When You Spend Time Paying Attention

It sounds strange to say this but I have come

to realize there is a certain power in the acceptance

of the "dead, dying and ailing in life".

Those imperfections, flaws and failings I

don't want to see...refuse to acknowledge. 

So much energy used to reject, ignore, deny...

energy I didn't realize was being drained.

The sensation of surrender...that moment of saying,

"This is awful and I don't like it one bit, but it is real and it hurts and

 I wish it was different yet here it is;"

opened a door I didn't know was there to something surprisingly gentle...

something unexpectedly comforting.  

The tight, taut places loosened up and released a bit.

It made room for considering different approaches...

the soft, slow drops of water wearing away stone.

The energy used to turn away became available

for creative ways to turn things around.

Namaste'

 

Learning To Live With

"a mission threaded with finding and making beauty."

A way to live a human life, don't you think?

To learn to conduct yourself along the threads,

so often barely perceptible, but are they really?

The sky is laid out before us everyday with the vast

universe beyond that with all it complex wonder.

Not to mention Earth's physical world where things like

myxomycetes exist and conduct their business of living.

Sometimes it takes a minute or two to remember

but doesn't delight reside or hide everywhere...when you seek it out?

With respect, I don't believe we need an antidote to grief.

Grief is a field we must walk through in our own way

in our own time however tempting it is to skirt around it.

But despair?  Since beauty has the power to dispel despair. 

Let's live in beauty.

Namaste'

 

Origami

What an exquisite, excitingly quiet...can quiet be exciting?...

it can in my world...description of happiness.

  This marriage of the bliss in the now

braided with the longings of a singular heart.  

Each time I read it, it fills me with joy.

Finding out that koukouvagia means owl

added an additional layer of delight.

"each fold waiting to be shaped again 

into something beautiful."

I wish you your own particular exquisite folds.

Namaste'

 

How To Listen

It catches my attention when someone 

asks me to be a forest "where mud and leaves,

shadows and light, growth and decay" all belong.

It catches my attention when someone asks me to be "an ocean,

where even great storms don't trouble the depths."

These are notable thoughts and 

I absorb them with appreciation.

Aren't we all coming apart?

Isn't it marvelous in a mysterious kind of way?

To recognize that's really ok?

Namaste'

 

Elegance Is When

I'm aware of how well I've been programmed

to be drawn to outside or surface "beauty" 

while often missing the unique loveliness 

behind the mask, in the depths.

The exquisite delight of natural, unadorned magnificence.

I think it comes from all the magazines I loved growing up.

Every person air brushed to "perfection".

Every setting an artfully designed display.

Landscapes sculptured and pristine.

It's such a facade, such a deception.

That's why this quote caught my attention.

I love the word elegance.

The definition of it has changed over the years;

as well as the perspective.

I'm appreciating it more and more as I grow.

Namaste'

 

The Rain Will Stop

I'm ambivalent about the rain stopping.  

Rain is beneficial for plants and trees and humans.

"Hope is never so lost that it can't be found."

There is much comfort in that thought.

I carry it close to my heart with deep appreciation.

And count on it to bring us through.

Namaste'

 

 

The Mother Secret

I knew I wanted to share this the minute I read it.

Her way of conveying this truth is marvelous.

"Everybody is a mother: Everybody can turn to the other

and offer a song, a wink, a fierce embrace."

Happy Mother's Day Monday.

Namaste'

 

Water's Curious Custodians

I find there's something enchanting (and sobering) 

about realizing how little I know

about something so "ordinary" 

so "mundane" 

so "everyday" 

so taken-for-granted as water.

"We are becoming water that we cannot become."

In many ways its a relief...to accept that regardless 

of how much effort I put into it, or how attentive I am,

 or how kind and compassionate, or authentic, or resilient;

there will never be 

"any full sense of finality, completion, or control."

At least not in this form, in this physical body.

I do wonder if upon death, 

this "full sense of finality, completion and control"

will be achieved?

My water will be merged with Earth's water

which is part of the Universe's water.

And so on and so on and so on.

Namaste'

 

Creativity Occurs

What would happen creatively if we put

MAGAs and Ultra Liberals together?

What if we popped them in a blender and pressed liquefy?

