Awakening - Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have

I really like that one and find it to be true in my own live and as I watched my parents age. In this way aging is a gift.

 

I was thinking the same thing. ;D

 

For mysteriously and powerfully, when I look deep enough into you, I find me, and when you dare to hear my fear in the recess of your heart, you recognie it as your secret that you thought no on else knew.

This is the thing, to me, that deep relationships are made of. It's so difficult to actually allow someone to see your fears and to have someone allow you into themselves this deeply. There's always that fear that it will be used against you to hurt you sometime in the future. I know there are fleeting glances at strangers too that trigger that feeling of oneness but I find it few and far between that it actually happens.

It's funny, I spent so much of my youth trying to blend in instead of seperating out my differences. It wasn't until I got older that I realized there was something to being different and it was OK to just be without that thing of 'what others think about me' get in the way. I do see that we all are connected and it's that which allows me to talk with just about anybody. To know that we are very much a like in very different ways at very different times in our lives. It is that which makes me feel free.

 

You know, I think something is required to slow us down before we can have this lovely perspective - be it illness or innocense, age or accident, something happens to take us out of the race. And being out, we are then free to look into the eyes of the person across from us, and in looking, realize how very alike we are.

Another excellent entry. I couldn't wait to open the box to read this post. Thank you again for taking the time to type each day. Once you come to the end of the book, you should just start again from the beginning.

 

That's funny Maxine... I was already thinking that is will be sad when the year is up. LOL

 

January 7 - We Must Take Turns

~We must take turns: diving into all there is and counting the time.~

The gift and responsibility of relationship is to take turns doing the dishes and putting up the storm windows, giving the other the chance to dive for God without worrying about dinner. While one explores the inner, the other must tend the outer.

A great model of this is how pearl divers search the deep in pairs. Without scuba tanks or regulators, one waits at the surface tending the lines tied to the other who soft-steps the sand for treasures he hopes he'll recognize.

He walks the bottom, watching the leaves of vegetation sway and sways himself till she tugs the cord. He swallows the little air left as he ascends. Aboard, they talk for hours, placing what was seen, rubbing the rough and natual pearl. In the morning, she dives and fills their baskets and he counts the time, hands wrapped about her line.

Quite plainly, these pearl divers show us the work of being together and the miracle of trust. We must take turns: whoever is on the surface must count the air time left, so the one below can dive freely.

 

this is wonderful! My husband and I are like this, taking the time, giving each other our moments and being each others line.

I also think this can be for any relationship of friend as well as friends, sibling, relative.

Blessings to you and all.

 

So precious, Daize. I have several dear friends who 'dive' with me, as well. I laughed with one just this morning, "Good thing we BOTH aren't 'down' at once. One of us has to stay afloat to pull the other up." I'd no idea THIS would be tonight's topic. Precious.

 

January 8 - Feeding Your Heart

~No matter how dark, the hand always knows the way to the mouth.~ Idoma Proberb (Nigeria)

Even when we can't see, we know how to feed ourselves. Even when the way isn't clear, the heart still pumps. Even when afraid, the air of everything enters and leaves the lungs. Even when clouds grow thick, the sun still pours its light earthward.

This African proverb reminds us that things are never quite as bad as they seem inside the problem. We have inner reflexes that keep us alive, deep impulses of being and aliveness that work beneath the hardships we are struggling with.

We must remember: the hand cannot eliminate the darkness, only find its way to the mouth. Likewise, our belief in life cannot eliminate our suffering, only find its way to feed out heart.

 

Likewise, our belief in life cannot eliminate our suffering, only find its way to feed out heart.

I have a friend who is always ALWAYS telling me that my 'belief' is the source of my experience - be it joy or pain. I have a very hard time accepting that thesis. But this, this idea that my belief, although not the source of the experience, can be the path to finding nourishment for my heart - this idea is far more palatable, far more in line with what I sense happening ( or NOT happening on those multitude of occasions when I absolutely forget who I am).
Again, Caroline, I thank you for taking the time to share these words. They ride around in my head all day.

Expecting a winter storm here this weekend. One of my sons phoned last night to say, "I want to come up and spend the night with you. Let's cook something, paint something, and talk about how to change the planet." Fun.

 

I love to hear what you and others have to say on these readings Maxine. You and Ruth really brought to life a passage that didn't really resonate with my yesterday and had me thinking about it in a whole new way.

Your son sounds like a fine young man.

 

I had never heard that one. Good thought.

 

This one brought tears to me because I felt the darkness when mom was dying last year, I knew in my heart and soul it was time and my dear mom would be out of pain from her cancer and other chronic illnesses, she lived life until her body could not handle anymore. There have been dark times for me at times over the years when loved ones have died unexpectedly that were very young and old.

My heart is fed through the love of God, as well as my whole family, dear friends. I have had my struggles through my life through the low and high of valleys and I find my way to feed my heart with inner strength, and breathe in the air of life and am thankful each day as well as moment for my life.

In reading these Caroline, I see different of what it means and I like that, and thank you because I have always like expressing myself in writing down my feelings and stopped doing that these past years.

 

Likewise, our belief in life cannot eliminate our suffering, only find its way to feed out heart.

I'm not sure I'm getting all of this passage.

No matter how dark life may seem, our inner light knows the way?

 

Holly ~ yes about our inner light, I like this.

 

January 9 - Life in the Tank

~Love, and do what thou wilt.~ Saint Augustine

It was a curious thing. Robert had filled the bathtub and put the fish in the tub, so he could clean their tank. After he'd scrubbed the film from the small walls of their make-believe deep, he went to retrieve them.

He was astonished to find that, though they had the entire tub to swim in, they were huddled in a small area the size of their tank. There was nothing containing them, nothing holding them back. Why wouldn't they dart about freely? What had life in the tank done to their natural ability to swim?

This quiet yet stark moment stayed with us both for a long time. We couldn't help but see those little fish going nowhere but into themselves. We now had a life-in-the-tank lens on the world and wondered daily, In what ways are we like them? In what ways do we go nowhere but into ourselves? In what ways do we shrink our world so as not to feel the press of our own self-imposed captivity?

Life in the tank made me think of how we are raised at home and in school. It made me think of being told that certain jobs are not acceoptable and that certain jobs are out of reach, of being schooled to live a certain way, of being trained to think that only practical things are possible, of being warned over and over that life outside the tank of our values is risky and dangerous.

I began to see just how much we were taught as children to fear life outside the tank. As a father, Robert began to question if he was preparing his children for life in the tank or life in the uncontainable world.

It makes me wonder now, in middle age, if being spontaneous and kind and curious are all parts of our natural ability to swim. Each time I hesitate to do the unplanned or unexpected, or hesitate to reach and help another, or hesitate to inquire into somethiing I know nothing about; each time I ignore the impulse to run in the rain or to call you up just to say I love you - I wonder, am I turning on myself, swimming safely in the middle of the tub?

 

thumbs up for this one !

 

I agree... it also made me think about how much our disease/condition causes us put ourselves in this small tank.

 

I have unnecessary baggage that I carry around but it's so hard to let go. It means so much to me! Climbing this "cactus" will be hard for me. I'm struggling with life but not as much as I'm enjoying it. For some of us by the time we experience what you're sharing here will see how much it helps us to appreciate each day that we've been given on this earth. And even tho the daily reading may be short, what I'm left with will have me contemplating for a long time.


Thank you so much for taking the time to share!

 

Yes, what I know, in my present understanding of life to be right. Thanks Sarita.