DouceLifeAt50.com

“The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin.”              Parker J. Palmer

I have been listening to a lot of podcasts and reading books on mindfulness, kindness and finding one’s true path. I went through the process of accepting the path that I chose that brought me to my current life. Being able to look at the past as necessary lessons learned has opened my heart, I am on my way to accept and appreciate who I am and all that I have. I am still trying to figure out what my true purpose in life is.  These words: god, soul or spirit, joy, gratitude, kindness, spirituality, meditation seem to be the key to a happy self. Below are this past week’s lessons.

Kindness:

Last week I practiced kindness to a fly. It had come in through my open door, instead of getting the fly swatter I opened the window it had laid on, it flew out to go fulfill it’s destiny. I thought “that is the key to getting rid of flies, really easy.” Today another fly came in the house, I opened the window it was buzzing around, this fly decided to ignore my effort, so I opened the window next to it too, the breeze should have given it a tell tale sign that it should fly out. It flew to the other side of the room, when it was near the front door I opened it, it refused to fly out. I talk to the dog and cat but I had never talked to a fly before. I told it in no uncertain words that it should have flown out when it had a chance if need be I’d find the fly swatter, granted that this one might have some processing issues but fair is fair, no fly will disturb my slumber especially after losing an hour to moving our clocks forward. I just hope I don’t have to chose it’s destiny.

Mindfulness/humility/gratitude:

On Sundays some people go to church, it’s the day I chose to walk around the yard and pick up dog poops except when it’s raining, there is no point in trying to hold an umbrella and a poop shovel or getting soaked. I mindfully enjoy the walk, I pay attention to the grass, the birds, the sounds of my neighborhood. I am grateful when the task is done. Humility is not caring that walkers see you walking around the yard with your head down holding a shovel looking for a week’s worth of dog poops.

Meditation:

Meditation seems to be a key component in figuring out your true self. I never seem to be able to meditate, I can quiet my mind for a while, listen to my breathing and calm my body but then an image will pop into my mind and distract me and off I go. I never get close to a state of meditation. What is a woman to do? Keep trying would be a good start but then I find more books or more podcasts and meditation is forgotten. According to a podcast I listened to, if meditation sounds too weird for some of us it was suggested that we listened to somebody telling us how to relax. I will have to try again, I found out that I could name all my body parts, I just can’t feel them individually.

May you look forward to your lives’ lessons!