This is heaven on Earth.
Autumn returns again to these mountains. And the sweep of seasonal change and becoming is perfect and complete within its own rhythms. We too are exactly where we should be.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Filled With Love
I am filled with love today, so that everything around me is perfect in my sight. Everything around me is perfect in its scent and its sound. Everything is whole. Everything is complete within its being. There is no need. There is no lack. There is no want.
This is heaven on Earth.
Autumn returns again to these mountains. And the sweep of seasonal change and becoming is perfect and complete within its own rhythms. We too are exactly where we should be.
This is heaven on Earth.
Autumn returns again to these mountains. And the sweep of seasonal change and becoming is perfect and complete within its own rhythms. We too are exactly where we should be.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Joy in the World
It's a wonderful time to get out of doors and spend some time amongst the trees, grasses and gardens that surround you. Steep yourself in the peace that is the world of nature; you will not regret even one moment that you spend doing so.
We tend to busy ourselves so much with so many indoor details that we forget just how good it feels to be outside. When we do go outside, we are often on our way to another building. A world of incredible beauty and peace is available to us. It doesn't cost a penny and it never fails.
Go outside, even if only for a few minutes, and take a few deep breaths. Immediately you will feel the peace and simplicity of it wash over you. It is not only that the joy in the world can be felt there, but that it makes room for the joy that is in you to emerge. The two meet, in an effortless embrace, and you, composed largely of water - water being the most joyful substance on Earth - are then filled with joy.
I have neighbours who say to me, "I'll go for a walk if someone goes with me." So I go for a walk with them. But if the truth be told, I'd just as soon go on my own for a walk. I prefer, oftentimes, the solitary expedition into the natural world because it is precisely the non-human aspect of the natural world which I am there to feel and enjoy. If I am accompanied by another person, I am more aware of that person than I am of the world around me. If you are comfortable doing so, go out into the natural world on your own and spend a little time there just being, just feeling, just taking it all in.
Often we go out of doors to move our bodies. We run, walk, bicycle and hike. We golf or garden. It's good to get moving. Yet, there is a stillness in the world of nature that can be deeply sustaining to us. It calls forth an answering stillness within us. And this stillness is only truly met when we are still. Sometimes I go out into the world and I sit somewhere for a time. I sit and sit and if I could, I would sit there forever, because the stillness there feels like heaven on Earth to me. I lack nothing, as I sit there, out in the natural world. An inner stillness invites me to breathe more slowly, more deeply. I am slowed. I am deepened. And the peace within me at such moments fills me with joy such as I can only wish all other human beings to feel. It is beyond words. It is beyond time. It is vast and limitless. It is not to be found within our homes, although we can bring it indoors with us when we come, silent from the great solemnity and wonder of it, back inside.
There is such joy in the world around us. It lives in the living things with which we are surrounded. It meets our own joy, sometimes hidden, buried by all that we have to do, surrounded, besieged by all the demands that we place upon ourselves. It meets our joy and calls to it and it takes only a moment, only the briefest pause before you get back into the car, or open the front door.
Take that moment. Breathe deeply. Feel the joy that is inherent in the natural world that surrounds you. Know that it is yours; whenever you turn to it, it will be there. Rejoice therefore.
We tend to busy ourselves so much with so many indoor details that we forget just how good it feels to be outside. When we do go outside, we are often on our way to another building. A world of incredible beauty and peace is available to us. It doesn't cost a penny and it never fails.
Go outside, even if only for a few minutes, and take a few deep breaths. Immediately you will feel the peace and simplicity of it wash over you. It is not only that the joy in the world can be felt there, but that it makes room for the joy that is in you to emerge. The two meet, in an effortless embrace, and you, composed largely of water - water being the most joyful substance on Earth - are then filled with joy.
I have neighbours who say to me, "I'll go for a walk if someone goes with me." So I go for a walk with them. But if the truth be told, I'd just as soon go on my own for a walk. I prefer, oftentimes, the solitary expedition into the natural world because it is precisely the non-human aspect of the natural world which I am there to feel and enjoy. If I am accompanied by another person, I am more aware of that person than I am of the world around me. If you are comfortable doing so, go out into the natural world on your own and spend a little time there just being, just feeling, just taking it all in.
Often we go out of doors to move our bodies. We run, walk, bicycle and hike. We golf or garden. It's good to get moving. Yet, there is a stillness in the world of nature that can be deeply sustaining to us. It calls forth an answering stillness within us. And this stillness is only truly met when we are still. Sometimes I go out into the world and I sit somewhere for a time. I sit and sit and if I could, I would sit there forever, because the stillness there feels like heaven on Earth to me. I lack nothing, as I sit there, out in the natural world. An inner stillness invites me to breathe more slowly, more deeply. I am slowed. I am deepened. And the peace within me at such moments fills me with joy such as I can only wish all other human beings to feel. It is beyond words. It is beyond time. It is vast and limitless. It is not to be found within our homes, although we can bring it indoors with us when we come, silent from the great solemnity and wonder of it, back inside.
There is such joy in the world around us. It lives in the living things with which we are surrounded. It meets our own joy, sometimes hidden, buried by all that we have to do, surrounded, besieged by all the demands that we place upon ourselves. It meets our joy and calls to it and it takes only a moment, only the briefest pause before you get back into the car, or open the front door.
Take that moment. Breathe deeply. Feel the joy that is inherent in the natural world that surrounds you. Know that it is yours; whenever you turn to it, it will be there. Rejoice therefore.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Make a Joyful Noise
Sing. Dance. Move to the rhythm. Tap out the rhythm. Drum the rhythm on a Native American drum or an African drum.
Sound it out because the rhythms that come out when we sing and dance and drum really move us in ways that are exquisitely joyful.
I have always loved to sing and dance. At the age of 50, these joys seemed so far from me. I resolved to do something about it. I created a weekly activity session of dancing, drumming, or toning at the Sunshine Center in Sutton village, down in the valley below my mountainside home. After a few months, it became a monthly activity, rather than a weekly one, but to my delight, it is still happening on the third Sunday of every month. People gather to feel the rhythms, make the rhythms and move to the rhythms. It feels great and does a world of good. It gets the blood flowing and the joy glowing.
We begin with dancing to recorded music. The music begins a bit slowly. We ease ourselves gently into the dancing. Slowly we move our bodies and warm our blood. The music gains in rhythmic intensity and I usually end up picking up a pair of rhythm sticks and hitting them in time with the music as I move around the large room.
Oh, it feels so wonderful to be able to move freely to some great dance music and to add my own feel for the rhythm to the sounds!
We dance until we are breathless and sated. Our bodies feel grounded, joyful, warm and calm. The music slows and we cool down a little bit. Then the recorded music stops and we get out our drums.
We drum simple beats and everybody joins in. There is never any worry about how it sounds or whether it meets some standard. We just do it. There are sticks which can be struck against each other to make a nice sound and rattles and shakers too for people who don't own a drum. So even someone who has never drummed before can participate.
There is never any judgement in these activities, which I call In the Moment. And that is the freedom of it, that's the joy of it and that's the feeling of incredible safety and love in it. We support each other by asking absolutely nothing of each other. Come as you are. Be as you are while you are there. Leave changed!
When we are drumming, we simply enjoy being in the moment. We move and sway. We sound or sit silent. The choice is always ours and is a free and clear choice from within us. That is the beauty of being in a safe space to play with sound and rhythm.
The rhythms, as we drum, inspire us to move in our seats and to tone and sing whatever notes come out of us. We feel moved and we move each other, sitting in a circle together and sharing the moments as they weave through our beating hands and sounding voices.
We do this for some time. It never feels too short and it never feels too long. It is perfect being in the Now.
Singing groups also meet this joyful urge in us to sound and breathe and sound again. I am so glad to have an opportunity this autumn to join a singing group. I've already met with the group briefly and we sang a little bit. Oh! It felt so good!
I think that it is the deep, sustained breathing that we have to do when we sing that takes us into such a feeling of well-being. We know, medically speaking, that highly oxygenated blood improves our health and wellness. Breathing deeply oxygenates our blood, so singing is good for our health! But breathing deeply in a sustained way also brings a sense of deep peace to us. It's biological, but it has an impact on our spiritual aspects as well.
Singing, dancing and drumming feel so good and have such a positive impact on our physical bodies, it seems strange to me that more people don't take advantage of these expressions of joy and gladness. Having a safe and comfortable place to do these things is such a gift, too! That's why I began the In the Moment activities and the more places that offer such activities, the more people get to enjoy doing them, the better!
