Reminders, Some Gentle, Some Not

Living gratefully today, I appreciate the “Insight Timer” app and the new guided meditations I am finding there. 

My meditation practice reminds me to slow down, to be kind and gentle in my own head and heart, which helps me in my interactions with others too. 

Reminders. I need them regularly. Some are more gentle than others. Sometimes I have to get spun up and feel some pain before a needed reminder slaps me upside the head. 

As a nation, a society, we are in a time where the reminders we all need have been the less gentle ones. COVID-19 is not done with us, even if we want to be done with it. Systemic racism will only be uprooted with each of us being part of the solution.

A not-so-gentle reminder on both of these issues, and any issue:  If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem. I am saying this to myself and to you. Being socially responsible isn't always convenient, but it is always important. 

There are reminders about cancer and dementia too. My sister Aileen is halfway through her six rounds of chemo and managing through the side effects. There are hopeful signs of the efficacy of her treatments. I am reminded of hope.

Our mother's nursing home remains on Phase I of the three phases that eventually lead to in-person visits and an easing of the lockdown. It will be some time yet before any of us may be able to embrace our failing and frail mother. Unless...she took a real turn for the worse. I am reminded of hopelessness.

And I return to the healing and helpful practice of gratefulness. Aileen has access to good medical care and effective chemotherapy drugs. Mom is being cared for by kind people in a well-run facility. 

Another reminder from a tea bag feels a little out of place with the tone of this post, but maybe it is just the whimsy needed to bring a smile and take the edge off the sharp reminders we wake up to each day:

"A sip of sunshine to soothe the soul."