Archive for May, 2010
The One True World
Though it’s all one world,
when we close our eyes to the outer life,
we open our eyes to the inner life,
and we are made to blink
so we can live in the one true world.
Centering Clay
Dig something you think
might last from the earth
and wedge the air from it.
Then clean the wheel, the
one which spins on its side,
the one which goes nowhere.
Slap the clay on the wheel
and sit forward with your
legs firmly planted. Brace
your forearms against your
thighs. And wet your hands.
Let the wheel spin. Keep
your hands steady against
the clay which wants to
leave the wheel. Though
it feels like the wheel is
shaping you, try not to
think of anything. Like a
quiet worker shaping forms
for God to bring to life in
the fire, hold the clay, like
the sum of your time on
earth, in the center for
as long as you can.
Ode to Shadow
In The Deeper Chance, a poem about his dog Mira, Mark Nepo writes:
Now, I understand: God made the animals
as raw breathing elements, each closer
in their way to one aspect of being.
And that the friction of time on earth
might have its chance to make us wise,
God made the animals speechless.
Yesterday my partner and I took our dog to the vet to be put to sleep. I thought about that phrasing—putting her to sleep—as we tried to soothe her in her final moments. We whispered to her what a good girl she’d been. My partner held her body and I held her sweet little face.
Shadow has only been in my life for three years, a part of my partner’s for twelve. I realize that I took her for granted. She was old, a lot to manage, with so many ailments. But Shadow made our home complete. Her presence was unwavering, her noises in the night comforting, her persistent ways somehow part of a routine I didn’t even realize I’d developed and come to love.
It’s a felt absence you feel when an animal is no longer there. They are raw, breathing elements, and what we have to learn from them is perhaps most poignant after they’re gone.
Evelation
One of the outcomes of the Soul’s Dream journey is an energy upgrade that I refer to as evelation. Evelation happens when the revelations of our awareness quicken and synthesize together for the purpose evolving our consciousness and in doing so elevates the consciousness on the planet. It’s akin to an athlete being in the “zone.” There’s a flow and an elation that occurs when we feel in this kind of sync. Just as an athlete in the zone can lift their team to new heights of skill and excellence, we can impact our world with evelation. Yesterday I wasn’t feeling as “evelationary” as I did the day before and I wondered what had happened. When I thought about it, I realized that my Con Artist had made a rule that a state of evelation can only happen when I’m “up” and giving.
In embracing the energy of “low simmer” yesterday, and having the courage to stay there, I opened my curiosity to the passion of others and was inspired by so many magical moments. I was reminded that being in a state of evelation can simply be about being and receiving. Much to the Con Artist’s chagrin, it’s not a heightened or egoic state of high performance. It’s more about understanding how the ebb and flow of our energy nourishes a greater constellation of energy. I had forgotten that balance is all about nourishing the continuum of receiving and giving. Take a moment to ask yourself how you might you nourish the continuum of receiving and giving within yourself and the greater Universe. How might you lift your world to experience the magic of evelation?
An Antidote for Resistance
Whenever I face resistance, my own or someone else’s, I come back to this poem by Jane Kenyon.
Let Evening Come
Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.
Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.
Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.
Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.
To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.
Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.
Jane spent a too short a life writing wonderful poems and dancing with depression. She also inspired another fabulous poet, her husband Donald Hall, and encouraged and soothed a legion of readers. Like anyone who was truly blessed, she was wise and generous in her suffering, articulate and magical in her chronicle of life’s mysterious unfolding.
Each of the first fifteen lines are beautiful images acknowledging the work, the being, of the natural world and a human’s place in that grand scheme. The repetitious “Let” seduces us into a state of experiential acceptance. With the help of each line, I learn to observe without judgment, to see in a new way.
Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.
Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.
Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.
Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.
To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.
Only the simile linking the cricket and the woman sewing, the image of the abandoned rake, and the bottle, scoop, and lung in stanza five reference people on the land, in the weather, in nightfall, and this spare specificity most tellingly places humans in a context of a great, ongoing natural process. Through Kenyon’s vision, I can feel my place in the natural world, my smallness, sturdiness, humility and wonder.
