can fly in silence and in peace this week. I have a shepherd. He loves me enough to lay his life down for me when I am in trouble. He has the authority to make this decision. Should he lay his life down for me, amazingly!, since he is not only my shepherd but my God, he can take his life up again.

Okay! Hallelujah! Amen!

Wow! Where did the past two months go? Suddenly, spring is here, at least for the next few days! I got to sit out on my chaise lounge basking in the sun this afternoon. Riches indeed! I am eagerly awaiting the first crocuses to bloom in my garden, and have already started visiting the local garden centre, just because it’s so exciting to be there! Vaccinations are proceeding at a better pace in Canada, and hope is rising. One day, all will be well and we will again be able to visit loved ones freely, and without fear. Hallelujah!

I spent the past two months completing the final edits to my new book, We Are Already Whole. My wonderful editor, Joan, again calmly and clearly took me through the process. Sheri, my dear friend and amazing graphic designer, again came up with a beautiful design and finished product. Dave Kerr again produced a beautiful cover illustration. Finally, we were able to self-publish and get it up onto Amazon on February 21/21. An auspicious day! After we checked for typos( there are always one or two despite all our best efforts!), I was able to order 50 author copies for people who had indicated an interest in receiving signed copies. For the past week I have been happily engaged in signing and mailing out books. It’s kind of like having a new baby- all I wanted to do was gaze upon its beautiful face! We will be having a formal Zoom book launch April 17th, to introduce and thank my editor, graphic designer and book cover designer and do one of the exercises from the book. It’s sad not to be able to do this in person, as with my previous three books, but we will make the best of it !

I am hoping this book, like spring itself, will bring hope to people. I believe it’s a book of good news- that underneath the layers of difficulties that we have all encountered in life, there is at at our core a very beautiful, whole place.

One of my favourite quotes in the book, written by Marcia Wiederkehr, states, “Oh God, help me to believe the truth about myself, no matter how beautiful it is.” I laughed out loud when I read this quote because it took me by surprise! It is often easier to focus on our flaws and faults than on our talents and strengths. My intention for this book is that we take a much deserved break from focusing on what’s wrong and look at what’s right, for 21 days in a row!

If you would like to take a peek at the book, just click on the books tab of my website and you will see that beautiful front cover design. If you click on it, you will be taken to Amazon for further details.

Here’s to spring, new life, hope, and happiness! May all of these be yours!

I had one of those nights last night where you wake up at 3am and no matter what you do, you can’t get back to sleep. As I was lying there in bed thinking about what might help, I remembered that I told you I was going to start rereading the Mitford series by Jan Karon. I padded downstairs to the big bookcase in the living room and found the first book in the series, At Home in Mitford. Looking inside the front cover I discovered that it was written way back in 1994. In a letter to the reader written in 2014, Jan Karon wrote that in the early days booksellers could sell it with a money- back guarantee, so universal was its appeal.

I settled in to begin to read and again, 27 years after reading the book the first time, I was completely disarmed and charmed by the first chapter. In that chapter, Jan Karon writes about how Father Tim, the protagonist, is adopted by a dog who he names Barnabus. I love the quote from E. B. White that the town vet shares with Father Tim : “A really companionable and indispensable dog is an accident of nature. You can’t get it by breeding for it and you can’t buy it with money. It just happens along.”

Although I am a ‘cat person’, I have seen how important and indispensable dogs are to their owners. One thing I love about At Home in Mitford is that scattered throughout the book are many such wise and informative quotations.

I thought I would write to you again this morning about Mitford, just in case you haven’t read it in the past. From my experience 25 years ago of sharing about the book with many of the people I knew, there was no-one that I recommended it to who didn’t truly enjoy it.

Also, at times such as these, I think we could all use a charming, disarming, peace producing read! I am so hopeful that if you do choose to read the Mitford series that you too will be blessed by it in these ways!

Enjoy!

Something else that has helped me tremendously in the past 2 weeks is having a bulb basket in the house. By this I mean a basket of tulip bulbs, crocuses and mini-daffodils. It has been so wonderful to watch them grow and then to flower. This basket has been bringing me the hope of spring, the fragrance of spring and a reminder that even in the depths of winter, hibernation and COVID, all is unfolding as it should, and new life is waiting just around the corner!

Oh man! We are only 10 days into our stay at home order, with 18 days to go. How, oh how, can we avoid falling prey to acedia? In my October 5,2020 post I explained that ‘acedia’ is a term coming from the Greek which means ‘ bored and listless, due to social isolation.’

Yup! That is close to where I am at!

I have the privilege and pleasure of being part of a phone tree for my church. I get to call several church members and inquire after their wellbeing during this COVID time. One of the women, a 90 year old, has been an inspiration to me. She has remained quite contented throughout this 10 months of COVID. She decided at the beginning to reread all the books on her bookshelves, and she has found this to be quite engaging and enjoyable. Her example led me to look at my bookshelves and I too have decided to reread a couple of the series I found there.

One is Jack Higgins’ novels. Jack wrote about 45 novels spanning a 40+ year writing career. They are simple thrillers, and very predictable. The good guys are very likeable and they always win out over the bad guys in the end. For times such as these, I find knowing this will be the outcome to be very reassuring, and I simply abandon myself to enjoying the read.

The other series is the Mitford series, written by Jan Karon. I loved the first book in the series, At Home in Mitford, when it came out in 1994, and I have thoroughly enjoyed each new book in the series since then. It’s time to reread them! They will be bedtime reading for me. They are beautiful and interesting stories about life and human nature in a small town in North Carolina, that I find to be reassuring and engaging too.

I bet if you look on your bookshelves, you will come across a book or a book series that you would enjoying rereading too. This practice is helping me to avoid acedia right now. I hope it will do the same for you!

