Monday Morning Wake-Up Call


I am falling back in love with myself, taking extra time each day to care for my African violets and orchids. How I plan to live my life moving forward: no more doing for others what I do not want to do. I am centering my attention on the things that give me peace.

—  Jeffreen Hayes, Chicago, from “Emerging From the Coronavirus” in The New York Times, April 5, 2021


Photo: Galaxed

23 thoughts on “Monday Morning Wake-Up Call

  1. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:

    What an be learned … ” …no more doing for others what I do not want to do. I am centering my attention on the things that give me peace.” — Jeffreen Hayes, Chicago, from “Emerging From the Coronavirus” in The New York Times, April 5, 2021.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. While I agree with what he says in the rest of the article, I find his opening statement challenging — ‘falling back in love with myself’.
    Having spent hundreds of hours coaching others in the art of living life outside their comfort zones and having worked in a sector filled with those for whom self-love is a privilege they’ve never experienced, I wonder if most of us have ever actually known how to love ourselves.
    Ultimately, I don’t believe it’s about ‘falling back’ into loving ourselves. It’s about choosing to love ourselves by unlearning all the reasons why we tell ourselves we are unlovable or don’t deserve to love ourselves.
    And in that choice, it’s about choosing to accept ourselves as we are, warts, blemishes, wounds all wrapped up in this exquisitely beautiful, unique and magnificent being called ‘me’ — and choosing to do that every single moment of every single day of our lives.
    And thank you for the link — good article that inspired my post today! Thanks again for the inspiration.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Feeling (intuitively) a very different response… Connecting with the deep true inner self where love and peace is found, relating to others in ways that are truly helpful bonds us to what is most needed within as well as without. This global disease has brought many into facing what is available within, and what feels empty. A time for reflection and searching–like a spiritual challenge. Along with ecological imbalance and abuse of air, water, soil, we are facing a time of reckoning. Of course, we can ignore, but I suggest meeting it all head on until we find more of those inherent and beautiful resources.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I just wonder, though, what about when there are things that one mightn’t want to do but that others need one to do.
    Looking after oneself is clearly important but few of us, if any, are islands in a world that’s very tough for most at some point.

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply