When Luke Skywalker Trusted . . .

 "Use the Force, Luke....Let go!" ~ Obi Wan Kenobi, Star Wars

Given it is May the 4th, Star Wars Day, it is the perfect time for an important reminder, one that had a lasting impact I could only just begin to glimpse when I first encountered it in 1977.  I could spend some time talking about what it was like in 1977 to view the first movie in a spectacular old-school "Cinerama" theater, one of the best, I would wager (even though Cinerama was no longer used in 1977).  Oh yes, my first encounter with Star Wars was an all-encompassing experience - and everything about it.  

My older brother had gone to see it with my mother on opening day, while I was at school in junior high - he had seen an article about it in Time and they decided to go to the first showing - apparently it was very easy to get into that day, even at this wonderful, unparalleled theater that no longer exists (like most theaters like that).  My mother was not one to stand in line at movies, and they didn't expect a line - they were simply going to a movie together that was supposed to be good.  He told me later I would like it, and that it was about a princess.  

That's not why I liked it.  I'm not even sure I knew yet why I not only liked it - I loved it - and I did everything I could to see it again and again after that first viewing.  It changed my relationship with the movies forever, but not just that.  I already had a regular relationship with magical stories by that age.

Luke taught me something.  Something important.  Something I'd need quite a bit later in life.  He didn't trust at first.  He didn't believe.  I was never a skeptic like Luke and some people, not even as a child or a teen.  He didn't believe any of it - at first.

But what he ultimately demonstrated for all of us in that first film (and let's not confuse it with its later renumbering - for those of us who saw it first, it was the first), was Trust.  It wasn't total Trust, not exactly - but it was enough in the moment.

A sudden flash of Trust that astonished and at first alarmed others, just about everyone else in his immediate circle, some of whom claimed to believe in it, but not yet enough.  In panic, they asked him why his computer was off.  Wouldn't he NEED THAT????  Actually, no.  It was a hindrance to what it was he needed to do, and he had guidance far better.

Some people claim to believe in the Force, just as it is described in Star Wars.  The Force was always far too "mechanical" for me.  The Real Force is much more Loving and Mysterious - it too invites us to Trust.  Every single day, it is asking us to Trust, even those like Luke who may not believe in it completely (that's a tall order!) and there are always those searing, misguided skeptics who try to scuttle the thing, but they'd know it as well, if they could see it.  

When you see it, when you see what this is, when you see how "impossibly" Magical and Miraculous (and Loving!) it actually is, there is no more skepticism.  You simply know.  You may not know everything about what this is - but you surely do know something's happening.

Luke's Trust (with the help of some insistent Guidance) saved the day.  He still used technology, though one could argue it is ultimately extraneous - and everything changed.

The same can happen for us.  I'm thankful to Star Wars for not exactly planting a seed, as I was no stranger to Magical stories, but for doing whatever it did, in the way that it did it.  It changed me forever, I sense.  It only becomes more necessary and important as the years unfold.  And like Luke, many of us continue to learn.   I believe what this IS is entirely capable of saving our day as well.  And I also sense we are going to need it.

Trust, Trust, Trust

 "Love can never lead you astray. Trust Love to guide you Home." ~ Susan Larison Danz

Sometimes we find ourselves repeating the word:  Trust.  There are many things that happen in the world which undermine trust.  As human beings, we fail.  But we must never give up.  Because Trust is worth it. 

 

 

Blue Skies photo by Susan Larison Danz. 

Trusting the Path

"Be thankful for all of life's nuances - and keep trusting!" ~ Susan Larison Danz

It seems it is a continual experience as a parent, even as many years pass, to repeatedly need to surrender to trust.  I'm not sure we ever really master this, though I suppose we can improve.  Spirituality does help.  

What does it mean to trust the path?  

It's not just about trusting in your own path - it is trusting in the paths of everyone you care about - and yes, of course, the two are not completely separate.  

There's always some new experience, some new challenge, some new adventure, and it begins even before the very first moment, which is an adventure in itself.  

