Prayer for Loved Ones

Most mornings I start the day by reading the Unity Publication Daily Word (available by subscription & at http://www.dailyword.com/. )  The prayer for Wednesday May 26 is a keeper!  It reads in part,
     ...I pray that at the start of your day, you are filled with confidence and energy, ready to
        experience a day of accomplishment and meaning.  I pray that tonight as you lay your
        head on your pillow, ready for sleep, you have peace about the day that is ending and
        expectation of good for the new day to come.  And so it is.  Amen

Good Choices

Estaquio Santimano

The outcome of the previous 3 Gs is meant to be good choices.  Maybe mindful choices is a more descriptive term.  I find it easier to be mindful about the big choices.  They're like a course plotted on my life map.  I weigh my options carefully.  This turn?  Across that valley?  How long will the trip take?  Is this the right destination?
If big choices are the map, little choices make up the territory.  Little choices like fluttering butterfly wings that disturb the air, even rattle the map.  Not so long ago I made a good choice, a mindful choice about my cat Pearl.  I would go one more round with her latest symptoms, but if she didn't respond I would know it was time to let her go. 
Respond is a fine map concept, but the matching territory isn't easy terrain.  Anyway, Pearl and I stumbled along too long before I realized we'd arrived at our destination.  Last night, in that state between wake and sleep, I felt her creep along my back and gently tap my head with her paw.  I hope she's forgiven me for waiting so long to get her to a better place.

Global Thinking

Global thinking is all about taking the long view in matter both large (the earth) and small (actions in the moment).  Recent studies seem to show that the brain circuits that support this kind of thinking don't develop fully until a person is about 25.  That suggests to me that the ears of young people are important pathways to common sense.  The young ears that I speak into respond better to questions than answers.  "Have you thought about how that might affect...Has anything like that happened before?" 
My own global thinking blind spot has to do with the effects of my comments on others.  I've heard the question Would you rather be right than loved?  My heart knows a different answer than my mouth.
Each evening I've been reading a chapter of Richard Carlson's Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, then trying to live that chapter the next day

Gratitude

Gratitude is paying more attention to what is than what is not.  No one is better at articulating the spirit of gratitude than Mary Oliver.  She's worth a trip to the library to sample her work.  When you find one you like, buy it and keep it by your bed.

Why I Wake Early

By Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety—

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light—
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

Grace

Denise Garbonelli

 

A college course in religion and human culture transformed by beliefs about grace.  I had an intellectual understanding of grace as a force for good in a christian life which is available through the sacraments.  A sort of go and sin no more model of grace. 
That college course swept me off my feet with descriptions of the myriad ways God works in the world.  I heard, also, about the good news in the bible, which was news to me despite years of a good, Catholic education.  My imagination was sparked by Paul Tillich's notions of the courage to be in spite of and the ground of being beyond theism.
So my understanding of grace is bound up with ideas of courage and wonder at the ways God is working in the world.  Grace helps me hold my plans and prayers lightly.

Spiritual 4G Network

I've just experienced what has become an annual rite of spring:  allergies; then virus; then ear infection; then gout.  The gout is a genetic gift, so too the allergies I suspect.  My inheritance, along with other, less tangible parental gifts.  Work ethic.  The belief that better times are just around the corner.  A prediliction to suffer fools gladly.
I've been thinking about the less tangible gifts that I might leave with the nieces and nephews who are the children in my life.  They've introduced me to the mysteries of 3G networks, texting, and the folly of wearing certain favorite articles of clothing in their presence.
There's a 4G network I hope to leave with them:  Grace.  Gratitude.  Global Thinking. Good Choices.

Memory Tips

Photo by Natalie Maynor

Short term memory presents us with two challenges:  (1) keeping track of 'disposable items' long enough to use them: and (2) transferring 'keeper' items into long term memory.  Disposable items include a phone number on a voice mail or choices in a phone bank.  As we get older, short term working memory gets less efficient.  Some form of note taking is the easiest solution to those 'disposable' items. 

Remembering names has always been a challenge for me.  I'm actually better at it now than ever because I've learned some techniques to give information a nudge into long term memory.  I've reviewed several sources to identify the techniques.  Most come down to some version of what Dr. Gary Small calls Look--Snap--Connect. (Drs Andrew Weil and Gary Small, The Healthy Brain Kit, 2007, Body & Soul Omnimedia).

LOOK.  Pay attention.  Actively observe what you want to remember.  With names, pay attention to the sound of the name, look carefully at the person's face.  Repeat the name.  Ask for further information if possible.  "Is that Irish?  How is it spelled?" 

SNAP.  Take a mental snapshot.  In your imagination write the name in the air over the person's head. 

CONNECT.  Relate your mental snapshot to another image, preferably one suggested by the name or by some quirk that you noticed about the person.  My young nephew recently came up with a good example when he discovered I'd never learned the difference between the muppets Bert and Ernie.  "Here's the deal," he explained.  "Ernie's head is an egg; Bert's a banana."

I use a form of this method whenever I leave the house.  I call it, "Are we ready to go on the b-b-bus."  The corresponding mental image has my badge, billfold, and bus card all on a bus being driven by my mobile phone.