The benefits of these rhythmic expressions go even further. Our emotional state is eased, our stresses are given room and time to be released and our minds are quieted by the singing, the movements, the beat in the Now. I am so glad that I get to do these things, right here in our little village.
People in cities usually have a variety of these kinds of things to take part in. There are all kinds of dance styles and drumming groups these days. For me, the most important thing is that you feel safe in all of your being and doing in that space where you move, tone, sing or drum. And if there is nothing that you feel drawn to in your area, create your own! You can use your own living room to move to a beat. You can hit two wooden spoons together to the rhythm coming out of the radio or computer or mp3 player. You can sing in the shower or in the car - a great place to sing!
I used to think that dancing was something that people did when they went out for the evening. So dancing was associated with the consumption of alcohol, wine or beer. It was a courtship ritual. Girls danced with boys and boys danced with girls, and nobody hit a drum unless they were in the band. Now that's all changed. When I dance, I drink lots of good clean water. I join in with the music without any self-consciousness, moving my body any way I choose. It's tremendous fun!
Dancing, singing and drumming fill me with joy in the moment and it carries over into other moments and gifts me with a more joyful life. What a great way to tune your frequency to joy! These are largely non-verbal forms of expression. They are ancient and yet highly appropriate to our culture and society.
I love these activities and I urge you to participate if you are not already doing so.
Make a joyful noise! Move your body and raise your frequency! It's simple. It's fun. And as often as not, it doesn't cost a penny.
YIPPEE!
Sound it out because the rhythms that come out when we sing and dance and drum really move us in ways that are exquisitely joyful.
I have always loved to sing and dance. At the age of 50, these joys seemed so far from me. I resolved to do something about it. I created a weekly activity session of dancing, drumming, or toning at the Sunshine Center in Sutton village, down in the valley below my mountainside home. After a few months, it became a monthly activity, rather than a weekly one, but to my delight, it is still happening on the third Sunday of every month. People gather to feel the rhythms, make the rhythms and move to the rhythms. It feels great and does a world of good. It gets the blood flowing and the joy glowing.
We begin with dancing to recorded music. The music begins a bit slowly. We ease ourselves gently into the dancing. Slowly we move our bodies and warm our blood. The music gains in rhythmic intensity and I usually end up picking up a pair of rhythm sticks and hitting them in time with the music as I move around the large room.
Oh, it feels so wonderful to be able to move freely to some great dance music and to add my own feel for the rhythm to the sounds!
We dance until we are breathless and sated. Our bodies feel grounded, joyful, warm and calm. The music slows and we cool down a little bit. Then the recorded music stops and we get out our drums.
We drum simple beats and everybody joins in. There is never any worry about how it sounds or whether it meets some standard. We just do it. There are sticks which can be struck against each other to make a nice sound and rattles and shakers too for people who don't own a drum. So even someone who has never drummed before can participate.
There is never any judgement in these activities, which I call In the Moment. And that is the freedom of it, that's the joy of it and that's the feeling of incredible safety and love in it. We support each other by asking absolutely nothing of each other. Come as you are. Be as you are while you are there. Leave changed!
When we are drumming, we simply enjoy being in the moment. We move and sway. We sound or sit silent. The choice is always ours and is a free and clear choice from within us. That is the beauty of being in a safe space to play with sound and rhythm.
The rhythms, as we drum, inspire us to move in our seats and to tone and sing whatever notes come out of us. We feel moved and we move each other, sitting in a circle together and sharing the moments as they weave through our beating hands and sounding voices.
We do this for some time. It never feels too short and it never feels too long. It is perfect being in the Now.
Singing groups also meet this joyful urge in us to sound and breathe and sound again. I am so glad to have an opportunity this autumn to join a singing group. I've already met with the group briefly and we sang a little bit. Oh! It felt so good!
I think that it is the deep, sustained breathing that we have to do when we sing that takes us into such a feeling of well-being. We know, medically speaking, that highly oxygenated blood improves our health and wellness. Breathing deeply oxygenates our blood, so singing is good for our health! But breathing deeply in a sustained way also brings a sense of deep peace to us. It's biological, but it has an impact on our spiritual aspects as well.
Singing, dancing and drumming feel so good and have such a positive impact on our physical bodies, it seems strange to me that more people don't take advantage of these expressions of joy and gladness. Having a safe and comfortable place to do these things is such a gift, too! That's why I began the In the Moment activities and the more places that offer such activities, the more people get to enjoy doing them, the better!
The benefits of these rhythmic expressions go even further. Our emotional state is eased, our stresses are given room and time to be released and our minds are quieted by the singing, the movements, the beat in the Now. I am so glad that I get to do these things, right here in our little village.
People in cities usually have a variety of these kinds of things to take part in. There are all kinds of dance styles and drumming groups these days. For me, the most important thing is that you feel safe in all of your being and doing in that space where you move, tone, sing or drum. And if there is nothing that you feel drawn to in your area, create your own! You can use your own living room to move to a beat. You can hit two wooden spoons together to the rhythm coming out of the radio or computer or mp3 player. You can sing in the shower or in the car - a great place to sing!
I used to think that dancing was something that people did when they went out for the evening. So dancing was associated with the consumption of alcohol, wine or beer. It was a courtship ritual. Girls danced with boys and boys danced with girls, and nobody hit a drum unless they were in the band. Now that's all changed. When I dance, I drink lots of good clean water. I join in with the music without any self-consciousness, moving my body any way I choose. It's tremendous fun!
Dancing, singing and drumming fill me with joy in the moment and it carries over into other moments and gifts me with a more joyful life. What a great way to tune your frequency to joy! These are largely non-verbal forms of expression. They are ancient and yet highly appropriate to our culture and society.
I love these activities and I urge you to participate if you are not already doing so.
Make a joyful noise! Move your body and raise your frequency! It's simple. It's fun. And as often as not, it doesn't cost a penny.
YIPPEE!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Play
I define play as any activity that is done for no apparent reason and for no desired outcome. So, playing Scrabble isn't play if you are determined to win, yet digging a hole in the ground can be play if you are digging the hole for no apparent reason and no desired outcome. You might just want to see how far you can get, or explore the worms down there.
Children engage in play often and well. I would argue that play helps children tremendously as they set about exploring and experiencing their world. Adults tend to forget the random quality of play. It is spontaneous, has no purpose other than the activity itself, and immediate. That's why, when a child says, "Come play with me," and an adult says, "Maybe later," the child feels frustrated and denied. In play, there is no later; there is only now.
Play returns us to being for the sake of being, doing for the experience of doing. It frees us from the always just in front of us outcomes for which we seemingly toil. And the activity may look like play, but actually be something very different. The activity may look like work, but be play to the person doing it. Play is self-sufficient, self-centered and self-referrent. It seeks nothing outside of the activity itself and the moment in which the activity is engaged and engaging.
Climbing a mountain is play if you don't mind at all whether you reach the top or not. Cooking dinner is play when you don't mind at all how it is received or when it is placed on the table ready to eat. If you are doing something because you feel like doing it and you don't care what happens with it, you are playing.
Play is freedom. When I am playing I feel free. You can play pretend, but play doesn't have dip into the realms of fantasy. It can be busy exploring the reality above, beside and below us.
One day last spring, after a heavy rain, I went out in my rubber boots and my rain coat. I had a shovel and the notion to see what I could make out of the flooding stream that ran down through the woods just south of my house. I played with it for a long time. Time disappeared while I was digging and messing about with old dead leaves and mud and the slipping, sliding water. I made a little stream bed to channel the flow. When a later rain storm breached the banks of my channel I was delighted. "Breach!" I yelled loudly to the darkening sky. I was not attached to any outcome for my earlier activity with the mud and leaves and stream. I was exploring, trying things out, learning about it. I was playing.
Playing is an activity of profound joyfulness. When we play, we explore what is there, what is happening, how things behave when other things happen. We discover and invent. Most importantly, we don't mind what happens. We don't mind what happens. We are and we do and we enjoy being and doing.
A person can spend almost every single moment of their day in an attitude of play, of not minding what happens, of being and doing and enjoying being and doing. Why don't we do more of this?
I remember, in school, being told that I had done something 'wrong.' In play, nothing is 'wrong,' it is just different than expected, perhaps. I differentiate playing a sport, a musical instrument, a game that has winners and losers, from actual random and self-inspired play. I think that we are taught not to play, because we are taught that we have to do things in a certain way, otherwise they are done 'wrong.'