My minister offered our congregation a beautiful exercise last week. He suggested that we imagine we are sitting across from a loved one- it could be one we are concerned about and even one we are in conflict with. He then suggested saying these words out loud to our loved one, sending each intention out as a prayer:

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you find what you are looking for.

May you find peace and joy.

He went on to suggest that after we complete this part of the exercise, that we go to a mirror and while gazing at our own image, repeat the above phrases to ourselves. Of course, it doesn’t feel natural to look in the mirror and speak aloud to ourselves, so you may feel some resistance inside, but I really encourage you to try it anyway. As I said the phrases aloud to myself, I felt a lovely peace arise inside me. Of course, we try our best to be good to the others around us, so let’s take some time as the new year approaches to be kind and encouraging to ourselves as well!

My aunt sent me an e-greeting card this morning. It was a beautiful old fashioned Christmas scene, with a quotation at the top of it which read, “I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year”. Charles Dickens 1843

Most years I personally might say about Christmas, “I will do my best to complete all the tasks of Christmas and make it through the season with a smile, but be grateful to put my feet up when it’s all over and forget about it until next December.”

This year has been different for me though. Because there have been no Christmas social gatherings, no Christmas concerts, no shopping in crowded malls, Advent has been characterised by an uncommon quiet. I have had more time to take long walks, to write a lot of Christmas cards, and to think about the meaning of this season.

This year, I can relate to Charles Dickens’ words and be intrigued by them. What would it be to honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year? My initial thoughts on this are that I would want to try to stay close to the beautiful elements of the Christmas story as I have experienced them this year. Things like Mary’s trusting acceptance of the angel’s words to her, the shepherd’s excitement about going to see the newborn baby, and the Magi’s ability to stay close to God and follow God’s directions about how to find the baby, and why to go home by another route.

I have just begun my pondering of this quotation and I invite you to join me in wondering about how we can honour Christmas in our hearts and try to keep it all the year that lies ahead of us.

May the lead up to Christmas be slow and sweet and peaceful for you and may you experience many moments of deep contentment. Amen

A friend recommended a Netflix documentary called My Octopus Teacher about the relationship between an octopus and a man. I am normally not a great fan of documentaries, but with an open heart and mind we watched it this evening. I learned so much about octopuses and was amazed to see how they can bond to humans. Our cat was sitting on my lap, also utterly fascinated by what he was seeing on the TV screen!
It was a beautiful, moving, meaningful and calming experience, an antidote for what ails us these days. Enjoy!

Being raised in the Catholic church, I had a lot of exposure to the concept of Advent when I was growing up. Somehow it didn’t really sink in, though, what the significance of Advent really is. This year I have been drawn back to wanting to know more about, and truly celebrate, Advent. I went back and reviewed what the themes of the four Sundays of Advent are. They are Hope, then Peace, then Love, then Joy.

Ahhhh! Thinking of those themes during this year of COVID helps me take in some nice slow, deep, healing breaths. We truly need Hope this December- hope that we will be able to see our friends and family again without worry of causing them to get sick, hope that the vaccine will be safe, effective and provided to us in a timely, equitable manner, hope that we will find a way to come through this winter and stay emotionally stable and physically strong.

I came across a beautiful scripture about hope, found in the Pastoral Visitor’s Handbook of St Patrick’s Parish in Stoneham, Massachusetts. It is a scripture I am going to write on a little card and carry around with me during Advent, because I would love to meditate on it, and then memorize it so I can bring it to mind as needed this winter:

“You are my hope, Lord; my trust, God, from my youth.

On You I depend since birth; from my mother’s womb, you are my strength;

My hope in You never wavers.

Psalm 71: 5-6

My initial thoughts on these verses as I have meditated on them is that though my faith might waver at times, my hope never does. As I write this, I am reminded of Emily’s Dickinson’s words about hope:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.

Dear Lord, please bless us all with Hope this Advent season! Amen

I read a beautiful book this week, beautiful in its simplicity, and impressive in its depth. This book may even turn out to be one of my top 10 all time favourites! It is called The Art of Being a Healing Presence, written by James Miller and Susan Cutshall.

The book talked about what you can do to create an open, soothing atmosphere that facilitates top quality listening. That made sense, and wasn’t a new concept to me, but then they said ‘the most important space you prepare is not around you, but within you’. Ah!! That caused me to sit up and take notice.

“However conscientious you are about creating open, soothing space in the environment around you, it’s even more important to create a similar space inside. When people sense you’ve made room for them within you, they are more likely to open up, to feel freer to be who they are, to claim their own healing potential. If you have prepared space internally for them, they will sense it. And if you have not, they will sense that too.” (pg. 31)

Wow! I had never been told this in any life coaching or expressive arts training. It has been quite an experience for me this week to be conscious of how much open, soothing space exists within me at any given moment, and especially, when I am entering into an encounter with an individual or a group. There was a whole chapter devoted to how to create this inner open, soothing space but here’s one tip : “You may not have the luxury of being able to prepare yourself as you would like. The telephone may ring, the door may open, or your name may be called and suddenly you’re swept into a flow of ongoing requests and needs whether or not you feel ready for them. Remember to breathe evenly. With each inhalation, visualize an area being cleared away within you, little by little.” (pg. 32)

I had read this section of the book one morning, and immediately after that, I received an upsetting email. Right after that, I was to lead a Nia class. I could not deal with the email before class began, so I had the opportunity to try out the idea of visualizing an area being cleared away within me, little by little, one breath at a time. I was able to set the worries that came from the email into an area outside myself, and clear an area inside myself that felt peaceful and calm enough to be able to concentrate on the Zoom screen full of Nia ladies for the next hour.

What an extremely helpful tip! I wanted to share it with you, as well as the book recommendation, in the hopes that you may receive something that will be of help to your life too!