Do we ever really learn to surrender?  Perhaps, and maybe not.  It's a process that repeats.  

Eventually, of course, it happens in reverse, and they are needing to trust in YOUR path, too, so it's a mutual experience.  This is Love on Planet Earth.

The more we can manage to trust the path, even when it's difficult, the more we can breathe into it, the more approachable it becomes.  Is it ever really perfect?  Does it need to be?  

 

 Path photo by Susan Larison Danz.

 

Enabling Trust

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

It's surprisingly simple.  What enables Trust?  Honesty.  When honesty and transparency are missing, trust is missing, too.  

All forms of authenticity require a journey, and even being honest about that helps to enable trust.

Life is often confusing, especially in times like these.  Open vulnerability, including admitting mistakes, is all a part of the journey to trust.  And forgiveness.  Which leads to even greater trust.

We need more of this, not less.

Spring Tree photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Trust and Fear

"It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves." ~ Henry David Thoreau

Listen to today's program on The Frontier Beyond Fear broadcast:  Trust and Fear: Navigating with Wisdom

I honestly explore how Spirituality can provide us with the Trust and Wisdom we need to make solid choices when confronting fear. Not only will we make better choices going forward, we will be comfortable with those choices. If you feel discomfort with a choice, it's time to look at it more deeply.

 

Whether on this day, you are celebrating the first day of Spring or of Autumn, today is an excellent day to consult your inner compass. We make imperfect choices all the time, as this is human, but being mindful of our unhealthy relationship with fear can make all the difference.

 

We also listen to wisdom from Henry David Thoreau's Walden, some deeply profound words to guide us on our paths forward. 

Blossoms by the Bridge photo by Susan Larison Danz.

 

 

Reclamation

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” ~ Virginia Woolf

It dawned on me, though I knew it, looking back on just a year ago, that open authenticity is fading.  And we must not allow it.  It's a struggle to retrieve it.  That's how strong what this is has become.  We must do it a step at a time, as I'm doing now. 

Questioning is no longer in style.

And yet we question.  Clearly.

And that's the right direction.  It is really pretty shocking that it is the trend to question questioning.  History has taught us many times that is never, ever a good direction.  Question it.  Boldly.  As we must.

Go deeper.  And look.  And reclaim the choices that were always yours to claim. 

Choose.

Yes, you!

Choose.

Daily.

Freely.

You'll know the way.  Even when you don't. 

Spirituality teaches us that we are here to make free choices.  Several different versions of it say exactly that.  Wisdom isn't handed to us, and certainly not thrust upon us.  We must seek it.  And find it.  Anyone, and I mean anyone, who would intimidate anyone else regarding their own freedom to seek truth and wisdom is not someone who really cares much about truth and wisdom (or about you, or anyone else, or about much of anything of much use for Humanity). 

Care about truth and wisdom for yourself.  Care about it.  Seek it.  I'm speaking to myself as much as to you, though I've managed pretty well so far, quietly.  The more you find it, the more you can choose accordingly, and live your own life (no, though others would love to live it for you, that's never the right way).  Choose.  Freely.

The materialists* claim they own the planet.  They do not.  They only see things dimly because you need the Light to see.  It's really that simple.  Just because they shout the loudest doesn't make them right.  

If Spirituality calls to you (and it calls to everyone, one way or another, because of who we are and why we're here), it's up to you to open the door - crack it open if you must - push it open just a little - that's all it really takes - because what is waiting on the other side was always there to greet you.  It's an astonishing way forward.  But it begins with a choice.

I have reflected many times on Open and closed Universes, which I learned about in astrophysics class many years ago.  Truthfully, materialistically, none of the Universe varieties are particularly hopeful or attractive.  An open Universe expands and expands and expands (materialistically, that is) and eventually grows cold and dark.  A closed Universe collapses back to a singularity, eventually.  And then there is that theory about the Universes that bounce (they can't decide whether to be open or closed).  It all sounds pretty harsh, really, but we are looking at it materialistically.

