Welcome...

Come meander with me on the pathless path of the Heart
in these anecdotal,
sometimes inspiring, sometimes personal meanderings of the Heart's opening in the every-day-ness of life...

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

"Sanctuary" - a meandering...


The word "Sanctuary" arose in answer to a question I asked
"The Universe": what is needed now? - with all the emotional
chaos I've been experiencing in life lately - especially the last
6 weeks.  And since I won't be packing up and moving to a
monastery any time soon, I wondered how I could "create"
this "sanctuary" that is required for my well-being - not as an
escape, but as respite for the Soul...

I ended up creating a "Sanctuary" of sorts in our bedroom
several months ago in anticipation of our current "visitor"...

Laying in the "sanctuary" on the bed creates a wonderful
space for rest and silence and solitude, when I can get there,
usually not until late at night.  Laying there I also notice
body sensations - the residual effects of daily engagement
with the "visitor", heaviness and tightness of the gut, chest
and throat; muddled mind, and aching muscles from left
over resistance, and tightness of the jaw; vestiges of the
mental and emotional gymnastics to keep one step ahead
of the "visitor's" manipulations to get her latest "fix": faking
a toothache, and other assorted games, to get what she wants...
Endless wanting...  Endless games...

In the "Sanctuary" however, everything is allowed and 
embraced, seen and acknowledged: the fear, the anxiety,
the anger, the sadness, and even the "visitor" - as the
Presence of Silence envelopes them all.  In "Sanctuary"
they are only waves upon the deeper Ocean of Life

In the "Sanctuary" of inner Stillness I asked:
What is the deeper need?

I listened deeply for the Voice of Silence that always
whispers the Truth...

"Sanctuary" was the reply once again.
"Rest in the inner Sanctuary,
aware of everything: thoughts, feelings, sensations,
body; the pulse of Silence, and the Rhythm of Life
running  through them all."

I relaxed a bit, held in the Infinite that consumes the
past, present and future; experiencing the felt sense
of Presence once again - at least in that moment...

"Sanctuary"

"Sanctuary" is a place of deep nourishment for me and has
been difficult to access lately.  It is a place to incubate, to open
to the depths of the Soul and explore the Ineffable. It offers me
an invitation to turn around, to return to the inner cosmos of
Being; to rest from the thinking mind, and experience the
Primordial Rest and Solace of Silence and Solitude - 
simply Being.  In tune to  some extent with the Inner Cosmos
of deep Silence and Stillness.


Photo - Mystic Meandering
Meditating Monk,
Mandala Art - Cathedral Windows
and OM painting


Sunday, November 27, 2022

The Solace of Solitude...



My Soul needs the solace of Solitude,
finding its Rhythm again
in the deep silent space of "Home";
The Sacred Silence within...

The comfort of the deep Silence
brings everything into perspective...

I breathe into my Soul
and my Soul breathes into me...
a mutual breath...

I fall into sleep, into the deeper
 Rhythm of the Sanctuary of the Soul -

and rest...

Mystic Meandering 
Nov. 25, 2022

~

Photo - Mandala Art
Mystic Meandering
2013

 

 

Friday, November 25, 2022

Re-Visioning - D.H. Lawrence & Alan Watts


What we lack is a cosmic life...
The rhythm of the cosmos is something we cannot get away
from without impoverishing our lives.  We must get back into
relation, vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos and the
universe.  For the truth is, we perish for lack of fulfillment of
our greater needs, we are cut off from the great source of our
inward nourishment and renewal, which flow eternally in the
universe...

D.H. Lawrence

~

We have been brought up to identify ourselves with just the ego,
and so we ignore and are unaware of the vast, vast extent of our
Being.  People who by various methods become fully aware of
their cosmic Consciousness.....discover that the real deep, deep
Self - that which you really are [our Essence], fundamentally and
forever - is the whole of your Being.

You have to get away from all the madness for a while because
we become insane, we get confused with our roles.  Man is not
his role.  Man is deeper than that.  So, go into the forest or
someplace alone in nature, all by yourself, and find out who
you really are!  And then you no longer confuse yourself with
your particular temporary body, [or role] but identify with the
entire process of nature and the whole cosmos...

Alan Watts

~

Photo - Mandala Art - Mystic Meandering
"Windows into Infinity"
2013



 

Thursday, November 24, 2022

I learn by going where I have to go - Roethke


I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling.  What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady.  I should know.
What falls away is always.  And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke

Original title - "The Waking"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering



 

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Notes to myself...


.....everything you've ever known is nothing but an
infinitely small blip in the middle of a yawning
expanse of infinity...

