Living wholeheartedly is very close to living in the present, but suggests more agency, making decisions and taking actions that come from the heart – i.e., from compassion, caring, charity, solidarity, love. For me, an introvert, simply “being present” gives me permission to do nothing, especially not to engage with other people.
An example that comes to mind is taking the time to make that phone call to someone who talks a little too long, but has been on your heart to check in with for days. To live wholeheartedly, I must put aside my comfort and my “present” agenda and make the call.

Thank you, Michael, for the “spun gold” reference. As a person who loves numbers, I appreciate knowing that a golden thread is visible at 1/250,00 inch! I will use that fact in my Tai Chi for Arthritis classes, at Chugiak Senior Center and All Life is Yoga, in Alaska, and when I volunteer at my mother’s assisted living home in Idaho next week,to convey my belief that opening the joints just a FRACTION of an INCH makes a difference. We often use the image of a golden threa…Thank you, Michael, for the “spun gold” reference. As a person who loves numbers, I appreciate knowing that a golden thread is visible at 1/250,00 inch! I will use that fact in my Tai Chi for Arthritis classes, at Chugiak Senior Center and All Life is Yoga, in Alaska, and when I volunteer at my mother’s assisted living home in Idaho next week,to convey my belief that opening the joints just a FRACTION of an INCH makes a difference. We often use the image of a golden thread as a model for the spine in right posture, so this is beautifully appropriate.

This morning I am grateful to wake up on a visit to my son and his family in Southern California, where we look at planets and the moon through a telescope in the backyard. Last week, while I accompanied my oldest granddaughter to a special camp back east, there rest of her family camped out to get a wonderful view of the Perseids. Granddaughter and I ended our travels with a visit to Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh, and also visits to a constellation of relatives she’d never met, and whom I hadn’t seen in more than 50 years. Awareness of all this “stellar” gratitude is particularly timely today, as it is the anniversary of the Great American Eclipse of 2017, which we enjoyed at my mother’s home in Rigby, Idaho.

Lovely Mary Jane, keep on with the acts of KINDNESS. They are HUGE. As the holidays approach, I remember standing in line for an hour or so, or maybe it just seemed that long, at the local PO, to mail 3 family parcels. It was the last day for them to be likely to get there; at the time I had a demanding job, two young children, and a depressed-beyond-helpfulness husband. I finally got up to counter, put down my parcels, and reached for my wallet…..and I had forgotten it, somehow. By the time I went home and got it, the PO would have closed. But not wanting to add drama, I quietly stated my dilemma and started to gather up the parcels. The person behind me in line stepped right up (this was pre-covid, when that was OK!), pulled out her wallet, and said to the clerk, “Go ahead, I’ll pay.” Of course she declined, with a little smile, to give me any information to enable me to repay her. So I try to pay it forward, as she did. As for donating “a little,” my philosophy on that is, if everyone gave A LITTLE, there would be A LOT! Loaves and fishes! I have deep sympathy for your chronic pain…..mine has been at bay lately, between a total hip replacement in 2017, and a steady practice of Tai Chi for Arthritis since then…….but I won’t be surprised if the other hip goes, or something else, as my mother has had debilitating arthritis, and I worked as a letter carrier, which is pretty demanding physically. Thank God I am retired now……but that is just one small piece of the pie for which I thank God! Peace and comfort to you, dear Mary Jane!

Mandy, you sound like you might be one of MY neighbors, though there are none named “Mandy.” Yesterday I was filled with joy and gratitude on hearing a single dry leaf, still attached to the branch, shaking in the breeze; and the very soft “plops” of bits of snow falling off branches to the ground. This morning I enjoyed a wonderful zoom tai chi session. For tomorrow, I look forward to a choice of zoom masses – my local parish here in Alaska (Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Eagle River), or the Byzantine Catholic church I grew up in in Pittsburgh, or a Benedictine Monastery in Snowmass, CO….. all different, and all the same… for the Feast of Christ the King. Abundance? Yes, got it!

Hi, Yolanda, I had to lol because of the contrast between us (it appears, at least, that you are in the FIRST third of life; I’m in the THIRD) and the similarity (anxiety, depression, and learning to be aware and accepting). I laugh because, after years of practicing meditation and gratitude, and a life-long active prayer life, I still get mired down in crappy attitude from time to time….OK, most days it I tread a path of peace, gratitude, and acceptance that is SO NEAR that negative morass that I can’t help getting at least a few splashes on my shoes! That getting stuck in the mire now and then is unavoidable. It does seem that I remember, sooner now, that I am neither my thoughts nor my feelings, and I can choose different ones – ones that can help me pull myself out of the muck.
Carry on! Let your light shine!