Death Awareness
In earlier posts, I’ve written about Maraṇasati—recognizing that as we’re living, we’re dying. I always hold the fragility of life somewhere in my frame of consciousness, but, right now, it takes center stage even more often.

Rampant Pain

• racism
• hopelessness
• stress
• judgment
• being unseen
• fear
• shame
• hate with big capital letters
• psychological abuse
• marginalization
• brutality
• multi-layered grief 

How do these experiences affect you? I dance between my glass-half-full self and plunging into fear and sadness. Right now, it seems that heartache often outruns joy.

It’s vital to acknowledge suffering (physical and emotional), without letting it consume you. Stay informed, but not unhealthily addicted to the constant stream of negative news. Pretending that what’s going on in our world doesn’t exist won’t make it disappear, but constantly fixating on it clogs up other energy fields.

Moving Forward

• be vocal
• live in the moment
• engage with people who look, speak and believe differently than you
• practice mindfulness
• be productive but not manic
• stand up
• share your feelings
• literally, smell the flowers  
• smile
• be kind to yourself
• pray—passionately, quietly, on your knees, as you walk 
• recognize your value 

Contemplating the sky (especially at night when the stars are visible) and recognizing the vastness of our universe, opens your mind, allowing it to explore big-picture concepts. Seeing the world through a different lens may challenge the beliefs you learned decades ago. Choose to see others as who they are: spirit energy, walking around in clunky human bodies with three-pound brains (just like you and me).

Try to take life one-step-at-a-time (yep, that can be tough) remembering that you can try but truly can’t micromanage the future.

Amazing Grace

• mercy granted to us 
• beauty and joy
• undeserved blessings
• music in the rustling of the trees
• calm amidst the tumult
• acceptance
• hope in the bleakness of a day
• having less to receive more
• whispered words of your value
• tears borne from love
• peace in the dark of a storm
• life resurrected from the ashes

Sometimes, it’s tough to find Grace. I search for it in the dark, sometimes without success. Then, unexpectedly, I find Grace, waiting for me, saying, “stay in this sacred moment, don’t run away, now is all that’s guaranteed.”

I know this flies in the face of apathy, fear, and hatred, but what if— with an awareness of how fleeting and precious life is—we create an uprising of love with Grace at the center; Grace that calls us to be still for a while, Grace that truly is amazing?

Please help spread the word of peace full home® and invite your friends to our peace-filled conversations.

Blog: peacefullhome.com
Twitter:@kaymclane
Instagram: @peace_full_home
Facebook: facebook.com/kayspeacefullhome

©peace full home.com®/intentional living, 2013-2020