There's a Blizzard Outside and I'm Hunkerin' Down

This afternoon, I was sitting in my office catching up on some reports and injecting late-comers with the seasonal flu vaccination at about 2:30 pm today. An email "alert" came across my desk that stated hospital officials supported state weather alert warning by offering over-night accomodations for staff that would not be able to return home after their shift due to the storm. Flash-back to the 2007 Firestorms in San Diego! My mind immediately began to subconsciously check off our "emergency preparedness" supplies at home in anticipation of hybernating for the next few days.

Fortunately, I was prepared with food, water, comfort "treats", lanterns, first aide, etc. if needed. We could lose power, water and the ability to be mobile at any time and still be okay (of course, we'd definitely feel the effects of losing the TV and DVD player with the power loss, but hey...BOOKS are in the many bookcases lining this house!)

There is a feeling of peace that comes with being prepared. There is joy in "hunkering" down with family in a cozy home that is filled with love and laughter and good food! I sit here, right at this very moment, watching a downpour of white snowflakes blanketing everything outside of my cozy "four walls" and I feel safe, warm and happy.

Surviving the storms in our lives make us strong and bring confidence that the next storm will be conquerable. Finding joy and putting color in a flat-light moment attests to our power to overcome.
I wish for you the ability to be prepared for whatever life may hurl your way, strength to overcome and peace in knowing who you are and what you can become.

Happiest of this Thankgiving holiday!

Marti

Mindfulness and Difficult People

This afternoon, I had a patient enter my office with long, bold strides, interrupt my work and demand to "speak her mind". I thought her overtly aggressive entrance was appaulling and sat, I'm sure, staring with wide-eyed wonder at this rude woman intruding on my time and space. Fortunately, I was not in the mood to confront her offensive behavior (I had just come from teaching a meditation course and was still feeling very "mellow" from it all), so I inhaled and sat quiet for a moment. The sound of Japanese wood flutes played softly from my computer, encouraging stillness in the room.

 

I spoke only her name. She looked at me rather abruptly and literally fell into the chair behind her, exhausted from expelling so much negative energy.

It was an interesting experience.

 

Tonight, I ran across a wonderful post in Pema Chodron's blog. Her title is nearly copied on this blog, as the words written carry the reader down a new path to dealing with the difficult people in our lives. One line from her blog, I would like to quote for you:

"If we can learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher."

(Pema Chodron)

 

What an interesting concept. I still have not grasped it but hope to meditate on it and come to a better understanding of it through this week. This will be my challenge, one I hope you will share with me. Let me ask the same questions Pema asked, "Who in you life drives you bananas? Can you put yourself in their shoes, seeing their pain, and begin wishing them well? What does this teach you about yourself?"

 

So I ask myself, how did this patient become my teacher this afternoon and what did she need to teach me at that moment? I have not found the answer yet, but I will let you know when it comes. I hope you will too...


Namaste ~

Marti

Saying Goodbye

I have been delinquent with blogging and want to apologize to those of you who look for this every Sunday and Wednesday. I have a good excuse though....

This weekend was a quick trip to Denver, dropping off my dearest four-legged companion with my daughter-in-law (the reason for this is another blog...). The weekend flew by with happy moments spent with Miss Izzy and Miss Abby, and of course Kindall. Delightful to have my granddaughter climb onto my lab and cuddle with both tiny arms wraped snug around my neck as we watched college football.

 Unforgettable as bright blue eyes looked at me with a whispered "ohhh" as her sister discovered once again the bright lights of a familiar toy.

Such joy cannot be contained!

Then came the "goodbyes" and I pulled each of them into my arms, kissed them and promised "HuHu will be back again very soon". I blinked quickly as tears welled and hugged my sweet beagle who looked at me with trusting eyes. I knew these three innocents could not comprehend that this woman they loved would return or what the words whispered to them really meant. Only I knew the depth of the promise left to them. So, I said goodbye and walked away from them, tears now spilling as I saw three faces watch me go wondering why they weren't going along.

How treasured is the trust and faith of the innocent. I felt it yesterday and comforted my feelings of abandonment and guilt through a new resolve to make the trip out to visit again soon, as I promised. That promise is real to me and hoped for by them. 

Until that blessed day when I can gather them all in my arms again...

Marti

All Hallow's Eve



Fall is truly my favorite season! So many traditions make it that way for me: the evening air turns crisp and paints nature a vibrant array of colors, football season dominates the weekends of sports fans, eating yellow vegetables is totally cool, scary stories and tales of ghosts pulls me into the pages of my favorite books, cemeteries are my favorite haunts and humankind waits for Halloween when tricks and treats stalk the streets as adult and children alike shed their daily image and don a new identity.

Year after year, from times earliest record, All Hallow's Eve has been a night of tradition. Fires burned in ancient Celtic rituals celebrating Samhan, hallowed Saints were honored by Christians and European folk traditions collaborated to create the Halloween we celebrate today in America.

Of course, I am one who has grown up loving "The Great Pumpkin" with Charlie Brown and was always the first in my family to create the perfect costume for trick-or-treating through Millcreek. Too soon it seemed I was designated as "too old to trick-or-treat". Yet as an adult, there is still a compulsive draw to the mystic moons and creepy cemeteries that become "appropriate" when Fall makes it appearance.

Why is that, do you think?



