Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity & Love
Shhh … Silent Sunday. 1/18/26
Tag: Meditation
Five Friday Happy Bringers 5/23/25
1. Air conditioning! Savannah …
Ridiculously hot for spring. And yet, there is no climate crisis?!
2. Our bathroom window curtain.
It is a physical manifestation of simple joy.
3. Our incredible cell phones. (And occasionally the common sense to put them down.)
4. Reaching 15,000 minutes on my 10% Happier meditation app.
5. Reading this terrific new little book about the wonder of our natural world.
And here is a neat little Serviceberry tree outside our cottage at a recent state park stay.
May you discover some Happy Bringers in the weekend ahead.
Taizé Two 3/19/25 “Into Life”
This evening brought the second Lenten Taize service at our church, Asbury Memorial here in Savannah.
I love the almost somber beauty of Taizé.
Here’s the simple quiet chant we sang meditatively several times during the brief service:
“Bless the Lord, my soul, and bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, my soul, who leads me into life.”
(And if you, like me, from time to time have difficulty embracing the concept of a faithful God, perhaps just switch the wording of Lord to “greater than me” or “universe” or whatever works for you.)
We also recited together the powerful Prayer of St. Francis:
My Saturday Evening Post: 1/11/25 “The Highest Bidder?”
So back in 1985 I started saving my yearly/monthly calendars.
I’m not sure why.
So that makes … what? Forty years in 2025.
I suppose it started out as just a way to remember birthdays, appointments, to do’s and other important (or unimportant) dates I was prone to forget. This was before the days of “Siri, remind me ….”
But it morphed into jottings of my hopes and dreams, my frustrations, my successes, my problems, my New Year’s Resolutions (difficult to look back over today), my very … non-Facebook life.
As I skim through the pages of years/years of pages, I see emerging themes: family, children, travel, career, wife, ex-wife, coming out, husband, grandchildren, parental deaths, medical issues, joy, sorrow … Life.
I’m not sure what to do with them. Leave them to my daughters? Burn them?
The National Enquirer? People Magazine? The highest bidder?
Here’s to my new calendar for 2025 and whatever it may bring.
May your 2025 calendar be filled with Good.
And that’s my Saturday Evening Post. 1/11/2025.
Rest in Peace
So today I took down (a tad sadly) our Travel Tree.
If you have followed my little blog for a while (and why on earth would you not?), you may remember that Robert and I have a second, smaller Christmas Tree which we call our Travel Tree. All the ornaments are ones we have purchased on our various travels.
As I cleared the little white tree, my eyes kept resting on a couple of simple ornaments.
And I didn’t want to hurriedly take them off. So I let them hang around a while longer.
HR and I have visited Plains, GA, hometown of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, a couple of times, appreciating the small town that birthed such a tremendously kind and humanitarian couple.
May President Carter, as he is being laid to rest this evening next to his beloved Rosalynn, finally Rest in Eternal Peace, after a long life well lived.
Should’t I?
Seriously, shouldn’t I be a guru by now?!
Today I hit my 1000th mindful day of meditation!
Feeling a little proud of myself, I scrunched down and got all mindful … about a congratulatory and summery peach milkshake.
Tomorrow … 1000 and 1.
One-Word Wednesday: 6/26/24
“Calm”
Morning meditation by the pond at Savannah Botanical Gardens
Countdown to Christmas: 12/24/23 — “Sing a Christmas Song”
This year my Countdown to Christmas is a nontraditional Advent Calendar centering (pun intended) on mindfulness.
On the front of each card is neat little picture, and on the back are the instructions for the short meditation.
Today, the 24th and last Day of Advent … SING A CHRISTMAS SONG.
Here are today’s instructions:
Activating your body, mind, breath and voice, there are few activities that involve you more comprehensively in the present than singing. Your task today is to sing a Christmas song.
Don’t worry, this need not be some grand solo performance to an audience – it could be singing carols as part of a group, an a cappella version in the safety of the shower, or simply singing along to a song on the radio – wherever you choose to sing, all that matters is that you give it your full attention and really go for it.
Feel the breath in your chest and the vocal vibrations in your throat; hear the sound of your voice; follow the patter of the melody, consider the meaning of the lyrics. Feel the various emotions involved, both in the tone and message of the song and in the personal feelings you get from the activity of singing. And most of all, enjoy singing for singing’s sake, for the fun and expressive act that it is.
Singing engages you completely in the moment and can be as relaxing as it is exhilarating.
Here’s a short video of grandson Daniel and his girlfriend Amalie singing “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” at a Savannah Ghost Pirates ice hockey game last night …
May your Christmas 2023 be a Song of Joy.
Countdown to Christmas: 12/23/23 — “Free Writing: Christmas Past, Present and Future”
This year my Countdown to Christmas is a nontraditional Advent Calendar centering (pun intended) on mindfulness.
On the front of each card is neat little picture, and on the back are the instructions for the short meditation.
Today, the 23rd Day of Advent … FREE WRITING: CHRISTMAS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
Here are today’s instructions:
Get a pen and paper and give yourself half an hour for this mindful writing exercise. In three ten-minute periods, you will put pen to paper and write, without stopping, on the subjects of Christmases past, present and future, and see where this takes you.
Set an alarm for ten minutes and start writing about Christmases from your past. This could begin with a memory, an image, a feeling, a description of a scene. Just take the first idea that comes to you and run with it. Don’t worry about quality – nobody else will read this but you.
Don’t stop until the alarm. If you find yourself stuck for something to write, just write random words until a new thought takes over. If the subject veers away from Christmas, no problem, just go with the new thought and see where you end up.
When the ten minutes are up, reset the alarm and start writing again, this time starting with thoughts on the present. How is the current advent period going? How do you feel right now? Start writing and follow these thoughts, submitting them to paper without pause.
Next, repeat the exercise for Christmases of the future. What are your hopes, expectations, predictions? Again, don’t worry about writing badly or if the subject changes. Just keep focused on the act of writing, on following a thought from your mind to the page.
Finally, mindfully read what you have written.
H.R. writing IN HIS SANTA PANTS at Tugaloo State Park in Gumlog GA …
NealEnJoy 