A Hospice Chaplain's Field Guide to Caregiving
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RE: renewable caring

For those who show up...however they can for love

…caregiving of yourself and your others …and the world

to be better gardeners of our ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE….

Confused? Worried? Use spiritual vision.

7/17/2020

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Every day we start again.  But what to weed and what to feed?  This COVID-19 world is the pressure cooker du jour but when were we not immersed in it and confused by it? 

(It being life's changes...)

Hey, it's the human journey. But, using our Higher vision (that of the Higher self, our spiritual Self) we can see beyond the appearance of things...It orients us to what DOES NOT CHANGE (the Eternal & evergreen) and gives us clarity.

"The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is.
           – Marcel Proust,
         The Captive 1871-1922

Picture

Shift the story...

How about shifting to some more interesting story?
See with spiritual vision and celebrate the simple blessings right in front of you. If we are aware of what stories we are living, we can use them to grow a better now. But if we are not, they may use us and grow a life that is not ours.

Marcel Proust says that the ONLY fountain of youth is to see with new (other) eyes...to see through the eyes of another.  How much in our world would be harmonized if we did that story? 

The ONLY Fountain of Youth: other eyes

I thought for years that I needed a massive win to feel safe; millions in the bank and I would be okay.  I have tried on a better story, the story of the sweet small steps to progress... I ask what is the next adjacent possible?  (Letting go of the grandiosity that, hey was my mother's story of safety. which I inherited.)

I am happier now seeing with my 'spiritual vision' of faith that it will all work out.  There will be enough.

Use spiritual vision & celebrate blessings.

BEST PRACTICE:
Stop. Take a breath. Set a timer for 2 minutes.  (You can spare that, right?)

Start. Imagine a calm place mentally in your head. Breathe it in. With every breath, start over.  Breathing in the calm of that place ...slowly and supercharging it with gratitude.  Think of what you are grateful for and breathe that in with the calm.  Repeat with each breath. Repeat until the time dings.  Feel better?

Easy.

You have the power.  but what good is it if you don't use it?

Each moment  is a choice…an unfolding…to see deeper and more kindly. Start again.
We are travelers on this journey.

Each moment we are being offered a choice. How do we see the knuckle heads – out there? How do we see our own foibles and knuckeheaded moments? With spiritual vision… we see deeper.

Daily word –
How I choose to see the world determines my experience of it.  ...

When facing challenges, It may be easier to see myself and others through the lens of my inner critic – judgment…But I pause…and breathe deeply and remind myself that I am a traveler on this journey of life and still have much to learn about myself. I refrain from making harsh judgments against my fellow human beings. 

In material ways, attitude is altitude

Not spiritual bypass… I am not suggesting we ignore the feedback from our body and our world.  But that knowing the world is not perfect, it seems to be perfectly made to trigger in us what is yet to be healed or what is the next step on my journey.

"Do we dare to re-remember? To retell and rewrite?

What if we just woke up and translated the old stories into a different language in which we understand that all people act to their level of skill. They do the best they can in the moment—with what they have. Why not reinterpret my stories in the light of my current more-adult understandings? Then my history changes. It sets me up to cascade forward. Who I am changes. There is nothing to forgive. I am free.

…Then I can shift to some more interesting story—or something more worth doing?"

-
No. 20 Live Backwards, Remember Better – A Hospice Chaplain's Field Guide Book to Caregiving- Finding Resilience on the Frontlines of live

Sound meditation helps us get & hold that Higher vision. Get yours here: 30 minutes

•••••••••

ATTRIBUTIONS:
1)    Daily Word – Clarity – Mon 6th July
2)    My book the ending Rule no. 20 …and the most important one…it is the rule my next book will start with.– No. 20- Live Backwards, Remember Better
3)    Quote from Marcel Proust – The Captive.


If you enjoyed this sound meditation – please Subscribe on Youtube.
If you are caregiving, try my monthly email –Taking Care Resilience News signup
If you want to attend the live recording session:   they are WED thru SUNDAY  - link on Unity SF.com Website -

THANK YOUS:
1) My thanks to Mary Oliver for her line from THE SUMMER DAY– "my one wild and precious life"
2) MY thanks to  SF unity for the invitation to practice as my highest self.   I invite you to do that today.  We need your voice.   

Blessings….on your day.


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The HEALING FORMULA

7/14/2020

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Picture

It's KINSHIP: love yourself, your cells, your body, and even your fears… persistently and with focus.

