This is a re-blog. May we all continue to find truth and inspire each other through connection.
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Share with others to inspire
Truth in connection
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In times when we can’t meet in person, a sense of connection and community become even more important. Keep reaching out, checking in with others and sharing from your heart.
Namaste
Last week I found myself feeling weary about the ongoing confinement and fear of infection so close to home. I realized I had to shift my perspective and find some light for the dark days ahead.
It was a week of “letting the dishes sit in the sink” in order to allow the stuck bits to release themselves rather than being forced. (This phrase is one of John J. Prendergast’s that he shared in a Zoom meeting exploring his latest book The Deep Heart. – Highly recommended!)
I went to sleep asking how I can make the most of the time ahead… and I woke up one morning with these words: Imagination. Creativity. Enthusiasm. Connection. These traits are available to us as human beings, and are essential for personal transformation and advancement of societies around the world. These are the gifts to use to take us through challenging times.
Imagination isn’t just for our entertainment but for our survival. If we cannot imagine a different way of being or a better way of doing things we would never be able to change, relate to, and adapt to the world around us.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
~ Albert Einstein
Take some time and ask yourself. “At this time, what is my imagination curious about and eager to explore?”
Matthew Fox writes in his book “Creativity”:
“Chaos reigns in our world today … What do we do with it? Creativity has an answer. We are told by those who have studied the processes of nature that creativity happens at the border between chaos and order. Chaos is a prelude to creativity…
We are creators at our very core. Only creating can make us happy, for in creating we tap into the deepest powers of self and universe and the Divine Self.”
Pause and ask yourself. “What is calling to be created out of this chaotic time?”
“Enthusiasm means there is deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or vision that you work toward. When you add a goal to the enjoyment of what you do, the energy-field or vibrational frequency changes. A certain degree of what you might call structural tension is now added to enjoyment, and so it turns into enthusiasm. At the height of creative activity fueled by enthusiasm, there is enormous intensity and energy behind what you do. You feel like and arrow that is moving towards a target – and enjoying the journey.”
~Eckhart Tolle from “Oneness with Life”
Begin by making a list of the things you enjoy. Then ask yourself “What do I enjoy doing that I can set a goal around?” Feel the energy shift and go with it!
At the beginning of the pandemic, I slowed down and stepped back. It was an opportunity to Find my Middle Ground and find contentment within myself. The Spring and Summer were times of inner connection, retreating from the world and spending time in nature. This practice of being alone, however, can lead to a sense of isolation, especially when we can’t meet in person with those we love.
Connection inwards has shown me how important relationships with others are. We are all in this together, and will get through it together. There is hardship, illness and death for so many people. For those of us who are secure and well, we must reach out to others who may be struggling and let them know that we care. They are not alone.
This quote from Brene Brown comes to mind:
“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”
Moving forward into Winter, I plan to use my imagination and creativity; to inject enthusiasm into what I enjoy, and to connect authentically with others.
I’m curious to hear what this may have sparked in you.
Namaste
Photo by Josh Willink on Pexels.com
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… And what we all need.
I read an article about a retired man who volunteers at a local hospital in the ward for premature babies. All he does is hold babies close to him in silence. Nothing more is needed. In the arms of a loving human being, they thrive.
I get it.
Sharing our whole presence and open heart with an other, is nourishing and healing.
No words are required, just our wholehearted presence.
Perhaps hugs are the short version of this. Next time you hug someone think of it as holding in close silence.
Here’s one coming your way…
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should be all thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”
Albert Schweitzer
Accept that there will be low times
Yet we can rekindle inspiration
Spark off each other
Bring fresh awareness of our inner fire
And fan the flames together
Coming together to kindle each other’s spirit
Is simply wonderful.
Thank you 🕯
LONG WAY HOME
I want to have a conversation
that we can return to without
conclusion, one that lasts for
years, that feels like a walk
that has no end. Until the walk
itself is home.
I want to converse this life with
you, the way the old horse and
the young bird trudge and circle
each other in snow.
I want to reach with you into
the heart of things, where the
stitching of the Universe
shows its golden knots.
~ Mark Nepo*
I want to share this beautiful yearning with you.
* Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Kindle Locations 1471-1479). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.
This is a re-blog. May we all continue find truth and inspire each other through connection.
Namaste
~
Find your Middle Ground
Share with others to inspire
Truth in connection
~
In times when we can’t meet in person, a sense of connection and community become even more important. Keep reaching out, checking in with others and sharing from your heart.
Namaste
A beautiful reflection on generosity from Dhamma Footsteps.
Generosity IS everything.
Thank you T 🙏
POSTCARD#315: Chiang Mai: Click on ‘generosity’, then click on synonyms for that word, and you get loving-kindness, compassion, empathy, well-being, freedom. You find gratitude, grace, honor, motivation, encouragement.
