Posts Tagged ‘Hope’
Ahhh…Nothing to Do
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Summer seemed so exciting as a kid until the day came when I had nothing to do. I became bored on days when none of my friends were around or rainy summer days. I would mope around the house and tell my mom, “I have nothing to do.” Her reply was, “I’ll find something for you to do.”
Translation: house chores. (I was a master with the carpet sweeper.)
In her book, Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness, Dominique Browning has a wonderful perspective on the theme of nothing to do:
“Today I am happy to find myself sitting on the ground wanting nothing to do — no, not even wanting it, simply accepting that I am enveloped in nothing to do. I begin to understand how nothing to do is its own state of grace, difficult to find deliberately, near impossible to recognize. Nothing to do means I can sit and look and let my mind wander, then empty, then fill again, with wonder or with grief, with anything or with nothing at all. “Nothing to do” is not the same as “Nothing can be done.” One is hopeless; the other, the place from which hope becomes possible.”
As the summer days start to fill with plans for the beach and weekends away, I long for days filled with nothing to do. I am inviting the adult in me to give myself permission each day to sit and do nothing.
Choose to do nothing and see where it takes you.
Mary Anne
Second Chances
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
As I was finishing up at the dentist office, I was speaking with my hygienist about some of the work I do with mentoring. I ended one of my sentences with, “Everyone deserves second chances.” At that very moment my dentist walked in and said, “You think everyone deserves second chances?” I told him I thought most everyone deserved a second chance. With that, my dentist went off with a litany of people he thought should never have a second chance. I noticed that I was getting annoyed, so I quietly responded, “I think many of us make mistakes, take the consequences, and deserve another chance.” His response was, “You know what we call a liberal? Someone who has never been mugged.” He concluded by telling me that most people don’t deserve second chances.
I left the office and started thinking about all the mistakes I have made and how so many people have given me a second chance. How long must we pay for a mistake we have made in the past?
Later that evening, I thought about how quickly our mind can go to labeling people and ideas, and about second chances. Do I really believe in second chances?
The universe must have heard my question because in the Sunday New York Times there was an article on parole. The article was about a woman who had committed a crime at 18 and paid for her mistake by serving time until age 41.
As she said in the article, “I still have those dreams of not being able to leave prison, like I’m still in there trying to get out. Why am I still struggling to get out?”
I realized that our minds can be more of a prison than sitting in a room with bars on the window. In what ways are we in prison with our thoughts, beliefs, and actions?
Yes, mistakes will be made and we must accept consequences of our choices. And, yes, I do believe in second chances.
Mary Anne
How Will You Celebrate Spring?
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
~Margaret Atwood
The seeds planted in the dark days and nights of the Winter season are now bursting through the earth. Do you see them?
The hope and trust we placed in the cold earth is showing us the miracle of life in fruits and flowers. What does the season of Spring mean to you?
As we celebrate a new season of longer daylight, blooming buds, birds singing, and warmer days, may we honor the seeds within that are pushing through. What seeds are you watering?
How will you celebrate Spring?
Let’s all put our hands in the dirt!
Mary Anne