Category Archives: Inspiration

Reflect

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NaBloPoMo 2021:  Do Good, Kid

Day 29.  It’s been such a long month that has also flown by.  If you’ve read along all this time, what stands out?  What resonates?  What’s redundant and boring?

I turned 48 this year, 4 cycles of the Chinese zodiac completed.  Looking back at 36, 24, and 12, wow, perspective!  Looking back from March 2020, when we moved all clinical activity remote and shut down all but the most essential operations at work, and pulled together all over work, to now…  So much has changed, and yet we are still us, still doing what we do.  I will find some time to look back on my 5 months away from patients.  Coming back to work has been exactly what I anticipated and also unexpected in many ways. 

“All that you touch You change.  All that you change, Changes you.  The only lasting truth is Change.  God is Change.” –Octavia Butler

I had a list of topics to cover this month.  But each day I ended up writing on an idea that inspired or moved me.  I hit most items on the list, and I can always write later on those still outstanding.  But looking back on 28 days, I’m really happy with what I executed.   Most of the time I set out to write one thing, and inevitably the piece changed to something slightly different.  Fascinating how that happens—and I’m satisfied that the messages are still authentically mine, altered as they were.  I would be happy if the kids looked back on these posts someday and felt encouraged or comforted by them, if they could hear my voice and feel my love.

Look back and learn.  Connect the dots.  See things anew, make new connections; find the light behind the shadows; bring hidden things out into the open.  Reflect with curiosity, humility, respect for your former and future selves.  Acknowledge all those who have helped you along the way, even by challenging or injuring you.  You are the culmination of all of your experiences to date, and then some.  Own it.

Marvel at the journey, take it in.  Be still, get quiet.  Let the reflections shimmer to a smooth surface, or not.  Just allow some space and see what can come.  I think it’s always worth the effort.

Always Be Learning

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NaBloPoMo 2021:  Do Good, Kid

There is always something to learn!

Every encounter, every event, every conflict.  Every book, movie, article, conversation.

It doesn’t have to be earth shattering, and we don’t have to brag or talk incessantly about it every time we learn something new.  It’s just good to notice when we find something we’ve never seen/heard/known/expected before.  File it, save it for later, make connections in experience for broader perspective and application.

I think it’s a mindset, really; one that encompasses curiosity, humility, and systems thinking, among other things.  This is the second time my NaBloPoMo life ‘action mantra’ says to ‘be’ something rather than do something.  And it’s okay.  Donna reminded me today of the Being::Doing polarity.  Learning is something we do; we can choose to do it actively—I bet the lessons stick better this way. 

But a Learner is something we are.  We can also choose to see ourselves as such, and I think it makes a difference in our attitudes, behaviors, and relationships—for the better.

It is how and who we are that manifests in what we do.

Give Thanks, Duh

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NaBloPoMo 2021:  Do Good, Kid

Some time ago a high school classmate suggested on Facebook that we all post daily gratitude for the month of November.  Many of us participated, and I liked it.  The first year of this blog, I did “November Gratitude Shorts” for 30 days, my first NaBloPoMo.  In 2019 I wrote a thank you message a day for the whole year, whether by hand, email, or in some other medium.  It was meditative and grounding.

In this month of recording my most heartfelt adulting skills for mindfulness and posterity, how has it taken me this long to write about gratitude?  I noticed the deficit about a week ago.  Maybe it seems trite?  I mean in November, blog about gratitude, meh.  It’s not that I don’t feel it.  I do feel it, deeply, every day.  And it holds me up.

I come down the stairs in the morning, in this house we bought just before Daughter was born.  It’s where the kids have grown up.  It’s messy and wonderful, I love it, and I pinch myself that I get to live here.  I go home to my parents’ house, where I grew up.  That Ma and Ba are healthy and living a happy, connected life fills me with pride and joy.  We all go to the mountains, a place of meaning and memory for all three generations now.  We have roofs over our heads, food in the fridges and pantries, funds to travel, and places to go where people love and welcome us—how could we feel anything but deep gratitude?  *sigh*

Friends.  Extended family.  Education.  Nature.  Technology.  Work.  Science.  Art.  Music.  So much, so much.

Ya.  Much to be grateful for, today and all days… Even—maybe especially—in crisis…

My prayer:  May this feeling, this deep knowing of wholeness and connection in thanks, live at the front of consciousness for us all, holding hands with love, leading us always toward one another.