Spirituality Blog

I've been reading a lot of fiction lately. When life feels a little too real, I like to lose myself in a good book. Since the beginning of the year, I've read four books - about two thousand pages worth. I found a new author I like. Her name is Robin Hobb and she weaves these complicated stories about another world where there is magic and dragons and pirates and the like. I've found that when you really need to escape, it's best to read stories that couldn't possibly be true. Fiction allows us to view the world through an ideal lens. People don't always behave properly in these stories, in fact most of the characters are incredibly self-serving and destructive. But there are always heroes. Characters who are righteous and true, who have integrity and morals and honor. I love when I learn lessons and learn more about myself as I read a work of fiction. Here are two that I have taken away from my recent reading.

Number One: In the first trilogy I read, there is a hero who is technically the ruler of a mountain kingdom. But she is not called a queen, she is called Sacrifice. She comports herself in such a way that all of her actions and decisions are made in true service to her people. I found this concept to be really interesting as I read the story. There was no ego present in her character and even when she experienced difficult challenges and heartbreak, her decisions always went back to what was best for her people. As I read, I thought about how different the world would be if our leaders saw themselves in this way, as Sacrifice. In our current government, what if everyone behaved in ways that recognized the impact of their decisions on others, and not just those closest to them, but everyone? In my last post, I talked about being kind. What if everyone woke up each day and resolved to just be kind? How different our world would be. 

Number Two: In the trilogy I am reading right now, there is a character who wanted to be a priest. He studied from a young age and then was pulled away from his studies by his father, a man who disdained his son's choice of path and forced him away from it. Throughout the story, the son draws upon his faith and what he had learned in the monastery to get him through many adverse experiences. He does a lot of meditation and is quite good at it. One particular meditation that I found rather profound was the idea of Forgiving the Day. In this exercise, as one meditates on the events of the day, any painful things that surface are noticed and then allowed to float away. Elements of the day that held insights or growth potential are held onto and filed away for later remembrance and focus. One then takes a moment to acknowledge the day as a whole and let the day go. Our guided meditation this week is based on this idea of Forgiving the Day. I'm sure it seems a little unorthodox to pull a meditative idea from a work of fantasy fiction. And, I believe that we get little reminders of the divine all the time from many unlikely sources. 

This week, I leave you with a hope and a challenge. 

I hope as you travel through the week, you take the time to breathe and embrace moments that bring you peace and joy. If you find yourself in a negative encounter, try approaching it with wonder. Take a deep breathe to steady your thoughts and step back to view the situation through different eyes. You may find it easier to move forward that way. 

CLICK HERE for this week's guided meditation.

This past week we moved on to the next step in our TimeLine project. For those who are working on your timeline and were not able to join us, we bgan the next step of putting our events into chronological order.  To start, I recommend you use decades as your categories.  As put them together, you will start to see groupings of events that will lend themselves to a particular "chapter" of your life.  Please refer to steps 2, 3 and 4 on the Instruction Sheet.