Generosity is everything. Its nature is to share, recycle, circulate; it can only be given, never taken. With generosity we can accept, we can share, we can forgive. Generosity leads to wisdom – the truth is without bias. There is an understanding of things as they really are.
There is ‘generosity of spirit’, a quality we all possess. Generosity, as a mental, emotional letting go, means releasing the tenacity of holding on to things. All that heavy stuff we burden ourselves with is removed in one single act of generosity.
What’s wrong with being generous, cultivating an inward disposition to give? A glad willingness to share what we have with others – why not? We have more than enough. Give it away…
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We have been hit hard with high winds in the North East US, resulting in major power outages. Two days without internet, phone or cell reception has been an interesting experience. As a good friend reminded me, “We are lucky to have this first world problem.” But I do miss being able to reach out easily to others.
Its all about perspective and being grateful for this time and what is within our control. I get to slow down, read and accept, and remind myself of the Serenity Prayer. Don gets to embrace his pioneer spirit, taking charge of the homestead, wife and animals.
The power is still not back on, but thankfully we have a generator which can take care of heat, light and refrigeration…. and my computer.
I’m looking forward to catching up and connecting again.
AN OPEN HAND
The mind is not a storeroom
with mirrors where we retreat
to convince ourselves
that we exist.
The mind is a livingroom with
windows and more than one chair,
so friends can come and look out
and discuss what they see.
Not a fortress where we frisk and
strip others of what they believe
in order to share our secrets.
More a porch with birdfeeders
and coffee or tea where before
hello, you have to share a story.
Pull the curtains! Open the
windows! Brew the coffee!
Put out a sign: Other Views
Wanted!*
~ Mark Nepo
I love this analogy.
Let our minds be places for sharing and enjoying with each other.
Let us explore together and welcome each other into our homes.
Put your sign out and see who appears 💛
* Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting (Kindle Locations 996-1006). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers and yoga students 🙏
Photo from Yoga Journal
Gratitude and yoga go hand-in-hand, and both are essential to well-being.
Yoga teaches us to be grateful for the present moment.
It reveals to us how the union of body, mind and spirit can come together through our breath, postures and meditation.
It allows us to appreciate the full spectrum of life, from pleasure to pain and joy to sorrow.
Through the practice of yoga, the darker moments in our lives allow the lighter times to glow ever more brightly.
When we acknowledge each other with the word Namaste we are expressing our gratitude for the connection that we have with each other and the light that shines within us.
I am grateful for every moment of my life and for sharing the transformative practice of yoga with you.
Namaste
“The world encourages us to look from the limited sense of personhood – a very unstable standpoint from which we always try to find balance on very shaky ground. But you must learn to look from your source Being.
Your Being is vaster than sky, greater than space – and it is already here.
Look from your stillness, not from your agitation. You don’t have to go more than a fraction of an inch away from where you are right now to find the silence and stillness of your Being. And from here you can observe the energetic streams that are pulling your attention to go out into the field of noise and personhood, where beings are suffering from person-poison, from the toxicity of the ego.”
~ Mooji
In times like these, it’s so easy to get caught up in our personhood, or separateness and to be drawn in to arguments between “them” and “us”.
We forget that we all share the same essence of being within us. I believe that it is up to those of us who have touched this source Being, (whether we name it Universe, Presence, God, Divine, Spirit or Love) to share our energy with others who are struggling.
Only through our awakening to a shared consciousness and inter-dependence on each other and our precious Earth can we hope to survive and evolve as human beings.
May we all awaken to this humble loving greatness of Being.
Namaste
When I was young I wanted to be grown up and have opinions. I believed that adults with opinions knew what life was about. And that’s what I wanted. I wanted to know things and feel secure in that knowledge, rather than being unsure and insecure.
And so I became opinionated.
I took on a lot of the same values and judgments of my family. But I also went against some of their ways of seeing other people and the world.
And so I formed my own opinions.
Then one day I asked myself Do my opinions really matter? Do they make a difference or help others … or is it just a facade? What was behind my opinions?
This is what I discovered.
We strive for knowing in an unknown world. Underneath we still feel insecure and unsure, but we believe that we are right about things. That makes us feel better.
As long as we are attached to our opinions, and how the world should be, our minds remain closed. We become prisoners of our opinions.
Our preferences prevent us from being open to the moment, and can take us off on a wild goose chase to feel more knowledgable, in control … and opinionated.
Opinions about how things should be, keep us hooked on specific outcomes. It takes us out of the present and prevents us from seeing alternatives and exploring new ways.
We judge others as ‘wrong’, when they don’t share our opinions. This increases separation rather than connection and understanding. We become more self centered.
Opinions are an expression of an evolved ego, not an evolved human being.
Of course, that’s just my opinion.
