Each morning as I sit down with my coffee and pick up my gratitude journal to write, the first thing I write down is the date. Dates often evoke certain memories in me. Does this ever happen to you? Earlier this morning as I wrote June 1st, 2019, my first thought was “Welcome June!” I love the beginning of a new month, and I love the month of June!
Here in Minnesota, June typically means that the danger of frost has indeed passed and gardening season truly gets underway. The temps warm up, but it’s usually not quite up to the harsh heat and humidity of summer yet. It’s like October in reverse, when the temps begin to cool, but not yet to the point of a hard frost and the days are still warm and sunny. Not to mention, October is when the leaves start changing. Yep… October and June are my favorite months out of the year. And September and May are close behind. But sometimes September is still too hot and May is still too cold. But May is a freaking bloomfest, so it’s okay that it’s still a bit cold. I actually don’t mind the cold. Maybe my favorite months are October and May, but I love June too. Anyways, I’m rambling now…
Right after I had my “Welcome June!” thought, my very next thought was “June 3rd of this year would have been my 30th wedding anniversary.” Ugh, didn’t want to go there. Especially since I’m about to write in my gratitude journal. But I decided to stop there and allow myself to ponder, to check in with myself and allow whatever emotions to arise. Needless to say, there were a wide range of emotions, even with it being nearly 10 years since we split …
I’m not going to exhaust myself or bother you in relaying all of them, but I did want to share a text I got from my sister when I shared with her about it, because although it was just a simple thing she said, it felt quite profound to me and it was a good reminder.
Just for a bit of background… The 8:05 I have at the beginning of my text to her is a weird thing between my sister and I. Usually it’s at 8:14 or 11:27 – our birthday dates that we’ll send a text to each other. I don’t know why we do it, it’s just a thing we do if we happen to notice the time on the clock. I almost always get a text from her at 8:14 in the morning, and you’ll notice her reply is at 8:15. I guarantee you that she picked up her phone at 8:14 to text me, when she saw my text at 8:05 and then it took her a minute to type. Speaking of the 8:05, once in a while we’ll still put the time at the beginning of other texts for no reason, just to be extra weird…
What I love the most is the end of her text – “Wait, it’s only June 1st, it sounds like you are in the past and the future at the same time… please join me in the present.” Gosh you guys, how often do we do that? Seriously! Still! Even though we know that the present is where to live and be. I’m constantly grounding myself in the present moment.
But the mind… it’s always going isn’t it? And we need our minds. Haha oh God knows we do! And I’m thankful for my mind. I’m thankful it works properly. And that is not to be taken for granted – some people’s minds don’t work properly, and they suffer so. Sometimes we can cause ourselves a different type of suffering too, by allowing our minds to transport us into the past or the future and then lingering there too long.
Do you know what I’m realizing right now though that was kinda cool about all this too? When I said that I allowed myself to ponder, to check in with myself and allow whatever emotions to arise… I was actually more of an observer this time. And that’s the key! I’ve heard/read many times that we should allow these things (our emotions/thoughts) to arise, but to be an observer of them. And that is actually more of how this was. I am not usually an observer of my emotions, I usually feel every. single. one. Omygosh am I evolving? Or maybe it was the text from my sister that snapped me out of it haha! 😉
When I came back to the present moment I noticed a Catbird mewing. There is this one Catbird who always comes around and kinda sounds like its saying my name… “Jewy, Jewy.” Sounds like Julie to me. So then I sent this and my sister, who also has Catbirds at her place too…
I truly lol’d at that last bit! For a good couple of minutes afterward too! I love my sister’s sense of humor! It matches my own! I’m giggling now…
Maybe that can be a reminder… whenever I heard a Catbird saying my name I can check in with myself and make sure I’m staying in the present moment…
Birds all over the world are calling my name right now! Hahahaha!
Welcome June! 🌼 Here’s to staying in the present…
✿~Peace & Love~✿
Ramblings From Jewels 