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RE: renewable caring

For those who show up...however they can for love

…caregiving of yourself and your others …and the world

to be better gardeners of our ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE….

CONNECTED & a Perfecting Moment

8/1/2020

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I  begin by reminding myself, (and you) about the FIRE HOSE of power in the moment. 

EVERYTHING can change in a moment but when we make the moment a practice...it perfects us.

(Ahem, that would be THIS one.) No... wait we missed it.  Don't worry here it is again... because the quantum scientists and the ancient mystics say that we only have ONE: i.e. This one moment. 

Practicing the PERFECTing Moment

We began this sound meditation with a ONE MINUTE meditation.  I call it PRACTICING the PERFECTING MOMENT: It is a Pause button which may be pushed any time.  We always have a minute.  This one was to the Indian singing bell with an "In & Out' mantra.

Daily Word today that day spoke about getting to a "calm certainty…in connection…" (that would be a great 1 minute mantra...) or simply Let your breath be your in and out mantra….

Here: it's simple:

1. Align – your spine …you should get a little spark of energy when you sit up straight or stand in a mindfully balanced way….( a frisson of flow)

2. Allow the breath to breathe you – to the sound of the singing bell.

3. Repeat for ONE minute.


    I am called to a sacred connection to all life.

    Our interconnectedness of everything with me …is my conscious powerhouse of energy.
    
    I am called to connect with my full, and confident expression of myself and engage the circumstances of life with poise and tenacity.  
    
    I see A calm certainty  of CONNECTION  When I look at nature.

    I notice how the trees provide a nesting place for birds and how rainfall nourishes all living creatures. My observations remind me that I am connected to all things through Spirit.
    
    I remember and honor my connection to all living beings as sacred by

•    expressing respect to animals, the environment, and all people.
•    Giving thanks for how nature provides & sustain my life.
•    improving my interpersonal skills so that I may connect with authenticity and compassion.
•    growing from life’s wisdom  
This wisdom informs my mind and directs my steps. I am a conscious agent for beneficial change.
I connect to my full, and confident expression of myself and engage the circumstances of life with poise and tenacity.

    - Daily word  – Believe

An Embodied PAUSE BUTTON...

This is a PAUSE BUTTON in your day…making a better day by making the next moment better. IT REMINDs us in a deep embodied way…that we have all the time we need right now for a good life…well lived.

I teach this to my teams in hospice, (if they are willing).  There are many ways to pause but using meditation techniques allow quick access the deep medicine of CONNECTION, (to  the Holy SPIRIT or our Higher Power ) in THE NEXT moment.

BECAUSE…pausing can mean that we respond instead of react …and that matters in my world, in your world, and in everyone else’s. Is the world today not reactive ENOUGH?

CONNECTED: 
Listen to the meditation here.

No time...not to.

Now is the time
for the world to know
That every thought and action
is sacred

This is the time
For you to deeply compute
the impossibility

That there is anything
But Grace…. 

      –Hafiz, The Gift
        Translation Daniel Ladinsky

Because playfully …and in truth…there is no time.  This is both quantum and eternal truth that time does not exist. 

We are spiritual beings having a human experience…and we are… only now. (i.e. that would be that same moment I mentioned earlier...)

FOR a single minute, you can
• Drop into ‘NO TIME’…(and in no time you can find a moment of ‘no-time’.)

• Take a moment (Say...this ONE) to know time because "NOW is the time" to Know Time… because we don’t need 20 minutes to be calm. We can, with practice, put it all aside..for 60 seconds, drop down, touch down, and BEGIN AGAIN.

No. 1  The In & Out Mantra...

In this first exercise, the "In & Out" Mantra, let's make the mantra short but EXPANSIVE. It can be a word, a principle, an image, a color, an idea, or it could be an experience.

The feeling of opening would be a great mantra for this one minute practice. Whatever you choose take it from your 'happy list'.  You don't have a HAPPY LIST...Make one. It's important to your happiness to know the things that make your heart sing.

BEST PRACTICE: the list of happy.
What are your happy symbols, words, images to carry with you?. 
ere's my list:

•  puppy energy,
• color orange,
•  a crackling fire,
•  a walk in nature,
• Deco architecture
• laugh lines
•screened porches
• Hafiz etc.

What MAKES YOU HAPPY?)

Choose Happy...(Why not?)


Whatever mantra you choose for the in breath, use it for the out-breath, too. REPEAT &  Start again. Do this for one minute.  It can be intense but it is easy... Let's take 'EASE" as an example:

Breathe in - THINK: ease
Hold it for a count of 4 - think of that image, sound, meaning as filling you up

Breathe out fully & slowly: THINK: ease (flowing out into the world)
BECAUSE, if you are connected to LOVE (insert you word for God/SOURCE here) you are connected to a fire hose of refreshment and YOU (little old you) have more than enough to spread around. What you are and do matters.

RIGHT?  If you are not fully convinced that you have to put in hours on the cushion (to earn) your peace, prove it to yourself.  TRY this one a day.  Like our AA friends say, it works if you work it.

HOW to DO a Perfecting Moment?