I heard a story in passing today, and I only heard it partially, and I still haven't had a chance to look it up - about some black hole that has been discovered racing around the galaxy - either ours or somewhere else, I'm really not sure - but now we know black holes can be in rapid motion (seriously, yes).  

Face it.  If you believe strictly in materialism, reality is really pretty randomly terrifying.  Now we need to worry about (apparently) racing black holes.  Some years ago, it was mini black holes, or clandestine neutrinos, or any number of other things (I've already mentioned Carrington events, and near-earth objects).  I hear talk about pole shifts more and more lately.  Truthfully, compared to all of these bigger, giant things, even earthquakes and large volcanoes, the climate is rather small, though yes, that is talked about as well.  

But what we really need to be caring more about is who we choose to be, what we choose to seek, and just how open we choose to be.  That's what's going to change the planet.  (And when it comes to Universes, I prefer the Multiverse - it has a lot more to it.)

How did I come to write this in this moment?  Well, for one, I have a deadline every evening.  I was watching the first 25 minutes or so of The Hours, a movie I have not seen (I've kind of avoided it, for some reason, as I expect it to be very somber and serious, though I've known it is an excellent film - perhaps because it has a lot of gravity) - and there is a writer near the beginning who is talking about writing.  He talks of his regrets regarding not actually writing about things as they are.  Which is difficult, of course, as it requires raw authenticity.  And this feeling that there is never enough time to write enough (he is running out of time, within this story).  And this is quite a serious story, at the beginning (and no doubt, later), and in a number of serious ways.  I'll pick up watching where I left off, perhaps tonight, or perhaps tomorrow.  

But in this moment, now, I am writing.  Seeking genuine truth and wisdom helps us make wise choices (clearly).  And the choices are here for the claiming - when we claim them.  It's a necessary thing.  To know.

*A "materialist" is a person who adheres strictly to a mechanistic view of reality and generally insists on everyone adhering to exploring "truth" in this way.  Materialism arose as an over-reaction to oppressive non-materialistic world views many years ago.

Shadow in the Forest photo by Susan Larison Danz.

 

Awareness

"Awareness is all about restoring your freedom to choose what you want instead of what your past imposes on you." ~ Deepak Chopra 

Lately, I have come to have a greater appreciation of this term "Awareness".  Often when I have used the term "Consciousness", or especially "Expanded Consciousness", I really mean Awareness.  

The more advanced a society is, the more it values Awareness.  Awareness has nothing to do with industrial or technological advancement.  A society could live in a pristine forest on some distant planet and be more Aware than any of us here. 

Awareness also implies honesty.  There can be differing perceptions of a topic, but when a society is intent on honestly exploring truth, and honestly conveying it, Awareness is treasured. 

To advance as a civilization, we cannot do it without valuing expanding Awareness.  It's really that simple.  Anything less will go the opposite direction.  

 

Trust, Revisited

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” ~ Corrie ten Boom

Trust, when placed in Something that can Actually be Trusted, makes all the difference.  We lose sight of it, sometimes.  But it never really goes away.  

Faith

"Fear knocked at the door and Faith answered. No one was there." ~ Old English Proverb

Faith is often dismissed and diminished in our world today.  But when you have it, it changes everything.  

 

 

Glimpses of the Spring photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Learning to Float

"To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.  When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown.  Instead you relax, and float." ~ Alan W. Watts

It took me a very long time to learn how to float.  When I finally figured it out, it was one of my favorite, most relaxing things, though I haven't had much of a chance, lately.

The first time, I was around the age of 6.  I had a best friend when I was 6.  Her name was Maggie.  She lived a short city block away.  I met her around the time I was 4.  In those days, even when I was 5 years old, it was not unusual to walk by myself to her house.  These were different times.  One summer day, I accompanied Maggie's family to a little lake by the mountains.  I recall Maggie's mother telling me that this lake was salty, and this would help me to float.  Maggie's mother set me upon the water on my back on a hot August day (I seem to think it was August).  To my delight, after a couple of tries at relaxing, I was floating!  I recall not knowing how to stop floating, so I just kept floating, happily looking up at the sky.  Maggie's mother was not far away.  Eventually she helped me come out of the float.  The afternoon at the lake went really well.  Trust came to me easily.

