The great naturalist John Muir, said that when he went out for a walk, he would stay out until sundown, because "going out was really going in." He saw in his relationship with nature, the relationship between all things. He is said to have loved nature like a devotee.
Love is a portal through which we find a quality of spaciousness that holds all of life. It may be love of trees, or love of a fellow human being. It may be love of work, or love of play, or love of music. When we fully devote ourselves to what or whom we love, this space opens in our hearts. Everyone has had a timeless moment-- a moment in which we have lost ourselves so completely that time passes without our knowing it. This happens to some people when they are shopping! In this kind of immersion, the mind drops its self-judgment, its lists, its worry about the future, and you can let go into a deeper quality of space and time.
John Muir said this about trees: "I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves..."
The tree is not discontent because it holds fast to what it loves -- the earth!
What do you love? What do you hold fast to? What anchors you to this world?
Here are some ideas:
1. Take two hours to completely immerse yourself in an activity you love but haven't done for a while.
2. If you are in a relationship with someone, sit down and write out all of the things that you love about that person, and have loved over time. Drop the "yes, but" stories, and go for the love. Write at least twenty things. As you write, drop your awareness to your heart so that you write from the heart and not the head.
3. Write down all of the things that you love about your life. This includes the structures around you, the nature, the people, the activities. Again, drop your awareness deeper into the heart, so that you are writing from there.
4. Contemplate love. What is it? How does it come into a person's life? Does it come from the outside, or does it come from the inside? Is there any difference?!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Pruning Brings Energy to What's Important
Yesterday, I went out to prune my hydrangeas of the dead blooms of last summer. Not being able to find my clipper, I broke one scissors and was much kinder on the second pair I brought out. There is one hydrangea outside my living room window that is my favorite. It creates big blue pop-pom like blooms in summer, and in later summer, the blooms turn a deep red wine color. I've read that you need to weed out some of the central stalks on a hydrangea, which I never do. Well, this hydrangea decided to do this itself. It had a lot of dead stalks that I had to pull out, which gave me a lot of time to muse on the concept of self-pruning.
How can we prune back the non-essentials in our lives, giving life and energy for the essentials? Many people say, if they knew they had only a few days left to live, that they would want to spend that time with friends and family and in their favorite spot on earth. There are a lot of activities that take us away from what we hold dear, and these are the things that we can prune. Here are some suggestions for how to prune the old while bringing more focus to who and what you love in your life:
1. Meditate -- a lot of mental energy is wasted on thinking and worrying about things that aren't real. Meditation is mental pruning.
2. Walk in the woods, ride a bike, swim, do any number of exercises with breath awareness, which creates a moving meditation for your mind.
3. Do: knitting, art, writing, music, and any number of creative pursuits, also moving meditations when done mindfully.
4. Watching some television can create a meditative state in the mind. However, it can also become an escape mechanism, so ask yourself which it is, and replace the extra shows with a meaningful activity (see: the rest of this list).
5. Create connection -- many if not most people in America deal with some form of loneliness. Call a friend, create a memory scrapbook, get on facebook and send random, kind messages to friends, email "thinking of you" notes to people. Get an old picture of a friend or family member, make a card out of it, and pop it in the mail. Contemplate the boomerang effect of love.
6. Serve. I watched "The Soloist" this past weekend, and it's a great meditation on how, when you help another human being, you help yourself even more. Love transforms in all directions.
How can we prune back the non-essentials in our lives, giving life and energy for the essentials? Many people say, if they knew they had only a few days left to live, that they would want to spend that time with friends and family and in their favorite spot on earth. There are a lot of activities that take us away from what we hold dear, and these are the things that we can prune. Here are some suggestions for how to prune the old while bringing more focus to who and what you love in your life:
1. Meditate -- a lot of mental energy is wasted on thinking and worrying about things that aren't real. Meditation is mental pruning.
2. Walk in the woods, ride a bike, swim, do any number of exercises with breath awareness, which creates a moving meditation for your mind.
3. Do: knitting, art, writing, music, and any number of creative pursuits, also moving meditations when done mindfully.
4. Watching some television can create a meditative state in the mind. However, it can also become an escape mechanism, so ask yourself which it is, and replace the extra shows with a meaningful activity (see: the rest of this list).
5. Create connection -- many if not most people in America deal with some form of loneliness. Call a friend, create a memory scrapbook, get on facebook and send random, kind messages to friends, email "thinking of you" notes to people. Get an old picture of a friend or family member, make a card out of it, and pop it in the mail. Contemplate the boomerang effect of love.
6. Serve. I watched "The Soloist" this past weekend, and it's a great meditation on how, when you help another human being, you help yourself even more. Love transforms in all directions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
