28.3.08 new game

At dinner tonight a friend told about an exercise she did with a life coach that reminds me of the Perfect Day exercise in headSpa's "One Day" Journey 4. The point of both exercises is to put out there in a narrative form the things you'd like to be and do in your life and give them some form so you can see what they tell you about what matters to you, and so that you can use it like a map to move into those dreams and visions.

In this exercise, you write a letter to a friend describing your life at a future date when the things you desire are part of your life. You also tell this friend about the milestones along the way of your journey into having, achieving or becoming what you desire. It's not a letter you send, but rather one that comes back to you as a guide towards living into that future.

It was wonderful to see our friend who'd done this exercise light up when she talked about how she was able to sit on a train one day and just write the letter; how the dreams just flowed onto the page. She wrote about a time ten years from now and her sense of excitement about the possibilities, about the journey ahead that may or may not result in actually living every bit of that story by that time, was palpable. It was as if by creating that image on paper she had inspired herself to live more fully and with a sense of wonder, to see where it might lead her. Great stuff.

And the Vietnamese food over which she told us about the exercise was great too - what more could you ask for on a Friday night out in London?

27.3.08 thursday thirteen

thirteen affirmations coz I need 'em:

1. the universe is expanding, and I am with it. even if i do nothing to improve myself or grow today, I am bigger than I was yesterday. the growing is happening within me.
2. there are no mistakes, only decisions made with limited information - limited by not getting it, not understanding it, not wanting it. I can open myself to new information in order to make different decisions in the future.
3. my soul wants what is best for me.
4. everything is made of light and energy, which means we can see each other and connect with each other lightly and from the basis of all being one. connecting as energy keeps the flow going rather than connecting as mass which can become an obstacle, a solid rather than a fluid. I have no idea what that means, but it feels intuitively true!
5. I am not my body; I have a body.
6. I am not my feelings; I have feelings.
7. I am not my thoughts; I have thoughts.
8. I am not my soul; I have a soul. These things provide a measure of detachment so that I can look at my body, feelings, thoughts, and soul and say, "What is well with you and what may I do for you?" When I become those things, I am stuck. When I look at them, I can move.
9. now, the present moment, is the only time that exists.
10. love exists.
11. I can always do my best.
12. I can stop making assumptions.
13. I can be impeccable with my words.*
plus this bonus:
14. I can take nothing personally.

from the four agreements - good quotes from the book by picked like well-chosen fruit can be found here

...solemn and meditative character

Finding sacred space is a challenge in the city. One of my favorites is the Rothko room at the Tate Modern. According to the Tate's web site, Rothko was going for making

viewers feel that they are trapped in a room where all the doors and windows are bricked up, so that all they can do is butt their heads forever against the wall.

Um, I don't get that feeling there at all. No matter how many people are crammed into the museum as a whole, the room is often quiet and uncrowded. For me, it has the feel of a chapel; the flow of worship. There are nine paintings around the wide room, each shades of maroon and reds and blacks with very little form. There is enough to the shapes to move from chaos to contemplation and out towards action, however.

I was interested in coming back to the room after having lived in the desert for nine months. I had a hunch that what I came to love about the alive emptiness of the desert would correspond to these plain yet vibrant canvasses. I was right. I felt my brain go quiet in the same way it did walking out of Alice. Quiet, present, prepared.

19.3.08 Out of Iraq

Today I'm participating in the blogswarm protesting the war in Iraq. It's well past time to get out. It should never have started. Peace and self-determination will sustain humanity on this planet long after the oil has dried up. All I am saying - to myself, to the warmongers and the seriously greedy, to the generation to follow: is give peace a chance.

Here's a link to a peace event that happened in one of my circles of friends, the United Church of Christ.

Peace and be well, world.

Need a Little Light

Despite my best efforts to live in the present moment, sometimes I just need to touch base with previous travels. In this case, on another grey day in London town, I needed a little light from Oz.

Clutter-ized

I thought that everyone already knew that clutter in one's outside environment adversely affects one's inside environment. But I was wrong. I spent most of today opening doors onto rooms and closets and attics and every-available-spaces at our new job to have things fall out on my head/foot/whatever part of me I wasn't quick enough to move. And I've been noticing that many of our new friends and colleagues are living cluttered lives. No judgement...but I am thinking of investing in a dump truck and sneaking into people's houses at night to clean and clear...

Here's what the professionals say:

Are you overwhelmed by clutter? Feeling disorganised, depressed or out of control?
If you need a reason to declutter, let me give you one major purpose - quite simply it's to FEEL BETTER!

Of course there are many others benefits.... you could also.....

- Be less stressed, because you can find things
- Have more space to move - both physical and emotional
- Stop being embarrassed by clutter
- Think more clearly
- Increase your self-esteem
- Become relaxed and peaceful
- Save money by spending less
- Gain back hours, days and years worth of time
- Cut your cleaning time by 40% or more

De-cluttering is a spiritual adventure par excellence! Trust me...

