Winter Den Time

Today I’m grateful for short days, long nights, freezing snow and ice…

The harsh weather of winter calls me home to the warmth of good food and loving family and friends. Winter blows in and I know it’s time to slow down, snuggle up and relax in the safety of my home den, surrounded by my pack. Thank you winter for encouraging me to pause for a little while.

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”
~Lewis Carroll

January 14, 2013April 11, 2022

Maybe Good, Maybe Bad

We Live in a World of Duality

Form / Formless

Life / Death

Light / Dark

Physical / Ethereal

Earth / Heaven

Moon / Sun

Female / Male

Shakti / Shiva

Love / Hate

Sorrow / Joy

Yin / Yang

☯

The energy of our Universe flows and dances constantly between tangible form and formless energy. We are part of an intricate weaving of light and dark, form and formless, growth and decay. Duality is woven into the very fabric of our Universe. And duality is a natural part of the miraculous dance of Spirit within earth, air, fire and water.

How do I keep my balance within this ever shifting duality?

Pain and problems arise when I turn duality into polarity – when I attach an emotional charge to a person or event. For example, I might label something bad and reject it… or decide someone else is wrong and I am right… or push an experience away as bad and unwanted… or desperately crave something I don’t have. Pain and disconnect are inevitable when I polarize my experiences.

Judging and labeling EVERY single experience as good or bad
only makes me crazy and miserable!

What if I stop judging and labeling every aspect of Life as good or bad, right or wrong? What if I stop living in a state of charged polarity? What if I choose to actually live by the wisdom of the Tao?

“If good happens, good; if bad happens, good. ”
~Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

☯

One of my favorite parables about good and bad:

A farmer had only one stallion. One day, the horse jumped a fence and ran away. All the neighbors came by saying, “Oh no! Such bad luck! You must be so upset.” The man just said, “Maybe good, maybe bad – too soon to tell.”

A few days later, his stallion came back and brought twenty wild mares with him. The man and his son corraled all the horses. All the neighbors came by saying, “Wow! This is such good news. You must be so happy!” The man just said, “Maybe good, maybe bad – too soon to tell.”

A few weeks later, one of the wild horses kicked the man’s only son, and broke the boy’s leg in 3 places. All the neighbors came by saying, “I’m so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset.” The man just said, “Maybe good, maybe bad – too soon to tell.”

The country went to war, and every able-bodied young man was drafted to fight. The war was terrible and killed many young men from the region, but the farmer’s son was spared; his broken leg prevented him from fighting. All the neighbors came by saying, “You are so lucky! Your son didn’t have to go fight” The man just said, “Maybe good, maybe bad – too soon to tell.”

~Author Unknown

☯

What if I stop judging myself and all my experiences? What if I meet EVERY experience with the energy of, “Maybe good, maybe bad – too soon to tell”?

God already has everything under control, no matter how it looks in this moment. Maybe I should just open up and embrace the natural and inevitable duality of this world.

Can I stop judging and polarizing everything that happens to me? What if I allow my world to just be however it is today? To allow is not polarized; to allow is a loose, easy state where I am open to possibilities. When I relax and allow my life to unfold, peace fills me. And balance follows.

——

Al·low v.
al·lowed, al·low·ing, al·lows

1. To let do or happen; permit

2. To permit the presence of

3. To permit to have

4. To make provision for; assign

5. To plan for in case of need

6. To grant as a discount or in exchange

7. Chiefly Southern & Midland U.S.

a. To admit; concede

b. To think; suppose

c. To assert; declare

(from http://www.thefreedictionary.com)

January 8, 2013April 12, 2022

Conscious Tidbits – Natural Wonder

“It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth
and in the contemplation of her beauties, to know of wonder and humility.”
~Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson is one of my personal heroes. She published a thoughtful little book called Silent Spring in 1962. Her book exposed the dangers of environmental pollution and galvanized the early environmental movement in the United States.

I honor Rachel today.

Here’s to people who hold onto their knowing. Here’s to people who realize that we owe our lives to this beautiful Earth mother that nurtures and supports us. And here’s to people who change the world by standing up for what they love.

January 7, 2013April 12, 2022

Today I’m Grateful for… January Blue

“You are the sky.
Everything else – it’s just the weather.”
~Pema Chodron

Today is another January Blue kind of day…Anything is possible when the Sky is this blue!

But, why is the sky so blue?? Why not red or purple or green? Am I the only one who wonders about this? Apparently not. 🙂 NASA scientists share the scientific reason for our brilliant blue sky below:

“It is easy to see that the sky is blue. Have you ever wondered why? A lot of other smart people have, too. And it took a long time to figure it out!

The light from the Sun looks white. But it is really made up of all the colors of the rainbow. Like energy passing through the ocean, light energy travels in waves, too. Some light travels in short, “choppy” waves. Other light travels in long, lazy waves.Blue light waves are shorter than red light waves.

All light travels in a straight line unless something gets in the way to reflect it (like a mirror, bend it (like a prism, or scatter it (like molecules of the gases in the atmosphere

Sunlight reaches Earth’s atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the air. Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth’s atmosphere. Blue is scattered more than other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.”

(from http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/)

So, that’s the logical reason. Pretty cool.

But I also love this 14th century Persian mystic’s “crazy”, illogical thoughts about our blue sky:

“Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,

“You owe me.”

Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.”

~Hafiz

Hope you’re having a January Blue sky kind of day too. And if you woke up to face a gray sky – inside or outside – what would it take to shift and choose January Blue instead? Just go for it.

December 29, 2012April 12, 2022

Advice to Myself – Meander

Rivers hardly ever run in a straight line.
Rivers are willing to take ten thousand meanders
and enjoy every one
and grow from every one.
When they leave a meander,
they are always more
than when they entered it.
When rivers meet an obstacle,
they do not try to run over it.
They merely go around
but they always get to the other side.
Rivers accept things as they are,
conform to the shape they find the world in,
yet nothing changes things more than rivers.
Rivers move even mountains into the sea.
Rivers hardly ever are in a hurry
yet is there anything more likely
to reach the point it sets out for
than a river?
by
James Dillet Freeman

Me·an·der v.
1. To follow a winding and turning course: Streams tend to meander through level land.
2. To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction: vagabonds meandering through life. See Synonym wander.
—————————
[From Latin maeander, circuitous windings, from Greek maiandros, after Maiandros, the Maeander River in Phrygia, noted for its windings.] From http://www.thefreedictionary.com

∭

We call upon the waters that rim the earth, horizon to horizon,
that flow in our rivers and streams, that fall upon our gardens and fields,
and we ask that they teach us and show us the way.
~Chinook Blessing

December 13, 2012April 12, 2022

Spacious Sky, Spacious Mind

“…it’s the opening

that’s the point. It is that lightheartedness, that bigness,
that spacious mind and love that can hold the suffering and accommodate it
and integrate it and understand it.”
~Susan Salzberg

✧

Advice to myself today – be Spacious, my friend.

as Spacious as the sky…

✧

December 13, 2012April 12, 2022

Mountain Gratitude

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
~John Muir, 1901

I am so grateful to live here, bathed in the energy of mountain! Two years ago, after decades living in the flatlands of the Midwest, I jumped at the chance to move to the Rocky Mountains. And my life has opened up to vast new vistas and amazing new ideas since then. It is the vast and expansive energy of the mountains playing in me and with me.

I am so grateful.

☾ ☽