Author: still a dreamer

Getting Too Caught Up

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

It’s so easy to get caught up in how much there is to do – how much work, how much running around, how much taking care of the kids or pets … how much, how much, how much. And serenity, inner peace, is out the window faster than a flash. Here’s where Monday morning often starts … already running with a mile long list of things to do.

It really is kind of depressing. We wake up and feel calm for about 2 seconds, then the to-do-list, the who-needs-what, comes crashing into our consciousness. How to stop this free fall of impending needs of others, our work, etc. that comes crashing on our heads so early? I do know the answer, but we really do have to do it.

And that is to take – or make – some small bit of time for ourselves. Whether it’s a short meditation, maybe a walk, journal, or doing whatever it is that centers us – in my case this morning, it’s writing a bit on my blog – it’s something to beat back the incessant demands of too much to do. All that stuff to do is not going away, but we can get them in a place where they are more in perspective and we can breathe. Take a deep breath … and let it go.

I’m writing this for me as much as for you who might be reading this … I’m still on the path of learning. And no matter how insistent all these demands are – unless they truly are life and death – we can be in a better space in how we look at it. Though it sometimes gets lost in all the crazy busy-ness, I always remember what Louise Hay says on her tapes – the only thing we can change is our thoughts. We can’t change the car-pooling, the amount of work our job demands, the daily errands, etc., but we can change how we think about them. It takes practice, but the getting too caught up in them is costly to our well-being.

So today I’m writing a little … I’m taking a deep breath … and starting all that stuff.

Have a great day!

Simple Words of Wisdom

/ still a dreamer

No doubt, you find and read books that inspire you, whether you read them on an ongoing basis, re-read them, or discover them for the first time. Same here. One of my favorites, that I fall back into periodically, is Simple Abundance – A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sara Ban Breathnach. Having read it from cover to cover when I first received this as a gift many years ago, I now always have it nearby and let it fall open from time to time to see what Ms. Ban Breathnach has to say on a particular occasion.

I thought I would share with you a line of inspiration that she wrote …  and an example of how the seemingly simplest thought can say it all —

“Learning to shrug is the beginning of wisdom.”

Chronos vs. Kairos

/ still a dreamer

How interesting that chronos and kairos should appear in my reading materials in so close a time frame. Not long ago, I read Madeleine L’Engle writing about it. Then on October 12th, in one of my favorite books, Simple Abundance – A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, Sarah Ban Breathnach addressed it. And as always, these “chance” messages were of particular relevance to my life at the moment, and my feelings of far too much to do in too little time all too often. Might you find yourself in here, too?

Ms. Ban Breathnach defines chronos as how we try and control time – clocks, calendars, datebooks, agendas, beepers, etc. Chronos is time at its worst and a delusion of grandeur – it is the world’s time.

Kairos, on the other hand, is time at its best. Kairos is transcendence, infinity, joy, passion, the sacred. Kairos let’s go and allows us to escape our own confines. It is spirit’s time.

We, who never seem to have enough time, are at the mercy of chronos … or allow ourselves to be. But we need kairos so desperately. We do already know it – it’s any time when we have been so wondrously involved in what we are doing at the moment that we lose track of worldly time and just are. And there we find joy, rapture, oneness with our own spirit.

But how to be in more kairos? Ms. Ban Breathnach recommends the following:

“* By slowing down
* By concentrating on one thing at a time
* By going about what we are doing as if it were the only thing worth doing at that moment
* By pretending we have all the time in the world, so that our subconscious will kick in and make it so
* By making time
* By taking time.”

She says, “It only takes a moment to cross over from chronos into kairos, but it does take a moment. All that kairos asks is our willingness to stop running long enough to hear the music of the spheres.

“Today be willing to join in the dance.

“Now you’re in kairos.”

Sorry, Henry — Sorry, Clare

/ still a dreamer

I tried – I really did – but The Time Traveler’s Wife just jumped around too much for me to follow at this juncture in time, when I am reading so sporadically. This book has such a unique and interesting premise, but I found, that with very little reading time available at the moment, (and often at the end of the day), that The Time Traveler’s Wife was not getting the true attention it deserved. And by all reports of friends who have read it, it’s tricky to follow anyway. So, back on the shelf it goes, to be picked up when I have the luxury of reading for hours on end and truly appreciating Henry and Clare and their time-spanning relationship.

What, then, should I choose? The finds from the Hunterdon County’s Annual Book Sale beckon! There awaiting me are best-sellers, favorite authors, new-to-me authors, and children’s books – lots of them. Among these are fairly current offerings and some classics. Of the latter are some I have not yet read, like Old Yeller, and some I have, including my current choice – The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

I can remember the copy I borrowed as a child from the Dixon-Homestead Library in the town where I grew up – it was a hardcover, and a medium dark green. I also remember loving it, and am curious to see how it stands up today. Written in 1911, The Secret Garden intermixed some of the history of Burnett’s own life with her imagination, and became instantly popular, and then in time, a classic.

Do you remember reading this as a child?

John Lennon – In Memory

/ still a dreamer

Everyone had a favorite Beatle.  I came to Google yesterday and found it would have been John’s 70th birthday. Fittingly, there was a great graphic and a short play of Imagine. It was actually that song that inspired my blog name. Nice job, Google.

But the song that’s been running through my mind  has been Across the Universe.  “guglielmoniki” did a lovely tribute to him, and I brought it in here for all of his fans. John was my favorite.