Inner Rhythms - a meandering...

I've been rediscovering my "Inner Rhythms" again through my
funky "art"; the Inner Rhythm of Being, of the Soul, that
John O'Donohue talks about here, and how that wants to 
move in and through me. 

I receive postings from Nature Artist and Writer, Rod MacIver
from his website, Heron Dance.  He has spent a lot of time
in nature, paddling in a canoe, getting in touch with his
Inner Rhythm.  He reflects on the larger context of
"inner rhythms."

"A balanced life is based on its own rhythm.  If you don't set
your own rhythm, and have the discipline to follow it, your
life will move at the speed of the culture around [you], which
moves too fast.  The space we make for quiet time affects our
thought patterns and, in turn, the quality of our lives."  And,
he asks: "To what extent is the rhythm of your life a result of...
adapting...to the flow that surrounds [you]."  Or, I even say,
to the people around you.  Have we entrained to the people
around us so much that we end up living their rhythm?  
I know I have...

I felt  resonance with his words, knowing that I need to find
that sense of the deeper Inner Rhythm again, not just my
own personal daily rhythm with life, getting through the day,
but the Flow with the Inner Rhythm of Being; the undercurrent
of the Flow of Life within - from which all movement arises;
creating color and movement on paper helps me do that...

It calls me into the Silence of my own Being,
and the pulsating Rhythm of Life.
At peace again...

Mystic Meandering

~

Funky Art 
Rhythm

2024

 

Life is a Stream - a meandering...

While lying in bed late one night, many years ago,
talking to my husband about "life events", groping
for perspective, recognizing how I continue to live
from habituated patterns, reacting to life events,
swimming up stream, trying to keep my head above
water, feeling drowned by the stream of life (which
I still do, especially all this past year), 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, or experiences, always
in flux, 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 Flow, and we are in that Flow as well.
It was helpful to begin to see a way to navigate my
way of going down stream...

In essence, he told me, what it is about is meeting life
as it comes by plugging in to the Cosmic Flow of the
Universe, of Life - meeting the "events"/experiences of
life through seeing the Cosmic Flow of all things,
and through all things; flowing with life as it happens,
not getting focused on the obstacles/events, or seeing the
events as obstacles. He said by seeing that everything is this
Cosmic 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 Flow.

B knows nothing of Taoism, but he intuitively "tapped in"
to "The Tao" - The Flow....

~

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

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Golden Silence...

The Deep Silence calls to her
in the waking moments;
the "remedy" for all that
disturbs, contracts and constricts,
that blinds her from the Way...

It whispers to her:

Loosen the robes of religion you have worn -
that bound you.
Untie the shoes of "spirituality" -
that don't fit now.
Lay down all the "apparel" - the outer garments -
that have burdened you.

Dare to be naked...

Laying in the early morning silence,
she brings her tattered self to the deeper
dimension of the Golden Silence within;
careful not to get lost in the shadowy caverns
of the unconscious mind along the way...

In the space of Deep Silence she hears:

Just be still and wait...
Trust the Flow of Life
Wait for the pieces to fall together.
Observe the metamorphosis
that is taking place inside you
through
your internal "wranglings"
and your unbearable struggles;
like a butterfly trying to break through
its hard chrysalis - wanting to be free...

Be patient - do not resist what is...

It will all be okay - is okay...

Cross the threshold of your troubled mind
and step into the still waters of the Golden Silence within,
your Primordial Home...

Rest here...

Unscathed...

Mystic Meandering
May 31, 2021

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

 

The Elusive Present Moment - St. Augustine & Ostaseski

"Now" is neither in time nor out of time.
The elusive present moment is measured by the tick-tock time
of a clock, which we humans have invented, nor is it separate
from past or future.  There is no time line, at least not as we
conventionally think about it.

St. Augustine (paraphrased)
from - The Five Invitations

~

Hope....is not a wish to be fulfilled, or a plan to be formulated
and executed, but in how we meet the ever-changing moment.

