Meditation Prompt

 Today's prompt is from author Suleika Jaouad, Isolation Journals https://theisolationjournals.substack.com/p/hand-on-my-tender-heart

The prompt reads:  Write a meditation that you can return to in your most difficult passages.   This is my meditation...

I am surrounded by love

I may not feel it

But I believe it 

I am surrounded by peace

I may not see it

But I believe it

I am surrounded by Light

Divine Light

In my moments of despair, in my moments of darkness - it is Your light that gives me comfort and courage

The light that reminds me that this too shall pass

The light that reminds me that I have been there before and look where I am now

The Light that shows me the compassion of others

The light that shows me mercy

The light that allows me to be grateful 

Let me always be surrounded by this Light 

so I never lose sight of the WAY and Purpose!

What is your meditation in times of despair?  Create one for yourself so it is something you can go to whenever you want. 

Happy Journaling!

Return to Normalcy

 

There is a sense of urgency all around me to return back to normal.  Schools are reopening, vaccines are being made eligible for kids ages 12-15, masks are no longer required in indoor settings or outdoor if you are fully vaccinated and in the state that I live in everything will be normal by may 19th.  Everyone except for me.  I'm not ready.  Yes I want my life back but I am not ready for everything to return back to normal just yet.  I somehow don't trust the system yet.  Is it really possible that we could be mask free?  Are we fooling ourselves into believing that the pandemic is over?  Or maybe its the other way around and this is just a tease.   We have been living for a year and a little extra in isolation, in our little bubble and just like that there is an expectation that we are just going to snap out of it and return to what it used to be.  That's like saying that I have a wound but refuse to see it.  How can we just turn a blind eye to the transformation that has happened to all of us? We have lost lives, we have changed our way of working, we have spent time in the confines of our homes in extremely close quarters with no space, some of us isolated,  we have juggled house work, office work, school work all in one and become pros at multitasking.  And while we yearn for all of that to go away in one way or the other we cannot just stop and pause on how this has changed us.  We have all changed in some way or the other.  For me I have come to value and treasure the non-stress environment that was my physical space of work.   I feel more in control within "my space" rather than in an office space.  How do I incorporate these changes in my "new normal."  I worry if work environments will allow for hybrid methods now that we are returning to normal.   Professions such as crisis intervention workers, social workers, teachers all of these had to take a step back during the pandemic and create methods that would enable for the virtual work to begin.  And we were surprised at how we succeeded.  Who realized that we could do our work effectively remotely?  It changes everything about our work and it changes everything for the families we work with.  Shouldn't we as a profession look at lessons learned and see if we can incorporate those lessons rather than going back to old ways?  

When i hear news that indoor dining restrictions will be removed, masks are not needed indoors if u are vaccinated - I worry.  We must learn from the past so we don't repeat it.  Yes we have been cooped up and so much frustration on many levels - but in these we have found lessons of courage, of hope, and of resilience.   We have all grieved in some form as a result of this pandemic.  And how does one every get over grief?  It stays with you and forever transforms you - we never forget no matter how much we may try.  And so when I hear about all this reopening, it feels very rushed to me.  And maybe it is my issues that need to be sorted out so that I feel fully comfortable in returning to normal. Maybe because since last year there has been no breaks - we have kept on going and going and going - I want to be able to pause.  Pause not for a minute, but for longer than that - pause so that my actions will be based on the quality of life I want for myself.  Pause so that my decisions will be wise and sound.   Pause to see if this is true and if it will last.  I want to believe with all my heart is over.  But I don't want to fool myself.  I want to believe that my days of traveling are near - but not at the cost of risking our lives.  The trauma of this pandemic is real.  It has scarred each of us in ways beyond words.  It is time to heal.  Each of us need the time to heal.  That is what returning to normal is - finding healing to create pathways for normalcy.  

Journal Prompt:   What does normalcy look like to you after the pandemic? What are some things that you look forward to?  What are some things that you will miss?  

Write for five minutes non stop.  

Happy Journaling!

Full Bloom

Over the last couple of weeks I have been watching in amazement as spring comes to full bloom. It starts of with tiny buds, and every morning little by little a little more green is splashed onto the canvas. Till one morning you wake up and everything around you is in full bloom.  I feel like I am watching a Monet painting coming alive.  When I wake up, as I look out the window, I wonder what part of the painting will be in color - The trees have their leaves back on their branches, the flowers are opening up in full colors and the birds - oh the birds are they so ever happy.  Every morning I am greeted by their calls - I believe in this season the birds are my alarm clock.  I hear them but i don't see them.  They fly so fast hidden in their nest or up high on a tree in between the branches but they bring a certain sense of lightness to the day.   If I am having a busy day and have not had time to pause, the birds bring me back to center.  Their tweeting and chirping calling out to me to just pause and look outside. Observe the beauty and take it all in.   I take it in so I can feel one with the natural world.  It brings me a sense of balance.  The sky takes on a new look in this season too.  Sometimes it is is full blue without a trace of clouds, and sometimes its dark with the  sun trying to peak out, and then at times it is just a puffed up cloud day.  Each moment takes me back to a memory from my past.  A sky filled with clouds takes me back to when I was a child and we would play the game "guess what shape am I."   The song "puff the magic dragon" comes into my head and I begin humming it as I begin the game.  I see a heart, something that looks like a bird, a big cotton ball...and as I look up at the sky surrounded by large and tall oak trees, I remember the book I used to read as a child  " Jack and the magic beanstalk."  Always wondering if could really reach up and grab something from the sky.... I am transported to a memory from my childhood with me and my sister running around in our backyard in Ghana, on the swings and plucking hibiscus from the garden surrounded by lush fan like trees.  Did you know that if you blow into the hollow stem of the hibiscus flower that it makes a whistle sound?  Nature transports you to moments in your life and in the last couple of weeks that's exactly what has happened.   I am remembering pieces of my childhood and I realize that each moment from the past has been a stepping stone that has shaped my connection with nature.  The sound of water from a nearby brook, the shades of greens around me, the sky as it seeks to bid goodnight to the sun, and the moonlight as it lights up the dark sky.  A treasured piece of art that is there for you over and over again amidst the chaos and pain in this world.   It is there that we can find comfort, peace, silence and stillness knowing that it never leaves you.  It is with you whenever you need it.  All you have to do is call out, look out and embrace it.  

Journal Prompt:

Think of a moment in your childhood that you would like to write about that takes you back to nature.  For example Begin writing with one of the following prompts:

- Seashells

- Summer nights

-Tulips

Happy Journaling!