I find, more and more, that when I am in an attitude of playful enjoyment of what I am being and doing, I am tuned naturally to the frequency of joy. The qualities of joy are there in abundance. There is acceptance, enjoyment and appreciation for what surrounds me and there is exploration and attentive experience of what surrounds me with no thought for any outcome other than the immediate response to my activity.
I place a muddy stone there and the water swirls and curls around it and flows over there instead. Hmmm. Interesting!
I cook some rice in lemon juice and water instead of using regular water and then I taste it. Hmmm. Interesting! Hmmmm! What would happen if I added pepper? Lemon pepper? Basil? Hmmmm.
What would happen if I made a beaver dam of sticks and muddy leaves to stop the flow of water? Hmmmm. Let's find out.
Faced with a big, difficult task, I became stressed and anxious. I had to deal with a sea of mud and the imminent autumn rains and no rain gutters on the house because we decided they were too much trouble to clean out every year and because the ice and snow would clog them. Floods of water pouring off the roof of the house into the mud were splattering my nice new siding with dirt. I kept stepping in puddles. Arghh!
I didn't know what to do and it was a real problem. Oh, and I had no budget for any work or materials to improve the situation. Zip. Nothing. I hadn't thought about it and was caught short after paying for all the big machine site work and the construction of the house.
I decided that the only way that I could deal with it without becoming really stressed, like, anxiety attack stressed, was to play with what was there in a spirit of exploration of the various potential solutions to my problem. "Relax," I told myself, "It's bad, but it can only get better."
There were some loose stones left over from when the site work was done. They lay in an inappropriate spot, but not too far from the house and slightly uphill from the house. That mattered to me, because I decided to move them. I raked them into piles and then shoveled them into my wheelbarrow and thus moved them to the side of the house where the rain water had made a muddy mess. I laid the stones there and spread them out to form a covering. The next time it rained, the water washed the stones clean and they shone blue-grey. Hmmm. That looked nice.
I did the same thing to the other side of the house where the water came off the roof in the same way. Then, I found pretty rocks, not too big, all over the newly cleared property and brought them in and made a sort of Zen rock garden along the side of the house. Hmmm. I liked that and it kept the soil from making mud everywhere. Hmmm.
The winter snow and ice brought a halt to my explorations of what could and would be done there. In the spring, I continued to play with it, changing this and moving that. Eventually, having saved some money for the purpose, I purchased some pretty river stones from the local excavator and brought in more large rocks. Then I brought in some good garden soil and some plants and mulch. Now I have a really wonderful rock and plant garden there by the side of the house and I did it bit by bit and only as I felt enjoyment in doing it. I played with it and enjoyed the play, which looked like work to some. It stretched my muscles, my creativity and my patience and it was great fun.
As I contemplate the entire project of landscaping this property, I have to keep reminding myself of what I achieved with the work at the sides of the house and, more importantly, how I achieved it. As I did that work, there were some things that I tried that didn't work so well, or were too labour intensive for me to continue. There were times when I had to stop because of the weather or time constraints and it looked pretty awful - unfinished. I accepted it all completely because I was playing with it. I knew that if something didn't work out, I could try something else and it didn't matter, wouldn't matter. I remind myself that it can be a grace, a joy, a playful encounter with this property, rather than a struggle, a job, a hard, long work to get it done. As a gardener, I know that some things take five years to come to fruition so that we can look at them and decide whether we like that outcome or not. Five years! Some things take ten years, twenty years. So, it's not really about the final outcome. It's about trying things out. I knew a man who said that if you hadn't moved a plant at least three times, to different parts of the garden, it was probably in the wrong place. That was a whole different way of looking at the process than thinking, school-girl like, that I had to get it 'right' the first time.
I remind myself that I can play at just about anything that I do. It is an attitude that can be applied to anything. We do this thing because we choose to do it. We do it with an attitude of open exploration and interest in what happens, but we don't mind what happens. We will respond to what happens. If a big rainstorm washes out my flowerbed (it did), I move the flower bed and replace the washout with rocks that can withstand the force of the water and will glow in pearly grey and slate blue afterward. I enjoy the to and fro of the dialogue that I am having with the rain and the stones, the shape of things and how they are moved by time. And we learn from what happens. We grow. We experience.
Imagine not minding what happens EVER. Imagine being always in that attitude of open acceptance and discovery. Buddhists call that 'beginner's mind," and hold it in high esteem, for it welcomes all that is and all that happens with complete acceptance and interest. "Hmmmm," it says, "Interesting. Let's try this, then."
I took a course in college from a very wise man, a priest with a rebellious and questioning streak in him. His name was Father Menke and the name of the course was, "Man in Pursuit of Playfulness." We studied Greek and Roman myth and various philosophical variations on the theme of man's endeavours to understand the world and open-minded courage in the face of the unknown and the unknowable - which is the next moment, always, and then the next after that. I wondered, though, where playfulness came into it. I wondered why Father Menke chose the word 'playfulness' for the title of this course. I think I know the answer to that question now, 35 years later. Playfulness is a freedom such as we all dream of in our deepest and largest moments of truth. Playfulness is brave, loving, deeply wise and wisely accepting.
It begins with a momentary choice to let go of the fear of getting it 'wrong.' It ends with indescribable joy and freedom.
Play. Play at playing. Play at playing at play. Pretend you already know how.
Children engage in play often and well. I would argue that play helps children tremendously as they set about exploring and experiencing their world. Adults tend to forget the random quality of play. It is spontaneous, has no purpose other than the activity itself, and immediate. That's why, when a child says, "Come play with me," and an adult says, "Maybe later," the child feels frustrated and denied. In play, there is no later; there is only now.
Play returns us to being for the sake of being, doing for the experience of doing. It frees us from the always just in front of us outcomes for which we seemingly toil. And the activity may look like play, but actually be something very different. The activity may look like work, but be play to the person doing it. Play is self-sufficient, self-centered and self-referrent. It seeks nothing outside of the activity itself and the moment in which the activity is engaged and engaging.
Climbing a mountain is play if you don't mind at all whether you reach the top or not. Cooking dinner is play when you don't mind at all how it is received or when it is placed on the table ready to eat. If you are doing something because you feel like doing it and you don't care what happens with it, you are playing.
Play is freedom. When I am playing I feel free. You can play pretend, but play doesn't have dip into the realms of fantasy. It can be busy exploring the reality above, beside and below us.
One day last spring, after a heavy rain, I went out in my rubber boots and my rain coat. I had a shovel and the notion to see what I could make out of the flooding stream that ran down through the woods just south of my house. I played with it for a long time. Time disappeared while I was digging and messing about with old dead leaves and mud and the slipping, sliding water. I made a little stream bed to channel the flow. When a later rain storm breached the banks of my channel I was delighted. "Breach!" I yelled loudly to the darkening sky. I was not attached to any outcome for my earlier activity with the mud and leaves and stream. I was exploring, trying things out, learning about it. I was playing.
Playing is an activity of profound joyfulness. When we play, we explore what is there, what is happening, how things behave when other things happen. We discover and invent. Most importantly, we don't mind what happens. We don't mind what happens. We are and we do and we enjoy being and doing.
A person can spend almost every single moment of their day in an attitude of play, of not minding what happens, of being and doing and enjoying being and doing. Why don't we do more of this?
I remember, in school, being told that I had done something 'wrong.' In play, nothing is 'wrong,' it is just different than expected, perhaps. I differentiate playing a sport, a musical instrument, a game that has winners and losers, from actual random and self-inspired play. I think that we are taught not to play, because we are taught that we have to do things in a certain way, otherwise they are done 'wrong.'
I find, more and more, that when I am in an attitude of playful enjoyment of what I am being and doing, I am tuned naturally to the frequency of joy. The qualities of joy are there in abundance. There is acceptance, enjoyment and appreciation for what surrounds me and there is exploration and attentive experience of what surrounds me with no thought for any outcome other than the immediate response to my activity.
I place a muddy stone there and the water swirls and curls around it and flows over there instead. Hmmm. Interesting!
I cook some rice in lemon juice and water instead of using regular water and then I taste it. Hmmm. Interesting! Hmmmm! What would happen if I added pepper? Lemon pepper? Basil? Hmmmm.
What would happen if I made a beaver dam of sticks and muddy leaves to stop the flow of water? Hmmmm. Let's find out.
Faced with a big, difficult task, I became stressed and anxious. I had to deal with a sea of mud and the imminent autumn rains and no rain gutters on the house because we decided they were too much trouble to clean out every year and because the ice and snow would clog them. Floods of water pouring off the roof of the house into the mud were splattering my nice new siding with dirt. I kept stepping in puddles. Arghh!
