mindfulness

After the mindlessness of the GOP political debate, I spent 20 minutes at a mindfulness class the next day. The subjects taught at the class were identifying the space between the stimulus and response in our emotional lives and finding our breathing anchor. I think I'm pretty good at the first lesson. I don't usually fly off the handle. I've been practicing this for a very long time. But it was good to discover that by placing my hand over my belly (the place where I most experience my breath) and breathing, I can instantly center myself when I'm feeling frazzled. All in all the class was worth the gas  money and the 20 minutes of driving from Meadow Valley to Quincy.

Especially as I combined the trip with a visit to my 80-year-old friend with whom I have spiritual discussions. On Thursday, my friend described a dream she had of Jesus. In her dream, Jesus was leading her up the staircase to heaven and she was following him. Behind her, attached to her in some way, as if by a force field were all her cats,  past, present and future, following along on their way to heaven too. I thought this was a wonderful dream and we discussed Jesus visitations which it turns out is a thing.

My friend gave me a book about many peoples' different experiences, and I realized I had had two during my life. One I am willing to talk about. I was quite young, newly married for the first time and feeling stressed our about all of life's trials when I awoke from a dream to see a faint light glowing at the foot of my bed. In my head I heard a very distinct voice say, "Trust in my goodness." The light slowly faded, and I felt calm and went back to sleep. I have only told a couple of people about this but it has held true for me for the rest of my life since. I have found that I can trust in this goodness of this source of divine light which I now believe was Christ, having spoken with my friend about such visitations.

I am not willing to talk about the other visitation as the message I was given has not come true yet. And should it never come true I should not like to add doubt to an already doubting world.