I stop to touch the tree trunk as I walk by.
My nose perceives the sweetness of bright white clusters of flowers on the horizon and the moistness of the ground beneath me.
I watch as stillness and movement come and go.
I sense the invisible currents of the air
that bring me sounds,
some familiar and many more curious.
This is the work of being on this earth.
Not leaving memories,
but making them.
In her enormity,
unruliness,
and most unyielding state,
she is soft,
subtle,
clear in her direction,
ever capable of moving,
shifting,
adapting,
aligned,
attuned,
resonate,
in her power
and beauty.
We drink of her,
ride upon her crests,
sink cradled in her stillness,
follow her home,
allow her to absorb our burdens,
as we find peace by her side.
She reflects back to us always
what we need most to see.
In this moment,
I set down expectations and any sense that I am not already successful.
I am comfortable, confident, clear.
I replace striving with thriving.
I feel a flood of grace, ease, and acceptance.
Assuredness steps in to remind me that I don’t need to overcome.
I simply need to become.
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The wind determines what I hear.
My eyes inform what I see.
The body interprets what I sense.
Thoughts form from what I hear, see, and feel as an experience.
Beliefs cling to these thoughts and this experience as truth,
setting emotions into action and reaction.
In reality, if there is such a thing, it is all just a choice, interpretation best when it comes not from my beliefs but in what I choose to believe.
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This moment offers goodness,
a natural and positive power to know ease.
Selecting and sorting in order to fully digest and release the lessons of yesterday,
Turning tomorrow’s worries and challenges into nourishment,
Releasing the need for familiar patterns of action and behavior,
Staying curious, playful, and willing to feel good, happy, and harmonious,
no longer resisting,
no longer malnourished and waiting to be fed,
greeting each obstacle, each decision, each encounter as a tasty morsel fueling growth and expansion.
Engaging a soft “huhn” or “hmmm” as all is processed without categorization or interpretation,
all a source of nourishment.
An unconscious smile cannot help but form as the gas moves through the abdomen, bringing curious sensations,
prodding the goodness to surface.
With the sometimes temporary pain and discomfort of digestion
comes clearing, sorting, dissipation, and integration,
as the work of being is done by the experiences themselves,
turning each encounter into a delicious and complete meal.
Witnessing
the immediate state of
the breath,
the thoughts,
the body.
Melting
conditionality,
quality,
quantity,
purpose,
direction.
Recognizing
perceptions of
loss
challenge,
failure,
imperfection,
and resistance
as a readiness
to be
seen,
felt,
and expressed
otherwise.
The next moment,
a transition,
a transformation.
Loving
and cherishing
what shows up
rather than what comes next.
A bird flies overhead,
magnificent in its form and grace,
perfection in flight.
So present in its existence, movement, and being.
So seemingly joyful and at ease, even as it efforts to ride the currents of air, finding its own way.
A feather lies on the ground,
long, lush, and of complex substance and form,
once essential to the bird’s form and function.
Even the bird,
relying so heavily on its feathers for form, movement, and survival,
molts and looses critical parts of itself to maintain its dynamic essence and functional existence,
growing into its fullest capacity.
It does not wallow in the loss of its parts.
It revels in the new found strength and skill that comes from letting go
and reforming with integrity
and wholeness
over and over again.
Pain provides an opportunity to turn towards lessons and lessening or to adopt as a wounded state as a part of identity.
For sure, the wave of wound on the heels of pain can feel logical and essential. It may perhaps be needed in order to make a choice. The wound from pain can be like a riptide that is easy to get caught in…that can provide great struggle and even the potential to drown.
However, to ride that current, perhaps even begin to understand it’s make up and direction and feel more fully into it just briefly, produces the wisdom to release the struggle and be propelled to its edges by its own force.
Without resistance, the riptide has nothing to hold onto and pushes away what it cannot drag down.
In due time, the churning and swirling when met with curiosity, tenderness, and patience has the capacity to deliver an object once more to calm and safe waters.
It is in returning to this calm space where wisdom is found…the pain lessened and the wound converted to a lesson.
While woundnedness perpetuates a perceived lack of safety imposed externally, wisdom reinforces the notion that safety is created in the choice to experience but not drown in the wound.
While ideally the sea of life hopes to offer smooth, calm, clear waters, it also aspires to shape future landscapes and to never remain the same, retaining unintentially in its purpose the potential for pain.
And in this way, there lie endless opportunities to ride or resist, to learn or succumb.
I feel the greatness in your
growing, breaking, mending, carrying, holding, transporting, containing, connecting, relaying, transmitting, receiving, processing, absorbing, rejecting, integrating, mutating, protecting, defending, expressing, mobilizing, representing,
existing
just for me.
It is with exceptional gratitude that I celebrate your magnificence, always accommodating, rebuilding, recoiling.
Today, in this stillness, I send you life force,
out to your very edges from the deepest, purest center of my being.
Feel me in your heart,
warm, glowing, thriving, existing with and within you.
Such a cherished gift you are and have been all these many years.
May I never forget your devotion, consistency, and capacity to endure and co-create this being.
When I feel rich,
My breath is full and steady,
My brain is open and organized,
My body is calm and healthy.
When I think I am rich,
There is no striving or grasping,
I am courageous and confident,
Projects move forward and my work is authentic.
When I believe I am rich,
I am grateful.
There is no rush to accomplish anything.
I am focused and clear.
I make powerful and positive decisions.
When I know I am rich,
All fears of unworthiness, lack, and disappointment dissolve.
Opportunities and answers arrive easily.
Wealth occurs naturally.
Love flows freely.
Monday Mindfulness 