For the past 6 weeks I have been participating in an online retreat offered by the Monastery of St Gertrude in Cottonwood, Idaho. The retreat was called “Now That We’re All Living LIke Monks : Lessons from St Benedict in a Time of Pandemic, Division and Reckoning.” I was really stretched and challenged by the retreat and particularly by the homework Sister Teresa assigned. But my favourite moment was the very last prayer/poem that she left us with as we finished up the retreat. The prayer was written by John of Dalyutha, a monk I had never heard of before. He lived from 690AD to 780AD, in Upper Mesopotamia. He lived in monasteries sometimes, but mostly he lived as a hermit in a cave. He was a prolific writer of sermons, treatises, maxims and letters. The letters have survived and have been translated into several languages in the centuries after his death. For a time they were banned, but then they were widely circulated throughout Asia, Africa and Europe. ( Wikipedia). You can order his works on Amazon today! It was a thrill to learn of this wonderful man.

Here is his beautiful prayer poem:

If you are tired and worn out by your labours for your Lord,

place your head upon his knee and rest awhile.

Recline upon his breast,

breathe in the fragrant spirit of life,

and allow life to permeate your being.

Rest upon him, for he is a table of refreshment

that will serve you the food of the divine Father.

What rest and refreshment John of Dalyutha provided for me today, and I hope for you too!

I had the pleasure of meeting with a dear friend for a picnic table in the park chat yesterday. It was a gorgeous September afternoon, we had not seen each other in person in many months and we wanted to share our hopes and dreams together. I didn’t know this friend was also a lover of drumming circles. Of course, we haven’t been able to participate in drumming circles for several months, but both of us remember the joy of coming together with others and how even people who have never drummed before are able to entrain with others, often with magical and beautiful results.

This rekindled my desire to host drumming circles in my expressive arts studio space as soon as the threat of COVID illness has passed. I am so hopeful that may occur as early as spring 2021. I talked with Mel, the wonderful woman who facilitates our circle and we decided that we would like to host a weekly circle in the spring as soon as it is feasible. We have set the intention, and a date to begin, and I pray with all my heart that it will be possible.

I picked up one of the books I have about drumming to try to find some words that would explain to you how wonderful drumming circles are, if you haven’t had the opportunity to participate in one as yet. In this book, The Art and Heart of Drum Circles, by Christine Stevens, I found a poem written by a twelve year old boy who loved attending a weekly drumming circle in his community. I thought his poem expressed what I feel far better than any prose I could write about it. His poem is found on pg 71 of her book:

When I Drum

By Sean Scheuring, age 12

When I drum I can hear my heart beat

I feel excitement from my head to my feet

It takes away my pain and worry

I don’t feel like I’m in such a hurry.

When I am drumming I feel free

My troubles fly away from me

And in comes all the peace and love

My spirit soars just like a dove.

When I am drumming with my friends

I feel like we are family

And when we drum we sound like one

One heart, one soul, one mind.

Mmmmmm!!!

I have been enjoying getting to know the work of Hannah Braime, a writing coach and blogger who lives in England. Her website is www.becomingwhoyou are.net. Now that I am on her mailing list, I am receiving her blogposts. Today’s was excellent!

She asked us to imagine a bow with two arrows, one of which has already been released. The first arrow represents a difficult life event, challenge or issue. The second arrow represents our judgment, criticism or negative thoughts about the first arrow, thoughts where we beat ourselves up or blame ourselves. If we choose to shoot the second arrow into the wound caused by the first arrow, it only makes the wound deeper, wider and more painful.

Hannah then tells us we have a choice! Instead of shooting the second arrow, we can choose to begin healing. How do we do that? By applying self- compassion, and self- kindness to ourselves, not self- blame or self- pity. Our inner critic usually doesn’t help us heal, but self- compassion does!

One way to access our self compassion is through journaling. Research has shown that when people spent as little as 3 minutes writing about a difficult experience, answering the question, ”Imagine that you are talking to yourself about this (weakness/action/ event etc) from a compassionate and understanding persepctive. What would you say?” , the participants felt better. That’s kind of cool!

At times like this in our world we can all use more self-kindess and self-compassion. When we feel it’s called for, we can pull out our journals and do a little writing, and expect to feel better. That is very good news!

Enjoy!

