Inspired by Scholastica

  Staying calm and peaceful Mental health experts have simple suggestions on how to stay calm and peaceful. In this violent, chaotic, divisive world we live in, we need to seek ways to escape. One suggestion is to take a walk outside and enjoy nature. We have beautiful grounds at our monastery where we can view a variety of trees, a vegetable garden, a flower garden, and grassy fields. Another recommendation is to watch birds. We have a variety of birds that come to our feeders. There are doves, cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, finches, wrens, and sometimes orioles. Of course, the squirrels are around too, and they are fun to watch. We also have astonishing sunrises and sunsets in Kansas. A medley of reds, oranges, pinks, purples, and golds make breathtaking views. I’m sure other places have beautiful sunrises and sunsets too. Reading a good book is also calming. It is easy to get lost in a story and forget all about our worries and woes. I like novels, but biographies and...

  Lessons from Bees Honeybees can teach us some important lessons about living together. They are amazing in their capacity to work together for the common good. Honeybees can reflect and acquire knowledge. They collect nectar from flowers, learn how to store it in their stomachs, and bring it back to the hive.   They work together as a team. Some bees gather the nectar; worker bees chew it and turn it into honey. Each has a job, and they do it diligently. Since each honey bee produces only about one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, they have to work very hard. We can learn efficiency from bees. According to The Bee Conservancy newsletter, a large hive can house up to 60,000 bees, travel 55,000 miles and visit two million flowers to produce one pound of honey. They know how to build relationships. They not only take nectar from flowers, but they pollinate flowers by transferring pollen to other flowers. Every bee has a role to play: the queen lays th...

        A Poet for All   Although Emily Dickinson was considered a recluse, she says she found ecstasy in living and felt likeshe was “struck by lightning” every day. Nature was her church, and it filled her poetry with rich images.  Although she lived during the period of the Civil War and slavery, these events never entered her poetry.  Actually, most of her poetry was sent to friends and was published only after her death. Her relatives found poems written on scraps of paper all around her house. Her poems are very uncomplicated and direct, very poignant and stirring. Although she was not a church-goer, many of her poems have a spiritual or ethereal air to them. Many  people relate to her simple poems like “I’m nobody/Who are you?/ Are you Nobody too?” Her acceptance of being unknown and ordinary resonates with ordinary people. One of my favorites is ”Hope is the Thing with Feathers.” It speaks of a bird singing all through the ni...

    LIVING IN THE NOW   Not to look back with regret, nursing the slights, pondering   what ifs, wallowing in the failures, nor to look forward with dread, projecting the worst to happen.   Just to be present to the now with all its undefined borders, its humdrum activities, its ordinary scraps of conversation that make up most of our lives. It is enough to be aware of the tidbits that fill our days, an insight, a song, a quote, a kindness, a smile, a sinking sun – precious things we take for granted yet worth the trouble to notice, to delight in, to be grateful for.

  Living with Regrets Many of us have made wrong choices or mistakes in our lives. Some may have married the wrong person, chosen the wrong career, gotten in trouble with the law, or become alienated from their family. None of us lead perfect lives, and we all need second chances, or maybe third. Even if we can’t undo our decisions, we depend on the support of others to carry us through the difficult times. There is nothing that is unredeemable. We need to stop beating ourselves up and find a way to move past our mistakes. I’ve heard of people who earn a degree in prison and are able to start jobs or careers when they are released. There are many divorced people who find a second partner with whom to share their lives. There are those who flounder a while in miserable jobs and eventually find new opportunities. And sometimes families can be reunited when some circumstance brings them together again. Often because of insecurity or low self-esteem or immaturity, we make a bad d...