Living and Loving
Sacred Stories
Her husband had recently passed. She was moving from their home into a condo.
Two STRONG men & a truck moved her furniture.
One of the pieces they moved for her was the antique Jenny Lind bed in the guestroom she had inherited from her granny.
When the movers picked up the bed, a Kennedy half dollar was on the floor.
1973 is the year they fell in love and married!
Coincidence? She does not think so.
Once you begin to notice, Sacred Stories are unfolding moment-by-moment.
Tonight is one of those times when tears are just so close to the surface. Perhaps it is because 57 years ago yesterday I had a near death experience. Things that happen to you change your world view….
Perhaps it is because this morning I got to work with a man, and a woman, and their precious dog. The woman had just stepped backwards into the motor pit on their boat. She began expressing her concern about not wanting to intrude on her husband’s session. We ended knowing you cannot take blessing from someone else by receiving blessing yourself. Even the dog came over to me and asked to receive healing attention! We were all so blessed by our time together as we were in that stream of the ever-perfect.
Perhaps my heart feels so tender because 11 years ago today Nonnie’s beloved Mike passed….
Perhaps tears are close to the surface because the evening sky is breathtakingly beautiful.
Or because I read this precious truth written by Danusha Laméris about how small kindnesses are the ‘true dwelling of the holy’:
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say, “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. And sometimes when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass. We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”
I like The Giving Hat that belongs to my dear friend, Jane Foster.
Perhaps my heart is so open because Jane was told she had less than a year to live by her surgeon who also said she needed to find a holistic healer. That was almost 20 years ago. Jane now coaches and encourages others to live life regardless of any medical diagnosis. So perhaps my heart is open because today Jane was on the mat beside me doing yoga for the first time!
As I drove back downtown to the office after yoga class, the vehicle at the red light in front of me had this license plate:
I wrote back, “Also 108 movements in Tai Chi.”
“Did not know that!” Kathy shot back. “That would be a good blog entry…. I’d read it.”
Lord Buddha’s footprint is imprinted with 108 auspicious illustrations.
In Islam, the number 108 refers to God.
In the Christian Bible, the phrase ‘first born’ is used 108 times. Both ‘in truth’ and ‘to forgive’ are also used 108 times, in the New Revised Standard Version.
In numerology, the number 108 is reduced to 9, but adding all the digits together. Nine represents the earthly lesson of humans, which is ‘forgiveness’.
Nine is about selflessness and compassion.
People with nine energy are said to work without motive.
Nines know their purpose is for the greatest good of all.
Nines also have a protective energy, and they have great power, and great love in their soul.
Today was the birthday of the woman I met with after yoga. I gave her a copy of The Gift: Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master. Her husband passed a few months ago so she is in the process of reinventing her life. She is only 73, not 108, but I am quite sure it would be OK with her if we put 108 candles on her cake and sang happy birthday to her. I had her read the last poem in the book.
AND LOVE SAYS
“I will. I will take care of you.”
I also gave her a lovely decorated heart-shaped empty box. My friend, Claudia, learned to set a special box on your nightstand or dressing table, as a reminder that each day is a present and being present is a gift you give to yourself.
108 times today I will say, it is such a privilege to be alive. It is such a joy to be awake.
I woke up yearning to get out on my bike but clicked on the video by Mary Reed (The Unwitting Mystic). I spent the next hour hearing, feeling, knowing I was right where I was to be.
I have spent time with Mary Reed in person, and I have followed her video offerings. Mary is the real deal. Her message of love is simple but not easy.
In the video, she describes the mechanism of creation as the FOCUS of awareness, the INTENTION of awareness, and OUR REACTION to what we’re aware of.
Mary shared this talk in reaction to the latest mass shootings, but it is in all of life that we are being asked to observe honestly, “What is my contribution?”
It is so easy to think we have nothing to do with horrific events, but as Mary says, everything that is happening is only happening within me…. there is no other way it can happen.
I am aware of that which I am in oneness with, and I am in oneness with that which I am aware of.
It is vital to remember, I am the only place from which there can be a different reaction.
I can focus clearly….
I can intend wisely….
I can react lovingly….
I can ask myself if I really am willing to be that presence of divine love. And I can answer, “Yes, I am.”
Regardless of how busy your life seems, you will be glad you took an hour to watch.
Sometimes I think it could be quite helpful to be an astrologer, or a psychic, or a saint. Especially when life presents challenges.
Below are three recent journal entries. The “D” stands for Debra, and the “V” stands for what I call The Voice (of the Holy Spirit). I have used XXXX where an individual’s name was recorded in my journal. I think you will agree the messages are for us all.
D: What would Spirit have XXXX XXXX know in consciousness about her son XXXX? (Autistic and threatened harm to them both.)
V: It may be time for her to seek a residential program for him. She (all of you) must recognize your limits. You are human. You cannot live every day in such distress. What would happen to him if she died?
D: We don’t like to think about that. We need to…
V: Karma helps us see truly. Her staying in a situation that is detrimental to her generates karma for him; generating karma for him generates more karma for her. As she chooses freedom for herself, she is helping him. People are so worried about doing something that is selfish. Sacrificing yourself in the name of love is the most selfish act you can do. Loving (doing the most wholesome thing for) yourself is the most generous. Everyone benefits or everyone suffers.
Tell all who know. They all know.
Love,
Holy Spirit
V: Yesterday you reminded your friend of ‘the rule of six.’ Can you come up with six options you see you for her husband?