The present moment could best be described as the flow of life.
We are continually being shaped by it and we are shaping it
through the way we meet and respond to it...

Frank Ostaseski
The Five Invitations

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Spiritual Anarchy - Shiv Sengupta

Anarchy and chaos seem to go together like peanut butter and
jelly,  like macaroni and cheese, or Thelma and Louise.  The
two seem inseparable in our minds because we have no idea
what this word "anarchy" really means.  It conjures images of
rioting in the streets, burning cars, broken shop windows, 
rampant looting, bands of armed militia terrorizing innocent
civilians, bodies on the street, starvation... but that's just the
Hollywood version.

Anarchy is first and foremost about self-governance.  Yet, self-
governance is not something most people are capable of.  Most
need to be led, guided, instructed, advised, rewarded and punished
for them to feel as if they are on the right path in their lives.  They
need this structure put in place for them so that they may feel a
sense of value, contribution, progress and meaning.  Without it
they feel lost - cast adrift upon a vast ocean of experience with
no real markers by which to chart their progress.

If you were to take a person like that and suddenly strip them
of the scaffolding that society has built around them, they would
most likely react by either going berserk or falling apart.  Most
people are simply not ready to have the dual training wheels of
meaning and identity taken off their bicycles.

They are better off doing as they are told.  They are better off
maintaining an illusion of freedom and choice.  They are better
off believing that their opinions and beliefs are proof of a uniquely
forged identity.  They are better off believing that the more they
protect and craft that identity the more secure they are going to be.
They are better off believing that the more people they can get
to agree with them, the more proof they will have of the rightness
of their perspectives.

Without others to provide them with a context for their experiences,
such people are totally lost.  Without someone to agree with and
someone to oppose, it is hard for them to know where they stand.

Those who have spent their lives living in castles in the sky will
have no idea what to do when they see that the sky is just a great
blue void that they are endlessly falling through.  They will simply
flail in desperation.  And flailing people certainly look chaotic.
But flailing is not anarchy.  It is just chaos.

When the Buddha spoke of enlightenment, he was speaking about
spiritual anarchy.  When L Krishnamurti talked about a "total 
revolution", he was talking about spiritual anarchy.

Anarchy is a process that begins with the stripping away of all
the narratives we have invented as a civilization - until there is
nothing left of a person but Spirit encased in flesh.  The experience
 of living is whittled down to the very core until we are brought
to the heart of it - the self in its rawest and most unadulterated form.
The book of life is torn apart - one page at a time, chapter by
chapter - history, race, religion, nationality, gender, spirituality,
ethnicity, politics - all the accumulated knowledge of the world
expunged.

We stand face to face with the universe just as we once did on
the day we were born.  We recognize that the essence we call a
"self" and the essence we call a "universe" are one and the same
even if their forms may differ.  Finally, we choose to take
responsibility for this essence in all its forms - including that of
our self.  This is spiritual anarchy.;

It is governance not just of a separate individual self.  It is
governance of the whole as our self.  Such governance doesn't
happen by force.  It is not an assertion of our own will upon the
universe, nor is it the submission or surrender of our will to the
universe.  It is a governance that happens by listening, adapting
and responding to the flow of life itself.  Then at times when this
flow aligns with that of society, we may appear to "conform."  And
when this flow appears to misalign with that of society, one may
appear to "oppose."  Yet, this aligning and opposing has nothing to
do with being "for or against."  The direction in which we move
has not been primarily set within a social context.

When I gaze up at a starry night sky, my eyes can see stars that
exist hundreds of light years away.  And if I close my eyes, I can
still feel the aftershocks of the Big Bang resonating within my body.
This moment encompasses all of space and time.  This whole
universe has been gifted to me as a canvas.  And I going to listen
to someone telling me what to draw on it?

