A wordle for the weekend

created for free on the very cool wordle

GRATITUDE for my taste buds

for obvious reasons. beautiful photos are by Jennifer Causey

GRATITUDE for my ears

The July/August issue of Ode Magazine is called "The Silence Issue." The are exploring questions such as "Are we scared of silence? Do we need silence? Where do we find it and how does it affect us?" There's nothing like thinking about silence to make you realize how much you are hearing. Already this morning, even when it has been quiet, it has not been silent. I've noticed the sounds of airplanes in the distance, lawnmowers, my stomach growling, the dryer and dishwasher working and lots of bird song from outside (love you birds).

Here is how Ode describes how we hear:

"The inner ear is a flower bed inside a blacksmith's shop. Down below the auditory canal - past the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup - sprout the hair cells of the cochlea, planted in tiny rows along the basilar membrane like geraniums in a window box. As the hammer and anvil pound sound waves into shape, the stirrup taps out the beat on the basilar membrane, which sets the hair cells swaying like a breeze through a cornfield. Each of the hair cells' undulations fires electrical signals to the brain, where we discern the cause of the commotion - a cymbal crash, for instance, or the soft exhalations of a child's breath. Other senses my rest, but the ear never sleeps. It is insomniac, always alert to the slightest pulses, awake to the faintest tremors."

Once again, I am feeling a deep sense of appreciation. I am grateful that I can hear and for what I hear and how. The irony of intense appreciation for my physical self as a means to connecting to my spiritual self is not lost on me. I don't know how to justify it with words. All I know is that a deep appreciation for what I already have, who I already am and the perfection of it all brings me to a place that feels rich with love and grace and hope, and once I get there, then I can go and be that in the world. And that's what I want.

Thank you ears.

painting by Emma O'Rourke

GRATITUDE for my eyes

painting by Ky Anderson


One of the most common suggestions for connecting to our inner being is to develop a practice of gratitude. When we stop the daily routine for a moment and appreciate "what is," we bring our awareness into the present. Gratitude is quick but potent, and a much easier to develop than the other most commonly suggested practice of meditation (more on that later.)

I always start and end my days with appreciation for the basics such as the opportunity to live another day, my good health, my children and family, friends, and my home. I am often appreciative of the natural beauty that surrounds me and am pretty good at noticing and saying a quick thank you for some of the magical details of life such as the sound of birds outside the windows and avocados.

In recent weeks I decided to up the game a bit and, in addition to the basics, focus my appreciation on a part of my life that I take for granted. I'm currently on a roll with general physiology. One day I chose to appreciate my skin and another day I focused on my bones. Now I'm working through my organs. I'm really having fun with this. Once I took the time to be deeply grateful for my liver, the purpose it serves and its ability to function perfectly without any help from me, I was hooked. It feels like eating a serving of dark, leafy greens - it feels nourishing and just plain good for me.

Today I'm grateful for my eyes.
For those of you, like me, who didn't pay attention in whatever class that was in school where they taught us about how the eye functions, here's the very brief refresher that I gave myself: light enters our eyes through the pupil and travels to the cornea which focuses the light upon the lens. The lens further focuses the light on the retina. The image is flipped over and spread across the back of the retina which carries the signals to the brain via the optic nerve. The retina contains rods and cones and on and on with very complex and phenomenal goings on at each moment that we are perceiving the world around us through our eyes. This stuff is just business as usual for all the eye doctors out there, but how could I have ever taken these for granted?! My morning has already been filled with a whole new level of gratitude. Tomorrow it's my ears' turn.

FROM MY HOME TO YOU

Take me away?

It was a perfectly wonderful day, but at 7:30pm, the dog threw up on the living room rug, the boys were chasing each other around screaming, one hit is head on a door frame - more screaming, I was cleaning a frying pan covered with stuck-on scrambled eggs when my husband came into the kitchen angrily waving a dentist's bill in his hand and, I kid you not, the thought "Calgon, take me away" crossed my mind.

That was random. I haven't thought about those commercials in decades.

Then -more screaming - our 7 year old cut his leg and needed 5 stitches.

Since there was no chance I was getting myself into a bathtub overflowing with Calgon bubbles, I needed another coping mechanism. Calgon is a good and cheesy example of advertising that points us to some solution outside of ourselves that will fix what's wrong. I reminded myself that I didn't need to be taken away and that nothing was wrong. I needed to be there for my son in a calm and loving way without trauma or drama. I tapped into my being and let appropriate action follow. Being is so practical that way. So, no swimming or bathing for 5 days, and all is well.

