I was off this week- I just couldn’t get myself on track, like my wheels were spinning but I wasn’t getting anywhere. No matter what I did or didn’t do, I felt I was floundering.

So I’m grateful that the pets were fed, the garbage was thrown out, and I got our of bed every morning. Sometimes you really have to appreciate all the small details that go into a day or a week.

My prompt for the week was OPENNESS/OPEN. Here’s how it was used in the books that I read:

  1. Her Father from openness to repression. Gillian McAllister
  2. My Father, so tenderhearted, so sensitive to life- his same receptors that were open to beauty were open to suffering. Chloe Cooper Jones
  3. He talked about loneliness and friendship and security, and I was very proud of him for being so open. Richard Osman
  4. The key here, in Bogost’s thinking, is recognizing that the something that you may discover doesn’t come from you, but from you openness to whatever you’re unitaskingly doing. Rob Walker
  5. But if we open our minds and listen, we will find unbelievably suggestive images and metaphors in poems that are thousands of years old. Caroline Kennedy
  6. As they have always done, books give us windows into other lives and worlds, making us more open to this constant change.
  7. And openness: it’s difficult to write a personal story that withholds information, and it’s the most private and intimate information that the reader is keenest to know. Graeme Simsion
  8. We listen with our whole body, and our physical openness speaks volumes. Julia Cameron
  9. I‘m always at my most open-minded, not to say emotionally susceptible, on the Metro- it’s the lurking possibility of death by earthquake that does it. Emily Itami
  10. The only way is to open your heart and fall into the wonder that it induces. Pedram Shojai
Here's how I'm looking at OPENNESS/OPEN
1) Do books open us if we continue to read the same type of books, or do we get further into ourselves?
2) Am I more open or more closed
3) Is anyone truly openminded?
4) If I were more worried about earthquakes would I be more open minded on the subway?
5) If something has happened that has closed you off, what does it make to recover?


Eagle Poem
Joy Harjo

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

Joy Harjo, “Eagle Poem” from In Mad Love and War. Copyright © 1990 by Joy Harjo.

43 thoughts on “Gratitude and Mindfulness: 9/24/22”

    2. It is the end of an era, for sure.

      One often hears how one should be compassionate to others. I wonder, LA and Brizzy, if that should encompass ourselves, at least some of the time? Maybe in these times of funk, surrounding oneself with flowers, taking a long, hot bath, eating a treat, and giving oneself the time one needs to recover is in order? What do you think? Something else to be open to?

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      3. I do all those things on the regular. But sometimes I just get in a funk. It started with a comment made at book club, continued with a scheduling snafu that I hadn’t anticipated because a website wasn’t clear, and too much traffic this week because the UN general assembly was in town, leaving me one day with a 40 minute wait for a bus on a day I had a headache turning into a migraine…it was like an accumulation of stuff I couldn’t get past, wherein some weeks I can roll with the punches better

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      4. When it rains, it pours? I’m quite familiar with a sequence of unfortunate events (different event, same result) that gets me in a funk. What’s interesting is that sometimes, it can be a small thing, an unexpected compliment, a flower that smells like heaven, a hug from a loved one, that can snap me out of it. And sometimes it takes a while to bounce back. Sometimes it takes a long while…

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  5. I keep a feel good jar at the end of the work week and mostly I post “Got through the week intact.” Husband and I were going out to celebrate our 23 rd anniversary but a hurricane is coming this week, and we need supplies and to work in garden. We are tired and decided the best part will be staying in and we opted on barbecuing hamburgers with sweet potato fries instead of the elegant quiet restaurant downtown. Sometimes you just need a break. Enjoy the weekend!

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      1. But give me a 3 day weekend and we will be visiting the Jazz Dining place in Downtown…..but for now, we are good! Exercise completed for the day and supplies in! Perhaps I will have a day off next week!

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  7. A lovely post. I think open and closed mindedness, like most things, is a spectrum, and as we move more toward an open or growth mindset, we will fall “back” at times, yet, I think, what matters most is to keep the heart open, and keep trying. Also, totally get the small things. They matter, especially during a hectic, or off, week.

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  8. Six planets are said to be retrograde. I don’t understand it all, but I believe in energy and how it impacts humans. I’ve had a similar type of week/month. It’s comforting to know that others share my feelings. It gives me the impression that I am not alone in this life voyage.😘

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  9. Getting the small things done are often not small at all! Good that you listened too yourself, we all have those down weeks and that’s okay.
    I like think that I’m open minded but there are some things that trigger me.
    Love how you used your prompt. So creative!

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  11. The poem was beautiful with some great symbolism. As for openness, how open are we really willing to be? When does our openness become a burden that we put onto someone else by ‘sharing?” I think that being open to new things, daring to try the unknown is a personal triumph, as is an openness to ideas. Kind of the cornerstone of humanity.

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  13. I have some basics–trash, wash dishes, make bed, study a little Spanish, walk the dogs, blogging/comments, take supplements, check email, strength training (medicine for my bones). If I can get all that done, then the rest is icing on the cake. It sounds like you are doing the basics. Next week you will lick the icing off the spoon!

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  16. Great questions! Maybe I like them because they sound like what I might ask myself. Taking this further, they may also be what some of my best friends might also ask them of themselves. Maybe you and they and I are all “investigators.” That’s the personality type I am according to enneagram, I think. Truly a burden to bear but, hey, we’ve made it through our lives so far, right?

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