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Reflections

The Safest Place for My Child

9/9/2022

2 Comments

 
It’s so easy for the imagination to take us to the worst case scenarios. The thoughts explode:  My child is hurt, dead, dying, lost to me, I’ll never see them again.  We put our dear children into this very frightening and painful future, and we lose ourselves, we lose our children, we lose the awareness of love, the peace of it.  

I have found the safest place for my child is to notice when my fear takes me into the nightmare and to breathe into right now, breathe into my heart, or I am going to spin into the future nightmare and grow it.  That's not what I want to grow, and I'm surely thinking you don't either.

To notice when I'm in my scary imagination, and then to question the truth of what I’m believing and imagining allows just enough space to let Love show me a kinder way, a more peaceful way.  It brings me out of my mind and into my heart.  When it seems I’m losing my mind, yes please let me lose the fearful one! 

My heart becomes the safest place for me and my child.  He is always safe there.  He is safest when I question the very truth of what I’m imagining and believing. Is what I'm believing, imagining for sure absolutely accurate?  Most times, it is an assumption, a fear, an imagined story of the past or future.

Is it true my son is lost to me?  Or is it truer I lost him to my fears?  Yes, truer.  Is it truer I lost me?  Yes, there I go into the future that isn’t even here yet, and I lose the awareness of a connection that transcends time and space.  I lose the awareness of  love.  No wonder it hurts!  If I lose me, lose all that, I lose him.

When I question my thoughts this way, peace has a chance, it arrives.  My heart arrives.  My son comes back to me and I don’t need to know where he is.  He is here, in my heart, held by love itself.  Fear can not have us, can not keep us.  Love has found us.  I can keep coming back this way.  I send him the best of my love, without conditions,  even if through time and space.  I trust it gets where it needs to go, like a virtual hug.   Unconditional love can do that.  Fear can not.

Just notice how much it hurts to be in the unquestioned fear, in the future imaginations that take us out of the present and into a nightmare.  Where do our children really live?  Always in our heart, in our kindest memory, in the wonders of life they have lived, the beauty in them, they have touched our lives, touched the world.  They live in us as we honor life and love itself, to choose more of it.  To go against our very soul that knows this, to go against Love itself may be the greatest pain we can experience. And Love can find us again and again and bring us back to sanity, to peace, to a kinder way.


Love wins here!
​

​From my heart to yours,
Joanne
2 Comments
Ro
9/12/2022 08:29:04 pm

Just absolutely beautiful. How it makes you think and feel every word.

Reply
Joanne Richards
9/13/2022 08:54:12 am

Hi Ro. I'm so glad my words have touched your heart and feel true for you too. Thanks for sharing! Wishing you and your family peace and more love <3

Reply



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    Music

    ​Weeds or Wishes ?
    ​

    ​When I look at the photo above, I could see weeds, or a field of dreams.  I'm reminded of making wishes as a little girl. As I blew on what I thought was a weed, seeds rising into the air,  I went along, and into the world of possibility and dreams. What do you see? Weeds? Dreams? Something else?

    ​This is an invitation to consider how we see the world, what is our perspective and how does it affect our lives...Ask yourself, open up to experience your heart and mind meeting to uncover the truths that lie beneath and beyond our stressful thinking, allow your own answers to arise, and discover possibilities, all for you, and from you. 

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  • Home
    • Newsletter
  • The Work
    • Why work with a Certified Facilitator?
  • Joanne
    • Mandated Reporting
  • Events
    • Rx for Peace
    • Invitation to Change Family Group
    • Webinar ~ Enabling
    • Mother's Retreat
  • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
  • Reflections
  • Resources
    • Supporting A Loved One in Treatment
    • Supporting A Loved One's Recovery
    • Questions to Ask Treatment Providers
    • Grief
    • 75 Ways to Manage Stress
    • Letting Go
    • Addiction Treatment Resources
    • Books, Videos, etc
    • The Art of Healing
    • What is Wellness
    • Gratitude Practice