The stuff

Thanksgiving this year was quiet, peaceful, and lovely. We lounged around the pool at my parents' house, told stories, caught up, listened to music, enjoyed family, and relaxed. We had turkey, rice, ham, potatoes, salad, and cake for dessert. No stuffing, though. Our Caribbean Thanksgiving turkey dinners don't necessarily include stuffing. Dinner, though, was absolutely perfect. The stuff it was full of made it complete, whole.

It is the stuff we are full of that comes through when we speak, when we are stressed, when we engage with others, when we relax, when we get angry, when we are joyful, when we are rushed, when we sleep, and when we wake. This is why dinner was so wonderful. Our family was full of love.

Today is a good day to be conscious of what we are full of. Is it fear, jealousy, insecurity, a sense of superiority, arrogance, distrust, doubt, worry, or anguish? If so, what comes through in what we say, do, think, and feel is impatience, haste, annoyance, suspicion, instability, apathy, hostility, faults, blame, and hatred. Or are we full of empathy, courage, equanimity, confidence, gratitude, tranquility, hope, faith, or love? In which case what comes through is appreciation, acceptance, consideration, kindness, calmness, affection, respect, politeness, and goodwill. Whatever it is that we are full of is the stuff of our thoughts, our feelings, and our words. It infuses our circumstances, our connection to others, our interactions, and our way of life. Let's be mindful of our stuff, of our what we fill ourselves with. Let's ask ourselves, what am I full of today?

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Slowing down the mind

Take a seat, if you can. Get comfortable. Close your eyes.

Form a mental picture of the word slow in your mind. See the word, feel the word. Slow.

Now form a mental picture of the word down. See it, feel it. Down.

Take a deep and slow breath in. Let it go.

Take another deep and slow breath in. Think slow.

Exhale softly. Think down.

Inhale slowly and deeply, thinking slow. Exhale deliberately, thinking down.

Inhale slow. Exhale down.

Inhale slow. Exhale down.

Inhale slow. Exhale down.

Slow. Down.

Slow. Down.

Slow. Down.

Stay in this rhythm for a few more minutes. Keep your breath slow and purposeful that it may slow down your breathing, slow down your mind, and slow down your heart. Feel your body steady, ready for today. Carry this energy into everything you do today. May this meditation help you slow down to rev up centered, aligned, and harmonious.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Moon River

I was writing while listening to instrumental music when Moon River came on and it brought me back to a time when I felt safe and loved and had never known sadness, cruelty, evil or hardship. It brought me to a time when my parents, my younger sister and I would go away for weekends at the beach. My dad would drive at night on our way there and he and my mom would listen to a Johnny Mathis eight-track tape. I was a child. No care in the world. And here I am remembering that time with tears streaming down my face and my chest rising and falling with nostalgia.

What a pain of a feeling. My knee-jerk reaction is to change the music and think of something else. But we really don't overcome feelings by ignoring them. We have to feel and so here I am acknowledging my sadness for a time gone by. Nostalgia is an awful feeling. I'd rather let it go, but here I am, holding it, understanding it, breathing it. What is this feeling telling me? In time, I will know and then I'll release it. Until then, I'm feeling it.

The delicate thing about this is that while we mindfully hold our feelings, we shouldn't act on them. We let them teach us about ourselves, about our perceptions, about our relationship to our circumstances and to others, and about our states of mind, but we don't act based on those feelings. Acknowledging and allowing our feelings without reacting to them can help us grow and can strengthen us, and can help us change or release our feelings.

Today is a good day to mindfully feel what we feel, fully acknowledging whatever it is we are feeling. Fully feel and not form a thought about it. Name, but not label. Realize but not judge. Let it be, let it pass, with reverence for our experience. Let's learn from our sadness, anger, jealousy, boredom, fear, dissatisfaction, nervousness, joy, excitement, and hopefulness. Let us today let our feelings guide us into a wiser and stronger version of ourselves.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

The basket

When we exited the elevator early in the morning, we found a basket full of candy on the receiving table of the lobby. Candy? I completely forgot about Halloween this year. There were no trick-or-treaters in our apartment building. There were no funny disguises, fairy princesses, Marvel superheroes, or ghouls and goblins ringing our bell looking for candy and a reaction to their costumes. That Halloween basket put a smile on my face, even if I didn't get to enjoy Halloween.

The morning was a bit hectic. It carried things to do, world, local and personal news, and thoughts and feelings from the days before. The energy was charged and heavy. The day's outlook was gloomy, busy, and not pleasant...until I saw the basket.

In our days we can focus on what is wrong with our lives or we can allow something small mean something good. In the basket of our days we can carry all sorts of points of view as part of a mixed bag of life experiences. The basket can be full of grief and grievances, full of lovely memories and hope, or full of both. The thing is that, though we carry all of the basket, we only focus on part of what's in it.

That anonymous Halloween basket meant to me that there are people who are good neighbors, considerate, generous, who enjoy fun, who care about others. It meant that not all is bad. There is sweetness to be shared. Today is a good day to remember that we can sort through our basket and choose what to focus on. Depending on what we choose to focus on, the basket can be a heavy burden or comfort, relief, and a blessing. Let's pick out what can help lighten the basket for ourselves. Let's look in our basket and find what sweets can transform our experience, what mix can make us thankful, what lessons have made us stronger and wiser, what memories make us smile, what realizations help us feel fulfilled.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.