Tag Archives: inspiration

Learning to Rest

Recently, I took a 30-day hiatus from Blogging to give my words a rest. That’s what I’m learning about and it’s spilling over into other areas of my life. I’m even reading books about rest because I’ve never been good at it, but want to be.

Rest doesn’t mean napping the day away, but I used to think rest resembled a midday nap. Just like in this previous post, rest for me is not filling all the flower beds this Spring because that choice will bite hard come August. I should be working right now, but my list of tasks are light, so I took the morning off to move mindfully through my day and that feels restful.

I used to clean my house on Sunday afternoons to get it done before the work week, but that stopped. I’ve decided to use Sunday for what it was created for instead. I spent Sunday catching up with friends, sitting in nature, reading through my stack of books and cooked one more delectable dinner. This notion of rest began last December, but I am putting it to practice this year.

In December I read through a years worth of morning pages and a couple of journals, but there was one common theme written throughout. It read, “I am tired, today.” I don’t want to read that anywhere this December.

I’m finding that rest doesn’t mean do nothing, but to be very still in every action and listen to the heart. Rest is a close cousin to peace and there’s no better feeling, besides love, than harnessing continual peace while learning to rest.

I’ll happily read this to you here:

Feature Photo by Derek Liang on Unsplash

Handle With Care

I won my bet with Gary over the wreath from the post, Don’t Rush the Seasons. He said the wreath would make it’s debut by February 14th, but we’re nearing the end of March and it’s still not on the front door.

The wreath is more fragile than I anticipated. Reading the fine print on the box I learned it’s made from curled pieces of paper and is designed for indoor/outdoor use. It can hang outside in a covered area protected from the elements, but I’m not sure my front door qualifies as protected. It won’t do well in full sun, which living in Texas I have yet to see anything that does well with that.

It bothered me leaving it in it’s box, so over the weekend I unboxed the wreath and hung it on my bedroom door. It fancied up the entrance to my sacred space.

I’m not used to it there, so when walking by the door, my shoulder brushes against it. Then I noticed little pieces of paper on the floor and realized how fragile the wreath really is. If it can’t handle a little brush of the shoulder, how’s it going to hold up being outside in the elements? There’s a floral spray I can purchase to give it a protective coating to toughen it up for outside, but is that a solution?

I’m happy it’s out of the box and love seeing it on my bedroom door, but similarly to the flowerbeds in my previous post my front door remains wreathless for now. It shows me how fragile life is and if we took the time to read the fine print of life itself, I imagine much like this wreath it would say, handle with care.

Take Care of Less

My daughter moving out last year has changed every aspect of my life. Being perpetually single I realized there’s no one to take care of for the first time in my life except me. It’s not a negative by any means, but it’s different.

I heard the sound of the big truck pull into the neighborhood and park nearby. Within minutes you hear the purr of the riding mower in my neighbors front yard and I know that my yard is next. I don’t have much grass and it’s mostly weeds, but even weeds need to be mowed in Spring. I used to enjoy mowing my yard myself, but my neighbor, Hercules, and I found a guy who’ll mow it whenever needed for $25. That is an immediate yes.

The next morning I stepped outside with a cup of tea and sat down to gaze at the freshly mowed yard. It was early, so the air was cool and crisp, but I was still wearing my fluffy robe and pajamas as I surveyed the flowerless flowerbeds. I haven’t planted anything yet and not sure I will. Over the years this yard has consumed hours of my life with watering overflowing flowerbeds by my design, but they look quiet and peaceful while empty.

Maybe instead of me taking care of the yard, the yard wants to care for me by offering the option to take care of less.

Feature Photo by Diana Schröder-Bode on Unsplash

My Story

I was ready to curl up in a purple chair and sit a cup of tea in front of me on the book table. That’s my name for the coffee table because it holds more books than coffee. It was the end of the day as I prepared to step away from work when I noticed a notebook laying under some papers and pulled it from the stack taking it with me to the chair.

It’s one of my favored notebooks in which I began filling up the pages in March 2019. As I sat flipping through the pages, it was like reading parts of the story that brought me to today. Some pages pulled at my heartstrings a bit and I couldn’t help but imagine how different my life would be if I hadn’t made some of the tough decisions written on those pages. Then I recalled these words from a song…

My story, Your glory

My pain, Your purpose

Those words are from a song by Matthew West.