The second time, it was a couple of years later.  Maggie had moved away by then and I was with other neighborhood kids.  We were dropped off by a parent at a "swimming and tennis club" nearby.  It was not fancy, just swimming and tennis, and this family belonged to the club, so I was able to be their guest.  The pool was very loud and crowded.  And I can't even quite remember who it was who set me up in a float - but it wasn't a parent or adult.  It worked, and I was floating on my back again.  I can't remember any adults very close, just lots of kids (surely a lifeguard as well, but not very near).  Even so, I was "kind of relaxed" (not like on the lake, which one would think would have been scarier, but it wasn't).  I floated for a short while, and then all of a sudden a splashing boy came wildly by and he intentionally "dunked me" (or so I thought).  It wasn't very deep, but deep enough for my height, and there were too many kids around.  I thought in that instant I might drown.  I didn't know how to get to the surface.  To this day, I don't recall how I did, but I did, coughing and sputtering, and then I somehow got myself out of the pool.  And didn't go in again.

That was the end of my trust in floating.  For years after that, I might get in a pool just to walk in shallow water, but I wouldn't even try to float.  Nor did I want to. 

I was somehow brave enough to be an assistant for the swim team at least part of high school, but I was mostly in the back room typing up results on a manual typewriter, and on carbon copies (where you couldn't make a mistake).  I rarely went close to the water, and nobody knew I couldn't float or swim.  I did become a good typist, however.

The years passed.  I was a young adult in my first job in my 20's, and I had heard of a swimming teacher who could teach anyone.  Sure enough, this teacher was wise - she was patient and nurturing.  She gave me things to hold onto and also kept me steady.  At some point, I was floating again, but she never left my side.

She used to hand me empty milk jugs to hold onto while floating.  They clearly (in retrospect) did no real good whatsoever, and I had enough education at the time to know this.  But this wasn't about "logic".  It was about trusting, and they gave me security.  Well, one day, I was holding on to a single milk jug, and she said to try to let go of it.  And I did.  She wasn't holding onto me or all that near.  I was floating!  It took all that time to learn how to trust the water again, but it was actually trust that led to trust. 

 

 

 

Lake photo by Susan Larison Danz 

Giving it a Rest

 "Conflict cannot survive without your participation." ~ Wayne Dyer

I decided to give it a rest tonight, and so I turned on the Classical music.  It was exactly the right thing to do.  I had seen something really inspiring and uplifting and forward looking right before, and I wanted to hold onto it.

Much of my evening was very peaceful.

I assist a few people with social media, and after deciding to give it a rest, from this notion of "following the news/commentary", after actually finding a welcome space of trust, I couldn't help but see someone being nasty to someone else, on social media, and more than once. 

I didn't want to see it.  But I saw it.

About the same time, a piece came on the radio with notes that felt askew.

Sometimes such notes are OK, but not tonight.  I wanted to hear a simple melody, not dissonance.  And so I turned the radio off, and I finished my social media work, and I tried not to look at the various things people were being nasty about (not anyone I was assisting, just in the feed), but still it got inside my head.

And so I came in here to write.  And I feel better.

Light Emerging photo by Susan Larison Danz

The Elusive Art of Discernment

 “He realized suddenly that it was one thing to see the past occupying the present, but the true test of prescience was to see the past in the future. Things persisted in not being what they seemed.” ~ Frank Herbert, Dune

There is a tendency to believe, I sense, that in ages past, somehow more of us were more discerning than we are today - that in our modern technological and mass media world, there are so many varied ways to be told what to think, perhaps it was easier in the past.  And then you begin to recall actual history, even the most rudimentary pieces most people have heard, and you realize discernment has always been elusive - unless a society values it.  

