Friday, August 28, 2015
Whole Living
I took time out of my day to sit in my favorite park in town and simply take in the day. The unseasonably cool weather of late has been nothing short of perfection for those of us who don't really enjoy the heat and loathe the cold. As I sit, I wonder about what the essence of whole living requires of us. To live a whole life requires of us a commitment to taking in all that life brings our way. Much like the idea of resting with our life situations, living wholly calls on us to embrace our life as meaningful. It suggests that we become unabashed in our pursuits of making life all that we want it to be. Being committed to whole living doesn't come without price, but the price is so small in regards to the return on the investment. To live wholly we must commit that we are serious to accepting life as it unfolds and in doing so we are willing to make the necessary changes to allow life to grow exponentially. A wholly lived life will become so rooted in the notion that life is a gift that it will be received with the excitement of the greatest surprise party in the world. I'd be remiss to say that every day when we wake up we throw on our party hats and dance in our own conga line---no, whole living means that even on the days when the helium is out of the balloon we realize our gift of life is richer on those days than any other. To live with such zeal is daring-it is also freeing. We are whole when at the moment we realize we are living for for the experience of living and for the lessons such living will give to us.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
The Honesty Within
My dog Naia, has got to be one of the most honest animals I have ever had as a pet. She is a ball of crazy hyper energy coupled with the bark of a mastiff. She's very curious yet never strays very far from sight. When called, she's slow to respond unless there is food involved or her brother, Mac is in hot pursuit of a belly rub. She's very affectionate with everyone yet only allows certain ones to get "close." When I picked up this little girl a few years ago, she had come from very dire circumstances and needed to be loved. Often times, she would sit on the other side of the room and stare at me for what seemed like hours--making sure that she wasn't going to be giving in too quickly. I will never forget the night that she decided it was okay to come over and place her head on my lap and let me pet her. She instantly fell asleep and I breathed deeply a sigh of comfort.
You see, it took Naia a while to figure out her love, her situation and her agreement within. Many days I'll find her sitting in the same spot in the back yard pointing her face northwest. I'll watch her through the window. She sits and stares off in the distance and lets the breeze blow her floppy ears up and down. Sometimes I wonder---"what is she thinking?" Could it be that she is just at peace with finding a home, someone to lover her? Her brother Mac will waddle by--and in his attempt to pull her into play---she'll nudge him along and continue her northwestern gaze.
This dog has taught me a lesson. That lesson being---it is okay to survey the landscape. Often I am guilty of jumping in with both feet and then looking back to what it is I should have considered. I'm finding the pause before the reaction will often give me a clearer understanding of present circumstance and inevitably cause me to look inward to ask the hard questions. Releasing our connection to the universe and quieting the soul takes practice. It requires that we are honest within. Inward honesty is often a reflection of our ability to love ourselves and to release the insecurity we use as our barrier to realizing what it is the universe has in store for us. We are a limitless well of possibility springing up from a potential that is given to us by life. When we perceive to know ourselves fully-it is in that moment that we must be wholly honest with ourselves. We must turn our gaze inward and believe that what we have as a source of strength is indeed our own ability to overcome struggle leading us to obtain all that life wants for us.
You see, it took Naia a while to figure out her love, her situation and her agreement within. Many days I'll find her sitting in the same spot in the back yard pointing her face northwest. I'll watch her through the window. She sits and stares off in the distance and lets the breeze blow her floppy ears up and down. Sometimes I wonder---"what is she thinking?" Could it be that she is just at peace with finding a home, someone to lover her? Her brother Mac will waddle by--and in his attempt to pull her into play---she'll nudge him along and continue her northwestern gaze.
This dog has taught me a lesson. That lesson being---it is okay to survey the landscape. Often I am guilty of jumping in with both feet and then looking back to what it is I should have considered. I'm finding the pause before the reaction will often give me a clearer understanding of present circumstance and inevitably cause me to look inward to ask the hard questions. Releasing our connection to the universe and quieting the soul takes practice. It requires that we are honest within. Inward honesty is often a reflection of our ability to love ourselves and to release the insecurity we use as our barrier to realizing what it is the universe has in store for us. We are a limitless well of possibility springing up from a potential that is given to us by life. When we perceive to know ourselves fully-it is in that moment that we must be wholly honest with ourselves. We must turn our gaze inward and believe that what we have as a source of strength is indeed our own ability to overcome struggle leading us to obtain all that life wants for us.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
The Beginning
In the truest pursuit of wondering about what lies around the next corner--we are often resolved to being scared because we are not insomuch aware that we are attempting a rather onerous task of figuring out life. What the "life pursuit" tells us is that we must live in the fear of not knowing because life based in fear will motivate us to find out much more about our ability to be resilient. In all honesty, the only two true emotions of fear and love give us a rather poignant precipice from which we glance our ability to either exist in transition or crumble from its uncertainty.