This morning, I heard this song and believe it’s played everyday for weeks now and it comforts me knowing what I may see as a mess, God can use as a message. At the beginning of this song Matthew says to God, “My favorite part is where you show up.”

God showing up is the best part of my story.

My Story by Matthew West

The Longer You Wait

I believe it began with an early purchase of the wreath for the front door. I knew I’d need to wait until Winter passed to hang it, much to Gary’s sadness, but holding firm to my first week of March debut has been a challenge. I think about hanging it everyday, but there’s a sweet spot to be found in the waiting.

The same with flowers. The garden centers are open and brimming with the first round of seasonal beauties, but I’ve resisted walking into one. My self discipline with flowers is minimal, so it’s best to stay away because here’s what I learned about doing things early. The earlier you do them, the longer the upkeep.

By late February, of 2021, my flowers beds were filled with flowering inpatients and I was instructed to water them every other day for weeks to establish their roots. By mid March they began to grow and by June they were absolutely stunning to see. July and August are the hottest months in Texas and inpatients take a lot of water, so, here’s Barb, hose in hand watering every flower bed at least 3 times a week in 100 degree temps. I don’t want to do that again.

June 2021

Last Winter, I brought two of my favorite flowering plants indoors to stay warm and rest. They went dormant, but now are exhibiting signs of new growth, so I’m easing them back outside. I’m perfectly content with those plants and am looking forward to the day they bloom, but in the meantime I’ll wait to see what my heart says about this yard. Possibilities arise in abundance the longer you wait.

Relax and allow me to read this to you:

Chocolate and Hummus

My daughter is visiting Wednesday and by the time this is published that day will be here. It’s Tuesday morning, but not yet daylight as I sit and type. I woke up thinking about the pile of drafts on this site waiting for the light of day.

Sitting here at 6:30 a.m. it seems the drafts and I have similar interests…to see the light of day. The drafts are mainly titles and some have the makings of a blogpost already written on the page, but this one was merely a title. It was written last April and saved to drafts when my daughter still lived here. Chocolate and hummus were two things we kept readily available in this house.

They weren’t always there, but if not, they were easily accessible. A quick drive to the market would manifest chocolate and hummus into our home which made that day better in some way. My daughter’s happiness moment was a fresh container of hummus with Naan and mine was having some form of chocolate to snack on. Stepping into the kitchen I see the glass jar of chocolate almost empty and the hummus sitting in the fridge is about a week old and half eaten.

Seeing this title almost one year later I can surmise chocolate and hummus lost their footing in my solo life, but they were a mainstay in our life together. These two things brought comfort in knowing they were there and I wonder if she’ll look for them today? Taking a sweeping glance around the house it looks like a single woman/writer lives here with way too many books, but I hope it forever feels like home…with or without chocolate and hummus.

A Sacred Space

You must have a room, or a certain hour of the day, or so where you do not know what is in the morning paper. A place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are, and what you might be. At first, you may find nothing’s happening, but if you have a sacred place and use it, something will happen.

Joseph Campbell

Over the past year I’ve taken my meditation practice more seriously and it’s possibly one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. The feature photo for this post is often used in my work with Zen Habits and from the first moment I laid eyes on it, I knew I wanted a part of my life to resemble that photo. It’s an accurate assessment to say, this photo planted a seed.

To make this photo a reality in my life, it was necessary to create space for it to arrive. I tried various areas in my home and even meditated outdoors when the weather cooperated, but couldn’t find THE right space until I looked toward the ultimate sacred space, which is my bedroom. It made sense to use a space already considered sacred, just on a smaller, more intimate scale.

It was important to see if I was serious about this practice before investing any money in it, or if it proved to be more difficult than imagined and wasn’t for me, so for a while I sat on a large floor pillow type cushion that I already owned. Within a few weeks, I truly enjoyed meditating and began seeing the well-being benefits of it such as, increased focus, clarity of mind and a prolonged feeling of calm. Taking time to meditate I began to see it spill over into my everyday which picked up a flow by offering serenity within the productivity.

