Tag Archives: life

A Letter to the Me I Used to Be

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Dear You:

By “you” I mean the me I used to be. I miss you…I mean, really miss you. I miss your energy, stamina, strength. I miss the loves you shared and what those loves encompassed; caring, sharing, camaraderie, hugging, kissing, loving, walking, talking; in fact, just being together.

Do you remember those wonderful years of dancing, romancing, cottaging, boating, traveling…remember breakfast in bed? Of course you do or this letter would not be taking shape.

The years of motherhood and entrepreneurship were so time consuming and fulfilling…so satisfying and all encompassing.

The me I used to be no longer exists…instead, another me has emerged; quieter, more patient, slower in movement and thought; still gregarious but less so; more spiritual, maybe more thoughtful; still have the love, but no one to share it with.

And so, it is with fond remembrance that I write to you, to tell you that I appreciate all that you were, and will never really say goodbye to…

The Me I Used To Be

Quotes for a Sunday

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You will find it is necessary to let things go, simply for the reason that they are too heavy.

Don’t bother to give God instructions, just report for duty.

The measure of a life after all, is not its duration but its donation.

Faith sees the  invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.

Just a few quotes from Corrie Ten Boom,

I Write Because…

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I write because thoughts swirl around in my head and I sometimes don’t know what to do with them. Writing them down gets them out of my head and maybe sometimes into someone else’s.

Take last Friday evening for instance. A young couple in their early thirties was enjoying a lovely summer evening under a tree on a park bench in downtown Toronto. They were here from France on work permits and expecting a baby.

Suddenly, a large branch of the Siberian elm, which was their shade, fell from the tree and hit the young man as he leaned in to protect his wife. It killed him. Dead. On the spot. How can that be? Here one second and gone the next.

These thoughts have been on my mind since that tragic evening. I write because I think it will help ease my mind but I know the questions will go to bed with me again tonight.

Why is a young wife and her unborn child stranded in Canada without the husband she shared a park bench with at the end of a busy day? Why did the branch fall? Why Canada and not France?

I write because I care.

God’s Gain

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Our loss is God’s gain. Yesterday, we lost another wonderful member of our congregation. Joan was a true servant of God, wearing oh, so many hats, as she went about quietly seeing to many matters of our church. She was a friend, advisor, chief cook and bottle washer on many occasions, a money manager, a session member, a choir member, and the list goes on. As well as being so many things to her church family, Joan was a wonderful mother, grandmother, and devoted sister.

Psalm 116:15 says it well, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”.

I’m sure Joan is marching with all the other saints in heaven as we, her friends and family, take comfort in the fact that our loss is God’s gain.

Rest in peace, Saint Joan, rest in peace.

Exploring Spirituality (Part 2)

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As promised yesterday, here is the second part of Inna Segal’s internet article on spirituality.

. Connection

People who say that as you become more spiritual, life becomes more serious; have a lack of understanding of real spirituality. The more connected you become to the spirit within you, the lighter things get, as you develop an ability to laugh at yourself more and to recognize that this world is a playground for exploration.

You also realize that joy, happiness, fun and laughter are integral parts of your life and are necessary for your overall wellbeing.

2. Fun

I would often say that healing has to be fun for it to work. The more fun something is, the less resistance we have to experiencing it. When there is no resistance, life, wellbeing, joy, wonderful opportunities and abundance can flow effortlessly into our lives.

3. Freedom

The more spiritual you become, the more freedom you feel to be yourself and to allow others to be themselves. Your need to criticize others, dramatically decreases and compassionate understanding takes its place. You will also become softer with yourself and the people around you. You may even find yourself drawn to people you would usually have little interest in. Thus, you unlock the gates to the most fascinating, expansive, delicious connections with others and love, care and sweetness you could only dream of. Synchronicities become a regular phenomenon and life becomes a real adventure.

How fantastic would it be to wake up every day and know that anything is possible? You may meet a person who will change your life, receive an amazing job offer, discover an important piece of information, receive a positive surprise or have a deep spiritual experience.

4. Mystery

There is a well-known saying that ‘spirit works in mysterious ways.’ Wouldn’t you want to be part of the mystery, knowing that everyday holds an opportunity to transcend the ordinary and enter the realm of the extraordinary? The most beautiful thing is that you don’t have to work out how things will happen, just be open to amazing opportunities entering your life.

5. Different perspective

As you come into a spiritual communion with your Divine essence, you begin to attract people into your life, who will have a deeper connection and an understanding of who you are and what is important to you. Thus, you may expand your circle of friends, from people who are close to your age and your experience of life, to people from all walks of life who will offer different perspectives than what you know.

Integrating spirituality into your life is a unique process, which requires time, connection with yourself and deep and profound exploration.

A way that you know that you are moving forward in your life is that you feel that you are growing and expanding.

“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” ~ John Lennon

As I said yesterday, I believe we can glean little nuggets of learning from other people, no matter what path they are on. It is one of my pleasures in life to explore spirituality.

 

Exploring Spirituality

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There is an abundance of things to write about but they don’t always come to mind when a writer needs them. So we go searching for something to write about. Or, like me, sit in a chair and say, “Okay, Muse, let’s write something.” God, Spirit and Jesus also get this request from me on many occasions. Yesterday I went searching, and found the following.

