The last thing that may come to mind when thinking of grief is the prospect of setting goals for yourself. Rather, grief seems to be a time when there are no goals to be found. Grief, in fact, is a chance to rethink what your goals have been and to develop new ones. Grief mayContinue reading “Monday Mediation: Set Goals”
Category Archives: Meditations
Monday Meditation: Keep Breathing
After I lost my mother, I started driving from home to work (Richmond, VA to Washington, DC) instead of taking the train. I found driving and listening to music very therapeutic. I would put on my Pandora radio and still as loudly and as vivaciously as I could while driving.
Monday Meditation: Interconnection
Loss is a point where we realize that, despite our penchant for independence, we are massively interconnected. Life becomes drastically different when one person is missing from it. Grief is the ripping open of interconnectedness, and it is the gradual healing of that wound. We live on a delicate spider web, through which we touchContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Interconnection”
Monday Meditation: The Promise (Tracy Chapman)
I listened to “The Promise” the other day while playing with my daughter. I hadn’t heard it in years. Amidst pandemic uncertainties, my first Mother’s Day as a motherless mother, and missing my mom, the lyrics touched me deeply. The first Mother’s Day without my mother was difficult. The ones since then have largely passedContinue reading “Monday Meditation: The Promise (Tracy Chapman)”
Monday Meditation: May the Fourth
It is May the Fourth, and Star Wars Day offers a helpful meditation on life and our place in it. Every living thing is connected through the Force. Every living thing also contains a piece of the Force. The Jedi, wielders of the Light Side, do so in service of others.
Monday Meditation: Waiting with Patience
Self-isolation and social distancing require a great deal of patience. We have to wait out the run of a highly communicable virus. We have to wait out a difficult economic situation. We have to wait out loneliness. If we’re grieving, we have to wait out the chance to grieve communally and receive comfort for ourContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Waiting with Patience”
Monday Meditation: Living in Fishbowls
In a state of social distancing, we are living in a type of fishbowl, and sometimes a fishbowl within a fishbowl. We can’t do anything for our loved ones who are languishing from COVID-19. We can’t do anything for our family or friends who are watching their COVID-positive loved ones and waiting, from more thanContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Living in Fishbowls”
Monday Meditation: A Marathon with Grit
Backbone. Constancy. Fortitude. Guts. Spunk. Grit.
Monday Meditation: From Suffering to Inspiration
This is a horrible and scary time. The majority of our society has never dealt with something like this before. Some lived through the Great Depression, where they saw more than toilet paper depleted from store shelves. Others lived through the turmoil of WWII, when homes were destroyed and food and goods were rationed. AContinue reading “Monday Meditation: From Suffering to Inspiration”
Monday Meditation: Resilience Goes Far
Right now our resilience, our ability to recover from difficulties and to maintain mental toughness, is being tested by a pandemic. Every day we have to commit to renewing that resilience for another 24-hour period without certainty of when the current stressors will end. Though it might feel impossible at times, we can do it.Continue reading “Monday Meditation: Resilience Goes Far”
Monday Meditation: Look Around You
It is easy to become caught up in day-to-day activities and ignore our surroundings. It is especially easy to do this when swirling in the middle of grief. Sometimes we have to force ourselves out of our comfort zone (or current zone) to examine what is happening around us.
Monday Meditation: After Winter, Always Spring
The seasons are inevitable. Grief has it’s seasons as well. Even after the most grueling “grief winter,” an energizing springs emerges and reminds us there is still beauty and warmth in the world.
Monday Meditation: You Can’t Prevent the Spring
Loss can feel like someone has cut all the flowers off their stems and left an ugly, empty, reminder of what once was. It may feel as though nothing good will ever come into life again. However, the seasons of grief move on their and bring us to a springtime that rekindles possibility and hope.Continue reading “Monday Meditation: You Can’t Prevent the Spring”
Monday Meditation: Call for a Do Over
Every once in a while, we yearn for a fresh start. We may, however, hear that fresh starts are for the young…or someone without kids…or singles…or just not us. Remember the days on the playground when we called for a “do over” because of some unforeseen interference in our play? Where did that habit go?
Monday Meditation: One Day, One Thing.
To change the movement of your path, you just need to take one step each day. These steps don’t have to be big, they can be as small as you would like. The point is to take them. Grief can and will feel overwhelming when we overthink its presence and let it accumulate a cloudContinue reading “Monday Meditation: One Day, One Thing.”
