Category: Meditation

How to Avoid Becoming a Lazy Eagle

I’m on holiday right now, enjoying some welcome respite with my beloved and two sons. As the Southwest desert heat sores to a miserable level this time of year, I—as well as many other Southwest dwellers—find some way to escape it, as we anxiously await the July, August and early September monsoon rains that nourish our parched home and bring relief to our lives.

We did get a wonderful, early monsoon prelude last Monday, though, when an unexpected thunderstorm cooled the temperature and lightened our hearts. We’re hoping this year’s monsoon bring s much moisture.

 

The Lazy Eagle—

I did want to share with you this parable an acquaintance sent me a few months ago. As you read it, think about how much like the lazy eagle you might be right now in your life.

 

“The king of a village was gifted two small beautiful eagles by one of his assistants. The two eagles were immediately handed to a very well-known trainee to teach them the art of soaring very high, and several months later, the trainee came back to the king and said, “One of the eagles is now soaring very high in the sky, while the other one still sits on the branch of a large oak tree and never leaves the tree.”

The King called all birds’ specialists in the village to coax the eagle to leave the branch, but none of them succeeded. Then, an idea came to his mind to seek the advice of a wise man who lived in the far corner of the village. The next morning, the king saw the eagle flying happily, and when he asked the wise man what he did to make the eagle fly, the man said, “I simply broke the branch where the eagle has been sitting.”

 

– We find ourselves sitting on the branches of fear, hesitation, and unwilling to change in just the same way. Unless we break such negative branches within us, we’ll never discover the tremendous energy that enables us to soar very high in the open sky of success.

 

Meditations—

Are you like this eagle right now, fearful, hesitant and unwilling to change to make your life better, prosperous or more fulfilling?

Does anger, pain, past hurts, or self-doubt hamper your courage or focus, holding you back from achieving your God-given potential?

 

Remedies—

Take some time to get out of your regular (comfortable or stuck) element, to think, to day dream, to make notes about what you’d like to accomplish, and why you think you haven’t, can’t or won’t. Jot down your thoughts. Keep them simple. Become more self-aware. As we move forward this summer, we’ll do more exploring on how we can overcome our lazy eagle habits and mindset and get off that branch we’ve attached ourselves to!

 

But next Monday I’ll be winging my way back home, so Meditation Mondays will pick up again July 1.

 

Until then,

Enjoy your first official days of summer!

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

How to Make the Most Out of Life (Part 1)

A recent Guideposts magazine story (June/July 2019) talks about what’s important for a happy fulfilling life in your senior season of life: mental stimulation, spiritual nourishment, financial stability and good friends.

But my question is: why wait until the senior season of your life to pursue, seek out and enjoy those life components?

Aren’t they critical for a satisfying, well-balanced life in every season of life?

 

How did we get to this point?

I believe all of these components are critical and that only since the Industrial Age and now the Technology Age have we managed to compartmentalize ourselves in such a way that our life scales are thrown out of whack.

 

What quality of life do you have if you don’t have mental stimulation, spiritual nourishment, financial stability and good friends to share joys, pain and laughter?

 

Mental stimulation—

Some of us our over-stimulated mentally by our work schedules and job demands. To prove that truth, work or job “burn out” has recently become an official medical diagnosis. It isn’t always our fault—technology and a company’s demands that the employee always be connected, reachable and ridiculously overloaded—fuels the depression and burn out pattern. I really think employees need to start pushing back on that one, or do some serious self-analysis on how important that job or career is to them.

Plenty of millenials are doing just that—choosing to ditch the nine-to-five-plus rat race and opt for a richer, more stress-free life and fewer belongings. Kudos to them for prioritizing a little better than our generation or generations before us have.

 

Spiritual nourishment—

At any season of life we need spiritual nourishment. Study after study shows that people who worship regularly in a corporate setting and indicate they have a religious affiliation are happier and more satisfied with life. They also have better connections with others and are healthier mentally.

Unfortunately, this is an area many younger people have abdicated, adopting the erroneous belief that religious life is unnecessary, or eschewing church-going as old fashioned or believers too hypocritical.

I say they should get involved and be the instruments of compassion, kindness, and change they want to see. I believe they will eventually pay a steep price for abdicating this critical life component.

 

Financial stability—

Honestly, due to economic ups and downs and unpredictability, I’m not sure financial “stability” is ever achievable. But good goals are to always live below your means, within your means, save all you can, spend all you can, and give away all you can. And to live as debt-free as you possibly can. Being, and feeling like a slave to a lender is physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausting and depressing.

The common adage is that older adults live on a “fixed income.” But most people I know live on a fixed income of some sorts throughout their lives, unless they’re salespeople that depend on sales quotas, or company managers that enjoy yearly bonuses based on company performances.

Otherwise, you get the same paycheck week after week after week. And then maybe you get a raise. Even seniors get a yearly social security raise every year, even though it’s tiny and usually swallowed up by apartment or housing rent that increases accordingly.

 

Good friends—

How many good friends do you have? I mean really good friends. Not just friendly co-workers, classmates or acquaintances, but people with whom you can share your deepest thoughts?

