Validation

While in a new local restaurant, Indigo Kitchen, enjoying delicious Cider Brined Pork Chops, I heard a young voice declare "I am awesome". I looked up to see an 8 year girl with a wide smile. I was just having the thought it was the best thing I heard all day. Then I turned my head slightly, noticing her parents faces were both completely blank, still smiling the young lady added, yes just awesome.
Validation - short film award winning found on www.silliness.org

Be Thankful Poem

    Be Thankful

    Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
    If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

    Be thankful when you don’t know something
    For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

    Be thankful for the difficult times.
    During those times you grow.

    Be thankful for your limitations
    Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

    Be thankful for each new challenge
    Because it will build your strength and character.

    Be thankful for your mistakes
    They will teach you valuable lessons.

    Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
    Because it means you’ve made a difference.

    It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
    A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
    also thankful for the setbacks.

    GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
    Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
    and they can become your blessings.

    Author Unknown

found on abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com

A Teaching Story from You Have to Say Something: Manifesting Zen Insight by Dainin Katagiri
Dainin Katagiri (1928-1990), the first abbot of the Minnesota Zen Center, presents his thoughts on applying Zen insights to our experiences and encounters. To illustrate the power of magnanimous living, he tells the following story:
"I have heard an interesting story about how a famous psychologist in Japan cured a young girl after she suffered a nervous breakdown. The girl was from a wealthy family, and the psychologist met her regularly. But he didn't do or say anything. He just sat with her. One day, as he was sitting with her, the girl peed on the floor right in front of him. He was a very neat gentleman, and he was dressed in a very fine suit. But the moment she did this, he immediately took the beautiful handkerchief from his breast pocket and, without comment, cleaned up after her.
"In time she completely recovered. She later recalled this incident, because she was very impressed by the psychologist's actions that day. Without any hesitation, he just mopped the floor with his fresh, neat handkerchief. There is no way to explain why she recovered. He didn't do anything. He only cleaned up after her during this one incident. But she could feel something very soft, gentle, and magnanimous coming from each pore of his body. She really respected him."

found on www.spiritualityandpractice.com

that story reminds me of a time in my life when I worked in a hospital and was given the opportunity to care for someone in a catatonic state. There were other people who worked with her didn't talk to her. It never occurred to me not to talk just because she didn't talk back.

she was discharged, then returned one day weeks or months later (I can't remember any more how long it was). She stopped by the hospital to tell me thank you for talking to her and treating her well. It brought tears to my eyes then, and still now as I feel blessed to have done the right thing, to have mattered in her life.

A Very Short Story

getting a much needed haircut I made my normal utterance
"Why did I wait so long?"
the woman cutting my hair replied
"It's not a matter of life or death."
we both laughed
she continued
"People loo better, they feel, it's just not life or death."
we continued laughing as I thought about the truth of her obervation

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting 

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

I am truly enjoying this wonderful, talented poet

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.” Cesare Pavese

you can see where my gaze has landed

you may hear what has touched by heart

but where are my stories. . .

God sleeps in the minerals, awakens in plants, walks in animals, and thinks in man.
Arthur Young

Shopping As A Spiritual Practice

Even though I logically there is probably a book about everything, this one both surprised me, and pleased me (ah I am not a novice at this spiritual practice):

An Excerpt from Attention Shoppers! The Woman's Guide to Enlightenment Through Shopping by Eve Eliot

Eve Eliot suggests ways to make your shopping a path to personal growth. A first step is to assess why you shop. Here are 31 reasons.

"Shop to devote time to your self
Shop to "save money" because stuff is on sale
Shop as a kind of ritual with a personal meaning
Shop to avoid gaining insight
Shop to gain insight
Shop to avoid sitting still
Shop to fit in
Shop as a distraction from building relationships
Shop to avoid writing the book, cleaning the basement or washing the floor
Shop as a way of expressing your "wild "side
Shop as a way to feel in control because every shopping decision is yours
Shop as a way to fill empty time, which might otherwise bring anxiety
Shop as a way to deny anger, grief, fear, guilt, shame or any other unwanted emotion
Shop as a way to provide stimulation when bored
Shop to have something to obsess about so you can avoid something else
Shop as a form of self-nurturing
Shop as a form of "consuming" without taking in calories.
Shop to rebel
Shop to "make someone happy"
Shop to "make someone angry"
Shop as a form of temper tantrum
Shop to postpone doing the next thing
Shop to obtain a sense of centeredness in your body
Shop to avoid experiencing yourself in your body
Shop to" transform" your life with the perfect shoes or lamp
Shop to spend money in order to feel powerful
Shop to bolster the belief that beauty and perfection are, finally, attainable
Shop because you will not forgive yourself
Everybody is unique.
Compare not yourself with anybody else lest you spoil God's curriculum.
— Baal Shem TovShop in order to forgive yourself
Shop to escape
Shop to find your self."

found on www.spiritualityandpractice.com

and if shopping is a way to enlightenment, I am sure eating out must be too. This means I have so got it made, right?

