Tag Archives: mind body spirit

Your Love

Infinite love already exists in everything that is alive, including you and me. Our love lessons are about removing the obstacles to love. They teach us out how to access, express and live it, if we choose to do so.

Fear, anger, prejudice… there are a myriad of padlocks with which we hold our love hostage. The experiences we have around love are all opportunities for self-examination. They teach us how to love better.

This can feel difficult in a world that is expressing so much dissension and “un-love”. Each of us is a key to healing it. Consider that perhaps the high tension and hatred being expressed in the world right now is a challenge to unlock our own love. Change begins within each of us.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” (Rumi)

It’s Time To

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Are you taking note of the shifts in society, the way it is now very quickly being re-shaped before our very eyes? This is a wake up call to take a realistic and pragmatic view of the world around you. Start calmly evaluating how you can take charge of your life to be prepared for whatever comes at you. You are much stronger, resilient, and resourceful than you likely think.

Time to start really paying attention to events, the unfolding, and not only to what you see, but also what you don’t see. What’s missing?

Time to watch for the incongruities, the inconsistencies, and what is between the lines. The signs for what may come in the future are always there, when we pay proper attention and have discernment.

Time to question, question, question.

Time to use not only your logic as you process the world around you, but also to listen to what your heart and your gut say.

Time to take personal responsibility for your life, rather than waiting for some external “authority” to solve the problems.

Do not be dismayed, but rather be heartened by the resiliency of the human spirit. When we pull together, great things can be accomplished. This has been demonstrated again and again throughout history. This is the big opportunity of humanity to step up to the plate, raise our consciousness, and create a better world and society for ourselves.

I feel both excited and tired from the extreme shifts. How are you feeling in the midst of it all?

Inspirational Quotes:

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” ~ Voltaire

Daydreaming Joy

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The tightly restrictive early pandemic days were illuminating for me. “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone…” The absence of seemingly small things that gave me every day joy was notable. I missed getting together with a friend for coffee, to share personal space with them, to feel their smile. I suppose it didn’t really matter (in a way) that our smiles were covered by masks. How many of us were sincerely smiling with the joy of life underneath them? Our smiles had been stolen from us overnight.

Also no longer for a time able to take my daily nature walk (yes, they closed the parks where I was too!), I searched for ways to cling to happy thoughts, to overcome the constant feeling of oppression. It occurred to me that replaying some happy memories would help to preserve my feeling that joy is and would again be possible in the world.

I have a friend who started a social media group during that time. She shared (and still does) beautiful pictures of the Alps in Europe – the gorgeous scenery, the activities, the famous spots to visit in a cluster of countries – and together she and the members of the group have protected and kept alive the beauty of life. They helped each other come out the other side of a very difficult time.

What memories of your life give you a feeling of joyousness? This is one of mine that without fail makes me feel light of heart and spirit ~

The magical dragonfly is a fond girlhood memory of summer for me. Paddling around the lake on sultry afternoons, I loved to watch their iridescent colors flitting among the graceful lily pads. They captivated me. There was a purity and magic about these tiny gossamer creatures. They seemed to occupy a mysterious, unseen world, to which for a few moments I was privy.

Peace and a feeling of the goodness in the world were mine, and they still are when I close my eyes and revisit this memory. I also strongly reconnect to a sense of my intrinsic freedom as a human being on this Earth.

Whatever brings you joy, commit to fiercely protecting your memories and vision of what is good and right in the world. Obviously we can’t live solely in the past if we want to manifest a new future, but those joyous memories and history are the strong foundation on which to build it.

Inspirational Quote:

“…What if the point is to stop, then,… and listen to the birdsong, to watch the dragonflies hover, to look at your lover’s face, then up at the undersides of leaves moving together in the breeze? What if the point is to invite these others into your movement, to bring trees, wind, grass, dragonflies into your family and in so doing abandon any attempt to control them? ~ Derrick Jensen

Beauty

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Physical beauty. It’s still often one of the most highly valued attributes in our society, and particularly in women. Of course, beauty is a wonderful thing to behold and enjoy. But are you aware of positive deeper attributes we automatically apply to an attractive face?

