Simplici-Tea

Even though the dictionary lists easy as a synonym of simple, in my experience,

when it comes to living simply,

that has generally not been easy.

Yet at times I find I have that lurking belief that simplifying should be an easy process.

Now, cultivating simplicity....

that is a labor of love.

Still not easy,
but a more enjoyable approach
and purpose-oriented direction I am much more in tune with.

to cultivate:

to improve and prepare; to loosen or dig soil around...

to promote the growth of....

to nurture....

to form and refine...

to seek the acquaintance or goodwill of; make friends with...

...simply empowering ourselves to loosen or dig the soil around beliefs, in order to make room for improvements!

What do you think... Does one aspire to live simply, or is that an oxymoron?

here and now

In my previous rock wall post when I wrote about asking myself 'how did I get here', there truly was an element of wonder. Learning to climb that wall was something I did in the scope of my job/where I currently spend forty hours a week. I find myself working in a setting where sometimes I feel so far out of my element, yet other times I feel completely at home in this place where some of the harsh realities of our society are seen and dealt with.

I appreciate the lessons available when the lines between
work and play,
work and healing,
witnessing and speaking,
being and doing,
learning and leading,
are blurred...

Through her world of writing poetry, I was invited into the world of a teenager who experiences much emotional pain. It was at once an honor, humbling, eye-opening, sad, and hopeful. A powerful glimpse.

A woman next to me in a group spoke in one breath about the joys of growing up on a farm, and in the next breath with the same matter-of-fact tone about how there are only 4 siblings left out of the 6 now; 2 suicides.

As I stood in the doorway as instructed, observing an interaction on one of my first days, I was glad when the child assertively spoke to his boundaries being invaded, because he exposed my feeling of awkwardness that I was there without him knowing who I was or why I was there. When things are not right in our environment, it is the healthy response to speak to it. In an instant, he showed me that he was much less conditioned to hold back in this way than I was.

I became frazzled and distracted by the teenage girls who wouldn't stop talking when I was trying to facilitate the group. After my activity was done I found I was just going through the motions for a while because I was lost in the distraction/downward spiral of similar old feelings this stirred up. Eckhart Tolle refers to this as being stuck in a pain-body. They are just about us and are not based in the present reality.

"It's your world, kiddo, I'm just livin' in it."

My practice is to keep coming back to the wisdom of the way of the horse...
when a situation/stressor is past, they let go of what just happened and 'go back to grazing' so as to save their strength and energy for when they really need it, for survival. Letting go of the emotion and hanging onto the lesson.


So begins another week. I bring with me the reminder that though life is much larger than what we are currently experiencing, it's good to be experiencing it, warts and all.

"Since all things are naked, clear
and free from obscurations, there
is nothing to attain or realise.
The everyday practice is simply to
develop a complete acceptance and
openness to all situations and emotions.
And to all people ~ experiencing
everything totally without reservations
and blockages so that one never
withdraws or centralises onto oneself."
~ excerpted from a Maha Ati text translated by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

And so it is!

the wall of...

I climbed a rock wall like this one

a first
something on my to try someday list
it was not a high or difficult wall
by any climbers standards
but gave me enough of a challenge
and heightened perspective
so that as I was up there I had to pause
and ask myself
how did I get here?
each self-defeating
and self-supporting
thought that arose in the
process of strategizing and stretching
trusting and letting go
reaching higher and resting
knowing when it was enough
for me
for now

the greatest insights
came after
when I was more connected to my true self
upon reflection
getting out of my own way so to speak
embracing this physical challenge
was a fitting reminder
another glimpse
into how healing
time out of mind
is.

2009, etc...

This past year has been filled with powerful learnings around

Trust, Detachment, Inner Peace...

Joy, Curiosity, Listening, Awareness...

Communication, Observation, Acceptance, Action...

For it all, Blessed and Grateful am I.

~        ~        ~

if you're not having fun, why do it.

life is hard. once you accept that, it ceases to be so.

(m. scott peck)

you don't do yoga to get a better body.

you do yoga to learn to love the body you have.

(eddie, yoga soup)

try to marry inner peace with creating a soulful world.

(joan chittister)

~        ~        ~

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough

To hear in the distance the laughter of God.

(from A Blessing For Equilibrium, by John O’Donohue)

~        ~        ~

A few reminders about friendship from a wise,

spirit-filled young woman I know...

be the friend you'd want them to be.

it’s better to be disliked or made fun of for who you really are than

to be loved for who you aren’t.

your friends encourage you to be a better person, not cause you to be a worse one.

