Just a thought

Ah, take a deep breath and smell

even from a distance

you can probably evoke the senses for these!

ohhhh how I love these mountain lilies and white roses together!

Talk about taking your breath away!

Now that you've had your eyes full and your senses alert this morning;

just a quick thought to let you know

I'm thinkin about you!

...

Yes yes I know you are dancing and the music is playing,

I just want to remind you of those matters of the heart

and the brilliance of

YOU

""Nobody Can Make You Feel Inferior

Without Your Permission"

(Eleanor Roosevelt)

Ah but how true those words of such a great woman, how true they ring everyday. Not no--- body can make you feel nothing... without your permission...

NOW repeat after me:

"NO BODY, NOBODY CAN MAKE ME FEEL INFERIOR, BAD, SMALL WITHOUT MY PERMISSION"

Don't like something? Don't Do it.

But you don't have to fee bad or small

for feeling strongly ever!

Didn't that feel good? Isn't that an empowering thought?

Matters of the heart are difficult at times... as are relationships, caregiving, being ill, friendships, families, lovers, loss, grief, abuse, hurt, beauty, art, animals...

Matters of the heart left to simmer and boil are similar to an old fashioned pressure cooker... you remember... those large pots with the little thingy on top that would shake and tremble and .... oh my if you didn't let the steam escape the whole thing could blow and .... oh lawd it can hit the wall the ceiling the floor and be one hot mess!

Matters of the heart can be like that too if they are left to simmer and stew and don't have a release... people get sick, hearts go flitter when they oughta flutter (technical terms here you notice I am sure)! Feelings get stuffed, people self-medicate with drugs or alcohol... nothing good comes from stuffing feelings and matters of the heart over time I don't think. 

At some point that proverbial straw will find its way to the camel's back and...

"snap"!

You get where I'm headed right? People need to find ways to express themselves in these days of high stress, tasks secondary to caregiving, to work, to life, to complicated relationships, multiple and cumulative losses. We need to learn from devastation how to honor and respect ourselves and those around us. We need to play better in the sandbox with others... how can we teach the children to play together if as adults we are lacking in those very skills?

How can we balance work, caregiving, fun, joy, life itself if we cannot find balance?

How can we get stuck in and become the story and have room for the next great or momentous occasion in this wonderful thing we know as life right here right now?

Matters of the heart: perhaps if people would tape record themselves in conversations with others they could better hear how they sound, better understand what and how others perceive them, why they get hurt by their words... perhaps we would get better at practicing mindfulness.. ummm, "think before you speak" I believe is the saying we've all heard as children!

Journalling is a wonderful way to let emotions out of those stuck places in your heart, to free up your mind and soul with the hope of making sense when things feel confused or hurtful in your heart. It may be that by writing it on paper you can free yourself from the clouds that skew your words and your thoughts, creating open pathways and healing to be yours. Most people I have known have a terrible time in the beginning of trying to journal... they feel it a burden, a waste of time, think it something they may be read by others. I will often suggest that they find a safe place to keep their pencil and notebook, perhaps even under the bed if need be... start small and work tall... maybe one line the first day, perhaps it would read like this...

"Well here I am writing in this dumb journal and I feel like a fool. But here I am sitting and writing and I have a headache but I do think it is dumb for her to suggest that I am missing my son and that it will be good for me to tell write that I can't sleep because I keep thinking he will walk through the door and I don't want to miss a thing."

See that wasn't so hard now was it? It will get easier the more you do it, and later on you will find that you can look back and see where you have been in your thoughts, where you are and the things you want to change, do differently. There may come a time when you even want to share it with someone. Who knows there may even be a book in there somewhere!

I had so many thoughts this week that today leaves me with this one and for this one I will leave you for today:

It's one thing to have sight, but quite another thing to have a vision like the Eagle, the protective spirit of the bear and the resolve and steadiness of the turtle along with the humor and wit of the coyote trickster...

All the while attending to the very sacred matters of the heart.

Do something good for you today; do something wonderful for someone else; an email, a thought across the wind, a cry from the heart of prayer and hope to someone somewhere.

Prayers and candles lit for

Thomas O'Brien in Texas,

thoughts goin up for EE in Colorado who suffered a fall yesterday, she fought the floor and the floor won!

Prayers being sent that way for a speedy recovery on top of all else, she sure didn't need that!

We are thinking about you friend.

...

Off for excitement with the family;

oh my!

Walk in Beauty,

DRSES

www.sherryeshowalter.com