We have a choice in life. That choice is a split of 50/50 right down the middle----no possibilities in between. Our choice is to realize our life's situation is not so much a universal game of chess, but rather it is a craft---a tapestry of sorts that is woven with careful reactions to what our journey gives to us. We get the choice to wallow in our self pity---in the mire of what we deem our defining moments or we get the choice to embrace those entrances and exits in life which will teach us how we are to navigate the road.
Far too long I've been given to resisting the fears I have because of the nature of the flight or fight response. Here lately, I've been beginning again---the approach that says I will embrace what is coming at me because I have the choice to let it teach me a valuable lesson about living a life that is grounded in hope, in excitement and in resilience. Instead of making the choice to push back or to negate what is happening in life---I've chosen to embrace it, to rest with it awhile---and then when that "resting period" is over, to release it and to give it back to the universe therein sending with it all of the negative emotions and leaving with me the positive lessons.
Everyday, when I let my dogs out into the back yard for their morning run---I take time to sit on the stairs of my tiny cottage. I breath in the air whether it be humid or crisp. I let it fill my lungs. I listen for the sounds around me--sometimes traffic, sometimes a train even sometimes my dogs growling as the play on the wet grass. I embrace those sounds, I smile about hearing them. I breath again. My thoughts begin to pick-up. Thoughts about what the day is to bring, what needs to be done. I allow them to enter my mind---to rest there before I send them on and once again listen to what is going on around me. I center myself. I continue breathing and checking my body for its quirky aches and pains brought on by an often times deep sleep. I let those aches and pains help me to focus on knowing myself. The intricacies of what makes me live---I'm alive. After about fifteen minutes of doing this---I realize that I'm present in the day and ready for the journey.
The beginning again and again and again. That is life---that is engaging. We are but able to make our journey exactly what it is by allowing those feelings to permeate our existence, allowing those fears to keep us alive and by allowing love to direct our intentions. The beginning is here.
We have a choice in life. That choice is a split of 50/50 right down the middle----no possibilities in between. Our choice is to realize our life's situation is not so much a universal game of chess, but rather it is a craft---a tapestry of sorts that is woven with careful reactions to what our journey gives to us. We get the choice to wallow in our self pity---in the mire of what we deem our defining moments or we get the choice to embrace those entrances and exits in life which will teach us how we are to navigate the road.
Far too long I've been given to resisting the fears I have because of the nature of the flight or fight response. Here lately, I've been beginning again---the approach that says I will embrace what is coming at me because I have the choice to let it teach me a valuable lesson about living a life that is grounded in hope, in excitement and in resilience. Instead of making the choice to push back or to negate what is happening in life---I've chosen to embrace it, to rest with it awhile---and then when that "resting period" is over, to release it and to give it back to the universe therein sending with it all of the negative emotions and leaving with me the positive lessons.
Everyday, when I let my dogs out into the back yard for their morning run---I take time to sit on the stairs of my tiny cottage. I breath in the air whether it be humid or crisp. I let it fill my lungs. I listen for the sounds around me--sometimes traffic, sometimes a train even sometimes my dogs growling as the play on the wet grass. I embrace those sounds, I smile about hearing them. I breath again. My thoughts begin to pick-up. Thoughts about what the day is to bring, what needs to be done. I allow them to enter my mind---to rest there before I send them on and once again listen to what is going on around me. I center myself. I continue breathing and checking my body for its quirky aches and pains brought on by an often times deep sleep. I let those aches and pains help me to focus on knowing myself. The intricacies of what makes me live---I'm alive. After about fifteen minutes of doing this---I realize that I'm present in the day and ready for the journey.
The beginning again and again and again. That is life---that is engaging. We are but able to make our journey exactly what it is by allowing those feelings to permeate our existence, allowing those fears to keep us alive and by allowing love to direct our intentions. The beginning is here.
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