1. Ringo is healthy after a rough week — a gash over his eye which required a trip to the emergency vet, two staples and antibiotics; a section of leather glove that he swallowed but successfully passed. Why are puppies and toddlers so hellbent on wrecking themselves?!
2. Sam remains healthy. Now we get to start weaning him off the pain medication he was on because we thought it was a nerve issue.
3. I am sane, things are making more sense, I’m calmer and better able to cope. Thank goodness for practice and a really good therapist.
4. My new responsibilities at CSU. I’m the Communications Coordinator, and as such I get to work with amazing interns, edit and create content for Facebook, our blog, and our website. It’s a really nice convergence of what I’m good at, like to do, and what other people need.
5. We are going to the beach, for sure. We’d been putting off committing completely to the trip when we didn’t know what was wrong with Sam and weren’t sure if Ringo would be mature enough, but we’ve decided and are locked in.
6. The semester is almost over, which means summer vacation is almost here. I might like my job most of the time, but I like vacation, my life better.
7. Ringo seems to have settled into a predictable schedule, which gives us a little more freedom. He’s growing up, even though he still has to be watched constantly because he’s teething and wants to eat all the things.
8. Hard but honest conversations with Eric, that we can have them, that they end with hope.
Bonus Joy: Walking along the river this morning, listening to the sound of the train, the rushing water, and the birds.
10. Mabel Magazine, “is a print magazine that is here to tell real stories about making a living and creating a life.” I have a piece in the first issue, the theme of which is “beginnings.” I think Mabel’s going to be a good thing.
17. A sweet Easter poem from James Broughton, “Easter Exultet.”
Shake out your qualms.
Shake up your dreams.
Deepen your roots.
Extend your branches.
Trust deep water
and head for the open,
even if your vision
shipwrecks you.
Quit your addiction
to sneer and complain.
Open a lookout.
Dance on a brink.
Run with your wildfire.
You are closer to glory
leaping an abyss
than upholstering a rut.
Not dawdling.
Not doubting.
Intrepid all the way
Walk toward clarity.
At every crossroad
Be prepared
to bump into wonder.
Only love prevails.
En route to disaster
insist on canticles.
Lift your ineffable
out of the mundane.
Nothing perishes;
nothing survives;
everything transforms!
Honeymoon with Big Joy!
20. Truthbombs from Danielle LaPorte: “Put down your shield and stand in the rain of blessings,” and “You will always be too much of something for someone. Be yourself anyway.”
21. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön,
Many of our escapes are involuntary: addiction and dissociating from painful feelings are two examples. Anyone who has worked with a strong addiction—compulsive eating, compulsive sex, abuse of substances, explosive anger, or any other behavior that’s out of control—knows that when the urge comes on it’s irresistible. The seduction is too strong. So we train again and again in less highly charged situations in which the urge is present but not so overwhelming. By training with everyday irritations, we develop the knack of refraining when the going gets rough. It takes patience and an understanding of how we’re hurting ourselves not to continue taking the same old escape route of speaking or acting out.
Take a moment to sit comfortably. Plant your feet on the floor. Settle into your breath, slowly and intentionally.
Feel into your body as you run your mind over the content of your day – your schedule, your obligations, your desire for self-care.
Where are you craving for permission?
Let any answer that comes guide you into your day.
Let it be simple, but follow through.
Know that every time you pause, take stock, and move forward with your own spirit, heart, and need in mind, you are working to feel a little more at home in your life.
…if you utilize obstacles properly, then it strengthens your courage, and it also gives you more intelligence, more wisdom. Because there is obstacle, you make attempt; so have to think, have to try something. Have to try certain way; so this gives strength and also wisdom and intelligence. If you use them in wrong way, then discourage, failure, depression.
1. Ringo is healthy after a rough week — a gash over his eye which required a trip to the emergency vet, two staples and antibiotics; a section of leather glove that he swallowed but successfully passed. Why are puppies and toddlers so hellbent on wrecking themselves?!
Bonus Joy: Walking along the river this morning, listening to the sound of the train, the rushing water, and the birds.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 