When the Grass Appears Greener…
Author: Angie
A Connecticut resident, California native. I have been on a life-long journey of self-discovery, searching and defining my life’s purpose and how to live my best life.
The Journeys We Walk Alone
What journeys have you taken alone?
Mine are always the internal, spiritual, intellectual journeys.
I am currently on such a journey: a trauma recovery journey. A journey I’ve walked many times. A lonely journey, if faith was not my companion.
Still, I can’t take my earthly companions with me. It’s a journey I walk with God, with my faith; believing in the currently unseen light at the end of the tunnel.
With faith we are never truly walking alone. It won’t be easy or quick, but this too shall pass.
The Eternal Struggle: Status Quo vs Change
How do you practice “silencing the mind”?
This has always been my challenge and my desire. When I am successful, amazing growth, understanding, acceptance happen.
Getting off that mouse wheel of Life is the struggle.
Then again, sometimes I’m so worried I won’t like the answer that I intentionally practice avoidance.
Like right now… I know job applications should be top of my list, but it’s scary putting myself “out there” and easy to laze in the “status quo.”
My boundaries have improved and I’ve been granted 2 days off instead of one. (It’s taken 2.5 years and a serious bout of burnout). Now, instead of moving toward the NEW I’m languishing in the FAMILIAR.
I see this quote in two parts: willingness to step outside my comfort zone AND willingness to be quiet with myself to hear the answer to the question, “What is my next step?”
Share your thoughts. Expertise. Experience.
How Rare Is This?
How rare is this for you?
For me, this is my “Unicorn”. In today’s world people SAY they are open minded and all inclusive, but what they mean is: THINK LIKE ME.
THINK LIKE “ME” Is impossible. Unless you are a computer. A computer only has the information YOU add. The WORLD doesn’t work this way.
Every person comes with their own unique personality traits, which shape and are shaped by their personal life experience and the perspective of the culture and place in which they live. This puts us each in our own way of perceiving the world and the information we take in. And… Holy Moly!! There is a lot to take in! All the time, everywhere!
Add in our culture, place of origin, family upbringing, social setting, and personal life experience… and you have an individual who could be working, living beside you with different outlook on life and every little piece in it. None of this makes them, their thought, belief’s, understanding of incoming information “Wrong” if it is different from yours.
I find it’s a rare person who can listen without judgement. It’s rare to find anyone I can have an open honest discussion about…anything, agree or disagree, and still respect each other as unique and beautiful people we are.
I feel blessed to have met 2 people (one being my husband) who I can share any thought or feeling, thought out or still in development process, without fear of judgment.
We may not agree, but we always respect each other’s thought process, life experience, and learned knowledge that has brought us to the discussion “table” as valid and honest.
Have you been fortunate to have a family member, spouse, partner or friend who has let you be yourself in all aspects of your “being”?
Share! ❤️
The Lessons I Learned, AGAIN
Not gonna lie. 2021 really challenged my @fiveminutejournal attentiveness.
For the first time in three years I was not very good at doing my daily gratitude. I found myself trapped in a depression I couldn’t “Gratitude” Practice my way out of and everything I was in the pattern of doing for over 2 years came to a screeching halt.
I know what it’s like to feel stuck in a dark, unrelenting place. I was so burnt out from work, world noise, and the everyday negativity that seemed to permeate everyone and everything around me that I couldn’t see a way out…not even a way through. I got stuck in the “quicksand” of my hopeless thinking and all my positive practices slipped away.
- First to go: yoga.
- Then art/creativity.
- Months later by my Daily Gratitude Practice.
- Last was my daily water consumption (I always hit 64-80oz).
I finally admitted in October that I had hit bottom.
Here I have to say my therapist kept me from totally drowning. Weekly sessions, working on tiny “No’s” was truly my first step.
I had lost all sense of boundaries. I was an empty shell trying to still get through increasing stress at work, failing to be there as the mother, wife, and friend that I so love being. All because I had stopped “filling my cup.”
Peeps, I cannot stress enough the importance of caring for yourself FIRST.
I continue to learn this lesson the “Hard Way.”
Please, if you take away anything from my experience, let it be this:
- BOUNDARIES
- Acts of SELF-CARE
- GRATITUDE
Keep these ALWAYS.
Then GROWTH is possible. And growth is necessary to our human experience. Growth keeps us moving forward. Keeps our minds elasticity and our body strong.
I pray that I never give up my desire and joy in learning new thing: skills, lessons, practices.
May 2022 bring you back to yourself, if you were lost; bring you positive energy, if you are feeling stuck; love, if you are feeling alone.
Blessings❤️
Calvin and Hobbes Humor and Wisdom
I’m still not there yet!
Too much information is not necessarily a good thing.
Nowadays everyone has something to say and no responsibility for the consequences for their words or actions.
This makes for a world of crazy information we are left to decipher into usable, logical, useful knowledge.
It’s exhausting!!!
I think I will just hide under a blanket and read a novel until the world makes sense again.
Peace out! ✌️
Wisdom from Voltaire
“What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.”
― Voltaire
Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
Add a Dash of Sarcastic Humor!
When I need a good laugh, I lean toward sarcasm.
What makes you laugh?
The Beach
Lately, The Beach has been my temple. Before you think I’m crazy, hear me out.
The beach is a calm place where I connect with: Nature, The Universe, and God.
Do you have a special place?
When I feel lost, lonely, scared, angry, confused, stressed, depressed, or anxious; I turn to nature – most often the beach. Even in my mind, I can picture the sand, hear the waves and the seagulls, feel the breeze on my skin, smell the ocean water. The peace washes over me and a sense of calm is restored. This is when I can here God’s answers most clearly.
New Year’s Day was foggy and wet. Still a walk and the beach was healing and full of hope for the New Year.
I have spent most of my life living on one coast or the other in the USA. For this, I am blessed and grateful. I know this because I’ve spent short stints living in places that were land-locked… and my soul cried out constantly for the sea.
I know not everyone can live by an ocean. Even now, I technically live on “The Sound” which means no BIG WAVES.
Still, I am interested… is water your element? The ocean, the sound, the bay, the lake, the river, or the stream.
Is Earth your element? The woods, the mountain, the prairie, or the desert.
Are you a people-person who needs a building and a congregation? Church, Temple, Mosque.
Are you an Atheist or a Believer?
Where do you find healing? Is it God? Buddha? Hindi Gods & Goddesses? Mohammed? Christ? Nature? Mystical Energy? The Universe/Nature?
For me, I see “God” in all things. I love the teachings of Christ, The writings of Buddha, The energy of Nature, and the Mystery of Native and Celtic Mythology.
Wherever you are in your Faith Journey, I hope you feel the presence of a guiding Spirit holding you close and carrying you through these troubled times.
Empowerment.Vitality.Evolution. 