Seasons of the Soul

Kazan Today

Today's entry is an article from my online friend, Dick Kazan, who writes the most inspirational weekly newsletter. This story reminds us to get out of tick tock mentality and boxed thinking. What could have been a major loss was turned into an event that 200 people would never forget. It shows us that if we flow with life, nothing needs to be wasted. Everything has use somewhere and can make a positive contribution to others or our earth. After all, Nature does not waste anything. Only we humans do.

 

http://www.kazantoday.com/WeeklyArticles/the-fowler-family.html

Turning Irritation Into Opportunity

 

A friend called who is having a challenging time taking care of her sister who had fallen and severely hurt herself. Both of the women are in their 60s, and both have had falls. This time, however, a broken leg was the result, and whereas the sister who was injured was only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom, her sister was taking over all the chores and the full care of her sister, including helping her at night when she had to use the facilities. It was difficult for both of them and called upon all my friend’s energy reserves. She was exhausted and began to feel resentful, and then she had a startling idea. She would see this time of helping her sister as if she was in a Buddhist monastery for two months. She knew that if she were there, she would be up at 3:30 or 4 AM and that there would be requirements that instill patience, compassion, and serenity in the midst of annoyance.

She told me that the most amazing thing happened as a result of the decision. Both she and her sister were better tempered, more loving, and able to laugh, and that she had absolutely no resentment about helping – only gratitude that she COULD. The negative became a positive and ushered in more ideas about how to make the holidays easier and more fun for them both.

The decision my friend made is one that all of us would benefit from. We are always dealing with annoyances in one form or another. Little things become big things when we let them get out of hand, and if we were able to remind ourselves that life is a beautiful opportunity to overcome the irritants, we would be able to look through eyes of love, appreciating all that we are given…including the challenges.

Let’s take a little time each day to be grateful for everything that is presented to us. It’s an opportunity to learn, to help, to have more understanding about another, or to utilize our skills in problem solving or diplomacy. When we do this, our focus shifts from being burdened or put upon to curiosity and willingness to see what’s in front of us through eyes of appreciation. As we see everything that comes into our lives as a gift, our reactions shift, and we look for the silver lining in seeming clouds, and for the pearl of great price beyond the irritation. It’s worth trying because we have nothing to lose, and possibly a world of good to gain!

Tumultuous Earth

Our earth is a beautiful planet with stunning vistas and breathtaking views. Poets wax poetically about its splendor, and painters and photographers have made careers out of earth’s many faces. It feeds, houses. and provides us with everything we need for life. It is our incubator and our sustainer, and it is also tumultuous. 

Earth goes through upheavals and cycles, major storms, volcanic eruption, earthquakes, and weather that can be terrifying. Earth gives and takes away. It is nourisher and destroyer, moved by forces we don’t fully understand that have to do with its interaction with the solar system of which it is part and also within its own environment.

We humans accept the fact that earth has seasons and that there is no constancy that we can expect from our earth home, and therefore early on we sought to “tame” earth to do our will. However, as we have moved along through time we have seen that this is not easily accomplished. In most cases, we fail, as with one swift motion, earth can topple our best laid plans. Therefore, we have an uneasy alliance, being reminded from time to time of the true raw power and nature, and unfortunately not understanding the mechanism that makes earth tick.

In looking at life as one system of energy, we continuously forget that the tumult of earth is also the tumult within every living thing on earth. We have times of great abundance and times of lack. There is too much water or too little…tropical lushness and dry deserts. The paradox of opposites abounds on the planet, and for some reason, human beings do not recognize that just as earth is tumultuous, so are we. And so is all life. We come in to this place where we are subject to all the laws of nature. We have lives that reflect joy as well as sorrow. We have sickness and we have health, and into each life a little storm will appear from time to time. It is not a constant, and we are always surprised when it shows itself exactly as it is. Suddenly, we blame God. Before, when all was well, God was good. When things are bad, God is unloving and doesn’t care, or doesn’t exist. Our childish projections of good and bad to God or any Creator are really illusions that we play with. The truth is much more interlinked with the earth and all the rest of life on the planet.

We are indeed part of the tumultuous earth, and our own journeys are ones in which we are learning, unfolding, and growing in to ourselves. We have peak experiences and moments of isolation to temper us and test our mettle. We are weeded out as strong plants or weak plants, and always the focus of life is to bring the sustenance to the strongest within the species, regardless of emotional wants to the contrary. Life supports many, but it also retracts and seemingly takes away so we cannot get attached to a particular way of life that will last forever and ever. Our very act of aging and dying proves that over and over again...so let's recognize the gift of life and the challenges that come with it. Let's count our blessings and appreciate the good, while understanding that the opposite is also part of a life legacy. When we overcome the need for everything to be "just so" we can have a more compatible attitude about our lives and the life of our planet. We don't need to fight so hard to keep things the same. We can bend, yield, and move with the flow rather than struggling upstream. Everything is subject to change and the unexpected...but in the meantime let's find the joy of being here!