Activate the healing formula for health and peace. This sound meditation is about a TEMPLATE to the creative process … and a FORMULA for healing. How?

“If kinship was our goal, we would no longer be promoting justice, we would be celebrating it.”

             – Fr Greg Boyle

  • Choose wisely to what you give your attention
  • Be patient; seeds need time to germinate and grow
  • Be quietly assured
  • Use love’s gentle strength
  • Stay open- hearted
The ancients speak of the supremacy of love.  When Spirit, whole and complete, looks it looks with the eyes of love. That love is deep at the core of you AND is your most precious resource
“In the beginning Love arose,
Which was the primal germ cell of the mind.” -  The Rigveda

WE ARE BEINGS of LOVE
(There is ONLY Love ...)


WE ARE BEINGS of LOVE says Rev. Paul John Roach.  He reminds us to  look at ourselves with the eyes of love, as beings of love…then Love ACTIVATES US. 

In these times...(in any times) we need that.  Love is a superpower which arises to enliven, to energize and to order our lives…


When I feel I've lost my way,
I let fear and worry fall away from me. I open my eyes and see, there is only love


Written and Performed
by Karen Drucker…

BEST PRACTICE:
Listen to this song.  Let it become a jingle for your day...it is a powerful reminder and changes everything - in the moment.

 lt is a sustaining circle…

"Love creates us and sustains us when we remember who and whose we are… shift your mind from fear to love and germinate that in the fruitful soil of our willingness. "  – Rev. Paul John Roach

Then we return to the truth of our being. … this is a TEMPLATE of the creative process within our own consciousness… and a FORMULA healing. love yourself, your cells, your body, and even your fears… persistently and with focus.

I invite you to activate the healing formula for health and peace and as the process unfolds, people and circumstances will show up…to bless you and remind you that you are on your right path.

Anchor yourself in the knowledge that there is only love. .

SHELTER in GRACE Sound Meditation for Your ONE WILD & PRECIOUS LIFE  is  new series is about renewable caring: caregiving of yourself and your others …and the world to be better gardeners of OUR ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE….


ATTRIBUTIONS:
1) Unity Publication The Heart of Healing – We Are Beings of Love by Rev Paul John Roach
2) Song Karen Drucker – There is Only Love.


•••••••••
  • If you enjoyed this linked sound meditation – please Subscribe on Youtube.
  • If you are caregiving – try my monthly email – Taking Care Resilience News signup
  • If you want to attend the LIVE RECORDING SESSION for SHELTER in GRACE SOUND MEDITATION for your One Wild and Precious Life,  they are WEDNESDAY thru SUNDAY @9:45 Pacific Time - link Sound meditation with Rev. Eleesabeth or go to UnitySF.com Website and search virtual offerings...
  • If you like this offering, please "like" my author page with LINK located on the top right of this page.  It helps FACEBOOK like it too (....heck just SEE it).
•••••••••

THANK YOUS:
1) My thanks to Mary Oliver for her line from THE SUMMER DAY– "my one wild and precious life"
2) MY thanks to  SF unity for the invitation to practice as my highest self. 

I invite you to do that today...
We need your voice...   the world needs your voice.

Blessings….on your day.
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COMPASSION: River of Light

7/12/2020

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Stories of Jesus are about showing compassion by demonstration  awareness of the needs and feelings of others–friends and strangers alike….(and I would add the shadow parts of ourselves which we reject…)

Jesus did not turn away from any social outcasts; he  welcomed them in, healed them, and shared meals with them.  His compassion fed multitudes…it still does.

Those stories can also be about our inner struggles…do you turn away from your shadow social outcasts?  Those part of your that need some help?  That are experiencing illness? Or do you want to slap them into compliance when they need some extra rest.  All your life your body has been waging a campaign of love…and health for you.


"“Ring the bells that still can ring
    Forget your perfect offering
    There is a crack in everything
    That's how the light gets in.
    That's how the light gets in.

    The birds they sang
    at the break of day
    Start again
    I heard them say
    Don't dwell on what
    has passed away
    or what is yet to be.
    
    Ah the wars they will
    be fought again
    The holy dove
    She will be caught again
    bought and sold
    and bought again
    the dove is never free.
     
  – Anthem by Leonard Cohen

A Love Story for All our Orphan Parts...


No. 31- One Story – Human beings are powered by stories – a love story
There is a war.  It is the war we wage each day…Love vs. fear.
 It's the war of caring for ourselves and our loved ones…and the world.

