Sometime this week, I will dump out the contents of my 2021’s Blessing Jar.
There, strewn across the counter, will be small pieces of paper – each with a notation about a blessing that came my way in the past year.
Random things.
Sometimes it’s a happy touch of unexpected sunshine on my face on a cool fall day. Perhaps the blessing came in meeting someone special.
A blessing can also come from knowing I had been a blessing to someone else.
The process of pausing beside the Blessings Jar occasionally to note recent positives helps to keep me focused on the good – the positive – and on the opportunities to give and receive blessings.
And, wow, what an amazing experience it is to revisit a year’s worth of blessings in one sitting!
The blessings are there all the time – even in challenging and life-changing circumstances. Bad health? How about the nurse who took extra care in helping you? Difficult times at work? Maybe you found a way to overcome obstacles, or maybe you found a better position.
In this time of reflection, my thoughts have been boosted by two authors whose writings crossed my path recently.
One involves the realization there are more years behind me than there are ahead of me. Truly absorbing this reality colors my choices in how I want to spend my limited currency of precious moments. Trivial pursuits/people/conversations, or rehashing things that will never change, only serves to rob my limited resources.
In the words attributed to Antonio Marulli:
“I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch hearts, people who have been taught to grow up with gentle touches of their soul.
Yes, I’m in a hurry, I’m rushing to live with the intensity that only maturity can give.”
The second author, Rachel – who writes as Finding Joy on Facebook, inspired me as she wrote about longing to counsel her former broken self, saying that though the path would be hard, brighter days lay ahead.
I knew brighter days would eventually come to me, while still in the depths of anticipatory grief as a caregiver. I knew the price would be paid of having even harder, gut-wrenching events happen first – thus, making the hope of joy almost shameful.
Creating as much light during the dark-yet-blessed days of caregiving and pushing myself forward through the time of abject grief, I held onto the hope of brighter days ahead.
Now, I can fully write my former shell-shocked self, saying:
Dearest Self-
Your journey is about to get more challenging than you can even imagine, but fear not!
You are blessed with enough strength, faith, family, friends, and seemingly random connections that will pave every step of this journey.
The more you let go, the more will be given to you.
Continue to do your best, be your best, and reach out to the best.
Like a fine piece of metal being hammered into shape, every blow, every challenge will shape you into a more beautiful vessel than you could ever have imagined.
There will be times when you will need to just lean into the suffering, sadness, and challenge.
At other times, you will find the strength to say “Stop” to the downward pull of negativity so that you can push forward – maybe not even knowing why/how/or where you are going – and you’ll be able to feel the sunshine once again on your face.
While you will wrestle with impatience to be whisked through the Valley of Despair, you know fully well that timing is Divine. Delay often means that lessons are yet to be learned.
Each lesson prepares you for success in the next steps you desire.
And that which you desire will be out-shined by the reality of the full manifestation!
May each of our foodtalk4you readers take some moments to reflect on last year’s blessings and know that we can identify with your anxiety, cares, and concerns.
We often resolve one set of issues – only to pick up new ones along the way. But …
Reflection can yield a healthier view with a very comforting perspective.
Have you started your Blessings Jar yet? Read more about this HERE. With link to 3rd post for 2021 re blessings jar and word of the year.
Maybe you, too, could write your former self a letter of encouragement.
In health for the New Year-
Deidre
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