I was thinking about focus. If I go for a walk and look only at what is immediately in front of my feet, I can make sure I never trip but with my head down, I can easily get lost. If I look only way off in the distance to the place I am hoping to reach I not only miss the potential pitfalls and the small beauties right in front of me but I miss the journey, it all becomes about the destination. The trick is to focus on the middle distance. Keeping an eye on the detail, keeping an eye on the final goal, and figuring out how one leads to the other. Oh, and the other thing. Stop. Last night on my walk I stopped to watch and listen to the wind in the bear winter trees, just for a moment. Every now and then it’s good to break stride, veer off course to see something interesting. 

more Smiles

I am really enjoying the blog From Smiler, with Love. Here's today's "right on" quote:

I just think it's a good thing to have voices in this world that come from people who don't have personal, religious or political agendas, but have a lot of soul and spirit, tolerance, and love and understanding to share - and I think I'm one of those people. Do I have all the answers? Not by a longshot. I have more questions than I have answers. Am I always right? Certainly not. Do I think I'm perfect? Not in this lifetime. What I do have is a need to communicate. Communicate what? I don't know. Doesn't matter. Just to keep a dialog going and also... to share some of the things that are in my head. Because when I do share them, I've noticed that many of people can identify and it seems to do them some good even just to know that someone else out there feels or thinks the way they do, and what they give back to me is incredible too.

Thank you, Smiler!

Reading a post like this makes me feel a sense of shared journey and encourages me on my way. I am warming to the notion of spiritual adventures via the ether from the comfort of my warm little flat in the big, cold city.

It's funny. but then again "What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?"
little bitty warning - the protest posters you'll see in this video clip might be offensive to some (even as they might make others get out the old paints and join in) viewer discretion advised!

Borrowing a bit of Serenity

I have a very simple 4-step exercise I like to call "Serenity Now"
that helps me with... everything. Especially when trying to make
important decisions. Or... not so important ones too for that matter. It's very simple and brilliantly easy.

Go to "From Smiler, with Love" for an invitation to find out more and to give her exercise a try. I love the way she puts something we probably all know to be helpful but maybe don't just do it.

Thank you, Smiler! This fellow spiritual adventurer's blog is listed to the right under the label "Synchronicity&Serendipty."

Spiritual adventures have their best starts at a still point. Breathe...and enjoy!

New Light

Yesterday I visited the Bromley by Bow Centre, an experiment in organic community that went from seed to forest in the past twenty years. It stands tall as a place of integrative, holistic living for all.

The centre's hub is a healthy living centre. People from the surrounding neighborhoods can come in to see a GP, get help with plugging into adult learning opportunities (the area is predominantly Bangledeshi, so many people come in needing ESOL classes and other avenues for work and living here), get your housing sorted at the main reception desk which includes a representative from the local housing cooperative. Meanwhile, if you need complementary therapies like art or massage, you can schedule that. Around the place are artists' studios, full of activity because each artist receives the space free in exchange for teaching. There were a number of groups of very happy and engaged persons with development disabilities working on painting, furniture making, and who knows what else. The children's nursery was busy having lunch. We met a stone sculptor who mentioned that because her studio has windows onto the street, many people just stop in because so few of us see people making things by hand any more. She was working on a beautiful, rare piece of blue alabaster and was thinking she would create a piece of sky with it.

Reflecting on the experience, which was a lot to take in because so much happens around the place, I realized what the good vibe of it was all about, for me at least. There was a deep and abiding, yet lightly held, sense of common humanity. The place and the employees weren't serving "those in need." There was no power differential between those giving and those receiving. It was simply the flow of people connecting as people. There was no self-consciousness about being a professional or being in service, there was just a sense of getting on with it because life is engaging and worth sharing. Very pragmatic things were happening all over the place, but with a lightness of being. Very little earnestness or do-goodery.

Having read a recent book about the place by the person who simply showed up and started to get to know people and what they needed and wanted to do and be, Andrew Mawson, I can see the roots of this ethos in his way of being. It has gone on in the manner in which it started. He marveled at the persons who came around, at the human light that was in each one, no matter how circumstances of birth and the various powers that be had tried to cover them in bushels. He always saw the light, believed in it, recognized how ordinary and extraordinary it is at one and the same time, and did what was in his power to clear the way for it to shine.

It was a bright day.

New life

Depending on which authorities you pay attention to spring begins on March 20 or 21 here in the Northern Hemisphere. It seems that the trees in our garden don’t give a toss for dates and calendars. Today it is March 2 and there are buds and shiny new leaves everywhere. There’s a hidden rhythm in the seasons. hidden all the winter, obvious now to anyone who pays attention but always at work and ready to burst out at a secret time of its own choosing. There is a growing thing in you and me too, working its way to its own bursting point, sometimes hidden from us but always growing and working to a secret schedule that might just surprise you.