““Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.” – Hermann Hesse
How can deep, intentional listening in nature or another quiet space open up a greater sense of contentment and self acceptance?
“One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist… Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.” – Stephen Hawking
How can imperfection be embraced in your life so that you can live with a little more comfort, a little more grace, and maybe a little more love?
What may happen if you perceive imperfections as confirmation of existing in harmony with the cosmos?
“Just because the world is heavy doesn’t mean you can’t stay soft. Soft as air. Soft as dreams. Go gently. Trust. Walk. Breathe.” – Victoria Erickson, Edge of Wonder
We have progressed into a new year and it seems hopes for better have been pinned to the turning of a calendar. What if instead of counting on the days to be different, you watched yourself for difference? How can you notice the external and quietly, gently flow with the internal that is yours to navigate? Whatever you see happening around you need not be a determinant of your way of being or the energy you call forward.
How can you be fresh for what appears to be old, outdated, and maybe a little too heavy? How can you be as light as air, as expansive as a dream, or as soft as an idea just glimpsed? What would it take to nudge you gently to the zero point, where you can strip away what you think you know about yourself and this world?
Some questions to consider for guidance in finding your own silver lining whenever you need:
1.How can you honor whatever this day brings your way?
2.What do you know about yourself that will support you most? Notice your strengths!
3.What are you grateful for and celebrating?
✨You have everything you need for bliss. There’s no need to seek contentment elsewhere. Be or make your own silver lining and if you’re able, share it with someone else. ✨
Much love and good wishes to you all!
From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:
“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
What seems impossible at this moment that could have an altered path or perception that has yet to be seen by you? How can you open to what you haven’t considered? Sometimes stepping back or away and letting go allows room for new ideas and understanding to come forward.
What becomes possible when you stop defining impossible?
What happens if you let yourself lean into the world of ideas and visions, if you make room for a quiet unknowing space? What if you allow anything that wants to present in that openness? That is where everything is possible…
What would it be like to align with possibility and move with nature in the present cycle of letting go? What can fall away for you so that new growth and new possibilities can take shape?
One thing to ask yourself as you go through the next days and make choices about your activities:
Will this be nourishing to me or to someone else ?
That is not to compare and suggest that one of those is in greater standing than the other, but simply to check in with yourself and notice your choices. Is the next thing you’re going to choose nourishing in some way to someone? If the answer is no and you proceed, how does that unfold? If the answer is yes and you proceed, how does that unfold?
Let yourself notice how nourishing choices show up in your life.
You’re invited to add more positivity to your life!
If something comes up that is difficult for you, could you possibly find something else in your life that balances that difficult thing? This doesn’t mean that you ignore what’s going on – deal with what is before you – but see if you can find one or two other things that are holding steady at their usual or even going well. Choose to divert some of your thinking to what you like or can appreciate right now in this moment.
Try this with yourself:
What do I like in this moment?
What’s good? What’s not wrong?
_______________________
I’ve been slowly implementing this practice for about eight years and I am so glad that I’ve had this understanding in my toolkit. It works. It lifts. It moves and shifts negative or stagnant energy. It may even help you to experience very little negative.
There was damage to my home during a recent storm in areas that have had work in the past year or so, all now needing similar repairs again. I stood there watching water pour into a room around a light fixture and across the ceiling into the wall, bubbling up under the paint, with almost no emotional reaction, acting enough in response to collect water in a bucket, bring in towels, look at the roof, call the roofer, and take pictures of it for insurance purposes. I also took a long pause in rooms that look like they always do to appreciate the fact that while some things need work – other areas are just fine! This thinking and response are direct result of practicing looking for what I like in each day. I’ve even noticed that I can look for what I like in situations where personal connections are linked in ways that could be perceived as unfavorable, which many would find more challenging including myself —- until I remember that I have choice and I can always take a moment to find what I like in every situation, be that a part of the situation or something else altogether.
Anyone can do this, with awareness and with a want for calm, soothing peace. How do you want to close off your days, even the difficult ones? I hope you can do it with a bit more positivity and find consistent wellbeing in this practice!
How can the next few days be met with noticing? What would happen if in each day that greets you, you stop for two minutes, just two minutes, and notice yourself.
Perhaps it would look something like this from the perspective of the mind:
I notice my breathing. I notice the floor beneath my feet. I notice the support of the floor beneath me and the expansion of breath in my body…. etc.
If you have a moment where you’re not sure what else to notice, pause. Sit with the pause, breathe into the pause, and wait until something else shows up for you to be with.
This is simple and seemingly small, but the minutes after the practice of noticing and taking pause could show you something larger. You may have clarity filter into your awareness elsewhere.
A Poetry Share
Naomi Shihab Nye – 1952-
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
From Words Under the Words: Selected Poems.
“Listening means forgetting yourself completely — only then can you listen. When you listen attentively to somebody, you forget yourself. If you cannot forget yourself, you never listen. If you are too self-conscious about yourself, you simply pretend that you are listening — you don’t listen. You may nod your head; you may sometimes say yes or no — but you are not listening. When you listen you become just a passage, a passivity, a receptivity, a womb.”
– Osho, The Transcendental Game of Zen
Presence and Positivity 