How to deeply listen, consider and reflect is as vitally important today as it ever was.  If someone is a true communicator who has your best interests at heart, then that person must necessarily actually want you to be discerning, want you to be yourself, want you to reflect on things, freely.  There is also an assumption that a discerning person has already learned something about the most basic of values, starting with something as fundamental as The Golden Rule.

A communicator of information, whatever that information may be, must necessarily respect you as a person who is free to discern.  If someone doesn't want you to be discerning, that person doesn't respect who you are.  And that's of significant assistance in assessing whatever that person is telling you.

There are many beliefs in the world.  There are many obsessions.  There are intricate narratives that may or may not carry any actual truth (or a part of the truth).  There are many situations in which facts are intentionally omitted, as well.  There are those who actually fear discernment because they either know what they are communicating is false or they don't trust or respect you.

To truly progress as a society does not require 100% agreement.  That's an impossible goal.  But it does require the trust that is essentially a part of not only assisting one another in developing discernment, but also respecting and valuing that we are not all the same.  

Truth can and will appear.  It's not all belief.  It's not all opinion.  But to find it and to know it and to identify falsehood is an art we need to aim to practice every day.  Truth is rarely exactly what we think it is.  Truth can surprise us, even astonish us.  And yes, some things are indeed belief.  

The more a society values and encourages deep reflection and discernment, including spiritual discernment (and also respecting that some may choose to reflect upon spiritual things and others may not), the better.

 

Sparkling Waters photo by Susan Larison Danz.  

On This Day, November 9

"Shining true and smiling back at all who wait to cross.  There is no loss." 

~ Kansas, The Wall

On This Day in History, November 9, 1989: "East German officials today opened the Berlin Wall, allowing travel from East to West Berlin..." 

And that's not all this date carries, for those who might look, for those who remember.

We get to choose.

We get to choose what sort of a November 9 THIS one is going to be.

I feel we are choosing already, many of us. I'm personally choosing the same thing I chose yesterday, in what might feel like an imperfectly perfect kind of a way (that's why we chose to be human).

We can simply choose to choose Love.

L-O-V-E

The choice doesn't need to appear to be perfect. Just by existing, it IS. It's about honest, heartfelt intent, in the most human of ways.

I remember early November 1989, perhaps more in feelings than in details. It was like some kind of a Miracle, back then, inexplicable, yet Real.

How could it be?

It simply was.

I remember the years leading up to it. I remember the years that came after. No, not all the details. I remember the feelings.

On November 10, they started tearing the wall down. I DO remember at least some of those details. I was 25 years old. And I had recently fallen myself - that Fall, I had fallen in love. I remember studying the images, astonished. They didn't arrive quite as rapidly in those days, but still, we all watched. I remember the front page of the newspaper. I remember the evening news. And we did already have cable.

We tended to believe back then that the wall would never actually fall (except through the madness of mutual destruction). I remember a friend telling me what it was like to have visited there, how forbidding it actually was - traveling there wasn't needed to feel it - we felt it in plenty of ways. Falling like that, truthfully, it wasn't even "a concept", for a very long time, not for most of us. As long as many of us could remember, that wall simply >was<. Yet fall it did. And it all came about in a way nobody expected.

It's time to begin.

It's time to continue.

We get to choose.

November 9.


Photo from July 1, 1988, permitted use with this attribution from Wikimedia Commons: By Neptuul (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Carried...

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." 

~ Henry David Thoreau

I observed the current a long while, the water high, enough to encroach upon the branches of bushes, some attempting to float and others submerged.

And then I noticed a stick that looked to be stuck - yet also adrift, apparently.  It wasn't like the rest.  It wasn't attached to a bush or a tree.  It had become entangled within the branches that were.  And then all of a sudden, it broke free, the current carrying it forward.  It traveled a few feet.  Before it became stuck, again, this time a bit more.

I left it there, eventually, watching long enough to see the current turning it one way, then the other, working its way, as if aware this particular stick had the freedom to roam. 

It wasn't actually adrift.  And it was never actually stuck.  Carried, it was free.

