What You Can Create

“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.”― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

The duration of this pandemic has definitely been a time of great worry. But is has also been a time of great creation. We have learned new ways of doing things from working from home to educating children. We have also seen new ways of connecting with each other that we would not have thought of without the push of COVID. Some of us have been exploring new ways of creative expression through art, music or writing while others have been cooking and baking bread.

We can sit around worrying about what is beyond our control or we can move forward and create something new. What have you been creating?

A Friday Extra — Healthy Living

Bob and I are all about maintaining a healthy way of life. I have included this on Espirational since the beginning. Let me give you a little guided tour of some of those posts.

The Secret to Cooking Good Healthy Food
Creativity in the Kitchen
Inspiration for Gluten Free Living
Healthy Living A to Z: W is for Walking
Look What we Made!
A Healthier Holiday Meal That Still Tastes Good
Making Time
Living a Balanced LIfe With (or without) Celiac Disease

To find links to some of my gluten free recipes visit https://espirational.com/gallery-culinary/ and scroll down past the photos

You may also do your own search for healthy living related topics. This is my list of possible search terms for you to try.

Healthy Living

Gluten Free

Recipes

Meditation

Yoga

Add search terms to any of these for more specific results and feel free to come up with your own.

If you are looking for information on healthy living, maintaining a balance lifestyle, meditaion or healthy recipes including substitutions for food restrictions you will find it here. So play with the search engine and enjoy!

You may also visit my Amazon Author Page to find my books with gluten free and dairy free recipes. You may also read A Maintenance Manual for the Soul which Bob and I wrote together right here on Espirational.

Building Bridges

“Patriotism is love of country. But you can’t love your country without loving your countrymen and countrywomen. We don’t always have to agree, but we must empower each other, we must find the common ground, we must build bridges across our differences to pursue the common good.” — Cory Booker
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/bridges-quotes

Our world has been going through a time of burning bridges and building walls. Reconciliation has to start somewhere. What is one way you as an individual can start tearing down the walls of separation we have built between us and start building bridges?

A Work of Art in Progress

“What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress? Imagine that you are a Masterpiece unfolding every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath.”
—Thomas Crum

Please take a few minutes to consider this quote. Journal about it if you wish. How would your life change if you could see yourself as a masterpiece still unfolding?

What is Mine to Do?

 “I have done what was mine to do.  May Christ teach you what is yours.” — St. Francis of Assisi

What is mine to do? This has been the question i have been asking over and over as I have watched our country being torn apart from within. As I have sought my guidance the answer that has come over and over has always been “shine your light.”

But God, I want to DO something. What is mine to do? Shine your light.

But we live at the lake in a rural area. We gave up our car two years ago. How am I supposed to shine my light? I want to be “out there doing something.” Shine your light.

Okay. I do what I can. I pray. I listen. I check in on some of the older widows. I maintain the blog. But that isn’t enough. I want to DO something.

Then it finally hit me. What is mine to do is to encourage people. To let them know there is still hope and light in the world. And that is “enough.”

Why? Because if everyone does what is there’s to do, the world will change.

What is yours to do?

Make the Best of It

“Whatever life may send your way – make the best of it. Don’t waste your time and energy worrying about it. instead, find a way to do something about it. Learn from it, adjust to it, be strong, be flexible and be your best in every situation.” — Les Brown

Throughout our lives we all encounter people, places and situations that aren’t exactly what we had planned. But in all of life what really matters is how we react. We aren’t always our best in every situation but we can learn, move on and do better next time.

Something to ponder: How can you make the best of those things life sends your way that you might not have planned on? Feel free to journal on this topic or add your comments below. Let’s talk!

Heal the World Through Joy

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.”
― Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Do you remember that the world is meant to be celebrated? How can you sing at dawn and dusk to heal the world through joy?

Choosing Heaven

“We may not be aware of it, but we choose either heaven or hell all the time. Every time we choose to hope, every time we choose to forgive and to let go of our resentments, we choose heaven, we choose life.”

Quoted from Jocelyn Soriano’s blog I Take off the Mask 

We choose to make our lives a heaven or hell by our thoughts, word and attitudes. We decide anew everyday. As we walk through this the week before us, let’s stop and consider what we are choosing.

Something to ponder: How are you choosing heaven today?

Now as we get ready to go forth choosing heaven let’s join this joyful group from Open Heart Spiritual Center in I’m Choosing Heaven Today.

Wildly Enthusiastic About Little Things

“I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things… I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.” — Leo F. Buscaglia

One of the saddest things about being a “grown up” is that we forget to play. Play is one of the most important things we can do. It keeps us young and helps us stretch not just our physical muscles but our creative ones as well. So next time you come across a hopscotch board drawn in chalk on a sidewalk don’t walk around it, jump through it. Stop and admire rocks, leaves, feathers and even sticks. Look up at the sky and see pictures in the clouds. Sing, dance and have fun.

So how are you going to play today? If you need help with this ask a child.

One in Essence

“We are one in essence but not in expression. That’s why it can be so hard to see the God in each of us. We each express it so differently.” — Genie Robbins

We are all unique expressions of God. That does not make any one of us better or worse that the other, just different. But that can be difficult. It is so much easier to see the world in terms of right and wrong, black and white, good and bad. But how’s that working for us? It’s not, is it? Maybe it’s time to change our minds. By not recognizing the unique expression of God in each of us or allowing it to be expressed we are missing out on the fullness of life.

Something to think and talk about:

What are some ways we can recognize and celebrate the unique expression of God that is each of us? Let’s talk!