People you can pray with, people who pray for you. The ones you can call in an emergency and who will be there for you.

 

I’m working on the friend component this week.

I’m visiting a friend who was by my side as we raised our children together. I was heartbroken when her husband transferred to a new job in a new state, MANY miles away, but I was determined to keep our friendship nurtured in spite of the physical distance that now spreads between us.

I didn’t want to allow our friendship to dissolve into infrequent text messaging or once-a-year Christmas card sending, so, as soon as they moved into their sprawling new home, (lots of bedrooms and no kids left at home), I told her to get the guest room ready for me to visit. Lucky me, she was happy to comply! (And I bought the airline ticket before my pragmatic brain told me no.)

 

And Chris and I did some friend nurturing Memorial Day weekend, too.

For my naturally-introverted husband, socializing can be taxing and stressful. To re-energize, he likes to spend time alone, or with just me, doing something we enjoy together, or just sitting on the couch enjoying Friday night movie time.

I, on the other hand, swing from lets-have-a-PARTY! extrovert, to I-desperately-need-some-time-alone, to hovering between the two extremes. Sometimes I re-energize through crowds and people contact; and sometimes I just have to be alone.

So when I expressed to Chris my desire to pack duffel bags and head 500 miles west to celebrate our friends’ daughter’s wedding, I didn’t exactly get a rousing “Yahoo!” response from him. I pretty much told him that I’d already replied with a yes. After several weeks of wrapping his brain around it, he warmed up to the idea.

And we had a blast!

Of course, I threw in a surprise two days post-wedding for us to spend on the beach in San Diego, not far from where we lived in a 32-foot fifth-wheel trailer when our older son was born. It was a walk down memory lane. And he couldn’t stop thanking me for both the wedding enjoyment followed by relaxing, no-stress down time. He returned home rejuvenated and happy. We both got the best of our own worlds!

 

I’m doing this trip alone, for some serious girl time. My friend says she has the week scheduled with outings, hiking, sightseeing, swim, sun and rest time.

 

The engineer and I have a couple other trips planned for this summer, to nurture our relationship and the family ties. Yes, taking them is going to cost us more than a financial counselor would advise us to spend, but we’re banking on the relationship, love building and joy out-weighing the financial burden.

 

Great motto to guide your life—

As John Wesley advised: Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

I think it’s pretty wise advise for life investment.

I’m just praying my trip East doesn’t come with tornadoes!

 

How about you?

What friendships will you nurture this summer?

 

Until next week,

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

Andrea Arthur Owan is an award-winning inspirational writer, fitness pro and chaplain. She writes and works to help people live their best lives—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Memorial Day—Remembering (and Thanking) a Great-great Grandfather

Life in the Owan household has been tumultuous the past couple of weeks. Confronting my 97-year-old mother’s cognitive decline has been eye-opening and heartbreaking. What makes it even more difficult is that her personality is contributing to the, well, difficulty of managing her care.

But through it all, God has been faithful to provide, sustain, quiet our hearts and provide a path. It is amazing and humbling to see how He has orchestrated the process and provided extra measures of faith, trust, strength and peace. Yes. PEACE!

And today I am enjoying peace and a respite with my beloved after celebrating a wedding and gathering with old, dear friends.

Yet even though I am enjoying the respite of walking along the seashore, feasting on the predictable and soothing rhythm of undulating and crashing waves, my thoughts have been drawn back to the men and women who have given their all—their precious lives—for my country.

And one of those men was a great-great grandfather of mine who wore Union blue, lined up as an Ohio serviceman, and died on some bloody battlefield and is buried somewhere in some state east of the Mississippi.

He fought to save our union. Our Union, which, thank the Almighty, was spared.

Did he get “just one more hug and kiss” from his wife before he marched off or boarded the troop transport train? Did the family envision him alive even though he was no longer? How many months limped by before the heartbreaking death notice was received? Did his family have to peer at some deceased list posted on a main square building, or listen to names read aloud from a list.

Did he promise unequivocally to return to them?

Dear God, how did the family survive after his death?

They must have survived, because my mother is a product of their survival.

This day—Memorial Day—is for his memory and others just like him, killed on home or foreign soil. Lives all sacrificed for freedom and our way of life. To preserve our democratic republic.

All the thousands of men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that I can stroll peacefully along a beautiful beach and enjoy living without looking over my shoulder.

Thank you, great-great grandfather, and all of you who stood and fell beside him!

Don’t ever forget them.

Andrea

Mother’s Day 2019: Kids, Flowers and Quail

It was a busy Mother’s Day around the Owan homestead.

My younger son drove down from Phoenix to celebrate the day with me and spend the night; the three of us enjoyed worship together (ALWAYS a thrill to have my children join me again at a worship service—for some reason, it’s when I feel most like a mother), and listened to popular Christian speaker Cynthia Heald speak on discipleship.

Then we enjoyed a lengthy brunch at one of our favorite local restaurants (First Watch—their Million Dollar Bacon is to die for!) before returning home, grabbing my Shetland sheepdog, Dolly, and heading down to the rehabilitation facility where my mom’s currently recovering from her broken collarbone. Later that evening I enjoyed a lengthy phone conversation with my older son who lives 1,538.1 miles away.

