By David Stephenson
I’m going to let you in on my disability that turns out to be a huge advantage in hard times. I have severe ADD: in the Driven to Distraction quiz, I got 99 out of 100! So how is that an advantage? I forget almost everything except for this session at 8:30 every morning and my daily hike at 7 AM. That means that when I do something bad to someone else or someone does something bad to me, by the next morning I’ve totally forgotten, so I can start afresh!
You can too, due to what I call the Miracle of the 24 Hour Day. Because we complete the cycle and start anew every morning, we are not doomed — unless you’re in a remake of the Groundhog Day movie — to recapitulate what we did yesterday.
We can choose each morning to do something different, and that can trigger the butterfly effect — you know, sensitive dependence on initial conditions. If you exercise your ability to choose that today will be different, even in very small ways, it will be, perhaps in small ways or perhaps revolutionary ones.
That’s why I treasure this brief respite at the beginning of the day — it’s our opportunity to relax, meditate, and make today different!
I share with you the lyrics to “Morning Has Broken” by Eleanor Farjean. They talk about a new day and how to experience it. Everything is like the first time and each day is a recreation of newness.
Participants’ Reflections
I liked this idea of starting each day anew. Powerful. We’ve talked before about restarting a day in the middle as well. During the meditation, I sent energy to those that are struggling. I pictured us with our hands on their shoulders, supporting them, in order to lessen their pain.
Like a crowd of angels
I had a vision of lifting people struggling up from darkness. I know what it's like to be going through really dark times. I am carrying them forward.
Thank you for the reading. During the meditation, I saw a hummingbird visiting the plants I just planted. It felt like such a gift.
Your reading was very helpful. My daughter has ADHD and we butt heads continually. You shined a lot of light on our interactions. We will have a hard moment and then she’ll act like nothing happened, while I will want to talk about it and rectify it. I learned from you that I have to get over it and to let go.
My life is like that
I have a prayer for each 24 hours. Let me see your love today how I've not seen it before. Saying this gives me a day. I love hummingbirds. ADD or not.
Where I used to live, we slept outside, near a hummingbird feeder. The sound of the hummingbird wings was my wakeup alarm every morning.
That is the power of the new day. In the Christmas Carol story, that moment when Scrooge awakens. He asks what day it is and erupts with joy. Life gets harder the longer we are on Earth, but we can change it every day. This group helps.
This is the topic of the conference I am going to talk at next week, about the cycles like the new day. Thank you for sharing lyrics with me, I am going to use them in my talk. When my dad died, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a hummingbird. I’ve associated hummingbirds with my dad ever since.
At a croning ceremony, I shared a hummingbird sermon.
The acronym ADD is added to life
Yesterday, I was leading outdoor yoga. People were lying on the ground and I saw a hummingbird fly up and hover over our group.
The hummingbird as symbol for us
Happy Solstice...may this be the tipping point for more than the sun. Blessed Be.
Wishing all a peaceful day.
I have a card called “Advice from a Hummingbird.” It’s written by Ilan Shamir. It’s about basking in the glory of the moment and not getting upset about the little things.
#meditation #meditations #spiritualjourney #mindfulliving #mindfulness #adhd #hummingbirds #eachdayanew #anewday
Photo credit: James Wainscoat