It is about spirituality in our everyday lives, which came about by researching this topic. Following is an article I found. It is on the Internet and was written by Inna Segal in December, 2013. Some may think I am straying from my Christian principles here but I believe everyone has some nugget of worth to teach and as long as we remain open-minded and true to our beliefs, each nugget could enhance our spiritual lives in some way. The article is called “The Benefit of Integrating Spirituality into Your Daily Life”.

“In order to experience everyday spirituality, we need to remember that we are spiritual beings spending some time in a human body.” ~ Barbara de Angelis

Exploring your spiritual, deeper, more mysterious side can be one of the most exhilarating experiences of your life. Spirituality can give you clarity, vision, and guidance where you had confusion, disappointment and lack of purpose. It can awaken your senses and arouse your intuition.

Spiritual truths can answer many important questions and give you the ability to see things beyond the surface. Everything begins to take on a deeper significance and your choices no longer stem from ignorance of the universal spiritual laws.

Rather than blaming everyone and everything for what you do not have you begin to examine your thought patterns, emotions, behaviors and overall ways of relating to the world. You become aware that as you shift your perspective, your experience of the world can transform speedily and drastically.

I think this is a good start and tomorrow I will post the rest of her article. I think you’ll like it…or not.

My own spirituality does, and always has come from the “still small voice” of God, through prayer, scripture and worship…and I never know from whence that voice will come.

 

The Clock is Ticking

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Our pastor gave an interesting (as always) sermon on Sunday titled, “The Clock”. He opened with, “The clock is ticking. Can you hear it?” He was talking about the clock Jesus heard, ticking away the last week of his life on earth…the divine clock…heaven’s clock, and how little time he had left to prepare those who loved him for what was to come.

Today we learned that our former mayor, Rob Ford, succumbed to the cancer that, in a sense, started his clock ticking eighteen months ago. Did Rob hear his clock ticking? I believe he did. A few months ago he made this statement: “If I pass before my time, I just ask people to please try to help out Dougie and Stephanie and Renata in any way you can,” he added, referencing the names of his wife and two children.

Likewise, when Jesus, from the cross, saw the anguish of his mother, he in effect told one of his disciples to look after her. This then from John:19: 25But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

Here is a tiny passage from Sunday’s sermon:

Recently I received an e-mail. One of those that’s been forwarded a number of times. It was written by an elderly man approaching the end of his life. He said that he had “no questions, no doubts, no fear.”But then he went on: “A few [of you] let me know early in our friendship that religion would not be part of our conversation and I tried to respect this. To some, religions are a group of rules [which] if practised may make us good enough to earn eternal life. If that is the criteria, I would not qualify. My assurance is not based on religion but rather a gift with no strings attached, as described in Ephesians [“For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God.”] The benefits of a gift are not realized until accepted. I accepted this gift years ago, so death is not something to fear.”

While the clock is still ticking let us remember to make each day and each minute count…live, love and be happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes Substitutes Work Well

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The dishwasher was full to the brim with a load of dirty dishes…and I had forgotten to buy detergent…big problem. Not willing to brave the blustery weather to return to the supermarket, or unload the machine and do all those dishes by hand, I looked online for a dishwasher detergent substitute. Many suggestions were to put two to three drops of Dawn liquid dish soap in the dispenser and top it up with baking soda. So I did. Voila! It worked like magic and will be my mode of cleaning dishes from here on in.

It made me think of some of the problems we face in life. We can’t always clean them away with conventional methods, and sometimes need to search for a substitute. For me that substitute is prayer…prayer that should have been the first course of action, but got lost in the effort of trying to solve things my own way

Putting a few drops of prayer into life’s problem dispenser and filling it up with God, can work wonders with the many difficult decisions that come our way.

Is any of you in trouble? He should pray. James 5:13

 

 

Accept, Learn, and Let Go

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Here’s a quote that came my way yesterday. It may have made it to this blog before but, no matter, it is worth repeating:

“There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go.” The author is unknown.

This makes me think of a young couple who are living this quote right now, right here in Ontario, Canada. Their three precious children, ages nine, five and two years old…two sons and a daughter…and their maternal grandfather were killed when a car driven by a drunk driver crashed into this family’s minivan last September.

This young couple has to accept that their children will never return to them. They have to learn how to live the rest of their lives with this knowledge. They also have to let go of the people they can’t live without. Heartbreaking.

The quote may also apply to many of us in our day-to-day lives if we stop to think about it…really think about it. Things that we don’t want to happen to us do happen and we have to accept them; there are things we don’t want to know but have to learn; and people we can’t live without but have to let go. It’s all part of life and all life is a learning experience.

We can only hope to get it right.

 

Remembering

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Today is a day for remembering. We remember those who fought for our freedom, who died for our freedom, and who are still alive today to enjoy that freedom.

A friend and I are meeting for lunch today to remember as well, two very special people in our lives…our lifelong best friends, both of whom are in a different world of freedom…heaven.

We will also remember other loved ones who have left our lives through the mystery of death, gone but not forgotten.

Remembering is a soulful act in that it touches our souls the way our love for all these people touched our hearts.

Be blessed as you remember today…

And from the greatest teacher who ever lived, “Do this in remembrance of me.”