In the past, I’ve found playfulness and adventure in riding my horses, walking in nature, boating, camping, travel, attending live theatre and concerts and spending time with family and friends. Due to my age – entering the 79th year of my life, minor disabilities, reduced retirement income and the pandemic, these ways of being playful and adventurous needed to be adapted. Now I enjoy being playful and adventurous by viewing British situation comedies, viewing travelogues on TV or the internet, exploring the cosmos and nature through reading and playing with our grand-dog. Sometimes we have video calls and face-to-face visits with family and friends. I remember special places and activities we enjoyed in the past too.

I admire many women and men who’ve taught me in formal and informal ways to be a better person and global citizen. They prepared me for my professional work and retirement. Lately I’ve been remembering my 1959 – 1960 high school World Affairs teacher and debate coach – Sister Virginia Mary of Bishop Blanchet High School in Seattle. She was a great teacher who inspired me to care about what was happening in the world, read the newspaper, talk about articles that interested me and why they mattered to me. She coached me to become a skillful debater and public speaker so I could share my ideas with others. She told us “You are the intelligentsia and it is your responsibility to know (and care) about what is happening in the world. That mission has guided my life for the past 60 years. I hope she would be pleased with me. I regret I never directly told her how much she meant to me and how much she influenced my life. Thank you Sister Virginia Mary, you were an outstanding person and teacher who made a real difference in my life.

I express gratitude, experience inner peace and serve peace in the world by taking time every day to pray, reflect, read, journal and talk with others about appreciating the gifts we’ve received. I strengthen my spiritual practice by participating in Well Connected Gratitude meetings daily and visiting this website. Sometimes I have longer, deeper conversations with others about living this way. When I do that, I feel renewed and empowered to go forth and set the world on fire as Saint Ignatius of Loyola commissioned us to do. Deo Gratias!

I need to be conscious. I need to notice when my thoughts and, even more important to me, my feelings focus on the negative. I need to ask myself how long I choose to dwell in this space. I need to ask myself when I am ready to focus on the positive. I need to use my resources to make and sustain the desired change. Resources that help me include: prayer, meditation, this website, my daily gratitude journal, reading, music, a daily Well Connected Program on gratitude, related group activities and relationships with some key individuals.

The arts are very important to me. My father was a nationally known public speaker and storyteller. He coached me from the 6th grade on to be public speaker, debater and actress. I won public speaking and oral interpretation contests in grade school, high school and at a liberal arts college where I majored in speech and drama. I have always loved the human story told in prose, poetry, live theater and film. I also love the musical and visual arts. Learning and appreciating the humanities through artistic expression helps us understand, value and protect life in its myriad forms. I hope in this age of STEM, we remember what helps us to be fully human and to appreciate our common humanity. The future of people and our planet depend on it.

Because I am partially disabled, my husband provides a lot of support with activities of daily living like grocery shopping and meal planning. I often fall into the pattern of criticizing my husband’s choice of dinner menus because they are not very healthy. I need to compliment him more often for healthy meals he plans and makes. He deserves my gratitude for his support. I also know that positive reinforcement is much more effective than negative when working on behavior change. If I change my thinking and communication, we have a much better chance of healthy eating.

I do this by setting the intention to courageously face the hard stuff in my life. I follow this intention by paying attention to how I feel and think about the situation now. I own the feelings and thoughts I have about the challenge I face. I strengthen my resolve by prayer, reflection, remembrance and appreciation of my role models. I act on that intention, identify what I did well and how I could improve next time. This process helps me be the person I want to be in challenging situations.

Glenn, thank you for sharing your journey. I know it gets harder to initiate prayer times when we’re distracted or forget to do so. I fail often in following through with my intention to pray, meditate, do spiritual reading and have conversations with trusted others who share my spiritual path. One thing that comforts and inspires me is to read and reflect on this prayer. I hope it is helpful to you also. Best wishes for your journey.

“When the signs of age begin to mark my body (and still more when they touch my mind); when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off strikes from without or is born within me; when the painful moment comes in which I suddenly awaken to the fact that I am ill or growing old; and above all at that last moment when I feel I am losing hold of myself and am absolutely passive within the hands of the great unknown forces that have formed me; in all those dark moments, O God, grant that I may understand that it is you (provided only my faith is strong enough) who are painfully parting the fibers of my being in order to penetrate to the very marrow of my substance and bear me away within yourself.” ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.