Seasons of the Soul

Look At What You Have

 

Oprah Winfrey

"If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough."

This statement parallels a great reminder. Until we can be grateful for what we have, there is no reason for us to have more because we don’t even appreciate what has already been given.

Life gives us so many opportunities to see the gift in everything around us. The most important thing in life—air, is freely available, yet we pollute it and lack appreciation for the life-giving quality that comes with no strings attached.

As a people, we have a tendency to continue to want more, and in the wanting, to exploit. This is a base desire to mold our environment to what we want it to be—a selfish view of life. It is a bit infantile, and as we mature, our  process is one of recognizing the major gifts that life has already given, and how much is in store for us as we work in harmony with nature and life’s rhythms.

Whenever I am tempted to look at something in my environment and think about what I wish it would be—like a new bathroom—I am brought back to what is important and at how fortunate I am to have a roof over my head and facilities to use that are in place. How precious a bathroom becomes when there are so many around the world who do not have the luxury of indoor plumbing.

By reminding ourselves of our good fortune, regardless of whether we are in a small apartment or tiny house, we remove barriers to receiving, and if it is right for a remodeling job, it will come—but not because of dissatisfaction. Rather, out of a sense of honoring and enhancing what is already present. One way of viewing it is that finally we get rid of the old. The other is that we are thrilled to be able to better utilize and beautify our space.

So, whether it is large or small, a want or an attitude, let’s look at what we DO have with great appreciation. By so doing, more comes, even if it is only the sense of wellbeing and great joy in being satisfied and grateful for what  we’ve been given already.

From Seasons of the Soul print edition, Summer 2010

Money and Life - the movie

We see that continuous growing of economies is unsustainable in the real world. Everything works in cycles, and this thought provoking film gives suggestions of how we can enter this upcoming time with new ways of doing things that enrich our lives and work with nature and earth, not against it, for the benefit of all.

http://www.moneyandlifemovie.com/

The "Agony" of Spiritual Growth

Joseph Campbell "The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth."

Joseph Campbell presents us with a valuable statement here, because  it is almost a tongue in cheek reminder that once we break through our personal limiting beliefs and structures, we are free to soar and dive and create in whatever way most appeals to our nature. And in this, as we are freed, we are also freeing. We can let others be, and give them more room to be human and flawed. As we move into the awesome nature of unlimiting reality, we begin to feel the truth of spiritual practice. It is not agony...it is in truth the ecstatic reunion of ourselves to our true Self. That which we have become, and all the untruths we have undone, reveal the hero and the hero’s journey. So in that context, let the “agony” begin!

From Seasons of the Soul print edition, Summer 2010 

Dr. Mercola interviews Dr. Ron Paul

I am an Independent in political matters, but I do believe in freedom of choice regarding our decisions about our own lives and in what we eat and the type of health care we choose. Recently, there have been increased actions by the FDA in harassing farmers who are producing raw milk in many states. They are sending armed law officials to shut these farms down, as the FDA stance is that raw milk is dangerous. Yet its health benefits have been studied and noted repeatedly. In California we have the right to choose raw milk if we wish.

When government begins to intrude on my right to choose what I eat, what vitamins I take, and alternative health modalities I may decide are best for me, it is time for me to make my voice heard and overcome a tendency to be a lemming...following the rest over the cliff. To that end, I watched this discussion by Dr. Mercola and Dr. Ron Paul, and found that what he said is beginning to make a lot of sense. Furthermore, I did not know that he finished less than 1% under Michelle Bachman in the Iowa Straw Pole - but there was no mention of him. Why? Who and what is controlling our media and our country??

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/28/ron-paul-on-defending-health-freedom.aspx?e_cid=20110828_SNL_Art_1

Smile

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. --Thich Nhat Hanh

Expecting nothing, asking nothing, we allow ourselves to see in the moment an incredible opportunity to express love and appreciation for life and all beings. A smile arises on its own as we recognize the multiple gifts we are given. We have air to breathe and beauty around us if we look for it. Smiling at life is a signal to life that we are paying attention and are grateful. A smile is its own reward and touches others as well.

From Seasons of the Soul print edition, Summer 2010

Quotations as Seed Thoughts

 

In one of the Seasons of the Soul newsletters, I took quotations and created small articles from each as a reminder that when we see a quote, it is a seed thought that prompts us to think about what has been stated in relation to our own lives.

