March Sabbath for Calm

Each Sunday during Lent, I like to pick a theme to give attention to; last Sunday it was forgiveness, and today it's calm. Calmness is a quality of being: At peace, relaxed in my body, steady and easy. Calmness is one aspect of resilience - if I can remain calm, I will better navigate a crisis situation, whenever it comes.

My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I don't rush, complain, or worry. Everything I do has a flavor of peace. I schedule some work, but it's work I find fulfilling, or uplifting. Simple is a great word to describe my ideal activities for the sabbath: Simple tasks, simple foods, and an undemanding schedule.

Agenda:

1. Queries

2. Resilience reading

3. Nature journal

4.

 Plastics fast 

1. Queries: 

What have I learned so far this Lent? 

What do I need to do or learn next, in order to improve my rootedness, my strength (body, mind, spirit), and my resilience?

2. Resilience reading:

This Lent I'm reading daily from the book, "101 Mindful Ways to Build Resilience," by Donald Altman, which offers simple ideas for being more rooted in my body and mind. The first section is about Calm, and today I went back through the first 10 practices to review. 

Morning blessing: Today I'm blessed with an unexpected and peaceful snow day.

3. Nature journal:

I've been enjoying my dive into the Nature Mentor website. The writer, Brian Mertins, offers a practical approach to awakening naturalist instincts by building skills with plants and birds. Since reading about crows last week, I've been hearing crows all day! Today I observed a crow acting as sentry while three others ate worms in the snowy lawn below.

I'm trying to remember to record my observations in my little nature journal.

4. Plastic fast: 

My focus this third week of Lent is my kitchen.

Look around your kitchen to see what plastics you can reuse, what you can replace, and what you should not buy again. Focus on your use of single use plastics; most of us will continue to use existing reusable plastic containers, utensils, etc. until they’re worn out.

First tip: Buy dish soap and other cleaners in bulk, using your own glass jars. But first find out what becomes of the bulk plastic jugs at the stores. Are they sent back to be re-filled? (One store we are sure of is Bhumi Refillery. The owner can tell you what happens to every jug in the store.)

Or try using bar soap to wash dishes- regular castile soap works for dishes, or try one of these zero-waste dish soap bars.