Morning Meditation - Glow Your Dreams Into Reality

 Morning Meditation™️. Glow your dreams into reality! ✨

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Morning Meditation Coach Pat Summitt Wisdom

 Morning Meditation™️. Pat Summitt’s statement narrows life down to the immediate moment, and this focus is incredibly powerful. ✨

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Morning Meditation - Glow Your Dreams

 Morning meditation™️. Glow your dreams into reality! ✨

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Morning Meditation - Show Up

Morning meditation™️. Show up for yourself, show up for your goals, & get your flow restarted! ✨

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Strawberry Zen

photo:  www.wdrb.com

Inspiration for a blog article can come from the most unexpected sources. Often, when I'm having a conversation with a friend, a random comment will sparkle so strongly that it prompts me to elaborate my thoughts.  I commented on a Facebook post of my friend, Zero Dean (article link: http://blog.zerodean.com/2015/tao-of-zero/are-you-awake/), and that started today's musings. 

I have shared that lately, I have been in a quiet, contemplative stage with many areas of my life. This year seems to be full of inner searching for me, and if I allow it to happen, I can fall down the figurative Rabbit Hole of chaotic self-questioning.  One question leads to the next, and the next, with each demanding a resolution, or a profound change of habits and approach to life, until there is a very loudly jangling bundle of expectations that cannot be met quickly or easily.  I think we all do this to ourselves.  It's human nature to think we have to tackle all the Big Ticket Items and produce instantaneous and successful results.  That is not only unrealistic, it actually invites more chaotic energy to pour down on our heads.

When I catch myself doing this, I stop.  I breathe, and I calm my heart.  With calming of breath and heart, I can cut the stream of angst ridden mind chatter.  Today, it was a strawberry Zen moment that cut the mind chatter.  Rather than let my energy scatter into myriad directions and goals that cannot be accomplished simultaneously, I stopped and focused on the immediate moment.  That moment is a carton of fresh, beautiful strawberries.  Their ruby beauty, dotted with tiny black seeds and crowned with bright green caps, all speaking of the onset of summer weather and sunny days harken to those lovely childhood comfort memories for me.  We are currently one day into true Spring in the U.S., so these luscious strawberries come to me from some other climate; summer growing weather is a bit of a stretch down the road for East Tennessee.

Standing in my kitchen, I focus on the sensory and tactile impressions of my prosaic task.  I gather the strawberries from the cardboard carton and place them into a small ceramic colander, running fresh water over them.  The musical splashing of water sharpens the strawberry scent and brightens the already vibrant shades of red.  Shaking the colander produces a waterfall of liquid drops into my sink that is another visual delight....tiny dazzles of water gems rain into the stainless steel sink and become a clear wash that dashes from sight.  Picking up a small paring knife, I nip the green caps and slice the strawberries, enjoying the soft snicking of the knife as it passes through berry to the small cutting board.  A cut glass bowl awaits the sliced fruit, and sunlight hits crystal, exploding into rainbow refraction as I step outside to my patio with my afternoon treat.  The day is sunny and mild in temperature, soft breezes promising a true march beyond the colder embrace of winter.  Spring appears to be lifting her arms across the land.

As I eat my bowl of strawberries, enjoying the tart flavor, my soul is quiet again.  The rushing thoughts are calmed and Zen is in my grasp.  A simple chore of preparing a light meal has brought me back to balance.

This moment, this action, this breath, this heartbeat....this Strawberry Zen.  In a nod of fellowship to my friend, Zero....

 I am awake.   

Grace period

As is common, I ran across a quote about a week ago on Facebook that prompted me to ponder. Here is the quote of the day:

Photo & quote: If you like me, you're an eclectic Facebook Page

Very powerful statement by itself, without any of my thoughts added.  Of course, I am going to add my thoughts, as that's the whole point of the post! I'm not in any seriously difficult time right now....nothing that is unknown, or that I haven't experienced before.  I'm in what I have dubbed "useful limbo", and that can present its own frustrations as I practice patience whilst waiting on things to finish falling into place.  So, I'm in the "arrow being pulled backward" stage, still preparing to be shot forward into the next stage of Life that I'm meant to experience.

This particular quote and a recent conversation with a friend coalesced into today's post.  I made a comment to this friend that there is never going to be a "perfect, ideal moment" to put a specific desire into action.  This friend is experiencing some enforced limbo, due to outside factors beyond their control. The degree of limbo being enforced is one that could very well drag on indefinitely, and that was what prompted my comment about waiting for that "perfect, ideal moment".  This friend can choose to take more control and continue to live a full life, or allow those outside forces to put their life into a lengthy limbo, or stall mode.

I've often called this thing that we humans do, the Disease of Waiting to Live.  I'm guilty of it.  I daresay most of us are.  We hold ourselves back from fully living, fully experiencing, fully engaging....promising ourselves that when "this bill is paid off", or "when I finish this project at work", or "when the kids graduate", or "when I lose X amount of weight"....THEN we'll be able to step forward and LIVE.  Does this sound familiar to you?  Yep, it does to me as well.  I spent a large amount of my life in that mindset and I still wrestle with it.

Let me share some truths:

• there will ALWAYS be another bill to replace the one you're using as an excuse 
• there will ALWAYS be another project or challenge at work to focus on that you'll use as an excuse 
• when your kids graduate from high school, they will most likely go on to college and you'll use THAT as the next excuse 
• you will ALWAYS find something about your body you want to improve and you'll use that as an excuse  

Do you see the pattern here?  Life is always going to give us more than ample reasons to Wait to Live.

To a degree, there is logic and wisdom in waiting, preparing and having all the tools and experience you need prior to stepping forward in Life.  What ends up being truly sad is when we continually grasp at brittle straws of distraction to keep from fully engaging in Life.  What does a brittle straw do when we grasp it?  It usually disintegrates in our hands, crumbling to fragments and dust, leaving us with empty hands.  It may sound harsh, but this is a good analogy of what using excuses to not fully engage in life gives us.....dreams that eventually crumble to dust, leaving us with empty, lonely lives.

It takes bravery to step forward and truly engage in Life.  I'm the first to admit that it can be scary and that I fall back on the easier, more lazy side of throwing out excuses.  I do it less and less as I get older, and I find that when someone I'm connected to displays this habit in a manner that affects ME directly, I get a serious punch of a big, strong Life Lesson walloping me head on.  This conversation I had recently gave me just such a wallop.  The frustration of seeing clearly that this other person's decision to turn to easy excuses rather than take the risk of engaging was directly affecting ME in a negative manner was a big wakeup call.

In turn, I was faced with the decision of whether to give this person time to sort through their own immediate entanglements, or whether it served me better to separate myself from that relationship completely.  In order to protect this other person's privacy, I am being a bit cryptic here.  I haven't yet fully made my own decision on what action to take, but I do know that action MUST be taken.  I have specific goals in mind for my life and taking on another person's limbo stage isn't something that makes any sort of logical sense for me. Being understanding and empathetic, and offering true support and friendship is a completely different issue, and I am there 100%.  It is just as necessary for me to display that same support for myself as I wrestle with building solid boundaries that will enable me to maintain clear focus for my life path.

So! Here I am, looking at all sides of this situation.  The analogy of the arrow being drawn back, preparatory to being shot forward....this is where I feel I am, currently.  I'm okay with that, as I can see the logic of it, and I am being very clear about NOT falling into comfortable excuses to delay the release of that arrow.  That clarity and conscious choice to stop getting in my own way requires some tough choices to be made, and I'm still in the process of making them.  My heart wants one thing and can see the potential of something beautiful occurring.  My mind wants that potential to be engaged upon and to STOP WASTING TIME!!  To digress a moment, I happen to be what is known as "balanced brained", rather than right brain or left brain dominant, so this means I can see both sides of a given situation very clearly.  That's a blog post all its own, but it's also another way that I can easily get bogged down in distractions and lose sight of the things that require immediate attention and equally immediate action.  These days, I'm very much about engaging and taking action, so when someone else starts dragging their feet in a manner that affects me directly, it can become a big source of frustration. Frustration is the result of energy stalling and that's exactly what I am working to avoid and smooth out.