For me, September 1 has always been the ‘new year’. The kids are going back to school and we are all settling in to the new season as the leaves begin to change colour, we start getting out our fall and winter clothes, and our thoughts turn to what we want to achieve after the long lazy, hazy days of summer are over. We might decide to start something new like a new type of exercise or a a new course of study.

In today’s reading from Simple Abundance Sarah Ban Breathnach says that January’s resolutions are made “when we are worn out in spirit, body and pocketbook, and when we have no real urge to do anything but rest.” I feel that way about New Year’s resolutions too!

The beauty of resolutions made in September is, Sarah says, that they are private and no one else knows we making them. I love this distinction! I am enjoying a few days at home on my own right now, sorting and pitching, maybe doing a little clothes shopping, and looking at which online courses I might like to take this fall. Ooooh! A postcard making course offered by the Monastery of St Gertrude in Idaho looks good to me.. a new way to make art that seems doable, easy and fun!

What are you inclined to sign up for this fall? Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it all!

I had the opportunity to go to my home town’s art gallery yesterday. What an amazing treat it was.

First of all, there is nothing like an art gallery or museum gift shop! It was a treat for the eyes to explore what was available to buy. I mostly wanted to buy the beautiful handmade Japanese paper they have, so I can continue making my own greeting cards. I have been enjoying that so much during the quiet home days of the pandemic.

Secondly, I got to see the art show. This was made up of a single piece from each of the artists we would normally visit in person on the fall studio tour. This year, we are having an online studio tour. It was lovely to see the work of artists I have known and loved for many years, and to become aware of a couple of artists with whom I was not familiar.

Gazing at these works of art, displayed in a beautiful setting, with soothing music playing in the background, had a marvellous effect on me. The more deeply I gazed, the more the tension I didn’t even know I was holding in my body released. I felt a quiet joy, a peace and a serenity that I haven’t experienced for awhile. It was wonderful!

In our city, the art gallery just reopened and they are allowing one person in at a time to view the art show and shop in the gift store, every 45 minutes. For me, it was a bonus to be there on my own, enjoying 45 minutes of what felt like therapy to me! What a blessing! I can highly recommend checking out if you can now go to your local art gallery. If so, I wish you as relaxing and enjoyable an experience as I had!

May you be blessed with peace and rest over the coming weekend.

Love, Sue

Every once in a while God shows Himself/Herself very obviously in our lives.

This week was one of those times!

Our daughter Martha was home visiting from Thunder Bay. She is a teacher at the university there. She was wondering whether to spend her winter in Thunder Bay or southern Ontario, due to all her teaching being online this year because of COVID. As her mom I could see pros and cons for either choice, but what I wasn’t at ease with was that she didn’t have a car, and could not easily make her way home from Thunder Bay if another lockdown occurred

Martha has recently finished a PHD program and that meant having and paying off a big student loan. She wasn’t in a position to spend a lot of money on a car, but she had to have a good enough car to get her back and forth safely from Thunder Bay when needed.

I asked a dear friend who is a used car salesman at a dealership in town to keep an eye out for just the right car. I let him know Martha’s dream car, being an outdoorswomen, would be a used Toyota Matrix. We then settled in to pray and wait.

To our surprise and delight, a good used Matrix came in to the dealership! It was low mileage, looked like new and was within Martha’s price range! The man who brought it in said his wife had passed away, and she just loved her car. He asked, “Could you try to find someone who will love this car as much as she did?” My salesman friend was able to say, “I am certain I have just the young woman!”

The icing on the cake was that the car came in with snow tires only. Lo and behold, I still had a set of almost new all season radial tires, with sport rims!!, in our garage, from my previous beloved Corolla. The tires fit Martha’s Matrix perfectly!

This week, Martha took possession of her new car and returned to Thunder Bay. Whether or not she decides to stay in Thunder Bay or to return home to Peterborough for the winter, I know she can go back and forth in safety. I love that our God is a practical God, who knows what we need and loves to provide it for us. Thank you, Lord!

Gbarielle Roth said that the four universal healing salves are dancing, singing, storytelling and silence. I have found her words to be true!

In the past few years, I haven’t gotten to sing much, but on Saturday I had so much fun singing with an old friend who brought a karaoke machine to our house. I loved the songs he chose to share with us—they brought back such great memories. The main benefit, I thought, though, was getting to sing at the top of my lungs!

