The way we spin it and why we shouldn’t I love a “suffering that brings redemption” story. Maybe it is the Catholic upbringing. I love nothing more than reading about someone who has gone “through it” (whatever “it” is) and comes out the other side stronger, more loving, more merciful, more forgiving, more them – again whatever that is. Oh and if they are genuinely grateful for the experience and wouldn’t change a thing: Perfect. Tell me more about how to always make pain into something desirable. I’ve been trained really well. Even though I know that pain for redemption…
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(and why that is hard as hell on a regular basis) Full disclosure: I was formed spiritually by Catholicism (so many versions!) in both my early years and then as a divorced single woman with no children. There is much that I find supportive and there is a WHOLE lot that I just can’t get behind. I don’t believe that I’m different from any other Catholic or any other person in any religion in this world. You do what is right no matter what. That’s what I learned though I’m not sure how. I imagined I read about it or…
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Some thoughts I have many faults. Some of them I’m not even aware of or they haven’t happened yet. Other faults stalk me, like that bush near my walkway I had a landscaper pull out 8 years ago. It’s back in full glory and it’s not going anywhere. In a similar style, I have tried to eradicate these long standing “faults”. At least, that’s how these particular personality traits have been presented to me by numerous other people throughout my life. Interestingly enough it is these faults that make me and what I do, who I am and what I’m…
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Every year around this time I have my scheduled yearly crisis. On the outside, I look solid. But I’m wrestling with some larger stuff internally. I mean I’m always doing that. This version though is different. I’m asking myself the impossible question: “What do I believe?” Not too long ago, I was happily (though still reluctantly) being told what I believed. I followed a set of rules (at least on the outside). I thought that even if I didn’t have it figured out that this way of living was okay. (What I had “conveniently” forgotten was that I had just…
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Or we might get boiled… Since I’m not under a rock (yet!) I am reading about slow living, going back to analog and all the things that are coming out of this conversation. I’m not jumping on the bandwagon – get stuck on a backroad in the middle of the night and I want all the cell phones. There really are many positives to technology – like the fact that I’m writing this here and you are reading it – we get to share and realize we are not as alone as we thought. I do think that these concepts…
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But I have to figure out how to be okay… I had this idea that if I just scheduled all my topics out, I would write them. I called it acting as a professional. Taking myself seriously. Holding myself accountable. *Phbt* As someone who roots deeply into her routine as a matter of sanity, even I know that some of the scheduled things and being serious are the last things you should be doing. This one’s title was supposed to be “It’s okay even if it’s not okay.” But it’s not. It’s not okay that things are not okay. There…
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(when it feels like you can’t for all the reasons) Four years ago, I took a RYT 200 Yoga Teacher Training Course. I have never wanted to be a teacher (of anything, yoga or otherwise). Still, for some reason, I had this feeling that this was what I needed to do with my time (and $$) that summer. So I spent almost every weekend that summer in a yoga studio, taking a comprehensive yoga teacher training course. I have always loved and attempted to practice yoga and started when I was in college. Back then it was VHS. Then I…
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There is talk around me of one of those January challenges this year – actually there are plenty of them. But the one I’m talking about for this post is the movement and outside one. 2 miles outside everyday – all in one sitting. This article (really the picture) struck me years ago. Really it was the colors in the sky that pulled me. Only then did I realize that the prettiest lighting, the most jewel toned and pastel skies happen only in the winter. And I had to be outside to experience it. Over the last three years (since…