When I get frustrated, I have to be even more vigilant to keep myself from racing forward and making snap judgments that I might regret a few days later.  It's one of those delicate balances and my mind goes right back to that arrow being drawn.  Perfect balance is necessary in archery.  Have you ever tried it?  It is astonishing, the physical and mental strength necessary just to draw the arrow back in the structure of the bow, then hold that pose whilst focusing on the target.  Your breathing must calm, your heart rate must calm, your mind must calm....myriad levels of quiet have to be achieved, all in order to direct the course of that arrow.

Just imagine if someone next to you reaches out and knocks your hands as you're in the midst of this focusing. Everything falls out of focus.  You have to readjust, regroup, come back to calm and quiet and it usually takes a while to regain your original focus.  That's where I am, currently, being jostled by other people here and there, as I work to focus on my personal aim.  Other people don't necessarily mean to distract us, mind you, that's just part of the pattern of Life and how we interact. Our job is to stay true to ourselves and my word, that's just downright challenging on the best of days!

I know this much:  I don't want to continue a negative cycle of Waiting to Live. I'm doing some admittedly difficult personal work to cut and erase some of my past negative habits that embraced that Waiting to Live mindset.  And as is common, when we're ready to take that next step of personal evolution, God/Universe/Spirit usually hands us a hefty test to experience in the midst of it all.  Then we are assailed with a boatload of doubts.  Will I make the best choices and take the best actions?

What I have learned over my life is that there are no "wrong" decisions and choices.  They're just decisions and choices and we do what we know at the time.  My focus and my intent is to make the BEST choices and actions for myself that I'm capable of.  That requires some reeling in of emotions, some conscious wrestling of Ego and some determined engaging in detachment.  If you're like me, those actions can feel like trying to draw a delicate pen and ink sketch whilst wearing great big mittens five sizes too large for your hands.  It's not comfortable at all.  But it IS necessary, as all those things force me to breathe into calm, slow my heart rate to calm, bring my mind to calm....to achieve clarity about the best course for myself.  I'm that arrow, waiting to be released, and I owe it to myself to put this much effort into the preparations.

And equally important, there is NO logic in an arrow being knocked, pulled back, aimed....and never released!  Who wants to exist in an eternal state of limbo?!  Well, "waiting to live" is a different flavor of that concept. I'm going to serve a much better purpose if I stop allowing other peoples' energies to overlap my own process....at least stop allowing their energies to distract me enough that I fall back into Waiting to Live mentality.  At this moment in my life and my growth, I know I am capable of making choices and decisions that will serve my greater good.  I have to be brave enough to take those steps....and I am aware that I still have a bit of a Grace period.  I'm taking that extra moment, relaxing into the process, rather than fighting it.  I'm doing my level best to ignore the distractions, refuse to give into the excuses and believe that my best choices are resonating in the right harmony for me to hit that target.

I shared the above quote on my Facebook page about a week ago and it appeared to hit a common chord for many, going by the number of comments I received. That's why I chose to sit down and write this post.  Something tells me it is a topic, and a quote, that many of you will find applies to what you're currently experiencing. We're never truly alone, even though it often feels that way.

In my mind's eye, I see a huge, misty field with untold numbers of us standing in archer's pose....arrow knocked, bow drawn and each of us focusing on our respective target.  Some of those around me have let loose their arrows to fly.  Others are just stepping onto the field to choose an arrow.  I'm still in the brief Grace period of arrow knocked and drawn back.  I'm curious to know where each of you are...and I invite you to join me on the field.  Perhaps the woods...those spaces of Waiting to Live...are comfortable and easier to inhabit, but the field isn't as imposing and scary as you might think.  Step forward with me and leave Waiting to Live behind....but only when you're ready.  As far as I can see, this misty field never goes away, and the archery tools are always available when each of us are ready to step forward and take aim.  I'll see you there.

