#74
If you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
If you aren't afraid of dying,
there is nothing you can't achieve.
Trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpetner's place.
When you handle the master carpenter's tools,
chance are that you'll cut your hand.
Ancient wisdom: the thing about the Tao Te Ching is that it still makes sense, its essence rings true. We are thousands of years away from that Chinese 'time and place' but still Lao Tzu makes perfect sense.
Just read Bella's blog about The Secret, and how painful it is when bad things happen to 'good' people. How disease, hardship, a difficult birth, all bring us face to face with a larger reality: I am not in control. Even if I use my 'affirmations' every day, or prayer, or positive thinking, I cannot always draw to me what "I" want or desire.
There is comfort in knowing that a higher power or creative force, whatever you want to call that 'master' carpenter, is shaping something for me. There is peace in letting go of 'wishing' the future into being.
My most powerful experiences are not of being the conductor of my own life, designing, creating and drawing towards myself what I can imagine, but of having gifts unfold that I had never imagined, whether jobs, houses, children, projects, friends or challenges....that come my way through no apparent design of my own, and yet, at a deep level are exactly what I need (and not always what I want). Growth feels painful at times.
Yet aren't we in the 'earth school', as I told my husband this morning, as he left the house for another day of battle on the financial frontier. You just duck some days, (keep the ego low to the ground), keep centered in the midst of the fire.
Peace is not the absence of war, peace is found deep within you, says Maharaji, a living sage.
If I wait for the external world to bring me peace, I will wait a long time.
Sigh....deep sigh. I want to begin each day with a new breath, a new moment, and let the serendipity and synchronicity of life surprise me. And bring me strength within to focus on the light, yet accept the dark.
If I can lift my chin, look up from my inner kaleidoscope of desires and wishes and wants, and appreciate this day...
learning to let go,
musemother
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Building a mini-retreat
Sometimes a retreat away is not possible. Sometimes, although every bone in your body is calling to get away and find time alone, you have to stay home.
Because I'm a stay-at-home mom, and have dogs and cats too, when I can't get away physically, I make myself a mini-retreat. I can spare an hour, even two at least once a month.
The original idea came after I attended a retreat called the Writer's Spa in Taos, New Mexico, with Jennifer Louden, Comfort Queen. (Especially during your menstrual time, or anytime during menopause, these times set aside for sacred space are very nurturing and comforting. A great way to slow down and meet your inner feminine).
Recipe for a mini-retreat: (in any order you like)
Unplug the phone.
Light a candle from Zena Moon candles http:// http:// www.zenamoon.com
Meditate in silence for as long as you comfortably can.
Put on some soothing music (Nigel Holton, Eversound, Zen flute or Pure Peace)
Stretch into yoga on the floor, open your hips, legs and chest in Pigeon Pose or just lie in corpse pose and surrender.
Open Native American animals cards and do a Medicine Wheel Spread
(like a tarot deck, inner wisdom through our healer animal spirits)
Write in journal, sit and feel whatever emotions arise. Acknowledge them, without judgement.
Make a cup of herbal tea to calm stomach.
Don't turn on the computer or read emails until later.
Put off laundry, the list of things to do, and rushing anywhere;
Hope you have a wonderful inner peace retreat! It works for me.
(don't forget to blow out the candles!)
namaste,
jenn
Because I'm a stay-at-home mom, and have dogs and cats too, when I can't get away physically, I make myself a mini-retreat. I can spare an hour, even two at least once a month.
The original idea came after I attended a retreat called the Writer's Spa in Taos, New Mexico, with Jennifer Louden, Comfort Queen. (Especially during your menstrual time, or anytime during menopause, these times set aside for sacred space are very nurturing and comforting. A great way to slow down and meet your inner feminine).
Recipe for a mini-retreat: (in any order you like)
Unplug the phone.
Light a candle from Zena Moon candles http:// http:// www.zenamoon.com
Meditate in silence for as long as you comfortably can.
Put on some soothing music (Nigel Holton, Eversound, Zen flute or Pure Peace)
Stretch into yoga on the floor, open your hips, legs and chest in Pigeon Pose or just lie in corpse pose and surrender.
Open Native American animals cards and do a Medicine Wheel Spread
(like a tarot deck, inner wisdom through our healer animal spirits)
Write in journal, sit and feel whatever emotions arise. Acknowledge them, without judgement.