Rules of Engagement

"An open heart is an open mind." ~ Dalai Lama XIV  
Lately I have been noticing how the way we all tend to interact and perceive has everything to do with our own relationship with Love.  If what we see is drama or fear or some form of division, then perhaps we need to spend some time working in the space of our own hearts.   

I claim no particular state of perfection.  I am reminded continually of my own heart work to do.  But little by little, by leap and by step, I seem to make progress.  To avoid the divisions of judgment that inevitably create suffering, my primary rule of engagement needs to be Love.  It starts with the healing of divisions within.
 
And that is the Miracle.  The more Love we consciously let into ourselves, the more Love we will perceive in the hearts of one another - and the more Love we can meaningfully and openly share.  

The divisions we were so very convinced were so very real mysteriously fade.  What remains at the Center is Love.  It is Infinite, you know...

Turning Point

"It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." ~ Field of Dreams

There is a scene in Field of Dreams when the Magic becomes visible.  The doubters couldn't see.  They thought is was "crazy".  

How could you mow over your corn?  

Because there is Magic.  And I'd like you to see.

There came a day.  The day everything changed. 

I sense we're not far from this day on this planet.  We have much of an over-thought world driven by "rationalists", when we don't need to live on mere "rations" at all. 

The Magic will find them, one Heart at a time.  They knew it as children and long, long ago.  We did too.  We do now.  They are coming.

It's the world that once was, and is, and will be again. 

P.S. I noticed a typo while previewing this entry.  I chose to keep it (or should I say, "is") very intentionally. ;-)

Recalculating...

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” 

~ Douglas Adams

I have an old Garmin GPS device in my car I generally only use when I'm already lost in downtown Portland (which used to happen every time I ventured down there, but lately I've been doing a bit better, especially when I take the bus). 

Despite my advanced degree in Computer Science (and former life as a computer scientist), I am and always have been a very special kind of technophobe.  That's precisely why I at least tried to do my share of work in "human factors" (the art of making people far less technophobic) because quite honestly most software is not designed with actual human beings in mind.  Thus technophobes are made, not born, and it's not their fault at all.

Everyone in Oregon recalls horrific stories of people lost in the mountains, blindly following navigational instructions down some minor logging road.  One couple was separated, and a woman lasted for weeks in her car, snowbound in the mountains, while her husband sadly froze to death trying to hike his way to help.

A couple of months ago, while picking up a client at a downtown hotel for an early morning meeting, my Garmin told me to turn right, I obediently obeyed, and I ended up on a bridge heading the opposite direction, over the river in the dark, then by the river an unfamiliar warehouse district, then b
ack across the river on one of the oldest bridges in Portland (a draw bridge that thankfully was not letting a boat through at the time).  There is really only one bridge in downtown Portland I actually know well (and now I know 3 ;-) ).  I used a second navigational device on my iPhone to find my way back, stopping more than once along the way to check the map (and don't ask me why I don't use my iPhone more often). 

Years ago, I will never forget driving in circles downtown while taking one of the brightest engineers at our company to an awards ceremony.  She had a PhD and was from India, an absolutely brilliant woman with multiple patents to her name.  The navigational device kept telling us to turn and to turn and to turn on a very rainy night on a very circuitous route.  Eventually, we both laughed, realizing technology had tricked and gotten the best of both of us (and it's even possible the results of one of her papers had been embedded in the device).  So we followed our instincts, parked the car and walked the rest of the way.

