April 2010
(excerpts from an e-mail to my mailing list)
Spring is here and change is afoot!
Oh, how I used to love it when Sherlock Holmes would
turn to Watson and say, "The game is afoot!" If only we could all
harness that wide-eyed sense of adventure in the face of Mystery, we might be
enjoying the navigation of these trying times with a bit more joviality. I am
as guilty as the next person of getting caught up in fear and anxiety in the
face of change. Big time. But with my life story at least half way behind me, I
have learned that it is best to consciously circumnavigate the temptations that
clutch at me during such times rather than to give into them.
Negativity, despair, lashing out, I've done them all. With aplomb.
I did discover, however, that they are all short-term fixes. They tend to dig
you in deeper, get you into bigger trouble, or... if you're lucky, they just
get really boring really fast.
Don't get me wrong. We all need to go through our fair share of
emotional experiences and learn in our own time and our own way. I just know I
need to steer clear of those landscapes because I am already familiar with that
terrain in a way no one body should be ever be privy.
Anyway... how we respond to disappointment is a testament to our
courage, our character and ultimately how we build what we call faith. I've
come to believe that faith -- that actually supports us in a time of crisis --
is not what has been spoonfed to us, or read to us or preached at us, but something
much, much simpler. It's what rises from within us after we have believed
something with all of our hearts -- and then had that belief shaken and beaten
to a pulp. After the disillusion, comes faith.
After...
For me, faith is a journey. It is what rises organically out of
that complete and utter not believing in anything place. It is at once
completely uncomplicated and yet totally complex. It is that thing that I can't
put my finger on -- but gives me... enough. Enough to get out of bed. Enough to
do my work. Enough to keep on loving. And most importantly, enough to laugh in
the face of adversity. If you know me, even in my darkest hour, there will be
at least one good sentence that comes out of my mouth that you have to laugh
it. If, for no other reason, because the thought that it reflects or the vision
that it conjures is so comically absurd.
And for me, faith has a lot of breath in it. It's always a step
or breath in front of me. I can't keep up with it. Thank goodness. If I could
really know it, I would dissect it -- and probably spit it out.
And the funny thing about faith is, you really don't have to
believe in it. It's a paradox, for sure.
But, where was I? Oh yes... Change.
Many of us are facing changes at the individual level that are terrifying.
If we are not going through something ourselves, chances are a family member,
neighbor or friend is. Collectively, as a nation and a globe, everything is
always in flux -- but, I don't know if it's just me, it just sounds so much
LOUDER lately. Maybe it's just me. Or maybe it's the sheer volume of the number
of people on the planet. Or maybe it's because we're running out of room and
resources. But it's definitely one of those times that call to mind Thomas
Paine's words, "These are the times that try men's souls."
So, here we are tiptoeing into April. (And call me aged as I
picture Tiny Tim on Laugh In singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips.) I'm looking
forward to Springtime -- even if everything does seem to jump out at me all at
once. Sometimes April feels too bright for me. While everyone begins to carouse
in the warming temperatures and bright sunshine, I shade my sensitive eyes and
start covering my Irish blue complexion from the burning rays of the sun.
Sometimes, I'm still seeing in black and white -- like when I'm looking at
freshly bloomed daffodils. I know they're golden and dripping with dewy color
on an elven green backdrop, but my senses have difficulty adjusting to rapid
change. I trust my mind to take delicate snapshots of the wonder I know is
right in front of my eyes but that my brain cannot fully take in, so I can
visit the colors and sensations later, when I'm a little less shell-shocked by
the exuberance of newly returning and determined Spring.
And I will take that as my reminder to take snapshots of what we
are experiencing during this interesting time in history. So I can take all of
it out and look at it later -- without having the feeling that I missed it
because I wasn't paying attention or I was overfocused on something else.
Change is inevitable. Why not make the most of it?
January 5, 2010
(an excerpt from an e-mail to my mailing list)
Is it just me or is there a remarkable palpability in the air this January that makes one want to simply curl up and dream?
For many, this time of year marks a time to be resolute. With the New Year - and in this year, the New Decade, there is much hype about forward motion. I don't know if it's my contrarian nature or if, instead, I'm riding a cosmic wave, but in the face of all this fervor, I feel unusually dreamy, snoozy and well... downright dozy.
I find myself in the start of this year acutely aware of the inundation of commercials (read "making money schemes") from all arenas targeted at weight loss, exercise regimes and new beginnings that beset this time of year. I've never been one to subscribe to New Year's resolutions so, I ponder...
What is it in us that drives this marketing machine? Marketing machines are only successful when they fulfill a need within us. Yes, sometimes the needs are falsely manufactured... like that TV ad that came out in 2004 for a pill that was advertised for people who felt like they needed a vacation. Those ads didn't last long so you might have missed them. It is no wonder they disappeared like the wind. If you need a vacation, no pill in the world is going to fix that. Spiritual exhaustion is spiritual exhaustion. But, there are the other ads in all forms of media that pop up at this time of year. These ads recur year to year for weight loss, gyms and body awareness.
There has to be something in these advertising campaigns that addresses a need housed within us - or they wouldn't be back to haunt us each year.