I didn't know what to do and it was a real problem. Oh, and I had no budget for any work or materials to improve the situation. Zip. Nothing. I hadn't thought about it and was caught short after paying for all the big machine site work and the construction of the house.
I decided that the only way that I could deal with it without becoming really stressed, like, anxiety attack stressed, was to play with what was there in a spirit of exploration of the various potential solutions to my problem. "Relax," I told myself, "It's bad, but it can only get better."
There were some loose stones left over from when the site work was done. They lay in an inappropriate spot, but not too far from the house and slightly uphill from the house. That mattered to me, because I decided to move them. I raked them into piles and then shoveled them into my wheelbarrow and thus moved them to the side of the house where the rain water had made a muddy mess. I laid the stones there and spread them out to form a covering. The next time it rained, the water washed the stones clean and they shone blue-grey. Hmmm. That looked nice.
I did the same thing to the other side of the house where the water came off the roof in the same way. Then, I found pretty rocks, not too big, all over the newly cleared property and brought them in and made a sort of Zen rock garden along the side of the house. Hmmm. I liked that and it kept the soil from making mud everywhere. Hmmm.
The winter snow and ice brought a halt to my explorations of what could and would be done there. In the spring, I continued to play with it, changing this and moving that. Eventually, having saved some money for the purpose, I purchased some pretty river stones from the local excavator and brought in more large rocks. Then I brought in some good garden soil and some plants and mulch. Now I have a really wonderful rock and plant garden there by the side of the house and I did it bit by bit and only as I felt enjoyment in doing it. I played with it and enjoyed the play, which looked like work to some. It stretched my muscles, my creativity and my patience and it was great fun.
As I contemplate the entire project of landscaping this property, I have to keep reminding myself of what I achieved with the work at the sides of the house and, more importantly, how I achieved it. As I did that work, there were some things that I tried that didn't work so well, or were too labour intensive for me to continue. There were times when I had to stop because of the weather or time constraints and it looked pretty awful - unfinished. I accepted it all completely because I was playing with it. I knew that if something didn't work out, I could try something else and it didn't matter, wouldn't matter. I remind myself that it can be a grace, a joy, a playful encounter with this property, rather than a struggle, a job, a hard, long work to get it done. As a gardener, I know that some things take five years to come to fruition so that we can look at them and decide whether we like that outcome or not. Five years! Some things take ten years, twenty years. So, it's not really about the final outcome. It's about trying things out. I knew a man who said that if you hadn't moved a plant at least three times, to different parts of the garden, it was probably in the wrong place. That was a whole different way of looking at the process than thinking, school-girl like, that I had to get it 'right' the first time.
I remind myself that I can play at just about anything that I do. It is an attitude that can be applied to anything. We do this thing because we choose to do it. We do it with an attitude of open exploration and interest in what happens, but we don't mind what happens. We will respond to what happens. If a big rainstorm washes out my flowerbed (it did), I move the flower bed and replace the washout with rocks that can withstand the force of the water and will glow in pearly grey and slate blue afterward. I enjoy the to and fro of the dialogue that I am having with the rain and the stones, the shape of things and how they are moved by time. And we learn from what happens. We grow. We experience.
Imagine not minding what happens EVER. Imagine being always in that attitude of open acceptance and discovery. Buddhists call that 'beginner's mind," and hold it in high esteem, for it welcomes all that is and all that happens with complete acceptance and interest. "Hmmmm," it says, "Interesting. Let's try this, then."
I took a course in college from a very wise man, a priest with a rebellious and questioning streak in him. His name was Father Menke and the name of the course was, "Man in Pursuit of Playfulness." We studied Greek and Roman myth and various philosophical variations on the theme of man's endeavours to understand the world and open-minded courage in the face of the unknown and the unknowable - which is the next moment, always, and then the next after that. I wondered, though, where playfulness came into it. I wondered why Father Menke chose the word 'playfulness' for the title of this course. I think I know the answer to that question now, 35 years later. Playfulness is a freedom such as we all dream of in our deepest and largest moments of truth. Playfulness is brave, loving, deeply wise and wisely accepting.
It begins with a momentary choice to let go of the fear of getting it 'wrong.' It ends with indescribable joy and freedom.
Play. Play at playing. Play at playing at play. Pretend you already know how.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Tuning Your Frequency
People talk about grounding themselves and centering themselves. I remember a time when these concepts were really new and strange. Now just about everyone seems to have a sense of the value of centering ourselves and grounding our energy. I'm really glad about that because centering and grounding are wonderfully helpful ways to begin to be aware of our frequency state. We say that we feel 'off-center' or 'imbalanced' in our energy. It doesn't feel very good and that is our first clue that our frequency state is not necessarily where we would have it be, in terms of what it is 'tuned to' or where / how it is vibrating.
It's not easy to explain about frequency, but I'm going to try.
The other day, I was full of energy and quite joyful, but restless. There was a waxing moon and that might have had something to do with it. Things around my place have been going really well lately and that might have had something to do with it also. I had slept well and felt 'full of beans' as my mother used to say. Normally I don't pay much attention to drama going on around me. Sometimes there are conflicts and people are upset and I don't even notice because it isn't mine and I'm not interested. My frequency state just doesn't resonate (think of a vibrating guitar string) with the drama and so I barely notice it and pay no attention to it if I do notice it. But the other day, full of restless energy, I noticed a drama on a message board that I frequent online and I dove right into it with glee. It was meeting my frequency vibration very closely, although I wasn't angry or upset as some of the people posting onto the message board seemed to be. I was strongly drawn to that drama on that particular day because it met my frequency.
Most of the time, we are not aware of our frequency unless it begins to impact our ability to do the things that we want to do or feel that we have to do. If I am filled with a calm, expansive energy, a frequency of deep peace and love for all the world, perhaps after a long meditation session, and my husband comes into the house filled with restless energy and an emotion of frustration because he struggled with a faulty machine in his workshop for hours, we don't click at all and my frequency, beloved by me, becomes a problem in terms of my choosing to be fully present and able to 'hear' my husband's complaints and frustrations. My ears will hear regardless, especially if he raises his voice, but I won't be able to meet him where he is if I am in a frequency state so very different from his.
My goal, in tuning my frequency, is not to always be in the same frequency as my husband or the other people around me. Yet, I do choose to be aware of my frequency state and how it resonates with theirs. I'll give you another example. I spend time every weekend with my elderly mother at the assisted living facility where she lives. The time that we spend together is really important to her, and she doesn't respond easily to upsets or changes to our usual routine. Yesterday, I went to see her and as I parked my car and got out of it, I realized that one of my car tires was flat, or nearly so. I didn't want this occurrence to impact my visit with my mother, but it had to be dealt with. So, I tuned my frequency to trust that all would be well and calm assurance that our visit would be almost exactly as it always is - lunch together and then two games of Scrabble. A couple of phone calls at the beginning of the visit took care of the problem and we were able to have our usual two games, although the visit ended a little bit later than it normally would have.
I could easily have slid into a frequency of nervous worry, lack of trust, anxiety and upset. That is a very different vibration of a very different guitar string than trust that all would be well and calm assurance that my mother's needs would be met. I made the decision consciously and just took a deep breath and tuned my frequency to calm assurance and trust.
We can, and do, adjust our frequency when we are faced with a big problem, a crisis. When a family member is suddenly very ill and we choose to be 'the strong one,' we tune our frequency to calm assurance, trust that all will be well, patience with less assured family members, etc. We do this quite consciously, knowing that it is a helpful energy to bring to the situation. So we center ourselves, reading our own energy and noticing how we are being in our bodies, in the moment, and then we ground our fears and anxieties down into the ground, releasing them as they do not serve us. We breathe deeply to calm our bodies and slow the beating of our hearts, and then we tune our frequency to one of trust and calm, even in the face of fearful situations of uncertainty. Breathing deeply helps us to maintain the frequency that we have chosen for ourselves.
Our frequency state impacts our emotional responses and our emotional responses impact our frequency state. When we consciously and decisively tune our frequency, we impact our emotional responses. When we do not, our emotional responses impact our frequency state. I can get up in the morning and say that I'm going to have a great day, but if things keep happening to upset my equilibrium, delay my plans or thwart my intentions, I may not have such a great day after all. My emotional responses might impact my frequency state so that I end up out of joy, out of peace, in strong resistance to the events of the day, angry because it always seems to happen to me, playing a victim role and deeply resonant to the frequency of resistance and opposition. Unless I can tune my frequency to acceptance and peace with what is, even when it doesn't conform to what I had planned to have it be, I will be upset and out of balance, off-center and in resistance to the world around me. If I can tune my frequency to joy even in the face of these events that have upset me, I will be in appreciation and acceptance, love and gratitude, joy and peace and my emotional responses will change accordingly.
