Tag: choice

This Path to Our Awakening.

Sometimes our awakening happens slowly, like the softened hues overtaking a twilight sky. Though often, there is a catalyst – a triggering of events so powerful that it momentarily knocks us to the ground.   In both cases, however, the path is shared – each effecting a shifting of heart, hope and light. Our lives are in perpetual motion, with balance achieved through the choices made.

“Every spiritual tradition has stories of those who have awakened from their usual dreamlike state to a sacred way of being,” Jack Kornfield writes. “Through initiation, purification, or prayer, or by a great spacious surrender to the dance of life, they come to know that which is ever-present and holy.” They come to know the energy of living.

And just as we know the sun will always rise, so too do we recognize the presence of its potential – the potential which may ultimately serve to transform, to change, to forever alter. Even though we may feel, at times, that we are standing still – stuck in a rut of our own design – trust that we are in constant motion, limited only by our willingness to receive.

My friends, today I wish you the blessing of openness  and peace. May it share its light within each bright and beautiful step…

In peace…

Namaste ❣

This Blessing of Choosing.

Dealing with powerful emotions can be challenging – particularly when worried over their outcome or appearance. We want to do the right thing, always. Though, to what benefit? Are we reacting to the source of our pain, hoping to reduce or eliminate. Or, are we opening our heart to understand their context and meaning?

We often restrict our choice to the immediate benefit – that which may eliminate versus what which may encourage. Though, ultimately our choices are limitless – we may choose to act on visceral, ‘larger than life’s emotions. Or, we may choose to stay the course hopeful that the end may soon define the means – with nothing left out, and no one to blame.

Author Jack Kornfield writes, that the essence of the teachings is to return to a freedom of heart that is impervious to external circumstances…to turn away from the distraction and into awareness. “When we realize that the source of disharmony and misery is ignorance and blindness,” he shares, “we open the door of wisdom and compassion.”

In the end, we can either be bound by our choices or we can choose to be enriched.

In peace, my sweet friends…

Namaste ❣

The Breaking of Old to Become Anew.

I knew a woman once who seemed constantly angry. Her heart was in the right place, I’m sure – wanting desperately to create harmony and balance in her world. However, as the energy cycled, it would draw her more deeply into the abyss – evidence of it’s unmistakable attraction.

“I just don’t know what to do,” she said reaching for her tea. Hot plumes of steam rose unceremoniously into the air – yet still, she drank…scalding the delicate tissues of her lips and tongue. Cursing her ‘misfortune’, she threw the mug to floor – shattering it into a pile of empty pieces.

I thought of the five remembrances: “My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.” How could she not see the impact of her own behavior? She wanted to meet people, find joy and hopefully someday settle down. And yet, she continued to work double overtime on night shifts, causing her to sleep most of the next day. She wanted so much more, though time and time again – refused to make room.

In his book, Five Invitations: What Death Can Teach About Living, Frank Ostaseski encourages us to find a place of rest amidst the clamor of distraction. “We often think of rest as something that will come to us when everything else in our lives is complete: At the end of the day, when we take a bath; once we go on holiday or get through all our to-do lists. We imagine that we can only find rest by changing our circumstances.”

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Pure joy comes to us in the space between breaths, when distractions of life are momentarily lifted. In that brief instance, we are able to separate ourselves from the lure of our condition. In assuming it cannot last, we do nothing to actively encourage its presence

What choices do you make each day? More importantly, which choices do you tend to push away? Is it a matter of convenience or worth?

In some cases, we push away what we feel is not ours to have. Though, more often, we accept the consequences of old habits because we don’t understand how to break them. As a result, we become resigned to them –  convinced that there is no other way.

But, the truth is, every moment is an invitation – a reminder to step outside the confines of our shell to experience this life fully on our terms. We experience what we choose to engage- both good and bad. Likewise, through its reflection we find the path to lasting peace.

A little something to consider, my friends…

With much love…namaste ❣

The Benefit of Our Humanity.

In the stress of our daily lives, we often forget our perspective; that need to understand this moment just as it is – with a context deserving of its essence.

What we feel and desire, though relatively important, are but a smaller part of a far more extensive ‘whole’. As we contemplate the rhetoric of world news feeds, we must take measures to protect the inherent vulnerability maintained within its depths – the will of all people and our preservation of humanity.

This simple practice enables us to engage the very heart of our spiritual teaching; to share, in service, without precondition. We do not seek to impress, rather we offer ourselves fully to whatever might happen next.

We don’t attack, and we certainly can’t predict. What we can do is share our presence and experience, to offer a pause in the space of reaction.

While ‘we can’t fix the world’, we can define our interaction with it – to protect and to respond to the very essence of all human need.

In peace…

Namaste ❤️

As We May Once Again Be.

Our life is not simply a condition of our circumstances, but rather a result of the emotions we choose to greet it.

Whether upset and fear felt in the face of challenge, or the unassuming joy felt when finally achieved; we find our way through thought-filled contemplations. The mind, at times, moving faster than the gentle pacings of heart might allow.

We find a sense of security behind these maskings of emotions; a courage within the caveats of story. Though, the ease we find is not without burden. For in the rapidly changing scape of this journey, we lose a sense of fidelity between that which is ‘real’ and ‘imagined’.

Just as the day may bring about a welcomed rain following a devastating drought; so, too, follow the nature of our own emotions.

In the end, it is not so much what we experienced in our life rather how we lived within it.

In peace, my sweet friends ~

Namaste ❤️

Given the Choice.

Each day we are gifted a glorious opportunity – to grow, to stretch; to move past the rigidity of our own spiritual bonds, to manifest our light into the soundless night.

And, in doing so perhaps recover what mind has termed as ‘hopeless endeavor’.

