 Photo by Leah Kelly, Pexels The acorn is a seed with a nature and destiny to become…an oak tree. It is our nature and destiny to become… We are not broken but blessed. When we are in grief…from the little losses of a normal human life…or the big losses of death…we must go to ground. Grief cracks us open. Pandemics crack us open. Death cracks us open. Go to ground.. Go to the ground of our being, and a world of growth and possibility opens up, (ahem)... after a time. Can Grief be Medicine? It was for me...and I handled it badly. I accumulated so many little griefs that I was numb by the time the big hitters came by. I wrote about it...until I was empty. It worked for me. (and I created a book with gifts for you...should you be wise enough or courageously curious enough to want to hear another's story: Her is a link) Grief offers up for your review that which changes...contrasting with that which DOES NOT CHANGE. This is inner work. It is a spiritual journey. I did not know how to process feelings as they came (feel them ...and let them go) much less allow my support system in. I thought I was along. I was not. I am not and neither are you. But by far the most important thing is to have faith in a friendly universe...and that change is not a bad thing. A Sound Meditation about Change: A story about change by Jacob Needleman
A Hafiz Poem ...about the biggest & |
 The Audible book is really lovely to walk with...and savor |  These translations will change you! |  Get one on Amazon here; |
 3rd Video in a series on LISTENING | When I am deaf, dumb and blind to my own inner voice, it’s easy to get lost in the wilderness… (Wilderness being defined as the place where I have forgotten who I am… ) Or maybe destination is my problem… |
Mary Baker Eddy helps me retuirn to where I started with the driving metaphors:
“We have nothing to fear when Love is at the helm of thought.”
MEDITATION CHORUS REFRAIN | 3rd Video in the LISTENING series |
Listening from a place of Acceptance and Love allows us to let go of what no longer serves us.
Get quiet
Get quiet enough to be useful…
Drop down to the kingdom within…
Under the turbulence and uncertainty of the surface world
Get quiet …
Get quiet enough to be useful…
Listen to the inner voice…
listen to the kind voice in the silence and in the sound.
Safe…nothing to fear … give the car keys to LOVE… sit back; slide over into the passenger’s seat for the next 20 minutes…get comfortable.
God is “at the helm of thought.”
| • to our principles & • to our constitution & • to each other. |
"Finding the information given to me from the cranky, and well-intentioned is not easy. The linkage that makes me renewable is being able to course correct. This is fertile soil…” - EM Hager Feed Me Feedback No. 30
MEDITATION CHORUS REFRAIN | Second in series on Listening |
We REMAIN IN SIGHT of our friends (…and family) the ultimate touch stone of friendship (and listening) is not improvement, but the privilege of witness.
Keep your heart Open; stay connected.
LUKE 6:43 … figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor grapes from brambles. 45 The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart.
David Whyte says to simply be a friend…
‘Friendship is the great hidden transmuter
of all relationships.
...Remain in sight of my friends
...The ultimate touchstone of friendship (and listening) is not improvement but the privilege of witness”
 | The only choice we have in how we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability. |
How we become larger and more courageous
and more compassionate in our
intimacy with disappearance?
Friendship transcends disappearance
REMAIN IN SIGHT of our friends.
The ultimate touch stone of friendship (and connection) is not improvement, but the privilege of witness.
Keep your heart Open;
Stay connected
Begin again.
• Breath | FIrst in the sound meditation on LISTENING |
“It is precisely under crisis conditions when we have the most to gain by a grateful perspective on life. IN the face of demoralization, gratitude has the power to energize . IN the face of brokenness, gratitude has the power to heal. In the face of despair, gratitude has the power to bring hope. …He goes on to say “ But the sense that there’s real skin in the game – real potential for loss – is important. Sometimes, maybe, actually experiencing loss is what has to happen to wake us up.”
The dynamic of friendship is almost always underestimated as a constant force in human life: a diminishing circle of friends is the first terrible diagnostic of a life in deep trouble: of overwork, of too much emphasis on a professional identity, of forgetting who will be there when our armored personalities run into the inevitable natural disasters and vulnerabilities found in even the most average existence…
A friend knows our difficulties and shadows and remains in sight, a companion to our vulnerabilities more than our triumphs- even when we are under the strange illusion we do not need them….Friendship transcends disappearance: an enduring friendship goes on after death, the exchange only transmuted by absence the relationship advancing and maturing in a silent internal conversational way even after on half of the bond has passed on….
But no matter the medicinal virtues of being a true a true friend or sustaining a long close relationship with another, the ultimate touch stone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.
–David Whyte Excerpts from his book Consolations- Friendship
There is a love which itself has the power to free the human heart.
Whoever arrives at this place looks at the world differently. The distinctions on the surface no longer exist.
