Images of Mindfulness: Learn from the past, live in the present, leap into the future.

By Peggy D. Farris

Peggy shares short stories that give the reader insights into the adventures of life. The essence of those experiences added with the reader’s imagination produces images of mindfulness that is a guiding source accentuating stronger faith, mediation practices, prayer, and a closer walk with the Creative Force, God.

Anxieties, stresses, life’s challenges, faith, decisions, and strengths gained through experiencing a story is meaningful because they are areas where we relate.

These short stories transport the reader into a world of adventure, newness, and a place to contemplate our anxieties and stresses to manageable in meaningful ways of learning from life experiences.

Moments of focusing on meditation, prayer, and living in the moment will grow into times of learning. The lessons from the past, living in the present, and planning for the future increases faith.

We seize opportunities and lessons from life events, so by delving into “Peggy’s World of Adventure” in the images of mindfulness, the reader has the chance to experience new concepts of handling life situations.

Inspirational accounts create moods and opportunities to know ourselves inwardly. Our mind transforms our psyche, where happiness expands and overflows into our decisions and future.

Our self-talk, the feelings and events that we dwell on, and our heart beliefs manifest in an outward expression called life. When we eliminate the negative actions and replace them with remembrances of positive life events, there is where our inward feelings and outward expressions develop.

Peggy invites the reader to let his or herself live the experiences and, through the images of mindfulness, live in the present and walk in God’s presence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639616732

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Images of Mindfulness

Learn from the past, live in the present, leap into the future.

Peggy D. Farris

Copyright © 2022 by Peggy D. Farris

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Inspirational stories and art by Rev. Dr. Peggy D. Farris.

Chapter 1

The essence of wind and waves swirling together produce one unit of peace and excitement as the stories of Peggy’s events and her words of inspiration fuse together as one unit of inspiration.

God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

—Genesis 1:4–5 (NIV)

The Big Bad Wind

There was devastation, houses blown down, and people homeless. Flowers and bushes surrounded me as I sat on the patio in my meditation garden, staring eastward toward Shawnee, Oklahoma. The fragrance of four o’clock flowers and roses took my mind off of the tragedy momentarily, as I leaned back in my patio chair and let the warm sun settle on my face.

It was May 19, 2013, in Newcastle, Oklahoma. It wasn’t October 30, 1938, and the news I listened to on the radio was different from Orson Welle’s radio program the War of the Worlds when he caused panic for an invasion that wasn’t. This was an assault of circular rain that was.

I envisioned the dreadfulness that those people went through when the EF-4 tornado destroyed their homes. Two people lost their lives. I thought I had empathy for them. In reality, I didn’t comprehend the extent of their stresses, but I soon discovered that life changes within a short breath or sigh, sometimes for the good and other times through challenges.

Only about twenty-four hours later, when my husband, our dog, and I stumbled over the rubble of our home, an EF-5 tornado blasted before eventually crossing into Moore, Oklahoma, killing twenty-four people and cutting a full path of destruction.

An F5 tornado with the stealth of a cougar stalking its prey churned its way toward us. I stood at our north sliding glass doors of our home, looking out onto the patio where I had reclined the day before. Pea-size hail pelted the cement, and the sky was gray and nonthreatening.

One of my parishioners, from the church where I pastored as senior minister, called to warn us. Immediately after he alerted us, our son called to tell us there was a tornado on our doorstep and to seek shelter immediately.

We rushed into the master bedroom, through the walk-in closet, and entered the aboveground safe room.

By the time we locked the door and plugged in the radio, nature’s whirling, and fierce winds hit with the roar of a lion. We heard winds blowing, boards being ripped away, sounds of walls and ceilings cracking and falling. I prayed for a circle of protection to surround us.

Then there was silence. Calm after the storm. We waited as one last board dropped, and we remerged from our haven that was the only place in the house without damage. We stepped out of the shelter into the master closet and bathroom where everything was intact except for drifts of insulation floating inside.

My late husband and I entered the bedroom where blue sky replaced the ceiling and sunshine streamed on floating drifts of insulation.

Eventually, the rest of our home was demolished because it was unstable and we rebuilt our home from the foundation except for the aboveground safe room that we did not destroy.

The storm was not revenge from God. Instead, it was nature doing what nature does, and we were just in the way. Prayers protected both of us, leading us through the raging danger.

Life is full of storms—some are tornados while others are rainstorms, each challenge is unique. When we walk in the presence of God, we weather the winds; and when the clouds clear, we are more durable and filled with assurance that God is good.