Just for fun, I did find an old Calgon commercial on YouTube and while I was there found the Calgon laundry detergent commercial too... "Ancient Chinese Secret, huh?" -- the classics.

sometimes becoming feels like this

from design for mankind

new-be

I've been focused on learning about being as a way of life for a long time and I always write from that perspective, but it occurred to me that not everyone is coming from the same place, so I thought I'd share my story of the first time I was conscious of being conscious.

I was in my 20's and at a grocery store when it happened. I was reaching for a bottle of Dawn dish soap on the shelf when some part of me asked "why Dawn when there are so many other choices?" I had been buying the same blue, medium sized bottles of Dawn for at least 8 years, ever since I had started doing my own shopping. It was a reflexive choice and I never even noticed all of the other brands, colors, scents, sizes and price points that were available to me. It was not hard for me to figure out the reason for this - my mother always used Dawn - blue, in the medium size.

As far as I know, my mother did not have any special attachment to Dawn. Maybe one day it was on sale so she bought it and liked it just fine. Then I chose it because it was what I was used to seeing. Who really cares? But I remember wondering what else I'd been reflexively grabbing off the shelf of life, oblivious to all of the other choices available.

Living unconsciously means we make choices from our comfort zone of assumptions and beliefs without taking an active role in the choosing. Every choice about what we wear to who we marry to how we speak to our children is an opportunity to be uniquely, authentically ourselves. This does not mean reinventing the wheel with every little decision, just making sure that it's really you who is making it.

Once I took the time to consider the alternatives, I decided that having dish soap called JOY was the way for me. Now they make "Ultra Concentrated Joy." How could I resist that?

Stroke of Insight

This video from TED has made its way around via email, and is very worth watching for anyone who has not seen it yet. Harvard brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a massive stroke and stayed conscious through most of it. It took her 8 years to recover and she now spends her time spreading the message about the experience. The stroke was confined to the left hemisphere of her brain which meant she lost language and her sense of identity, but retained her ability to experience everything happening around her from a sensory perspective.

She presents insights about brain recovery that would be enormously helpful to anyone who has suffered or knows somebody suffering from mental illness. And anybody could benefit from her insights about the capacity within each of us to live more from the place of freedom, expansiveness and oneness that she describes.

She has written a book called "My Stroke of Insight" and was recently interviewed for Oprah's Soul Series. I was riveted by the 4 part interview. It transformed the way I think of who I am in relation to other people. She describes her time in the hospital when she did not understand who she was or what people who came into her room were saying or doing, but she knew if they were there to support her recovery, bring her positive energy, respect her and love her. It is the most straightforward explanation I've heard yet of why and how who we are being, not what we are doing, in the world makes all the difference. I highly recommend it for anyone interested. All of this can be found on Jill Bolte Taylor's website.

A New Earth - Chapter 3

The title of Chapter 3 is "Core of Ego," building off of Chapter 2 to get more specific about how we experience our ego.

Tolle says one sure way to know that we are operating from our ego is when we are complaining. Oprah asked about complaints such as when your soup is cold in a restaurant. Can't you complain then? Yes, when a complaint is made to bring about a change then it is legitimate. A good practice is to ask yourself "is (my complaining) meant to bring about change?" Actually, if we pay attention, we'll notice that most of the complaints are in our heads and never get verbalized. They include judgements, condemnation and criticism and the only purpose they serve is to strengthen our ego. What's most important is not to fight the ego or try to get rid of it, but to stop thinking it is who we are. When this process starts, it can feel confusing - If I am not all of those things, I'm not sure who I am anymore - Tolle says this is a good thing and we should be congratulated for it.

Each teleclass lasts 1.5 hours and most of the time is spent with callers and "skypers" asking questions to understand all of this in the context of their daily lives. One caller asked "Where's the fun?" if all of form is an illusion. The answer was to enjoy form (physical/material stuff) without identifying with it. True joy resides at a much deeper level than our ego and we can never be fulfilled if we look for it on the surface. Another caller asked a question I've often wondered about - eating and drinking. I've especially questioned my choice to drink (mostly wine, but I love a good margarita) and wondered if that is preventing me from being present and conscious, and if I should abstain. Tolle says he often enjoys a glass of wine, but rarely has more than one, not because he cuts himself off, but because he feels no need for it. It's about making conscious choices as much as possible.

There's really only one answer to every question which is: find a way to stay present and aware in the moment so that your choices and actions do not come from your ego, but from a place of deeper awareness that will lead you in a positive direction, toward the fullness of who you are.

Oprah's favorite quote from this chapter was "Only the truth of who you are will set you free." My favorite quote from the class, which I wrote in bold letters in my notebook was "I AM CONSCIOUSNESS APPEARING AS A PERSON."

You can listen to these classes anytime by going to Oprah.com