Aligning with Grace

  Grief is a funny thing... This is what I texted a friend this morning. Today marks a year and a half since my father died... A lifetime ago, or only yesterday - depending on the day... There is no timetable for grief. It takes as long as it takes. It looks different for everybody. No two experiences are the same... And there is no right or wrong... This morning, I donned my new "Blessed" hat I picked up at Lidl and went for a morning walk. It was cool and overcast. A perfect day and reflection of how I felt. And then, unexpected and lovely things happened... I ran into a woman walking a small, scruffy white dog and three cats - none of them on leashes, just slowly ambling about, and I struck up a conversation with their mom. The cats, she said - think they are dogs. They literally walk with her and respond to her commands. They don't run off. She rescued one of them from a dumpster. The little dog was old and one eyed, and re-named Pearl. She was all bark and no bite a...

I am marveling at things I recorded in a journal a year ago. Though I have journals going back to when I was 15 years old, I rarely revisit them. Why? Many reasons, but that's beyond what I want to share today... This year, I decided to go back and review what I wrote and plan to dive further back into the shelves housing my collection. I am deeply touched by the level of insight and prescience I experienced in the last year and look forward to revisiting other journal entries. "For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice." T.S. Eliot Maybe you already keep a journal. Maybe you think you can't do it. But here's the thing: It can be whatever you want, when you want.  Over a period of nearly 55 years, my journals have taken shape as poetry volumes, and evolved into various formats. They have been collections of favorite quotes or lists of books read, or pictures, or an assembly of practices I found help...

What will you give birth to in this new year of 2024? Many people like to begin the new year with a word that exemplifies what they want to focus on, give birth to, and embody in the coming year. This year, the word "Hope" chose me. Perhaps it did, because it is so needed in our world right now. I certainly need it this year. You can always pick a word for yourself - one that you want to work on or experience more of. Or a word can come to you spontaneously. Mine came in so many ways - it was insistent - demanding my attention. I couldn't avoid it. It showed up in everything I seemed to read. It does not have to be one word. It can certainly be more than one, but I find that even with a couple of words, one of them tends to be the predominant one. If this speaks to, it is a simple yet wonderful practice to anchor in the coming year and refer to from time to time. You might want to journal on it periodically to see where you might currently be in your life and decide wheth...