Ah the wars they will
    be fought again
    The holy dove
    She will be caught again
    bought and sold
    and bought again
    the dove is never free."

–Leonard Cohen

“In the trenches the more love I have, the less fear I can hold. Thich Nhat Hanh likens the human heart to an immense river. If we have enough flow of love, little bothers us and little pollutes us. He speaks the most important question, how do we help our hearts to grow in capacity (and flow) like a river?

How do we hold more love & stop the leaks?”

“The birds they sang
    at the break of day
    Start again
    I heard them say
    Don't dwell on what
    has passed away
    or what is yet to be.”


–Leonard Cohen


“I have noticed my own leaks—that comfort for dwelling in the dramatic nuances of my righteous wounding or resentments where I blame others for outcomes. (you know…the ones where I am right and they are wrong.) Yet, when I have enough love and compassion, I can overlook anything. It’s an inner balance. Remember when you were “in love”, did it matter where they left their dirty socks? Or any other nit picky thing?

It’s our human story. Long or short, every human lifetime seems to be just one story. It’s a love story.”

How much love will you welcome into your life today?  Enough to overflow and bless others…how about the world?

Start Again.

Welcome the cracks. Be the light.
Dive into the River
Stay open.


    “Ring the bells that still can ring
    Forget your perfect offering
    There is a crack in everything
    That's how the light gets in.
    That's how the light gets in.”
–Leonard Cohen


Ending Prayer:
May all that you say
and all that you do
be in harmony with thee.
God within me…
God beyond me …
MAKER OF THE TREES.


 - Chinook Liturgy,
a Pacific Northwest Native American Tribe


ATTRIBUTIONS:
1)    Daily Word - Compassion - Aug 2, 2020
2)    Anthem by Leonard Cohen
3)    My book the ending Rule no. 31 …and the most important one…it is the rule my next book will start with.– No. 31- One Story – Human beings are powered by stories – a love story- The Hospice Chaplain's Field Guide to Caregiving–Finding Resilience on the Front Lines of Love.


•••••••••
  • If you enjoyed this linked sound meditation – please Subscribe on Youtube.
  • If you are caregiving – try my monthly email – Taking Care Resilience News signup
  • If you want to attend the LIVE RECORDING SESSION for SHELTER in GRACE SOUND MEDITATION for your One Wild and Precious Life,  they are WEDNESDAY thru SUNDAY @9:45 Pacific Time - link Sound meditation with Rev. Eleesabeth or go to UnitySF.com Website and search virtual offerings...
THANK YOU:
1) My thanks to Mary Oliver for her line from THE SUMMER DAY– "my one wild and precious life"
2) MY thanks to  SF unity for the invitation to practice as my highest self.   I invite you to do that today.  We need your voice.   

Blessings….on your day.


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FAITH: PLACE your BETS

7/11/2020

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We all have uncertainty in our pandemic ridden world…in my personal world …where I am employed… things are changing with my several hospices.

Oddly they seem to all be changing at the same time. It is triggering me, what I was thinking was diversified risk spread over many sources of income was secure…right?

Life is AGAIN asking me to touch my story of fear…Mine is called “not enough” and it seems to be woven into my DNA… but it is not. 



“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for
And the conviction of things unseen.”

“The most important question anyone can ask… says Einstein (probably)
the answer will either contract your life in fear or open you up with options:
“Is the Universe a friendly place?’”  

Joyous wager…
An inherent believe in the goodness of the unseen is a bet worth placing. 
– No. 27

My DNA is well made & divinely inspired but...


My DNA is well made and divinely inspired... I have the whole of the Kingdom of God inside me…
God is in me not like a raisin is in a bun…God is in me like an ocean is in a wave.
                                    –Eric Butterworth

Not enough…This is a STORY…I am NOT this story.  But it is a  reoccurring story in my upbringing – in all human beings really…will I be ok?  Will I have enough?  Who do I trust to help me?

For me today the question is more about surrender.  I can’t reason with this story.  I don’t know how to fix this…so I will rely faith and bet on a friendly universe. Faith is not about understanding...it is about trust.


    “Trust the steady, simple thing over the complex, clever thing. Bet on the good in people.”             – Seth Godin

COVID-19 is the pressure cooker du Jour

I surrender all this noise in my head… to a friendly universe.

