Meditation on Problems
I've been watching a DVD of Gary Renard and one of his Disappearance of the Universe workshops. In it he tells of a meditation which I like very much because it is so simple and effective. You imagine you ask Jesus or the Holy Spirit (or whatever guide works for you) to take you to God. On the way there is an altar. On the altar you place all your problems and things you need or want. The idea is that you will have nothing before God, nothing in the way that is more important than placing your whole consciousness on the divine. By placing your problems on the altar, you are saying that you have faith that God can take care of all of it easily, and all you really want is communion, to be in the joy. Then you go the rest of the way into God and allow yourself to feel the love that results. I have been doing this, but also decided to go back in my life and do it at various times in the past. That was an amazing process; clearing the seeds of issues that eventually built up into more major problems later in life. I wonder if at some level I have changed something fairly profound. . .
Monday, September 18, 2006
Important Breakthroughs
I am noticing in my clients that September seems to be bringing new energy and breakthroughs. People were jammed up and stuck a bit so far this year, but this month I am hearing stories of clearings. Ending relationships that haven't been right for quite some time, letting go of feeling victimized and threatened by people reporting you to authorities (professional review boards, police) and suddenly the situation turns around and charges are dropped. Offers for new work collaborations and career advancement coming out of the blue after people made space by being honest with their parents. Having the perfect home space drop in your lap after being blocked for several years and putting up with a living situation that makes you feel small and pathetic. People seem to be blooming. And just when you thought nothing would change!
I am noticing in my clients that September seems to be bringing new energy and breakthroughs. People were jammed up and stuck a bit so far this year, but this month I am hearing stories of clearings. Ending relationships that haven't been right for quite some time, letting go of feeling victimized and threatened by people reporting you to authorities (professional review boards, police) and suddenly the situation turns around and charges are dropped. Offers for new work collaborations and career advancement coming out of the blue after people made space by being honest with their parents. Having the perfect home space drop in your lap after being blocked for several years and putting up with a living situation that makes you feel small and pathetic. People seem to be blooming. And just when you thought nothing would change!
Monday, September 11, 2006
Important Deaths
I am, of course, thinking of the people who died together in 2001 on this date, in NY, PA, and DC. I'm thinking of the ones who are now dying of inhalation-related illnesses caused by the WTC collapse. I'm also moved in an inexplicable way by the recent bizarre death of Steve Irwin, the crocodile man. Certain deaths have such a strong symbolic impact, as though by their form they are meant to break open our minds and punctuate an important point. What is important when we contemplate deaths? Certainly, to reinforce our determination to live our own lives in a way we admire the dead people for living theirs. And for being courageous and graceful, generous even, in the way they faced death and passed through it. And, to not be part of "the living dead," which some days I feel I border on, living shallowly and not appreciative of all that I have and can be aware of. So, today, I resolve to live more consciously!!
I am, of course, thinking of the people who died together in 2001 on this date, in NY, PA, and DC. I'm thinking of the ones who are now dying of inhalation-related illnesses caused by the WTC collapse. I'm also moved in an inexplicable way by the recent bizarre death of Steve Irwin, the crocodile man. Certain deaths have such a strong symbolic impact, as though by their form they are meant to break open our minds and punctuate an important point. What is important when we contemplate deaths? Certainly, to reinforce our determination to live our own lives in a way we admire the dead people for living theirs. And for being courageous and graceful, generous even, in the way they faced death and passed through it. And, to not be part of "the living dead," which some days I feel I border on, living shallowly and not appreciative of all that I have and can be aware of. So, today, I resolve to live more consciously!!
Monday, September 4, 2006
Write What You Know
Not long ago I visited the John Steinbeck museum in Salinas, CA. I hadn't read Steinbeck in years, and when I did it had been in the days before I understood what good writing really is. The museum itself is nicely designed and gives an intimate experience of the man and his works. There is a room for each major book, with the corresponding motion picture playing on a screen. There are letters in his own hand, and you can look at the truck he, with his dog Charley beside him, drove across the country. What I love about Steinbeck is that he wrote about what he knew; didn't try to be fancy. He penetrated into the ordinary, let everyday folks be profound, showed us that we all have that inspirational nature inherent within ourselves, that just by being ourselves we contribute amazing things. You don't have to go far from home to be universal. He says, "...I discovered that I did not know my own country...was working from memory...I had not heard the speech of America, smelled the grass and trees and sewage, seen its hills and water, its color and quality and light.. .So it was that I determined to look again, to try to rediscover this monster land. Otherwise, in writing, I could not tell the small diagnostic truths which are the foundations of the larger truth." We seem so separate today from those small close-up truths, looking anywhere but at the mundane for relief from the emotional pressures we feel. We forget there are some highly useful universal lessons in the consciousness of our great classic artists.
Not long ago I visited the John Steinbeck museum in Salinas, CA. I hadn't read Steinbeck in years, and when I did it had been in the days before I understood what good writing really is. The museum itself is nicely designed and gives an intimate experience of the man and his works. There is a room for each major book, with the corresponding motion picture playing on a screen. There are letters in his own hand, and you can look at the truck he, with his dog Charley beside him, drove across the country. What I love about Steinbeck is that he wrote about what he knew; didn't try to be fancy. He penetrated into the ordinary, let everyday folks be profound, showed us that we all have that inspirational nature inherent within ourselves, that just by being ourselves we contribute amazing things. You don't have to go far from home to be universal. He says, "...I discovered that I did not know my own country...was working from memory...I had not heard the speech of America, smelled the grass and trees and sewage, seen its hills and water, its color and quality and light.. .So it was that I determined to look again, to try to rediscover this monster land. Otherwise, in writing, I could not tell the small diagnostic truths which are the foundations of the larger truth." We seem so separate today from those small close-up truths, looking anywhere but at the mundane for relief from the emotional pressures we feel. We forget there are some highly useful universal lessons in the consciousness of our great classic artists.
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