As children, our innocence roams freely in the company of trust – our hearts only too eager to invoke the privilege.

Through miles and miles of thickened brush, we found our way; in those days, a path such as this served only to encourage. The world shares its wonders to the unjaded eye.

Yet as we age, this choice transforms. It molds, it shifts – branching off into the many myriads of expectation and belief. We cling, we grip – not to ‘reality’, rather what we intuit.

And, blaming circumstance – we curse our folly; desperate to return to a simpler time.

Though what, if any, has truly changed? Is it this earth, or is it our ‘frame’?

The open window yields only a portion of sun, yet we know its loving rays are shared equally to all.

In peace, my loves…and Happy Father’s Day to all!

Namaste ❤

What We Think, We Grow.

I remember once as a little girl following my brother into the woods. I wanted to be part of whatever it was he was doing – to travel deeper into the thickets and brush, to follow the creek wherever it led.

Looking back, I was simply curious – though, to him, I was an insatiable pest. Nonetheless, my mother would issue her warning, “take good care of your sister…”

Those words were the ‘plague’ of his being.

One day, in an attempt to finally secure his freedom – he grabbed a tool from my father’s workbench. Then dropping it to the ground, smashing it to bits – he looked me straight into the eyes and said, “If you ever follow me again, I’ll tell Dad you broke his stapler!”

Even though I knew it to be false, there was nothing I could do to prove my innocence.

For years, I lived with the fear of my father ‘finding out’ – until I moved away, and it didn’t matter quite so much.

Initially, I was angry with my brother for exploiting a trust that once came so easily. Though, he merely planted a seed – a single thought; the rest was up to me.

Instead of confronting the absurdity of his claims, I let it grow and grow and grow… Until the fear became so great that the mere mention would drive me to tears.

But our fears are only as great as we allow them to be. Yet, knowing this, still – we allow its continuance.

Why?

Because the story is more enticing than the reality of its passage.

In our story, we can transition the unknown into something more readily identifiable. Labels such as ‘failure’ and ‘victim’ – though terribly conflicting, still have an air of familiarity. And that familiarity can often feel ‘safer’ than our churning.

Likewise, perhaps the attachment represents our need to force closure; a means to alleviate the angst of our burden?

Though in the end, it’s up to us to determine – what is it that we hope to grow?

Focus your mind, love – you are ‘here’, the time is ‘now’ and that’s the best place to be.

In peace…

Namaste ❤

The Gate to Freedom.

I wish I could remember who it was that said, “It is possible to experience a true and endless freedom, though – we must first understand what freedom is.”

Ask anyone their interpretation of freedom, and the answers will be vast in their variance. Each reflecting in our own way, that which often evades explanation.

Just as the radiance of light breaking through the trees, we see ourselves in soft patterns of shadows against the pavements edge. Defining for us the magnitude of this simple joy – a deepening of gratitude through clarity of vision.

For some, freedom represents the song within our heart; a harmony which balances all that surrounds. While to others, freedom cautions a more pragmatic view; securing only that which fulfills a need.

Either way, we know it when it’s lost; feeling its absence through the starker contrasts of pain.

And though, at times, we may feel despair; the resonance of faith is always there.

Reaffirming that which we’ve long known to be true; the gates of freedom are always within you.

In peace…

Namaste ❤️

The Practice of Fear.

I remember once many years ago being lost alone in the woods. I had ventured too far into spaces, unexplored – the depth of which might prove my undoing.

As the sun yielded warmth to the approaching cascade of night, I became suddenly aware – the fear of being ‘alone’ was far too great. I raced through with all my might; running was the only thing I knew to do.

At 8 years old, our instincts are still primal, and emotions flood, largely unimpeded. Is this the grace of youth? That we haven’t yet developed that voice of inner critic?

Had it happened in my 20’s, I would have cursed my ill-preparedness. In my 30’s, perhaps fate working against. And, in my 40’s I may have blamed this weakness of body failing to meet the rigors of day.

Fear takes on many aspects of story. Time and experience are no casual warrior – and, in the end we must face that which is unresolved;

Being, just as we once were and knew before.

We’re born whole, but along the way – something gets hidden. And we are challenged to walk this path on our own. Or, at least what we perceive to be ‘alone’.

But our separateness is, at best, illusion; a presumption of physicality in an ever-changing universe. In the same breath, that which threatens to destroy may prove a catalyst to adventure. In that moment, our unraveling reveals.

And the only question; ‘do we travel forward, or do we concede?’

Which will it be?

In peace…

Namaste ❤️

“They Were Men, Just Like Us.”

I’d asked my uncle once to share his experiences from the war.

“The only thing you need to know,” he said. “Is that they were men, just like us.”

He’d served as guard during the Trials of Nuremberg; at just twenty years old, he’d learned more of despair than men twice his age. And yet, he never lost his faith. Rather, he used that which he witnessed to strengthen the fabric of community.

I think often of his words, particularly in moments when those around may feel the magnitude of their own fear. I wonder how he must have felt

Nietzsche wrote that fear was the mother of morality; feeding the roots of both the very best and worst equally.

I often think about this young man standing face to face with those accused of those most horrendous of crimes. And, in spite of his own nearly insurmountable pain he was able to recognize…

“They were men, just like us.”

What defines the course, my loves – between tolerance and hate? The faded path that leads the way to a shared and loving understanding?

At heart, we are the same; presented circumstances which serve either to detach or draw together. And, we alone, have the capacity to choose between right and wrong.

“No one can construct for you the bridge,” he wrote. “upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life.”

As we look out into this world today, I pray that we may build the bridge upon which all of humanity might stand.

In peace, my loves…

Namaste ❤️