Make a cup of herbal tea to calm stomach.
Don't turn on the computer or read emails until later.
Put off laundry, the list of things to do, and rushing anywhere;
Hope you have a wonderful inner peace retreat! It works for me.
(don't forget to blow out the candles!)
namaste,
jenn
Friday, November 16, 2007
Essence of wisdom
Tao Te Ching #14
Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.
Above, it isn't bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Seamless, unnameable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
If we consider the source of our wisdom as the source of being, wow, that opens up all the stops.
It may mean slowing down and breathing into your center.
It may mean, accepting and flowing with the life force inside your body.
It may mean temporarily letting go of control :)
It may mean finding your voice.
It may mean speaking from authentic experience.
It may mean you are a wise woman, before you get old.
be close to your wisdom today,
jenn
Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.
Above, it isn't bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Seamless, unnameable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
If we consider the source of our wisdom as the source of being, wow, that opens up all the stops.
It may mean slowing down and breathing into your center.
It may mean, accepting and flowing with the life force inside your body.
It may mean temporarily letting go of control :)
It may mean finding your voice.
It may mean speaking from authentic experience.
It may mean you are a wise woman, before you get old.
be close to your wisdom today,
jenn
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
What if a woman listened to herself?
"What if woman allowed herself to listen once again to her own sensitivities? To listen to the ways in which she is unhappy? What if she allowed herself to trust what her tears are trying to tell her?
No, not this way, No your life has no meaning lived this way. No…No…slow down, rest. Fill the kettle slowly. Listen! as the water in its slender stream flows down to fill the waiting kettle.
A woman age 55 speaks of her struggle:
Oh the time, the endless pressure of time Even when I have a whole day, I still can’t get to my own things – I don’t even know what they are…
I vacuum, do the bookkeeping, always production-oriented…the endless realm of keeping busy…when I was young, my mother always expected us to keep busy…she couldn’t imagine my need to have time for myself…if one of her daughters would be a bit quiet or inward one day, she would right away immediately accuse us of being lazy and gives us a task to do.
In my dreams there is a quiet chamber, an inner corridor for which I’m always searching and can never quite get to…a quiet, dark place…where I’m allowed to just sit…alone …and be still.
What if a woman were to allow herself to trust her own unhappiness and to make life changes – that would allow time and place for her to experience her life as it lives itself out slowly, moment by moment? To allow herself time and place to be present to her own burning fire, the water springing from the rock of her own experience…to allow herself to leave behind the jet plane, the express lane, and simply to be, there, for a moment, present to her own life?
What if a woman trusted her own tears enough to listen to them, to make real changes in her individual schedule, and to see if those changes spread to her office, her committee, her religious group?
What if she trusted her anger, her irritation, her illness, even her depression, as signs that her own life was calling to her?
What if a woman allowed herself to leave a mode of doing that does not nourish her, that actively makes her unhappy? What if it were not so difficult? If her upbringing had not sought to teach her to be dutiful, moral, caring, giving, helpful, productive and loving…at all times...to all others.
….it is often finally a woman’s own pain and sadness that make her change her life. Finally, it is impossible to deny her feelings any longer."
taken from Circle of Stones, Judith Duerk, Woman’s Journey to Herself
No, not this way, No your life has no meaning lived this way. No…No…slow down, rest. Fill the kettle slowly. Listen! as the water in its slender stream flows down to fill the waiting kettle.
A woman age 55 speaks of her struggle:
Oh the time, the endless pressure of time Even when I have a whole day, I still can’t get to my own things – I don’t even know what they are…
I vacuum, do the bookkeeping, always production-oriented…the endless realm of keeping busy…when I was young, my mother always expected us to keep busy…she couldn’t imagine my need to have time for myself…if one of her daughters would be a bit quiet or inward one day, she would right away immediately accuse us of being lazy and gives us a task to do.
In my dreams there is a quiet chamber, an inner corridor for which I’m always searching and can never quite get to…a quiet, dark place…where I’m allowed to just sit…alone …and be still.
What if a woman were to allow herself to trust her own unhappiness and to make life changes – that would allow time and place for her to experience her life as it lives itself out slowly, moment by moment? To allow herself time and place to be present to her own burning fire, the water springing from the rock of her own experience…to allow herself to leave behind the jet plane, the express lane, and simply to be, there, for a moment, present to her own life?
