Category Archives: NaBloPoMo

Love Notes for Homecoming

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Both kids are home for the first time since the nest emptied. I love when they’re at school and I love when they are home. This. Is. AWESOME.
Also, thanks to my lovely friends, their empathic listening and honest reflections, I was able to shift out of ‘you suck’ mode from yesterday and reclaim my better, more loving self today.
The best advice I ever got for mindfulness training was, “Celebrate the return.”
How lovely.
Tonight I celebrate various returns.
Hope you can do the same, my friends.

  1. My dear friend, may your self-love serve you well enough to feel at home in yourself no matter where you go and who you meet. You are you and you are enough.

2. Whenever you venture out into the brave new worlds of life, may you always feel the safety and security of home to come back to.

3. If home is far away, may you have strong and reliable ways to feel connected anytime you need. May you feel home within you always.

4. I know you love me because you always welcome me home to myself and us, no matter how far afield I may fly. Thank you thank you thank you.

5. *sigh* Home. Make it wherever and whatever you need. Make it your base from whence all your life adventures begin. Welcome.

6. Open arms Big hearts Warm food & endless hugs and smiles that feed your soul – May you encounter these at home always.

7. Home is such a special place, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a place. Could be a person or a state of mind. Wishing you to always feel at home.

8. Do you prefer out-and-back or looping trails? Either way you return to the origin, but now having ventured to see somewhere else. Grow for it!

9. Wherever your strong affinity calls you, wherever you know as home, may you access that inner or outer space often and deeply.

10. Whether you have one home or multiple, define home as place, people, or other, may it/they always be welcoming and safe, a refuge for your very being.

11. We all wander off-track sometimes. It’s okay, perfectly normal. May we celebrate when we return to the path. Yes, celebrate the return.

12. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re home until we leave and come back… The comfort, the familiarity, the peace. Welcome home.

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. Three more days of November. It went by too fast! Wishing all of us to walk forth with our tanks a little more full, filling one another’s.

Love Notes for Patience

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*deep breaths*

The post office lady. My patient. The airport traffic lady. Holiday highway drivers.
It’s been a day of tense interactions.
In real time, I think to myself, ‘Be kind. Be open, curious, empathetic, generous–walk the talk, omg.’
And then all I can muster is to not snark, snide, and agress back, to wave politely, say thank you, and move on. Couldn’t quite muster the more loving me.
Some days we are not our best selves. It’s okay. We’re doing our best.
We keep practicing patience with ourselves and others. We are enough.

  1. Our world tells us to expect everything now. Our perspective narrows in ways that jeopardize connection and peace. Beware.

2. Something feels off here, and I cannot put my finger on it all the way. Some may say I overthink. I think I just need to understand. Gimme a minute, please.

3. Deep breaths, my love. You’re doing your best. So am I. May we approach each other gently.

4. Thank you so much for your patience with me. Sleep deprivation, menopause, stress, and the state of the world all erode my mind today. Thank you for not throwing me away.

5. Your patience is such a gift to me. Thank you for seeing my efforts to keep up and also do a good (great) job. Please know I do my best for you.

6. You know your truth… You may just not trust it all the way yet. It will become clear over time – let it rise and show itself to the whole of you.

7. Breathe in Hold Breathe out Hold Repeat. It’s okay to feel any emotion. And we can regulate while we wait it out.

8. Consistency over intensity. Small, sustainable change. The results will come. Stick with the program. It will take time. You’ got this.

9. Sometimes it’s most disappointing when we don’t live up to or own standards. We are all works in progress. Every ‘failure’ can help us grow. Keep going.

10. To those who show us patience and forbearance, thank you. May we pay it forward whenever possible. We can all help each other out this way.

11. When you feel harried and anxious, may an infinitely patient soul cross your path, touch your arm, look into your eyes, and share their calm. It will all get done. It’s okay.

12. Their emergency is not necessarily your emergency. There is often time to breathe and approach thoughtfully. Try not to rush, love.

Love Notes for Empathy

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OK friends, I am positively obsessed with the Crowns trilogy by Nicola Tyche, oh my goodness. After binging the books, neglecting all others for two weeks, I started the whole series over almost immediately. I never do this! I found the paperback omnibus on Amazon today and purchased immediately; I’ll mark it up according to my audio bookmarks and hopefully document everything I admire about it here after this 30 day challenge ends. The wickedly twisted plot, heroic character development, and gorgeous prose–I’m easily affected by books, but this is truly beyond. This is the third set of Love Notes inspired by Crowns, and I won’t be surprised if it’s not the last.

What books have affected you deeply? Hmmm, maybe I’ll convene a book club around that question and others one day. That could be different and fun.

  1. When I feel your empathy, I trust you. I open to you. Thank you for this gift of human connection. Please keep offering this to us fellow humans.

2. To the judges therapists nurses law enforcement officers and all who experience the burden of vicarious trauma – may your empathy prevail over burnout.

3. Empathy requires openness and vulnerability – all human connection does. This means risk. May your bravery be rewarded so lavishly that it becomes your nature.

4. Hey friend – I know it can be hard, but let’s try our best to offer our empathy equally to all fellow humans, yes? It’s what we are called to, no?

5. When we come across someone from elsewhere, alone among us locals, may we imagine their feelings and engage with open kindness. It’s the good thing to do.

6. When I lashed out at you in anger and you turned to me in empathy and kindness, you changed me. I am still humbled and convicted from that moment. Thank you.

7. To my friends who bring stories to life – your own or others – thank you for fostering empathy and understandin(g) in us all.

8. Why is empathy so scary sometimes? Seeing ourselves in others, especially in their pain, is painful – thus scary. Let us call forth courage to face all our pain together.

9. “I’ve known this…” sadness grief loneliness anxiety May we all attend to this awareness and honor it.

10. Let us all attune and attend to the empathy of others, let the connection saturate us, so we may offer it widely, every day.

11. Empathy Kindness Compassion Generosity Connection — Regardless where we start, we can land on them all, and we’re all better for it.

12. Are your intentions malicious and hostile? No? then why might you automatically assume another’s are? Let us all practice more generously, please.

Oh I like this set, my friends. Definitely helps to have specific people in mind for each one.
Starting to consider what to do with these 360 love notes at the end of thirty days. Any ideas?