Conversation – 16

Catch it if you can. 🤣

Taci,

This is for your mom. 🌹

@shoelady60,

This is for you and hubby I see your State is having big snow. Keep Jake inside. 🤣
Only out for emergencies.

Club Sheba Holiday Edition

@sheba2011

Good afternoon from the snowy ‘burgh. We had 10-11″, hard to measure with the winds and snow drifts. Hubby shoveled the deck and used the snow blower on the driveway. All is now clear, it will be a while for the rest of the yard. High today is 33 and we won’t be above 40 until Monday. Power did not go out (yet) but the trees look heavy and with the melting/freezing, who knows. The roads are fine and with a lot of people working from home, the crews had an easier time getting them cleared. This is the ‘burgh, been there, done that! Mom and sis are fine, appreciate you asking.

Thank you for the cute snow lady. If I was younger, I would be outside building her now along with the rest of her family!⛄❄⛄

Hello Sheba, Yes, this State is large and they say for us to be fairly represented politically, it would need to be broken into 5 States. I will stop here…. 🙂 It a beautiful State with lots to offer weather and scenery wise.
I don’t know about all these filters and the quest to soften the look in pictures until you look like ones own children. It’s not my cup a tea.
Hope you and all have a wonderful day in doors and safe.
Sheba, I am getting into some of these games, and it’s been fun! The landing one cracks me up.

Control

The answer to control is practicing surrender.

Trying to maintain control in this life is a bit like trying to maintain control on a roller coaster. The ride has its own logic and is going to go its own way, regardless of how tightly you grip the bar. There is a thrill and a power in simply surrendering to the ride and fully feeling the ups and downs of it, letting the curves take you rather than fighting them. When you fight the ride, resisting what’s happening at every turn, your whole being becomes tense and anxiety is your close companion. When you go with the ride, accepting what you cannot control, freedom and joy will inevitably arise.

As with so many seemingly simple things in life, it is not always easy to let go, even of the things we know we can’t control. Most of us feel a great discomfort with the givens of this life, one of which is the fact that much of the time we have no control over what happens. Sometimes this awareness comes only when we have a stark encounter with this fact, and all our attempts to be in control are revealed to be unnecessary burdens. We can also cultivate this awareness in ourselves gently, by simply making surrender a daily practice. At the end of our meditation, we might bow, saying, “I surrender to this life.” This simple mantra can be repeated as necessary throughout the day, when we find ourselves metaphorically gripping the safety bar.

We can give in to our fear and anxiety, or we can surrender to this great mystery with courage. When we see people on a roller coaster, we see that there are those with their faces tight with fear and then there are those that smile broadly, with their hands in the air, carried through the ride on a wave of freedom and joy. This powerful image reminds us that often the only control we have is choosing how we are going to respond to the ride. 😎