“Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”
~ Will Rogers
Joe: “I got my annual performance review and my boss said I lack passion and intensity.”
Pete: “That’s not fair, Joe.”
Joe: “I know, he never saw me sitting on my sofa eating a pizza.”
Opening Paragraph from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House
No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone…
I am the sum of my cumulative actions. My actions become my character. My character determines my destiny.
In silence, we hear our inner voice whispering to us. Murky issues become clear. And, actions we need to take gather energy needed to succeed.
Just 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation daily can help reduce distracting thoughts for people with anxiety.
“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Loneliness kills. It poses a greater threat to health than obesity, and its life-shortening effects are comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Furthermore, it is rampant in today’s workplace. . . . Loneliness has clear consequences for mental health, aggravating anxiety, depression, and stress-related symptoms. Additionally, it sabotages our physical health. According to two leading researchers, loneliness triggers an inflammatory response and threatens our immune system. These changes can even be detected at the cellular level. As one of the researchers said, “The level of toxicity from loneliness is stunning.” . . . Connection the best antidote to loneliness and isolation. . . .Cultivating mindful presence and deliberate connection takes effort and practice. Yet making a habit of doing so pays off in the long run.
Note: Perhaps you don’t experience loneliness; however, if you know someone who lives alone, check on him or her, pay a socially distancing visit. A simple act of connecting with a lonely person will make a big difference in his/her life.
The day one realizes he/she is unconditionally loved, whether saint or sinner, life is good.
A Shadow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I said unto myself, if I were dead,
What would befall these children? What would be
Their fate, who now are looking up to me
For help and furtherance? Their lives, I said,
Would be a volume wherein I have read
But the first chapters, and no longer see
To read the rest of their dear history,
So full of beauty and so full of dread.
Be comforted; the world is very old,
And generations pass, as they have passed,
A troop of shadows moving with the sun;
Thousands of times has the old tale been told;
The world belongs to those who come the last,
They will find hope and strength as we have done.
