Practicing Mindfulness: Watching Family Movies

Their cherubic faces shine through the TV screen.  Seaside, Florida, our family vacation, 1996.  Matching dresses for the five daughters and love flowing onscreen from the young son who was elder brother and superman to his younger sisters.  He took them one by one into the ocean, holding them up so they could experience the “big” waves with him.  Helping them go where they couldn't go without him.

What is family?  What is love?  This season of family coming home, if just for a meal together before they go back to their work and their world.  Each moment is a blessing.  Each moment is a priceless gift. Watching their baby faces on a screen, then hugging their grown up selves as they return to their own homes, I am mindful of the absolute preciousness of time and the sheer joy of making memories.

Practicing Mindfulness: Day Two

The LORD has been mindful of us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron.   
                                                   Psalm 115:12 NASB

I “happened” upon this verse this afternoon.  I think this mindfulness journey is like buying a new red car.  I might start seeing it everywhere. 

Practicing this new habit is already opening my eyes:

Lesson One:

I discovered that I speed.  Very sad fact, but true.  Right after I finished my blog entry yesterday, I headed to join a friend for lunch.  Hurrying to not be late, I saw that I was almost 10 miles an hour over the limit.  That surprised me.  I slowed down and even set the cruise control for a cool 45 mph, the posted limit.  That gave me time to think and I felt a peace replace the hurry.  Driving the speed limit frees me on many levels:

1.   I feel safer.

2.   I have no fear of a ticket.

3.   I have space to enjoy the drive.

Lesson Two:

As my friend and I settled into our delicious lunch, I took a moment to savor the beauty of the salad, with its combination of green lettuces, scarlet strawberries and creamy goat cheese. Toasted pecans and tangy dressing made it a delight to the tongue. The gift of this moment of mindfulness was a true gratitude for the abundance of food that the Lord has provided.

Lesson Three:

Friends are priceless.  The gift of someone who knows your heart and loves you anyway, who brainstorms with you on what you want to be when you grow up, who shares coffee with you just so you both can stay together and talk a little bit longer…this was the gift I received yesterday.

What has mindfulness given me already?  Peace and joy and a growing-in-gratefulness heart.

Come join me on the journey. I would love to hear your story.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness: A state of active, open attention on the present.
From Psychology Today  


The idea of being awake and aware in the very heartbeats of life is calling me. Right now, as I hear the fan blowing and the bird singing, I sense the light from the window to my right drawing me.  It illuminates the room and beckons me to come outside, into the clearness of the day.  Can I become this person, who is alive in the now-ness of life?  I feel the presence of the Lord in this drawing, He who is ever mindful of us:

In Psalm 8:4, King David asks, "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"

That God thinks of us...always, that He is the "I AM" and not the "I WAS" or the "I WILL BE."   

I shall try, for this moment, for this hour, for this day, to be "awake and aware," to be mindful of the day, of my own heartbeat, of the glory and truth of this "God With Us" season of joy.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

Psalm 92

Psalm 92: 1-4

It is good to give thanks to the LORD,

to sing praises to your name, O Most High;

to declare your steadfast love in the morning,

and your faithfulness by night,

to the music of the lute and the harp,

to the melody of the lyre.

For you, O LORD, have made my glad by your work;

at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

I awoke, O LORD, 

and You where still with me.

A retreat from my world 

into Your Arms,

Arms that will never leave me 

nor forsake me.

Thank you, Father, 

for the beauty of this world. 

The fall colors 
here in the North Georgia mountains ,
with the fog of early morning clinging to them, 
refresh and renew me and I know it is all a gift from You, 
evidence of Your ever-present love.  
Thank You for eyes to see 
You
this morning. 

May it always be so.  

Forgive me my busyness and hurry.  

Teach me to see 

and hear and experience

You

 in the everydayness of this life.

Thank you, Lord 

for Your loving kindness, 

which is new every morning.

The Joy of Late Summer Tomatoes

We are enjoying a rare and precious treat here in Alabama this beautiful October Sunday.  My husband found a supplier to satisfy our unending addiction to summer tomatoes.  A brilliant marketer-gardener planted a regular and a late crop of the delicious fruit.  We are such regulars, the gardener simply reaches under his produce table when he sees my husband, in his trademark Panama hat and Hawaiian shirt, approach and discreetly hands him his special stash of heirlooms each Saturday morning at the Pepper Place Farmer’s Market.

Heirloom tomatoes, as a rule, are not a pretty fruit.  Their wrinkles and pits may scare off the uninitiated, but to the addicted, they are beautiful.  Kind of like an ugly child to its grandparents.  Love sees no faults.

A little salt, a little pepper and the "Alabama Caviar" is ready.  Our sixteen-year-old even comes out of her room for a while to join in the feast.  World Peace is next on our list.

