The practices of your week and day may drain your life, but what practices restore your soul? ‘Oh, that’s so good for the soul’ Sometimes I hear people say that. Sometimes I say it myself. It’s that moment when you feel a restoring of something drained out of you. You […]
Rhythm
34 posts
Life and activity can drain our mental health, but there are places to restore. Take notice and soak in them. There is a place I want to go to. The gardens are beautiful. Full of colour all year round. Fruit trees are full of ripe fruit ready to be eaten. […]
Moments of thankfulness often pass us by without acknowledgment. But what might happen if we create a habit of noticing and capturing them. From one thousand gifts to three thousand gifts and counting. This is a Guest Post from Pauline Turnbull. It all began on the 24th of October 2020 […]
Grief and loss are always on the horizon, but we can prepare to grieve well. This can help with the grief we are carrying now. I am pruning roses at the moment. It’s winter here in New Zealand as I write this post, and one of my tasks every winter […]
We are all in a daily grind of struggle, but when you listen for the voices of demand, you can learn to be kind to yourself and others. You can find rest. This person deserves a medal. Sometimes I listen to a person sharing something of their lives, and I […]
When chaos comes, or we become aware of the mess we are in, we have choices to make. Charge at it, retreat from it, or engage in the mystery. All the nicely laid out plans had been turned upside down. I had a recipe for life, and now all the […]
The noise of our world will never fully satisfy, but when we learn how to listen for whispers, we find a safe place for the soul. I wonder when the first sound was made? Was it a big bang or the quietest of whispers. As the sound waves vibrated out, […]
Thoughts and feelings can whirl you away from being centered. The practice of stillness can calm the mind and bring back clarity. The Bible has verses to help us on the way. Sometimes I feel like I am on a long bungee cord. I run off to do this and that. […]
Life will blunt your edge. The knocks, the scuffs, the micro-abrasions and who you are gets dulled. Having a daily sharpening practice keeps your mental health having a fine edge. I was getting frustrated. I was cutting down a tree with my chainsaw, and it was taking forever. The teeth of […]
When we record an event, a time, a place it grounds us in the story going on. As we make a mark, we speak into the wispy winds of today’s experience a permanence and faithfulness. The struggles in the mind today can become the weather forecast for tomorrow unless we remember the records we […]
We can listen to the obvious – noise, distractions, voices, but it takes a focus to notice the whispers. Mental health comes from a spirituality that is listening for the quiet and unspoken. It was the busyness of their life that concerned me the most. Jumping from one thing to the […]
Feeling flat and empty can become an invite to feeling full of depth and not a step into depression. Focusing in on something and someone bigger than ourselves can revive a flagging soul. There are times when I feel flat. Life feels meaningless and like it’s one cyclical trip of […]
People will always keep crossing your boundaries when your heart is bent and buckled out of shape. But that heart can recover and be filled with courage. It takes time and catching some breath. ‘You need to set some boundaries’. As they said this my heart sank. I knew that […]
If we are going to navigate life well, we must nurture the gift of stillness. Distractions will vie for our attention, but only one that is true will be heard if we quiet ourselves and be still. Looking up at the stars through a crisp, clear winters night I wondered […]
Three hundred thousand pilgrims walked the Camino de Santiago in 2017. These ancient pathways in Northern Spain have allured people from all over the world. But why? What is the reason that these trails have drawn so many pilgrims for such a long period? Camino means ‘Path.’ Just a little […]
Okay, I admit it! I like retro cartoons. The other day I caught a glimpse of the intro to the Jetsons – particularly the scene where George Jetson is walking the family dog Astro … on a treadmill! I still chuckle! (This is a guest post from Michael Rose) The treadmill idea reminded […]
If you put your nose to the grindstone rough, And keep it down there long enough, You will soon conclude that there are no such things, As a brook that babbles or a bird that sings. These three things will your world compose: Just you, the stone, And your ground-down […]
When I saw my mother-in-law talking very loudly in a distant relatives’ funeral, I then remembered that she didn’t have her hearing aids in, and of course, this made perfect sense … in a dream. Sleep is good and was made to be good. Within the world of our dreams, […]
You can’t carry things while you’re asleep. That may seem a silly statement to make as it seems so obvious. So writing a To-Do list can take those items into tomorrow and give your mind a clear space to sleep. You want a rest, a real rest. One where you […]
My father’s flannelette pajama shirt was always cozy and warm. As a child I would climb up on his lap, cuddle in and go off to sleep. The rhythm of mums knitting needles clicking beside me added to the feeling of being held and loved. It was a place of deep […]