I have noticed that life is simply this practice. This is the spiritual journey to peace. I have seen over and over how in my life and those I support as a hospice and bereavement chaplain how life seems perfectly created – moment to moment – to trigger what is yet to be healed in us…in me

We are being changed…COVID-19 is the pressure cooker du Jour…it brings things up that need to be healed.  Racism, Sexism Ageism…

“The most important question anyone can ask is ‘Is the Universe a friendly place?’”  – Albert Einstein

Here is the remedy…it’s simple and steady and powerful.

The answer will either contract your life in fear or open you up with options.

Here is the remedy…it’s simple and steady and powerful.

Bet on Einstein’s  friendly Universe.  Gamble on that which will propel you forward. Make an investment. Have some faith.

Bet on the good in people…even if they don’t share their politics or religion or taste in clothes. 

Right now, some new opportunity is growing in the dark- in the good dirt of my life… your lives. Perhaps it has been waiting for us to notice and nurture it for a long time

ATTRIBUTIONS:


1)    Seth Godin – a metaphysical marketer and blogger
2)    The bible – Hebrews 11:1
3)    Einstein – probably said it…
4)    My book Rule no. 27 Joyous Wager.

    I Got Kin
Plant.     So that your own heart. Will grow
Love, so God will think, aHHHH, I got kin in that body! …
Sing.   Because this is a food. Our starving world Needs. Laugh    Because that is the purest Sound.    
       – by Hafiz – 13th century Sufi poet


  • If you enjoyed this linked sound meditation – please Subscribe on Youtube.
  • If you are caregiving – try my monthly email – Taking Care Resilience News signup
  • If you want to attend the LIVE RECORDING SESSION for SHELTER in GRACE SOUND MEDITATION for your One Wild and Precious Life,  they are WEDNESDAY thru SUNDAY @9:45 Pacific Time - link Sound meditation with Rev. Eleesabeth or go to UnitySF.com Website and search virtual offerings...

THANK YOUS
My thanks to Mary Oliver for her  line from THE SUMMER DAY. – my one wild and Precious Life.


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The Health Stumble...and Dance

7/10/2020

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EM Claire’s poem talks about stumbles…and grace in the stumbles…i.e.the benefits of a friendly Universe.

This is a simple lesson…but deep. It’s not a LESSON for beginners.

To hear the lesson in a stumble...or even just to  be willing to hear that the seeming failure or illness not about them…i.e. the judgment from them…of the others…from the world.  It’s about something deeper inside... me.

If we are spiritual beings having a human experience – as Telehard de Chardain says, it means we are whole already…as spiritual beings…but in our humanness we experience disturbances… Illness pain and suffering..


The Best Dancers

“Maybe God keeps me here like this
To stumble a little.
If I were to suddenly just turn into light,
Blinding even myself
To the most precious and necessary illusions

Then what hand could hold my own?
Where would rest a weary head?
What good use for warm hearts:
For hot tears?
Why eyes to see?
Why arms to open?
Which lovefamily to fall into?

Oh, only the best dancers know
What grace
Every stumble
Contains."    – EM CLAIRE


"We are spiritual beings having a human experience." – as Telehard de Chardain


Caregiving: Spiritual Maintenance

The ocean between these two: the spiritual body and the human body is about caregiving of yourself and your loved ones: spiritual maintenance.

Undeniably pain is part of this human journey…but is suffering?

We DO NOT suffer when we speak the story of unconditional love in a friendly universe. When we embody that love story we are vibrantly healthy. But it's easy to forget.  We forget whose and who we are in our fearful wanderings

Getting back to wholeness and health?

It’s a journey in which the whole of the human race accompanies us; we have KINSHIP here – Radical Kinship…(a term by Fr. Greg Boyle and subject of the meditation yesterday by same name)
Caring: self-care and caregiving, is OUR collective and individual healing journey:the ocean between the spiritual body and the human body is caregiving of yourself and your loved ones…

Caregiving is spiritual maintenance and it begins with two things.

Be WILLING
We become willing to hear the disturbances… to hear the lesson…or even just be willing to hear the disturbing story we are telling ourself… under our longings; under the chronic, and the painful.  

    ◆    What disturbs you?
    ◆    What story is coming up?

TELL A BETTER STORY…a LOVE Story
We need to remind ourselves to tell a better story…
•    The truer story of what does not change.  
•    The Eternal story of an unconditional, accepting  love that heals.

We start with knowing that we are not any of the stories we tell – but there are helpful ones and damaging ones, to be sure.
We are spiritual beings with the whole of the kingdom of God inside us.  We are, as Rev. Eric Butterworth says,  “God is inside us …not like a raisin is in a bun but like an ocean is in a wave.”

