Wait, isn’t a welcome mat supposed to face inward? Why would this mat be facing towards the outside??? Good question!

What would it be like if every time we walked outside we simply welcomed what was to come?  

Please note: Welcoming what is to come does not mean liking or condoning. On a very basic level it means, how do you maintain your own centeredness no matter what shows up?

Where I live we are in the midst of a large crisis… Fire!!! How do we welcome this? 

Well, one way is to focus on one thing at a time. Often times a settling begins to arise within.

During the fire crisis here, we have not been able to go outside without wearing a mask. Now that the air is clear my sense of smell is far more heightened. My awareness of what smells off is grander.

For this reason, I am providing a link to an earlier blog post. It is a game to play with your senses, and welcoming games to embrace.

I also offer the following poem that a friend shared with me during this challenging time. Poems can be such support. May this poem be so for you.

The Peace of Wild Things 

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
– Wendell Berry

May You Enjoy!
Wendolyn