You are a loosely associated cloud of cells swirling around
for a short time in inseparable interplay with the ecosystem
which birthed it on a tiny planet in the outer periphery of a
galaxy...  You're a little eddie twirling in the  middle of the
ocean for a single instant...

Each big bang in every universe unleashes a new dance of
swirling energy which turns into increasingly complex
iterations of matter as it expands...into peaks of dazzling
beauty, then it grows old and collapses in on itself again.
Infinite universes birth into existence, they bloom and die
with me like flowers in the illusory appearance of time.

Love doesn't seek to dominate or control.  Real love loves
everything just as it is, however it shows up.  They are all
parts of the swirling ongoing explosions of this universe.
They're all little curlicues in the movement of energy.
No part of the cosmic dance is rejected.
Every part is embraced.

Caitlin Johnstone

~

...you have been afraid to break down, I know.  You have
been carrying so much.  But do not fear the terrible ache of
existence.  You will be breathed through the abyss and carried
lovingly by nameless forces through the voided voids and out
again into the awe and shock and vastness of living.

Breathe,my love, breathe.  Do not fear the oblivion, it is the
only place where you will find your true freedom...

Jeff Foster

~

Photo from the Internet 

 

Saturday, November 19, 2022

The Basket - Robin Wall Kimmerer


The marvel of a basket is in its transformation, its journey
from wholeness as a living plant to fragmented strands
and back to wholeness again as a basket.  A basket knows
the dual powers of destruction and reaction that shape the
world.  Strands once separated are woven into a new whole.
The journey of a basket is also a journey of a people.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

from: Braiding Sweetgrass

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Dancing with "The Elephant in the Room"...


I dance with "the Elephant in the Room"...

It's not my elephant - and yet - I dance -
to the "hidden", and not so hidden, rhythm of addiction
of another who refuses to acknowledge and name it,
and whose consequences of the dance have come to
roost in the shadowy caverns of denied deficits of
brain and body; impacting the lives of those who
never wanted to be partners in this dance...

It's an exhausting dance really -
a game that's played with denial,
blind to the Elephants's presence,
not wanting to see the truth of one's
own unresolved pain and brokenness;
not wanting to face the reality of their
 life choices...

Like a Hungry Ghost - wandering through life
impulsively and compulsively dancing with the
Elephant, always wanting more
and wanting it NOW - immediate gratification -
never satisfied - requiring constant attention
to their neediness; as, in their mind, there is only
"me and my need."
A voracious hunger for attention and proof
of caring - to fill the void - the hole in the soul...

Poor Ghost...


Mystic Meandering
Nov. 15, 2022

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering



 

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

The Guest House - Rumi


This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Rumi



 

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Exploring Emotions - Kathleen Knipp


The goal is not to replace one's experience with another...
but accepting the entirety of life...  Be fully present for
what is here - instead of distracting ourselves...
Be intimately with yourself [using] somatic inquiry
into what's being felt and how it expresses itself as
sensation [in the body] getting a sense of what is
felt in the body.


You can also use inquiry to get a sense of what is
really Essential, what is really pulling you to what really
matters for you, using whatever we have as inner resource
or inner sanctuary...  What helps us to feel safe and feel what
is here.  Make the feeling sense as vivid as possible.


Our approach to meeting whatever is present is not aggressive,
but of receiving and welcoming.  What is seeking to be felt -
feel what presents itself.  What is the sensation you are drawn
to repeatedly?  Can you feel it without interpretation?


Let the emotion present itself and meet it.
What does it actually feel like?  Is there a part of the body
where this emotion expresses itself, or does it move around?
If there is no particular emotion present, be with what is here...

Slide behind the emotion, even dive inside, feel it from the
inside without conclusions, explanations, or stories.  Focus on
the sensation and be curious with wide open availability and
fully embodied...


Kathleen Knipp
Excerpts from a Yoga Nidra Meditation



 

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Thresholds - John O'Donohue


Like Spring secretly at work within the heart of Winter,
below the surface of our lives
huge changes are in fermentation.
We never suspect a thing.
Then when the grip of some
long-enduring winter mentality
begins to loosen,
we find ourselves
vulnerable
to
a
flourish
of
possibility

and we are suddenly negotiating
the challenges
of
a threshold...


At any time you can ask yourself:
At which threshold am I now standing?
At this time in my life, what am I leaving?
Where am I about to enter?


A threshold is not simply a boundary;
it is a frontier
that divides two different territories,
rhythms, and atmosphere.

Indeed, it is a lovely testimony
to the fullness and integrity
of an experience or a stage of life
that intensifies toward the end
into a real frontier
that cannot be crossed without
the heart being passionately
engaged
and
woken up.

At this threshold
a great complexity of emotion
comes alive:
confusion,
fear,
excitement,
sadness,
hope.

