Ok, I have to admit something. I didn’t even follow my own great advice this week. My mom’s Angel Birthday was on Monday and I filled my day. I didn’t just fill my day, I PACKED it full. I had a full day of reiki clients to see and I went to yoga class at night. I did not leave one moment for reflection, healing or celebrating as a family. At the end of the day, I had realized what I had done. I had fallen into the busy trap (which is not hard to do given our hectic schedule). But I do believe it is imperative that we take time to pause, reflect and honor our loved ones and our emotions about our loved ones on this sacred life-changing day. No matter how we felt about our loved one while they were on this earth, no matter what tough stuff happened, no matter if we were speaking or not speaking or if we were as close as possible, OUR life changed forever on their Angel Birthday and it is important to honor that life moment for everyone involved. So rather than getting down on myself, I decided to turn this around as a teachable moment. Tapping into the student I still am (and always hope to be), I sat there at my kitchen table at 11pm at night thinking…”What can I do to honor my mom at this late hour?” And then it hit me…
I honored her all day long.
I realized in that quiet moment that she was an integral part of everything I had done that day. When I do my reiki healing, I often feel my mom’s presence in the room. I know she is there helping me, guiding me and assisting me in healing my clients. Instead of feeling guilty that I hadn’t carved out dedicated time to honor her, I found myself abundantly grateful to have had all of my reiki clients that day. They allowed me to be closer to my mom than if I was home honoring her on my couch or sitting quietly, reflecting. Her involvement in my day didn’t end there.
My mom was my very first yoga teacher. In fact, when I was sick in the hospital after the birth of my daughter, she made me do nose yoga and toe yoga in my bed. She was relentless, and she knew just how to heal me. She knew how important moving the energy in my body was for healing me, and she would not let me off the hook. So she sat on the side of my bed, and together we held our noses and breathed and tried to hold up one toe at a time. (By the way, that is REALLY hard and really great for you if you want to give it a try.) Reflecting on her inspiration to make yoga a huge part of my life left me realizing, yoga class was exactly where I needed to be on her Angel Birthday. So, I then gave gratitude for honoring her in a way that brought me back to my roots with her.
She was there. All day long. She was a part of everything I did.
The icing on the Angel Birthday cake was going onto Facebook and reading the beautiful notes people had written. My sister-in-law had posted a picture and lovely comment about her and it inspired so many touching responses from people that knew her. Some of these people I did not even know. Most of these people might not have remembered or thought about reaching out to share their love on this day, but this simple post evoked beautiful heart-filling notes of love and gratitude for her life well lived. It was so healing and special to savor each and every note. Facebook really is a blessing.
So my tip for this week is to recognize your loved one in your everyday life.
They are there. They are in everything we do.
It’s always important to know and accept we are exactly where we are supposed to be. So if you find yourself able to host a celebration and poignantly reflect, that is exactly where you are supposed to be. If you are hectic and busy, that is exactly where you are supposed to be too. Either way, your loved one is right there with you in every detail of your life. They are the inspiration and the meaning behind so much of what we do. Take a moment and look for it and give gratitude for the multiple ways they’ve touched your life. Know your life itself has become a reflection of the parts of them that touched you the most.
How has your loved one touched your life? We can’t wait to hear in the comments down below.
Have a great week!
Love and Blessings,
Erin