~        ~        ~

I want my life to be one of love, not rage

Kindness, not contempt

Joy, not suffering

I want to be alive and present in this moment,

not lost in thought and delusion.

- Zen poem

~        ~        ~

Happy Merry!

The charming boys I am blessed to spend this Christmas with ...

Written on Christmas Eve, 1513

I salute you.  I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. 

There is nothing I can give you which you have not.  But there is much,

very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.  No heaven can

come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.  Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow.  Behind it, yet within

our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. 

And to see, we have only to look.  I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver.  But we, judging its gifts by their covering,

cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard.  Remove the covering, and you

will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you.

Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there.

The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.  Your joys, too,

be not content with them as joys.  They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering,

that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.  Courage then to claim it; that is all!

But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together,

wending through unknown country home.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings,
but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and
forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.

~ Fra Giovanni ~

topaz ~ wisdom courage serenity

 

What the Day Gives

 

Suddenly, sun. Over my shoulder
in the middle of gray November
what I hoped to do comes back,
asking.

 

Across the street the fiery trees
hold onto their leaves,
red and gold in the final months
of this unfinished year,
they offer blazing riddles.

 

In the frozen fields of my life
there are no shortcuts to spring, 
but stories of great birds in migration
carrying small ones on their backs,
predators flying next to warblers
they would, in a different season, eat.

 

Stunned by the astonishing mix in this uneasy world
that plunges in a single day from despair
to hope and back again, I commend my life
to Ruskin's difficult duty of delight,
and to that most beautiful form of courage,
to be happy.

 

~ Jeanne Lohmann ~

 

(The Light of Invisible Bodies)

 

Nice

My mom's name is Eunice.

I always thought it was a nice name,

and that it fit her, because she is, well, quite a nice person.

Plus she's a Minnesotan, and you know what they say about them...

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Recently someone who doesn't know anyone else in my family except me,

made a comment about my 'you-ness'.

I thought that was such a sweet thing to say and it kept rolling around in my head.

Then it hit me for the first time in my 37 years I've known my mother...

my Eu-nice!

It has been an enlightening journey discovering, honoring, and claiming

the parts of me that have the essence of her in them too.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Another friend speaks of all of what we receive from our birth parents as

fertile soil from which to grow.

I believe that to be true

whatever our current, past, or future relationship may be with them,

and that it's much larger than what the relationship is/was in the physical.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Oh what joy is to be found in simply witnessing our collective you-ness!

Instrumental

By chance, during a poetry festival recently, I had an enlightening chat about communication with an acquaintance's husband, who just happens to also administer the Myers-Briggs personality test.

INFP! I said,

and he proceeded to share this story of an exchange between he (also an INFP)

and his wife (not so much of an INFP)... 

"The path from your brain to your mouth," she said to him after a particularly frustrating communication process, "is like a french horn. Except sometimes something coherent comes out the other end, and sometimes it doesn't!"

... to which he replied:

"And your path from your brain to your mouth is like a well-greased trombone slide!"

With this welcomed lighthearted, insightful new way of see-ing each other,

they both laughed at themselves and haven't taken communication so seriously since.

With that in mind, did you know that 90% of communication is

non-verbal?

 Understanding my self, yet not attaching to who I am as a personality only,

so that I can stretch and grow outside of my perceived container(s),

as well as understand, inter-act, and respond with other beings,

rather than react to them,

this knowledge of my inherent nature is helpful information

in order to access the courage to joyfully practice my part in the musical of life.

In the same vein as music, the ocean as a metaphor for navigating life moves me deeply as well.

One of my favorite quotes from Sogyal Rinpoche:

"A wave in the sea, seen in one way, seems to have a distinct identity, an end and a beginning, a birth and a death. Seen in another way, the wave itself doesn't really exist but is just the behavior of water, 'empty' of any separate identity but 'full' of water. So when you really think about the wave, you come to realize that it is something that has been made temporarily possible by wind and water, and is dependent on a set of constantly changing circumstances. You also realize that every wave is related to every other wave."

~ ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

What instrument(s) do you practice playing?

If you're interested in your own exploration of the Jung-inspired Myers-Briggs test:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Also a good book I have read, which includes the test, is

'Please Understand Me II' by David Keirsey