Self examination

 I just saw this last week, and liked imagining doing it myself. So I'm sharing it.

I walked along Flat Creek in the woods the other day. Picked up a stone that had been smoothed with water over many years. Threw it into the water with a wish that at least some of my problems could be washed clean. Picked up another stone to remind myself to consider this exercise.

Try this reflective exercise to connect with a sense of wholeness: Imagine a jar of pebbles. The jar represents you in your wholeness. The pebbles are each part of you — your birth, relationships, lived experiences, losses, triumphs, and your stumbles. As you imagine these pebbles, pick one hidden behind the others. What is this aspect of you that remains out of sight? Have you tended to it recently or does it remain hidden from you? When you bring it forward, what does this rarely observed part of you have to say about who you are? How does it help you discover yourself more fully? How might you give thanks that it is there in your jar? How does taking this pebble out of the shadows allow the others to be seen in a new light?