Maybe add some water to dilute the thickness.

Are we mixing paint or a cake?

Just a thought.

How about doing the same with Fox News and MSNBC?

What would that mashup look like?

What happens when truth gets pureed with lies. . .

artistically?

Would the truth particles be visible as crystals of light?

I'm wondering how they'd interact on a cellular level.

What are two things you can think of that haven't been

put together before?

Some mind games for your enjoyment.

Hopefully.

Namaste'

 

Becoming Water

Drinking a glass of water will never feel the same

after sitting with its multi-faceted magnificence even briefly.

It feels rather like swallowing an entire universe

and still it is "the most concealed of secrets".

Walking yesterday, I was treated to just a sip of its diversity.

It was after the rain with the

mist covering Black Mountain, 

the fog across the field on Jones Creek,

the droplets on the grass, the puddles on the road,

the creek gushing, my eyes watering,

my skin sweating, and my nose running!

Namaste'

 

Be Like Water

I decided to take the hand water offered me yesterday

and embark on an exploration-adventure with water.

"If nothing in you stays rigid, 

outward things will disclose themselves."

For someone who undoubtedly has some inner rigidity,

this should be interesting.

The current conflict regarding our local flood plain ordinance comes to mind.

Can becoming water be the key to protecting the river?

In a way, I/we are already mostly water, physically speaking;*

so this should be easy, right?  

I continue to struggle with the passivity.  

Look where that has gotten us with our homeland, Earth.

What if we realize we ARE the river? 

What if we could activate the power of water to save her?

Namaste'

*(Up to 60% of the human adult body is water. According to Mitchell and others (1945), 

the brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water. 

The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are watery: 31%.)

 

We Are Not Here To Be Separate

"Love and kindness is what heals and bonds us to the world around us."

It sounds so simple, and it is.

Yet, in my experience, it is far from easy.

Like when you're in the midst of living your life as best you can

and circumstances arrive triggering your mean lever, your hate button,

your raw spots where hurt, terror and self-pity are still in the process of healing.

I envy those who have honed their practice to ride those waves

without being dumped overboard.

I'm glad this metaphor appeared because being dumped overboard,

into the water might be just the medicine for this moment.

Isn't becoming water one of the strategies for resilience?

Even as I struggle with water's apparent passivity,

I remember how water can reconstruct entire landscapes.

Whether in the form of a mighty storm, 

a gentle mist across the mountains,

or the fluid my body is composed of...

water seems to be offering me a hand...

a kind and loving hand in the midst of ordeals,

replenishing my coffers of love and kindness,

like a long, refreshing drink of water.

A salute to the river!

Namaste'

 

Unmade, Unfixed

Can being yourself be taught?

Can there be an undoing of the programming 

each of us is endowed with?

To be wiped clean of all the bias' we absorb into our psyche?

Not to mention the faulty thinking we inherit?

Would it be more desirable if we could designate

what we'd like erased?

I'm not even going to start my list on that as I

learn to love the rejected along with the praiseworthy.

I am intrigued by the art of undoing.

As I ask myself if I even know what that is?

Which might be the best place to begin.

Namaste'

 

Keep Me Fiercely Kind

This plea/wish/hope/prayer sounds a mighty gong inside;

as I find myself face to face with my own meanness and self pity.

Not something easy to acknowledge but there it is.

In all its lack of glory. 

I'm reminded of Desiderata  

"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

 As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

 . . .

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. 

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him/(Her) to be. (or not).

And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. 

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. 

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

by Max Ehrmann ©1927

It's important to remember "without surrender"  I'm thinking.

There are times when "being nice" is a cop out.

"Cop out" is an unconscious play on words here, 

 as the current college protests come to mind.  

"It is still a beautiful world."

Namaste'

Namaste'

 

It's A Deep Consolation

"it's just one teetering, endless thread...and all of us,

are entangled with it as deep as entanglement goes."

It's a bewilderment of riches, isn't it?

How deeply enmeshed we are with each other

and every other form and substance.

A wild mash-mash of life with 

endless diversity and intricacy. 

Eating The Sun by Ella Frances Sanders

is an enchanting joyride into

how amazing this entanglement is.

It's another "deep consolation".

Namaste'