SIMPLE WISDOM

"My soul lives somewhere between silence and the moon." 

~ Terri Guillemets ~

Relieve tension with surrender, impatience with compassion, insistence with acceptance, and anger with love.

I live by spiritual principles. 

ACHES AND PAINS

 "The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep." 

~ Rumi ~

When we resist our aches and pains, they overtake us. Wanting to fix them, wanting them to go away as if by magic and feeling irritated that they do not go away serves us not at all. Let's allow what is to be. Let's relax into it and say ok. Let's stop fighting, stop resisting, and see what opens up.

I stop fighting and accept what is. 

IT CAME TO PASS

"Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed." 

~ Irene Peter ~

What's the nature of our unhappiness when it pops up? Is it legitimate, understandable, justified? Is it real, or just a condition of our mood? Is it something we have the power to transform? In the moment? In the big picture? Through our faith?
     Generally, we accept the way we feel as absolute, and sometimes it most definitely seems that way... but is it really? Whether we try to fix it or not, doesn't it always eventually pass?

I am grateful for the impermanent nature of all things.

STANDING AND SITTING STILL

"Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare fiddle?" 

~ Katherine Mansfield ~

Standing for long periods of time is as challenging for the body as sitting. Relief comes in movement. Our muscles and joints like to flex and contract and stretch and bend. That's what they're built for. They like to play!
     So let's balance moving with being still, and living vibrantly with a good night of sleep. Let's balance standing with stretching, and dancing around the table with sitting down to eat.

Our bodies feel best when we move them! 

UNDERSTANDING WHAT MATTERS

"Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!" 

~ Albert Einstein ~

This Christmas will be the first in 23 years that I have not spent with my children, and realizing that yesterday walking through a parking lot, I felt a wash of sorrow and loss- a great missing. I know that it's ok. I know that they are adults now, that they will be together, that it's just another day, and life will go on.
     Nonetheless, even knowing all that, I feel sad for it.
     We've had some challenging Christmases in the past so I thought it might be a relief to keep it simple this year and do our own thing, and now that I'm too far away to even make it an option, I realize how flippant I was about something immeasurably valuable, and primal, and deep.

I honor, acknowledge, and appreciate the irrepressible bond of family.

CONSIDERING SUCCESS

"Try to discover 

The road to success

And you'll seek but never find,

But blaze your own path

And the road to success

Will trail right behind."

~ Robert Brault ~

Perhaps success is different than we think it is. Maybe it's not something to strive for, but something that we already are. And maybe it has nothing to do with material achievement or recognition, and everything to do with courage, and compassion, and loving presence.
     It's a different experience to come from a position of success, instead of constantly pushing our way towards it. Relaxation and appreciation start to show up, and a genuine sense of authenticity, and unshakable confidence, from the tip of our toes up.

I consider the possibility that I am already a success. 

GNAWING AT THE PAIN

"Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies." 

~ Erich Fromm ~

Our German Shepherd has arthritis in his knee, and chewing on it seems to make him feel better, but when he does that it creates an open sore, so, it's likely not the best solution. And yet, don't we all do that?
     It feels satisfying somehow to gnaw away at whatever's uncomfortable, to bring attention to it, to constantly lick and bite at it in an effort to make it go away. But it doesn't go away. Approaching it this way only makes it bigger and more uncomfortable. So what's the answer?
     Address the issue in the healthiest way possible, seems to me- take progressive action if that's an option, do what we can to promote correction and reconciliation, and then leave it alone.

In challenging situations, I do what I can, and then stop.