Do we set New Year's resolutions to come to grips with ourselves after letting go of the reins of self-discipline after staring in the face of temptation during holiday parties, dinners and traditions? Or do we set these resolutions to recover from the trampling that our emotions take during the holidays when the triggers of family, relationship and society demands have had their way with us? Or are we just feeling the stirrings of vanity and responding by getting our bodies back in shape for swimwear season?
Perhaps we are responding to a little bit of each of these things. Or perhaps it has nothing to do with any of these things at all. Maybe it's just a good time to make a fresh start as we turn the page on the calendar - and need to write a different year on all our documents. Yes, indeed. How long will it take to break the habit of writing '09? I don't know about you, but getting myself to write or type '10 instead of '09 at the beginning of the year will take some actual force for me.
Maybe it's that raw energy that we are harnessing and tapping into with our New Year's resolutions - the energy of lassoing Time as we create a human understanding of it - that sets us to this annual ritual of making promises to ourselves.
But... alas. Even within all this intellectual exercise, I find myself just wanting to go with the Winter season. The colder temperatures drive me deeper indoors. The longer nights make me crave sleep and the richness of my dream realm. I want to nap, nap, nap.
Dreams are really important to me. Through them, I learn. With them, I process. In them, I live beyond time and space. Because of them, I love.
* reflective sigh * Yes. I just want to hibernate while the getting is good.
Right now, Mercury and Mars are both Retrograde and this could be contributing to my overwhelming desire to slumber. Mercury, the ruler of communication and travel, is Retrograde until January 15th. This influence asks us to be still with ourselves and commune with our inner knowingness. Mars, the planet of action and aggression, is Retrograde until March. With Mars in retreat, we can disengage from our battles and tempers. There is a certain safety in knowing that Mars is taking a holiday. That doesn't mean our inner frustrations aren't flaring. It just means that our outer battles have less weight at this time. So, why not drop our armor, our shields and our weapons for awhile just to see what happens when we aren't so busy defending ourselves - so we can really get a glimpse of our true selves?
As I face my own dreamy haze in this inward reflection, I say, carpe diem. For those of you too young to know Latin or to remember "Dead Poet's Society", that means seize the day. And who says seizing can't be napping? We are as alive in our dreams as we are in our waking.
All behavior is purposeful - and dreams have purpose - as long as we remember to wake from our dreaming and make the most of what we carry back into our waking.
And with this statement, I prepare for grand napping between teaching, meditations and readings during this Winter season.
I suspect I have a lot more to say, but can't think of it right now, so I'll get back to my dreaming about dreaming and prepare to fall into my next, rich dream-filled sleep. Who knows? Maybe I'll see you "out there"...
Night night.
September 1, 2009
(excerpts from an e-mail to my mailing list)
aaahhh... September... back-to-school, Summer's over and Fall Equinox. * sigh * The turn of the seasons...
To me, September has always been about new beginnings. January 1 never really did it for me. January 1 always felt, so, well... arbitrary. But, September... It was always September in my book. New friends, fresh faces, time to get down to business. I suppose it is just conditioning from childhood, but I suspect I will never outgrow that September feeling that change is afoot.
Every September, a brand new start...
It is hustle-bustle time. Yes, indeed. You can see it in the way the cars are driving down the street.
But this year, I invite you to join me in a change of pace. In focusing on the subtle changes that September brings. Not the big back-to-school, end-of-the-tourist season, football playing, falling temperature changes, but the gentler ones that ask us to look more deeply at our world and into ourselves. The lengthening shadows, the mellow golden quality of afternoon sunlight, the amber glow of windows just after sunset, migratory birds preparing for or in departure, dew on the grass, the changing night sky.
The things that ask us to taste and touch and see and feel our world. The things we might otherwise forget in our haste to pay the bills, get the laundry done, keep our bosses happy or beat that red light.
There is so much beauty in every single day that goes unnoticed. If we are not here to witness these things, how can we possibly share them? We are the keepers of the dreams. We may be the only keepers of the dreams. And because of this, we need to dream. And dream often and dream big. And we need to hold these dreams dear. And we need to share them.
And then we need to open our eyes to what surrounds us. How else will we ever know whether our dreams have actually come true?
This morning, the first day of September 2009, I watched the sun peek over the horizon. It was hours between that moment of sunrise and the sound of the the first bird call atop our hill. And only seconds passed before the second bird answered. I sit now within the silence between bird calls waiting to hear the secret language they share. Slowly, all the other birds awaken with their own songs. Each with their own distinctive voice. I wonder... do they understand each other across species? Or are their vocabularies singular?
There is so much to consider. All in one early morning dawn from in front of a computer screen in an upstairs bedroom.
The sun now blazes a higher path through the bluing sky. It promises to be a nice morning. If not for this mailing, I would have missed this sunrise. Missed this greeting of the day.
Thank you for giving me this morning. If not for you, I would have been sleeping through it.
May September bring you happy new beginnings full of the cacophony of back to school adventures and football cheers and jeers, but also the overwhelming splendor of the wildness of nature along with the heartwarming softening wrinkles in the faces of loved ones you might otherwise take for granted.
Let us notice all the details this September so we may share them in abundance at Thanksgiving.