“I want to stand by the river in my finest dress. I want to sing, strong and hard, and stomp my feet with a hundred others so that the waters hum with our happiness. I want to dance for the renewal of the world.”
The teaching of 2020 has closed its last chapter, a year of learning and of letting go. Letting go of plans, expectations, attachments, jobs, in person visits…
But too, a letting go of busyness, of being over-scheduled, of consuming and shopping, of scrolling, and of not being able to say no…
And That Allowed Room for:
Reflection
Deep Sleep
Writing
Contemplating
Time by the Fire
Meditation
Walks in Nature
Long Zoom Chats Across Many Miles
Old Fashioned Letters and Cards
Chats by Text
Photography
Baths with Sumptuous Salts
Communing with Little Bear
A Long Book List to Savor
Healthy Cooking
Growing Herbs
Awareness
Ingesting Positive Media
Editing Photos
Shedding Excess Everything
Finding Value in the Simple
Learning About Trees
Time Spent in Silence with Craig (and in meaningful conversations)
Working Toward Optimal Well Being
And that evolved into:
A Deepening of Being
and
of
Peace
Happy New Year to All!
“She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.
She let go of fear. She let go of judgments.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.
She let go of the committee of indecision within her.
She let go of all the “right” reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go….She didn’t search the scriptures.
She just let go.
She let go of all the memories that held her back.
She let go of all the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of all the planning and all the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her day-timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.
She just let go.
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the prayer line.
She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.
No one was around when it happened.
There was no applause or congratulations
No one thanked her or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.
Like a leaf falling from a tree, she let go.
There was no effort. There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good, and it wasn’t bad.
In the space of letting go, she let it be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her.
And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.
Here’s to giving ourselves the gift of letting go….
“…In the century-some since, scientists have begun uncovering what poets have always known — that spirit is woven of sinew and mind of marrow. The body is the place, the only place, where we live — it is where we experience time, it is where we heal from emotional trauma, it is the seat of consciousness, without which there is nothing. And yet we spend our lives turning away from this elemental fact — with distraction, with addiction, with the trance of busyness — until suddenly something beyond our control — a diagnosis, a heartbreak, a pandemic — staggers us awake. We remember the body, this sole and solitary arena of being. The instant we remember to reverence it we also remember to mourn it, for we remember that this living miracle is a temporary miracle — a borrowed constellation of atoms bound to return to the stardust that made it.”
And we always in all ways start anew. In each breath, each moment, in our choices to be present and to be kind, we create the world. Last night felt like New Year’s Eve and this morning like a new dawn – but each day is that – has the potential for that – regardless the angst outside ourselves. This I learn again and again…
“A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to a voice saying to us: ‘I have a gift for you and can’t wait for you to see it! Imagine!”
-Henri J.M. Nouwen
“There is in us an instinct for newness, for renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to awaken in ourselves a force which really changes our lives from within. And yet the same instinct tells us that this change is a recovery of that which is deepest, most original, most personal in ourselves. To be born again is not to become somebody else, but to become ourselves.”
-Thomas Merton
Both quotes were found in the first chapter of the Artist’s Rule by Christine Valters Painter, a Benedictine oblate and artist. This book provides a twelve week journey of contemplation and creative expression that I’m just embarking on. It is a deep dive. This book is on our Sapphire Girl’s book list if you’re interested – seems a good journey to delve into just now with new beginnings inherent and the quiet of winter about to unfold to express them in.
“When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.
… all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
-John Lennon
“Love is the total absence of fear. Love asks no questions. Its natural state is one of the extension and expansion, not comparison and measurement.”
“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few
