Pathways to Serenity with Glenda

I’ve been teaching a wonderful group here since January. ♥️ Come join us for our next session! 😊 Registration info is on the flyer.

Do you sometimes need a break or something to give you a smile? As you may know, we are long-time puppy fosters with the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides LFC Foundation. We have two retired Dog Guide mamas, and Yavin, our current foster, was recently chosen to be a Future Dog Guide daddy. This link will let you watch some of the young litters that are currently there. 🥰🦮

Dog Guides Canada: Puppy Cam! The Puppy Cam offers a heart-melting, behind-the-scenes look at the very beginning of a remarkable journey. These playful puppies may be small now, but one d...

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✍️ Some people may ask: “How can I stay peaceful when difficult situations arise?”. We must begin by understanding: we are where we are. Situations happen—often without warning, often beyond our control. We cannot always prevent or change them.

But here is what we can control: the way we respond.

When difficulty arrives, our minds rush forward—overthinking, catastrophizing, creating stories about how terrible things are. We make situations heavier by adding layers of worry and fear on top of what is already challenging.

But if we pause, if we become mindful of our breath in that moment, if we notice our thoughts without getting swept away—something shifts. The situation doesn’t disappear, but we stop making it worse. We create space for clarity, and in that clarity, we can see what we should actually do to help the situation, instead of just worrying and feeling defeated.

In that mindful pause, we might also remember something we’ve forgotten: right now, countless conditions are still nourishing our life. We are alive. We can breathe. We can eat. We can walk. These are profound gifts, genuine happiness—but we rarely see them because our minds are too busy racing toward worry, too consumed by what’s wrong to notice what remains right.

This is what mindfulness offers in difficult moments: not power to control what happens, but wisdom to see clearly what helpful action we can take, to breathe consciously, to remember that even in difficulty, we are still held by life, still capable of responding wisely instead of simply reacting.

The situation is what it is. But we can change how we meet it—with presence instead of panic, with clarity instead of confusion, with wise action instead of helpless worry.

Peace in difficult times doesn’t mean nothing bothers us. It means we stop making everything worse by losing ourselves in our thoughts. It means we stay grounded enough to see what we can actually do, then do it with a calm heart.

May you and all beings be well, happy, and at peace.

♥️🥰♥️

✍️ Peace on the Silent Road - Sometimes, the road we walk is not lined with crowds or filled with welcoming voices. Sometimes, it is just us, the silence, and the path ahead.

Yesterday, we walked on a red clay road—wet from recent rain, muddy beneath our feet, with no one watching, no one waiting to greet us. Just quiet earth and open sky.
But even there, especially there, peace was still shining.

Because peace does not depend on applause or recognition. It does not require witnesses or perfect conditions. It does not fade when the road becomes difficult or when we walk alone through the mud.
Peace walks with us in the silent moments just as much as in the celebrated ones. It is there in the steady rhythm of our steps, in the breath we take while navigating slippery ground, in the choice to keep moving forward even when no one is watching.

The world may not always see our journey. The path may not always be smooth or clear. But the work of cultivating peace continues—in the quiet, in the challenge, in the simple act of placing one foot in front of the other, again and again.

Yesterday’s muddy road told us this: peace is not about where we walk or who sees us walking. It is about what we carry inside, what we nurture within ourselves, what we choose to be regardless of circumstances.

So we keep walking. Through mud and sunshine, through crowds and solitude, through roads that are easy and roads that test us. Because peace is not conditional. It is a choice. And it shines brightest not when everything is perfect, but when we choose to carry it forward anyway.

May you and all beings be well, happy, and at peace.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to meditate or wondered how it might help you, come join me!

Let peace begin with me. ☮️🩷

✍️ Let there be peace on earth—and let it begin with me. Not with someone else. Not somewhere far away. Not when conditions are perfect or when the world finally changes. But here, now, with me.

Peace begins the moment we become mindful of our breath—that simple, sacred rhythm that connects us to the present moment. It begins when we bring awareness to our daily actions, to the way we move through the world, to the choices we make in each ordinary moment.

Let peace begin in the way I speak to myself when I make a mistake. In the breath I take before reacting. In the kindness I choose when patience feels difficult. In the forgiveness I offer when holding onto hurt feels easier.

Let it begin in my home, in the gentleness I bring to those closest to me. In my community, in the compassion I extend to neighbors and strangers alike. In my daily life, in every small choice to respond with understanding instead of judgment, with love instead of fear.

We often look outward, wishing the world would become more peaceful. But the truth is simpler and more challenging: the world becomes peaceful when we do. When each of us takes responsibility for the peace we carry—or fail to carry—in our own hearts.

One person practicing mindful breathing creates ripples. One person acting with awareness transforms their corner of the world. A family practicing peace becomes a refuge. A community practicing peace transforms a neighborhood. And slowly, quietly, persistently, the peace that begins with “me” spreads to “we,” and from “we” to all.

Let there be peace on earth. And let it begin with me—with my breath, my thoughts, my words, my actions, my presence in this world.

This is not passivity. This is the most active, courageous work we can do.

May you and all beings be well, happy, and at peace. 🙏

This fall I'll be assisting the amazing Eva Charlotte Larsson Ruiz in hosting a retreat in Teotihuacan Mexico. I work with Eva and she is also a dear friend. If you have any questions about whether this experience might be right for you or someone you know we're hosting a zoom call today (July 26) at 11am EST, and again this coming Wednesday (July 30) at 7pm EST.

I went last year as a participant and came home having gently released some issues that I'd been working on with all of the tools that I already have. For anyone who is familiar with don Miguel Ruiz (The Four Agreements), Eva has apprenticed with him for many years and what we will be doing incorporates some of his teachings.

If you'd like to join us on one of these calls, please comment or send me a message and I'll send you the zoom link. I would so love to have you join us!

Retreat to Teotihuacan, Mexico 2025 Retreat leaders - join us in Teotihuacan where you'll design offerings that profoundly transform lives - including your own.

I just read this and it seemed to resonate even more right now. If we can look beyond all of the unsettling and disheartening news we’re being bombarded with at the moment, there is still good, truth, and joy to be found. ♥️ From The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo.