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Gratefulness
Thank you for sharing these stories and the wisdom you have found in them. Also, I really appreciated the link to conversation with Rev. Heng Sure.
How, indeed? This is still very much a work in progress, as I truly lost myself during a long period of illness. There is a necessary reinvention and in this time I do believe I will find a way of living my life that is more authentic than before.
How to treasure and share? To become aware of and to do more and more of what I love. And to fiercely resist self-comparison with others. There is a start.
The simple phrase, “be the change you want to see in the world,” comes to mind. It offers a 180 degree shift in perspective that is transforming the way I go about fulfilling my purpose in life. I have had the great blessing to spend the last year living and serving at an ashram. Much time spent in silence, meditation, prayer. Bringing about for me a shifting perspective. From “doing” to “being.” From focusing on the world (and what specifically I could “do” to make it a ...
The simple phrase, “be the change you want to see in the world,” comes to mind. It offers a 180 degree shift in perspective that is transforming the way I go about fulfilling my purpose in life. I have had the great blessing to spend the last year living and serving at an ashram. Much time spent in silence, meditation, prayer. Bringing about for me a shifting perspective. From “doing” to “being.” From focusing on the world (and what specifically I could “do” to make it a better place) to focusing on embodying (or “being”) the peace within which is my true nature. Now as I begin moving back out into the wider external world, it is my prayer that “peace is every step.”
To hold out one’s open heart to an animal and to have them come to you is a gift. Nothing offered but love. Many times I have asked for and been given this — for them just to move, purposefully, closer into your presence. To share that simple communion, is what I mean.
Dogs (bless them!) make it so very easy. And cats too, oftentimes. Of course it is a choice on the part of the individual animal, and if they choose otherwise, my appreciation of them is not at all less...
Dogs (bless them!) make it so very easy. And cats too, oftentimes. Of course it is a choice on the part of the individual animal, and if they choose otherwise, my appreciation of them is not at all lessened.
For this to happen with a wild animal, it helps to be very still. And to focus on radiating love. I recently had this experience with a woolly bear caterpillar. Some will say this is only the result of curiosity — an “adaptive behavior” on the part of the animal. But I know differently.
Here is a poem I wrote quite some time ago that I just found again as I am visiting my old homeplace and such nourishing sounds surround me.
For the music of this morning, I AM GRATEFUL…
I Indigo bunting singing from the tiptop of a tulip tree,
A Acadian flycatcher calling from the willow,
M Mooing cows,
G Goldfinches winging and singing their bright yellow tunes,
R Rhode Island Red rooster crowing from up the hill,
A An apple falling from th...
A An apple falling from the old tree we thought would not survive winter,
T Thump of a dog’s tail on the porch floorboards,
E Echo of track rumble and train whistle from down by the river,
F Flowing water playing in the creek bed under the footbridge,
U Utter delight in one exquisite, cascading measure of the song of a nesting
L Louisiana waterthrush!
Willingness to start a hard conversation and in the ensuing sadness, staying open to all the good that is inherent in this day. There will be love. There will be light. There will be laughter. Trusting my intuition that it is time to bring into balance the ‘be-ing’ with the ‘do-ing.’
So many people here at the ashram where I live now. And an old friend who has not forgotten me as I navigated through some very difficult years.
I eat poetry, like one of the dogs in Mark Strand’s poem, “Eating Poetry.” I shred it with my claws before I circle and bed down. I roll in it. I carry it in my mouth like a big stick. Unlike a dog, I often feel guilty for only eating, eating, eating and for what purpose? Thank you, Dale, for your reminder that it is enough to love. To read, love, and repeat. Read, love, repeat.
Thank you, Lang, for so generously offering your work here in the Sound Sanctuary. Your latest recording, Gurgling Mountain Brook, is lovely. It reminds me that in my own life, it was the draw of “sitting down by a little stream to listen” again and again, day after day, that began my meditation practice. Answering the invitation to deep listening.
Oh, Shelly, as I read your post my heart wants to run to you, so sorry I am for your great loss. I am deeply moved by your perspective of this loss as a shard of glass inside that does not scar but that illuminates the Love all around you. Peace, peace, peace to you.
Hi Carol, I appreciate your story, told with compassion and a flair of humor! You are a good neighbor anyone would be fortunate to have. May your day be blessed with connections.
When I returned here to erase and re-write a simpler, “better” and entirely different answer, I found your reply. I receive it as a gift. Thank you. Strength to you on your journey.
I am sorry for your loss. Peace to you, friend.
Yes, silence so nourishing.
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