self care

Catch My Breath – Day 682

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Tohickon – Near and Far – Photo: L. Weikel

Catch My Breath

I had to stop at my sanctuary today. As so many of you know, Tohickon Creek is one of my primary sources of healing and solace. I feel love within its flow. My heart knows peace when I allow my eyes to drink in her yielding ripples. So in spite of the myriad obligations on my ‘to do’ list today, I physically took myself to this font of life in order to catch my breath.

The daily onslaught never ceases. We’re bombarded with outrageous conduct and insane accusations about institutions that we know are safe, reliable, and trustworthy. We’re gaslit and fear-stoked relentlessly in a cynical attempt to delegitimize our trust in the foundations of our society so that – finally admitted to out loud today – he can simply ‘remain’ in power.

Tohickon – ripples – Photo: L. Weikel

Here It Is

In case you missed it, if you want to know what the Trump Republican game plan actually is this election season, you must read this article. Everyone needs to read this article because we must hunker down now and prepare a game plan. Proceeding as if this is anything close to a normal year and a normal election cycle is utterly insane and irresponsible.

Everything is at stake.

Meanwhile, Breonna Taylor is treated as if she never existed or, perhaps more accurately, her life didn’t matter. At all. As I saw one person put it, the grand jury in Louisville valued the drywall of her neighbors more than Breonna’s very life.

But as I mentioned in my post the other day, it is essential that we take care of ourselves and prepare. If the way I felt today – and the way I think I saw so many of the people I love and care about (I’m looking at all of you, in one way or another) feeling today – is any indication, we must redouble our efforts to feed our souls.

Now is the time for us to do whatever it is that brings us peace. And no, I don’t mean numbing ourselves, tempting as that may be. Because that stresses our bodies. Numbing ourselves ultimately breaks down our immune systems – and let’s face it, we need to be beefing those babies up. Why? Because WINTER IS COMING – in every sense of that phrase.

Until you can get yourself to your version of my Tohickon, I share these photos with you. Drink them in. Let them nourish and sustain your soul.

We need to stay alert, pay attention, but most importantly, take care of ourselves and each other.

Tohickon – Peaceful Reflection – Photo: L. Weikel

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As I Was Saying – Day 244

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment

 

As I Was Saying…                           

I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent about Nauset Light like I did last night. I guess it was a memory I wanted to savor again, as I haven’t thought about the “I – love – YOU” light and the delight it brought my mother for a long time.

Thank you for taking that little detour with me.

What I originally intended to write about was the delectable experience of having days upon days to read a stack of books.

It’s been a long time since I’ve honestly experienced that freedom.

And the freedom I’m talking about is, when it comes right down to it, internal freedom.

It’s not as if I have any outside authority forbidding me from reading or restricting access to books. It’s my own judgment on where my time would best be spent.

I’ve been reading the same book (Come of Age by Stephen Jenkinson) for almost three months. That’s ridiculous, even for a slow reader like me. Granted, the prose is not light and breezy. It’s dense and ripe with perspectives that demand contemplation. It’s definitely not a summer ‘whodunnit.’ And I must admit, I’m enjoying the urge to ponder that this book engenders.

The truth is two-fold:

First, while I’m delighted that I’ve managed to write 244 consecutive daily blog posts, and I’m stoked that I’ve fallen into a reasonably predictable pattern of reliability, it’s also true that by the time I get everything written and ‘shared’ each evening, I only have the energy to read at most about two pages of my book before falling asleep mid-sentence. Given that the book is 388 pages, it’s no darn wonder I’ve been reading it for three months.

But the second truth is more damning.  The second truth is that the apparent lack of time to read I now experience as a result of my writing is baloney. I’m simply expressing in quite an obvious manner my disdain for my own self. I am the warden of my own ‘no time for reading’ jail.

And the irony is that I aspire to write. Therefore, I know that one of the greatest assets to my career is allowing myself to read copiously. So my resistance to permitting myself to return to those languid days of endless reading is not even logical from a practical perspective.

It’s just mean. Mean to myself.

Quite obviously, I need to reprioritize my life. I need to put reading and writing at the very top of my list. For as much as I’m asking myself to be kind to myself, it’s not easy.

My bedraggled copy – Photo: L.Weikel

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