Faith Kept Me Company

Faith Kept Me Company

I recall a child who came in with intractable dystonia. Dystonia is a movement disorder in which a person’s muscles contract uncontrollably. The contraction can be one muscle or so severe as in this child’s case and affect her whole body to twist into an abnormal posture. Once, I was passing by and I saw the child’s mom sitting alone by her daughter’s bedside. She had such sadness in her eyes. I went up to her and asked her if she needed anything? She shook her head. I just gave her a Kleenex and kneeled down beside her. She started to cry. After a few minutes, she began to tell me about her beautiful daughter. Stories came and I could feel such love she had for her little one. She showed me pictures of her daughter when she had no dystonic twisting….just simply a happy girl, living a carefree life. I stared at these pictures and I stared at her lying twisted in her bed and I could feel the tears well up in my eyes. I think mom took notice and began to comfort me rather than me comforting her.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the little girl was in pain. I would imagine it would be very uncomfortable with muscles seizing constantly causing her to lie in these contorted configurations. I wished I could provide a cocktail of medications that would work on her. Medication after medication…it wasn’t working. I felt so sad for the mother who had to watch in helplessness. Many weeks later, I saw the mother again. This time, she was coming to the ICU for a visit because her daughter had recovered enough to be upstairs on the ward. I was both astonished and happy for her and the little girl. She let me know that her daughter was able to move again!! I said to her, “I didn’t want to tell you this at the time, but I really don’t know how you did it….being alone at the bedside week after week.” She replied with gentle eyes and a smile, “Faith kept me company.”

In The Morning Stillness Comes The Dawn of A New Day

In The Morning Stillness Comes The Dawn of A New Day

In the morning stillness, behind the first dim of light, comes rolling in softly where Spirit is most close. You have arrived from your unconscious to the brink of consciousness. Thoughts begin to roll in like the gentle waves along the ocean side, like the sprinkle of the misty rain, like the first rays of a rising sun. Watch as you become an observer of what begins to surface, for it is a message gently reaching you, attempting to connect to your soul. In your recognition of what thoughts hits home to you, stop to notice what thoughts you love most – for that is what you share your mental home with.

Some mornings in those golden moments, I can hear the gentle hum of the home, for it is not complete silence. I can hear the morning call of the birds starting their days. I can hear the gentle sound of air rolling in and out of my husband on one side and my dog on the other. 

Other mornings, I hear pieces of musical lyrics that play several times over like a record player on repeat, playing to greet me for the day. It’s taking notice of these repeated messages coming my way.

Today it sounded like this:
“Oh Mr Sun, Sun, Mr Golden Sun, please shine down on me”
“Don’t let the sun go down on you”
“I’ve got sunshine in my pockets and the good soul in your feet”

These messages are beyond popular tunes, they are lyrics that produce a more meaningful meaning to me for the day. They are the words that Spirit is reaching out to see if my soul has awoken to begin a passage of communication together in the morning quiet.

Experience this gift of divine affection. Seek it out and present yourself to your creative Spirit in a moment of sincerity and gratitude. Take in the stillness of the morning quiet to be alone with your “Spirit-mate” to experience feelings of peacefulness, openness, and tenderness for receiving this “shimmer of light” that shines everlasting within you, beyond you and for you.

Single Step

Single Step

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tze.

These words are printed on a banner that hangs on the corridor wall to my children’s bedrooms.   These words are so profound because life is a journey.  It is a journey of many thousand miles.  

How do we spend the days given to us wrapped as a gift of Life?  Is it filled with to-do lists?  Is it filled with activities that don’t give us any meaning?  Is it filled with wishing and dreaming but never blossoming to fruition?  

Life is a precious gift.  It is a miracle.  It is a blessing.  For many, the journey in our life is a path of steps.  Recognize that this path has no defined route, direction, shape nor form.  But without a map, how do we know where to go?  

This journey of a thousand miles just begins with a single step.  With each step, our internal compass will spin around and it is up to us to heed attention on where is our own North Star.  By following our own internal North Star, we walk towards our brightest light and best versions of ourselves.   But without taking any steps, our compass never spins and we feel stuck and paralyzed.

Something can feel daunting if the desire is too big or lofty.   Rather than giving up at this point, take a single step towards the bigger vision.  Just like an infant beginning to walk, he/she needs to take a single step before he/she can take a series of single steps.  Goals are achievable with a series of small single steps.  This website was a compilation of many small single steps.

My life has been my journey.  Every moment led to the next and I believe it was by having an open and very curious mind that led me to take another step and another step.  Knowing the destination was not as important as paying attention to the learnings along the way.  I would try new things and take notice as to what my body, mind, and soul would say to me in their own languages.  Each step taught me something new, revealed new findings, attracted new teachers, and created new experiences that I never would have discovered if I had not taken a single step.  

Turning it over to you:

What would a single step look like for you?

Look back 10 years in time and see what steps you took to get you to where you are now.  How did the steps lead you to where you are today?

Would it be enough for you to stop and stay put from this point forward?

Tips and tools to hopefully help you:

  1. Imagine the childhood game “Hopscotch”.  Decide where you want to throw your stone to and ‘hop’ there.
  2. Steps are not measured by gap distance; it is measured by absence or presence of a step taken.
  3. Whatever question you ask yourself, look it up on “Google”.  There is an answer if you seek and for every question that you ask.   
  4. Notice your level of fulfillment and/or engagement at each step.  Each step is meant to learn something about yourself.

Life is an adventure and a soul school and you are meant to be here on this planet to learn from your series of single steps.  So go ahead, take that step.  Sometimes it may be forwards, backward, sideways, up, or down.  Regardless of where the step lands, congratulate yourself for being willing to take that single step.