Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

“Today is a good day!” With these words I begin my day each morning. This affirmation awakens in me the awareness that when I choose to live in the present moment I find goodness even when there are difficult experiences and sadness. Along with this affirmation I also set an intention for the day. . . being mindful, kind, grateful, positive, understanding, etc. I come back to my intention throughout the day. I know that the present moment is the only moment we can access and I want to live it as best I can. This past year I moved to the Mound and I minister with our sisters in assisted living and at our villa. I believe the Spirit led me to begin what I call “Mindful Mondays.” Sisters are invited to gather for 15-20 minutes of mindfulness practice. We begin with relaxing and breathing exercises. Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabet-Zinn, youtube videos guide us with some simple ways to become more mindful. Poetry, song, and prayer are woven into our sessions. We encourage one another to l...

Here we are again at the beginning of another new year.  This year I decided to upgrade how I make and most importantly keep my resolutions/goals and so far except for one it seems to be working. I started off as usual by making my list of resolutions and then thinking to myself what do I need to do differently this year to make sure that all my resolutions or goals are achieved, hopefully, before the end of 2017.   This time I have decided it is about the journey and not so much the destination.   Meaning that I am not so much looking at the end results, but concentrating on how I am doing each day on every resolution/goal that I have made. I am being more mindful of the people and things that I experience in my daily life.   I am enjoying the everyday seemingly simple things in life that I so often take for granted.   Usually when the year comes to an end, most times it is very difficult to know what I have done or achieved. This year already ho...