Category: Heart - A Cottage by the Sea

Open your heart

4/22/2022

Here’s a little exercise to open your heart—to another, to gratitude, to the universe. You can do it when you’re in a crowd, with people you know, or while watching the news or looking at pictures in the newspaper.

The next time you’re in a public place, look into the crowd around you without being too obvious. Then make a mental note of one person—anyone. Ask yourself what it is about that person that touches you the deepest. Maybe it’s their innocence or smile….maybe it will be something as simple as how this individual deals with life’s challenges.
   Now close your eyes and imagine what your day would be like if you didn’t know that this person was in the world. Think of how empty that moment would have been , and how much you miss him or her.
   You may be surprised at the impact that such a simple exercise, in a brief moment, can make! Now you can give heartfelt gratitude and thanks for the person who was there for you, and what they taught you about yourself.
   Greg Braden, Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer, p. 114-115.

Open heart, open borders~

9/3/2016

    I must speak up about this immigration/refugee issue. Clearly it is a problem. But for whom? Not just for the countries ‘receiving’ people, but for the people themselves who are fleeing horrific situations that I can not begin to imagine. I have no experience living in fear of suicide bombers, starvation, or drug dealers.
     One of the building blocks of Judaism, Christianity and Islam ismigration. God told Abram to leave his country, and so began the wanderings of the Israelites. Ishmael, son of Abram and his slave Hagar, fled with his mother to the area of Mecca, and became a prophet of Islam. Jacob’s twelve children migrated to Egypt of avoid famine. The story of Ruth, the Moabite, is full of migration and intercultural relationships. Ruth marries Boaz, and gives birth to Obed, father of Jesse, and grandfather of David.
     On a personal level, my American ancestors were immigrants from Scotland, England and Germany; when I married I migrated from Connecticut to Colorado to my present home in Massachusetts.
     I know times are tough now, but if we don’t have a policy of welcoming the stranger, our hearts will begin to close and we will lose our freedom. Open heart, open borders.

Try happiness~

1/12/2014

Yesterday I attended the memorial service for my friend Denny, a friend for 45 years who died at age 90. Evidently she happily faded away, which is what all of us would expect from her. I remember Denny telling me that when she was a little girl she noticed that she often felt sad. “So one day I decided to pretend to be happy. And you what? I started being happy and I’ve been happy ever since.”

Simply smile the pain away~

10/14/2013

A smile is a gentle companion of silence, solitude and simplicity. It is quiet; it doesn’t invade anyone’s space; it is such a simple thing to do.

     Today while visiting a friend at a rehab facility, she and i decided to smile at whomever came into the common room where we were sitting. And with that, a simply amazing thing happened. Well, not really amazing, when you think about it. We got smiles back--from a sad looking man, from a nurse, from another patient, from a family visitor. Each stopped to talk with us, and in doing so, gave my friend some much welcomed attention. Because of the smiles, my friend and I didn’t have to talk all the time, which was just fine. And there was an added bonus; the smiles deflected some of her pain.

     I left leaving smiles in the room, hers and mine.

Love padlocks--an update~

9/24/2013

Back on September 9th I wrote about the hundreds of love padlocks attached to the fencing around the statue of Cellini, with the sign stating:

    “It is not allowed to hang locks to the railing.
     As it is ruled by the municipal police, Art 112
    Fine 1600 Euros to transgressors

      When my daughter and I wandered over the bridge on Tuesday morning we noticed that the fence was clear of locks. Sometime, probably during the wee hours, the keep-Florence-clean committee must have come along and cleared the fence. How did they do it? Most likely with a stash of keys. How long did it take? Without a doubt, all night.

     But the lovers are back. You just can’t keep them away. Already there are a couple of new locks waiting for others to join them. Even in the early morning security cars are waiting on the bridge, looking for pick pockets, protecting the jewelry stores from robberies, and guarding Cellini’s fence from those dangerous padlocks. Love is not a secure thing, I guess.

John Millspaugh's Sacred Ground

5/2/2013

In my last blog I wrote about the open-air memorial on Copley Square to the victims of the Boston bombing. When I was there, it felt that it had sprung up from the heart of every visitor and that that love continued to tend it day after day.

     I now have some more information about this phenomenon. I quote from the First Parish of Sudbury Unitarian Universalist

327 Concord Rd., Sudbury, MA 01776 newsletter. The words are those of Interim Minister Rev. Tracey Robinson-Harris.

(For the full text of John Millspaugh’s reflection go to http://www.uuworld.org/life/articles/285333.shtml)

       “The Rev. John Millspaugh was on Boylston Street recently. He writes, In front of a shuttered storefront, three small white wooden crosses stood with elegant simplicity, each bearing the name and picture of one of the three victims who died on April 15. . .adorned with ribbons and paper hearts, mementos and religious figurines . . . Because the police’s physical investigation was drawing to a close and Boylston Street would soon reopen, DPW workers were relocating the objects from the impromptu shrine to a larger one in Copley Square. At first, we passersby simply watched the DPW men as they loaded . . . items into their white van. Gradually . . . we flowed past barricades to help them with their holy labor. . . Both spectators and DPW workers seemed hesitant to remove the three wooden crosses standing alone on the granite sidewalk.

      “The DPW official in charge, noticing the clergy garb John was wearing from a Standing on the Side of Love rally supporting immigration reform earlier that day, asked him to say a few words before the crosses were loaded and the shrine dissolved completely. John’s prayer ended with, “May we all be the rebuilders.” John continues.

     “One of the DPW workers spoke softly to the official, who then turned to me and asked if I would carry Martin Richard’s cross to the van . . . I can’t describe the feelings that surged in me as I lifted the memorial to this 8-year-old boy. Sorrow, humility, and reverence for the sacred privilege come close. The destruction of that day cannot be undone. But it can be answered. Already we are busying ourselves with healing. . . There is much to do on a symbolic level. I’m beginning to ask myself how to move beyond the symbolic. I’ll be searching for ways to answer the destructive acts of these two individuals with actions grounded in my own highest values. I’ll be looking for ways that we, together, might re-consecrate sacred ground.

In the midst of our joy and our sorrow may we be (re)builders of the future.

In faith,

Tracey

(For the full text of John’s reflection go to http://www.uuworld.org/life/articles/285333.shtml)”

The new normal--it's all to give away

4/20/2013

It’s over. Well, not exactly over because we know that nothing is ever over; it just changes and we get used to the new disguise. In the past week there has been talk about the new normal, the implication being that this new normal will last forever. I don’t really understand these terms, but I think they are useful; they are the best we have to make sense of what’s gone on.

So today I step out into my new normal world, which looks very similar to my old normal. My routine hasn’t changed but my heart and spirit have new information, feelings, attitudes, heartaches, and gratitudes to absorb. Undoubtedly that’s true for everyone, and I mean everyone in the whole world. For some, unfortunately their routines have changed, too.

A few hours ago at Fenway Park Boston renewed its dedication to the new normal-- strong, loving, inclusive, positive. We’re willing share it. As the expression goes, “It’s all to give away.”

Feast Day of St. Francis

10/4/2012

Today is the Feast Day of St. Francis. I am posting this prayer because I believe that it speaks for all faith traditions and for all of us who want to eradicate the violence and hate in the world.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

My thumping heart

1/10/2011

Life doesn’t feel simple to me today. All that gun noise, and then the silence for the victims in Tucson. Today my sisters and I are going to clear out the room that our mother has called home for the past ten years. Mom is pretty silent, but my heart is thumping away for her.