Yet another time, while heading to a big radio station downtown, not once, but on two different occasions spaced enough apart I forgot all about the first time, my silly Garmin told me to turn on the worst possible road of all, the "transit mall corridor" (in fact, this has happened yet another time outside the convention center).  When you don't know where your going, rarely drive downtown  and nobody is front of you, nothing is more scary than a transit mall corridor (except maybe one of the bridges) because at first you have no idea whether 1) you are actually supposed to be on that road at all (in some cities, you aren't),  2) which direction the traffic is heading (it always looks one-way the wrong way for some reason), 3) where the heck you are supposed to drive (when frazzled, it's surprising how confusing that can be, as there can be a bus lane next to a light rail lane) 4) did I just go through one of those awful downtown red light cameras or stop too far over the line? (I know of red light cameras in the suburbs that will penalize you for turning right on red without stopping completely behind the line before you turn, but the problem with those is you can't inch up to see if anyone is actually coming, so I usually decide not to turn at those intersections at all - except by accident downtown when a Garmin tells me to turn.)  and 5) please tell me the light rail, trolley, bus, both or all are not coming before I get a chance to get my wits about me and find the proper lane (or get off the road altogether if there is no proper lane).

Lately my ancient Garmin tells me my maps are out of date and usually displays a huge "?" (and since I only use it when I'm lost, I never have time to get the maps).  But every once in a while, when I actually know where it is I'm going, like when I choose not to turn down a transit mall corridor, what my Garmin tends to say is "Recalculating..."  It thinks it knows the route, but a now wiser me knows better.

In life, there are many times a seemingly unadventurous (yet surprisingly adventurous) soul like me will choose a special, custom route, even rambling and circuitous.  My friends might say I'm lost, the maps not yet available.  I have some idea of a destination (or at least what my destination ISN'T).  As for my navigational device?  It is actually my Heart, the best human factor of all.

Perfect Time

"Time is the essence

Time is the season

Time ain't no reason

Got no time to slow..." 

~ Blue Oyster Cult

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” ~ Bertrand Russell 

Time is on my mind this morning.  And even though I have a very long list of things to do today (and seemingly no time at all), I'm taking the time to stop by this blog. 

On the surface, it seems I can't slow down enough to do the things most meaningful to me, and lately, those things are becoming more meaningful than ever.  Could it be it's time to shift my relationship with time?

I find it fascinating that years ago, when I was undoubtedly the busiest of all, working 50-60 hours per week in the office, I still managed to come home and write reams of material in the Oprah forum.   I would even sneak in writing time on my lunch hour.  The same was true for research, as I very effectively launched more than one project back then, projects that remain unfinished today.  That was 2008.  How did it ever manage to be 2013 so very quickly?

Unfinished projects demand resolution.  Still others demand to be started.  And it's easy to fall into the mind trap of regret. 

But instead, I realize this issue actually has more to do with trust than time.  When I look at the past, if I choose to accept and not to judge, then I must trust that no moment was actually ever wasted, not even one. 

And this doesn't change at all my intent to more mindfully manage my moments in the present.  All it does is give me peace.

Perhaps it really is very simple.  There never was and never will be a better time than Now.

Storm

Last night I talked about a perfect metaphysical storm, just to watch the tragedy of actual storms unfold today in Oklahoma.  The storms today are reminiscent of another outbreak precisely on this date in 1957, including the infamous F5 Ruskin Heights tornado in Kansas City.

My heart goes out to anyone impacted by a tragedy this severe.  This will be a simple post, no grand philosophies tonight, just thoughts and prayers for all who are suffering on the planet, just faith the Dawn is near.

Surrender

The path of surrender is sacred ground.

It seems change is in the wind.  When I was young, I remember so vividly the power of the wind.  Every winter in Colorado, we would get Chinook winds off the mountains.  They were particularly strong in Boulder, where I went to college, with gusts easily exceeding 70 mph.  We walked to class anyway, and depending on the direction you chose, you were either resisting the wind or surrendering to its power.  

On the spiritual path, we like to believe that we can direct the wind that carries our lives.  And to a certain degree, I believe that is true.  Yet we also have much to learn about all that is possible.

There is a passage in the Bible that is far more meaningful to me now than it was years ago:

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12

Seeing through a glass darkly is part of the Planet Earth experience.  I believe we set it up that way. 

Every path leads to our higher path, like tributaries of a stream.  It's a grand adventure to explore the many paths we see and even blaze new trails.  But when the winds of change arrive, and we know that this is so, if we simply surrender to its power, we can trust the Wind to carry us exactly where we need to go.