Spiritual anarchy is the process by which the control of the social
self-construct is relinquished and restored to Spirit.  The only law
that applies henceforth is spiritual law.  Yet, this is not something

cast in stone like commandments on a tablet.

It is a truth that reveals and rewrites itself afresh moment after 
moment...

Shiv Sengupta

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo- Mystic Meandering

 

Divine Dissatisfaction - Martha Graham

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening
that is translated through you into [creative] action, and
because there is only one of you in all time, this expression
is unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through
any other medium and it will be lost.  The world will not
have it.  It is not your business to determine how good
it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other
expressions.  It is your business to keep the channel 
open.  You do not even have to believe in yourself, or
your "work."  You have to keep yourself open and aware
to the urges that motivate you.  There is a queer dis-
satisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching
and makes us more alive...
Keep the channel open...

Martha Graham
Dancer/Choreographer

~

Befriend this perennial dissatisfaction while continuing
to unlock the spiritual electricity of creative flow.

Julia Cameron

with thanks to Brain Pickings for quotes

~

Art - Mystic Meandering

 

Loss Teaches You Everything - Issa

I lost many things in Costa Rica: physical stuff, psychological
baggage, spirituality (the idea that there is someone who should
get enlightened), weight, conditioning, civilization (the idea that
there is a certain way to be civilized, a norm to live by), 
domestication (the idea you should own a house/property and
own many physical things in order to be secure), sentimentality
of romance (it's apparently part of the play to have this experience
yet it has lost its sentiments).

It's when all is lost that all is found.  
When the illusion of the one who is doing her best to be in control,
to do the 'right thing', is gone.  When she is apparently gone life just
 flows magically, completely empty (nothing can be held onto,
prevented to change) yet fulfilling every need and desire as there
are no particular demands from anyone.  Life fulfills life as water
endlessly keeps flowing from a well to the sea.

Issa from Costa Rica

via - Uradiance

Photo - from Love is a Place

 

Life is a Stream of Events...

While lying in bed late one night recently, talking to my
husband about "life events", groping for perspective,
recognizing how I continue to live from habituated
patterns, reacting to life events, 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...

In essence, he told me, what this is about is meeting life
as it comes by plugging in to the Cosmic Flow of the
Universe - meeting the "events" of life through seeing
the Cosmic Flow of all things, and through all things;
flowing with life as it happens, not getting focused on
the obstacles/events, or seeing the events as obstacles.
  He said by seeing that everything is the Cosmic 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 Flow.

B knows nothing of Taoism, but he intuitively "tapped in"
to "the Tao" - The Flow...

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

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Adyashanti on "Enlightenment"

Enlightenment is a destructive process.  It has nothing to do
with becoming better or being happier.  Enlightenment is the
crumbling away of untruth.  It's seeing through the facade
or pretense.  It's the complete eradication of everything we
imagined to be true.

~*~

All that is necessary to awaken to yourself as the radiant
emptiness of spirit is to stop seeking something more or better
or different, and turn your attention inward to the awake silence
that you are.

~*~

We realize - often quite suddenly - that our sense of self, which
has been formed and constructed out of our ideas, beliefs, and
images, is not really who we are.  It doesn't define us...

~*~

When you get out of the driver's seat, you find that life can drive
itself, that actually life has always been driving itself.  When you
get out of the driver's seat, it can flow in ways you never imagined.
Life becomes almost magical.  The illusion of the "me" is no longer
in the way.  Life begins to flow, and you never know where it will
take you.

~*~

One of my favorite definitions of enlightenment comes from a
Jesuit priest named Anthony de Mello...  Someone asked him to
define his experience of enlightenment.  He said, "Enlightenment
is absolute cooperation with the inevitable."   Enlightenment is when
everything within us is in cooperation with the flow of life itself,
 with the inevitable.