How do we get back to wholeness and health?
We become willing to speak the story of unconditional love…persistently and unceasingly.  This love is deep at the core of me AND is our most precious NATURAL resource for our lives and a kinder,  just world. We stay open.
Let go of your negative judgments of  yourself, your cells, your body, and even your fears…
Replace them with Love story.

I Got Kin  by Hafiz

Plant.     So that your own heart. Will grow

Love, so God will think, aHHHH, I got kin in that body! I should start inviting that soul over for coffee and rolls.”

Sing.   Because this is a food. Our starving world. Needs.

Laugh      Because that is the purest Sound.   



WHAT IS your AFFIRMATION on your stumbles for love today?

What do you affirm for your one wild and precious life today?

What’s in the way of kinship with yourself?

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Originally prepared for 100 th session of SHELTER in GRACE – a Sound meditation for your ONE WILD & PRECIOUS LIFE July 10th, 2020

The NEW by line is attributed to Mary Oliver in her most well known line from THE SUMMER DAY.

ATTRIBUTIONS:
1)    The best dancers by EM Claire – Silent Sacred Holy Deepening Heart
2)    Hafiz I got Kin – the GIFT – translation Daniel Ladinsky

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
  • If you enjoyed this linked sound meditation – please Subscribe on Youtube.
  • If you are caregiving – try my monthly email – Taking Care Resilience News signup
  • If you want to attend the LIVE RECORDING SESSION for SHELTER in GRACE SOUND MEDITATION for your One Wild and Precious Life,  they are WEDNESDAY thru SUNDAY @9:45 Pacific Time - link Sound meditation with Rev. Eleesabeth or go to UnitySF.com Website and search virtual offerings...

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Practice created for you has now become my practice...

4/11/2020

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I NO PLAN  to do a sound meditation each morning...  
I was asked to do it by my Unity San Francisco community because I did one in person each Sunday morning.  But honestly, the first twenty days of my Zoom Sound Meditations,  I was working it out and my community were guinea pigs.

Read More
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Netflix Bingeing, Rest, & the Journey...

1/10/2020

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Picture
Restoratative?
I admit that I may have a problem...I love my life and what I do but... sometimes my need for distraction gets a little alarming. Police procedurals work well. I like the ones, which are not too bloody, and generally where they get the bad guy (or girl) within the 45 minute format. I am not above "Cozy Mysteries" in the English genre traditions, too. Science fiction is also a good fit for me as I like science and new, interesting ways of thinking about humanity and our collective learning edges.  All these shows reinforce my idea of a hopeful but, indeed, changing world; they also relax my mind, a bit, and take me out of other people's stories, of which I hear quite a lot. 

They are also a form of rest. Restorative activities, ones that we can take in, are very important to find and employ.  Right? Maybe digital detox can work in reverse. It eases the stories out of our heads and programs us with new stories...this can be good, as long as we are discerning in our choices, right?


But what is too much? Two shows? Four shows? Six in a row?
Let's set aside the addictive way each new show on Netflix (and other streaming services) rarely end on a satisfying note. They create a skillful climactic up tick that hooks and funnels you into the next episode (STARTING IN 3 SECONDS...).  HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

More Qualitative than Quantitative: meditation as discernment
The real question that is up for me is: What is underneath my need for distraction?
The answer could be very different on different bingeing...days. Maybe it is boredom?  Or fatigue? My own lack of imagination? Maybe it is fear?

This is why I must meditate each day....to be awake to what I am doing and how I am using my time...because none of us have all the time in the world. 

Here is another question that came to me from my spiritual director because she knows my need to strive.  (I can't help it; efforting is part of my inbred prairie constitution
.) Here it is.  See if it changes your life, like it is changing mine.


                 What is the highest return on my soul's mission... &               
                  (wait for it...) EASIEST for me to do?
- Rev. Dr. Megan Wagner

Maybe the distraction is generative? Or perhaps, it is bridging me to some insight.

Maybe it is play.
Play Daily is a rule of mine. Play is part of the journey...actually maybe it IS the journey. What if, (and this is another question from that same wise woman...) it was of the UPMOST importance to the Universe, (to the Holy, to the Almighty, to the Holy One of Many Names,) that we are in play and joy? 

What if that was the ultimate use?  It is an important question, right up there with how much MORE can I do? More. More. More, which leads to the idea that we don't have enough ...or are not enough just as we are.

It is good marketing, of course, for product sales but not fodder for the good life. Gratitude is fodder for a good life. It is a superpower.