D:
1. 24-hour care
2. 16-hour care
3. Facility
4. Bed pan
5. Catheter
6. Hospital bed / wheel chairV: Notice these all go downhill. Are you able to imagine him having another rally? He has had many. Make sure you don’t turn a rough moment into a rough day or rough period into a rough life.
D: Thank you for that! I see what you mean.
V: Tell all who know. They all know.
Love,
Holy Spirit
D: XXXX is so distressed over her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, following the granddaughter’s recent attempt at suicide. What would you have her know?
V: In many ways, regardless of the conditions, the same message is called for:
There is nothing to fix. There are only circumstances that require your loving attention. I wonder if XXXX has considered having them live with her? Not that this would be the final decision, but notice how XXXX’s town could be a good social environment for her granddaughter. Andrews University had many people of other countries and many with black skin. When we are willing to do whatever it takes, we are inspired, and what-ever-it-takes expands.Tell all who know. YOU all know.
Love,
Holy Spirit
Years ago I wrote about the importance of using our WIT, whatever-it-takes. The phrase “resistance is futile” became prevalent in popular culture. The film Star Trek: First Contact used the phrase as the tagline for the 1996 film.
The next time life presents a challenge, just try using your wit. Rather than bringing into focus all the things you are not willing to do to improve the situation, let yourself expand all the things you are willing to do. I am so often inspired by recalling the story of the man who got his arm wedged in the rocks while climbing. Using a pocket knife, he cut his arm off and got himself to safety.
Most likely, none of the circumstances you are currently navigating—regardless of how challenging—require you to cut your arm off.
Black Elk said it this way, “It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.”
Let’s all nourish our faith.
You don’t know how it will happen. Why waste time imagining the worst.
Even though it won’t happen exactly as you imagine it, imagine a scene that proves beyond a doubt, things have gone even better than you imagined….
P.S. XXXX’s husband is doing better, and so is XXXX’s son. Join in holding space for XXXX’s granddaughter, too….
Sacred Stories
She had just been asked to be part of a project for a spiritual group she was associated with. It was something she was capable of doing, so she sent a brief email reply that she was willing.
Getting up from her computer, walking across the room, she noticed a piece of paper stuck on the bottom of her shoe.
Here are the words written on the sticky note:
This is a really good idea. Before you dismiss it, remember how you felt when it came to you.
She had written the words from Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story, by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor, on that sticky note several years before. It had somehow—at that moment—gotten from her keyboard shelf onto the bottom of her shoe!
Take notice of the sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious way LIFE is always guiding you. Send email to Debra when you have a Sacred Story to share.
“Addiction, it has been said, starts in pain and ends in pain.” This is the opening line in the Editor’s Note in the January, 2018, edition of GUIDEPOSTS. The title is ‘Overcoming Addiction.” The entire edition is dedicated to the hope of recovery that calls to every addict and the people who love them.
Last evening we were with some friends. This past week has been about her facing her son’s alcoholism. Several times during the evening I would be aware of the smell of alcohol. No one else could smell it, but it was obvious to me. Eventually I said, “It must be my dad.”
Richard Rohr, an American Franciscan Friar ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church, published a podcast titled “Contemplation and Action on the Road of Recovery.” Rohr’s message begins with the radical truth that we are all addicted. He says the universal addiction we share is our addiction to our way of thinking. He says, “Literal-ism is the lowest level of meaning, the least level of meaning. Literal-ism gets you nowhere.”
Whether taking something personally, literally, or insisting our way is the “right” way, addiction to our way of thinking is one of the most important things we can choose to give up. What would that be like? Recovery.
Recovery is simply this: union with reality.
Overcoming addictions is simply this: union with reality.
Addiction is anything we know is not good for us but we do it anyway. So how do we change this?
Here is a poem I wrote on September 25, 2017. It is titled ‘Addiction’s Daughter.’
His blood shot eyes told the story
Her words a sloppy slur
The arguments, lies, disappointed children staring
wistfully out into space
Alcohol’s real name is Satan
Fermented devil Scotch
And pray tell how one can in his right mind call it smooth
a true velvety swindler
Our broken dreams lie there shattered
Memories all scattered
Perfection in work and play disguising inward scars
all weeping done in silence
All weeping is done in silence in addiction. It is important we speak honestly. It is important we choose wholesome actions that invite recovery. It is important our awakened heart is capable of being present for our own suffering and the suffering of others.
I have found the practice of Tonglen helps to awaken the heart.
A Variation on Tonglen (receiving/giving) Meditation
(Instructions in parentheses are a variation for Christians.)
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu is a Sanskrit mantra which means:
“May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.”
By chanting this mantra, we move from our personal self and radiate a prayer of love for the world around us. It takes us from the egoic, little self, and its limited world view, and radiates from us global wellbeing. It is a reminder we are a part of the universe and can positively impact all of creation.
May all beings everywhere overcome addictions….
Sacred Stories
The group gathered each week for meditation. One particular day, a woman who lived in another area was visiting and also joined them.
At the conclusion of the meditation, she said, “I just kept seeing elephants…. Other animals, too, but lots of elephants.”
Finally one of the other women said, “Well, I did a painting of an elephant. I have it here with me today. I brought it to show a woman who is not here today.”
Coming back to the group, she produced this amazing water color!
How do you make sense of the amazing experiences we are having? To share your sacred stories, send email to debra@scs-matters.com.