The Murder of Innocence

I think the following is an important reminder to us not to be complacent in the face of trends and events that demean the human spirit and  exploit those who do not know better. It is too easy to be carried away with the mindset of the time because something appears harmless. As the unfortunate example below demonstrates, pushing things prematurely can have devastating consequences.

 

Plastered across the pages of newspapers, magazines, and the television screens were images of a gorgeous young model cut down in her prime. She  was the picture of a true Barbie Doll, hair and makeup perfect, smile and expression inviting…all the promise of sexuality to come. She was but one of a growing number of young women her age who competed for a title coveted by all. And she was but one of a growing example of something that has gone terribly wrong in our country. For she was six years old, and her image was not that of a little girl, but of a young Lolita. And the disturbing factor to the whole story, aside from the sadness of a child being murdered, was that the media did not even question the shocking reality that children are being pushed into roles as sex objects at younger and younger ages.

What is being touted as young Miss America contests is little more than the prostitution of childhood. These children are not being represented as children, but as caricatures of sexually alluring young adults…before the issue of wrinkles spoils their virgin beauty. They are not represented in a manner that makes anyone think of them as adorable little innocents…they are being paraded as fantasies of what is yet to come. So the horror is not only in the murder of one of these children, but in the fact that there was no general outcry against the exploitation of childhood.

We express concern at the rise of child pornography in our country. Yet this representation of little girls is one step removed from that. When pictures are shown of young Shirley Temple, one is moved to motherly or fatherly pride of this precocious and precious little figure. There is a desire to protect her, as she represents the innocence of a child. When one views these little Miss America’s with their heavy makeup and adult hairdos, there is nothing child-like about them other than their age. The ones who “win” do not represent the essence of childhood beauty, they represent a fixation with sexual attractiveness. And if someone has a fixation with sex and youth, this is the perfect breeding ground for their fantasy, because nothing about the representation of these children denotes a desire to protect innocence.

What has gone so horribly wrong with our society that we no longer value the childishness of children, or appreciate the lack of sophistication they represent? How numbed have we become to exploitation? And what kind of neurotic messages are we giving our children in the condoning of this depiction of a child’s beauty? The offensiveness of  this marketing of childhood goes way beyond words. It is a clear signal of a decaying society. 

 

The Moment

If we are bound by the moment it is like bondage to insanity...for the moment feels like everything, yet as in the case of sand, each moment is a granule shaping something of the future. And taken as a body, the sand is soft beneath our feet...provides a natural cushion between land and sea. But one granule taken on its own can be an irritant, just like the moment in our lives. There is not enough to provide a body of knowledge. And to see the moment as the whole is to miss the greater work unfolding.

So as we are persuaded that what we experience in the dimness or greatness of the moment is all there is, we must extend ourselves to embrace a larger reach of consciousness. Time is the conduit through which all moves in this dimension. And it is only through time that the greater picture of our lives will emerge and be revealed.

The moment...the granule...one at a time.

The IGS For Life

The other day, my sweetie came home from somewhere and commented that he had gotten off on the wrong turnoff, but that the GPS system got him re-oriented and found a new route. He said it was really interesting that as long as we know our destination, the GPS will get us there regardless of how many wrong turns we take. And in this, we can look at our lives in the same way. We have a GPS that is at work for us all the time. We may take a high road or a low road, but if we turn on the IGS (Inner Guidance System), we will be guided to our destination regardless of the number of wrong turns we might take.

The key to the system is that we need to have an ultimate destination in mind. If we have that, the rest is easy. Years ago, someone mentioned that we don't have to worry about the Hows of life, just the What. If we know the What, the Hows will take care of themselves. That was before GPS, and now we have this marvelous physical demonstration that many of us use daily in how it works to get us from here to there. We just need to translate that in remembrance that the IGS is always available, and even though we don't have a physical device to show us it is so, all we need to do is turn on the God Channel, and there it is.

Next time you feel as though you have lost your way, click on the IGS. Nothing is impossible to those who believe, and we have a hosting service that is more than happy to assist us in finding our way Home.

I Would Like

 What would I like? I don’t necessarily know…but I’d like to feel freedom in my body and my spirit…to live exuberantly without the confines of continuous reminders that the body is not at peace with itself.

I’d like to be able to see, hear, taste, touch, emote, move, and have my being free from the constrictions that body presents again and again as reminders that I am tethered to a place and time that limits possibilities and restricts me to earth arrest…all possibility of floating free removed for whatever reason, for whatever season of my life and time this is.

I would like to be able to BE without confinement and the constant reminder in my head and evidence as I look in the mirror that there is such a thing as age and gender and health and illness and all the other “truths” we subscribe to in the world of space and time. 

I would like to feel light as a feather and be able to float and land at will, to create magic and inspiration through the brushstroke of my thoughts on paper or canvas or sent through the air.

I would like to view a world where magic happens daily...that Glinda the Good is leader of the pack instead of Darth Vader.

I would like to see equity amongst all living beings, the Earth most assuredly as a number one priority.

I would like to unharness myself from the plow of limitation and fly with the wings of inspiration.

I would like.