John had us sing “Moonshadow” by Cat Stevens and that awakened memories of university days. We sang some Gordon Lightfoot tunes, such as “In the Early Morning Rain”, another great tune from my university years. Songs like “Welcome to my World” were new to me, and so sweet to be introduced to! There were some Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin tunes, which brought me memories of Mom and Dad’s living room and these songs being played by my Mom at full blast, while she vacuumed.

I haven’t given much thought to why singing is one of the four healing salves, but for now I would say one reason is that songs can evoke memories of happy days in the past, and the enjoyment of those memories is enhanced by singing with other people who love the same songs and have happy memories associated with them too.

I don’t know how I missed having a karaoke experience up until now, but I was so grateful for my introduction to it! During COVID times, when it is difficult to create opportunities for singing together, in person, safely, I look forward to the days when we can do so again!

Something I have really enjoyed this summer is reading ‘cozies’. The term ‘cozy’ typically refers to ‘ a mystery story where any violence occurs off stage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and the detection take place in a small, socially intimate community’ (Wikipedia). I have expanded that to any series where the action takes place in a small, socially intimate community and where there is little to no violence involved. In other words, the way I feel when I read a story in the series is ‘comfy/cozy’, while still feeling delightfully involved with the characters.

I can think of 3 series like this :

1) The Irish Country Doctor series, by Patrick Taylor.
These are set in Northern Ireland in the 1950s, and are, for me, really engaging stories of a life in a rural village. I discovered the series this year and I am making my way through most of the books. I just can’t get enough of them!

2) The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.

This series is set in Botswana, and stars an amateur detective named Precious Ramotswe. I adore this series, as Precious has a very good understanding of human nature. The pace is slow!, but for me, I can remain engaged with the story and I laugh out loud a lot!

3) The Mrs Jeffries detective series by Emily Brightwell

This series is set in Victorian times. The detective, Inspector Witherspoon, is pretty good at his job, but doesn’t realize how much his household helps him solve the crimes with which he is involved. The books, for me are just adorable because I get to observe how the household helps him out so gently and respectfully and how, together, they always figure out ‘whodunnit’!

In COVID times, I find reading a ‘cozy’ before going to sleep is so enjoyable and so something to look forward to after being exposed to various kinds of distressing news all day. I can highly recommend finishing your day tucked into bed with a ‘cozy’!

About a month ago, my minister introduced us during a church service to one of the sweetest and most effective practices I have been exposed to, and now try to practice daily. I am not sure what its actual name is, but I call it Ten Finger Gratitude.

During the church service, Allan invited us to look at our 10 fingers and focussing on one finger at a time, name one thing we are grateful for. I loved doing this! It was so sweet and simple to actually focus on each finger and think of something I could give thanks for.

I have found as each day has passed since then, that the daily practice of naming 10 things I am grateful for has produced a lovely sense of contentment and grounding even amidst a time which is by its very nature very ungrounding.

I wanted to share this practice with you today in the hopes that you too will enjoy it and find it helpful.

Happy Sunday, Happy August! May this month be filled with the delights of the season… like juicy peaches, ice cream cones, lots of porch visits with friends and family, swimming at a beach and time to reflect, before the fall is upon us.

Hallelujah!

As you know, this year I have reading and savouring the revised version of Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. In the July 20 reading, Sarah introduced me to an English writer, Rupert Brooke. He was called ‘The Great War poet’ because he wrote during the First World War, and died in 1915. Sarah writes, “ Rupert Brooke spoke of those few lucky souls who could “ store up reservoirs of calm and content… and draw on them at later moments when the source isn’t there, but the need is very great.”

This idea really intrigued me. Wow! Is it truly possible to store up a reservoir of calm and content which can be drawn upon at later moments? Where in my body would I say this reservoir is/would be located? I can say that right now I don’t consciously have such a place of reservoir in my body, but I really want to! I spent some time this morning pondering where would it would be located. I thought of times in my life when great endurance was needed and an ability to stay calm in the midst of a storm. Where was the ability to stay calm located in my body? I think I know that part of it after thinking about it carefully. Now it’s a matter of consciously putting away a store of calm and content, like a squirrel gathers nuts and stores them for the winter. I am really looking forward to trying to do this, and asking God in prayer how to do this. I wanted to share this possibility with you too, as we continue to experience challenging times in our world.

With so much love and gratitude for each of you,

Sue