Showing posts in the category “Emotions”

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• July 29, 2025
  29Jul2025

  New Surroundings

  

  Did I tell you I moved?

  After living in the same beautiful home for 41 years, my husband Jim and I decided to move to a rental apartment about 20 minutes away, in the lovely little town of Exeter, NH....

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• March 1, 2025
  1Mar2025

  We Loved You Lorna

  

  My mom passed away recently. I've written about Lorna over the years, and some of my readers have met her. She lived a long and happy life. At 99, she was planning to make it to 100. 

  She didn't want to leave us. She was a mother. She identified with and valued that role above all the others in her long life, and she worried a lot about her five children. At the end we convinced her, I think, that she had done a wonderful job--raising us, modeling love throughout her life, and teaching us how to love and care for each other. We told her we would do that, and now she could rest. She heard us....

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• January 24, 2025
  24Jan2025

  The Next Right Decision

  

  Each January, I ask myself what I'm hoping for in the year ahead, what personal conflicts I want to resolve, relationships I want to nurture. And I imagine how the year might unfold.

  If you're like me, some energy is probably flowing more freely in this new year, while certain relationships and life situations could benefit from more clarity, more honesty, and more freedom....

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• November 26, 2024
  26Nov2024

  Eternity's Sunrise

  

  I'm sitting at home with a sore throat/coughing/sneezing, old fashioned cold and thinking it would be a good time to wite something. I don't have a lot of energy today and so will just relate here one of my all time favorite quotations. I recite it to myself as often as I can

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• October 1, 2024
  1Oct2024

  Discovery on an Icy Bridge

  

  Adapted from Unlikely Teachers: Finding the Hidden Gifts in Daily Conflict, by Judy Ringer

  Driving home late one night during the first snow of the season, I hit a patch of ice on a slippery bridge and struck the barrier that separates the bridge from the air and the water. I careened off one side of the bridge, slid across three lanes of Interstate 95, and scraped along the barrier on the opposite side. 

  Luckily there weren’t any other cars nearby.

  As I slid on the frozen surface, my first awareness was fear. Then, as the car connected with the barrier, I was jolted into a powerfully present state of being. What flashed through my mind was: I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to be here for it. 

  Then, deep calm, peace, and presence....

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• September 1, 2024
  1Sep2024

  God Winks

  

  Walking early on a Sunday morning, I hear music playing loudly down the street. I realize it's coming from a parked car up ahead across from the Public Library. It's about 7:30 am. 

  My initial reaction -- Pretty loud for so early on a Sunday in a residential neighborhood. Then I see a young man near the car either placing gear in the back seat or removing it. He's standing near the curb I'm about to walk by....

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• July 1, 2024
  1Jul2024

  What We Will Be

  

  Today I'm reprinting a post from the United Church of Christ's Daily Devotional written April 2024 by Mary Luti. Mary is one of my favorite UCC writers, and her story made me reflect on how the sacred can surprise us at any moment; also, on the beauty of nature, and, finally, on my sometimes quick-to-judge mindset.

  Mary is a pastor and educator, and I have reprinted her post in its entirety, including the title and the Biblical passage that inspired her to write it....

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• November 1, 2023
  1Nov2023

  Looking Back, Moving Forward, Feeling Grateful

  

  My last two posts in September and October gave some context on the next steps I'm taking into the unknown. It's weird. I don't know how not to be busy, how not to be engaged in an endeavor that gives back so much. I'm not sure what that's going to be like. 

  You may ask, "Then why stop?" And I'm not totally sure of the answer. I love what I do - I still have some work as I write this - and I also have a sense that this is a good time to bring this part of my worklife to a close. It's an interesting, thought-provoking, exciting place to be.

  I sometimes listen to the Calm app when I'm meditating. Recently Jeff Warren, one of their authors and a meditator, said...

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• October 1, 2023
  1Oct2023

  The Bend in the Road

  

  When I left Queens my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes – what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows – what new landscapes – what new beauties – what curves and hills and valleys further on.

  I recently listened to the audiobook, Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, written in 1908. The quote that leads this post is from the book, and it literally gave me pause. I was walking and listening, and I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk...

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• September 1, 2023
  1Sep2023

  Living on Purpose: What's Next for Power & Presence

  

  In July, I wrote about how I'd been "Wobbling" and beginning to re-identify myself to myself. Who am I when I'm visited by emotional overwhelm? Where is my purpose when those I love are struggling? What am I meant to do "with this one wild and precious life?"

  When I think about it, this re-identification has been going on for some time. Then Covid happened, and work and life, and world, were transformed, and I began spending more time on these bigger questions...

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