Pause Blog On Overload, Overwhelm & Life In General

REFLECTION:  A friend and colleague recently downsized from her five bedroom, three story family home into a more compact two bedroom condo. As challenging as it was to dispense with her stuff, she reports feeling much lighter on every front.

I’ve always been an advocate and practitioner of uncluttering. Still, it seems to be a fact of modern life that stuff has an insidious way of accumulating around us when we aren’t paying close enough attention. 

My friend’s experience and a couple of open days have prompted me to do some further digging and dejunking around my own office. With seven boxes of books donated and six running feet of paper files turfed – so far – I’m only part way through this round of the process.

I’ve also been inspired by a book I’m reading entitled ‘Enough – Breaking Free From the World of More’.   Read More…

Posted under Pause E-zines

REFLECTION: In recent years, I’ve developed a morning routine that often includes a walk along the river, a meditative ’sit’ on my riverbank rock, and a series of yoga stretches (in the backyard garden when weather permits). 

What I’ve noticed in the last few weeks, is that every routine brings with it a community of coincidence. For instance, my walk includes ’stocky sunglass guy’ – the one with the stiff neck and rolling gait who always nods ‘good morning’. Then there are are the two women walkers – one a nonstop talker, the other a bemused listener – who power their way past me each morning with a brief nod in my direction. There’s the work crew that has been laboring away for a month now on a huge house along the river – replacing siding with stucco. Read More…

Posted under Life in General, Pause E-zines

REFLECTION: For each of  the last fifteen summers, our family has spent a week at a lakeside cabin in northern Saskatchewan. The experience has changed over the years, but still each year there is the constancy of the lapping of the waves on the shore, the setting of the sun through the spruce, and the calling of the loons across the moonlit water. And each year we are there to witness the beauty around us and to be present to each other.

For many years now, a classmate’s cousins gather annually for a few days at the farm where they grew up.Though there is distance between them now, when they are together, the years and miles fall away. They live and play in carefree ways with those who remember where they’ve come from  and who they were when.

You could say that those who engage in ’same time..next year’ experiences like these are lacking in imagination, stuck in a rut, creatures of habit. Or you might say that they are connoisseurs of connection. Read More…

Posted under Life in General, Pause E-zines

REFLECTION: It’s rare that I devour a book in just one or two sittings. But that’s exactly what I did with John Izzo’s new offering, “The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die.” 

Round One:  feet up in front of the fire on a rainy afternoon. Round two:  feet up on the deck in the warm morning sun. Although the setting in which you read doesn’t make the book, this is the kind of message that lends itself to feet up for reflection.

The book is based on a couple of premises.  First, that we can recognize those who have discovered and lived wisdom in their lives.  Second, despite our cultural preoccupation with youthfulness, that those who are over 60 hold a unique and valuable perspective on what really matters and can be mentors for us all. Read More…

Posted under Life in General, Pause E-zines