EMBRACE YOUR ESSENCE
  • Welcome
  • Approach
    • Healing Modalities
  • Sessions
    • Pay Online
  • Classes
    • Reiki Training Program >
      • Reiki "Lite"
      • Group Reiki Training
      • One-on-One Reiki Training
    • Class Schedule
  • Meditations
    • Meditation Library
  • Kind Words
  • About Sarah
    • Reiki Lineage
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Contact

Musings from the Journey

Enhance your life and fortify a deeper connection with your True Self.

Finding Joy to Sustain Us through Hard Times

2/7/2022

2 Comments

 
Where are the little glimmers of light and beauty?
Picture
March of 2020 I was signed up to take an ancestral healing training with shamanic practitioner Debra Morrill. Shortly before, the Covid outbreak hit, and, like so many other things, the class was postponed until it was safe to reconvene. While we waited, Debra and my teacher Ana Larramendi, her host, suggested that we go on a shamanic journey to connect with one of our ancestors that had survived a pandemic in their time. Since we all were here, no doubt at least one family member had made it through similar times. Now, about two years into the pandemic of our era, I've been reflecting on the wisdom that came from that journey.

I was led to a woman in France during the bubonic plague. She lived with one or two other people, and I could see that in time one of them would succumb to the Black Death while quarantined away in a separate room. My ancestor kept to herself as the sickness spread around her town. 

When I asked what helped her move through those times, I saw her going out into her garden behind the house. Looking up at the sky, the sun radiated down on her face, the light and warmth melting away some of her preoccupation, burdens, and grief. In that moment, she was alive and she could feel. She bent down, plucked a vibrant strawberry, and delighted in its sweet juices. As the Black Death spread around her, these visits to the garden kept her connected with enough light and enjoyment to sustain her through those years.

I planted several strawberry plants in my garden the spring after I did that journey. It was too late to truly enjoy their fruit that year, but I grew other things in the meantime. By June of 2021, the strawberry plants had established themselves. I would step out each morning, my shadow cast over the leaves, crooning as I gently searched for tender, ripe berries. Inevitably, I would find a few. Then I would stand eyes closed, slowly savoring the sun-warmed crimson flesh as the morning sun glimmered through the trees on my face.

These moments, and moments like these... snuggled with my kitties feeling their steady purr and poofy fur, laughing at a silly comedy, feeling snowflakes land on my face, receiving a small act of kindness or shared humanity from a stranger or friend, these seemingly small things have helped sustain me, and tap into resiliency. While there has been so much constriction, challenge, and loss over these last two years, there are still little glimmers of beauty hiding under the leaves. We just need to take a moment to pause, look, and allow ourselves to receive it.

What has helped sustain you during these times? What has brought comfort, relief, or even joy? Share with us in the comments. If you haven't found much of these qualities in your life lately, how can you make space for it to enter, even amongst the struggle?    

