This one evokes rivers down the face… so. healing. so. inspiring.
Opposites Revealed
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel
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Identity Pitfalls
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The Bee Mistress
Found this lovely spin via Stray Letters from the Moon…
I
do not
believe in
God because I’ve
never seen him. If he
wanted me to believe in him,
then surely he would come and speak
with me. He would come in through my door
saying, ‘Here I am!’ But if God is the hive and
the honeybee, and pollen and nectar and sun and moon,
then I believe in her and I believe in her at every moment, and my
life is a prayer and a celebration and a communion with the eyes
and through the ears. I honor her by living spontaneously,
as a woman who opens her eyes and truly sees, and
I call her the hive and the honeybee and pollen
and sun and moon, and I love her
without thinking of her, and
I think of her by seeing
and hearing, and
I am with her,
I.
The Bee Mistress – Simon Buxton’s The Shamanic Way of the Bee
Thanks Pierre…
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Bird in the Storm…
“There is no escape… You say yes to the sunlight and pure fantasies, so you have to say yes to the filth and the nausea. Everything is within you, gold and mud, happiness and pain, the laughter of childhood and the apprehension of death. Say yes to everything, shrink nothing. Don’t try to lie to yourself. You are not a solid citizen… You are a bird in the storm. Let it storm! Let it drive you!” Hermann Hesse
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The Meaning of Life…
Worth the less than 5 minute time investment to hear…
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Bounty Hunt
We live in a world filled with seeming contradictions of purpose, of love, of artistry. And if we don’t experience enough of the stuff of victory, of affection, of vision-brewing-love, we adopt a stance of defensiveness, braced against loss.
(Can anyone tread water while bracing body against loss in liquid yum?
Or won’t we sink like the stone we become?
Lungs filling up with this overwhelm of something meant to nourish,
killing all the love-air.)
In a world like this one, we must develop the practice of bounty-hunting, the best kind…the kind of bounty overflowing stories of love in spite of loss, hope in the face of challenge, meaning beyond accolades and set rewards for fleeting achievements. And the only bounty on our heads a priceless opportunity for creative legacies of soul with no criminal bag and tag roundy round in the prison system created by fear.
(Here we float, breathing in life, not braced but poised with a graceful acceptance.
Water flowing all around, air filling lungs, heart singing earth songs…
sun shining across faces surrendered to the flow life and love can be.)
I’ve started a collection of true stories, good news and soulful happenings for my kids to read. It’s how we augment the news that bombards us whether we like it or not. It’s how I keep my two sons afloat in middle school purgatory. And my eldest reminded of her power. There is love pouring out daily, into fields of receptivity and hope, beyond our little home, beyond our own experiences, inspiring new expressions of love-in-action.
And adding to the collection of inspiring truth is this gem from Rebelle Society, an online community of writing creativity and soufulness supreme, who I’m excited will be including my own heartflow soon…
“Every sound in every syllable of the name the universe calls itself is love. It is radiating out of the blackness of space, it is what keeps the star at the heart of the earth burning, and it is the only damn thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. Trees are love. Skyscrapers, desert mesas, corn growing alongside the road: love. Also, the moon, a baby’s hand, chocolate, rain boots, and the keyboard I am using to write this. A thousand blessings are raining down on you all the time.” Sarah Twichell, from a rich Rebelle Society post for today.
We get to choose our focus even when the uglies sometimes race a freak streak through our lives. We don’t have to be in denial about those tragedies that scream need for change. We don’t have to turn completely away from issues we want to be involved in, fighting for love’s best. But we can both/and our dance through this slice of life. We have the power to turn our eyes towards those things most empowering, lifting us into the truth of love’s relentless transformation right at our fingertips, and the responsibility we can embrace through an inspired work of presence.
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Love Thy Neighbor…
Even if they trap cats for the pound to take and “euthanize” if unclaimed…
Even if they have made sure two of your cats get trapped…
Even if you go with your daughter the first time and she bawls in the middle of a holding room with cages labeled “M” and “T” and “W” and “TH” and so forth since they murder these cats after 72 hours, the cages full of cats looking confused and scared…
Even if thy said neighbors go to church every Sunday AND trap cats
AND have access to one of the best commandments ever…
Love. Thy. Neighbor. (as thyself)
I suppose they don’t love themselves too darn much. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy… wait. Love thyself first, ok? Give us ALL a break.