Mandala memories

When I was a child, I would draw endless series of circular patterns that radiated outward in repeating shapes.  I would take my crayons, and later, colored pencils and paints and color these drawings from lightest shades to deepest gradations of colors.  I was very particular about this and could spend hours thus occupied.  To my surprise, I won a few art contests with some of these depictions.  They were always pleasing to my eyes, but I never knew what to call them when asked for a label to apply.  I just knew that the patterns made a sort of logical sense to my eyes and made me feel centered and at peace when creating them.  There was a sensation of pulsating energy as I would create the layers and patterns.

Fast forward into late teenage years and I was deeply involved in spiritual searching, reading every book on mystical teachings that I ran across, investigating various religions and spiritual practices.  Eventually, I began to see similar patterns to those that I had obsessively created as a child.  It turns out that what I was drawing could be likened to a mandala. 

Mandala (मण्डल) is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". In the Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions, their sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the shape of a T. In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the Universe from the human perspective. (Wikipedia)

Depending on the age of those of you reading this blog article, some of you may remember the childhood game called Spirograph (TM).*  Spirograph was a set of plastic wheels and templates with which you could create endless mathematical curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. (Wikipedia)  Although a mouthful to speak, those shapes are basically representing the same beautiful patterns found in mandalas. 

Another representation of this type of beautiful shape can be found in a kaleidoscope, which is a is a tube of mirrors containing loose colored beads, pebbles, or other small coloured objects. The viewer looks in one end and light enters the other end, reflecting off the mirrors.  (Wikipedia)  This was another device that could keep me entranced for endless hours, gazing at the ever changing patterns and colors inside that magical cylinder. 

Why did I begin creating these shapes and designs at a very young age with no example to follow?  I have my own thoughts on that.  One thought is that something within me simply resonated with the geometrical logic found in the repeating shapes.  Another thought is that I was recreating shapes from another time, memories embedded in the layers of my Spirit.  Both thoughts make complete sense to me, as I have always been drawn to the concepts of Buddhism. 

Similar repeating patterns can be found in nature; in flowers, in gemstones and crystals, in the whorls of certain lichen and mushrooms; in snowflakes, and even in the humble mature dandelion. Artists have reproduced these shapes in stained glass in majestic cathedrals and carved them into stone and wood. The majority of married females on this planet wear a diamond solitaire ring cut, shaped and faceted in such a manner as to reproduce this same geometric pattern within the depths of the gemstone.

I am not a mathematically inclined person, so I cannot tie together all the theory and calculations necessary to explain these repeating patterns the world over.  What I can say is that there is a strong presence of some type of quantum theory at work with these patterns.  Mandalas have been created for thousands of years to aid in meditation and to drop the consciousness into progressively deeper states of relaxation and trance state.  I can clearly remember feeling an inestimable sense of peace and calm as a child when I would intently create these patterns with my crayons and pencils.  The finished products with their intricate layers of color would please me enormously.  The shape that I most often created is similar to this photo with lotus flower-like petals radiating outward.

I don't know why this particular subject popped into my mind to write about tonight.  I had just finished my evening meditation, so perhaps my thoughts drifted to a focal point that I often visualize to calm my thoughts.  The more I thought about these shapes, the more similarities I came across, and the more it fascinated me.  These shapes appear over and over in science and nature.  We as human beings have recreated these shapes in glass, in metal, in gemstones, in fabric, on canvas, to please our eyes, yes.  I feel there is also deeper purpose in the recreations of these beautiful shapes.  From a mathematical standpoint, something of such linear balance has to resonate at a high and equally balanced frequency.  Could the mandala shape, when done with clear intent and calm, pure heart, create a powerful energetic point? 