Adyashanti

Inner Rhythms

"A balanced life is based on its own rhythm.  If you don't set your
own rhythm, and have the discipline to follow it, your life will
move at the speed of the culture around [you], which moves too
fast.  The space we make for quiet time affects our thought patterns
and, in turn, the quality of our lives.  To what extent is the rhythm
of your life a result of.....adapting.....to the flow that surrounds you?"
Rod McIver - Artist

I feel a resonance with his words, knowing that I need to find that
sense of my own rhythm.  But I also want to find the deeper
 Rhythm of Life; not just my own personal daily rhythm with life, but
 the Flow of the Inner Being, also called the Tao, the undercurrent flow
of Life within - from which all movement arises.

The only way I know to do this is to turn within to The Silence within
where The Rhythm of the Inner Being is felt - the Rhythm of Silence.
Finding that deeper Inner Rhythm is, for me, the Rhythm of Pure
Being ItSelf - the deeper Rhythm that animates all life... 
 But the "externals" of life distract me and distort the felt sense
 of this Inner Rhythm.

The hypnosis of the world keeps me/us magnetized to the ways of the
world, and pulls me/us out of this deeper way of living and knowing.
We are conditioned to be drawn to the external drama of the world, to
chew on it, teethe on it...  I recently started using my husband's FB
account, just to see what it would be like...  I was hooked within a
couple of days.  It sucks you in, and displaces all other attention... I
have since tried to wean myself off of this "obsessive attention
disorder." It's the pablum of the matrix we live in. 
But no one trains us, when we're young, to turn within to the
 Quiet Inner Presence of Silence.
And so we follow the rhythm of the world, the civilized, political,
chaotic world, with its hypnosis of separation from our Inner Being,
instead of turning to that interior space of The Rhythm that pulsates
Its Aliveness within us, and does not depend on a
 name, label, or identity - or the world's rhythms... 
I'm still using training wheels...

Before your innocent Heart was hypnotized by the rhythms of the
world, what did you want deep in your Heart?  Not what you wanted
 to be when you grew up, but what did you really long for?  What
 called to you?  Do you remember?  Do you know now?

~

Photo - Bliss Lotus Mandala
digitally blurred

2013

~

Personal Note: I am aware that there are FB pages out there that are not part of the manipulative matrix of superficial social media - that offer substantive and inspiring writings.  For them I am grateful...

The Energy of Life - Naomi Stone

There is something wonderful
working in the world
and in the natural flow
of life...
an energy
that moves this existence
moment to moment...

Trying to name it or trying
to control it changes
the inner wisdom
and steals the wonder
of discovery...

Watch a child exploring
his world.
Touching...tasting...squealing
with delight starting
at the beginning

We are seldom taught
to trust it
because someone
wants to pay you to live
their ideas and answers...
or charge you for learning
them by luring you away,
away from the gift
of your own gloriously
divine heritage...

Suddenly...
you are entrapped...
doubting who you are
in a world where
everyone seems
to think they have the answers...

Live the awareness of the flow
and infinite portals
ever opening
around and within you...

Naomi Stone
Original title: "Spiraling Energies of Creation"

~

Art - Craypas oils
done with fingers
2012

Wonderment - Naomi Stone

When we truly arrive in that vast space
of who we are in purity of being
as we are created to be,

we are the living beauty of an expanding sanctuary,
we are life aware of itself
fluid
changing,
we are the flow of a shifting

transparency

of spirit

the bliss of an unseen kiss

felt in the

rising mist of existence
dissolving in the pure eternal joy
of this eternal moment
of
a thrilling transforming
ever changing
wonder...

Naomi Stone

~

Personal note: My own experience is that
"arriving" simply means we come to see/
recognize the Pure Beingness that we are.
We are, as Naomi says, "Life aware of itself."

~

Photo - Fat globules in a pan of water,
digitally altered :)

Who then is breathing? - Ilchi Lee

Observe your own body.  It breathes.
You breathe when you are asleep, when you are no longer
conscious of your own ideas of self-identity.
Who then is breathing?