So how do we do it? How do we tune our frequency? I liken it to flicking a light switch or tuning a car radio to a different station. We become conscious of our emotions, reactions, frequency. We choose differently. We center ourselves, ground the energy that needs to be released, without blame or shame, and then flick the switch to a different frequency, one we have known and enjoyed before. We don't have to be, for example, grateful for something specific. We know what gratitude feels like and we tune our frequency to that. We turn that radio dial until our frequency is more to our liking. As I did yesterday with my flat tire and my mother's needs, we tune to patience and trust, or compassion and love, or calm self-assurance.
It is a turning to. It is a conscious choosing of the vibration that we will emit. And yes, it impacts the people and events around us, like any other vibration does. Most of all though, it impacts us, and it does this immediately.
Try it. Try tuning your frequency to gratitude, or patient trust, or appreciation for all that surrounds you. I'm behind in my day's work now, having spent time writing this when I should have been doing five other things. I tune my frequency to trust that it will all work out well. I take a deep breath and get on with my day.
Blessings
It's not easy to explain about frequency, but I'm going to try.
The other day, I was full of energy and quite joyful, but restless. There was a waxing moon and that might have had something to do with it. Things around my place have been going really well lately and that might have had something to do with it also. I had slept well and felt 'full of beans' as my mother used to say. Normally I don't pay much attention to drama going on around me. Sometimes there are conflicts and people are upset and I don't even notice because it isn't mine and I'm not interested. My frequency state just doesn't resonate (think of a vibrating guitar string) with the drama and so I barely notice it and pay no attention to it if I do notice it. But the other day, full of restless energy, I noticed a drama on a message board that I frequent online and I dove right into it with glee. It was meeting my frequency vibration very closely, although I wasn't angry or upset as some of the people posting onto the message board seemed to be. I was strongly drawn to that drama on that particular day because it met my frequency.
Most of the time, we are not aware of our frequency unless it begins to impact our ability to do the things that we want to do or feel that we have to do. If I am filled with a calm, expansive energy, a frequency of deep peace and love for all the world, perhaps after a long meditation session, and my husband comes into the house filled with restless energy and an emotion of frustration because he struggled with a faulty machine in his workshop for hours, we don't click at all and my frequency, beloved by me, becomes a problem in terms of my choosing to be fully present and able to 'hear' my husband's complaints and frustrations. My ears will hear regardless, especially if he raises his voice, but I won't be able to meet him where he is if I am in a frequency state so very different from his.
My goal, in tuning my frequency, is not to always be in the same frequency as my husband or the other people around me. Yet, I do choose to be aware of my frequency state and how it resonates with theirs. I'll give you another example. I spend time every weekend with my elderly mother at the assisted living facility where she lives. The time that we spend together is really important to her, and she doesn't respond easily to upsets or changes to our usual routine. Yesterday, I went to see her and as I parked my car and got out of it, I realized that one of my car tires was flat, or nearly so. I didn't want this occurrence to impact my visit with my mother, but it had to be dealt with. So, I tuned my frequency to trust that all would be well and calm assurance that our visit would be almost exactly as it always is - lunch together and then two games of Scrabble. A couple of phone calls at the beginning of the visit took care of the problem and we were able to have our usual two games, although the visit ended a little bit later than it normally would have.
I could easily have slid into a frequency of nervous worry, lack of trust, anxiety and upset. That is a very different vibration of a very different guitar string than trust that all would be well and calm assurance that my mother's needs would be met. I made the decision consciously and just took a deep breath and tuned my frequency to calm assurance and trust.
We can, and do, adjust our frequency when we are faced with a big problem, a crisis. When a family member is suddenly very ill and we choose to be 'the strong one,' we tune our frequency to calm assurance, trust that all will be well, patience with less assured family members, etc. We do this quite consciously, knowing that it is a helpful energy to bring to the situation. So we center ourselves, reading our own energy and noticing how we are being in our bodies, in the moment, and then we ground our fears and anxieties down into the ground, releasing them as they do not serve us. We breathe deeply to calm our bodies and slow the beating of our hearts, and then we tune our frequency to one of trust and calm, even in the face of fearful situations of uncertainty. Breathing deeply helps us to maintain the frequency that we have chosen for ourselves.
Our frequency state impacts our emotional responses and our emotional responses impact our frequency state. When we consciously and decisively tune our frequency, we impact our emotional responses. When we do not, our emotional responses impact our frequency state. I can get up in the morning and say that I'm going to have a great day, but if things keep happening to upset my equilibrium, delay my plans or thwart my intentions, I may not have such a great day after all. My emotional responses might impact my frequency state so that I end up out of joy, out of peace, in strong resistance to the events of the day, angry because it always seems to happen to me, playing a victim role and deeply resonant to the frequency of resistance and opposition. Unless I can tune my frequency to acceptance and peace with what is, even when it doesn't conform to what I had planned to have it be, I will be upset and out of balance, off-center and in resistance to the world around me. If I can tune my frequency to joy even in the face of these events that have upset me, I will be in appreciation and acceptance, love and gratitude, joy and peace and my emotional responses will change accordingly.
So how do we do it? How do we tune our frequency? I liken it to flicking a light switch or tuning a car radio to a different station. We become conscious of our emotions, reactions, frequency. We choose differently. We center ourselves, ground the energy that needs to be released, without blame or shame, and then flick the switch to a different frequency, one we have known and enjoyed before. We don't have to be, for example, grateful for something specific. We know what gratitude feels like and we tune our frequency to that. We turn that radio dial until our frequency is more to our liking. As I did yesterday with my flat tire and my mother's needs, we tune to patience and trust, or compassion and love, or calm self-assurance.
It is a turning to. It is a conscious choosing of the vibration that we will emit. And yes, it impacts the people and events around us, like any other vibration does. Most of all though, it impacts us, and it does this immediately.
Try it. Try tuning your frequency to gratitude, or patient trust, or appreciation for all that surrounds you. I'm behind in my day's work now, having spent time writing this when I should have been doing five other things. I tune my frequency to trust that it will all work out well. I take a deep breath and get on with my day.
Blessings
Friday, September 9, 2011
The Frequency of Joy
I walked this morning in the forest below my home. The ground was damp from recent rains. Mushrooms of all colours grew - acid green, sulphur yellow, crimson red and tangerine orange. My toes were wet in my shoes and my shoulders were cold under my too light sweater. I was joyful beyond all reckoning.
Joy is not comfort. Joy is not ease. Joy is not certainty.
All around me was a world that fed my soul with joy because all around me was what I love and tend toward. Joy is the expression of our spirit in the world of form. Joy is the exultation of our divine nature in the time and space of this Earthly realm.
For some people, joy is making music. For other people, like my friend and neighbour, joy is making jams, jellies and good whole-grain breads upon which to spread them. Some find their greatest joy in mighty struggles; they climb mountains or undertake vast works of scholarship. This is their joy. It is the expression of their spirit, the exultation of their divine nature.
For each of us, this joy is unique and perfect. Each of us, in our joy, make a gift to the world that is precious beyond all the gold and silver that you could possibly carry, for our joy brings joy to the world and there is nothing more perfect, nothing more fulfilling, nothing more radiant than that. It sings.
There is a sense of completion in joy. There is a sense of having attained the end result of all of our travelling through time and space, all of our longing, all of our reach and grasp and pull.
Joy is not about money, although sometimes it might seem that way. If a person's joy is to climb Mount Everest, then they'll need a bit of funding, won't they? But it's not about the funding; it's about the climbing and the ascent, the grand endeavour and its end.
Once we have known joy, once we have fully felt ourselves awash in the depth and breadth and force of the energies of our joy, we can never again lose it. It is ours. The frequency of joy is the sum total of the frequencies of all of our love and all of our appreciation, all of our gratitude and all of our achievement, all of our being and doing and knowing and seeking to know. The frequency of joy is our dance in love and light in the world of shadow and substance, allowance and resistance.
Joy is not easy. Joy is not shallow. For it sounds the sum total of all the notes of our being in the world. It is our deepest expression of appreciation for simply being alive and uniquely ourselves.