 

And then there was the new motherhood spectacle erupting (literally) in a pot on our front porch.

 

Ten new babies—

About twenty days ago, a female Gambel’s Quail inspected the neighborhood and decided the large pot housing a Norfolk Island Pine tree tucked in the corner next to our front door would make a splendid protected location to set up a maternity room.

As a quail lover, I was thrilled and honored at her decision!

For ten days after her selection, we watched spellbound as she laid one, two, three, four…ten dappled eggs—one egg each day over the course of those ten days. Then she stopped laying and started warming. (We contributed to the effort by refraining from watering our tree!)

While Momma quail provided most of the incubating, her male partner put in his share of time (while mom took a well-deserved break) and was the major sitter and warmer when time came for the residents of those adorable eggs to emerge.

 

Mother’s Day morning the brood started making their grand appearance.

 

Evidently the chipping and emerging process starts a couple of days prior to the actual eruption, but we weren’t able to detect any of that until Sunday. But by Sunday afternoon, cracked shells, withering shell linings and thimble-sized quail lay discarded, or scurrying around the dirt inside the pot. Dad continued to keep the new hatchlings warm while their siblings continued working their way out and into the world. One egg that had rolled to the other side of the pot in the frantic hatching process was rescued and re-nested by Dad. When Dad “flew the coop” (when we attempted to take a peek from afar), the quail babies wedged themselves under the pot lip for warmth and protection.

When our black Labrador ran his big, snoopy nose in the pot to inspect the nursery, several babies took flight, plopped onto the porch and had to be corralled by Dad or scooped up by my husband and re-deposited into the pot.

It was, indeed, a grand Mother’s Day all around: Kids, worship, fellowship around food, white roses, pink and yellow tulips, and the cycle of life playing itself out in magnificent form on our front porch—we had a delightful, ring-side view to God’s marvelous design for replenishing and renewing. Why we work so hard to find other things to obtain and amuse ourselves with is beyond me.

 

What provides more true and pure joy than fellowship with the Lord and the basics of life?

 

The aftermath—

The eggs are broken and discarded, the quail have vacated, and I’m left a little melancholy at their absence.

I felt so blessed to be a daily witness to this spectacle of nature, of God’s creating and re-creating plan. Instead of just dumping the evidence and resuming the watering of my pine tree, I’m going to pluck all of the shells from the pot and display them in a glass jar, a reminder of that blessing, and of all the blessings yet to come in my life.

A reminder of the dedication of a feathered mother to warm and protect her brood until it was their time to arrive, and to make sure they arrived safely. (Honestly, may I say that it was a stark contrast to the haphazard and flippant way many human mothers incubate and prepare for their offsprings’ emergence.)

Now she and her mate are scurrying around the neighborhood somewhere with ten offspring. They’re still protecting and watching over them until they reach adulthood, (quails are phenomenal at protecting their covey), when the offsprings will seek mates and continue the cycle of life—of being fruitful and multiplying.

 

I hope all of you who are mothers rejoiced on your day; that all of you with loving, nurturing mothers were grateful for your blessing; that all of you awaiting the birth of a child feel blessed by the process and are excitedly anticipating your baby’s birth; and that those of you who have lost precious babies during pregnancy or delivery remember your babies as priceless members of your family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until next week,

Blessings,

Andrea

Chicken Soup for the Soul Twitter Party!

Ever attended a Twitter Party? I hadn’t, until today, and it was fun!

The event was to celebrate Chicken Soup for the Soul’s release of their new book Life Lessons from the Cat. I was invited to participate because I’m a contributing story author.

Seeing so many of the contributing authors and their feline heroes and heroines was exciting—putting whiskers and fur to the stories.

 

My story was about our grey and black Tabby, Sergeant Tibbs, who brought home an undesirable playmate on a spring outing several years ago. My precocious buddy has since gone on to catnip heaven, and we miss him terribly. As my younger son pointed out when he came home from college for a college break one year, the fact that Tibbs was gone was driven home by the fact that Tibbs didn’t appear to sit on Cory’s back or chest when he lay on the family room floor to do sit ups, push ups, or take a nap. His passing left a big void in our lives.

 

If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, my “handle” is @AndreaOwan.

 

How to get a signed copy of Life Lessons from the Cat!

 And if you’d like a signed copy of Life Lessons from the Cat (just released today, May 14), I have 5 copies available! A signed copy would cost $13.00. Retail price is $14.95. Amazon is selling it for $9.97. Of course, if you order it from Amazon, it won’t be signed by me.

Life Lessons from the Cat royalties go to American-Humane.

Just email me at andreaarthurowan@gmail.com, and I’ll give you directions for paying for the book via PayPal. Please provide me with your shipping address too! Once your payment is processed, I’ll sign a copy and ship it to you!

This book is loaded with heartwarming stories of healing, hysteria and cat hijinks! A great gift for yourself, or any cat lover in your family or friends circle.

 

See you back here Friday!

Blessings,

Andrea

PS The photo is of Tibbs in his favorite napping location—a comfy, COOL porcelain bathroom sink!