perception – Page 2 – Dandelion Doorways

Grace

What if we were able to view our struggles as Grace?

I know that might seem like a crazy question to ask. You may be thinking “How could she ask me to look at my struggles my pain, my suffering as grace?”

…and 15 years ago, I would have agreed with you.

My perspective has shifted. It did not happen overnight but through a process shedding the ideas, beliefs and constructs I had learned to believe about who I actually am.

From where I’m standing now I can look back at every perceived struggle, every bit of pain and suffering; whether it was spiritual, physical or mental, and see it has been Grace. Every decision I’ve made for good or ill has led me down the path my soul required I walk in order to learn the lessons needed in this lifetime; to live with an open heart and not one filled with fear.

When I release the need to view my struggles through the eyes of victim-hood, and instead, the through the eyes of a student being guided by a master teacher, I am better able to release my attachment to outcomes and remove my expectations from situations of which I have no control over; moving through my days in a state of flow, not constriction.

In doing this, I am also better able to forgive others. When we forgive ourselves for misguided judgment it becomes easier to forgive others. We learn that we are not perfect and neither is anyone else. We are each learning day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath.

I am not the person I was yesterday. You are not the same person you were last week . Each new choice opens us to the pure potentiality of our experience.

We begin to hold ourselves and others to a standard of GRACE, not perfection.

Namaste

✎𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗪𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗢✎

I wasn’t necessarily planning on participating in nanowrimo this year. I didn’t want to put myself through the stress of coming up with an idea and all the things that go into planning, writing, finishing 50k words in 30 days.

So with nanowrimo off my mind for most of the summer, I had begun kicking around an idea for a short story, taking some notes, sketching out ideas, but I forgot about it sometime around the end of august.

As September rolled along I was focused on content creation, my dog, new guided meditations, family, and feeding squirrels. On one of my many squirrel feeding expeditions I happened to walk a route I hadn’t taken in a while. I meandered on the side walk looking into the vacant lot for the sandpiper who nested there, stopped to watch a bee on a cornflower, and stumbled upon a memory.

I was walking the same sidewalk a few years before and I had been noting how cracked the sidewalk was and an idea for a story bloomed in my mind. Unfortunately, I was never able to expand the idea enough to begin writing.

…but now.

That moment in late September, when I noticed the cracks on the sidewalk, stopped me in my tracks. I could clearly see how these stories, these ideas were waiting for each other. One born in the future, waiting patiently for the past to catch up in order for the whole story to be told.

Stories want to be told. They are always searching for their voice, for the instrument of their telling.

Since this story to must be told, I am poised to begin nanowrimo for the first time in 2 years. I completed it once in 2019 as I was very prepared. I feel just as prepared now, yet more at ease. I’ve written 50k words in 30 days before so no big deal doing it again.(right??)

Perhaps this will yield a strong flow – being at ease, calm; allowing the words to flow thorough me. Allowing myself to have fun with the creative process instead of worrying about word count or deadlines.

I guess we will see how prepared I am a month from now as the first week of NANOWRiMO comes to a close. As for now, I will continue prepping with these little bursts of creative flow.

Keep Calm & Write on!

Find Pleasure in the Simple Things

By 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦, I mean natural. We are inherently surrounded by elegant simplicity. The delicate fold of a new leaf unfurling; the gentle decent of that same leaf, months later, as it is released by the steadfast deciduous of its birth.

We now live in an unnatural world of concrete and plastic; imitation flora decorating the interior landscape of our homes and offices; completely removed form the 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘺 parts of actual life such as the slaughter of meat for constant consumption.
Would you eat meat if you had to kill and dress it yourself? I wouldn’t. So I don’t eat meat.

Our modern trappings have so removed from being able to actually take pleasure in simplicity.

Go outside today. Learn the names of the tress in your immediate space, smell a wildflower as it struggles for sunlight through a crack in the concrete jungle.

What wonders can be found just outside your doorstep, waiting to be cherished for the integral part of existence that it quietly is?

Beginning Practice

Practice.

Beginning a meditation practice can be daunting. I have often heard, “Oh, I stopped because I couldn’t stop thinking,” or a similar statement. It’s a challenging stigma to overcome — meditation doesn’t mean your mind is blank, and it means we can lose the attachment to the thinking mind; we release the attachment to the thought.

When I was first dipping my toes into the meditation pool, the easiest way I found was to view my thoughts as just something happening.

Like this: When you have a thought (it doesn’t matter what it is!), say to yourself, “there goes a thought,” and I guarantee you’ll have another one following right behind-“oh, look more thoughts.”

Thoughts come and go all day long. It’s not necessarily the thoughts that cause us stress but the attachment to specific thoughts. Replaying stressful situations or worrying about the future are both forms of this attachment.

Meditation allows us to learn how to find space and release our attachment to constant mind chatter. Over time, with consistent practice, we are able to sit with a calm mind. Outside meditation, the chatter quiets down, loses its hold on us, and we begin to live more mindfully with less attachment, stress, and worry.

If you are just beginning your practice, I recommend guided meditations as they provide a focal point for the mind’s eye. I have some short guided meditations, perfect for beginners or seasoned meditators, available on Insight Timer for you to explore.

Once comfortable with guided practice, try sitting for 1 minute. Yes, only 1. Trust me. Set a timer. It’s longer than you think if you are not used to sitting quietly. The first time I attempted this, I lasted about 35 seconds before checking the timer!

Patience. Practice. Perseverance.

Namaste.

Free

I am most content in Nature, be it mountains or fields, in these places I have a sense of connection, of suchness that eludes me in trappings of concrete and steel. When I am able to spend even brief moments in the bounty of the earth, I am reborn, refreshed and deeply content.

I recently stumbled across the writings of Wendell Berry, a man of “suchness” and I think this quote from his essay “A Native Hill” captures the essence of the lightness and depth one feel’s amidst Nature’s verdant realms.

“And so I go to the woods. As I go in under the trees, dependably, almost at once, and by nothing I do, things fall into place. I enter an order that does not exist outside, in the human spaces. I feel my life take its place among the lives-the trees, the annual plants, the animals and birds, the living of all these and the dead-that go and have gone to make the life of the earth.
“I am less important than I thought, the human race is less important than I thought. I rejoice in that. My mind loses its urgings, senses its nature and is free.”
~Wendell Berry, A Native Hill