White Light, Prayers, and Facebook

I believe in the power of prayer--and love, friendship, positive thinking--to heal. So when I faced several difficult days with my mother's unexpected hospitalization and impending surgeries for both of us, I turned to my social network on Facebook. And in an overwhelming and wonderful way, my friends gave me unlimited support. People I knew--from colleagues and friends who offered farm help to my DEN friends miles away at ISTE, BLC10, and DENLC10--all sent me prayers and words of hope that renewed my strength and resolution.

When times are tough, nothing motivates like your network letting you know they care. That's what makes Facebook such a powerful social networking tool. What was so especially gratifying to me was my newer network of llama and alpaca friends who helped me cope. I never imagined how many camelid owners there were, and I think they all exist on Facebook. When Tabbethia Haubold of Long Island Livestock friended me, the camelid community followed. All but a few of them I have met only virtually, but they were a force for the good. The combined efforts of all my Facebook friends helped hold me together.

In the midst of a powerhouse of prayers and well wishes, one person sent me something so surprising, I had to ask her what it was. From Teri Conroy, "the keeper of the farm" (and much more) on Wunsapana Farm and her Farmlife blog, I was sent white light and prayers, which led me to ponder white light. Why did I not know what it was. Where in my Catholic school upbringing of 12 years and my pursuit of things spiritual did I miss white light. So I asked Teri via Facebook what white light was. Her response fascinated me.

Teri Conroy
White light is just like prayer (without the religious tone, I guess). It's good! I bet you notice it more now that you've heard of it! I do prayer and white light....can never have enough of a good thing.

Yesterday, after surgery, I really rested my eye, as per my doctor's orders. My first cataract surgery left me without sight in that eye for 2+ days, and I was terrified during that time. This time I had hoped for--and received--such a better result. As the day waned, toward night, I became anxious. My eye had sight but felt different than it had before. Then I thought of Teri's white light, and reached out mentally and asked for that white light to help. Since I was new to white light, I wasn't sure just what to do with it or how it worked. And as strange as this may seem, I believe that the white light entered my life in that moment. My pain disappeared, and so did my fears. I felt an overwhelming calm. Now that I know it's there, I believe that I will notice its presence in my life much more. And like Teri said, it's a good thing.

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Growing the Moment

Most of my friends are at getting ready to leave the ISTE 2010 Conference in DENver, CO. Since I could not attend, I followed them on my social networks to get a pulse of what they were absorbing and the fun they were having. Wish I were there. One of the tweets I noticed about growing the movement initially I misread as growing the moment. During my AM routine on The Farm, I gave much thought to the misread. How do you grow a moment? I have written about living fully-freighted inside moments, and I understand the metaphor. Engage fully, really live, sensory participation, enjoyment, fulfillment. But growing a moment or moments may be another thing entirely.


I suspect it has a lot to do with removing stressors from our lives, and that is a cultural shift difficult to make. Everyone I know is frightfully busy, multitasking themselves (eventually) into some illness, short or long-lived. We value engagement as an indicator of self-esteem, as part of an ethos that makes us and our country great. If we are busy, we must be productive. Fallacious thinking. Busy is just busy; getting something done is different. I am not advocating Zen Buddhism or an effort to achieve nirvana. But I am questioning my approach to life and comparing now to then, and of course, the difference is exponential. Although I am not abrogating my responsibilities, I am re-thinking them. That's very easy to do when you are not driven by anyone else's bells and whistles. I can grow moments of doing what I love, selecting the sequence, time allocations, priorities. And because I can control these factors, I can live in and grow moments. Indefinitely.

But if true balance is the goal, then I need a huge cultural shift from doing too much to doing what is possible, and that includes the workforce. Alpha overachievers need constant reminders to live inside the possible, and to say no. Saying no goes against my grain, but I am learning, and as I do, I begin to live within and extend the moments that truly matter in my life.

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A Lost Art

Two years ago, I joined the 365 Days Flickr Challenge, largely because I was so impressed and influenced by shutterbug Jennifer Hartman Jensen's blog, Everyday In A Photo. And because so many of my DEN PLN participated, I wanted to join them. The goal of the challenge is to see your world in a whole new way through a daily photo. Truth be told, I did see my world in a whole new way, enjoying the challenge to capture the moments in which I live. I saw the finite parts within the whole, looking at composition with a different lens. Stamens and pistils, water on a leaf's blade, a startled duck in flight from the pond, first light rising behind our mountain, a blue valley--I lived more intensely inside the photographic moments.

Then my dear friend Jennifer Dorman, who anchored the PA DEN blog, broke the news via her social networks that she was hired by Discovery Education (we saw that one coming, Jen), leaving a vast void to fill. Since I was the other blogger, an occasional poster, I tried to fill her footprint. Impossible, but slowly I found my niche, leaving 365 Days in permanent suspension. No regrets. Just exchanged one challenge for another.

Now life presents a different challenge, one I did not anticipate that feels a lot like 365 Days. Similar, but different. I am no longer taking a literal daily snapshot showing my world in a whole new way. But I am living a whole new way, relishing life moments with a new intensity for seeing, feeling, and being.

Quite honestly, I do not want to lose this mindset, fully living fully freighted inside the moments. It's a good thing. Life no longer looks like fast-speed forward. I'm not TiVoing my life, nor am I trying to fill more space in high definition resolution. I'm just living in the moment, and I suspect it is a lost art.