Dear Reader:

One bit of advice I have heard on a continuous basis this past year, since the pandemic hit, has been the phrase…” One step  at a time”….slowly, steadily… progress at your own unique speed.

I found a slip of paper over the weekend on which I wrote this metaphor that was discussed, I believe, in some type of meditation class on-line. I jotted it down quickly so I wouldn’t forget.

It read:

...”It’s kind of like we’ve all been thrown overboard by life in the last year, agreed? We’re swimming toward the very distant shore of “normal,” absolutely exhausting ourselves, instead of inflating the life jacket of now, literally wrapped around our body. Normal won’t save us. Neither will a “new normal,” by the way.

We don’t have normal, but we have the present moment. As we surrender our expectations in the present moment, we are gifted with adaptability and endurance.”

After I read this…I thought to myself…I would add one more gift...creativity is alive and well…in fact it has never been in such abundance in so many different arenas of life as now.

In order to adapt our pre-pandemic businesses, jobs, and careers…creativity has become a sink or swim floating buoy that must be utilized as a guide for us “boat” operators or else we simply watch our dreams sink before our eyes.

In my everyday personal life…whenever I mess up directions or forget a particular event or activity I am supposed to be at…it is always because I got ahead of myself. Instead of paying attention to the driving directions…I think about the destination I am traveling to…and miss the turn or slam on brakes at a green light that has already turned red.

Over the past few days we have talked about risks, loss, and grief…all normal components of life. When I discovered this little story about handling grief one step at a time…I thought to myself that I need to sign up for this course at some monastery. I could still use help in staying in moment and not getting ahead of myself.

In her book, Riches Stored in Secret Places, Verdell Davis talks about moving through grief one slow step at a time.

She describes the monasteries of ancient Europe where “the monks walked the dark hallways with candles secured to the toes of their shoes, giving light only for the next step. 

Eventually she came to grasp the meaning of  light for the next step-as the monks walked, the light always went just before them…we are not supposed to know any farther than this for one reason….God is the light!

So until tomorrow….

In the darkest pit of despair, when God gives us the light to take only one step at a time, His message to us is still simply :

“TRUST ME”

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh