Maybe an interesting title, maybe not. Carving out the time to see yourself. Carving out the time to know your place in the world. Carving out the time to be with your God as you understand a god. Walking in nature even if within the crowded city. Sleeping in. Taking a nap. Walking for more than an hour, really anywhere.
What do you do to carve out the time? It is vital and we always need reminders.
Happy Carving !!
It is going to be tough to decide how to respond to the US government in the coming months. Do we wait and see or do we act out of fear and prepare for the worst? I believe that a time is coming where people who are aware and wanting to do the right thing will be severely challenged with balancing the letting go with right action.
I really don’t feel I can sit idly by and watch terrible things happen. But at the same time, I don’t really always know what I can do to change things.
I watched one of the protests in the days after the election. It was a demonstration of white supremacists. The two sides basically just had a stand off in the street where they were yelling at each other. I wonder what was the final tally of the cost of the police protection?
And then on one of the nights I watched as the police in riot gear unloaded on the street in front of my building. I felt a tremendous anger with authority at that moment. The demonstration that particular night did not seem any different than on the previous night.
It has all been a learning experience for me. I have witnessed people who are very serious about these demonstrations and are perhaps the type of people who would resort to violence in just a few seconds’ time. Those people exist on both sides of the issues.
So what is the appropriate response from a purely spiritual perspective? A nonviolent approach would most certainly be called for and perhaps there is some room for a wait and see approach. I do think those who choose the wait and see approach need to be careful that it is not in reality just the path of denial.
Things can change very quickly in this type of environment and we do need to be prepared.
Perhaps the path is one of wait and see and vigilance. Pay attention, pray your prayers, ramp up your practice just a bit. We can make it. Love has to be on our side. Justice has to be on our side. The Truth has to win out.
Peace
This silence is not just the absence of noise. It is the very silence from which the world was formed. The miracle is that we have access to this same silence within our own beings, within our own soul.
It takes practice to quiet the mind. On the other side of a quiet mind is the great somber silence.
Yes, gratitude again. The companion to gratitude, I believe, is positive thinking. Now I know that positive thinking has a history and has many good and bad reviews. I want to challenge the contemplative to use the sitting practice to really examine everyday thoughts. What language are you using inside your mind? What kinds of words are most often in your conversations? Words are so very powerful and need to be chosen wisely. The words that are not spoken are just as important. The unspoken words that we speak continually in our minds influence us in very subtle ways. The challenge now is to go deeper into your thoughts during the quiet and examine. Examine those thoughts for the words and patterns that might need adjusting to a more positive position. Turn on the light.
There is a soft comfort that comes with the in between time. It is a time of change and transition. We are moving from one place to another. Do we give over to anxiety and fear or do we just rest and wait? We probably do a little of both!
Regardless of your picture of a higher power, there is something out there that will let you know that you are not alone. There is a spiritual force which will keep you safe from harm. Let that force support you and keep you warm.
Rest, rest, rest.
My Labyrinth Journey 