The collection of information that you mistakenly think is you
is not the protagonist in this drama called the breath.  In fact,
you are not breathing; breath is naturally happening.

You can purposely end your own life, but you cannot
purposely keep your own life going.  The expression, 'my life'
is actually an oxymoron, a result of mistaken assumption...

You don't possess life; life expresses itself through you.
Your body is a flower that life let bloom,
a phenomenon created by Life.

Ilchi Lee

The Formless Happening - Darryl Bailey

All things are changing, flowing.  They're passing appearances
of a great unformed, and inexplicable happening - an event,
a presence - call it whatever you have to.

If we sit quietly, making no effort, life expresses itself clearly;
it simply happens on its own.  There'e nothing else to get.
The great truth is obvious.  The heart beats, the breath comes
and goes.  Vibrations, pulsations, twinges, feelings, thoughts,
and emotions rise and fall.  Urges rise and pass; some become
 actions, others do not; and so life flows.

Sitting quietly, making no effort, all is revealed; a vibrant,
pulsing, formless happening, simply happening.  There is no
goal in this, no final point; there is only what expresses itself
in this moment, and whatever it appears to be now is unavoidably
on its way to some other appearance.

There are many ways of pointing to this vibrant, formless happening.
Some have called it the Great Spirit.  Some call it the river of life,
or the ocean of existence.  Some call it the flow of nature.  It's been
compared to clouds and water, having no particular shape.  Some
say it's movement.  Some call it God, Tao, or Atman.  Some call it
Mind.  Some call it "original nature."  And some just call it the
universe, which literally means "undivided turning."

Daryl Bailey

Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu) - Heysinger

The way that can be over trod is not the Eternal Way.
The name that can be named is not the Everlasting Name,
which Nameless brought forth Heaven and Earth,
which named, if any may,
the Mother of all myriad things of time and space became.
Thereby we sound eternally the mystery divine,
but only without desire to sound,
for if desire abide,
the portals of the issuing host our baffled sight confine.
And deep within the eternal veil
the mystery shall hide.
These two, the Nameless and the Named,
they differ but in name.
For in their vast progression from
the deep they are the same.
The deep of deeps, from whose eternal
gate all spirit came.

Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu
Translation by I.W. Heysinger - 1903

Lao Tzu was a famous Chinese Philosopher
who founded Taoism.
Taoism is about living in harmony with
the flow of Life ItSelf, in tune with your True Nature...
 intuitively.

The Flow of Life - Matt Licata

We are always in the flow of life.

It is the idea that there is some "us" on one side
and something called "flow" in some other place,
that is a great trance that seems to be unique
to the human experience...

Usually when we talk of being
"in the flow,"
we mean that we like the feelings,
sensations, and experiences
which are arising in our experience.
If there are more
vulnerable, intense, groundless, unresolvible,
or unideal feelings,
then we this as clear evidence that we are
"out of the flow."

And so the war begins.
The dream of abandoning the non-flow
to return to the flow as quickly as possible.

Perhaps it is only in the willingness to fully participate
in our immediate experience, exactly as it is,
that the nature of the flow will be revealed.

It is not something you will get to one day,
as some sort of acquisition,"
when you line up all of the right experiences,
when you successfully abandon and replace
what is here for something else.

The flow is right here,
utterly inseparable from what you are,
and is revealed in your unconditional commitment
to the truth of your immediate experience.

When you are willing to bring your embodied curiosity,
openness, acceptance and presence
to whatever is arising in the immediacy of now,
the question of how to feel more flow ceases to arise.

In this embodied openness the path is everywhere,
even in those places we least expect.
What you are left with is what you are,
which is love itself.

Allow love to astonish you...
Allow it to craft you
as a vessel of aliveness,
in which it can pour out
into this world.
There is no flow separate from that.

Matt Licata

(Matt's words, my format)

Shimmer of Light...

We are the grace of Love fulfilled,
the shimmer of Sacred Light,
lustrous uniqueness in a field of
multitudinal  Divine Shimmers
- autonomous, yet in glittering Oneness.

