The spiritual life deeply lived
always expands into truths beyond itself.
~Anais Nin
A package arrived the other day from Amazon. It perplexed me, as I had ordered nothing for a while. Feeling around on the envelope, I realized it was a book. I love to read and knowing there was something I didn’t order; I got super excited.
I ripped open the envelope and pulled it out; a book with a picture of a very elderly woman on the cover smiling a toothy smile that would intrigue anyone.
I knew her kind face as I’d seen her dressed up in sports attire, sitting in a wheelchair in the front line of a college basketball game during March Madness. Of course, it was Sister Jean!
I’m not much of a sportster, but I knew that face and her story. Sister Jean wrote the book with Seth Davis titled, Wake Up with Purpose! What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years.
I pondered, wondering who sent me this book, as I leafed through it quickly, recognizing Sister Jean, who’s known all over for her love of basketball, Loyola University and, of course, March Madness. 
Though Sister, sitting in her wheelchair watching the game in the front row is a visual for many, that wasn’t what intrigued me with this book. It was her enthusiasm for life, accepting the good and the bad as life dished it out.
It was the message of spending time in quiet. To spend time in prayer and deep thought. She suggested thirty minutes of silent reflection in the morning.
With busy lives, that’s not always so easy to do, doing nothing. And the mind is hard to keep still from the thoughts of things, mistakes, wishes and promises.
But sister reminds us that that’s perfectly normal for minds to wander. I know when I’m conducting hypnosis in my office, I always remind the patient that a wandering conscious mind is a good thing so that I can get into the deeper subconscious mind.
Meditation and prayer are similar. When we let the mind wander, we can actually go in deeper through the subconscious mind and connect personally to our higher source.
I recently published my newest book, Release Your Obsession with Your PHONE: Heal from the Inside Out where I earmarked distractions we deal with every day because of technology, social media and other apps on our phone.
We need to let go of the stimulation from the phone and spend time within instead of searching the outer self to fit in to what other people are doing.
It’s the healing on the inside that helps us deal with the outside.
We’re glued to our phone and not paying attention to other happenings in our lives. We’re missing out on outside time with nature, admiring the magical sky, birds and butterflies overhead. God.
This may sound like la-di-da, woo hoo, but it isn’t. It’s big stuff to sit in silence, and embrace the Earth. Every book I’ve written I speak highly about Earthing, an ancient practice communing with Mother Earth.
When was the last time you walked through the grass barefoot and felt the earth beneath your feet? It’s a healing practice to connect with the planet on which we live.
And another healing practice is to live life on purpose.
When I was writing my book on Releasing Your Obsession with AGING: Heal from the Inside Out, the main point I drove throughout the book is to live your authentic life on purpose. Sister Jean says if you keep your faith, you never have to grow old. Coming from a sister of 103 years old, I’m going to pay attention.
What is the point of waking up if you have nothing to wake up to? Many feel life is hard and that if you don’t have big things happening, there’s nothing happening at all.
I disagree.
Planting flowers, making jewelry, coloring in a coloring book, writing a letter (the old fashion) way on stationery paper, are all ways to live life on purpose.
Too often we sweat the small stuff and miss out on what’s right in front of us. Sister reminds the reader that the stress is not worth it. She talks about embracing the moment and giving your best in whatever you do.
So this book was a mysterious gift that turned out to be from my eldest sister, who thought I might appreciate the wise words of Sister Jean.
I do.
And I hope you do too. Regardless of your religious practice or not, we can all learn a lot from a person who’s spent one hundred and three years here on planet earth.
Do you live your life on purpose? Are you doing what you meant to do since you were very young? Sister knew by third grade that she wanted to become a Catholic Sister with Blessed Virgin Mother (BVM). When did you know what your purpose is? If you’re not sure, there’s always time as long as there’s breath in you.
Please share your thoughts, we’d all love to hear from you…
Life would be much simpler if we were all born with a book that guided us through our every need, a book that answered our deepest internal fears and gave us the go-ahead that it’s okay to unplug, a book that delivered support when we needed it. But in the end, we must all write this book for ourselves and find our true path in life as it unfolds.
Thank you for spending time with me and my thoughts. I hope my words lit your excitement to become your best self for you and to push through your fears.
I’m excited to share my newest book with you on how to Release Your obsession with Your PHONE. God bless you and your journey through this life and all that awaits beyond.
Thank you for being a part of the reading blog forum of this blog. If you have something you’d like to say, I’d love to hear it. YOU are important and your words need to be heard. I’m here for you.
Stay tuned. You never know where my mind will wander…