I researched meditation cushions and even purchased a couple, but sent them back to the store. It’s so important for your bum to be comfortable, especially during prolonged periods of meditation. The cushion should feel supportive by keeping your back straight and your bum cradled. Crushed buckwheat hulls are recommended as the filler for adequate comfort and durability.

Mindful Zafu Cushion by Pure Chakra

The rug and floor pillar are by World Market and the 5′ floor pillar emanates a warm glow during overcast days. What’s used as a small, wood table is an old foot stool from a local Antique Shoppe. Palo Santo is lit to clear the air of this sacred space before meditating. The small dish you see is actually one of my pottery pieces from the class I took last year that you can read about here.

May the seeds in your heart lift and guide you into a sacred space.

Relax while I read this to you.

Feature Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash

The Classroom of Life

I correspond through letters with several WordPress writers. The first time Dawn, at Aging With Grace mailed me a letter I was intrigued by her return address stamp on the face of the envelope. It’s round and I hadn’t seen anything quite like it before. She sent me the link to where she purchased it, but I didn’t want to order one just like hers, even though there was something about it that sparked my heart. Whenever I scribbled my return address on the corner of the envelope, I knew there had to be a prettier way!

Last November, I saw some Christmas cards on Etsy that were beautiful in their simplicity. I ordered a few and they did not disappoint. I had forgotten the art of embossing until seeing these cards and remembered how I used to love going to the bank to get something notarized just to watch them use the embosser! (I know, it doesn’t take much) After some Googling I found a company that makes an embosser to reflect return addresses and my heart squealed!

Dreams by the River

After weeks of waiting and the delivery being rescheduled several times, the embosser arrives, but Barb is not happy with it. The words are spelled out in all caps and I was careful to choose a font that wasn’t all caps. I went ahead and used it on some envelopes and mailed the letters, but it bothered me to no end. Plus, the word, ‘Street’ had been abbreviated to, ‘ST’ while there was ample space to spell it out. I sent a Marco Polo to the Marvelous Mrs. M and whined about my disappointment with the embosser.

I shared with her about it being a custom order it cannot be returned, but she encouraged me to call the company to see if anything could be done, so I did and they were wonderful to work with. Come to find out, there was a technical glitch during the order process and auto-fill kicked in on their end capitalizing all the letters! Explaining to the customer service rep how I wanted it to look, compared to what I received, he discovered the technical glitch and offered to make a brand new one to my specifications for free.

Barb is happy. I think a lot of times in life we’re tempted to settle for the hand we’re dealt, but God wants His children happy. It’s up to us to keep inching forward for the desired outcome even when logically it seems impossible. I’m so grateful Mrs. M nudged me to dig deeper and reach out to the company, otherwise I probably would have stopped using the embosser and eventually discarded it. That would have been like throwing money in the trash.

Life is our classroom. May you pass every test.

Take a break from reading and listen instead.

Don’t Lose Heart

The first time I saw Steven Curtis Chapman was over 20 years ago in a video of his song, Dive, which you can view here. It was playing in a church I was attending, right before someone was going to be baptized. They had a pool inside this church the size and shape of a hot tub, without the jets, that you stood in with the preacher. After saying the appropriate words, he leans you all the way back, completely submerged by water and pulls you back up.

January wasn’t the best and I’m grateful to be standing in February. There has been sickness, trials and tribulation all piled into one month, so by January 30th, Barb sat down and had a 30-minute crying session. This doesn’t happen very often, but I felt better afterwards. Pandora was playing in the background and in that moment I heard a familiar voice. It was Steven Curtis Chapman advertising one of his new songs, ‘Don’t Lose Heart’.

I opened my laptop and Googled the song.

I kept this song open on my laptop all week and listened to it everyday. The timing of hearing Steven’s voice was God using him to pull me out of despair and back into the light. Every word was like water to this weary soul, because my faith was crumbling and I was losing all hope this situation would end. I’d done all I knew to do, but then we need to hand the outcome to God. He wants us to trust His timing and I was failing miserably because I’m human.

Whatever you may be going through let me assure you, the hard stuff makes us better. We can’t see it while we’re in it, but it’s true. Just don’t lose heart.