In Which I Learn from an 85 Year Old Woman

Hello! This Spiritual Journey Thursday we are discussing Violet's One Little Word: MINDFULNESS. Please join us!

Mindfulness for me means two things:

1. Looking inward

2. Without judgment

Instead of looking outward, it's looking inward: how am a feeling, what sensations are affecting me right now -- what do I see, taste, touch feel, hear?

It's thinking about eating while I eat - or really not even thinking about it, just experiencing it.

It's resisting the near constant urge I have to multi-task and be efficient.

It's taking one thing at a time, easy does it, going slow.

Just observing, accepting, without attaching any sort of right or wrong or good or bad or ways to improve.

It's shifting the focus from being controlled by the realities in one's life to controlling how we relate to those realities.

Being where I am, who I am, right now.

I think we can all learn a lot from 85 year old Nadine Stair, who answers the question, "How would you have lived your life differently, if you had the chance?"

Read her poetic answer here. (There are merry-go-rounds!)

And here's another version that appeared in Reader's Digest magazine, attributed to Don Herold.