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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Life is a Stream of Events...

While lying in bed late one night this week, talking with my husband about ‘life events’ that have recently arisen, groping for perspective, feeling inundated with yet more “events” to deal with, day after day, recognizing how I continue to live from habituated patterns, *reacting* to life events – usually resisting them - still identified with the little me always swimming up stream, trying to keep my head above water, feeling drowned by the stream of life - he made this statement: “Life is a stream of events. Events will always happen.  Events come and go.”  The context of his statement was to say – if we see that life is always a stream of events, then we won’t feel so overwhelmed by them, they won’t trip us up as much because we can adapt and adjust and manage them.  Sounds a little like the Tao to me – to see that no matter what happens Life is a Flow, and we are in that Flow as well.  It was helpful to begin to see a way to re-orient my way of going down stream…

He also shared with me this prayer that he says silently to himself every morning as he faces each day:

“Equip me to respond to life events as they come today.  Help me to adjust and adapt with Divine Purpose, and discern what is needed.”

I asked for clarification on his meaning of “with Divine Purpose”:

In essence, he told me, what this is saying is, meeting life as it comes by “plugging in to the Divine” (his words) – the Cosmic “Flow of the Universe” – meeting the “events” of life through seeing the Divine Flow, or Cosmic Flow, of all things, and through *awareness* of our Inner Divine Beingness – flowing with life as it happens, not getting *focused* on the obstacles/events, or seeing the events as obstacles, allowing them to distract – which I tend to do.  He said by seeing that everything *is* the Divine Flow, we can be assured that it is flowing the way it is supposed to – no matter what happens…  When you don’t fight it, you can begin to experience the harmony of the Flow.

Wow!  B knows nothing about Taoism, but he has intuitively “tapped in” to “the Tao” ~ ~~~ The Flow…   Amazing…


“Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall
while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish,
and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness,
which is the way of nature. “

“If you are willing to be lived by it,
you will see [the Tao] everywhere,
even in the most ordinary things."



Lao Tzu


12 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your conversation with your beloved that we may all be blessed and enlightened by it. Those late night convos are the best, aren't they! :-)

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  2. Life as a stream of events, constantly flow... I like this metaphor to meditate with! If we just allow the flow, and react less (which stops flow, essentially!) we get hooked less... You husband prayer is a beautiful one to begin a da with, focusing on Divine Purpose. Maybe if we focus more on the Divine than our own purpose we'd get hooked less too. ;o) Your B is like my TJ...he's a Buddhist but doesn't claim it--he doesn't like "labels" ;o) We had some "life" this week, when we had to postpone some much anticipated travel plans. Learning to flow and let it go. ;o) Such sources for wisdom today, Christine--THANK YOU! ((HEART-HUGS))

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    1. Yes, *allowing* the flow, and letting go... Something I'm still working on, as "the flow" doesn't always go the way I had in mind... LOL - which is most of the time. :) As you know, there is so much wisdom in *life* to draw from :) It's always just right there, and comes when least expected sometimes - like out of the mouths of our husbands. LOL

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  3. This is a lovely post and a helpful way of being in the world. I sometimes, too, like to think that we are the river flowing, and also that we are waves rising up on the infinite ocean that we are, as well. The all in the ALL. Thank you for sharing you thoughts as you meander.a

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    1. Thanks Susan :) It was helpful for me to see that *Life* is the river and everything we encounter is just part of the Flow... including those "events" that seem like obstacles and distractions. I also like the wave in the Ocean imagery that you mention - ultimately realizing that we *are* the Infinite Ocean - as you said...

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  4. A little late here, but now I can read with concentration... I love what your love comes up with intuitively! My own husband is my greatest teacher too, he seems to effortlessly embody what I try very hard with! Such is Life.

    Hugs x

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    1. Never "late" - as I am always "open" :) Glad you came... Yes, our husbands teach us so much about life, don't they?! I love what you say, that they "effortlessly embody what I (we) try very hard with." Me too. That's why I was so surprised when he said what he said! LOL

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  5. I love John O'Donohue's little poem, 'Fluent' -

    I would love to live
    like a river flows,
    carried by the surprise
    of it's own unfolding.

    When we recognise that river as Divine Grace, it's a wonderful journey if we can allow ourselves to flow where the river takes us.

    Thanks for your posts, which always resonate with me.

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    1. Oh yes! I had forgotten about his poem and love these lines, esp. "...carried by the surprise of its own unfolding", which elicits a sense of curiosity and wonder in me, which of course is how I want to actually live - *remembering* to flow *as* the river flows, and where it takes us, knowing that it is all Grace and Love...

      Thanks for stopping by and leaving your kind comment... Tried to find you through your link here, but it says that your profile is not available...

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  6. Maby some of what you think and say and try to live by has rubbed off on B. lovely you have a late night companion to talk with. what a blessing. at last, i have read something and done something or other that allows me to sign on to my blog. after months of not being able to. whew.

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    1. Hi Suki! Glad you are able to get on your blog again! :) And love the little "Buddha" painting that you did! Well, I have to give B credit for his own innate wisdom. He has his own ways of tapping into it and sometimes it just surprises me, but I've known he's been a wise man for a long time :)

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