We are the twinkle of liberated luminosity
radiating from the Heart of Love,
in the Sound Stream of Life,
continuously unfolding.

We are created, and create, from the glowing embers
of the mystical furnace of Love's Fire...

Receive the molten flow of golden translucence
that forms you in the fire of Divine Love.
Love infuses you in every micron of consciousness
- Golden Light turned fluid,
flowing incessantly from the Primordial Heart..

Light of Love.
Love of Love.

Love experiencing ItSelf as Love
in every breath,
in every beat of your heart...

Mystic Meandering
Dec. 2001

~*~

Photo - reflection of light on wall
from a doorknob!

The Unseen Current - Ivan Granger

We have this idea…..that the strong individual must aggressively forge his or her path through life; that it is a fight that only the strong will succeed, and unhappiness is a sign of weakness and inaction.  It is the idea that fulfillment comes through force of will. [But] if we are pushing for a life that is not ours, and feeling frustration because it is not happening, that is a sign that we are still serving the [personal will.].

Most of us imagine that we have to somehow *do* life.  [But] life itself is not something we do or make for ourselves.  It flows through us and is not of our making. The soul has a path that naturally unfolds as we move through life.  When we understand life this way, there is an immense sense of relief - and rest.  …..what is required is not…..willpower, not some total life revolution, but simply…..to feel the deep currents flowing through our lives, and then to fully live the life that naturally emerges....  In this way, we stop obstructing divine will with our endless frustrated efforts and, instead, we allow ourselves to become [an] expression of that heavenly flow that has always been eager to pour through us.  All we really need do is ride the great current flowing through us unseen...

Ivan Granger
Poetry Chaikhana

Inner Rhythms...

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything other than prose poetry.  But I’ve been thinking about “Inner Rhythms” lately; the Inner Rhythm of Being, and how that wants to move in and through me – and wanted to write about it.  I receive an on-line “newsletter” from a Nature Artist in northern Vermont by the name of Rod MacIver who has spent a lot of time alone in nature, getting in touch with his own life rhythm.  He reflects:

”A balanced life is based on its own rhythm.  If you don’t set your own rhythm, and have the discipline to follow it, your life will move at the speed of the culture around [you], which moves too fast.  The space we make for quiet time affects our thought patterns and, in turn, the quality of our lives.”  And, he asks: “To what extent is the rhythm of your life a result of…..adapting…..to the flow that surrounds [you].  Or I would even say, to the people around you. Have we entrained to the people around us – living their rhythm?  I  know I have…

I felt a resonance with his words, knowing that I needed to find that sense of the larger Inner Rhythm again, not just my own personal daily rhythm with life, but the Flow with the Inner Being, commonly called the Tao, the undercurrent flow of Life within – from which all movement arises.

The only way I know to do this is to turn within to The Silence where The Rhythm of the Inner Being is felt – the Rhythm of Silence ItSelf.  Being in The Sacred Silence is what brings me joy, and a felt sense of Presence.  Finding that Inner Rhythm, The Silence of Being, is “Divine Communion.”  This, for me, is the True Rhythm, the Rhythm of Pure Being ItSelf – the deep undercurrent of Life that animates all life – which is The Silence.  This is what calls to me – over and over again.

But the hypnosis of the world keeps me/us magnetized to the ways of the world and pulls me/us out of this deeper way of living and knowing.  We are conditioned to be drawn to the external drama of the world, to chew on it, teethe on it…  It’s the pablum of the matrix we live in.  But no one trains us to turn within to the Quiet Inner Presence of Silence.  And so we follow the rhythm of the world (the civilized, political, chaotic world), with its hypnosis of separation from our Inner Being, instead of turning  inward to the Awareness of the Inner Rhythm; to that interior space of The Rhythm of the “Great Mystery” that pulsates Its Aliveness within us, and does not depend on a name, label, or identity – or the world’s rhythms…   

I’m curious, before your innocent Heart was hypnotized by the rhythms of the world, what did you want deep in your Heart, not what you wanted to be when you grew up, but what did you really long for?  What called to you? Do you remember?  Do you know now?