When we tune our frequency to joy, we tune to the exquisite perfection that is our being in the world, a unique and individuated expression of the ALL as one. That's why our joy is unique to each of us and what brings me joy may mean nothing to you except wet shoes. When we tune our frequency to joy, we sing our own unique song of love and light into the world and the world responds by giving back to us that same joy, that same love, gratitude, appreciation, enjoyment, rapture, pleasure and sense of completion in attainment.
The frequency of joy is that magical place where we are in love with All There Is and it all echoes back to us that same love. When we are tuned to the frequency of joy, we live in effortless grace and synchronicity, serendipity and resonance with all that we love and enjoy.
It is heaven on Earth.
It is within our reach.
The path to joy is really quite clear; follow your heart, follow your love, follow your truth. You'll come thus to joy by and by.
Joy is not comfort. Joy is not ease. Joy is not certainty.
All around me was a world that fed my soul with joy because all around me was what I love and tend toward. Joy is the expression of our spirit in the world of form. Joy is the exultation of our divine nature in the time and space of this Earthly realm.
For some people, joy is making music. For other people, like my friend and neighbour, joy is making jams, jellies and good whole-grain breads upon which to spread them. Some find their greatest joy in mighty struggles; they climb mountains or undertake vast works of scholarship. This is their joy. It is the expression of their spirit, the exultation of their divine nature.
For each of us, this joy is unique and perfect. Each of us, in our joy, make a gift to the world that is precious beyond all the gold and silver that you could possibly carry, for our joy brings joy to the world and there is nothing more perfect, nothing more fulfilling, nothing more radiant than that. It sings.
There is a sense of completion in joy. There is a sense of having attained the end result of all of our travelling through time and space, all of our longing, all of our reach and grasp and pull.
Joy is not about money, although sometimes it might seem that way. If a person's joy is to climb Mount Everest, then they'll need a bit of funding, won't they? But it's not about the funding; it's about the climbing and the ascent, the grand endeavour and its end.
Once we have known joy, once we have fully felt ourselves awash in the depth and breadth and force of the energies of our joy, we can never again lose it. It is ours. The frequency of joy is the sum total of the frequencies of all of our love and all of our appreciation, all of our gratitude and all of our achievement, all of our being and doing and knowing and seeking to know. The frequency of joy is our dance in love and light in the world of shadow and substance, allowance and resistance.
Joy is not easy. Joy is not shallow. For it sounds the sum total of all the notes of our being in the world. It is our deepest expression of appreciation for simply being alive and uniquely ourselves.
When we tune our frequency to joy, we tune to the exquisite perfection that is our being in the world, a unique and individuated expression of the ALL as one. That's why our joy is unique to each of us and what brings me joy may mean nothing to you except wet shoes. When we tune our frequency to joy, we sing our own unique song of love and light into the world and the world responds by giving back to us that same joy, that same love, gratitude, appreciation, enjoyment, rapture, pleasure and sense of completion in attainment.
The frequency of joy is that magical place where we are in love with All There Is and it all echoes back to us that same love. When we are tuned to the frequency of joy, we live in effortless grace and synchronicity, serendipity and resonance with all that we love and enjoy.
It is heaven on Earth.
It is within our reach.
The path to joy is really quite clear; follow your heart, follow your love, follow your truth. You'll come thus to joy by and by.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The Frequency of Love
The freqency of love is very close to the frequency of joy. And so I bring up love and appreciation because it is through our feelings of love, gratitude and appreciation that we attract experiences that resonate to that frequency. Love and appreciation, gratitude and enthusiasm are feelings that animate our thoughts about what is and what will be. Through our love, gratitude and appreciation for our experiences, we tune to the frequency of love and open to the frequency of joy that is so close to that.
When we love anything, or anyone, we are filled with love and we open to the love of God. It is that simple. When we feel love, we come closer to God. When we express appreciation, we court joy, peace and happiness. To love is to be happy, but only when we truly love.
Love is not want. Love is not need. Love is not desire. Love is not possession. Just because we love something, that doesn’t mean that it is, or ever will be, ours to control. Love is a thorough appreciation of what the beloved is. Love is enjoyment of the beloved, whether the beloved be a person, a place, or a thing.
In moments of blissful joy and peace, I am able to love the world without desiring any thing, any person, or any place. I experience moments of total peace with the world and with my place in it. Doesn’t this sound like heaven?
I know that we can all experience such moments, and in fact we can court them. We can learn to appreciate what we have, and in this way we move ourselves more and more surely toward the frequency of joy. Often, it is the beauty of the world, inherent in some small thing, and our appreciation of that beauty, that bring us to such joyful peace.
We find heaven in these moments of appreciation and enjoyment, and inevitably, as moments inevitably pass, we must leave the heaven that we have found. We cannot hold on to it, for it is of the moment and we must move on into the next moment and then the next. We learn to trust that each moment will be perfect in and of itself. We have to thoroughly enjoy this present moment, appreciate it for all that it is, and then turn trustingly to the next moment.
The difficulty of doing this, with grace, ease and trust, has been a constant theme of my life and perhaps of yours as well. We learn to love it all, with all our hearts, and at the same time, to be attached to none of it. We find heaven; we leave it; then we find it again somewhere else. To consistently do this with grace and serenity is to truly love the world.
In time, we can learn not to covet, and not to want, but simply to be with the person, place or thing that we so enjoy. Try to replace wanting something with immersion into the feeling of love for that thing. There is a big difference between wanting and loving, and that difference is absolutely essential as we tune to the frequency of joy. We need to experience that difference and fill our consciousness with the experience of that difference in order to free ourselves from the pain of wanting, and replace it with the joy of loving, for there is no wanting in the frequency of joy – none.
When we tune to the frequency of wanting some person, place or thing, we send the message out to the universe that we lack that. The universe then proceeds very agreeably to make that true for us. That is how the universe works. It makes true for us what we feel, what we are being in the moment. When we love some person, place or thing, we send the message out to the universe that we deeply enjoy and appreciate that. The universe then proceeds to reflect that back to us.
It begins with an honest appreciation for the thing that we are tending towards. It begins with simply spending time with that, whether in our imagination, or in our experience. We learn to give it value in the moment, instead of projecting all of our assumed need into the future.
Try it. Try spending time with what you love without allowing any need to get in the way of your love. Remember that we cannot truly love if we are in fear for some reason. Our egos, so concerned with our relative selves in a relative world, may instill fear in us as they send us messages of lack and loss. It is up to us to withhold our energy from these fearful thoughts and return ourselves to the frequency of love and appreciation in the now.
It is not now, nor ever has been, our fault if we long for what we do not experience in this moment. We are choice makers, constantly and restlessly moving on to the next choice, the next moment. We do find heaven, but we inevitably leave it, whether because it changes, or because we do.
Sometimes this is terribly frustrating. Sometimes, it feels like walking on a cliff edge, because wanting makes us vulnerable to losing that which we have chosen, and that feels like losing too much. It seems to be too much for us to bear. Yet the resolution to this problem is really very simple. The answer is to offer our love, again and again, and to derive our joy from the offering.
Remember, it is not the feeling of love that hurts us; it is the feeling of wanting. Every time we choose love, we let go of wanting and replace it with appreciation for what surrounds us. As we tune our frequency to joy by filling our consciousness with appreciation for the world around us, and for all the possibilities that exist in any day, we become radiant.
We become what we love. If it is beauty that we are entranced by, we surround ourselves with beauty. If it is the happy sound of a child, we are infused with happiness. If it is the good will that we see in the eyes of a friend, we become informed by good will and our joy is then to share it. When we love something in the world, we love God in the world, and we invite that sacred presence to come a little closer to our essential core.
At such moments, we need nothing, lack for nothing, and sink luxuriously and joyfully into the present moment. We are complete. We are at peace with all that is.
Loving the world means holding on to nothing, and embracing everything. Nothing lasts. Whether it is the loving embrace of a friend, the peaceful view of a woodland path, a home, a career, or a vow of unchanging devotion; its passing is foreseen. That leaves us with nothing, if we need to have in order to enjoy.
If I am filled with love these days, it is because I choose to tune to the frequency of love, the frequency of appreciation and gratitude. Try it. Choose love, and become filled with love. If that is what we choose to do, that is what we become. As we practice seeing the beauty and the good in people, places and things, it becomes easier and easier to be filled with love, gratitude and appreciation.
It is also true that when we love, we make a gift to God. No matter what it is that we love, we bring love into the world when we fill ourselves with it. And since God is all there is, we bring our love to God.
