Her day was done, and her thoughts peacefully tucked, beyond the soiled ground, which soaked up the rain drops. While yet, the sun glowed with radiant delight. A sweet glow of tangerine mist filled the sky, as her heart settled near the base of the tree.
She sat reflecting, the moment, of stillness, and felt two hearts close to hers. Her mom, and now her dad.
Her eyes drifted to the middle of the tree.
A heart with much fullness embraced her, drawing her in.
She felt a breeze, and wiping the tears from her eyes, she heard a whisper. She listened again. She heard it with her ears. She listened yet again, and this time it came from her heart:
“I will never leave you. My heart surrounds yours. I will be with you. Trust your heart, I will guide you. We love you, Mom & Dad.”
These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
You have to love it when lessons come so closely you are able to see both sides of a coin clearly…. That has been my recent experience around customer service.
Stopping by a Little Free Library, I was so surprised by the thoughtfulness of leaving a pair of reading glasses on the shelf!
The ‘readers’ came in very handy for my daughter, Stacey, so she could pick out a book for rainy-day reading as she enjoys retirement training with us for the week.
Although I had the receipt, returning a light switch that did not match my switch plate cover was met with, “You will have to come back tomorrow when the manager is in. She is off on Monday.”
Mentioning that I was 9 miles away, and that I had arrived by bicycle (I was wearing my helment), produced no mercy. I felt the annoyance, but once out in the parking lot, I thought to return as ask about any other times of business the manager was not normally there.
The following morning, I drove back, and asked to see the manager. A different cashier said the manager was in, but she was in the office on the phone placing an order. As I waited, she and I chatted between customers. She had been born in Mexico, her mom lives now in Illinois. When the time became L_O_N_G, she said, “I am going to just take care of this for you. You have waited too long, and you should not have had to come back in the first place.” She completed the transaction just as the manager came around the counter, still on the phone, making eye contact with me and nodding her head, yes.
When I got home from the hardware store, I realized I must have only received change for a $10 rather than my $20 when I had met friends for coffee earlier at the Getaway Cafe.
Driving back to the cafe, I excused myself, and said, “When I was in earlier, I think you may have given me change for a $10, rather than my $20.” Handing him my business card, I went on, “If you are over $10 when you settle your drawer, just send a text or give me a call.”
Taking my card, he opened the drawer, and handed me a $10 bill, saying, “You take this. I get busy and it is more likely you are right. If I am short, I will call you. You should not have to drive back because of my mistake.”
Later that day at meditation, I shared all of this as a way to notice how, looking at all of our interactions as customer service, what is the impression I am making in the world….
At the conclusion of the retreat, everyone pitched in to clean the common areas. As she was stacking chairs in the meeting room, she found a small acorn.
She picked it up, and took it home.
A couple of days later, she picked up the acorn and held it in her hand as a “touchstone” while she meditated. When she finished meditation, she opened the Daily Word to read the message for that day, she read these words: As I hold a small acorn…
These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
I am still doing morning ‘writing down your soul’ pages. This morning’s entry dealt with my sleeping with a bed hog. From my journal:
This morning as I got up, I again showed John how he pushes me over to a 12-inch slot of bed. I find that very unrestful.
I asked what Holy Spirit would have me know. Would I prefer my bed empty? I answered that I would prefer not to sleep pushed over.
I was then reminded how all of life is connected, and how much I enjoy hearing John’s music, and how much I appreciate the life we have generated. When asked if this sleeping is major or minor, I admitted that it is overall minor, but it feels major when I am trying to sleep.
(Note* In my journal, I use a marginal notation of ‘D:’ for what I am saying and ‘V:’ for what Holy Spirit is saying. Here is the rest of my entry.)
V: OK. What allows you to bring kindness to both of you and have you say, “Honey, please scoot over. I am on the edge.”
D: The desire (choice) to have both of us matter.
V: You see how your sleeping in resentment is not kind to either of you. Saying exactly what you need will allow a new pattern to emerge. Be willing to say it gently over and over until the new pattern is stable.
As I closed my journal, I opened email to read this ‘Thought for Today’ from the Brahma Kumaris:
Your expectation will hold others back.
Your acceptance will let others fly.
P.S.
As I posted this, and went back to email, my next message was this:
She was at home when two men entered their home with the intention to rob them.
She was just overcome by courage. She began to speak to the two men like they were children, saying, “You should be ashamed of yourself, you have no right to be here, and you need to leave before you get in trouble.”
And they did!
Sharing her experience with her spiritual teacher later, she was assured she had overcome the karma of fear of being accosted and she would never have to face that again in this life.
These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
His twin brother had recently died. Feeling bereft, and needing to get away, he went to visit girlfriend.
He looked out the window and saw a bolt of lightening coming straight down. The lightening struck a tree outside the window, breaking off a large branch. The branch fell onto the truck he had just driven there in.
It was his brother’s truck.
His brother’s password for everything was “Lightening!”
These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
~ Robert Herrick
My fingers have been missing in action from the keyboard as I have enjoyed spending time with a precious friend. We played dominoes, went sightseeing, dined with decadence, and shared about dealing with pain.
