I’m battling severe and aggressive skin allergies since 6 months that make it difficult to get through the day without constantly applying creams. My skin is peeling, raw, red. Feels like a 100 pins and needles poking and looks like animals have ripped my face, neck and chest. I’m finding meaning, by reminding myself that there are life threatening conditions out there and many people are battling far bigger health issues. I’m finding meaning by logging on to this site and giving thanks, reflecting on the daily question, writing in my gratitude journal, praying, meditating and laughing daily. I am grateful daily that we are working from home and I don’t have to go into the office in this condition. Worry and stress gives me something to do but doesn’t take me any where. I’m finding meaning in just letting it be, doing everything I can for my skin and letting God, Life and the Universe do the rest to bring it back to health. Life is beautiful and that brings meaning to me everyday.

I needed this question today. I have started suffering from terrible eczema and allergies over the past year that just don’t go. This question is a very timely reminder that I can take care of myself today and invest in myself today so I can be allergy free in future. There are many other serious medical conditions out there and I am not complaining. Instead I pray we all invest in ourselves today so we can be the people we want to be. I read somewhere, ‘do something today, your future self will thank you for tomorrow’.

The difficult truth I am trying to accept right now, is that I cannot control anyone. I cannot wrap my loves ones in a protective blanket and keep them safe through this pandemic and through life in general. My parents (aged 75 and 81), my son aged 19 who is at University and lives away from us, my sister aged 45, her husband, I love them to the moon and back but cannot keep them safe. I am trying to accept that and to accept that worrying about them constantly is not the answer. My husband and I can only take care of ourselves and send positive vibes and energy to them. And of course we can and do tell them to take care of their health and well being, to not go out during this pandemic and help them in whatever way they need. But that is all we can do, we cannot control their actions and keep them safe. Its a difficult truth to accept.

I find this very challenging. It is so easy to judge people based on their negative aspects and not see them in their totality. Everyone has good and bad and I am trying to change how I see people and focus on the parts of them that are good and not the parts that are not good. I keep reminding myself that their negative traits are between them and their conscience. It is easier said than done as I find my mind drifting to the things I don’t like about them rather than what I do like. I feel ashamed of it.

Everyone needs compassion. My prayer for today:
Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring Your love
Where there is injury, Your pardon Lord
And where there’s doubt, true faith in You
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there’s sadness, ever joy
Oh Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul
Make me a channel of Your peace. It is pardoning that we are pardoned
In giving to all that we receive

I think and speak quickly and am direct and blunt. Today’s question is a reminder that not every thought needs to be voiced. To choose whether I need to say anything at all. And if I do choose to speak, to keep the other person’s feelings in mind. I have to remember these 2 key messages:
‘If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all’ and by St. Francis of Assisi “Preach the Gospel and when necessary, use words”
As we start a new month, I pray for consciousness, for the ability to hold my tongue, to speak only when necessary and choose my words carefully.