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Countering Anxiety with Gratitude

August 18, 2026

 

On this morning’s long daily walk, I was with a dear neighbor, who, when I ask how she’s doing, says she’s “anxious.”

Me: “So you’re projecting into the future.”

She nods.

“You’re continuously projecting into the future, trying to figure out what will happen.”

Yes.

 

And her kids are always demanding things of her, right now, right now, right now!

And she has numerous decisions to make, this week!

 

I told her what I do to let go of anxiety: and that is to wake up! — and return to the present moment, over and over again. How? First of all, by stopping to indulge in a long slow breath. At least one. Maybe more. Notice how my nervous system then begins to calm down too. Because of course, it has been participating in the hyper-aroused anxious state.

In breathing deeply, at least once, by thus returning to the present moment, and then, remembering to fully appreciate that present moment stretching into infinity, I move into gratitude. Deep, all pervasive gratitude. For everything, the entire kit and kaboodle.

 

Okay, well and good. But how to stay there? How to remain in the state of gratitude?

All I can do is to keep breathing and opening. Opening to the present moment. In doing so I cultivate another, “higher awareness,” one which notices all of what is going on “down below,” my usual frantic busyness, extreme to the point of utter panic.

Of course, that “lower self” keeps on intruding, trying to pull me back into its fraught, tumultuous 3-D life; of course! And 5D higher self, that fair witness to all that the lower self is going through, just keeps on noticing, not judging, not being furious (that I would get so upset!) or judgmental (there I go again!), but simply noticing, no emotion, neutral. Calm, peaceful. As peaceful as the wide open sky.

This is a lifetime practice, of course. Even at 83 years of age, I seldom dwell for more than a few fleeting seconds actually, truly, in the present moment, that portal into Mystery.

What’s changed is that it takes me only a millisecond to remember, to open that door again, to return to HERE, and NOW.

Forever.

My body features an unforgettable SCAR, rather than a fashionable TATTOO

August 17, 2026

 

 

This scar, on my left leg, is what remains from the nasty wound I received on July 13, just over a month ago.

URANUS RETURNS (story): Yesterday’s hysterical “adventure” resulted in bleeding wound.

I spent about three weeks caring for this wound, delicately administering a healing salve and then covering it, twice daily, with time off each day for about an hour of sunlight. Others who saw it were surprised I didn’t go to IU Urgent Care for stitches. But I wanted to do it my way. It’s so damn interesting watching my brilliant body heal itself, how it goes about it. And I knew I would have to take great care, lest the wound become infected. At one point I even snipped off what had shriveled into dead skin.

Anyway, I bring this up here because I realized yesterday that this scar is probably not ever going away. And with this realization, sudden illumination, to wit:

I will designate this scar as my version of a tattoo, except that it’s not something deliberately stamped onto the skin, but what the body did to heal an accidental skin wound. Much more interesting than any tat!

And what fascinates me, is that the shape of this scar reminds me of Lake Baikal, in Siberia. Similarly shaped, long and irregular.

I traveled to Siberia and Mongolia back in 2017 and on that journey, camped for a few days on the shore of Lake Baikal.

While there we participated in an unforgettable shamanic ceremony.

Siberia/Mongolia, 2017

I will carry this scar, this memory map, happily, for as long as I live.