What if a woman trusted her own tears enough to listen to them, to make real changes in her individual schedule, and to see if those changes spread to her office, her committee, her religious group?
What if she trusted her anger, her irritation, her illness, even her depression, as signs that her own life was calling to her?
What if a woman allowed herself to leave a mode of doing that does not nourish her, that actively makes her unhappy? What if it were not so difficult? If her upbringing had not sought to teach her to be dutiful, moral, caring, giving, helpful, productive and loving…at all times...to all others.
….it is often finally a woman’s own pain and sadness that make her change her life. Finally, it is impossible to deny her feelings any longer."
taken from Circle of Stones, Judith Duerk, Woman’s Journey to Herself
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tao Te Ching Wisdom for the day
#45
True perfection seems imperfect,
yet it is perfectly itself.
True fullness seems empty,
yet it is fully present.
True straightness seems crooked.
True wisdom seems foolish.
ture art seems artless.
The Master allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come.
She steps out of the way
and lets the Tao speak for itself.
another excerpt says,
Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion
you ruin what was almost ripe.
Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course
....and,
Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
Is it just my imagination, or is everything I'm reading today in the Tao Te Ching aimed at inviting me to let go, let things take their course, stop worrying, controlling, obsessing, striving, pushing too hard, going too fast?
step out of the way.....
So the wisdom of the day would be that. Let yourself go with the flow, and stop paddling up stream. It's a lot easier to let the boat follow the river. Row if you must, but you will advance more quickly when you let go to the river's current.
Life is a current. I can ride the waves of my life, being buoyant, being still in the center, and letting the ups and downs come. It takes a focus on what is real, what is permanent, to allow myself to not get upset by the changes, by what is impermanent.
If I look back a year ago today, I was unsure of the future, I was hoping things would change more quickly. Then boom, a few months later we had heard of a new house on the water, I applied to teach at the women's centre, life and the river kept flowing. Now we are renovating, and I am teaching. If I look towards the future, it is still uncertain, i.e. I have no way of knowing for sure what is coming.
But I am starting to trust the flow.
nameste,
musemother
True perfection seems imperfect,
yet it is perfectly itself.
True fullness seems empty,
yet it is fully present.
True straightness seems crooked.
True wisdom seems foolish.
ture art seems artless.
The Master allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come.
She steps out of the way
and lets the Tao speak for itself.
another excerpt says,
Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion
you ruin what was almost ripe.
Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course
....and,
Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
Is it just my imagination, or is everything I'm reading today in the Tao Te Ching aimed at inviting me to let go, let things take their course, stop worrying, controlling, obsessing, striving, pushing too hard, going too fast?
step out of the way.....
So the wisdom of the day would be that. Let yourself go with the flow, and stop paddling up stream. It's a lot easier to let the boat follow the river. Row if you must, but you will advance more quickly when you let go to the river's current.
Life is a current. I can ride the waves of my life, being buoyant, being still in the center, and letting the ups and downs come. It takes a focus on what is real, what is permanent, to allow myself to not get upset by the changes, by what is impermanent.
If I look back a year ago today, I was unsure of the future, I was hoping things would change more quickly. Then boom, a few months later we had heard of a new house on the water, I applied to teach at the women's centre, life and the river kept flowing. Now we are renovating, and I am teaching. If I look towards the future, it is still uncertain, i.e. I have no way of knowing for sure what is coming.
But I am starting to trust the flow.
nameste,
musemother
Monday, September 24, 2007
Moon LIght
Have you looked up at the moon lately?
Last night at sunset I went for a walk in the wide soccer field behind my house. The setting sun was filling the western sky with pink and gold, while in the east a partially full moon was rising, slung low in a grey sky with a luminous haze circling it.
It felt very healing to look at the moon, and I wondered why I don't get outside more often in the evening to watch it.
It felt good to know that letting the moon light touch me, its rays on me, could actually influence the state of harmony with my inner feminine essence.
Watch the moon ladies and gents. It's going into full bloom this week on Wednesday. It does not promote panic or madness, that's an old anti-womanist scare tactic from the Inquisition days.
What it promotes is beauty, self-awareness, and getting in touch with your natural energies. Women may have participated in orgiastic rites at the full moon that caused the Church to worry about people switching to paganism (it looked like too much fun probably)!
