Counting our blessings is always a good thing to do like counting sheep to fall asleep. BUT absorbing a blessing . . . now that’s dangerous and changes everything! What changes everything is my subject in September.
Phrases posted on Facebook, September 2024.
Here’s a dare for the month. Can I, can you, will I, will you, let a blessing knock us off our feet?
I’ve been thinking about the blessing of water. Just like that it comes out of the faucet!. I haven’t had to walk a mile to fetch water from a well and then have to carry it home. Water is weighty! My month’s dare is to become more conscious and grateful for water, the potable kind and Living Water, whether I’m doing the dishes, making tea, or taking a shower. I hope with that committed focus that the grace of that element will change everything in me to more gratitude, flow and care. What is your dare going to be?
Here’s a dare well worth it. Decide to do one thing at a time . . . no multi-tasking, no thinking what is next, just complete concentration on the one task. Such presence will change a lot.
It’s important to me that when I choose to dare something that I believe I can carry the intention through to the end. It seems to me that with each challenge we build self-trust and trust in the goodness of the universe.
Most likely we have seen something in our homes or in our cars that needs repair. It may just be a little, seemingly inconsequential thing, but ignored it can suddenly become big.
Of course, it really isn’t suddenly. We’ve allowed it to be ignored. In a completely different scenario, we start to do something small and beneficial daily and suddenly
things are better all around. Very small things can change everything.
Being pessimistic can be one of those silent, seemingly small things we don’t think matters, but pessimism can undermine us greatly. Maya Angelou, a wisdom keeper and inspiration wrote, “I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there’s always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”
You may recall that my dare this month was to be very conscious of the gift of water. Yes, I turn the faucet off more quickly these days, and I love seeing my plants drink. As they slurp, I imagine it to be a silent kind of praise. The best thing (and a surprise) is that water tastes differently. There’s something more and mysterious in each sip. Go figure. I can’t.
Earlier in the month Trina Colburn shared this juicy dare: “Every time you think ‘I wish I had more time to…’ stop and do it (or make a plan to make it happen soon). How great to have each other’s wisdom.
I had a friend who lived in NY City and was much aware of the street people who needed and would ask for money. Each day she set aside a certain amount of change that she could afford and gave it to whomever asked her as she went about her business. She did not want to assess who was worthy. She just spent freely whatever she had. I believe the capacity to bless is given to each of us indiscriminately and abundantly. I like to imagine that freely blessing people, places, animals and situations indiscriminately like my friend gave money would be a lovely dare that would never be boring. Blessing not only renews that which is blessed but also the one who blesses.
We can put too many good practices on our plate. If we do, we will soon be overwhelmed and drop them all. Good riddance! Choosing one small thing, one that we can stick with, that’s the hard part. It’s both amazingly hard and amazingly easy.
What changes everything is potentially with us all the time. We don’t so much choose to act on it as to find affinity with something that is already within us. Here’s a quote from Simple Ways that speaks to that: “Why do we ask, “What is the way’? For there are as many ways as there are stars in the firmament.”
I was once a part of a prayer group that prayed for a block in upper Manhattan that was especially filled with crime. We did it daily, each when we could in our own ways and when we met as a group. After a month the crime rate went down. That a daily faithfully repeated prayer can make a difference I will never forget.!
I have found the little thing that always makes a difference is to refrain from self-judgment just for a moment, a day or a week. It opens breathing room and the sweetness of just being.
When interrupting one’s own self-criticism it seems much easier to not criticize others. Call it a vacation from negativity. In our world so full of just that, it’s an invisible but powerful little thing that can make all the difference.
