Archive for January, 2011
“Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care about time?”
I woke with this old Chicago tune in my head and my first thought was, “Nope, not me.”
I am much better about allowing time to rule me. The long-ago words from my therapist–remove all the woulds, shoulds and coulds from my vocabulary–finally ring true.
For example, I woke early this morning. My mind immediately jumped to my task list that I “should” get up and tackle. My ego told me the hourglass was running.
Right then, in that semi-awake moment, I made a conscious decision to not care about time, or at least not self-imposed time.
I snuggled back under the covers and prayed. I envisioned God’s arms holding Sheri and Cliff in these uncertain days following his cancer diagnosis.
I pictured God’s grace supporting my old friend V. who suffers mightily with the disease of alcoholism.
My dad’s image swept across my prayer screen and I silently sent him peace.
Then I thought about my gratitude list and the opportunities to be of service this day.
God, please use me until you use me up, as Oprah says.
And I really don’t care how much time it takes.
How would you describe your life in song lyrics today?
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It’s not quite a giant leap for mankind, but my writing life has taken a giant step forward.
As I write this at 7:30 p.m., there is a young man named Satish who may be just waking up on Thursday morning in India. Satish and I have become Facebook friends, Twitter buddies and WordPress kin.
Two new hearts have connected in space and Satish’s heart is certainly generous. In the course of four days (and the intricacies of time zones), he has transformed B Here Today from a hobby blog to a professional, “run-with-the-big-dogs” site.
I feel like the dream of linking hearts through shared stories of passion and presence has passed through a momentous growth stage.
And, B Here Today, even in its infancy, is accomplishing what I hoped it would: creating loving connections that flourish in their focus on linking in the here and now.
I am amazed and awed by this venue of connecting one with another by clicking on words in the limitless blogosphere. It’s a heady experience, a grand opportunity and a humble responsibility.
My own heart brims with excitement as I end this day that has been wholly different from yesterday. Many thanks to Satish for implementing my inspiration.
To my readers, past, present and future: come back often to share your stories of presence and passion.
The blog will steadily expand and shift–I’m always open to your suggestions–and my prayer is that connections will be made and lives will change through the sharing of our collective experience, strength and hope.
B well on your journey! To the moon and beyond!
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“If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” Gal. 5:25
This scripture is a part of The Daily Word’s Guidance piece today and this post is a sort-of rubber-meets-the-road response.
How many of us can say that we live the by Spirit? A good majority, myself included. Most people I know in recovery have, in our lingo, “turned our will and our lives over to the care of God.”
In my experience, living by the Spirit and living by the Spirit are vastly different. The first simply requires speaking the words, going about your life and when something devastating occurs, assume that God is punishing you.
The second is a whole lot tougher because it means taking responsibility for my choices and my actions. While God is responsible for creating everything, I believe He abdicates responsibility of my choices.
However, if I embrace the second half of the scripture, “let us also be guided by the Spirit,” and I place all my meditative focus on those words, then what I get increases exponentially.
I get the gifts of being sober, of being of service (my friend Angela reminded me that this blog is a kind of service), the gift of being present to the circumstances of my day, the gift of smiling and the gift of feeling peace in the midst of a personal crisis.
Today is the six-month anniversary of Mom’s death. While I still miss her intensely, as I told Dad earlier today, when I think of her, most times I smile in my heart instead of feeling overwhelming sad. He agreed and said, “It’s better. It will never be good, but it’s better.”
Well said, Dad. It looks as if the rubber not only met the road, the tread gripped the pavement and we’re rolling along, with peace and even joy flashing by the open windows.
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I’m pretty excited to offer, beginning today, a weekly Mindful Monday blog post for my BHT readers.
MM is an inspirational writing and photo to help you open a channel for love, peace and joy to flow throughout your week. I know you usually have a ton of stuff to do on Monday mornings, but please take a moment to ground yoursel. I promise Mindful Monday will be a short read so think of it as setting the tone for your week. Let me know what you think and . . . Enjoy! (note: this was scheduled to depart my cloud early Monday morning, but thanks to operator error, is leaving mid-day–room for improvement is always good!)
I’m still thinking about the principle of Intention. Regular readers will recall that Intention is one of my power words for 2011. (see my January 11 post: http://www.bheretoday.com/2011/01/11/while-most-peoples-resolutions-wane-three-words-live/)
It occurs to me that setting a deliberate spiritual intention accomplishes little if not followed by a belief that a path will be provided. In fact, the path offers the perfect melding of Intention with my other two words for 2011: Source and Order.
Source is the way of orderly direction, or “demonstration,” to use an old-fashioned term. A demonstration cannot not work so long as the focus stays squarely on the intention.
What we think about we bring about, or as within, so without. The Rev. Ed Townley says he thanks God and acknowledges the joyful good in his life. The critical follow-up step, however, is to allow the good to express, and to believe it is good.
Are you demonstrating your good today and do you believe it IS good?
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I have three words for 2011: Intention, Source and Order.
Intention. To me, the word is interchangeable with Commitment. To set an intention effectively places a commitment right in front of me, directly across from my heart in the space between my outstretched arms. That space receives a blessing for my intention and then it is released into the universe.
Oddly, the act of release seals the deal.
Let’s talk about languaging for a moment.
It is common for folks to say, “I intend to go to the movies this weekend.” While they may intend to go the movies, the words are actually more a wish or a desire because if you’re like me, movies tend to come after household chores and errands (hmmm, maybe I need to write a post about priorities.) Get my drift?
I may say to my significant other, “I intend to get my hair cut today.” That statement feels more like an item to check off the to-do list instead of an intention.
Don’t get me wrong. Those uses of intention are proper and right, but there is another usage that typically follows contemplation, prayer and maybe even meditation.
To set an intention is like locking the hand brake on a car. Uphill, downhill, it doesn’t matter, that car will stay put.
An intention set well, isn’t going anywhere either so long as it’s locked in my affirmative prayer, conscious awareness and moving feet. Action has to follow awareness of an intention.
More from me later about the word Intention as it spans over 2011. If you were to choose three words for the present year, what would they be?
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In July of 2009, I had an epiphany. For about a month prior, I was emotionally distraught, increasingly depressed and having serious thoughts of drinking again (after 18 years of sobriety).
I struggled to wrap my arms around what could possibly be wrong with me. I had all the trappings of a good life, one others would love to emulate--great job, dream house, traveling for a living, a life mate . . . the list goes on. 
