Meditation and Awareness

Remember your deepest desire?
Do you remember what you asked for?
Have you shifted so quickly that you are distracted from your previous prayers?

It happens. We wish and hope, plan and pray, then when things don't materialize in our time frame, we move on. That's life, they say.

The Midwest is in the midst of a winter storm. Snow Day!!! We were forewarned. There was no need to panic. The night before, I dug out my Land's End boots. I walk to work. New bag. Plenty of food to carry along. Long coat, and blanket scarf. I would be dressed right out of a tundra movie scene. Yes, I was going to work. While I was at home, not working, I gave up buying my luxuries. Working means I can replace them.

Thursday morning, by 8 am, the city was blanketed in snow. The flakes fell slowly, heavy with moisture, and big as half dollars. The fall was so thick visibility was diminished.  This was going to be an epic trudge to work. I would stomp and celebrate when I reached to warmth of the campus building. I thought about carrying coffee and hot chocolate to share. (I have a flair for the dramatic.)

Around 9:15, I heard the phone finish ringing. I tossed my survival items in the pile and checked the message. "We're closing for today. See you on your next scheduled shift." No!! I'm prepared. I can work. You stay there and I will see you, soon! I wanted to call back. I did, in my head. I knew better. We were in a state of emergency and every car on the road was making travel hazardous for road crews and those who absolutely had to be out. Me, I just wanted to work so I could afford to buy Maker's Mark. Let that go.

So, now, I was out of kilter. My entire routine disrupted. It took a conversation with other people out in the snow, or stuck inside to remember, I love being at home. I have everything I need and most of what I want, right where I am. I spoke with all of my children and my grand-daughter in the same day. That is a real luxury.

My day progressed with a skein of yarn, a cup of tea, and the search for a new wrist warmer pattern. I have worked up four different patterns with a dozen different results. The one (above) I found was easy, though time consuming. Crocheting is a form of meditating. I open to creation through thought and action. I stay present in the process. I honor what comes up.

I shared these wrist warmers with the series, A Gifted Man. What are we afraid of? How is this fear blocking us from good in our lives? Are you willing to shift your thinking for a more loving, more joyful life?

Dear Reader,

You are dearly and deeply loved.

Bright blessings...

“The closest to being in control we will ever be is in that moment that we realize we're not.”  ~  Brian Kessler

Impermanence

“All things that have form eventually decay." -Orochimaru”
― Masashi Kishimoto

It is easy to remember what was and wish for it again. At least for those memories we hold fondly. We forget, everything is in flux. Life is ever changing. The past is gone. The future is a vision, a fantasy, and imagining. Only now is real. We live in this very present moment and every second we spend lamenting what was or longing for what will be, is time wasted.

Searching for the post photo, I realized that I too hold treasured memories of the past and apply my judgement of what was to what is. Yet, as change keeps happening, I may as well let go and move on. The only control I have is how I show up.

Fall brings cooler temperatures, changing colors from green to red, yellow and brown. We gather the final harvest, till under the fields, and begin to store away for winter's long nights. We celebrate these events in the reality we see and feel, yet the past lingers and festers as we hunker down protected from winter's cold.

In the coldest days, we dream of Spring. Any warmth reawakens hope. Any green stimulates the desire for movement - forward and away from now. Yet, it is Winter. It is dark and cold. We can choose escape, or we can open to the moment.

It is twenty-one degrees as I head out. The long walk in the freezing day opens my heart in gratitude. I am thankful for my health and well-being. I am blessed with enough. In this moment, my needs are met. I now let go, living each step as I walk ever closer to the understanding that all that is will fade away.

Everything must change - even what we love...

Yet, Love, remains.

Bright Blessings.

Finding Clarity

Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.

I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down
in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language
- even the phrase "each other" -
do not make any sense. 

Rumi

This was one of my favorite quotes and I often included it in my correspondence hoping to "force" the issue of giving up judgement and coming to an understanding of "I'm Okay. You're Okay." It was my seasonal practice to tout my clarity of mind - "Yeah, I know you don't like/approve/accept me/my life/my choice, but come on, get over it." This worked, in my mind, until a friend shared...

My job is to be in the field (beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing). To be there, waiting. It is not my place to dictate when others arrive, if they arrive. If I keep putting out that I will meet them in that field, it stands to reason that I get there.  

The only way to stand in that field of clarity is to let go. I must let go of my scenario of past events. I must deny the ego's grasp on our version of events, knowing that holding on to how I see things merely feeds my justification for being hurt or resentful. As I focus my energies in the present moment, I commit to healing whatever happened before and reconciling my relationships in love.

There is therefore, now, no separation.

Separation is the illusion.

Only Love is real.

Bright blessings.

Do It Anyway!

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. 

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.

Create anyway.

 If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

-this version is credited to Mother Teresa

We easily become weary with well doing and long to take a break. As we shift our focus from personalities to the supreme purpose we are re-energized to continue along the path of love, peace, joy and fulfillment.

Bright Blessings in dark and light.

Being with What Is

This season I am focused on being at peace with things as they are. Here is the Serenity Prayer in its original form.

Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

We speak of living in the present, yet forget to stop and acknowledge Now. We review the past, plan the future; grimace through regrets, organize objectives for goals, then fall pray to distress. It is in the constant drawing our attentions to each moment that we find relief and peace. For in this exact second, all is well.

Bright blessings in the shadows...

Forgive Me, Again

In the past few days, I noticed I've made some unkind statements. True, yet, clearly silence would have been preferable. You know the saying, "If you can't be kind, be quiet." Lying in bed, waiting for sleep, the words found me. Hmm. I still felt like I had a right to my opinion, but the words felt bitter and easily wrestled me down in my exhaustion. I practiced my rationalizations. I justified my hurt. Still...

"Forgiveness is never wasted. Think of it as God's eraser. Without it, all you've got is another level of blame and violence." Rekhal - Lord of Light Deepak Chopra.

This Lenten Season, my focus is on forgiving and letting go, some more.