Here’s a great Psychology Today article on beauty and its effect on our psyche: The Surprising Power of a Beautiful Face. A short quote: “[what psychologists call] the halo effect causes one trait (e.g., beauty) to drastically color your perception of all other traits. If you think someone is beautiful, you are also likely to assume they’re smart, ambitious, interesting, etc. We’ve all made these assumptions before, for good or ill.”

We are hard-wired to judge based on appearances

The assumptions we make are evidently hard-wired labels in our brains. So we can be forgiven – at least a little bit. As an interesting exercise, the next time you see a beautiful or handsome face, observe your thought process. Do you quickly assume the person is also intelligent, educated, polite, nice, etc?

Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and love, is laughing in her heaven. She knows, beauty has exerted power for eons.

Beautiful Life Quotes:

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
~ Maya Angelou

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
~ Helen Keller

“Life becomes easier and more beautiful when we can see the good in other people.”
~ Roy T. Bennett

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
~ Marcus Aurelius

One Bit of Love

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“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.” ~ Roy T. Bennett

I sorely need Mr. Bennett’s words this morning. In the aftermath of 18 days of protests and food shortages that I posted about in It Could Happen to You, the agreements reached between the CONAIE indigenous federation and the government on Thursday have at least brought peace back to my corner of the world. And yet, I’m left with this creeping feeling that it’s not over yet. Not even close.

Yesterday I tried to take a break from “real life” by turning on the radio, and baking without concern for how we would replace the propane or the ingredients. The road blocks have been cleared, and goods are flowing again. I tried to lose myself for a little while in a very simple and familiar task.

Real life managed to worm its way into my mind, however. My thoughts drifted to the CONAIE protestors, who were now making their way back home, but to what? The poverty they are trying to overcome will most assuredly not be resolved with the words and signatures committed to paper on Thursday. The agreements they made in order to restore peace fell far short of that for which they were asking.

The root problem lies in the fact that we live in a world that’s way out of sync with our basic human and spiritual values. The requests made by the CONAIE on the face of it were logical solutions to obvious disparity between rich and poor. However, the real problem has not yet been addressed. I do not believe the government sees these people as part of their human family. They see them as an inconvenience, people who although seemingly integrated into the society, still cling to values to which the government cannot relate. These people are getting in the way of global profit-driven and political agendas. There is still a vast chasm between the two worlds.

I do not share the feeling of elation that I see many around me expressing, that they can now go to the grocery store and get exactly what they want. (Really, are you that one-dimensional?) That feeling they have came at a very high price, but they do not realize it yet. They have a difficult time relating to the person for whom 15 cents on a gallon of gas makes a huge difference. Yes, they too may be on a budget, but 15 cents is not their breaking point (yet).

To come to full circle on all of this and back to Roy. T. Bennett’s quote, I see from these 18 days that I must be resolute in centering my mind and heart in the creation of solutions, not focusing on the problem. I went to the mercado (farmer’s market) one week ago, before the protests had been resolved. Fresh food was becoming more scarce, and certainly potatoes were much harder to find. I met a lovely indigenous woman and her husband who were still selling them. When I asked the price, the lady hesitated. I could see she struggled internally with what was fair for both parties concerned. With dwindling products, customers were becoming sparser in the mercado, and clearly my wallet would bear a higher asking price.

She conferred with her husband, and they did quote a fair price within the context of what is normal, but was it in the middle of this crisis? I gave her a bill, for which she went to a neighboring vendor to seek change. When she returned and handed it to me, I gave back to her some of it, to the extent my own conscience felt it was now a fair exchange. She knew then that I saw and felt her plight. and I was rewarded with a big smile.

Of such interactions are real and solid bridges built. It is our direct human contact and commitment to change that will transform the world, and from the bottom up, not the other way around. We each can personally construct the bridges that build a better society, one bit of love, compassion, and understanding at a time.

We must all be committed to this, because we live in a world that’s in extreme flux. This crisis, and all the others like it brewing around the world, are not going away until we all take responsibility for solutions, and personally get in the game.