We are affected by the beauty of these shapes.  Does this happen because they are pretty, or are they pretty because they touch our senses in a deeper manner than the most obvious ones?  The chicken/egg theory is at work here to a degree.  I don't have answers to most of these questions; they are more musings...ruminations on my part.  I once listened to a wonderful historian on television who espoused the concept that much of the fascination and plain enjoyment of learning is that some basic mysteries remain, as yet unlocked to our inqusitive minds.  This thought always makes me smile and embrace the simple pleasure of creating or witnessing something beautiful.

Whatever the reason was that drove me as a small child to create mandala-esque drawings is not completely known.  Having been slightly different in mindset from that very early age, I look back and am rather impressed with the fact that I never deviated from my focus, no matter the questions or criticisms of those early drawings.  There was something within that drew me deeply into spiritual studies that continue to this day.  And to this day, grabbing pencils and sketch pad to trace out another whirling wheel of color and shape pleases me and centers me.  Mandala memories remain a constant and continue to focus my consciousness as they appear to have done for others in centuries past.

____________________________
*Disclaimer: no financial gain occurred from the mention of the product Spirograph (TM) in this blog article.

Peaceful thoughts

It is morning in East Tennessee and outside my window the world is wreathed in typical winter fog, with the grass and trees tipped in frost. This year winter has been a bit sluggish in arriving, but this past week ushered in true cold temperatures that seem to be here to stay. The fog drifting dreamily about the landscape, combined with the cold temperatures evoke a quiet sense of peace.

That word, peace, has been cropping up in my mind quite a bit recently. It is a presence that I find palapable in my life, those moments of peace. They occur unexpectedly and delight the senses with the moment of surprise. Other times, peace will seep slowly and surely into my bones, surrounding me like a warm blanket. The method of delivery varies, but the end result is that I am reminded that there is order and a sense of logic in this world which applies to all of us. Admittedly, we are living in a world full of distractions, chaos, strife and most days it is a challenge just to survive traffic, work and family issues. Small wonder, then, that we forget to take those moments to experience what is so readily available to soothe our Souls.

One of my friends provides an outlet for me with her photography. She is a gentle, loving spirit who sees the world with such different eyes. Whenever she posts a new set of photos on her Facebook page, I always take time to pull them up because I am confident she will have snapped a shot of something that will just "click" with me on a very elemental level. I also make it a point to tell her when something she has said, done or photographed made a difference in my life; I think that is another important thing we overlook due to daily stressors. We forget to reach out and acknowledge the beauty that those we care for bring into our lives. Friendship in general is a blessing to all of us that we should remember to nurture, cultivate and appreciate.

Another source of peace for me is nature, looking about me to witness the continually unfolding drama of the Tennessee Valley. It is truly breathtaking here, regardless of the season. Finding time to walk in the woods, go up to the mountains, or visit one of the numerous rivers or lakes in the area and just sit quietly allows me to soak in the sense of peace that is unique in nature. I always come away feeling a motherly source of love - as though the earth recognizes one of her children taking a moment to check in with her.

I could go on with an impressive list of experiences from which I draw a sense of peace. They are unique to me, so I won't go into exhaustive detail. I think the important thought here is to take time in your day to access that place of quiet for yourself. It is there, just waiting to be tapped into. Some small moment is fluttering in your line of sight, waiting to inspire you, make you laugh, make you cry, soothe you, uplift you, encourage you. If you take a moment to honor that presence, you might be surprised at how the rest of your day, or your week will open up and flourish with success, satisfaction and happiness. Like begets like, after all. Embracing peace and allowing it to become a thriving daily presence for yourself means that it will begin to compound itself and you will recognize it more and more surrounding you. This thought is not specific just to the concept of peace - it applies to anything that you would desire to have more of in your life. Laughter, happiness, success...they can all become a focal point if you open your heart up to recognizing them in their purest form. I think that starting this practice with recognizing and welcoming peace is a good place to begin, as peace opens doors to so much that is beautiful and desirable.

Enjoy your day, my friends. Peace be unto you!