To pause

My tendency is to push, to perform. I need to redirect often -- to pause. Mid-January I shared a Thomas Moore quote on enchantment's invitation to pause. Maybe because I am still a little uncomfortable with inactivity I like the idea of movement in the quote below. In Hearing with the Heart, author Debra Farrington makes the statement that busyness – a form of pridefulness – has for some time been more popular than patience, paying attention, pausing. She shares this Kierkegaard quote:

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“Pausing is not a sluggish repose. Pausing is also movement. It is the inward movement of the heart. To pause is to deepen oneself in inwardness.” - Soren Kierkegaard

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Today I got to pause by enjoying gentle conversation with a friend, and being still and reflecting.
Inward movement. I am a grateful girl.

May opportunities come your way - today - to pause.

A doorway

Another Mary Oliver poem that I appreciate:

----

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones, just
pay attention, then patch

A few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway

into thanks,
and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

- Mary Oliver -

Astonished

I've been thinking about the 'right' job for me. Sometimes it does a body good (or at least it does my body good) to consider various ways of thinking: another perspective, especially one with a positive spin. I appreciate this poem and its perspective on "work."

Messenger

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird
Equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the specked sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
Keep my mind on what matters,
Which is my work,

Which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing since all ingredients are here,

Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
And these body-clothes,
A mouth with which to give shouts of joy
To the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
Telling them all, over and over, how it is
That we live forever.

- Mary Oliver -

Watching my words

Lord, keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.

The last couple of days I've been reading through Proverbs. I am again struck by the wisdom of watching my words, and letting my words be few.

He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles. -Proverbs 21:22 (NAS)

Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips he is considered prudent. -Proverbs 17:28 (NAS)

When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. -Proverbs 10:19 (NIV)

Giving advice

For a number of years I've been working on NOT giving unsolicited advice. In this past decade of children growing into adulthood I've had numerous opportunities to practice. Sadly though, albeit now often more veiled, I still let advice slip out, against my wiser wishes. It happened again recently, and I don't feel good about it.

Rather, I want to increasingly be a life-giving listening presence.
"Good listeners know how to be present to what you're saying without jumping in with advice on how they handled things...they are people who listen to us with an open heart, who ask questions without a specific agenda behind them and without needing to get specific answers from us. And they avoid being judgmental about our choices." - Debra K. Farrington, p 122, Hearing With the Heart

"A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own mind." Proverbs 19:13 NAS
"Answering before listening is both stupid and rude."
Proverbs 19:13 The Message

"Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit
- you choose." Proverbs 18:21 The Message

Its reasons

This quote takes us far from the last entry dealing with our physical selves, to a much more philosophical/spiritual place --

"The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing."

- Blaise Pascal, Pensées'

Sleep tight

A few more words on sleep, along with a few more pictures.

Studies have shown that sleep capacity—how long you’ll sleep if you go to bed and get up whenever you want—is about 8 hours and 45 minutes for healthy young males (the group that’s been researched most). In three separate studies, that amount varied less than 30 minutes from person to person.

But most of us get less: 58% of us sleep 5 to 7 hours a night. It’s been mentioned that stress hormones and sleep are related, as are low mood with less sleep. “Positive moods are lower in people with sleep loss,” says Eve Van Cauter, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.

Sleep deprivation can also affect how your body handles insulin; insulin resistance puts you at risk for weight gain and diabetes. In a study that’s still under way, Van Cauter and her colleagues are looking at chronic sleep loss in a group of normal-weight men and women under age 30. Over 6 months, those who slept fewer than 6.5 hours a night were more insulin-resistant than normal sleepers who logged 7.5 to 8 hours per night. The short sleepers, the study shows so far, need to produce 30 to 40 percent more insulin to dispose of the same amount of glucose. (http://www.health.com/health)

So, may you sleep tight tonight: knowing that you’re doing your body and psyche good!

More sleep

I almost never have difficulty going to sleep. In fact there are stories circulating about a couple of awkward I-can't-believe-she-fell-asleep situations (one amongst a noisy crowd and another involving a more intimate moment). Suffice it to say that I've not gone looking for tidbits on better sleep: I've just been harping on others about the need for more sleep. But when I happen upon a juicy tidbit, I latch on. Like this one -

"Not getting enough rest increases your risk of being obese -
and the less sleep you get, the greater the risk"

Upon reading this statement that I read in the Jan/Feb 2008 Health issue I decided to do a bit of investigating to answer some of my own questions (what is not enough rest? how great is the risk: like 0.2% or 100%? who says?)
Turns out there's a guy named Michael Breus, aka 'the sleep doctor', who has written a book on sleep, who has a website (http://www.yourbeautysleep.com/ NOTE: the site seems to be mostly about selling rather than imparting info. But there is another website that Dr. Mike informed me of in the comments, and it has informative articles: www.soundsleepsolutions.com) and who has been on Oprah -- who knew? I had never even heard of him before this mention in Health. But, I digress. To the good stuff:

"Two hormones affected by lack of sleep are directly related to eating: gherlin (the "go" hormone that tells you to eat) and leptin (the "stop" hormone that tells you you're full). 'Sleep deprivation causes an increase in gherlin and a decrease in leptin,' says Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleep. Being low on sleep also causes cortisol levels to rise, which gives you a greater appetite. 'Your metabolism slows, too,' he adds." - Health Jan/Feb 2008 (www.health.com/sleep)

That's a quadruple whammy. Maybe tonight I'll go to bed a little bit earlier. You?
For a teeny bit more info on getting a good night's sleep, go to http://www.niapublications.org/agepages/sleep.asp