I don't have the answer of course, but the desire is there and excitement builds as I anticipate becoming my favorite alter-ego, a pirate, and my house converts to a grotto filled with treasure, an authentic wheel from a ships' helm (held by a long-dead helmsman whose skeleton features send chills down young kids' spines as they watch him sailing a sunken vessel in a foggy night). Torches will burn and lanterns will flicker, lighting the path to the candy waiting for any mate who'll come aboard shoutin' "Trick-or-Treat!"

May ye all be safe an' have a most Happy Halloween!

M'Lady Marti



Rain on a Full Moon Weekend

Rain is falling on a full moon weekend! Spooky times ahead and pernicious pirates make mischief this month~

That has been my "theme" (if you will) for the past few weeks. I like how those words work together, they just sound good when spoken aloud. But more than that, I love the meaning.

October always brings a hint of mystic mindset and wide-eyed eerie watchfulness, particularly so when the moon is full and it's a little hazy outside at dusk. That's how its looks outside my window right now and when the sun fully sets, a full moon will rise and cast a pale glow, throwing shadows in places seen only out of the corner of the eye.

Only four days until our annual Cemetery Stroll and I can hardly wait. My sisters (mainly Shari and I - Mindy has already stated she's "NOT going!  It will give me bad dreams!"...'nuff said) and our children stop at the local Starbucks to fuel up for a chilly, spine-tingling evening walking among the dead. Mostly, we just laugh and scare the you-know-what out of each other and take lots of photos. Some of those photos can be viewed on Shari's site.  Note: the pic of Shari with her head chopped off and lying on a tombstone that has TAYLOR inscripted across it.  These are memories in the making and definitely not something for the faint hearted (or loose bladder).  The photos, I will definitely post!

In the meantime...enjoy your eerie autumn weekend. May you stay warm and happy (and a little bit on edge!)


Marti

Tears, Rain and Things That Don't Make Me Cry



I am sitting here in the most beautiful office overlooking Millcreek as it's raining. The tree in front of my office window was just about as tall as me, the last time I saw it. Now, that same tree reaches with long sturdy branches across the manicured lawn, an umbrella shading delicate flowers and ivy running along the creek bed. The creek's current cascades over stream rocks creating a rushing sound that soothes me while the raindrops dance on the water's surface. All of this I am able to view through the framed large window in front of me as I sit here warm, awed and peaceful.



Well, almost peaceful...I just was stabbed by a very old piece of wood panelling, a tiny sliver imbedded in my ring fingertip. It's painful reminder pulls me back from my serenity each time I tap an L or O or the period key.

My life is sometimes like that. I realized today what an amazing gift I have to choose joy almost unconsciously as I go through the events of my day. Joy that is alot like the view outside my window: natural, peaceful and fulfilling. That is...until something stabs my consciousness and reminds me that all of life isn't pleasant.


I don't think these types of "reminders" are meant to destroy our experiences, although they easily could when focussed upon long enough. My grandma is a perfect example of this. She is 97 years young. She cannot hear, has suffered several heart attacks (and still occasionaly mentions the "headache right here" - pointing to her chest - that "bothered me just a little last night but it's gone now", along with the many accumulating maladies that accompany a 90+ year old body. These little "stabs" in her life do not seem to trouble her as much as my sliver is troubling me as I type this blog. Her days are filled with studying old journals, writing new journals, organizing photos and family history, football and tatting (not in that order). Right now I can hear her upstairs watching old home movies put onto DVD's, the volume so loud the neighbors can sing along with Glenn Miller's Orchestra as it plays. She is laughing and cheering and pointing to faces of loved ones long gone from this life, waiting for her to join them. No, those little "stabs" in her life don't distract her. Life is "grand" as she would put it, should you ask.


My sister made the same observation in her new blog, which I highly recommend you take time to read. She is hysterical and has a very dry sense of life. The perfect antidote to "stabs". Her website is: http://www.everydayshari.blogspot.com. In fact....I'm off to read her latest post and forget about this sliver!

Namaste ~

Marti

Dynamics

Ahhh...the dynamics that dance between adult human beings as we mesh our lives together. Sounds so philosophical, rather "heavy", but it's a true phenomenon that occurs as time creeps forward in subdued steps.



Over the course of the last few months (since the book was released to the public), I've had the oportunity to reunite and reaquaint myself with friends from my past. What an amazing experience it has been to meet once again and share stories of our lives absent from one another. So different, and yet really the same, we tell the same tale of struggle, joys, triumph, hopes, and so on. Kindling the old relationships is life altering, bringing us full circle in one part of our journey. These aren't accidents.
I am convinced we have people in our lives for a purpose. Agreements made and promises fulfilled over and over again, we find our way to each other to enrich and support each other as friends, family, nemeses, lovers. So interesting really when I stop to think of how each of the individuals surrounding my life have touched my life over and over again.



Last night at the book launch party, I was joined at one point by "sisters", not blood family but spiritual friendships, that had blessed my life at one point in my history. Several of these amazing women I had not seen for more than ten years! We hugged each other, spilled our secrets and enriched each other once again in just the brief time spent together.


The power of love is so binding. May I suggest a moment to pause this week and take notice of the people who have chosen to surround you, nurture you and bless you with their friendship. Feel the binding energy that is present when you are near them. Give thanks for the blessing you have been given of reuniting with that person in this lifetime.

I am so thankful for my "people"

Namaste ~
Marti