Photo: Bliss Lotus Mandala
2013

Gearing Up to Gear Down...

My inner Spirit calls me to a quiet life, to long periods of Silence, wants hibernation and repose.  Evidently it doesn’t know that it is “Spring” on the calendar and I must “gear up.”  My “surface life” requires me to “gear up.”  And I am having trouble reconciling the two; being faithful to one and responsible to the other.  Sounds dualistic I know, but it is the way of things here, trying to find the balance and flow, the Yin and Yang of life – the harmony between doing and being…

There is “Spring” cleaning and repairs that have been long needed on the house – like roof and soffit repairs, requiring researching roofers on line, making phone calls, leaving messages for call backs that keep me tethered to the phone, and being available for on-sight estimates.  And then there’s yard work - repainting garden chairs and planter tubs.  I think a nice Red Salmon color, or Cinnamon, or Terra Cotta would be a nice change. J   And then weeding out winter’s waste – and pruning trees – and….. and….. and….

And yet, the chamomile is blooming already

 and the tarragon and catnip are rising, despite the fact that the tubs have not been painted.

 But there is no thyme growing this year – interesting play on words, don’t you think… J

The lovage replanted itself over here by the fence in the rocks.

But “Spring” is not the only reason we are “gearing up.”  We are “gearing up” because we want to “gear down” – to simplify our lives, to rid ourselves of the physical clutter that has accumulated over 35+ years of marriage and 17+ years of living in this house.   And so I have to start somewhere!  And this seems like the best place – in the basement - often likened to the sub-conscious where our inner clutter lies… J  This should be fun…

There is a neighborhood garage sale mid-May where we will try to sell a lot of this “clutter” stuff, which means cleaning out the garage.  Then we will start an e-bay store to try to sell the more “valuable” clutter. J  In the mean time it means several rounds of decluttering - deciding what to throw out, what to give away, what goes to garage sale, and what goes to ebay. It’s a daunting task – at least from my current perspective.  When I *think* about it all I start to feel overwhelmed.  So much for meeting life events as they come – they are coming too fast, and I am feeling a little out of control. J  So as you may have gathered I am resisting.  Like writing this blog post instead of digging into the rubble of my life J 

I discovered that the mind loves the “busyness,” finds it soothing, because it has a focus, “to do” lists, going from one thing to the next on the list, which doesn’t leave much time for meditative Silence and time for just Being – which I need a lot of.  I’ve not had a quiet day yet this week – and I can feel a case of the crankies coming on. J  But I took some time perusing what needs to be done in the back “garden” today, snapping photos, and felt the Presence of Silence in the solitude there.  I’m thinking this is where I’ll start – scraping planter tubs and chairs, and weeding out the detritus…  Very therapeutic… J

Part of the reason I want to gear down is to have more time for living what truly matters, not burdened with house and chores, which means letting go of the clutter that tends to take up the time - and dam the Life Flow... This requires listening to a deeper Flow - the deeper internal, intuitive Flow of Inner Being that runs through me, and through life; paying attention to the Spirit of Life within – to what *feels* right and what doesn’t; getting the priorities straight – waiting for the “yes” – putting the Inner Flow first.  Letting myself sink into those Silent depths within for only a few minutes a day reminds me of the deeper Flow that remains undisturbed by the chaos of life events, the Flow that actually carries me through the day…

~

“We are all innately aware that
 a deeper truth exists within us
than our day-to-day existence
and mundane concerns…
We must live life from
this more encompassing
state of Being -
and understand our
divine nature -
giving us
a means
to
enliven
a
truer identification
with
 the
 stunning
 beauty
 of our
    Being.”

Dennis Holtje