Hello there everyone! Wow, we have made it to another December 31! How has your year been? Full of challenge after challenge, characterized by peace and stability, or somewhere in between?

I was searching for a new daily devotional guide for 2024, and came upon one that caught my eye. It was written by Donna K Maltese and is entitled Worry Less, Pray More. For me, that sounded like a excellent theme for the coming year!

One of the first readings seemed to be a good one for a New Year’s Eve Day. Donna quotes Warren Wiersbe, who wrote, “ We’re prone to want God to change our circumstances, but He wants to change our character. We think peace comes from the outside in, but it comes from the inside out.”

Donna then says, “No matter what your circumstances, don’t let your fears and anxieties get the best of you. Keep your faith and your peace.” The Scripture passage for today was the one where three men were thrown into a fiery furnace because they refused to worship idols. They were unharmed by the fire and when the King looked down into the furnace, a fourth being was in there with them. This caused the King to remove the men from the fire and require his nation to worship the same God that the three men served. Donna comments that although there may be situations where we have to walk through fire, we can count on God to be by our side as we do so. What a hopeful reminder!

Happy New Year!

Love, Sue

Have you ever had a year in which something happened which felt like the worst thing imaginable, followed by something which felt like the best thing ever?

I had a year like that in 1984. I was expecting my first child. My due date was March 8. My sister was due on February 4. These would be my beloved Nana’s first two great grandchildren. I couldn’t have been more excited. As my due date approached and my anticipation was building, disaster struck. My Nana died, suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack, on March 6th. Her funeral was set for March 8th and I was determined to go, even though the funeral was to be held a 3 hour drive away. We were all set to leave, when a show stopper happened. My water broke, so instead of driving to the funeral, we drove to the hospital. A few hours later, Martha was born! To say my feelings were mixed would be an understatement of huge proportions.

This year, 2023, was kind of like that for me. I lost a dear friend, suddenly and unexpectedly, to a heart attack which occurred on Father’s Day. His family and friends were devastated. But then, in the fall, I self published and released my fifth book, Fully Connected. I wrote to you about the experience of ‘giving birth’ to this new baby. The worst of times, then the best of times. These types of years are such an emotional roller coaster.

I bring this up to remind you of a resource I first blogged about on January 1, 2023. It’s called the Year Compass. It is a free resource available for you to download at www.yearcompass.com. I was looking for a way to process the events of this year, and I remembered how interesting and inspirational it was to move through the Year Compass procedure last year. I decided to do it early this year, and again, I found it be a meaningful and helpful experience. It’s a great process to help us review one year, then plan for the next one, perhaps especially when it’s been a very up and down year in your life. I highly recommend it!

Hello to everyone! I hope your preparations for Christmas are going well. In the past few years, I have been following Hannah Braime’s Advent calendar of journaling prompts. I find this to be really satisfying and fulfilling. December 1-12, she offers journaling prompts that help us to evaluate the year that has just passed. On December 13 she invites us to write a haiku that represents the last 12 months for us. Again this year, I found that one arose very easily for me. This year, I want to share it with you:

A precious friend died.

I wrestled an old gremlin.

My new book was born!

I was surprised at how a whole year could be summarized in 3 lines- one of 5 syllables, the second of 7 syllables, and the third of 5 syllables. If you feel so inclined, I invite you to enter into the same process with me and see what arises for you!

Hello again,

An eagle-eyed reader caught an error in my June 10th blog entry which was entitled A Lovely Mindfulness Resource.

The website I mentioned was written incorrectly. It should be www.juneandlucy.com

Also the full title of the Mindfulness journal I referenced was Going from Mind Full to Mindful. To locate this mindfulness journal on Amazon.ca you have to enter the whole name, along with the words ‘June and Lucy’.

Thank you Lori for noticing these errors and for taking the time to bring them to my attention.

I am still using this mindfulness journal and really appreciating its layout!

All the best to everyone,

Sue

Hello there all you lovely folks!

I have been away from writing this blog for a long time again, but for a good reason! I spent the summer and fall writing very diligently, and then editing, my new book, Fully Connected: How to Live With More Contentment and Freedom. Sheri and I self-published the book on October 21,2023! It is now up and available on Amazon!

I ordered some author’s copies, and they arrived yesterday. I went to pick them up at the post office and as I walked away, bearing a large box of books, with a huge, joyful smile on my face, an elderly gentleman stopped me and said, “Wow! You look as though it is already Christmas morning.” And for me, it truly was!

There is no feeling as sweet as to hold for the first time a book I have lovingly written. For me, it feels pretty much the same as I felt when each of my daughters were born. In the case of writing a book, or growing a baby, for months I worked hard to provide what was needed for the growth and development of the healthiest book/baby I could. Then there was the labour and delivery part- in the case of a book, submitting to weeks of painstaking editing until I was as sure as I could be that the punctuation was correct and the typos were minimal. (There is always one I missed!)

As I stood at the post office and looked at my new book I felt tremendous pride in myself, for sticking with the process and for doing the absolute best I could to write a book which I hope will be helpful to many.

I wanted to let you all know of this happy moment in my life!

All the best to each of you as we enter the cold, dark time of the year. Advent is coming! May you winter well, and I look forward to sharing with you again soon.

Good morning! Spring has arrived, and now it is almost summer! This week, I had the privilege of hosting my first in person personal growth workshop since March 2020! How wonderful it was to again see beloved faces sitting right in front of me, rather than on a Zoom screen!