It is love that pulls us into the world. It is love that motivates us to do things in the world. Our appreciation for all sorts of experiences is what gets us up and moving in the morning and what fills our days with more or less joy. Love, appreciation and gratitude are our signposts to the frequency of joy.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
True Love
Let's put aside, once and for all, the notion of romantic love, love for one specific other and so love denied to the rest of humanity, to the rest of the world. So often, love seems to equal possession or control over or obsession with. Let's let that go. Let's talk about true love.
True love is never holding, only witnessing and appreciating. True love accepts the beloved exactly as it is. True love does not covet, but only adores with gladness. It does not seek anything. It is complete in the moment in the delight of that which is loved.
True love is never holding, only witnessing and appreciating. True love accepts the beloved exactly as it is. True love does not covet, but only adores with gladness. It does not seek anything. It is complete in the moment in the delight of that which is loved.
To love without fear is to love truly. It is the fear of not having what we somehow think we need, the fear of lack, which prevents us from true love. When I am completely free of all want and all need, I am free to love. Loving in the context of such complete freedom fills me with joy. It feels like heaven on Earth.
We somehow know, deep inside ourselves, what heaven feels like. It is an unspoken knowing, beyond words. When I try to express it, I end up using a lot of words to give the depth of it to you. In every moment that we experience love for someone or something, in every moment of opening in appreciation to something in the world, including ourselves, we experience unity with the thing beloved. We fill ourselves with peace and know no lack and no fear of lack. In that moment, we are complete and that completion in the moment is heaven on Earth. It is as simple and immediate as looking at something with eyes of love and acceptance. It costs nothing.
I am filled with joy simply because the world exists. Our souls need no other nourishment than this. I, choosing to be soulful, choosing the frequency of joy, direct myself to nourish the soul within me by allowing appreciation and enjoyment to have their place in my experience every day.
This is true love.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Living From the Heart
Just as you are reading this, center yourself in your mind, in your head, in your thoughts. It may be quiet there, or it may be noisy and turbulent. No matter. Place your focus on your mind. Now take a deep breath, and then another, and center yourself in your heart, in your chest. Can you feel the difference?
The choice to center yourself in your heart is a simple one. It can be made over and over again, many times each day. The heart has an intelligence much greater than the intelligence of the mind. The heart's intelligence is very broad and very deep, but it does not come in words. It is a knowing sense that we can later assign some words to.
I believe that the heart is where poetry comes from, good poetry, great poetry. The heart is where compassion comes from, where acceptance comes from, for these are the wisest of responses to the world and the heart is very wise.
To live from the heart, centered in the heart, is to live from the part of you that is in complete acceptance all the time. It is to be in love. When we are heart-centered we are in love. The heart knows no judgement, no blame or shame. The heart is at peace with what is; it is in love with all that is.
Imagine living more and more from this loving center of yourself, so that you find it more and more difficult to blame, shame or judge anyone or anything. Imagine the peace of this living from the heart. This is where compassion lives.
Compassion is complete acceptance of the experience and feeling of the other person, so that you can be with them in their feeling. In compassion you are in silent witness to their being, in solidarity with them in their feeling. It is not sympathy, which is literally suffering with another, and it is certainly not pity, which has the quality of being sorry for someone's experience and feeling. Compassion is literally feeling with another. Allowing their feeling to be fully met by your acceptance and understanding is being compassionate with them.
Compassion is highly valued in our society, but why is it valued? I can't speak for others, but I can speak for myself. For me, compassion is an allowance on the part of one human being of the totality of experience and feeling that is in another human being. That allowance is so precious because it is so rare. We teach children not to cry, not to complain, not to nag, not to demand, not to want or to fret, not to feel unless the feeling is an approved one. And as we grow older, we learn to hold our feelings within us, unexpressed because unallowed. Compassion allows us to be who we truly are, to be all that we are.
It is commonly given only to certain people to be compassionate - priests and ministers and those who work in hospices with the dying. Some of us have been fortunate to know compassion from a wise friend, a loving parent or grandparent, or a teacher who managed to hold compassion even within the context of a modern classroom. Imagine if we could give and receive compassion from each other all the time. Compassion is kin to what I call 'true listening,' deep listening from the heart to the heart of the other, listening without any judgement, or labelling, or definition, or thought about what you're going to say, just listening with complete acceptance.
Living from the heart gives this kind of listening, this kind of compassion to the people around you, but it also gives it to the self that you are, to your mind's meanderings, your ego-self's anxieties, your oh-so-human needs and wants. Living from the heart brings peace because it is not opposed to anything, not in resistance to anything. It accepts all as it is.
Living from the heart takes us out of the mind somewhat. This is not a bad thing. Living always in the mind tends to find us thinking in circuitous lines of increasing complexity, becoming anxious and projecting our hopes and fears into a future that doesn't exist and may never exist as we have conceived it. Think again, and the whole thing changes anyway. Being centered in the heart quiets the mind and brings peace to the whole consciousness that you are.
It is a choice in the moment, whether to center your consciousness in your mind or in your heart. When deeply involved in some physical movement, we all tend to center ourselves in our bodies and that makes a wonderful change as well from being overly focused on our thoughts. But in the day to day living that we become so charged with, we can choose to center ourselves in our hearts, to live from there.
Living from the heart brings joy, for there is no fear there, no need there. There is only acceptance, peace and love.
The choice to center yourself in your heart is a simple one. It can be made over and over again, many times each day. The heart has an intelligence much greater than the intelligence of the mind. The heart's intelligence is very broad and very deep, but it does not come in words. It is a knowing sense that we can later assign some words to.
I believe that the heart is where poetry comes from, good poetry, great poetry. The heart is where compassion comes from, where acceptance comes from, for these are the wisest of responses to the world and the heart is very wise.
To live from the heart, centered in the heart, is to live from the part of you that is in complete acceptance all the time. It is to be in love. When we are heart-centered we are in love. The heart knows no judgement, no blame or shame. The heart is at peace with what is; it is in love with all that is.
Imagine living more and more from this loving center of yourself, so that you find it more and more difficult to blame, shame or judge anyone or anything. Imagine the peace of this living from the heart. This is where compassion lives.
Compassion is complete acceptance of the experience and feeling of the other person, so that you can be with them in their feeling. In compassion you are in silent witness to their being, in solidarity with them in their feeling. It is not sympathy, which is literally suffering with another, and it is certainly not pity, which has the quality of being sorry for someone's experience and feeling. Compassion is literally feeling with another. Allowing their feeling to be fully met by your acceptance and understanding is being compassionate with them.
Compassion is highly valued in our society, but why is it valued? I can't speak for others, but I can speak for myself. For me, compassion is an allowance on the part of one human being of the totality of experience and feeling that is in another human being. That allowance is so precious because it is so rare. We teach children not to cry, not to complain, not to nag, not to demand, not to want or to fret, not to feel unless the feeling is an approved one. And as we grow older, we learn to hold our feelings within us, unexpressed because unallowed. Compassion allows us to be who we truly are, to be all that we are.
It is commonly given only to certain people to be compassionate - priests and ministers and those who work in hospices with the dying. Some of us have been fortunate to know compassion from a wise friend, a loving parent or grandparent, or a teacher who managed to hold compassion even within the context of a modern classroom. Imagine if we could give and receive compassion from each other all the time. Compassion is kin to what I call 'true listening,' deep listening from the heart to the heart of the other, listening without any judgement, or labelling, or definition, or thought about what you're going to say, just listening with complete acceptance.
Living from the heart gives this kind of listening, this kind of compassion to the people around you, but it also gives it to the self that you are, to your mind's meanderings, your ego-self's anxieties, your oh-so-human needs and wants. Living from the heart brings peace because it is not opposed to anything, not in resistance to anything. It accepts all as it is.
Living from the heart takes us out of the mind somewhat. This is not a bad thing. Living always in the mind tends to find us thinking in circuitous lines of increasing complexity, becoming anxious and projecting our hopes and fears into a future that doesn't exist and may never exist as we have conceived it. Think again, and the whole thing changes anyway. Being centered in the heart quiets the mind and brings peace to the whole consciousness that you are.
It is a choice in the moment, whether to center your consciousness in your mind or in your heart. When deeply involved in some physical movement, we all tend to center ourselves in our bodies and that makes a wonderful change as well from being overly focused on our thoughts. But in the day to day living that we become so charged with, we can choose to center ourselves in our hearts, to live from there.
Living from the heart brings joy, for there is no fear there, no need there. There is only acceptance, peace and love.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Integrity
Integrity is one of those words that people say with a sort of slow and quiet feeling. It is a word that has weight and deep meaning for people. Integrity doesn’t mean that a person is never mistaken, never upset or never in doubt. Integrity means that a person is never dishonest with herself. Integrity means that we are true to ourselves. Take a breath with that one.