Seed thoughts are wonderful reminders to look a little deeper. We have our own question and inquiry process that arise as a result of a moving quotation, and we can often find ourselves thinking about something we would otherwise not have given time to, but is enriching or expanding us as a result of reading it and taking time to ponder its message. 

A fun exercise is to create slips of paper with quotations on them and then fold them up and toss them in a jar or bowl. We can take one a day out of the container and use that particular quote as a  seed thought for the day, focusing on its message as we deal with the opportunities and challenges that arise.

Another interesting approach is to find themes in our own lives that reoccur, and find quotes from the experiences we’ve had that are memorable and meaningful to us.

Quotations are not just from famous people, they are from all of us. And today’s quote can become the seed thought of tomorrow’s creative idea that leads us to new or expanded vistas in our thinking and actions.

Quotations are meant to enrich us, and when we take time with them, their intention is fulfilled, so next time you see a quotation, think about it and how it relates to your life and way of perceiving. Play with it or practice it, and see where it leads. Who knows what bright idea might come as a result!

The Mystery Never Leaves You Alone

by John O'Donohue, from "Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom"

It is strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone. Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world. Through our voices, we bring out sound from the mountain beneath our soul. These sounds are words. There are so many talking all the time, loudly, quietly, in rooms, on streets, on TV, on radio, in the paper, in books. The noise of words keeps what we call the world there for us. We take each others’ sounds and make patterns and predictions, benedictions, and blasphemies. Each day, our tribe of language holds what we call the ‘world’ together. Yet the uttering of the world reveals how each of us relentlessly creates. Everyone is an artist. Each person brings out sound out of silence and coaxes the invisible to become visible.

 

Humans are new here. Above us, the galaxies dance out toward infinity. Under our feet is the ancient earth. We are beautifully molded from this clay. Yet the smallest stone is millions of years older than us. In your thoughts, the silent universe seeks echo.

 

An unknown world aspires towards reflection. Words are the oblique mirrors which hold your thought. You gaze into these word mirrors and catch glimpses of meaning, belonging shelter. Behind their bright surfaces is the dark and the silence. Words are like the god Janus, they face inwards and outwards at once.

 

If we become addicted to the external our interiority will haunt us. We will become hungry with a hunger no image, person or deed can still. To be wholesome, we must remain truthful to our vulnerable complexity. In order to keep our balance, we need to hold the interior and exterior, visible and invisible, known and unknown, temporal and eternal, ancient and new together. No one else can undertake this task for you. You are the one and only threshold of your inner world. This wholesomeness is holiness. To be holy is natural; to befriend the worlds that come to balance in you.

 

Behind the façade of image and distraction, each person is an artist in this primal and inescapable sense. Each one of us is doomed and privileged to be an inner artist who carries and shapes a unique world.

 

Human presence is a creative and turbulent sacrament, a visible sign of invisible grace.

 

--John O'Donohue, from "Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom"

Food For Thought

“Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings."

~Andre Maurois
1885-1967, Writer

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."

~Helen Keller

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.                --Rainer Maria Rilke

Wabi Sabi

Many wise traditions know the importance of finding a balance between action and stillness. One way of achieving that balance is by a simple yet profound way of living called 'Wabi Sabi'.

It is a way that is natural, drawing close to the real world, and relaxing perpetually into beautiful patterns that exist there. Wabi Sabi is a way of life that appreciates and accepts complexity while at the same time values simplicity. It nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. To accept these realities is to accept contentment as the maturation of happiness, and to acknowledge that clarity and grace can be found in genuine unvarnished existence. Filled with subtlety and depth, this way is a river flowing toward and away from you, and always within you.

--Richard Powell

Deep Listening

When someone deeply listens to you it’s like holding out a dented cup you’ve had since childhood and watching it fill up with cold fresh water.

When it balances on top of the brim, you are understood. When it overflows and touches your skin you are loved.

When someone deeply listens to you the room where you stay starts a new life and the place where you wrote your first poem begins to glow in your mind’s eye.

It is as if gold has been discovered!

When someone deeply listens to you, your bare feet are on the earth and a beloved land that seemed distant is now at home within you.

~John Fox