We had some trouble with our weekly email, so we are reposting this from Monday’s page.  This comes from our guest blogger Sandy Conant Strachan:

I have adopted a practice of something called “Morning Pages” (from a book The Artist’s Way. )  It involves hand-writing three pages in a notebook FIRST thing in the morning and letting your mind roam wherever, stream-of-consciousness.  I’ve found it very useful—like having a friend you can tell everything to, no masks, no chiding, no advice. It’s been helpful during the pandemic as a means of giving shape to the roller coaster of each day. My starting point is that I am not my emotions, that each moment has a “message,” that it’s best to start with the first thing that comes to mind—a dream, some event from yesterday, a random thought – then go from there and see what emerges.  Below is an excerpt from this week:    

…I too weep for the world, but I feel this moment had to come. No individual could create a global wake-up call of such magnitude. The fact is that everything humankind did and was has led to here. All we have believed and acted out has produced this great global time-out.

And what are time-outs for? They are for rest and recuperation. They are preparations for the next inning. They don’t guarantee winning or losing the game, but simply offer a way to re-strategize, change the way you’re playing, and revive your energy. A time-out offers physical, mental, emotional, spiritual renewal.

And I can only hope our renewal includes a redoubling of the effort to build a just, loving world, to contribute to each other, to the planet, to the well-being of each and everything in our purview. That we grasp fully what it means to love our neighbor as ourself.

A budget is a statement of values. The way we budget time is a statement of values. The sum total of what we do, how we’re using this time-out, is a statement of values. Not in some vague “new normal”, but right now…..

Give it a go – and good luck!