Peace Within a Pandemic

“Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.”

 Wayne W. Dyer

 

 

Pandemic

By Lynn Ungar

 

What if you thought of it

as the Jews consider the Sabbath—

the most sacred of times?

 

Cease from travel.

Cease from buying and selling.

Give up, just for now,

on trying to make the world

different than it is.

 

Sing. Pray. Touch only those

to whom you commit your life.

Center down.

 

And when your body has become still,

reach out with your heart.

Know that we are connected

in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.

(You could hardly deny it now.)

 

Know that our lives

are in one another’s hands.

(Surely, that has come clear.)

 

Do not reach out your hands.

Reach out your heart.

Reach out your words.

Reach out all the tendrils

of compassion that move, invisibly,

where we cannot touch.

 

Promise this world your love—

for better or for worse,

in sickness and in health,

so long as we all shall live.

 

 

Thank you to my good friend, Bojana for sharing PEACE with us through this poem

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WoW: Bloom Where You Are

“Any living organism, at any moment in time, is either in the process of growth and living or decay and dying.”

Martha Borst

 

Bloom Where You Are

I look out my window and watch Mother Nature as she changes from winter to early spring. It’s a time for renewal. From the barren branches of the apple trees, tiny blossoms emerge. The juice of life in the grapevines in my vineyard, long dormant and still, begins to flow and burst into buds. The daffodils push through the earth’s surface…everywhere, life is happening.

It’s immediate. Nothing can hold it back. Even areas where the fires raged only months ago, sprouts begin to grow as charcoal turns to green.

Now. Today. Nature doesn’t wait until all the conditions are right. Nature doesn’t wait for existing circumstances to improve, to blossom and bloom. It doesn’t stop being its full and vibrant self because the environment isn’t perfect. The crocus in the cold of Connecticut doesn’t delay its growth because it isn’t in warm California. It simply pushes through the earth’s crust wherever it is.

We have a lot to learn from Mother Nature about growth and living life, about blooming where we are. How much of today do we spend dreaming about and hoping for the future? How do we allow those thoughts keep us from evolving as a person… from being all we can be right now?

Caught up in our thoughts about tomorrow, we put a hold on growing. We wait to change a limiting belief or break an annoying habit. We tell ourselves, “When the pandemic is over… when I get back to work… when things are normal again.” We think further in the future…”when I have the house of my dreams… when I meet my life partner… when I am rich… then I will exercise, eat healthy, lose weight, and be the nicest, most wonderful person you have ever met!”

“Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, we strut across the stage like fools,” Shakespeare said. We allow our dreams of the future to hold us back from living life fully – today.

Some of us allow ourselves to let our dreams keep us from looking in the mirror. We put our very life force on hold as we wait for future happiness. Yet, the charred forest doesn’t wait and the flowers don’t hold back their blooms. The more we live our fullest potential today, the more rapidly our dreams are fulfilled.

It’s wonderful to have visions and dreams, but none of us knows what the future holds for sure. It’s good to plan and hope and envision our future, but never at the expense of what is happening to us today. Tomorrow is just a dream. Yesterday is but a memory. Today is when life is happening… today is the time to be all of who we can be… right now.

We’re all going through a difficult time right now, but it’s the perfect time to find just one little way you can grow… one little thing you would like to change about yourself. Perhaps you need to express more gratitude, or smile a little more, or have more patience. Don’t make it a big deal, just pick one thing and be conscious of it all week. Pay attention to it, catch yourself and change it to the new desired behavior. Practice, practice, practice – just one thing. That’s it. That’s all you have to do to grow.

Let’s not wait until life is perfect to allow ourselves to bloom. Any living organism, at any moment in time, is either in the process of growth and living or decay and dying. Let’s not wait until conditions are “right” to allow the juices within our veins to burst open with life and living. Let’s do it now.

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WoW: Thank you, COVID-19

“Gratitude turns what we have into more than enough.”

 

Click on picture above to watch a very special video.

 

 

Thank you to my good friend Bojana who shared this video and said,

“We need to circulate the energy of gratitude and let it shift our world to a higher, more wonderful place.”

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May We Remember

“We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.” Carl Rogers   There is an energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard and valued. To do this with an understanding, compassion and empathy, which is totally free of judgment, is what creates the kind of human connection we all emotionally need to receive, and spiritually need to give. Albert Einstein said it so beautifully with these words: “A human being is a part of the whole called by us the ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”     May We Remember   “May we who are merely inconvenienced remember those whose lives are at stake. May we who have no risk factors remember those most vulnerable. May we who have the luxury of working from home remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent. May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close remember those who have no options. May we who have to cancel our trips remember those who have no place to go. May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market remember those who have no margin at all. May we who settle in for quarantine at home remember those who have no home.” May we, who are struggling, connect with courage and commitment and remember we can conquer any obstacle, any difficulty, any challenge that confronts us. May we, who are afraid, remember fear is an illusion designed to keep us from trusting the miracle we are. May we who feel alone, remember we are all in this together. May we take time to reflect on how self-absorbed we have become and how separated we have been from those we know and love, as well as those we don’t. May we take this time…to remember to really be with one another…to listen and to really hear…to speak and to really share…to look and to really see… May we who have so much, remember how important it is to be loving, generous and kind. During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other, may we remember that energetically, we are all connected to each other…that as a human family we are ONE. May we remember the power of human touch and what it’s like to feel. May we connect with the stillness around us and remember the soft voice of our hearts.   Thank you to my good friend Jack Dexter for making a positive difference by sharing part of this with us and thereby stirring up some additional thoughts of my own.

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