Our writers group is 11 years old! Not a month has gone by without us meeting together to talk about writing, reading and life. To be honest, sometimes we only talk about life. But writing is still our way of making sense of our worlds as women, mothers, teachers - humans. Often we use a word, a quote or a prompt to keep ourselves accountable and actually write during a writers group. Yesterday, we each randomly chose a page from Andrea’s Find Your Calm notebook. Each quote seemed to resonate especially with the person who picked it. Once we finished writing, we also noticed the common thread of hope, trust and resilience that ran through all of our thoughts. We highly encourage the habit of daily reflection, especially through writing. You can start by writing 10, 5 or only 3 minutes. Pick one of these (or all of them) as your inspiration to start your writing journey.
“Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” - Benjamin Franklin
I come from a long line of worriers and anticipators of trouble. We are experts at writing worst-case scenarios. All those memes about what your mother is thinking when you don’t answer her texts? They were inspired by me and my relatives or mothers in general. Cell phones have allowed us to be in touch ALL THE TIME. Find My Friends lets me know where my kids are even if they are in some remote village in the mountains of Colombia. But with that the opportunities to worry and anticipate the trouble have taken on a whole new level. When someone doesn’t answer a text right away or their phone goes to voicemail, we don’t think: Maybe they left their phone at home or in the car, maybe it’s on silent; maybe it ran out of battery, maybe she’s in the bathroom and can’t answer. No, the first images that come to mind are of kidnapping, robbery or injury. I am happy to report, however, that the speed with which we recover from these doomsday thoughts and latch on to more rational and plausible explanations has gone down with each generation. As I have moved along in my fifties, I have gotten better at stopping these thoughts from consuming or overwhelming me. I have found that repeating to myself “God is good, God is great” reminds me of all the evidence in my life that backs these statements. As I age, I realize that this kind of thinking is not coherent for someone who fully trusts in God, His wisdom and His protection. As faith and trust grows, fear diminishes. It’s a journey and a process.
-Susan
Breath is the power behind all things . . . I breathe in and know that good things will happen.” - Tao Porchon-Lynch
Breathing in . . . breathing out . . . If I pull good in from my surroundings and let it nourish and enrich my body, my soul, my whole being, I can then breathe goodness out, sending it on to those around me.
When I inhale, the force of life fills my lungs and eventually all the cells in my body, empowering them. My heart beats, sending oxygen-filled blood to all of me. Because of this God-devised, life-sustaining miracle, my legs can move me to action for good. My arms can embrace those who need comfort or empathy, or simply a human touch. My mouth can speak words of truth, love, or encouragement when they are needed. My brain can formulate solutions to problems, large and small, and conjure new possibilities for myself, those I love, and all mankind.
When I exhale, all of the potential that has been nourished within me by the life-giving oxygen I breathed in is sent out into the world to flourish and grow. And the cycle repeats . . .
Even while I sleep, I breathe in and out, knowing that new opportunities are being prepared for me to inhale on the coming day. I can sleep well, knowing that good things will happen.
-Carolyn
“Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out for myself. - Chinua Achebe
It is pretty amazing the way that what one needs at any given moment will come to you, like a message in a bottle floating on the sea of life and heading straight toward you. Sometimes the message comes in a conversation with a friend, while listening to a song or in a quote found on a random page in a random book- just like the one above. It seems random, but it is as if the thoughts we have been turning over in our minds as we turn over in our beds- the secret wishes and prayers for insight and direction, not even spoken aloud, have become an echo that returned to us on the page of this or that random book. I know there are systems in the brain that are awakened by whatever we decide to pay attention to. It is the reticular activating system to be exact. It is the one that alerts you to every car on the road that is like the one you just bought or are considering buying. The one you now see everywhere though you had never seen it before. Yes, our brains get attenuated by the thoughts we think, looking for confirmation all around us, but I think it is also true that we call things to us by our thoughts. The more we think something the more of it we will see in our lives. This makes it crucial that I think thoughts about myself, others and the world around me that I actually want to see come to fruition. There is little use in thinking empty thoughts that only lead to insecurity, doubt and fear about who you are, who others might be and what life really has to offer. This brings suffering of all sorts. Take those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ - believing in the truth of who God says you are. Who we are and how we experience life is largely a product of what and how we think. Our words create our worlds. They beckon forth so much of our realities. So let’s think about who we are and decide who we want to be because what we think about we bring about.
-Andrea
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” Nelson Mandela
As a child, I played mommy. I was good at making sure my newborn plastic baby went down for her naps at appropriate times, and at the same time every day. No one wants to deal with a cranky baby if they can avoid it. Bath, book and prayers were our routine. Wrapped up in her blanket, and she slept through the night no problem. As the oldest sibling I took this caretaker role just as seriously. I planned and hoped to be a good mother some day, and I had to practice. Whether with my plastic dolls or my siblings. I had no fear or anxiety about this particular dream of mine. Even when I became pregnant with my first born, fear of labor or contractions never crossed my mind. (Although I was slightly nervous about morning sickness.) The bedtime routine I had perfected and implemented so easily with my plastic baby girl didn’t quite always go as smoothly. Now that I have two teenage children, a little fear has begun to set in. Fear of the unknown. Fear of not being with them every step of the way to guide their choices, or to “help” make sure they make the “right” ones. I’m afraid of my son going off to college in the very near future, and God forbid he makes a mistake without me being right there to do some clean up. But I know this fear is irrational. I can’t be there at every turn, at least not physically. They know I am no more than a phone call or text away, and that gives me peace.
-Esmeralda
