This quote struck me last night at the Soulful Sundown by Wendell Berry. Perhaps this is what woke me this morning.
When despair of the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief ~ what a powerful line!!
I realized that that is where so many of us lay in life – ruining tomorrows before today has yet to turn bright.
STOP THAT! RIGHT NOW PEOPLE!
TAKE A WALK OUTSIDE – SEE the WORLD as it REALLY IS – not the one inside our heads!
I went to a St. Paul’s Unity UU Church last night for their "Soulful Sundown" where the topic was "Coming of Spring: Awakening the Senses." It was a pure delight, we walked through each of our senses and our appreciation for them and the memories and stirrings each can create.
For example:
Scent: your mother’s perfume, a street in Barcelona, fresh cut grass
Taste (what do you crave): chocolate, peanut butter (when you’ve been abroad for a long while), warm garden strawberries.
Touch: the wrinkles in your hands, digging in the dirt, touching the hair on the head of a child
Sound: live songbirds, coffee brewing, waterfalls, a push lawnmower
Sight: birds in flight, cats licking themselves, kids at play, taffy machines.
What do your senses tell you about Spring?
I was awoken this morning by the birds – and those who have been reading this for a while know what that means.
I went for my walk around my lake. I had commented last night at the Soulful Sundown that this was the first time in my life that I remember really hearing songbirds. I now know exactly what a cardinal sounds like. Yay! But, as I walked down the steps in to the early dawn morn, I smelled the city waking up, and the chitter chatter of the birds and realized – I know this sensation. I’ve had it before. . . . when I used to deliver newspapers on the early weekend morns of childhood. I remember then listening to the songbirds and the life within the fabric of the city stirring. What happened to that awareness to make it be forgotten for 25 years. hmm.
Stress, appropriateness, our western way of thinking, dismissing the natural in exchange for the new nifty gadget or technology. hmm.
What are they calling you to do, to be, to see, to touch, to taste, to experience?
Who will you share it with today?
The new website has launched. It may take a day or two for the search function to work. But WAHOOO!!!
This story has been going around quite a while but I am amazed how it strikes every time I read it and when it shows up in my life.
An old Cherokee Indian is telling his grandson about a fight that is going on inside himself. He said it is between two wolves.
One is evil: Anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.
The other is good: Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
The grandson thought about this for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one I feed."
You know how sometimes life just keeps whacking you over the head with a silly stick. Well I kept struggling and struggling to make the new layout work – and it wouldn’t. I had to step back and follow my own model – which is outlined in the new site to see clearly what what was going on.
In the effort to be informative and inclusive – I got scattered and frustrated.
Listen to the message from relationship between Intimate and Ultimate – What really matters?
Simplify – Oh Yeah!
Tell the truth – it needs to be a lot simpler
Engage in the conversation that matters – oh yeah – that extra stuff doesn’t matter – get rid of it
Be Present.
Well – out went 10 pages, remove redundancies, relayout the menu, simplified
Onward
Well, attempted to post the site yesterday. This new site is far more complicated from my end. It is nearly twice the size and triple the material. Lots of final tweaks. With luck it will be up today. Sorry for the delay.
The good news is that in one of the tweaks I made yesterday I stumbled onto my new slogan/mantra. It actually got triggered by my thoughts on Sunday about loons diving deep.
Go Deeper