What better gifts could a poem possibly give me?
Cinching these lines together is the potent refrain, a fitting successor to the biblical Work, for the night is coming.
Let evening come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.
I bow to Jane Kenyon for the encouragement—don’t be afraid—and her reminder to take heart—God does not leave us/comfortless. So, open your heart and accept what is.
If you would like to, try using Jane Kenyon’s tercets (or three-line stanzas) to write about your own awareness of acceptance in your life.
In Full Praise
When asked about the difference between a slow-witted boy and a sage, a rabbi said, “Humility and Praise.” His students were puzzled. He went on, “The unaware one grows like a stone—solid and enduring. The awakened one breaks through the dark like a sapling breaking ground—its reach mirroring its roots. The self-conscious one darts like a rabbit, never in the open for long. It watches for others and watches itself chew. But the embodied one lives like a turtle crossing back and forth from deep to surface; in full praise on the bottom, humble when it breaks into the world. Each is beautiful and worthy, one no more holy than the other. And we are each: part stone, part sapling, part rabbit, part turtle.” His students were busy identifying themselves and one dropped his head, unable to find himself anywhere. This opened the rabbi further, “Don’t despair. For trees grow out of stone. And rabbits will chew from their leaves. And love itself will awaken the turtle hiding in every stone.”
Enough
Walt Whitman wrote:
Every thing in the light and air ought to be happy,
Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave let him know he has enough.
Robert Goolrick uses these stanzas to end his book, A Reliable Wife, which I spent most of the weekend reading, and highly recommend.
Some days I believe this. Some days I strive to believe this.
Cosmic Winks
Last week I realized that one of my greatest sources of fun are what I call “cosmic winks,” little messages or signs from the Universal Intelligence. The more I learn to activate trust and faith through my Life Artist consciousness, the more signs, signals, and synchronicities I get that affirm I’m living in alignment with my Soul’s dream.
The other day I made a big life decision and decided to take a walk to contemplate. At one point I decided to take an unexpected turn and there on the sidewalk was a message in fluorescent pink chalk: “You are STRONG!”
Another wink happened recently when I was wondering if I’d ever have a life partner again and I came home to a pair of ducks sitting on my porch. Since ducks mate for life, I could only assume the Universal Intelligence was flirting with me!
Take a moment to invite more inspiration, gratitude, or dreaming into your life, and look for the cosmic winks that come your way. Winks may be anything from a chance encounter to a song on the radio. Or you may receive a powerful message through a symbol, the way the sun or moon illuminates a special moment, a dream, an intuitive hunch, or a powerful conversation. Don’t be shy! The Universal Intelligence loves to flirt with us! Just remember to wink back.
Talk to Yourself
It’s always tricky, talking with yourself. If you’re a critical person, you’ll be harder on yourself than you’ll be on anyone else. If you tend to be a little too easy on yourself, you may end up sounding insufferable to others. Maybe you defend yourself, making excuses about how a problem is always someone else’s fault. You’ll push others away because you’ll end up blaming them for things you’ve done or should be responsible for.
These are dangerous social consequences of talking to yourself, but there’s another worse one. Unbalanced dialogues with the self actually poison your psyche and body. They close down your chakras, blocking the energy flow you need to live a healthy life and continue to develop. In this way you violate the sacred pact you have with yourself. Awareness is the key, awareness and balance.
Exercise
Play the role of the chronic doubter inside you. In your journal, turn this self-whittler loose with her or his language knife and let the soul-paring begin!
Once this little malignant naysayer has talked itself out, exit that body and imagine being that person’s coworker, the one who has to work in close proximity to that energy. Now write a second journal entry from that perspective. Once you have two full journal entries, compare the two. Then write a third that consists of a dialogue between the two, but heal their speech and attitudes. Write your dialogue for each as if they have suddenly awakened from the sorry sleep they’ve been in.
What have you learned inside and out?
Chant
What we want and
what we’re given often
serve two different Gods.
How we respond
to their meeting
determines our
path.
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