Creatively Organized Spaces
Trusting without hesitation can be both liberating and challenging. How can we invite more trust into our lives? What would it mean to allow yourself to trust without hesitation? This quick exercise is one way to get in touch with your internal sense of trust. It’s like any muscle and the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. So today, or sometime this week, take a few minutes and write…stream of conscious style…what you trust, without hesitation!
“Acceptance is a virtue that doesn’t require any form of doing in the “physical sense” of the word, it’s a chosen way of being.”–The Power of Acceptance
After quite a few years of selecting a word of the year, the process has become more fluid. I use some of the tools I listed at the bottom of this post but I’ve come to discover my word by taking a meandering path, jotting down words that stand out to me and letting them sit with me for some time until my word for the year reveals it’self like a beacon. Over the past two years, I have noticed this is especially true. I have chosen words that are on the periphery, I dance around the edges until I can simplify the feeling that I’m trying to get to the truth of and voila, my word pop’s out to me while reading or talking to others. I write the word down, near all the others and continue to let it sink in. But I usually know it when I discover it, or really…my word discovers me!
There is a lot to be grateful for, despite the difficulties in our personal lives, and globally. Today, as I celebrate with a family of friends, I think of my family in New York, Maryland, Florida, and elsewhere. I am filled with gratitude for my ancestors of this land and lands far beyond the USA, that struggled to create a sense of safety, freedom, and peace, often not for all but just for the privileged few. I count myself as privileged, not by way of earning but just luck!
I am deeply filled with prayer, that we will all see beyond our differences to join one another in all that we share and cherish. I pray that we do not let our differences divide us. I am filled with gratitude for each person I know who chooses to share what’s in their heart, honestly and openly.
Last week I awoke one morning to a baby squirrel outside my bedroom windowsill cackling at something…probably upset or fearful that it’s safe and secret stash was in jeopardy! Do you ever feel like that? Fearful that someone or something is threatening what you feel is precious, dear or even life sustaining.
Have you ever wondered how they can predict what they will need? How do any of us predict our needs, plan and gather for our future? These predictions are usually based on the past, our insecurities, learned behavior and our environment-circumstances.
Some of us lean towards the frugal side, relying on the surety that we will always have what we need and will always be able to provide for ourselves and our families. Others tend to go a little NUTS (punny right?) and collect more than we can use, feeling secure in the thought of excess.
I’m certainly not here to say what’s right or wrong for you or even for myself. It’s important that we each observe these tendencies in ourselves and understand which direction we sway.
Do you tend towards being overly prepared, gathering so much that you feel burdened and weighed down?
Or do you spend more time in pursuit of play and forget to put something away for later?
Ask yourself what you need to do to prepare for the coming days, weeks, months and years of your life…what do you want to put away for later and what can you let go of to lighten your load? Lean into your fear’s and lighten your load, trust that what you have gathered will always be enough…unburden yourself when you feel heavy and something no longer serves you.
We can learn from our friend the squirrel that we can not be playful and weighted down all at the same time. Find a safe place to store what you have gathered, release the rest and get playful with this sense of unburdening!
When I searched for the term “Backsliding: A slippery slope” a lot of websites about Christian faith came up and that surprised me a bit. I’m not here to preach anything to you but I do want to talk about this common pitfall. Whether you are Christian, Buddhist, Jewish or don’t affiliate with any faith, in particular, I think you will still be able to relate to this.
To relapse into bad habits, behavior, or undesirable activities. (via dictionary.com)