And just as I was feeling as much smug as I was humorous, I hit a different key on the wonderful website Spirituality & Practice. Up came the spiritual practice of the day with this quote:

 Everybody is unique.
Compare not yourself with anybody else lest you spoil God's curriculum.
— Baal Shem Tov

“Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the people you have working there, and what they carry around in their heads, and their ability to work together.” Robert Reich

gour·mand - a person who is fond of good eating, often indiscriminatingly and to excess.

A gourmand is a person who takes great pleasure in food. The word has different connotations from the similar word gourmet, which emphasises an individual with a highly refined discerning palate.

Well, I have always known I am not a gourmet when it comes to food. Today, I did find a fancy food I can claim, gourmand.

Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.  Thomas Merton

I across this  song by Meg Christian I enjoyed many years ago. Till this day, I still quote a line from  this song, "I'm all I can handle at the moment". Interesting video pairing with bridge.

Enjoying Winter Feast For The Soul

"Come, come whoever you are Wander, worshiper, lover of leaving,
Come.
Even if you have broken your vow one thousand times
Come, come, come again."
 

Rumi

www.winterfeastforthesoul.com

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of the missing drop. - Mother Theresa of Calcutta

seen on http://www.winterfeastforthesoul.com

Call Me by My True Names

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.
Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time
to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to
Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea
pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and
loving.
I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my
hands,
and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to, my
people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.
My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all
walks of life.
My pain if like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh

heard on CD from Saved By A Poem by Kim Rosen

Blessing

Blessing from The Second Half of Life by Angeles Arrien

A Wigilia Blessing

"I wish you health.
I wish you wealth
That passes not with time.
I wish you long years.
May your heart be as patient as the earth
Your love as warm as the harvest gold.
May your days be full, as the city is full
Your nights as joyful as dancers.
May your arms be as welcoming as home.
May your faith be as enduring as God's love
Your spirit as valiant as your heritage.
May your hand be as sure as a friend
Your dreams as hopeful as a child,
May your soul be as brave as your people
And may you be blessed."

A Quote about Blessing from Judy Kroll in WomanPrayers by Mary Ford-Grabowsky

Recall Your Blessings

"before the first word
of the day

before I break the fast
and break my silence

before opening myself to traffic
before losing touch with sleep

hearing only the crowds of birds
hearing only a far-off voice in a temple chanting

seeing mists dissolve quickly in sun
seeing the newborn mountains

before losing touch with silence
while still touching sleep
before I forget to remember

let me sit down and recall
my blessings."

found on http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com

I am enjoying a book of poetry by Mary Oliver titled Dreamwork

Dogfish

Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
kept flickering in with the tide
and looking around.
Black as a fisherman's boot,
with a white belly.

If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile
under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin,
which was rough
as a thousand sharpened nails.

And you know
what a smile means,
don't you?

*

I wanted the past to go away, I wanted
to leave it, like another country; I wanted
my life to close, and open
like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
where it falls
down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
I wanted
to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,

whoever I was, I was

alive
for a little while.

*

It was evening, and no longer summer.
Three small fish, I don't know what they were,
huddled in the highest ripples
as it came swimming in again, effortless, the whole body
one gesture, one black sleeve
that could fit easily around
the bodies of three small fish.

*

Also I wanted
to be able to love. And we all know
how that one goes,
don't we?

Slowly

*

the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.

*

You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it's the same old story - - -
a few people just trying,
one way or another,
to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind.
And nobody, of course, is kind,
or mean,
for a simple reason.

And nobody gets out of it, having to
swim through the fires to stay in
this world.

*

And look! look! look! I think those little fish
better wake up and dash themselves away
from the hopeless future that is
bulging toward them.

*

And probably,
if they don't waste time
looking for an easier world,

they can do it.