Today I am catching up.
This is the beginning of the February 6, 2019 daily thought of David J. Bloyd:
“Memories— the one thing that can never be taken away from us. Make lots of them! “
—Catherine Pulsifer, Canadian author; age not provided
wiseoldsayings.com (website)
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But be careful…very careful…because it’s just as easy to form a bad memory as it is a good one. I recall a story I read many years ago. A family was on a trip in their car, carefully planned regarding timing and distances, and on-target to fulfill those plans. Their little boy was in the back in his car seat playing with his favorite stuffed toy. His window was open to give him fresh air. Suddenly he cried out that his toy was gone. The father asked where it went. “Out the window”, the boy replied. Now the father had three choices: Chew the little boy out and keep driving; just keep driving and let the little boy suffer the loss; stop, turn around, and go back to look for the toy. He chose the last option.
Later, when with friends, the wife told the story. One of the friends asked the man “Why? Why did you ruin your schedule over an inexpensive teddy bear?”
The father smiled and said “Because the toy was his favorite.”
Now why is that important?
Because whatever choice he took, it would have created a memory for the little boy—either a sad one or a marvelous one. We have future memories in our control. Whatever we do today we’ll re-live tomorrow.
Reliving pleasant things is very pleasant. I have been doing some of that around my last week. Reliving unpleasant things can be even more unpleasant than the experience itself.
My friend, Sheilana Massey, wrote Peace Has No Space for Memories. The book encourages us to live in the moment of right now, without dragging in the past or living in the future. She says we can live with Love for what is, not for what was or what will be. From this space our planet will move into Peace, Love and Joy for all Creation.
The Buddha taught that we cannot prevent pain, but we do not have to suffer. “In life, we cannot always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. And with this second arrow comes the possibility of choice.” (A search for ‘the second arrow’ will yield lots of pages, or check out How the Buddhist metaphor of ‘the second arrow’ can help you to be nicer to yourself.)
This is often summarized as, “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.”
My friend is enduring a lot of pain.
Amidst the pain, however, she is ecstatic about her new life with her new husband. She eats with enthusiasm. She loves music. She laughs a lot.
Lou was a young pastor just finishing up his first year in his first church. That September, he said to one of his church leaders, “Hey, David, do you think I could take off the Sunday after Thanksgiving?”
“Sure,” he said, “just make sure you get someone to do the service. Are you and your wife going to go away to a football game?”
“No, I will have to leave town that weekend. My Grandmother is going to die then.”
“What? How can you possibly know that?” David demanded.
“Well, she is dying, and when her son, my Uncle, visited her this week, she said her goodbyes to him. He wasn’t ready for that, and made her promise to be with him this Thanksgiving. So she will stay for that, then go.”
About ten weeks later, Lou got the call that his grandmother had died—the day after Thanksgiving. He was able to go to her funeral.
If we listen to the people we love, they will tell us what their plans are!
These are sacred stories. Pay attention to happenings in your life. Do you have a story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
My daughter is teaching a class at her church. The assignment was to identify something you know as absolute truth. It is an amazing experience to look at what you believe and why you believe what you believe.
The absolute truth I came up with years ago was that life does not begin at birth or end at death. I was naïve about how much holding this truth central in my awareness would change my beliefs.
Absolute truth is true across platforms. For example, the truth that light dispels darkness. We certainly experienced this truth standing in Mammoth Cave. All lights were turned off. We stood in pitch black before our guide lit one small match. It was incredible how much that tiny flame illuminated the space.
“This too shall pass,” is another truth we talked about.
You may appreciate watching the talk ‘How Do You Define Truth?’ put out by the C.S Lewis Institute. The Institute is a nonprofit organization designed to develop disciples who will articulate, defend and live their faith in Christ in personal and public life.
The definition of truth given in this talk: A statement is true when it says what is is, or what is not is not. A statement is false when it says what is is not, or what is not is.
Other comments about truth include: Reality supports the claim truth makes.
Think for a moment about a thought like justice or love.
I appreciated the talk. Opinions can be fair minded. Reasonable people can differ about their opinions.
Truth is said to have three facets: Truth is descriptive; has meaning and application; and is prescriptive.
This past week I sat with two other poets. We have been meeting to write and share. After about an hour of writing, the discussion that followed began to paint the illusion of distance between us. Watching the illusion of this distance expand, I spoke of what I was sensing.
One of the women said, “I think what you are feeling is coming from me.” She went on to share the pain she has felt being ‘right-brained, living in a left-brained world.’ She described how she coped with the pressure of formal education by becoming a people-pleaser. She said she did whatever was necessary to gain approval.
I could feel myself holding space. Almost breathlessly, I watched these two women I respect and love speak from their perspectives.
As I sat holding space, I was aware of my own experience of not being allowed to attend high school because I was a female and married. John was a male and married, so he was allowed to attend.
What is truth?
That which cannot be argued with.
May our opinions — even those justified by truth — be recognized as opinions and not be confused or claimed as absolute truth.
