This morning I am awakened out of a deep dreaming state by my daughter’s regular phone call. She calls me on her way to work as she walks the 15 minute distance. She tells me there is a pile of snow out there. I go and open my bedroom blind and, wow, she is right. It is the most snow in one fall that I have seen all winter. Oh no. A huge amount of snow shovelling to do. I’m supposed to go to my writing group meeting and my sister and I are to meet for dinner in the late afternoon out of town at the Hungarian Club, then she is to return to my home for an overnight visit. I don’t think that will happen.
I go to my computer to do my morning scroll and my friend from Australia had sent me some very vile and disheartening videos with American men degrading women and their place in leadership. All this to emphasize our discussion before I went to bed of Renee Good and her hideous murder. I went to bed with the words “Fucking bitch” in my head. Thank God, it didn’t transfer to my dreams. But here it is again this morning.
Snow, cancellations, war, Gaza, suffering. I haven’t even had coffee and I’m all shook up. Too much bad news and not enough good. Too many tears and not enough laughter.
I keep scrolling and soon enough I have my favourite sites coming up. The ones that make me laugh, the ones of beautiful photography, the ones with inspirational words and soothing music. More new recipes. More cute children. More words of wisdom. More positives.
I’m getting back on track. I finish my first cup of coffee and begin to review my Facebook Memories, a morning ritual where I review some of my postings from the past. What was I was saying and thinking on January 15, 2025, and then January 15, 2024, 2023, and so on? Positive after positive words of inspiration come up again and again. Oh, how I need that this morning.
January 15, 2025 – “We all have dreams, but do we have the courage to live those dreams?
I remember a friend telling me she was too fearful to ask for love in her life because she was so afraid that if she got it, it would be ripped out of her life like a tablecloth being ripped off a table pulling all the fancy china with it. She was so afraid of achieving her dream because she was already anticipating the pain of losing it.
I told her that maybe, just maybe, the dishes will remain solidly on the table. That’s what makes it “the magical tablecloth trick.” If we never take the gamble, we will never get to experience the joy of living our dreams.
It doesn’t matter what the dream is. Maybe you desire a fancy car but won’t get it because you’re afraid it will get scratched in the parking lot or stolen. Perhaps you desire a child but can’t stomach the thought of losing that child while they are still young. Or maybe you have a dream to travel but won’t because you’re afraid you’ll get pick-pocketed or catch some horrible disease if you do. Maybe you want a better job but you don’t believe you’re capable of handling it.
Just dream. And start stepping towards the fulfillment of that dream. Believing it will come true and all will be well takes courage as well as an acceptance that it might not. But how will I ever know unless I take those first steps and begin the journey? BH”
January 15, 2024 – “Misery might love company, but so does joy, and joy throws much better parties.” Quote, Bill Ivey
January 15, 2021 – “Do not be dismayed by the brokenness in the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.” Quote, L. R. Knost
January 15, 2020 – “Teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my intuition, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, the blessings of my spirit. Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my sacred space, and love beyond my fear and thus walk in balance with the passing of each glorious sun.” Quote, Lakota Prayer
I learn these lessons best through conscious dance — a free way of moving that drops me directly into my body, releases my mind to a stream-of-consciousness flow, and ignites my spirit. Conscious dance teaches me full embodiment so that the lessons I learn on the dance floor go with me into my daily life. Conscious dance helps me to be a better person.
January 15, 2018 – “Beauty is quietly woven through our ordinary days . . . Everywhere there is tenderness, care, and kindness, there is beauty. “ Quote, John Donahue
January 15, 2015 — The Storytellers by Barbara Heagy
Reading good books inspires me. We need to tell our stories, they connect us, as we share the tapestry of our lives.
In more ancient cultures the oral story-tellers were held in esteem as they were the reservoirs of life tales. They ensured the tales of long ago were passed on to future generations, and not just for entertainment. The stories were told so that we would never forget, so that one’s memory could live on through future generations. They were told so that we could learn from the past. Stories helped others understand who they were and where they came from.
The oral story-tellers in our modern day culture exist now in bars where tales are told over foaming pints of beer, around campfires, dinner tables, and steaming cups of latte in the local coffee shop. We have become a world of printed words and pictures. Electronic media connects us and these are the new ways our stories are passed on in busy lives. Readers sit behind worn paperback books, computer screens, glowing Kindles and Smartphones. Facebook, Hotmail, Youtube and Instagram ensure we continue to share our lives with each other. We still love our stories. We still need the stories. Now we need the writers, the photographers, and the film-makers to be the tellers of the tales and, with technology, we all have the potential to be the story-teller.
Past or present, we are all human, we are all the same – we live, we breathe, we smile, we wipe tears from our children’s faces. We share joy and suffering, the strong look after the weak, we bury our dead as we, too, will be buried someday. Stories satisfy our desire to stay connected, for when our stories end, we end. Stories are as important for us now as they were a way back then.”
May my stories continue to lift others up as their stories lift me. Thank you for the story tellers.
And now, now it’s time for brunch. I’m back on track!