People swarmed over Newcastle, wanting to help by picking up rubble. They boxed objects. They packed away our belongings, and threw away rain-soaked objects. And they brought food, including pizza, hamburgers, and bottled water. One neighbor set up their grill and cooked for the neighborhood even in front of their devastated home. Finally, there was nothing left to clean. The volunteers continued coming, and graciously they persistently offered help even after there was nothing left to do.

My heart goes out to everyone who loses their homes and loved ones through wind, rain, earthquakes, tsunamis, fire, or any other way they suffer a loss of their belongings and the people they love.

Those of us with steadfast faith have a comforting refuge. When we first bought our home in Newcastle, I thought it was perfect. After living in it for several years, I had wanted significant changes. The storm provided that opportunity. I moved walls around on paper. The new house’s transformation became my version of the floor plan.

We were blessed because we had a safe place to go, I peacefully reclined on my patio in my mediation garden and gave thanks through mediation and prayer. People blessed us by sending warnings before the storm and swarming over our acreage, offering to help after we were devastated.

Lightening Tree

Looking everywhere for anyone that might be watching me, and seeing nobody, I wrapped my arms around our lightning tree. As I hugged the tree trunk, I felt the fresh, rough bark and smelled the wood odor of a life created by God. I didn’t feel any unique emotions, but they would come—I told myself.

Our sycamore tree had earned its title when a powerful bolt of lightning struck it, ran down the middle, and came out the bottom, leaving burnt wood and missing strips of the tree trunk on the grass. The tree still lives.

Our lightening, survivor tree that I associated with the survivor tree in downtown Oklahoma City during the Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 1995, probably has the spirit of love and good health. It had endured the wrath of a storm. I decided with those positive vibes; it would be a perfect tree to hug.

I have teased about tree huggers for years until I read an article about its benefits. Eileen Akbaraly writes about the benefits in the Peace Plume, Student Media from the American University of Paris. I decided to get in touch with God’s creation. To my surprise, tree huggers are supposed to receive some benefits that correlate when hugging other people. I have always promoted hugs as healthy. Another article in Select Health on the internet describes the health benefits of embracing other people and nature. There appear to be some of the same benefits between both hugs.

Hugs between people relieve stress that causes infections; it releases oxytocin, giving a person an increased dose of the love hormone that makes us want to cuddle.

The tree huggers claim that we receive much of that same benefit that releases stress when we hug trees, although I strongly suspect that a cuddle is not the result of hugging a tree.

Although many articles that I have read claim that when we wrap our arms around one of nature’s trees, we receive a natural benefit of increased levels of hormone oxytocin for calming and serotonin and dopamine for bringing up levels of happiness.

It is summer, and we associate this time of year with sunbathing. Yet Akbaraly also recommends Forest bathing or shirin-yoku as it is called in Japan. There are a lot of trees to hug in the forest. This adventure is a physiological and psychological term describing a time when we walk through the woods and soak up the atmosphere. Being one with nature is bathing in the forest. This might suit me better than tree-hugging.

We may look strangely at people who talk to their plants, hug trees, or forest bathing by soaking up all of nature. Still, when we genuinely believe that God is the One Essence of creation and that most powerful Creator—God made everything then all of creation—humans, our pets, or the trees are special. Let us love and care for our earth, which we call home.

X-ray Image

Oh my gosh. That’s unbelievably scary, the technician commented from the other room. She had just taken my lung X-rays to determine the cause of a cough, and I felt a bit apprehensive about the words I heard coming from the other side of the closed door.

We worry about too many could-happen events that usually never come to fruition. Those could-happens keep us up at night thinking what might happen in the future, when in reality, they are only speculation. I sat on a bench in the dressing room, having a could-happen thought. What could she be seeing on my X-ray that would frighten her?

When she allowed me to see the result, she wore a worrying frown on her face, and she tightened her lips as she spoke, I am afraid, I found the problem.

Before she suggested a solution, I reached to the back of my head and laughed.

Things are not always as they seem. We worry about future events that don’t usually happen. We should wait for a will-happen event when all the evidence is there, and there is reason to worry and turn it over to God to handle.

Often, we expect the worse in instances, and usually, they are misconceptions and unsubstantiated worries. When we fret over something that might happen or misconceive the projected result of events, we stress ourselves, which causes physical problems. We agonize over what will happen if or when. If we try not to worry until there is something to worry about, we will be much happier. However, that is not quickly done.

There are always at least two options for every challenge, and we could live as some people do by visualizing the worse possible event happening and brace for it. They imagine everything happening that is bad, saying when it turns out better, they have an unexpected benefit. While other people try to find some goodness in each event, and if it turns out badly, they at least did not worry too early.

I have discovered that when I am around positive people, life is more pleasant. When I am around someone who is always seeing the negative side of issues and talking badly