Observant

The Mystery within...

I am coming to understand the true importance of being observant.  All discoveries, both within and outside myself, begin with my observing.  It is the primary attribute in successful science and now I see it as a simple key to successful living.  It is how I come to live in the present, with what is, through observation.  It suddenly seems so simple.  Just be observant of self and others.  Last week I wrote I observed my ego in my rattled reaction to another and then could forgive my self and feel compassion for the one who rattled me. 

Some related words in my thesaurus for observant are:  attentive, diligent; dutiful, deferential, respectful; regardful, faithful, conscientious; vigilant, prudent, and watchful.  Who wouldn’t want to be all that?

True joy also came with observation this week as I walked my yellow lab, Oliver, across the river on the bike trail that takes us to the woods.  As we crossed the bridge the late afternoon sun was at our back.  It highlighted glorious bright orange, red, and yellow leaves on the trees ahead of us along the bank.  Then a strong gust of wind released a mix of color thirty to forty feet above the trail ahead of us and held them there for a time in a wild, joyous dance before letting them settle back down to eventually turn back into earth again.  As we returned on the trail, the lowering sun colored small puffs of clouds above the river ahead an iridescent orange that soon turned to gray as we crossed back over.

There is so much to be gained from being observant.

What if we were all more observant more often?

Balance

God is...

Balance is not easy to achieve or describe and yet it is probably the most critical element of successful living, loving, means to world peace, and environmental wholeness.  It is women and men coming to balance their shadow and light—their anima and animus—their male/female light and darkness. Darkness sheds light on needed change.  Too much darkness over powers the light. Too much light denies change is needed.  Imbalance in either leads to destruction.  Creativity flows from balance.

In Carolyn Baker’s “Reclaiming the Dark Feminine” she writes:

 “When women can develop a relationship with their feminine shadow, they are invariably empowered.  When men dare to explore the negative and positive aspects of the anima, the courage to be vulnerable evolves, along with intention to protect and serve the vulnerability of all beings.  Northern California author and soul-centered psychotherapist, Francis Weller, emphasizes that the darkness wants us to ask it what it wants from us.  If we can actively, consciously engage with the darkness, we are transformed from victims into vital, autonomous human beings.”

Transpersonal psychology forms the basis for Carolyn Baker’s book that integrates psychology with spirituality.  In looking up transpersonal psychology I learned it has only been around since the 1960’s.  Outside of taking a class in 1997 titled “The Shadow Knows” given by Philip Sternig, a Transpersonal Psychotherapist, I can’t say I’ve heard much about it lately.  It seems the learning it promotes would be of such value to the human race and our planet we would want to incorporate it in our teaching from grade school through college.  It also seems it would be the basis of any religion worth its salt.

We have all inherited some imbalance.  For me it came to a crisis with my aging parents’ care needs.  After watching a video tape of my parent’s 50^th wedding anniversary I wrote in God Never Hurries: 

“But most amazing was seeing and hearing myself on the tape and how unaware I was.  I began to realize the critical need to embrace my shadow.  It is there to keep me balanced.  But it was scary and hard to sort out because of the many bright masks my shadow had been made to wear.  I understood it was those masks that help make abuse so systemic.  And it seemed a clue to becoming aware of a mask is when there is only one answer or one way.  I felt hope that if I continued to work on myself, someday I could come to honor both my mother and father.”

Life can be hard.  There are choices to be made.  Writing my story helped me figure some things out and pointed me toward more balance.  Life is relational.  We learn from our own light and darkness and the light and darkness of others.          

What if we daily asked our darkness what it wants from us?        

Remembering Serenity

God is...

How important serenity is for successful living has been on my mind since my retreat last weekend.  I am coming to really understand how much I need some sanctuary time (rest, breadth and going within) everyday to keep my inner calm regardless of what is going on around me.  It seems key to good physical, mental and spiritual health.  And when I forget to take care of myself, it is important to simply return to being faithful without incrimination.

Each day I will use the rawhide, beads, and feathers I put together while on retreat.  I will hold my prayer feathers turning to the four directions asking,  “What do I need to let go of today?”  “What do I need to embrace?”  I will also ask for a measure of laughter in each day or a least some genuine smiles.  And the mandala I colored in dappled sunlight under an arbor will be framed so I can see the time I let myself take to be peaceful.

And when life gets really difficult I will remember Matthew Fox and his book Original Blessing and what I wrote in my memoir, God Never Hurries, … what I most needed to learn from Fox was to befriend both light and darkness—to let pain be pain and mystery be mystery, and trust good would come from it.

What if we each made our own daily serenity plan, and when we forget to follow it, simply return to being faithful.