The last day my daughter and her college roommate were in Austin we went canoeing. How lovely to have a place to do that right inside a city! Then we went to Austin Java, a café right near Barton Springs. Austin Java has fabulous food and organic coffees and wonderful iced teas. Then we hit Book People, a fabulous bookstore, right next to Whole Foods in downtown Austin.
I loved that time with my daughter and missed her when she left. I’ll grant you, I kind of liked the peace and quiet but I missed her, too. I really missed her two days later when I realized I’d come down with a stomach virus! I found myself thinking how important our social networks are. I have friends all over this country, but when I got sick, I realized I hadn’t yet had a chance to connect with anyone here well enough that I could call them. So that will be one of my priorities in 2006—to really become a part of the community and get to know people and get to know them well.
Which fits in with something I did New Year’s Day. There is something in Unity called a white stone ceremony. On a piece of white slate one writes a word to represent where one wants one’s life to go in the coming year. For me, I had to write two words. One of those words was Joy. Because I truly believe that when we let ourselves see and embrace the moments and possibilities of joy in our lives, more and more such moments appear. The other word I wrote was TRUST. I wrote trust because for much of my life I couldn’t trust. It’s far easier for me than it once was, but it still doesn’t always come easily. So I decided to make trust a goal this year: trust in myself, trust in the future, trust in people around me. Not blind trust, but reasonable trust.
Trust begins with trust in ourselves. If we trust ourselves to be able to cope, to be able to set healthy boundaries, to allow our wants and needs to be important, then we can trust others.
So....canoes and cafes and bookstores make me aware of the blessings in my life and add to those moments of joy I embrace and the people I have been meeting help me to move forward toward a path of trust.
I wish for all of you moments of joy and the ability to trust in healthy ways. If you haven’t chosen a word to signify what you want to focus on this year, it might be something you would like to do. This is the second year I have done so and I fully expect it to be as powerful as it was last year.
April
