NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

My husband and I have been meditating since early 2013, at first weekly, as part of a group, and of late, daily, using an app on our smart phones. But then almost everybody is meditating these days, or knows someone who is. What was virtually unknown in the western culture just a few decades ago has become an accepted practice. So I sit there everyday focused on my breath, the breath that has worked consistently over the last 74 years without any conscious effort on my part. But once I give it my undivided attention, my mind either consciously inhales and exhales or I find myself gasping for breath and feeling as if I have stopped breathing. Over the last number of months I have come to realize that the mind is so into control that once it has the chance of controlling the breathe, that is exactly what it has to do. WOW! This breath I’m watching has been working away unnoticed for my complete life. In fact without it there would be no life. It is that important. Yet, once my a

Hope is the dance for the future! My husband and have different ‘ways of going’ at the gym. He starts off quickly on the walking track and gradually slows down during his laps. I start off slowly and by the end of my time am walking more briskly.   I do my walking continually while he breaks his up resting briefly between the sets of laps completed. But at the end of the day and more importantly, of the month and the year, does it really matter? I suspect not. We are each fulfilling in our own way and at our own speed what is required for us. What really matters is that we are consistent with what we are doing.   And what keeps us coming back to the gym, day after day, week after week, and month after month, is hope ~ the hope that by doing this we will remain healthy for the months and years ahead. It is hope for the future! Not unlike the hare in Aesop’s fable about the tortoise and the hare, where the hare took time off from what should have been his focus,

‘Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behaviour from their parents. ’ [Ephesians 5:1 MSG] I was thinking the other day about the best thing ever said to me during my working life. It has to have been (after being presented with the possibility of a significant change in the workplace) hearing the words, “I don’t want you to answer right now. Go home, take time to process it and let me know what you think tomorrow “ This was significant in a number of ways. An answer was not required, in fact not even wanted immediately. It wasn’t the usual, ‘ Think about it and let me know your answer by tomorrow.’ Nor was I simply being asked for a yes or no answer, input was requested. Here was somebody who I had not for very long yet managed to know me better than I knew myself. Who   obviously knew that if put on the spot I would answer probably in the negative! Usually it is only family or close friends from whom we expect that kind of knowledge.

Definition of appreciation:  a feeling or expression of admiration, approval  or gratitude   [Merriam Webster online dictionary]   We have all been part of an event meant to express appreciation to someone else - often volunteers for their efforts. [I have also been guilty of boycotting these evens as being boring.] Such events have even made it onto the 2017 calendar with Employee Appreciation Day, [March 3], Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week [May 7-12], along with more general designations of Certified Nurses Day [March 19], National Doctors’ Day [March 30], National EMS week [May 21-27] and Perioperative Nurses week [Nov. 5-11] to name just a few. Saying ‘thank you' in a public and impersonal way seems meant to enhance  t he support that is sometimes lacking in other areas be they monetary, societal respect or support. Then we have National Thanksgiving [celebrated in Canada, the United States, some of the Caribbean islands, and Liberia] which began as a day of givin