Each of us has a personal responsibility to live with honesty and integrity. Our honesty with ourselves and with the world around us is nothing less than our truth. As we develop our own sense of what we choose to be, we come to understand what our honour means to us. We come to experience it. Our honour is our sense of our worth as human beings living with intention and awareness. This sense of ourselves is basic to the development of our ability to be in the world, our ability to choose, our ability to be who we choose to be, and to do what we choose to do.
Our honour is both our sense of what is true for us and our commitment to live with integrity in the context of that truth.
Our integrity is the structure that we provide for ourselves; it is that by which we stand as individuals being who we choose to be in the world. We are more likely to wander, flounder, and fail without the strength given to us by our integrity. Our honour and our integrity are constant builders, stone masons building the strong dwelling that is our trust in ourselves.
Yet, it goes even further than that. The world is made up of energy. Our words send energy. Our thoughts send energy. Our actions move energy. Our feelings and frequency create our experience of the energy around us. Our intentions, thoughts, words and actions have consequence in the world. This is always true. There is always a consequence, and it is very real. Our words have power - whether we say them out loud, or think them to ourselves - our words have power. They are imbued with the creative energy of the universe. Therefore, when we speak falsely, when we speak without integrity, when we act and speak, and even think in ways that are not true to ourselves, we do harm. We rip the fabric of the world when we betray our trust in ourselves, or the trust of another in us.
Every time we act with honour and integrity, we enrich our own lives and the potential for integrity of every person on this planet. Every time we act in a betrayal of what we know to be true for ourselves, we bring betrayal into the world. Let me put it another way. If you choose to live in a world of truth, honour and integrity, it must begin with you, or you will not experience such a world. If you choose to live in a world where people are honest, and respect each other, you must be honest, and you must respect others. It always begins with us. That is integrity. That is responsibility.
So, if you choose to do so, state your intention to live with honour and integrity. Think about how you choose to act and speak and be in the world. Think about what you value in others. What makes someone trustworthy in your eyes? What makes someone a person of integrity? Do you deeply believe that you can manifest those qualities in yourself? If you do not believe that you can, why do you not believe it?
I am writer, so I suggest that you write these things down. However, you can answer these questions in any way that you choose. You can do this alone, or with your life partner. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to ask these questions with your children!
The results of this questioning become your personal code of conduct. If there is an area of ambiguity for you, think about it until you have decided for yourself where your energy fits and where it doesn’t. For example, some people have decided for themselves that it is okay to say something that you know is not true if it spares the feelings of the person to whom you’re speaking. Some people have decided that it is okay to take things that don’t belong to you, if you are taking them from the place where you work, or from a family member. You have to decide what is in resonance with your energetic frequency. No one else can decide this for you. You may decide that it is right to follow the laws of the land, even when they don’t really make good sense to you. You may decide that it is right to follow your own conscience at all times, even if that means going against the laws of the land, or the decisions of law-makers.
The questions that you ask yourself may never be completely answered. The thinking that you do on these issues may never be fully completed. This is an on-going discussion you are having with yourself. It engages your responsibility, your pragmatism, your realism and your idealism. As you learn, experience the world, and become more and more the person whom you consciously choose to be, your thoughts and feelings about these issues will probably change, at least a bit. It is a fascinating process though. It will never bore you; I guarantee it!
Once you have come up with a sense of what you choose to radiate to the world around you, you can begin to make decisions about how you intend to act. You may decide that you will never speak an untruth. You may decide that you will show respect to all people, no matter their age, their race, their religious beliefs, or their status in society. You may decide that you will give to those less fortunate every month. There are many decisions that you can make. Each time that you do, you are becoming more consciously intentional in your actions in the world. You are becoming more and more a person who lives a life of principles, your own principles. These are qualities of integrity.
Integrity means that your behaviour, including your words, of course, is consistent with, or integrated with, your beliefs, values and frequency. These beliefs, values and your frequency state are things that you are more or less conscious of. By consciously making decisions about how you intend to be in the world, and then making a commitment to actually, consistently practice being that way, you become a person guided by your own essential self. You become a person of honour and integrity. You become the person whom you choose to be, since the decisions about how you will act in the world come from within you.
As you practice acting in ways that are consistent with your decisions about how you will be in the world, you will encounter challenges. You will encounter obstacles, barriers, and temptations to deviate from your own chosen course. It can be as simple as feeling tired and stressed, and so unable to behave as you have chosen to. It can be as complicated as struggling with conflicting feelings, conflicting thoughts, or the pressure to conform to the beliefs and actions of someone close to you. It is not always easy.
An essential part of this, which will help you as you continue, is your growing consciousness of who you are and who you choose to be. Cultivate awareness. Watch yourself.
Integrity is more than honesty. If we have integrity, we are fully integrated. We are in unity with ALL that we are. All of the different parts and pieces of ourselves are held in one integrated self. Our beliefs, feelings, fears and longings, our thoughts, words, and actions - large and small - are all consistent with one another. There is no internal conflict dividing us. There is no contradiction in our living, our livelihood, and our expression of ourselves.
In integrity, we are always true to ourselves. Our actions are true to our values. Our spoken words are true to our beliefs, consciously held because intentionally explored. Our choices reflect our truth, revealed to us as we listen to ourselves and give ourselves the allowance, acceptance and compassion that we deserve as human beings.
As well, there is a rhythm to our lives which is sacred, as everything is sacred. Integrity asks that we listen to our bodies, which move to the rhythm of our deep selves and of the wolrd. The body is our expression of spirit in the world. Being true to self means listening to the messages that come through our feelings about what happens, feelings that pulse in our bodies, feelings that express our frequency state. When we do this, we respect the truth about ourselves and the sacred rhythm of our lives; we come closer to true integrity.
I believe that all of us understand the essence of integrity. Taken to the farthest reach of its meaning, integrity challenges us to live our ideals. It challenges us to follow our true feelings, our most deeply held, heart-felt knowing, and our purest passions. The quest for true integrity asks of us that we learn never to deny ourselves. It challenges us to consistently honour our truth, even if doing so makes us unpopular, or opens us to criticism.
Sometimes, our own truth is unpalatable even to us. Sometimes, facing our own truth is very challenging, even when we do so in the privacy of our own quiet and darkened rooms. Choosing to live with integrity is choosing to consistently respect our own truth, honour our own feelings, and act in accordance with our own values. It is easy to see from all of this that the practice of living with honour and integrity is a lifelong practice. It is a continuous progress toward our own truth.
Only when we are clear and confident, with the clarity and confidence born of living with honour and integrity can we truly tune our frequency to joy.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
A Firm Foundation for Joy
I'm exploring all roads to joy and the expansion of consciousness and blissful peace that joy represent for me.
One of the things that I have come to understand about joy is that it requires a foundation of honour, self-love, truth and integrity. These require courage and are not always easy to acquire or maintain. However, they are the only foundation upon which true joy can be built. Joy is the expression, radiant and sublime, of your essential integrity and unity with all that is divine in the world, all that is true, sacred and alight with the love of the Creator. And that can only be housed on a foundation of complete honesty of self with self.
It might seem like a tall order, like something that you cannot hope to attain. I assure you that you can. I will go further and say that by working toward these, you will change your life in ways that bring you great joy, deep peace and clarity that dispels all the confusion of the times in which we live.
When you stand on that foundation and look out from there, you will know your way forward. That alone is worth the effort involved.
I'll tell you more about how to bring yourself into this truth, this integrity and this honour for self and love of self in anther post.
Take a deep breath and put on your walking shoes; this is a good road to travel!
One of the things that I have come to understand about joy is that it requires a foundation of honour, self-love, truth and integrity. These require courage and are not always easy to acquire or maintain. However, they are the only foundation upon which true joy can be built. Joy is the expression, radiant and sublime, of your essential integrity and unity with all that is divine in the world, all that is true, sacred and alight with the love of the Creator. And that can only be housed on a foundation of complete honesty of self with self.
It might seem like a tall order, like something that you cannot hope to attain. I assure you that you can. I will go further and say that by working toward these, you will change your life in ways that bring you great joy, deep peace and clarity that dispels all the confusion of the times in which we live.
When you stand on that foundation and look out from there, you will know your way forward. That alone is worth the effort involved.
I'll tell you more about how to bring yourself into this truth, this integrity and this honour for self and love of self in anther post.
Take a deep breath and put on your walking shoes; this is a good road to travel!
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