Giving the Car Keys to a Knucklehead... I have forgotten where I want to go…because long ago I gave my keys to a knucklehead …or a series of knuckleheads… Or perhaps…just moving fast is what I need… (It can be a useful distraction… ) Just moving felt like progress… for years it distracted me from noticing that I had a happy face sticker covering over an empty gas tank… I was depleted … but these are the fruits of the tree of NOT LISTENING… • The first focuses on connections to community as a source of strength • last week’s is about the privilege of witnessing the whole of a friend’s lifetime • Todays one lifts up the value of listening to the inner…voice… How do we return to our original source spiritual DNA?To health? to what we came here to do? We get quiet enough for the sound of silence to be useful, which according to Deepak Chopra in his newest book Total Meditation is the key. To get quiet so the silence can be useful. Part is about feeling safe enough. Grounded enough to listen. The spiritual journey (and a good life) begins, developmentally, by being gifted with a safe place to feel that we belong, are wanted, and are safe. Then we can launch into the world as we understand that to be. Some of us must take over the gardening of our lives, earlier than others by circling back to find an inner place safe enough to be our best self and do in the world. We can then till the soil of ‘what is’ and bloom as we are able to sow and nurture. But we all must take over …,sometime…as gardeners of our lives. How do we find a SAFE ENOUGH place to sit and listen? How do we find a SAFE ENOUGH place to sit and listen? My answer to both is the sustaining circle of mindfulness… But mindful as defined from a scientist & psychologist, Daniel J. Siegel, from his book 'The Neurobiology of We’ is his definition of mindfulness this: COAL – Curiosity Openness Acceptance and Love. COAL – Curiosity Openness Acceptance and Love. • Curiosity • Openness • Acceptance and • Love. This is a self-regenerating place…a circle of love Mary Baker Eddy helps me retuirn to where I started with the driving metaphors: Me…I’m sitting back, getting comfortable and giving my car keys to LOVE…God is at the helm of thought.
Listening from a place of Acceptance and Love allows us to let go of what no longer serves us. ATTRIBUTIONS:
0 Comments
The United States has a new president…and a country to heal. How do we do that? As a hospice chaplain, I have a few superpowers…the first and foremost one is listening. This post and its sound meditation is the second of three…in a series on listening. David Whyte lent us a quote or two (again) about friendship’s “privilege of witnessing another’s whole self over time” NOT JUST THE NICE PARTS…but also (and especially) in crisis…” when our armored personalities run into the inevitable natural disasters and vulnerabilities found in even the most average existence….” I call these the our tender human trenches…which this country is in. I’d say we need to be friends now more than ever…
How do we listen with our hearts open?So How do we do this? How do we listen with our hearts open? I am heart centered. It is my practice to listen to the ‘the still small voice’ of Divine Guidance in my own heart…but I read too. "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 I believe in the “Feed Me Feedback” of the world …that is, in the muck and from which the lotus blossoms. I believe in feedback of others…but it is my own mind and heart that decides what to use and what to give back to the muck...
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. Personal Experience of God & the Muck I trust Spirit to speak. I know it by its voice of wisdom and love…and it is above all kind…not coddling…not easy… but good.I speak a lot about this direct experience WITH OUR OWN Higher Power here. It is oddly, something the spiritually progressive mystics have in common with the thoughtful but more traditionally religious evangelicals. Prayer and Meditation is a conversation with the Divine. Meditation is about getting still and LISTENING to Spirit...so we can witness our friends and even those who we do not yet (or perhaps might not ever) call a friend. So it was particularly troubling when I read a CSM article last week about the militant evangelical conservatives who guided the “Stop the steal” JERICHO Washington March in mid December and rioted at the capital on Jan 6th. The article says it is a new 'Christian Nationalism' which is reminiscent of the South after the Civil war. Apparently, they think they are listening to God too... Here’s the quote from one of its leaders that is most troubling to me: “When God gives you a vision, you don’t need to know anything else.” - Eric Metaxas, A prominent conservative writer and Jericho March’s Emcee. It’s an interesting and well-balanced article…as is usual from Christian Science Monitor. December 11, 2020 How can I know that the voice to which I am listening is Divine guidance or one of fear? i.e. the inner 'devil' That is the question for this meditation... How can I know for certain that the voice inside which I am listening to is Divine Guidance or one of fear … (the small personality, my ego or the inner devil whispering) Gratefully, Jesus has some clarifying thoughts here: You shall know the tree by its fruits… LUKE 6:44-45 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. So that’s clear. If you want grapes, plant a vineyard. If you want love, sow it. Common Grace? Goodness? You have the seeds readily available… I listen to the tree through its fruits… |
 | 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. |
|
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. |
|
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. |
| Every day we start again. But what to weed and what to feed? This COVID-19 world is the pressure cooker du jour but when were we not immersed in it and confused by it? (It being life's changes...) Hey, it's the human journey. But, using our Higher vision (that of the Higher self, our spiritual Self) we can see beyond the appearance of things...It orients us to what DOES NOT CHANGE (the Eternal & evergreen) and gives us clarity. "The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is. |  Shift the story... How about shifting to some more interesting story? See with spiritual vision and celebrate the simple blessings right in front of you. If we are aware of what stories we are living, we can use them to grow a better now. But if we are not, they may use us and grow a life that is not ours. Marcel Proust says that the ONLY fountain of youth is to see with new (other) eyes...to see through the eyes of another. How much in our world would be harmonized if we did that story? |
BEST PRACTICE:
Stop. Take a breath. Set a timer for 2 minutes. (You can spare that, right?)
Start. Imagine a calm place mentally in your head. Breathe it in. With every breath, start over. Breathing in the calm of that place ...slowly and supercharging it with gratitude. Think of what you are grateful for and breathe that in with the calm. Repeat with each breath. Repeat until the time dings. Feel better?
Easy.
You have the power. but what good is it if you don't use it?
| Each moment is a choice…an unfolding…to see deeper and more kindly. Start again. We are travelers on this journey. Each moment we are being offered a choice. How do we see the knuckle heads – out there? How do we see our own foibles and knuckeheaded moments? With spiritual vision… we see deeper. | Daily word – |
"Do we dare to re-remember? To retell and rewrite?
What if we just woke up and translated the old stories into a different language in which we understand that all people act to their level of skill. They do the best they can in the moment—with what they have. Why not reinterpret my stories in the light of my current more-adult understandings? Then my history changes. It sets me up to cascade forward. Who I am changes. There is nothing to forgive. I am free.
…Then I can shift to some more interesting story—or something more worth doing?"
- No. 20 Live Backwards, Remember Better – A Hospice Chaplain's Field Guide Book to Caregiving- Finding Resilience on the Frontlines of live
"Look deeply into nature and you will understand everything human" – Albert Einstein
All
Bereavement
Caregiver Coping
Caregiver Health
Caregiver Stress
Caregiving
Caregiving-and-post-traumatic-growth
Caregiving And Sleep Deprivation
Care Of Self & Others
Hospice Chaplain
Hospice Life Lessons
One Minute Meditation
Rachel Naomi Remen
Resilience
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Serving V. Fixing
Seth Godin
Sound Meditation
The Marketing Seminar By Seth Godin
|
|
RSS Feed