Incredible Journeys

The Mystery within . . . 

Life has kept me on my knees through some incredible journeys.  Learning has been the reward of these dark trips.  The superfluous is stripped away; the Mystery within becomes more known; and love of self and the other shines as the ultimate goal.

Some of my trips have been long and difficult.  Painful.  But the more I learn to strip away the superfluous, accept the pain, the closer I feel to the Mystery within, and the easier it is to love myself and the other.

What if we never journeyed on our knees?  What would we know?  How would we love?

Curiosity Heals

The Mystery within...

From “God Never Hurries:”

…I did know curiosity had become a newly discovered virtue that was keeping my soul supple.  It helped me look for truth.  I don’t ever remember curiosity encouraged in my youth.  A tree of knowledge with a serpent was invented to tell me not to look—and then there is the banning of books.  Did it really kill the cat?  I wished I learned much earlier how best to care for my soul. 

I remembered the above passage from my memoir when one of the panel members at Jean Watson’s Caring Science Institute conference said, “When confronted with trouble, step back and be curious.”  Instantly it made sense to me.  Instead of reacting out of fear, or letting the ego take affront, be curious about the confrontation.

Words Wikipedia associates with curiosity:  from Latin curiosus akin to cura, care;  inquisitive thinking, exploration, investigation, learning, desire to gain knowledge, and force behind human development.  

Creativity is born from curiosity.  When confronted with trouble, I can step back, be curious and creative, and learn how to care about myself and my confronter.

What if we all were curious and creative in uncovering the mysteries of caring?      

God Energy

God is...

After being invited to give a talk at a Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, Spiritual World of Nature program, I remarked, “I will look forward to preparing for it since I always learn so much in the process.”  As the date is now just around the corner I was hoping for some of that past enthusiasm to get me started formatting my upcoming presentation titled, “Does Nature Speak to You?”  The offering description states I will share how I overcame difficulty “… by watching, waiting, and trusting in the healing messages God sends through others and the natural world.”  Reading that description left me feeling flat and uninspired until I understood the critical missing spark.  Every day for three years, during a very difficult time, I sat down and reflected on the joys, sorrows and troubles of that day and briefly wrote them down.  Those words had power.  They put perspective on my troubles, which gave me just a little distance from them so I could be open to God’s healing messages.  Those words formed a holy trinity with others and the natural world where God speaks.   

In my presentation preparation I recalled a quote from my past work life as a Public Affairs Specialist for the USDA Forest Service, by its founder Gifford Pinchot.  I am just a little unsure if this is the exact wording.  I believe he said, “There are only two things important in this world, people and natural resources.”  I goggled quotes by Gifford Pinchot and could not find it among them.  I think it should be.  And I am recalling at the end of my blog post last week titled "Ask, Seek, Find" I related Carolyn Baker’s telling in her book, “Reclaiming the Dark Feminine,” the importance of ritual and how returning to our indigenous selves reclaims our connection to all things and one another.  What could that look like today?  There is no shortage of material for reflection.     

My Audubon presentation description ends with “If nature speaks to you spiritually you will have a chance to share your insights and experiences.”  I look forward to facilitating that sharing for we are all better off when we all share.   

What if we were all open to learning from one another? 

Learn, Know, Master

God is...

Attached to the strings of my Yogi tea bags are brief fortunes.  I look forward to reading each one upon opening a bag.  One of my favorite ones says:  “To learn, read.  To know, write.  To master, teach.”  Over the years I have grown to understand the implications of each action. 

In my search for truth, when struggling with my father for my mother’s care as she descended into Alzheimer’s disease, I read many books on spirituality, psychology, and self-help.  The most important learning from all that reading was that I was worthy of a voice, good self-care, and I came to understand the importance of true forgiveness.  My writing during that difficult time focused me in the present.  There I came to know that each moment had something to teach me about overcoming my troubles. 

This past week as I was preparing to present my memoir, God Never Hurries, to a large group at Cedar Ridge Apartments for Independent Living, I understood to master challenges me to teach others what my reading and writing did for me.  Working to synthesize 175 pages of learning and knowing into a coherent forty-minute presentation has its challenges, but then all mastery is challenging.

What if we each challenged ourselves to share the different things that difficulty taught us for the good of all?