Hug the Cat

"If all else fails...Hug the Cat"   

Last night

Last night I heard the rain begin, lovely sounds, the drips..so I opened my window all the way and let the rain sing me to sleep..cool air on my shoulders felt so good...Many rainy nights, I have cursed over the years...thinking of muddy shoes of children and muddy floors. I do have lovely memories of a little boy(my son) in a yellow rain slicker standing under a rain spout with a mile wide grin and rain dripping off his hood,at least there is that. I remember putting that memory away...remember this I told myself. Now rain dripping is a lullaby and I meditate on all that it brings to our late spring gardens..yes..deep pain, certainly eventually, brings deep joy..and I hold onto the things that cannot ever be taken away...rain, sun, clouds, and the gifts that as long as I stay well are mine, of sight, hearing, smell, and my creative mind...

Chocolate What is it Good for..lol

Chocolate....dark chocolate....♥ it really does help me de-stress...melts me right down...puddle like...puddlish..mmmm calm..purr...that and the scent of lavendar..ahhhh....sinking into the scent...shower with lavendar & olive oil sugar scub....so easy to make yourself...amazing relaxation....if a shower is not available ... :o) ..go for the chocolate..just nibbles is all it takes if it is dark enough..(does this make me an addict??) or a lavendar bud filled, knotted up run-away bag..you know like the ones you see tide to a stick...lol...use a pretty or manly hanky...if no chocolate or lavendar is available you can always force a smile on your face...does amazing things to your chemical make up... :o))))

Worry

Worry is truly a waste of time....! Oh...but I do love a sweet wicker rocker in a conservatory on a lovely fall day when the leaves are spinning and dancing their way to the ground..while their parent trees wave their limbs longingly, lovingly after them....♥

Mindfulness relaxation

Mindfulness is found in many places some easier than others..I find deep relaxation in a hammock, swinging in filtered light with birdsong to listen too..the wind to caress me with my eyes closed breathing deeply in and out to focus on..There is nothing more deeply relaxing to me..how long can I do it..? 20 minuets would be nice..but I would take 5.. :o) In most cases..I have to settle for an open window, for a gentle air movement, perhaps there would be bird song as well..deep breaths in and out, my eyes closed, silence other than natural noises, hearing only those things as I focus on my release of tension in my toes first and on upward through my body..air movement is important to my relaxation..as well as silence..allowing only natural sounds, even the smallest of sounds play their part..as I seem to focus on the least of these allowing them their space with me, my breathing and my work on my release of tension, it is as if the smallest sounds carry it off with them, imagine your tension being flown off across the blue sky or stormy sea on the finger tip wing feather of a bird where it will be flicked off in the farthest away place, the bird flutters in again with a soft rustle of joy in it's feathers..... to sing for you..again...a hummm of the refrigerator...almost OM like at times carries away bits and pieces as well when it lets off its work..a kittens scurry after a fluff of dust Bunnie..scatters the tension into smaller pieces to be found and carried off .....all peaceful and relaxing to me..as I give it all up..

Bowlines

On Bowlines...
A sailor once said as his boat cast off..."Loose the ropes!" when I hold on too tight..I can still hear his voice, strong and happy calling out.."Loose the ropes!"... that was over 25 years ago..thank goodness my ropes were cast off then. When it seems they are about to become mooring lines where fear and pain hold me.. I hear those words once again..and I am free...

My Inner child

I have been, all of my life, living with my Inner Child. I never out grew her, she is the the one who always tried to tell me to remember who I am. Telling me when as an adult I screwed up, "it's ok, you are still my friend and then kissed my hurt." I did not know she was there still for a long time. Comfort would not come from inside myself for many long years.
When I was raising my family I called on her to help me many times but never
let her stay or thought of her as still part of me. Only now that I am a Grandmother, a widow and alone have I let her be me.
Getting to know the child inside myself is a journey of joy and wonder over things that I never had time to notice when my life was raging with living and being responsible for my children's lives. I have to give her credit that for the most part, without her I would have not made it with my mind still intact had she not been with me the whole time.
There were the times in the playgrounds with my children that I became a child again, swinging higher than anyone else and showing my children how to do the jump out of the swing. I learned that playing was the best exercise I could have. I looked at my strong lithe children and knew that they did not do exercises on a mat or situps, or jumping jacks. All they did was play. They never had to work at staying strong and healthy, they played. I thought back to my child hood, bouncing on limbs of the vine maple, climbing trees, running to grandmas house, and down through the pasture for fun, without a thought that exercise was good for me, I was doing what was fun. I began playing in the park with my children more to the stares of some parents who did not get it. I felt full of wonder more and more as I played and so my life became simple through everything that followed in the years to come. Divorce, relationship break-ups, raising teenage children, grand babies being born, helping my young parents continue on when their lives were not perfect, as no life really is, the loss of my business and the hardest of all the death of a much loved husband.
That beautiful child in me pulled me through. The power it hung onto, to believe in something larger than myself and the wisdom of simple love it gave me for myself is the soul I was born with speaking to me and telling me to hold on. Here it tells me, listen to this bird song, look at this snow flake falling from the sky, this first pussy willow of spring, this frost, this sunrise, this cloud, these cannot be taken from you. Treasure the simple things, the precious memories. Live in this moment before you and be glad for there is worse in the world and you know it, but this moment here in front of you is yours. Look for the beauty in it.