Love does not come as theory. It moves in bodies, in nature, in the ground beneath us and the space between.
True Love is not emotional. It is a different nature, waiting in us like a secret seed
…this is the truth we all must find. The profound problems of …the inner and outer world… will be solved by love, and love alone
-Richard Rohr - Inner and Outer Freedom:
Freedom to Love. 6.16.2020
 Max Richters piece Dream 3 (in the midst of my life) | Like many others, I stumbled into Zoom to support people. Almost 200 YouTube sound meditations later, I am on sabbatical for the holidays and thinking about what i might offer in January 2021 when I begin again. What do I need? What does the world need. My answer to both is rest. This post is about a composer who makes music to help us sleep: Max Richter may be in your COVID-19 necessary coping toolkit... |
Max Richter does music compositions for sleep - One lasts 8 hours - this link is called SLEEP 2 & lasts 2 minutes... 
Max Richter walking in a Los Angeles outdoor venue with an interviewer...before the concert there in 2018 
 | 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. |
| 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. |
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Now is the time | 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’.) |
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?)
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.
| I am having a conflict with a business associate…It troubles my world. My responses to date have not healed it. Compromise does not work. I experience this someone as a bully, which makes me want to fight him…not literally… but to prove I am right so I can be safe. BUT I DON”T have to fight to be safe. Safety is in my control by declaring Divine order...(This is not a beginner spiritual lesson... it's for the seasoned.) |  You don’t have to fight to be safe... |
I declare divine order and know all is well. It is the first and last affirmation for a prayer…My job is to pray and trust that the highest and best good of all concerned is manifesting in an orderly fashion…the answers will come in perfect timing…
Spirit is within me and within everyone…Divine order is present in every person and in all situations.
I am at peace with what is…and what will be; Divine order is unfolding.
I affirm the unfolding…even when the world looks like it is not…
| Affirming Divine order lays the critical ground of PERSPECTIVE AND perspective allows me to stand in my authenticity (or truth) BUT at…a higher perspective… I can 'reside at the center of the circle" at my center…and listen. |
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No. 30 Feed Me Feedback
We are not made to do this alone.
We need our fellow passengers, our time-traveling shipmates, to help us refine the implementations of our dreams...
It is the basis of all innovation—and what makes the Golden State gold (and the Pacific Northwest green) because we don’t do great things alone. We need each other.
It’s about being willing to try again, to grow and be better—from information received.
Just because I listen to advice doesn’t mean I take it, (or that they are right…)
but it could be the key to discovering something wonderful. Feedback is easier to accept if it is tactful—but even if unskillful, if it lands on the fertile, adult soil of willingness … it can be course correcting.
You can pivot. Changing how a dream looks (or starting again from scratch) may be the quickest and best way to get to where you want to be. It is the difference between persistence and stubbornness (which can be look-a-likes).
I lost a lot… not receiving feedback well.
– A Hospice Chaplain's Field Guide to Caregiving–Finding Resilience on the Frontlines of Love
| What is the value of human kindness? Do a ‘random act of kindness’ in this moment, on yourself. Choose now… to see it all with kindness… Maybe…just maybe you and others are doing the best they can. Be kind. Let kindness rain down. |  “..Be the ground that drinks up |
“Bring forth your own joyous world of love, friendship, beauty and plenty… There is within you the God-given intelligence to. Build such a (joyous) world.”. | These kindnesses are sweet small steps that heal me…and I can supercharge the healing by focusing on them… and dwelling there. |
Can I just choose a better, happier moment on which to focus?
So to shift to some more interesting story—or something more worth doing?
..Be ground that drinks up the rain… Hebrews 6:7
Let kindness rain. Choose
| If you enjoyed it, subscribe Here on Youtube. |
BEST PRACTICE: the ONE thing
What is the ONE THING that you can do in kindness for yourself today?
• Make it doable...a sweet small thing
• Make it an adjacent possible.
• Make it yours.
Or use A KNUCKLE HEAD SUPERPOWER.
Maybe it is that ONE THING that you need to forgive yourself about...and let it go. (Really...quit picking at the wound and let it heal.)
It's not so shameful or scary to forgive yourself when using the word "knucklehead".
Try it on.
It is a little funny, and lighthearted. But most importantly it has a collective quality. Hey, we are all knuckleheads at one time or another. like, join the human club and get over yourself. We ALL make mistakes. Admit them and stop suffering.
It's not only efficient. It's compassionate.
| Taking Care Resilience News. Be renewable. It's free. It's monthly. If you are CAREGIVING, ( or need to lighten your load) try my monthly resilience email. |
"Look deeply into nature and you will understand everything human" – Albert Einstein
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