choice

Emotional French Fries

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Sometimes I’ll order them but not often. Sometimes it’s those yam fries….Usually I  just take a few from my husband’s plate. I know I don’t feel well if I eat a whole plate of French fries or yam fries, and I do enjoy feeling healthy and full of energy. Fried foods clog our arteries. That’s just the way we’re made. Yes, they taste yummy but fried foods aren’t that good for our physical body, certainly not as a large part of a regular diet.

The other day I wasn’t feeling well emotionally. I’d been with some people and afterwards I realized I had digested something emotionally that didn’t feel well to me. What had I ‘eaten’? I felt plugged up inside so the usual flow I know had been diverted. Deep down inside me I could feel some fear which sent out tendrils of worry. It was those little bits of worry, soaked in fear that were tempting me to nibble. Ah! No! Worries are like emotional French Fries, tempting, tasty, but too many and I get clogged up inside.

My dear friend Jesus, says so clearly, ‘Don’t worry. Can you change anything by worrying? Know instead that you are loved, and know you are in the presence of One who loves you, always, everyday. Don’t give in to worry. Trust in the Presence of Love.’

When we worry, it will clog our emotional and spiritual energy flow, just as clearly as a diet of fatty food will clog our physical arteries. Yet somehow, we accept worry as a normal part of human life. I think it’s common, but I don’t want it to be ‘normal’ for you or for me. I want to make choices about how I care for my physical body, and choices about how I care for my emotional and spiritual home as well.

Menus these days are often marked with nutritional information – gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, calorie count etc. Imagine if your day was marked with a worry count….What does each encounter that you have during the day trigger in you? Are you drawn towards trust or worry? To what extent does that relationship help you be your best self? Are you able to give both strength and ease into the situation? I bet you could come up with some questions of your own!

So, my friends, watch out for those emotional French fries!

Love and prayers

Anne

Mystic in Motion

Companion on the Way with Contemplative Fire

Contemplative Fire Canada, Founder

Companion on The Rivendell Way

Society Member with Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation

Happiness is Contagious

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One afternoon this week I found a note in my What’s App box that ‘bit’ me. You know the ones. They hurt. Stir up old memories and reactions. I knew the person sending it was hurting but I still felt my own hurt too. At least I know enough not to respond until I’m settled! Whew. Cyber Bites can be as contagious as COVID!  

Later that night I as I meditated, one of those delightful moments happened. I’ve changed my routine so I’m using a Passage Prayer at night. After a brief reflection on my day, I repeat The Prayer of St Francis for the remaining time. Over and over I repeat the words, letting them seep into me.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

That night I could barely get past the first line. I want to be an instrument of peace. That means I want to find a way to respond to someone who is hurting, with hope, who has hurt me, with pardon. I want to find healing words, words to build a bridge between us. I’m so grateful I have choices in life. There is so much power in having a choice in how I will respond. I wrote back with conciliation and peace in my heart and received a positive note back. Whew. Step forward. Didn’t catch that Cyber Disease.

Later this week I was listening to a talk on happiness. It’s contagious. In this time of pandemic, here’s something we don’t wash way! We can let happiness spread. We can make choices to smile, to not retaliate, to be an instrument of peace. Apparently, the researchers say that in our circles of influence our happiness can spread to others and the people they know. If I have a happy spouse, friend or co-worker, someone close to me, then it increases my chances of being happy by 15%, If someone close to my first contact is happy I still get a benefit of 10%, and even a third degree contact increases my chances of happiness by 6%. Happiness is contagious. It flows both ways. I can both receive happiness and give it out to others. I can smile. I can choose to be an instrument of peace, of happiness in the world.

I can’t ‘see’ them, but I hope there were ripples of happiness that went out into the world this week, especially to the one who was so upset with me. I imagine happiness spreading to them. I hope they catch it! I’d like to be a contagious mystic.

The world needs us all choosing to be an instrument of peace and happiness. Who might receive your smile today?

From an Infectious Mystic

Anne

Mystic in Motion

Companion on the Way with Contemplative Fire

Contemplative Fire Canada, Founder

Society Member with Shalem Institute for Contemplative Living

Companion on The Rivendell Way