Pardon my King James dumbness. I was raised on it and I can’t manage to quote scripture without thees and thous and thys and oh my…
2013 has begun with some wonderful holiday memories carrying me into the challenge of loving my neighbor. I have to say, I’m not feelin’ the love. Not one “thy” has therefore ousted my angst. But underneath that angst is this awareness of their right to their um, desire, to um, facilitate the killing of cats.
I’ve felt angry enough to qualify as murderously enraged. I guess this makes me no better than my neighbors.
I’ve had fantasies of creating a catapult for hurling the cat litter (for my one terminally stupid housebound adorable black cat) scoopings across the street and into their yard, onto their roof, slamming against their windows, landing on their cars.
I’ve conjured scenarios of sending anonymous postcards with the words “Bite Me” on the front and a black frazzled looking cat glaring at them with the one message on the back: “Meow.”
I’ve imagined painting cat paw prints down their driveway.
And so many other scenarios silly. The one that I may actually act on is one of buying them a huge gift bag full of cat repellent and old pots and pans (with instructions on how to bang together to scare cats out of their yard) as well as a whistle (for the purpose of scaring cats away). I’ll probably include a book on the symbolism of cats. What else? How cats represent the feminine and how those who hate cats. Ok, maybe not that one. Any ideas on what else to put in the bag? Let me know in comments!
Did I mention I’m not feeling the love?
Bite me.
(I don’t know why the image above is sideways. It didn’t show as such in my picture manager, but a lopsided perspective is fitting.)
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Spirit
Synchronicity speaks deeply, quietly, relentlessly of Spirit, of the every “allplace” Spirit resides perpetually. And I love how just this week my kids kept us all up past midnight talking about Spirit. The quote below visited my Facebook newsfeed from Rob Brezsny as I sat exhausted after the toll of that worthwhile, lengthy dialogue with my children. Love the clarity…
Ken Wilber says:
“If Spirit has any meaning, it must be omnipresent, or all-pervading and all-encompassing. There can’t be a place where Spirit is not, or it wouldn’t be infinite. Therefore, Spirit has to be completely present, right here, right now, in your own awareness. That is, your own present awareness, precisely as it is, without changing it or altering it in any way, is perfectly and completely permeated by Spirit.
“Furthermore, it is not that Spirit is present but you need to be enlightened in order to see it. It is not that you are one with Spirit but just don’t know it yet. Because that would also imply that there is some place Spirit is not. No, according to Dzogchen, you are always already one with Spirit, and that awareness is always already fully present, right now. You are looking directly at Spirit, with Spirit, in every act of awareness. There is nowhere Spirit is not.”Further, if Spirit has any meaning at all, then it must be eternal, or without beginning or end. If Spirit had a beginning in time, then it would be strictly temporal, it would not be timeless and eternal. And this means, as regards your own awareness, that you cannot become enlightened. You cannot attain enlightenment. If you could attain enlightenment, then that state would have a beginning in time, and so it would not be true enlightenment.”Rather, Spirit, and enlightenment, has to be something that you are fully aware of right now. Something you are already looking at right now. We are all already looking directly at Spirit, we just don’t recognize it. We have all the necessary cognition, but not the recognition.”The above is by Ken Wilber from his book “Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber”
It is one of my deepest longings to instill in my seeking children an openness to Spirit, to the love that is always everywhere and within, a stewing, humming, perpetual and literal vibe of great pleasure, comfort, nourishment and grace. The radical kind. We’re blazing this trail within and in our lives and it takes courage not to have “the answer.” Because of that, it’s wonderful to find expression from another source, expression of confidence, of assurance of what is inherently experienced here. It imparts renewed courage to share with confidence of what we experience, each one, in our own spiritual awareness.
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Going Deeper…
Brené Brown’s exploration of vulnerability leads her to explore shame’s potent influence in our lives. It’s timely for me as a mom noticing how each one of my children has unique sensitivity triggers in experiencing shame. And how different we all are along these lines. This TEDx talk is worth the time investment for the rich focus on gender-specific shame triggers. It’s a huge affirmation for those of us parents who are refusing the gender-oppressing societal influences in our facilitation of our children into whole personhood. Huge thanks to the Globally Hip Bill Sinunu for drawing my attention to this wonderful talk from Brené Brown.
J. Ruth Kelly 