A couple of weeks ago I came across a lovely resource. It’s a little mindfulness journal called From Mind full to Mindful. It is just the right size to fit easily into a purse or a book bag. It’s designed to be used daily. Each 2-page layout provides space to do several mindfulness practices, and they can all be accomplished within, say, 15 minutes. There is space to briefly write about what you are feeling grateful for and how you are feeling, do a sensory check, journal for about 3-5 minutes, and a spot to record which meditation/deep breathing practice you did and how you felt before and afterwards. I find myself looking forward each morning to using my little journal, after I have a cup of coffee!

The journal is produced by June and Lucy. Their website is www.junelucy.com. I did first see the journal on Amazon.

With all that’s going on in our world today, I am finding that learning to inhabit the moment is becoming more and more a necessary spiritual and psychological practice for me.In the past, before discovering mindfulness, I would have caught myself worrying about things, and would ameliorate that by turning to prayer, reminding myself to ‘be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication to make my requests known unto God.’ And indeed, ‘the peace that passeth understanding’ would be mine.

I have found that mindfulness, for me, is a practice which also eases anxiety and worry, but it works in a different way than prayer does. As I do practices like in June and Lucy’s journal, they bring me back to the realization that in this moment, usually, everything is actually okay, and maybe even wonderful, if I am smelling lilacs and eating chocolate chip cookies at the time! There are several quotes scattered through June and Lucy’s journal. One I really love is: “ Don’t try to calm the storm. The storm will pass. Focus on calming yourself.” For me, the combination of mindfulness practices and prayer works very well to ease feelings of worry and anxiety in the moment.

Of course, there are many very troubling things going on in our world, and we will feel called to get involved, offering our time, money, and prayers for many of them, hoping to be part of the solution. Yet, in the moment, we also need personal practices we can do to bring us back to a place of inner peace and calmness. I highly recommend the combination of prayer, and June and Lucy’s Mind full to Mindful journal!

This morning I realized that it has been almost three years since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. Do you remember where you were when you got the news? I was sitting with a life coaching client in my beautiful expressive arts studio in Peterborough. I remember telling her that I didn’t think we would be meeting in person again for quite some time. Oh my goodness, did that ever turn out to be true! I hung on to my beautiful space, for which I had so many lovely plans, until June 2022, when I realized that paying that much rent for a space that I hadn’t been able to use for over two years no longer made any sense.

I began to journal this morning about what has happened in the past three years in my life. I realized, with a start, that actually, many good things have happened. I learned how Zoom works! And I created and offered many personal growth workshops via Zoom. I was able to offer these workshops to people in England, USA and Canada, all at the same time!

I wrote and self-published another book, and I am writing its sequel now.

I made two new, close friends, one in USA and one in Canada, while taking courses on Zoom.

I met a medical student and began to mentor her, all of which has happened online and would likely not have happened, had there not been a pandemic.

I built a she-shed!

Although the pandemic has been devastating in so many ways, for so many people, I discovered this morning, upon reflection, that actually, many good things have also happened during this time.

How do you feel about the past three years? Did you experience any surprisingly good things, in your life, even in the midst of the isolation, devastation, and sorrow of the pandemic?

Sending you love this day, as we anticipate, once again, the arrival of spring!

Sue

Hello to everyone and Happy New Year!

I have the distinct feeling that 2023 is going to be a good year!

I received an email from a friend a couple of days ago, sharing a link to a process that allows one to review the year that has passed and dream and prepare for the year ahead.

I began the process this morning, have finished the review of 2022, and am taking a break before I start the dreaming and planning process for 2023. I wanted to let you all know about the existence of this brilliantly simple booklet that you can download and use this day, or this week, to go through this process too, if it should appeal to you.

Go to www.yearcompass.com and you will find the booklet easily available to print at no charge.

All the best for your 2023!

love, Sue

Hello there!

I hope your preparations for Christmas are coming along well. I am still enjoying writing in response to Hannah Braime’s Advent Calendar prompts. She gave us a really good one today that lifted me up and out of the many little tasks related to Christmas that need doing today into the big picture perspective, which, I admit, is my favourite place to be!

In case you find yourself wanting to leave the tasks of today behind for awhile, here is the December 17 prompt:

Imagine you are reading this one year from now (December 17, 2023)

-Where are you?

-What are some of the highlights from the past 12 months?

-What is different, and what is the same?

-What do you feel most proud of from the year just gone by?

Enjoy!!!

Hi to all! I hope your December has been going well so far. Today the sun is sparkling on fresh snow outside my window, bringing me a lot of joy!

I have been following Hannah Braime’s Advent Calendar of writing prompts again this year. I have been enjoying writing in response to her prompts about the year that has passed, and tomorrow we will begin to write about hopes and dreams for the year ahead. Today, at the midpoint of her writing invitations, she offered a really fascinating one:

“ Create a haiku that represents the last 12 months for you.”

Oh boy, I really wanted to do that, and a haiku arose very quickly! For me, it really summarized the year well. Although from December 1-12 I had written quite a few pages in my journal about 2022, the 3 lines of the haiku captured the essence of it the best.

I want to hasten to add that I didn’t end up following the formula for a haiku exactly, and yet the number of syllables in each line seemed to be just perfect for today.

This lovely experience had me want to write to you today to tell you of this haiku invitation. If you give it a try, I think you will be amazed at what arises!