Month: April 2012

The Power of Prayer

Sometimes I find when I am thinking really hard about someone or something, the person is either in touch or I read something that resonates within me.

Such was the case tonight as I laid in bed tossing and turning, blaming my lack of sleep on my husband’s snoring.

But the truth is, it’s not his breath that  kept me up, it was my worry. I couldn’t stop thinking about my lovely neighbor who is going to have some serious surgery tomorrow.

I decided to get out of bed and putz around. I checked my email and there was a wonderful message from a friend who has taught me to look for the synchronicities in life. Here was one of them, for  embedded in her email was the following:

There has been sufficient research to document the power of prayer to effect healing. People who pray are healthier and people who are prayed for recover more quickly and completely, whether they know they are being prayed for or not. Take a peek at Larry Dossey’s books, particularly, Prayer is Good Medicine. There are so many stories of people who were healed through love and prayer.

I remembered about the Power of Prayer and closed my eyes. But in the face of the truth, my trust is called into question. Do I believe she will be OK? I pray she will be. I love her. Am I afraid that she will not make it? Even she called it out today as I stood on her porch, hugging her hard.

She gave me a few sprigs from her garden. From my study I look into her backyard, grown beautiful from years of tending.  I gave her leftover lamb cigars our friend made last night. All I can offer is food. She helps me garden and there hasn’t been time to start my tutorial.

But it wasn’t so much the things we shared today, although simple in their exchange. It was the love and tenderness born out of an instant connection we felt as soon as I moved in. My comfort here has much to do with the sound of my neighbor singing my name when I see her. Everyday at 530pm, I look for the light in her kitchen window to appear. And somehow it makes me feel safe. Every morning when I wake up, the kitchen light is on – and I flip on the coffee pot with a smile.

So, if you please, take a moment and say a prayer for a lady you have never met, but one I am the better for knowing. Make today a true MindFULL Monday. Put out a moment of love and healing for someone and know, that should you need the power of prayer someday, that when she heals, she shall do the same for you.

 Have you had a MindFULL prayer experience? Let us know.

 

Flip This Closet

It’s been a few weeks since last I posted. My energy has been stalled. Confused by the warm weather, I couldn’t quite rumble. I truly am a Seasonal Girl. On Wednesday, it was 75 degrees. And it was early April. I was still in jeans, sweaters and suede.

Last weekend, lulled into the sense that winter was really over and I’d best get with it, I “flipped my closet,” a  ritual since childhood. For me, there is something about cleaning and organizing my closet that brings me out of the hibernating cycle of dark winter days, or guides me back from lazy summer weeks into the longer eves of Fall.

I confess, I am also still guided by “no white before Memorial Day and no linen after Labor Day.” Rumor has it that as the climate changes, so goes the rule. For me, it remains steadfast.  It is my touchstone to an era gone by. An era I miss (a blog for another Monday).

Limited by space in this new old house of ours, I now have to thoughtfully assess each item. In or out? If I have to justify something about the article, “out” it goes, into the Goodwill bag.

It seems as if other women in my area see Goodwill as the repository for “out” as well and Goodwill “gets it”. Just up the street, in a fashionable and expensive neighborhood of upscale restaurants and boutiques, Goodwill opened DeJaBlue’. One peek through the colorfully arranged windows revealed summer skirts I swear I had seen before in the flanking shops of this new concept store.

It’s like trading clothes with your girlfriends.

Such was also the concept of the Goodwill Exchange that my daughter and I attended at the Exhibit Center last month. For a fee of $25, attendees were invited to bring 10 items to swap post a fashion show of Goodwill items re-purposed into new and exciting outfits. They had lavish buffet tables, cocktails, pounding music and a runway, graced by the designers of Goodwill fashion pieces and judged by Mondo Guerra, a Project Runway runner up and local celeb. Great concept, until after the show when all 1,500 attendees were let loose to “pick 10 new pieces for the 10 they brought” from 100’s of racks scattered around the rooms. It was a stampede and all of a sudden old clothes took on a new sheen. It was as if everyone feared being naked the next day if they didn’t grab something in the frenzy. It was mayhem.

Lucky for me, I found one new denim shirt, which truth be told, I haven’t even worn yet. If it doesn’t make it off the hanger by the end of summer, I will have to live by my own rule and pass it back to make room for Fall’s new finds. Sure hope it fits.

How do you MindFULLY mark the changing of the seasons? Let us know!