Start, Stop, Continue

My friend and neighbor, Christie Hardwick has recently released a book.  THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT. About how we move forward in this difficult time in our country and the world.  She basically asks the reader three questions;  What do you need to START doing?  What do you need to STOP doing?  What do you need to CONTINUE doing?

The challenge she poses to the reader is to assess in what ways you personally are contributing to the difficulties in the world.  It is easy to blame politicians, big money, big Pharma, the Republicans, the Democrats and on and on.  Her question is how to look within and challenge the ways that you personally hold some responsibility for contributing to or supporting what is happening in this world that you don’t like.

I find this empowering —- to look at the small ways that I might make changes that would help me to feel I was living the life I want to be living in the world I want to be living in.  So my responses to her questions are;

What do I want to STOP doing;  I want to get out of the echo chambers where we all moan about “Ain’t it awful”.  I just want to stop participating in those conversations.  I want to try to stop spending my money in places and businesses who have ethics that I don’t agree with.  For instance, I want to scale back my dependence on Amazon.  I want to quit buying coffee at Starbucks.  I want to look at where my money is invested and stop (to the degree that I can) investing in corporations who are exploiting their workers, the worlds resources etc.  I want to stop being hopeless. —- and there is much more - but those are some big ones to begin with!

What do I want to START doing?  The big one is I want to consume less.  I want to know more about and get more engaged in my local neighborhood and political scene.  I want to check my many assumptions about what is right and good and preferable.  I want to be more curious than judgmental about what others think

I want to continue caring about others, staying peaceful, finding joy.

I hope her questions are meaningfu to you too.

Carry Something Beautiful

The writer Blaise Pascal wrote. “In difficult times, carry something beautiful in your heart.”  What good advice.  Without denying that troubles abound, ugliness proliferates, injustice reigns,   still there is beauty, always.  It may seem simplistic to just “put on a happy face”.  And, I’m not so much suggesting that as to remember that happiness exists alongside discouragement.  Alongside fear, anger, uncertainty, looming elections… still there are snap peas, tiny lettuces and red radishes appearing at the farmer’s market.  The sun still casts a gorgeous pink over everything before it sets and this week-end we will have a blue moon (the rare second full moon in a calendar month).  It matters to remember and to look for the beautiful in these days.  To not notice or appreciate the simple things risks embroiling ourselves into political knots that choke us.  Find 10 things right now that are beautiful — just from where you are sitting.  It’s a spiritual practice — to notice the beauty and the ugly — and not to cling to either — simply notice.  There is a way to balance out our personal world.  Is there one tiny way you can add a speck of beauty to this day?

WHY I SMILE AT STRANGERS

~by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

And so today, I walk the streets

With vermillion maple leaves inside me,

And the deep purple of late-blooming Larkspur

And the living praise of meadowlark.

I carry with me thin creeks with clear water

And the three-quarters moon

And the spice-warm scent of nasturtiums.

And honey in the sunlight.

And words from Neruda

And slow melodies by Erik Satie.

It is easy sometimes to believe

That everything is wrong.

That people are cruel and the world

Destroyed and the end of it all

Imminent.  But there is yet goodness

Beyond imagining — the creamy

White flea of ripe pears

And the velvety purr of a cat in my lap

And the write smear of milky way—

I carry these things in my heart,

More certain than ever that one way

To counteract evil is to ceaselessly honor what’s good

And share it, share it until

We break the choke hold of fear

And at least for a few linked moments,

We believe completely in beauty,

Growing beauty, yes, beauty.

Awake in the Wild

Tom and I are currently taking a meditation class called “Awake in the Wild” led by

Mark Coleman at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.  It is a method I had not tried before and am finding it quite joyful.  Instead of meditating on a cushion with your eyes closed and focusing on your breath, you sit outdoors with your eyes open and focus on your five senses.  You notice your natural surroundings.  What do you see?  What do you hear?  What scents to do you detect?  What textures do you experience?  What taste is in your mouth?  There is nothing to DO, only to pay attention to what you are experiencing in the moment – just like all other meditation practices.  Being outdoors is a constant teacher about impermanence.  In each moment things change … squirrels dart about, birds sing, the wind blows and stops, a flower blooms that won’t be there next week.  Not all of nature is pleasant of course – sometimes it’s too hot, too cold, sometimes the garbage truck arrives with its noisy horn.  Still, you observe yourself making these judgements – I like the birdsong, I don’t like the squawking geese.  I like the forget-me-knots, but not the dandelions.  Oh, we humans are funny.  I myself can’t wait for summer and then it’s too hot.  I can’t wait for fall and then it’s too dark.  We can sit back and notice all these likes and dislikes…. and then we come back to noticing what is right in front of us.  An ant making its way to a tiny hole,  a blade of grass that is brilliant green…a breeze with the scent of pine.

This practice can be done anywhere – in your back yard or on your tiny balcony.  In a park, by a pond.  We are having fun finding different places to do our daily outdoor meditation.  I recommend it.  There are guided meditations on line you can use, but it’s pretty easy to do on your own too!  And, now is a good season to begin!

KNOWING THE EARTH

To know the earth on a first-name bases

   You must know the meaning of river stones first.

Find a place that calls to you and there

   Lie face down in the grass until you feel

Each plant alive with the mystery of beginnings.

   Move in a circle until you discover an insect

   Crawling with knowledge in its heart.

Examine a newborn leaf and find a map of a universe

   So vast that only eagles understand.

Observe the journey of an ant and imitate its path

   Of persistence in a world of bigger things.

Borrow a cloud and drift high above the earth,

   Looking down at the smallness of your life.

The journey begins on a path made of your old mistakes.

   The journey continues when you call the earth by name.

                                    ~Nancy Woods