My Playtime: Did I mention that I am recording an audible book?

(I am also binge watching a Canadian Sci Fi series called The Travelers, which is a kinder and gentler bodysnatchers who are trying to save the world in 3 seasons. It is thoughtful...and a lot of fun.)

Have fun today... that is our job, too.



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Daily Habits to Make You Sustainable

12/11/2019

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PictureA neighbor gave me this reminder of how the small...can be so very bright.
I learn my own critical lessons at my patient's bedside each day (which I already knew...but  apparently keep forgetting). 

Life reminds me as watch over them. I find this curious. Frankly, it both sucks and is lovely in equal measure. And it's, for sure, humbling.

As a hospice and bereavement chaplain, I  support people who are near the end of their term here...and those who are reconciling their lives after the loss of a dear one.  The edge of life and death, reminds me about how to keep my own life, well-lived by those very small and powerful habitual methods...each day.                 

Practicing the small powers...
I am seeing the power of dailiness in beneficial habits and rituals. Those little daily tasks that are almost automatic for us can be grand boosts to our lives taken on the whole.  What do I practice daily?

In my life, I have more commonly used grand efforts, all-in ventures, and dramatic grabs at the success ring du jour. For example, my body's illusionary capacity for long hours and hard work is one, and my wilfulness in forcing and pushing things and people (ahem...usually politely) along on my prescribed path to the promised land of Secretariat-like wins.

What I practice accumulates and compounds rewards. My personality is quite a bit more artistic than methodical, so this revelation does not come naturally to me. By 'methods', I mean that I/we/you do NOT have to be original in everything, but the benefits of PRACTICING the proven and even ancient paths reap for us exponentially.  I can, effectively, renew me, and not get depleted in the first place.
Focusing on my own sustainability, and modeling self-care-as-a-circle for others, I need to be wiser...and more methodical in the dailiness of my own life. 
The even better news is these small ancient methods are at hand. They are both always available and simple. 

Breath and death is mother to us all. Right?

Modeling self-care-as-a-circle
Your breath is your first task, which it was the moment you were born. It was, literally, the first thing you ever did. It will also be all our last tasks on this Earth - pretty much by definition. But do we think about the quality and power of it, daily? A Good life in our /this middle passage depends on it.

Breathe like a Diva is our first method of power.  This is, of course, not new information... The other usual suspects are here:
  • Self care - (ahem...is not selfish)
  • Self Inquiry - (A life unexamined life Is not worth living." Socrates)
  • Service to others - There are so many thing that need doing, which actually heal me/ us in doing them.
  • Self expression - "It is of upmost importance to the Universe that we be in play and joy.  It is the ultimate use." - Dr. Megan Wagner,
Meditation, journaling, volunteering, exercising, yoga, resting and ...play daily are the medicine and the antidotes for the speed and stressors of our modern world.  These methods taken daily bring us back to our own center and from this place we can see again our best life from the opportunities right in front of us.

But I propose a re-framing here... 
I suggest some more inspired 'habit' categories, which might help us/me think about them more creatively... yet still in methodical ways.  How about these?
  • Sacred Play - What thought stream or activity transfixes you so you delightfully that you lose track of time?  Be curious about that. What is nudging you ? What is patiently waiting to be (re) discovered.
  • Spiritual Mischief - Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty... make the world anew.
  • Embodied Joy - Walk around in nature's beauty. Pray. Dance. Massage anyone?
These categories are my new inspiration. Of course, I have known their power and how to be / do them even when I was a kid.  I did know this, too, as a young person but I have drifted away from me, in my work-a-holic grasping.

The good news is this innate wisdom is at hand.  It may seem to drift away but it only settles in deeper.  It is waiting for me/you/us, patiently in our dark, as we drop down to our heart centers or (in a more Judeo-Christian framework... to our kingdom of god within).  How we fill up these categories will light up our lives - daily.  Do that. (Paraphrased from Howard Thurman...).  Make it your method, your new small habit. No time?  Do it for 5 minutes. See where it takes you. This spark will light you up. It will breathe life back into all the days we have... 

Heart, tell them what you came for
Heart, tell them what you came for
Heart, tell them what you've been daydreamin' about
                                         - James Blake, Tell Them

Care to share your categories, methods or daily habits that inspire and renew you?  We need your spark and voice because sparks begat sparks...

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    EM Hager
    Author,
    Hospice chaplain,
    Bereavement counselor & Sound meditation guide.


    "Look deeply into nature and you will understand everything human" – Albert Einstein

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