This is one of the reasons
such vital crossings
were always clothed in ritual.


It is wise in your own life
to be able to recognize and acknowledge
the key thresholds;
to take your time;
to feel all the varieties of presence
that accrue here;
to listen inward
with complete attention
until you hear
the inner voice
calling you
forward:

The time has come
to cross.


John O'Donohue
Excerpts from: To Bless the Space Between Us
(I put the excerpts into prose poem format)

~

...I find myself navigating the challenges of a major
threshold - an unexpected visitor has arrived, creating
an unexpected threshold and transition in life -
from a fairly quiet, slower paced, contemplative lifestyle,
now thrown into the role of a caregiver for a sibling, who
requires my constant attention - while the TV runs all
day long; background noise to a life thrown into chaos

I am having to find my own little quiet sanctuary both within
myself and in the house; as my house is no longer
my "sanctuary."

My life is cluttered with noise - full of distractions and
interruptions that muddle the mind with the over-stimulation.

And I wonder, why I must cross this particular threshold at this
time in my life - my elder years.  And how do I navigate and
negotiate the challenges that are being presented and still
maintain a sense of sanity...

It has been a difficult threshold for sure: exhausted and
stressed most of the time - unable to keep up the pace;
needing to remember to "step back", to disengage from the
emotions that are rising up, and bring my attention to the
Essence of my own Being; not allowing the stress and
anxiety to engulf me - and the new way I am living -
which is so foreign to my own rhythm with life,
and with my soul...


I know many of you out there have been "caregivers" for
a family member.  I would be interested in hearing your experience
 and how you were able to transition into a new way of living
without losing yourself - your own rhythms with life...

You can email me at:
mysticmeandering@gmail.com

_/\_


~

Photo - Mystic Meandering




 

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Peaceful Window...


I am surrounded by Beauty -
the Beauty of nature - just outside my window.
So peaceful, so quiet...  I marvel in wonderment;
in contrast with the chaos inside the window...

I breathe in the Beauty through my eyes - and relax -
knowing that ultimately everything is at peace
within itself - including myself - within and without -
and breathe a sigh of relief -

as the Beauty of Grace shows up once again...


Mystic Meandering
Nov. 3, 2022

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Saturday, November 5, 2022

Grace Comes...


Grace comes unbidden...
Her soft Presence comforts in the
coldest dawn and darkest night,
and sits with us when we are broken,
beaten down by the "life game"...

She is the antidote for an aching heart
and struggling body...

She hears your silent tears...
and walks with you...

Grace brings you love and kindness
to endure the crosswinds that bite...

Grace comes...
to bind the wounds from those
who tried to suffocate your voice,
who tried to kill your spirit...

She softens the heart
and clears the pain from your vision...

She is always with us,
even in the death of the body.
She is "the beautiful woman sitting on
the fence," come to take you "home."
or to your next "journey" - wherever
that may be...

She is singing your homing call...

There is nothing to do but surrender
and let Grace sing her song of Love
to your weary heart...

Listen...


Mystic Meandering
April 8, 2021

~

The reference to"the beautiful woman on the fence"
is something my mother experienced during her
dying process 3 1/2+ years ago...
Hospice said she was hallucinating, but we knew
she was "seeing."
She saw a beautiful woman sitting on the fence out her window,
at the top of a small incline.  On many occasions she said:
"the beautiful woman on the fence
has come to take me on my next journey."


Grace Comes...

~

Photo - blurred section of a painting
by Rod MacIver
 

Thursday, November 3, 2022

The Dance - Oriah


 

“Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be…someday. Show me you can risk being completely at peace, truly okay with the way things are right now in this moment, and again in the next and the next and the next… Here is the question: Are you willing to be completely at peace with how things are right now in your life? Are you willing for just one moment to let go of all your dissatisfaction, of all your suffering about how things are? Are you willing to let go of all the worry and tension in your body and simply breathe? I think of happiness as the delight I have when I am aware of being completely at peace and fully present with myself and the world just the way it is in this moment. It is a lack of suffering plus a self-reflectivity that makes the peace I am feeling a conscious state of awareness. I am not simply at peace, I am aware that I am at peace—happy. So, are you willing to be happy?”

“If I want to live my ability to be fully present and compassionate, my ability to be with it all—the joy and the sorrow—I must find the ways, the people, the places, the practices that support me in being all I truly am. I must cultivate ways of being that let me feel the warmth of encouragement against my heart when it is weary.”

“What if the task is simply to unfold, to become who you already are in your essential nature—gentle, compassionate, and capable of living fully and passionately present? How would this affect how you feel when you wake up in the morning?”


Excerpts from - 
The Dance: Moving to the Deep Rhythms of Your Life
Oriah Mountain Dreamer