With lots of love and care,
Sarah
2 Comments

    Sarah Barlow

    Reiki Master Teacher and Owner of Embrace Your Essence

    Sign up for our E-Letters Here

    Read our Privacy Policy

    Archives

    January 2023
    October 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    September 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    2020
    Accessible
    Accomplishment
    Action
    Adapting
    Agenda
    Agitation
    Alive
    Allowing
    Alone
    Ancestors
    Ancestry
    Angels
    Anger
    Animal
    Anniversary
    Anxiety
    Apprehension
    Attunement
    Autumn
    Awakening
    Awareness
    Baby
    Baggage
    Balance
    Barriers
    Beauty
    Beginnings
    Beings
    Birds
    Birth
    Blessing
    Blessings
    Body
    Boundaries
    Boxes
    Brave
    Breath
    Brene Brown
    Buddhist
    Buds
    Burdens
    Burn Out
    Bursting Forth
    Busy
    Busy-ness
    Callings
    Capitol
    Caring
    Catalyst
    Celebrate
    Center
    Centered
    Centering
    Ceremony
    Challenge
    Change
    Changes
    Chaos
    Childhood
    Choice
    Class
    Cleansing
    Closure
    Clutter
    Comfort
    Communication
    Community
    Compassion
    Compassionate Communication
    Compassionate Witness
    Confused
    Confusion
    Connected
    Connection
    Conscious Communication
    Contemplation
    Contentment
    Control
    Coronavirus
    Country
    Courage
    Covid
    Covid 19
    Covid-19
    Create
    Crisis
    Curiosity
    Daring Greatly
    Dark
    Darkness
    Daylight
    Death
    Decade
    Declutter
    Defensiveness
    Delight
    Departed
    Desires
    Despair
    Desperation
    Destruction
    Detach
    Disassociate
    Disconnect
    Discouraged
    Disease
    Distant
    Distortion
    Distraction
    Divine
    Drained
    Drama
    Dream
    Ducklings
    Earth
    Ease
    Effective Action
    Efficiency
    Ego
    Election
    Elections
    Email
    Emerging
    Emotions
    Empath
    Empowered
    Encouragement
    Energy
    Energy Vampires
    Enmeshed
    Envision
    Equinox
    Escapism
    Excitement
    Exhaustion
    Expectations
    Experiment
    Exploration
    Expression
    Extreme Weather
    Faith
    Fall
    Fallen
    Fallow
    Family
    Fatigue
    Fear
    Feeler
    Finesse
    Fire
    Flexible
    Forgiveness
    Freedom
    Garden
    Gaslight
    Gathering Resources
    Gentle
    Good Enough
    Grace
    Gratitude
    Great Conjunction
    Grief
    Grim
    Ground
    Grounding
    Growth
    Guardian
    Guidance
    Guided
    Gunny Sack
    Halloween
    Hardships
    Hatred
    Heal
    Healing
    Health
    Heart
    Hearth
    Helplessness
    Hibernate
    Highly Sensitive Person
    Holiday
    Hollow
    Honor
    Hope
    HSP
    Human
    Humanity
    Illness
    Illusion
    Imagine
    Immune System
    Important
    Inclement Weather
    Incubation
    Inherited
    Injured
    Injustices
    Inklings
    Inner Child
    Inspiration
    Inspired Action
    Instincts
    Integration
    Intuition
    Inviting In
    Job
    Journaling
    Joy
    Judgment
    Justice
    Khalil Gibran
    Kindness
    Laughter
    Layers
    Leaning In
    Learning
    Let Go
    Letting Go
    Life
    Light
    Light At The End Of The Tunnel
    Limiting Beliefs
    Listen
    Longing
    Loss
    Love
    Loved Ones
    Marie Kondo
    Marshall Rosenberg
    Mediation
    Medicine
    Meditation
    Meeting
    Messy
    Metta
    Mind
    Misalignment
    Missteps
    Mother
    Mourning
    Movement
    Moving
    Moving Forward
    Narcissist
    Nature
    Navigate
    Needs
    New Grow
    New Life
    News
    New World
    Noise
    Nonviolent Communication
    Not Alone
    Notice
    Nourish
    Nourishment
    Nurturance
    Nurturing
    Observing
    Opening
    Organize
    Outbreak
    Out Of Body
    Out Of State
    Out Of The Country
    Outside
    Overwhelm
    Pain
    Pandem
    Pandemic
    Patience
    Peace
    Performance
    Perspective
    Phases Of Life
    Phone
    Plague
    Planet
    Plant
    Play
    Poise
    Practice
    Presence
    Problem
    Productivity
    Progress
    Protect
    Protection
    Purify
    Putting Out Fires
    Qualities
    Quiet
    Race
    Rage
    Rawness
    Reactivity
    Reality
    Receive
    Receiving
    Recharge
    Reciprocity
    Reflect
    Reflection
    Reiki
    Rejection
    Relationship
    Release
    Relief
    Remember
    Remembrance
    Replenish
    Resentment
    Resilience
    Resiliency
    Resilient
    Resistance
    Responsibility
    Rest
    Reverence
    Rhythms
    Riots
    Ritual
    Robot
    Roller Coaster
    Roots
    Sadness
    Safe
    Salvation
    Saving Others
    Screens
    Seasonal Affective Disorder
    Seeds
    Self Care
    Self-care
    Self Love
    Self-love
    Self-Reiki
    Sensitive
    Series
    Service
    Shamanic Journey
    Shame
    Shift
    Shifting Consciousness
    Shortcomings
    Shoulds
    Showing Up
    Sick
    Silence
    Skype
    Sleep
    Smoke And Mirrors
    Softness
    Soul
    Space
    Spaciousness
    Spark
    Specters
    Spirit
    Spring
    Sprouts
    Stablity
    Stone
    Strawberries
    Strength
    Stress
    Strong
    Support
    Surgery
    Surprise
    Surrender
    Surrendering
    Survive
    Take Care Of Each Other
    Tangled
    Tao Te Ching
    Teaching
    Tenderness
    Thanks
    Thanksgiving
    Tidy
    Tired
    To Do
    Together
    Tools
    Transformation
    Transition
    Trauma
    Travel
    Triggers
    True
    Trust
    Truth
    Turmoil
    Uncertainty
    Understand
    United States
    Unknown
    Unmet Needs
    Unplug
    Unworthiness
    Urgency
    Value
    Veil
    Violence
    Virtual
    Vision
    Vote
    Vulnerability
    Wants
    Waves
    We Are One
    Weary
    Weight Of The World
    What Is
    Whole
    Willingness
    Winter
    Wisdom
    Wolves
    Womb
    Wonder
    Work
    World
    Yearning
    Zoom

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Welcome
  • Approach
    • Healing Modalities
  • Sessions
    • Pay Online
  • Classes
    • Reiki Training Program >
      • Reiki "Lite"
      • Group Reiki Training
      • One-on-One Reiki Training
    • Class Schedule
  • Meditations
    • Meditation Library
  • Kind Words
  • About Sarah
    • Reiki Lineage
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Contact