No more mush: mindfulness to the rescue
photo of trifle by Brooke Raymond CC BY-SA 2.0
When life deals you something very very good and something very very bad, how to cope? How do you keep the layers of life from merging into one great ugly mush?
It’s Thursday 16 February 2017.
It’s nearly 8am, nearly time to go to Webstock, a stellar conference that I’ve been so looking forward to.Webstock is a spa for the brain, featuring the humane and visionary side of (mainly) information technology. Held in the stately St James Theatre in Wellington, it’s two days of awesome speakers, top coffee, top ice-cream, top food, and interesting company. I’m especially looking forward to certain speakers, but I know that the two days will be saturated with surprises.
But it’s Thursday 16 February 2017, and my home town of Christchurch is smothered in smoke, dominated by a mega-fire raging on the Port Hills and driving towards the city. Among my relatives alone, at least one family has evacuated their home. My heart is breaking for this precious city that was whacked by earthquakes and is still struggling back up from that disaster.
It is not fair… life is not fair.
And lurking in the background is climate change, for our so-called summer has been a crazy mush of wild winds, hot days, and storms, switching daily.
The job: to relish every blueberry
But I must get dressed. Angsting won’t help. And what a crime to waste this truly exceptional conference by being there with only half a brain. Mindfulness and gratitude are the order of the day. I can’t terminate the worries. But I’ll keep them in their place.
Hope you can enjoy your day and your relatives make out ok.
Thanks Kate.
Praying for your family members, Rachel. Perhaps the conference will help you to relax a bit.
Thank you. I am being inspired here and we are all coping with outside worries, aren’t we?
Thank you Jill. None of my dear ones is in danger but such worries.
I hope it is lovely for you. And your post is a good reminder to us all–we can’t solve the world’s problems if we are at low tide and low spirits all the time. The good is there with the bad . . .
Thank you for your timely reminder, and not just for me. And Webstock has been inspiring and positive all day long. Plus: the fires are quieter now.
Poor Christchurch. The hardships just keep on coming.
I hope your day was worth it, and that your family all come through safely.
Thinking of you in these difficult times over the ditch. Hope you enjoyed the conference.