1) Go APART – (find a quiet place...where no one can find you...it's only a minute...)
       a. Put it all aside for just 60 seconds.
       b. Decide on what you want your mantra to be for the next 60 seconds
       c. Set timer & go.

2) Align spine …You should get a little spark of energy when you sit
up straight or stand in a mindfully balanced way….

3) Allow the breath to breathe you – BEGIN the minute: breathe in, pause, and out repeating your mantra of the moment.

DO this once a day – or once an hour and you will grow a better life.

ATTRIBUTIONS TODAY:

Daily Word July 29 & 30, 2020:  Connection & Believe

THANK YOUs

THANK YOU to all you who have signed up for my monthly writings in Taking Care Resilience News And, of course,  to those who have purchased my book.   

It is lovely to be seen….and heard

A new & free audio book will be coming out soon… you will get it automatically for those who belong to my mailing list… sign up HERE

1) My thanks to Mary Oliver for her  line from THE SUMMER DAY. – my one wild and precious life…

2) MY thanks to  SF unity for the invitation to practice as my highest self.   I invite you to do that today.  We need your voice.   


Blessings….on your day.

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The Health Stumble...and Dance

7/10/2020

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EM Claire’s poem talks about stumbles…and grace in the stumbles…i.e.the benefits of a friendly Universe.

This is a simple lesson…but deep. It’s not a LESSON for beginners.

To hear the lesson in a stumble...or even just to  be willing to hear that the seeming failure or illness not about them…i.e. the judgment from them…of the others…from the world.  It’s about something deeper inside... me.

If we are spiritual beings having a human experience – as Telehard de Chardain says, it means we are whole already…as spiritual beings…but in our humanness we experience disturbances… Illness pain and suffering..


The Best Dancers

“Maybe God keeps me here like this
To stumble a little.
If I were to suddenly just turn into light,
Blinding even myself
To the most precious and necessary illusions

Then what hand could hold my own?
Where would rest a weary head?
What good use for warm hearts:
For hot tears?
Why eyes to see?
Why arms to open?
Which lovefamily to fall into?

Oh, only the best dancers know
What grace
Every stumble
Contains."    – EM CLAIRE


"We are spiritual beings having a human experience." – as Telehard de Chardain


Caregiving: Spiritual Maintenance

The ocean between these two: the spiritual body and the human body is about caregiving of yourself and your loved ones: spiritual maintenance.

Undeniably pain is part of this human journey…but is suffering?

We DO NOT suffer when we speak the story of unconditional love in a friendly universe. When we embody that love story we are vibrantly healthy. But it's easy to forget.  We forget whose and who we are in our fearful wanderings

Getting back to wholeness and health?

It’s a journey in which the whole of the human race accompanies us; we have KINSHIP here – Radical Kinship…(a term by Fr. Greg Boyle and subject of the meditation yesterday by same name)
Caring: self-care and caregiving, is OUR collective and individual healing journey:the ocean between the spiritual body and the human body is caregiving of yourself and your loved ones…

Caregiving is spiritual maintenance and it begins with two things.

Be WILLING
We become willing to hear the disturbances… to hear the lesson…or even just be willing to hear the disturbing story we are telling ourself… under our longings; under the chronic, and the painful.  

    ◆    What disturbs you?
    ◆    What story is coming up?

TELL A BETTER STORY…a LOVE Story
We need to remind ourselves to tell a better story…
•    The truer story of what does not change.  
•    The Eternal story of an unconditional, accepting  love that heals.

We start with knowing that we are not any of the stories we tell – but there are helpful ones and damaging ones, to be sure.
We are spiritual beings with the whole of the kingdom of God inside us.  We are, as Rev. Eric Butterworth says,  “God is inside us …not like a raisin is in a bun but like an ocean is in a wave.”

How do we get back to wholeness and health?
We become willing to speak the story of unconditional love…persistently and unceasingly.  This love is deep at the core of me AND is our most precious NATURAL resource for our lives and a kinder,  just world. We stay open.
Let go of your negative judgments of  yourself, your cells, your body, and even your fears…
Replace them with Love story.

I Got Kin  by Hafiz

Plant.     So that your own heart. Will grow

Love, so God will think, aHHHH, I got kin in that body! I should start inviting that soul over for coffee and rolls.”

Sing.   Because this is a food. Our starving world. Needs.

Laugh      Because that is the purest Sound.   



WHAT IS your AFFIRMATION on your stumbles for love today?

What do you affirm for your one wild and precious life today?

What’s in the way of kinship with yourself?

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Originally prepared for 100 th session of SHELTER in GRACE – a Sound meditation for your ONE WILD & PRECIOUS LIFE July 10th, 2020

The NEW by line is attributed to Mary Oliver in her most well known line from THE SUMMER DAY.

ATTRIBUTIONS:
1)    The best dancers by EM Claire – Silent Sacred Holy Deepening Heart
2)    Hafiz I got Kin – the GIFT – translation Daniel Ladinsky

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
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    EM Hager
    Author, Bereavement & Spiritual care, Sound meditation guide.

    "Look deeply into nature and you will understand everything human"
               – Albert Einstein

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     BEGIN AGAIN has the first 8 gifts...                                                           The Field Guide has ALL the gifts... 

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