no room for inertia in heart space

sanctuary in the heart

Ever feel reborn in your own life? A clarity & a calling born of harmony.

No inertia in this space.

This path is the process of fearlessly peering into the mysterious nature of life & relaxing our mental & emotional grip on our own place within it…..Elizabeth Lesser

feeling roots, feeling knots, feeling sky,

feeling green, feeling wind, feeling breath….

this is the tangible place where we can see our heart….can envision our place…can connect to those roots & knots & sky & green & wind & breath….make it real….

Imagining Mystery

There is something

that contains everything.

Before heaven & earth

it is.

Oh, it is still, unbodied,

all on its own, unchanging,

all-pervading,

ever-moving.

So it can act as the mother

of all things.

Not knowing its real name,

we only call it the Way.

If it must be named,

let its name be Great.

Greatness means going on,

going on means going far,

and going far means turning back.

So they say, ‘The Way is great,

heaven is great,

earth is great,

and humankind is great;

four greatnesses in the world,

and humanity is one of them.’

People follow earth,

earth follows heaven,

heaven follows the Way,

the Way follows what is.

…….Lao Tzu……

…..the Way is the Heart…..

engrave your own yearning

deep winter cold….stark clarity & bare feet

anticipating spring

I’m thinking wistfully about warmer weather,

endless days of sunshine, easy living….

t-shirts & bare feet…..

the bigger & more interesting connection of seasons changing is brought out in this article about growth….from the macro to the micro & back….

what does it mean to grow & deconstruct at the same time? how do we ‘go within’ to change long-held beliefs…can we really change ‘how the world works?’…

what is ‘true growth’ vs. ‘economic growth?’…..what we all say we want, yet it isn’t really happening….& probably won’t….

do we really know how to be present, truly compassionate, & how does this really begin with me or is it an ideal not grounded in ‘reality?’….

 We are all children of the Great Spirit, we all belong to Mother Earth. Our planet is in great trouble & if we keep carrying old grudges & do not work together, we will all die….Chief Seattle

tough questions for a cold, winter day….moving beyond angst into & around the truth about our empty places….

Whatever happens, our commitment is to use whatever happens to awaken our heart. To realize our connection with all beings. There is not a formula for doing this kind of work. Stay with our discomfort…..then the reservoir of compassion begins to emerge……Pema Chodron

meet me in the middle of true happiness….

delicate

True happiness is in the love-stream that springs from one’s soul; & he who will allow this stream to run continually in all conditions of life, in all situations, however difficult, will have a happiness which truly belongs to him, whose source is not without, but within…..Hazrat Inayat Khan

So, I guess I’m somewhere in the middle of believing, accepting, understanding, knowing, feeling, judging, getting IT…

you know, that ok-happy-but-don’t-hit-me-too-hard place….

the morose, the maudlin, and the melancholy shadows of the delicate….

and then there are the really beautiful, really annoying & smiling angels who gift us with simplicity, openness, & humility…..

cheesy & undeniable….yes, don’t we usually resist quippy messages?….

in spite of or because of their power?

a love day….may it be so….

beauty held...

“Love is the only rational act of a lifetime.”..Stephen Levine

Kiss your friends & remember that kiss…..

When we do the hard work of stilling the mind & opening the heart, we come into love. First we love within, then we love the world. First we forgive ourselves, then we forgive others & life itself. Real love of others stems from love of oneself as a soul… not ego-loving ego, but soul-loving soul. Ego turns love into sentimentality, which is an idea of love. Love is deep feeling grounded in action. Love is the fruit of heartfulness. And heartfulness is a lifelong journey…….Elizabeth Lesser

I love beautiful ideas…try this….write about love…the ways you have loved, the ways you have denied love, the ways your ideas of love have changed, the ways you have turned away from love, the ways you have not loved yourself, the ways you try to love everyday…..

Here’s mine for this Valentine’s Day 2012…

A Story of Sorts….Tenderness & Gratitude

Life & dreams & days sometimes sneak into chaos. He knows. He brings tea. He brings the cat. He allows space. He tucks in the blanket. How can something so simple as comfort be so perfect?

…..something about purity of intention….

‘In love, there is no because’……Anaiis Nin

Liebster Blog Award

It’s wonderful to be nominated for a lovely award! Thank you Katrina….

Her Blog, Freedom to a Full Life is full of heart-felt surprises & insights….

The idea behind the Leibster award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers all in the spirit of gathering more connections…

…..include a special word of thanks for the nominator

…..include a few extra special blogs for nomination so that we grow our connections…

…..check out these diverse blogs

for ‘not so typical’ & cool content & photos….

barbaraelka

crossroad dispatches

dou dou birds

dharma folk

ingaphotography

the voice of holding on….killing the scream…

holding on to the last day's rays

We can be lost intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually. It’s not unusual to feel lost in the middle of our lives while sitting in our own living room. Lost souls. But being lost is not at all a bad thing….if you know how to benefit from it spiritually. In the Western world, where ‘progress is our most important product,’ we are encouraged from our earliest years to know exactly where we are at all times & precisely where we are going. When wandering, there is immense value in ‘finding ourselves lost’ because we can find something when we are lost, we can find our selves. Indeed, the deepest form of wandering requires that we be lost. The art of being lost is not a mattter of merely getting lost, but rather being lost & enthusiastically surrendering to the unlimited potential of it. This ushers you more fully into the now. Your life then suddenly suffers a radical simplification. You quiet down inside & it becomes easier to hear the voice of the soul…..Bill Plotkin

The ‘path’ we are on is such an illusion…

it’s kind of like dreams about falling…then waking up…

it’s kind of like running out of chocolate….then pretending it’s ok…

it’s kind of like sitting down in the middle of your mess, giving up…..then finally asking for help….

holding on to the the last day’s rays….savor that last bit of light….

It is the universal statement of a star,

the message Orion

has carried

in winter

through the ages:

It is the dark

which illuminates

…Lyn Dalebout

switching on your own electricity

to fly or not to fly

Attempts to unravel the labyrinthian dynamics of art’s propulsion according to the categories of the reasoning mind will never replace the mystery with an explanation. The phenomenon simply exists. According to Jung, ‘the bird is flown’ when we attempt to explain the mystery….Shaun McNiff

Art Making & the Shadows of Your Work….

the strange shadows over treetops sometime between dark & dawn (always a miracle)

little baby feet curled around themselves

that peculiar letting go just before sleep (knowing it’s already gone)

the distance felt in a room full of beloved friends, like a dream

looking in night windows; glow & mist & warmth

walking with hands in pockets, filled with treasures; pinecones, stones, feathers

opening a book to the perfect poem

a song flies you back to a time of converse sneakers & blue nail polish

cold hands find a warm teacup & the world is perfect

suddenly aware that you’re being & not doing (oh, that’s so rare & good)

In our night-time, there’s always the electricity switched on, we watch ourselves, we get it all in the head, really. You’ve got to lapse out before you can know what sensual reality is, lapse into unknowingness, & give up your volition. You’ve got to learn not-to-be before you can come into being…..D.H. Lawrence

there can be no doubt when you tiptoe through your own life gently…