Dawn Downey's Blog
Stories about Mindfulness, Gratitude and Transformation
Dawn Downey's Blog

Radiation Therapy Waiting Room

While I waited for a friend to emerge from her treatment, a middle-aged woman trudged into the waiting room, alone. She signed in, then slumped into a chair beside me. Was she staring at my dreadlocks?

"Hi. How're you doing?" I asked.

"I did not have a good weekend."Her gaze fixed on my face longer than comfort usually allows between strangers. "Started to lose my hair." ... << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 6/14/2013 3:49 PM | Add Comment

Today is the Tomorrow We Worried About Yesterday

Darn, I forgot the password for my retirement account. They probably closed it anyway; it hasn't been accessed for a year. I should have paid attention to all those emails they sent. What's this? "Adobe Reader cannot open the document in the current browser configuration." Oh no, my computer's got a virus. Wait, here's the statement. I can't look. It's going to be zero. Or it will be, after we pay for last week's trip to the emergency room.

Whoa. Breathe. Let go of this anxiety.
 << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 6/7/2013 1:51 PM | Add Comment

Chocolate Cake

Death and disease. Inevitable, I suppose, but I've visited four hospitals this month. Illness has swooped down from the tundra on a misery-laden jet stream. Now my husband's sick––a hacking cough his thanks for taking care of me last week. That's life. I shouldn't be surprised.

Yesterday someone baked us a chocolate cake. I set it between us on the ... << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 5/31/2013 5:30 AM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

What Yard Work?

What yard?

The pillowcase, or maybe it's your hair, scratches the back of your neck, but the pain that  stabs  your shoulder, yanking attention away from the muscle spasm squeezing your back like a full-body mammogram, prevents you from reaching up to make an adjustment. Besides, with the slightest twitch, shivers rattle your bones and race across your skin, even underneath two down comforters, a fleece jacket, tee shirt, sweat pants and wool socks. Anyway, lift an arm, while you simultaneously hold a thermometer steady under your tongue? Impossible.
... << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 5/24/2013 1:35 PM | View Comments (5) | Add Comment

Insomnia

Oh no. What am I doing wide awake at . . . oh no . . . 4:00 in the morning? Should be crashed for weeks after that workout at the Y. It's fun to stay at the Y. M. C. A. May as well meditate. Yeah, yellow in the bathroom. Getting sleepy. Sleepy. Sneezy. Dopey. Sleazy? Don't move. Wow, my face relaxed. That's weird. Nobody gets a tense face. Tense shoulders, maybe. Pl-e-e-e-z, let me go back to sl-e-e-e-p. Cardinal singing. Wonder how to tell if it's a mocking bird, or the bird it's mocking. ... << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 5/17/2013 5:30 AM | Add Comment

New Blog Name Coming

A wise man told me the other day that the title of my blog doesn't reflect the content, because I don't focus on Buddhism. Hmm. Good point. (Thank you, Ben.) Let's see. What's the focus? Reflections––slightly Buddhist, slightly non-dual, with an occasional mention of Jesus––on things that happen to me that also happen to other people? Maybe, but that would be a terrible title. And not all that accurate. I'd like something easy to remember. Easy to google.

Therefore, the new title ... << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 5/15/2013 11:00 PM | View Comments (4) | Add Comment

Cemetery Lament


Out in California, Dawn Moore visited her parents' graves in Forest Lawn. She laughed and cried, remembering. I'd like to spread a picnic blanket before my parents' headstones, but Mother and Dad were cremated, ashes sprinkled into eternity. I'd like to kneel at their monuments.

I'm sorry, Mother. You seldom laughed, and now I understand, now that I'm older than you ever got to be. Do you like my hair?
Look, Dad, here's my latest essay. See, it's funny, just like yours. Please help me with the ending.

... << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 5/10/2013 5:30 AM | Add Comment

Boston Marathon


I cried for Boston Marathon runners, facing leg injuries and amputations. Worried about their loved ones, powerless to protect against the unimaginable. I grieved for the surviving suspect, too, an all-american college boy, radicalized by extremists––sympathy for him caused a bit of self-congratulation, since others had voiced hatred.

At church,  Pastor Howard led us in prayer. " . . . for the victims and families . . . "
... << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 5/3/2013 7:46 AM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

Yard Work


When spring temperatures soared to sixty, I ventured on to the patio.

My pots bore the corpses of last summer's annuals and milkweed competed with dandelions and thatch where there ought to be grass and my hoses sprawled in muddy tangles and our ground cover (cultivated from ivy sprigs out of Julie's yard, although she warned me against the idea) sneaked under the neighbor's fence and . . . .

In the film, Into Great Silence, a monk sweeps a monastery walkway. The seasons pass. He rakes leaves, shovels snow, and in the ... << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 4/26/2013 5:30 AM | Add Comment

Vetheuil at Sunset



Escaping Chicago wind-whipped rain, I inched sideways among the Monets at the Art Institute. Haystacks . . water lilies . . . Japanese bridge . . . .

Then a brash flood of light: a village, nestled between hillside and river's edge. << MORE >>
Posted by Dawn Downey at 4/19/2013 10:42 AM | Add Comment
Older Posts
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.