Dear ,
Do you receive gifts of beauty, time, attention, and/or love each day? I hope you'll take a moment to really think about this, because these can be so easy to overlook, and yet, "looking over" them can make such a difference in the quality of our days. Did you notice your neighbor's still-blooming gardenias? That care-filled text from your sister? That friend who listened so patiently on the phone when you were
recounting that story of aggravation, or heartache?
I created the year-length TAG, I'M IT!, now on sale for $14.50 (15% off) and the three-month TAG, I'M IT!, on sale for $7.99 (20% off) because I wanted to not only notice these gifts, but record them, along with recording what I
was thankful for, and what I truly do accomplish in a day that really matters to me. Then I decided I'd offer it for others who would find this helpful.
Because TAG, I'M IT! really does help. I know, because I get such lovely emails and notes from people who are using it. Like the one I got on Wednesday from Jay, one of my clients, who sent me a Frederick Buechner quote called "News" (this inspired this email's subject line) with the words "Here is where your “Tag” workbook helps us!"
I'd been thinking of offering a Labor Day sale on both versions of TAG, I'M IT!, because I know I'm not alone in my love of the "fresh start" feeling September always gives me. And Jay's email gave me the added incentive of being able to share Buechner's "News" with you. It's one of those pieces that feels like it was written for today, though it was written some years ago. One of those pieces
I wish I'd written, because I love it so much.
News
by
Frederick Buechner
WHEN THE EVENING NEWS comes on, hundreds of thousands of people all over the earth are watching it on their TV screens or listening to it on their radios. Disasters and scandals, scientific breakthroughs and crimes of passion, perpetual wars and the perpetual search for peace—people sit there by the millions half dazed by the things that go to create each particular day. Maybe they even try to make some kind of
sense of it or, if they're not up to that, at least try to come to some sort of terms with it, try to figure out how it's apt to affect them for good or ill.
There is also, of course, the news that rarely if ever gets into the media at all, and that is the news of each particular day of each particular one of us. That is the news we're so busy making that we seldom get around to sitting down and thinking it over. If it takes some extraordinary turn we might, but the unextraordinary, commonplace events of each day as they come along we tend to let slip by almost
unnoticed. That is, to put it mildly, a pity. What we are letting slip by almost unnoticed are the only lives on this planet we're presumably ever going to get.
We're all of us caught up in our own small wars, both hot and cold. We have our crimes and passions, our failures and successes. We make our occasional breakthroughs. God knows we are searching for peace. It's all apt to happen so quietly and on so small a scale we hardly realize it's happening. Only an unanswered letter. A phone conversation. A tone of voice. A chance meeting at the post office. An unexpected
lump in the throat. Laughing till we cry. But these things are what it's all about. These things are what we are all about.
Maybe there's nothing on earth more important for us to do than sit down every evening or so and think it over, try to figure it out if we can, at least try to come to terms with it. The news of our day. Where it is taking us. Where it is taking the people we love. It is, if nothing else, a way of saying our prayers.
-Originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words
To receive daily Frederick Buechner Quote of the Day emails, sign up here.
The sale on both versions of TAG, I'M IT! ends on Labor Day, and I do hope you'll take me up on it if you'd like to see what this kind of focus on the news that matters most could do for you.
September is the perfect time to start (or renew) this practice, which offers the chance to:
- be consciously thankful every day for the good in your life
(and the gift of getting to be alive)
- acknowledge that, even on the least productive, most difficult
days, you accomplished at least a few things that mattered
to you, and most likely someone else as well
- keep a record of (and savor!) the most uplifting "gifts"
of your day, including stuff like an email from your brother
praising something you wrote, a warm smile from a stranger
as she held a door open for you, the cup of coffee your husband brought you as you were working, the compliment paid you
by a friend, etc., as well as actual, physical gift
- read a hand-selected, thought-provoking, or inspiring quote
each day
- choose three small, do-able, most-important-to-you things to accomplish the following day
Dr. Sara Rose, Ph.D., is a national board-certified and licensed professional counselor operating in private practice in Charlotte, NC. Her work aims to help individuals live happier, healthier lives with her unique approach to
therapy and counseling. She graciously featured me on RoseCast, not once, but twice!
If you've read this far, here are the links again so you don't have to scroll back up: the year-length TAG, I'M IT!, which sells for $17, is on sale for $14.50, and the three-month TAG, I'M IT!, which sells for $9.99, is on
sale for $7.99 through next Monday, September 7th (Labor Day).
May these last days of summer hold peace, love, beauty, and gratitude for you and yours, . I'm grateful for you!
Maureen
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of
Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. One of her long-held dreams came true in July of 2015 when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on The Writer's Almanac. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife
dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours!
|
|
|
|