Too Many "To Do's" - Saturday's Woes

Some days I feel overwhelmed and splintered by all I have agreed to perform.   The jobs on the “to do” list tower together to make a pile of guilt that rival the height of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

The birds are being noisy and demanding my attention.  My husband scattered rye seed on the back lawn yesterday and the doves and cardinals can’t get enough.  There are birds in the trees around me that I haven’t even met yet.

We moved the big iron table with its six chairs to a shady spot in the back yard this morning and I just discovered that it has a strong wifi signal from the house.  Maybe my new writing spot has been created.

Thank you, birds and trees and greenness for helping me to forget myself and my personal skyscraper for a while.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

I'm preparing today for the gathering together of a new group of home school students at our home. I'm hoping to share some of the joy and art of my favorite people. Mary Oliver's poetry entered my life a few years ago. Her words speak deeply into my soul. I shared this poem earlier, but offer it again today.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down,
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?


~ Mary Oliver ~

(New and Selected Poems, Volume I)

The Picnic

I remember that picnic in Provence. Two daughters, my husband and I. We'd spent the day exploring, by car, the twisting vista rich roads of the South of France and hunger was fast approaching. Lavender fields competed with sunflowers in beauty and quantity. Our hearts were full, but our stomaches needed some attention. We drove into the cobbled streets, parked the rental car and begin the exploration of the enchanting town of Sault, Provence.

Boulle players, quietly discussing their art, bikers in tight outfits, lounging around for a mid-day rest and refueling of their human machines during this time of the Tour de France. Bikers were everywhere during our stay in France.

An Authentic Life

This is a writing that I was invited to publish on the Childlight USA site:

ChildlightUSA

Instrument of Peace - Prayer of St. Francis

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;
and 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. Amen

Ecuador

We will soon be taking a trip to South America and our family is so excited. Packing bug spray, cameras and clothes for living at the equator is keeping us busy. Leaving in the jungle for awhile promises to be life changing. I think I'm most excited about experiencing all of this with three of my children and my husband.

The Gathering

I have been busy organizing a new endeavor as we plan the upcoming school year for our youngest child. She will be the last one at home this fall. Three of our precious ones are married now and two are heading to college next month.

Enjoy!

http://www.gladysschaefer.com/

Mornings in Alabama

As I settled into my cozy leather love seat, balancing my breakfast of blueberries, toasted muffin, and coffee, I glanced up to see the show playing outside of my sun room's glass wall. A squirrel was, as usual, gobbling up the bird feed in the feeder. He looked happy and that made me smile. A bite of muffin, a sip of coffee and I turned my attention to the ground beneath the feeder.

Her red feet caught my eye. A small brown/grey bird with scarlet feet! Who could make this stuff up!? I laughed aloud to myself. She had friends with her, all dressed as she was, and they seemed to be having fun as they shared breakfast. They bobbed along, pecking at the scattered seeds.

I picked up my handy Alabama Bird Guide and found out the names of my new friends. Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroure. Their name comes from their soft mourning cooing.

All in all, a gentle morning time with new friends. What a great way to start the day.

Watching

I love Mary Oliver's poetry. It calls me to look, to expect the unexpected, to joy in the unknown surprises of life. I'm watching a menagerie of birds around the three-trunked tree that is home to our bird/squirrel feeder. A small grey squirrel jumps from the tree to the bird bath, has a drink, then returns to his vigilant attack on the feeder. The birds watch, like kindergartners on the playground, waiting for the big kids to go back inside so they can play on the monkey bars.

Why I Wake Early

by Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who make the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety-

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light-

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

This is from Mary Oliver's "Why I Wake Early" published by Beacon Press, Boston.

The Glad Life

“THE WORLD is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”

Robert Louis Stevenson shares this in his poem, “Happy Thought.” I learned of it a few years ago when I was teaching a group of kindergarten students in a Charlotte Mason school. I awoke this morning to the sunshine and the birds chirping and this poem flowed into my heart.

That is a picture of living “The Glad Life.”

Charlotte Mason wrote in her last book, “An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education” that “It may be that the souls of all children are waiting for the call of knowledge to awaken them to delightful living.” I think this is true of all humans; we are all waiting to be awakened to delightful living.

For me, God is the giver of these good gifts. I’m not always “glad,” but I’m on this journey of gratefulness that is leading me to a life of joy. I would love your company.

Blessings to you, dear reader, today and always.

Sunday Joys

Cracker Barrel's Sunday Chicken

It's salty savoriness swarms

over my tongue's taste buds

inviting them to joy, to delight,

to be alive in this moment.

Prayer

God, you have prepared in peace the path I must follow today. Help me to walk straight on that path. If I speak, remove lies from my lips. If I am hungry, take away from me all complaint. If I have plenty, destroy pride in me. May I go through the day calling on you, you, O Lord, who know no other Lord.

Ethiopian Prayer

My Gift To You Today - My Favorite Poem

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

The Meditation

"Lord, who hath praise enough?"

- George Herbert