Mary Oliver

I once saw a cartoon depicting two Buddhist monks seated side by side in a meditation hall. An older monk was muttering something to a younger monk out of the corner of his mouth. The young monk looked dumbfounded. The caption read: "Nothing happens next. This is it."
— Clark Strand in The Wooden Bowl

found on http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com

The Master overheard an actress discoursing on horoscopes at dinnertime.

He leaned over and said, "You don't believe in astrology, do you?"

"Well," the actress replied, "I believe in everything a little bit."
— Anthony de Mello in Awakening

found on http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com

In nature, one never really sees a thing for the first time until one has seen it for the fiftieth.
— Joseph Wood Krutch in The Desert Year

found on http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com

To Our Winter Weather

from The Bridge of Stars edited by Marcus Braybrooke

Well Met

Good Day my friend. This chance encounter
augurs well for my contentment. I thank
God that He should bring you across my path.
I was hurrying. It is fit that I slow down to
luxuriate in your wisdom and probity.

greeting from Salem 19th century USA

Work of the eyes is done. Now go and do heart work.
— Rainer Maria Rilke

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
But don't move the way fear makes you move.
— Rumi quoted in Unseen Rain, Quatrains of Rumi translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks

found on http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

Sunday

gorgeous snowpainted day
not a pair of shorts in sight
even I have closed toed shoes

Saturday

soft, fluffy winter flurry
traffic crawling, quietly, slow
county line all transforming into sun

Friday

Rivulets of water trickles down bag
words read Natural, Local, Organic
huh, well, I guess rain is

Something I never considered

A man from Montana told me when he was young he and friends would pack up a car with food when it snowed. They would drive as far as they could until they got stuck. Dig themselves out. Go into they got stuck again. That's how they practiced getting out of the snow.

A Blessing From Us to You

May all beings everywhere
with whom we are inseparably interconnected,
be fulfilled, awakened, liberated, and free.
May there be peace in this world
and throughout the entire universe,
and may we all together complete the spiritual journey.
— Lama Surya Das in Awakening to the Sacred

A Quotation to Inspire

"Like a lover who spends all his time thinking of his distant love, God has been thinking about me before I was born, for all eternity."
— Ernesto Cardenal in Abide in Love

found on http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

the only life you could save.

- Mary Oilver

found on peacefulrivers.homestead.com

a little foray into the public
a linking of words, worlds, wonder
a taste of ordinary beauty

A Sweet Story

Mr. Moses
— by Marian SkottMyhre 

He wanted to be sure that the first person who entered our home in the new year brought good tidings for all of us.

knocker with heartA wonderful man, Mr. Moses, lived on the street where I grew up.  From as far back as I can remember, early on New Year's Day each year my mother got up and dressed and let me get up with her so that we were ready and standing in the vestibule when Mr. Moses rang our doorbell.

He got up at dawn, dressed impeccably in a suit and vest and tie and overcoat and dress hat and started at one end of the block, going to each house and ringing the doorbell.  When greeted, he'd take off his hat and step across the threshold just enough so that he was inside. When invited in, he'd decline, saying that he had to keep going but wanted to be sure that the first person who entered our home in the new year brought good tidings and well wishes for all of us. He went to every house, then quietly turned around and walked the length of the long block back to his. It was many, many years later when I'd grown up and moved away that I wondered if there had ever been someone who came to his house to do that for him.

I'm hoping that this might be your first message in the New Year.  I wish you a year of good health, wholeheartedness, increased commitment, strengthening community, shared laughter, new adventures, continual reward, accelerated compassion, faith, and gratitude.

from http://www.gratefulness.org

WORD FOR THE DAY

Saturday, Jan. 14

Those who are awake live in a constant state of amazement.
Jack Kornfield

from www.gratefulness.org

Book Poem by Naomi Shihab Nye - because of libraries we can say these things

because of libraries we can say these things

She is holding the book close to her body,
carrying it home on the cracked sidewalk,
down the tangled hill.
If a dog runs at her again, she will use the book as a shield.

She looked hard among the long lines
of books to find this one.
When they start talking about money,
when the day contains such long and hot places,
she will go inside.
An orange bed is waiting.
Story without corners.
She will have two families.
They will eat at different hours.

She is carrying a book past the fire station
and the five and dime.

What this town has not given her
the book will provide; a sheep,
a wilderness of new solutions.
The book has already lived through its troubles.
The book has a calm cover, a straight spine.

When the step returns to itself,
as the best place for sitting,
and the old men up and down the street
are latching their clippers,

she will not be alone.
She will have a book to open
and open and open.
Her life starts here.
-- Naomi Shihab Nye 

found on www.gratefulness.org