Let's find our selves in our cycles and keep in touch with the moon. She, he, it....does it matter if it's a lady in the moon or not? The moon's cycle is aligned with women's cycles, and it doesn't hurt to let a little moon light shine on you.
Enjoy!
musemother
Last night at sunset I went for a walk in the wide soccer field behind my house. The setting sun was filling the western sky with pink and gold, while in the east a partially full moon was rising, slung low in a grey sky with a luminous haze circling it.
It felt very healing to look at the moon, and I wondered why I don't get outside more often in the evening to watch it.
It felt good to know that letting the moon light touch me, its rays on me, could actually influence the state of harmony with my inner feminine essence.
Watch the moon ladies and gents. It's going into full bloom this week on Wednesday. It does not promote panic or madness, that's an old anti-womanist scare tactic from the Inquisition days.
What it promotes is beauty, self-awareness, and getting in touch with your natural energies. Women may have participated in orgiastic rites at the full moon that caused the Church to worry about people switching to paganism (it looked like too much fun probably)!
Let's find our selves in our cycles and keep in touch with the moon. She, he, it....does it matter if it's a lady in the moon or not? The moon's cycle is aligned with women's cycles, and it doesn't hurt to let a little moon light shine on you.
Enjoy!
musemother
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Inner Wisdom and a higher power
Wisdom for women begins with learning to connect with our own inner wisdom. For too long we have been told what to believe, what to feel, what is ok to feel or think. The authorities we listen to have usually been male, either scientists or religious leaders, the 'keepers of truths'.
For some of us, it's a radical concept, to find our own connection to spirit within, and yet more and more of us are experiencing that connection.
Whether you believe in a guardian angel or the universal spirit, a mother goddess or divine synchronicity, guidance is available if we are open to receiving it. In my yoga class every morning, we make an intention for what we need to receive through our practice that day. it's a powerful way to ground yourself in the here and now, manifest what you need. Some very popular books are going the rounds right now, explaining that what we think and what we attract to us are connected, ie The Secret.
"When you sincerely invite in the sacred (your inner guidance or spirit) to assist you with your life, you are granting permission for your life to change." Dr. Christiane Northrup, Woman's Bodies, Women's Wisdom."
For many women, getting past the male image of God is important to their new understanding of their spirituality, so they focus on a 'sexually affirming image of power and beauty', ie a mother god.
Perhaps this is a way of reimagining the divine spark as living in our own female body, and undoing centuries of abuse stemming from Eve and the apple. Women need to know that a female body and its sexuality are brimming with creative spirit, brimming with love and goodness. We need to reconnect with sexuality as spirituality, instead of splitting the two. Spirit's highest expression, for me, is the creation of a human body, and that begins with conception or sex.
So, let's reclaim our connection with our bodies, and celebrate the gift of being a woman. Someone once said, if you want to increase your blessings, then start counting them. I begin with the prayer of thanks for being born a woman.
nameste,
musemother
For some of us, it's a radical concept, to find our own connection to spirit within, and yet more and more of us are experiencing that connection.
Whether you believe in a guardian angel or the universal spirit, a mother goddess or divine synchronicity, guidance is available if we are open to receiving it. In my yoga class every morning, we make an intention for what we need to receive through our practice that day. it's a powerful way to ground yourself in the here and now, manifest what you need. Some very popular books are going the rounds right now, explaining that what we think and what we attract to us are connected, ie The Secret.
"When you sincerely invite in the sacred (your inner guidance or spirit) to assist you with your life, you are granting permission for your life to change." Dr. Christiane Northrup, Woman's Bodies, Women's Wisdom."
For many women, getting past the male image of God is important to their new understanding of their spirituality, so they focus on a 'sexually affirming image of power and beauty', ie a mother god.
Perhaps this is a way of reimagining the divine spark as living in our own female body, and undoing centuries of abuse stemming from Eve and the apple. Women need to know that a female body and its sexuality are brimming with creative spirit, brimming with love and goodness. We need to reconnect with sexuality as spirituality, instead of splitting the two. Spirit's highest expression, for me, is the creation of a human body, and that begins with conception or sex.
So, let's reclaim our connection with our bodies, and celebrate the gift of being a woman. Someone once said, if you want to increase your blessings, then start counting them. I begin with the prayer of thanks for being born a woman.
nameste,
musemother
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