Dear Readers,

It has been a long time since our last get together–too long. I have no explanation to offer nor does there seem the need to offer one because the JOY of being back far surpasses any remaining remnants of regret from our time apart.

So, where are we all today? What new thoughts have come your way? I can tell you my road has been an adventure. Death, drama, illness, summer fun, giggles, swimming down the lane, more swimming down the lane, prayers, answers, questions, heat, rain and sleep.

Life, really, has happened in all its glory and struggle. Summer is coming to its natural close and soon school and structure will return. I find myself consistently intrigued by my magnetic connection to  the “school and structure” element. I have not “been” in school for years. It has been even longer since I have had children in school, and thus, a life schedule, governed by the school schedule for children. And yet, this yearly ritual of buying crayons and pencils and markers and Kleenex and new socks marks time for me-it has for as long as I can remember. School-the word itself conjures as many images as there are experiences of the world of school. Something within me still finds the return of the pattern of this schedule unexplainably comforting. The one thing I will treasure thanks to the unpredictable nature of this summer for me is that the pattern of a schedule, while helpful, does not insure peace. A patterned and predictable life schedule is not a necessary component to finding peace amidst chaos. This summer has taught me to find peace amidst chaos, with or without, the ritual and comfort of a school schedule-of any schedule. Let’s talk more about this, shall we?

This summer brought with it discomfort in all arenas of my life.  I have been asked to watch and help support some very important people in my worlds of relationships, and social life, and spirituality and physicality. My own emotions have taken a seat alongside many struggling this summer with job worries, injury, death, illness, absence of a loved one, change-lots of change. Change always changes me, primarily. The world, I am finding, ticks and tocks to a natural hum and beat of its own “ritual and schedule”. The beat of the earth is my true attuned balancer. When I am attuned to nature, I am attuned to myself. When I am attuned to myself, I am at peace. Perhaps an even simpler way to say this is that when I am living IN EACH MOMENT exactly as each moment unfolds, I am so totally present to THAT moment that the beat and hum of my ritual and schedule IS that moment. And when I am alive and participating in THE EXACT MOMENT that I am actually inhabiting, peace abides. I don’t know how or why and I don’t care. What I do care deeply about is that I have learned a bit more about acceptance of whatever is or comes. I have learned that often, mostly, always, honestly, change comes to me at ITS desiring, not the other way around. Going with the flow, rolling with the tide, and a dozen other cliché ways to say this expresses the same idea, yet this summer, for me, those clichés have become more than words on a page. They have become a new, strange, unplanned, sometimes unwanted, “ritual of schedule” that has served to bring me to a deeper place of loving what is- Looking for the good- Finding a way to remain hopeful and kind amidst chaos and darkness. I have found a source of grounding that defies the human marking of time.

Make no mistake, I am still deeply in love with new pencils and crayons and Kleenex and socks and patterns, rituals of change that mark time. The summer has taught me to look deeper though, within, inside nature, inside spirit, inside me.

As the year continues to unfold, I will be sharing more about this new and deeper place of kind compassion towards myself and therefore, to all others. The mystique of this new sense of peace has come from a rough road of self-discovery and to the many out there, you know who you all are, that ride this crazy life with me, I am constantly grateful. You have listened, and suggested, and prayed, and sent music and lessons and let me cry and hugged me and encouraged me-and in return, I have reasons to hope I have done the same for you. I suggest our ritual and schedule rewriting our lives in these latter years could be leading to greater things than any of us can or might dare to imagine. Since we cannot predict how things will go anyway, I  propose WHY NOT imagine that rewriting life, at any stage, can bring us to an experience of living that is more than we could ever imagine. It could happen. It might happen. As it does, let’s talk about it-TOGETHER!

It’s so great to be back. It’s so great to know you are still here with me. It’s a privilege to share life with you all. Let me know” how goes life in your parts?” How has summer been for you? There are rises and falls every day, every season, and that they come is really not a big surprise. What matters most, I believe, in the end, is that you learn to ride the ups and downs and risings and fallings in a way that makes your world work for you! Let’s talk about that!

Until again,

JO