Living and Loving
Sacred Stories
She and her husband found this bear at a rock shop in Canada and they both fell in love with it.
His passing was such a shock…. and loss.
They had divorced, remaining devoted.
Making arrangements with the funeral home, she stopped at a shop. The first thing she saw was this heart.
“It felt like he was sending BIG LOVE today….”
Sacred Stories
Looking down at the jigsaw puzzle she had been working on over the past couple of days, she saw a face near the base of the mountain, and heard in her head, “The hills are alive.”
Immediately she thought of a dear friend with a gorgeous singing voice. That song was her friend’s favorite.
“Alexa, play Sound of Music: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music.”
As the music began, she and her husband said at the same exact time, “That is B_ _ _ _ _!”
She had a quick wondering if it might be anniversary energy since her friend had been hospitalized with acute pancreatitis last year about this time. She contracted Covid-19 while in the hospital and passed in April.
A couple hours later, she received a text from B_ _ _ _ _’s daughter — requesting urgent prayers for herself and their son at the news her former husband had died in his sleep during the night!
The following morning as she checked in with B_ _ _ _ _’s daughter by text, she mentioned the hills are alive puzzle experience.
“Do you know when your mom went into the hospital?” she asked. “I wondered if it was anniversary energy.”
B_ _ _ _ _’s daughter sent a text message back, “OMG, it is!!! Yesterday was the day she went to ER.”
If you have had experiences of the continuity of consciousness, please share those. Tell everyone the hills are alive….
Sacred Stories
Her writing that day during the poetry writing group time was a blog post. In that post, she quoted from An Eschatological Laundry List by Sheldon Kopp.
The subtitle is A Partial Register of the 927 (or was it 928?) Eternal Truths.
When she finished reading her blog post, another of the women in the group grew quiet, began counting in her head, and then shared, “In 1977 my brother sent me a saying …. I do not even remember the saying now…. I thought the term ‘eschatological laundry list’ was something he had just made up…. I had no idea there was an actual list.”
Whatever the saying sent and received in 1977, obviously he had wanted his sister to know about the laundry list!
Sacred Stories
She saw a friend’s Facebook post about his dog, Bassie, passing.
She has several favorite quotations about dog’s passing, and she most often shares a very special one from The Dharma of Dogs, but she sent this one:
You might recall what it’s like to be with someone who has grieved deeply. The person has no layer of protection, nothing left to defend. The mystery is looking out through that person’s eyes. For the time being, he or she has accepted the reality of loss and has stopped clinging to the past or grasping at the future. In the groundless openness of sorrow, there is a wholeness of presence and a deep natural wisdom.
~ Tara Brach, True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart
Her friend responded:
Thank you, this is how I experience it now. Very special things are happening in my life right now. The great contact is becoming more and more noticeable. It is a special time for me.
And my dog, who is my soulmate, is called Sioux.
Sacred Stories
Out on the golf cart, they stopped to see friends. It was clear the friends were just heading out for a bike ride, so the visit was brief.
“How is Davey?” the inquiry about a mutual friend who had taken a fall off his steps a few days earlier.
“He bruised up his knee, and he has a bruise on his cheek. You know, there is no handrail on those steps. We have been out dumpster-diving looking for parts to put one together, but no luck,” came the reply.
The bike route had a destination: to see if the Meyer lemon tree was still giving fruit. A good shake of the tree yielded one very nice lemon!
Rounding the corner, there on the grass was a handrail! (People put unwanted or unneeded stuff out to be shared or taken by the trash pickup.)
Sacred Stories
Near the end of the Zoom class, a man who had lived in India shared a great epic in which Arjuna, approaching the battlefield, saw that he would have to fight against some of his family, friends, and teachers. Questioning his role as a warrior, Arjuna put down his weapons.
Lord Krishna tells him, “If you will not fight this righteous war, then you will fail in your duty, lose your reputation, and incur sin. … Therefore, get up with a determination to fight, O Arjuna.”
Krishna helped Arjuna see that both the creation and the destruction are sacred.
At the conclusion of his retelling of the epic, a woman held up a book so all in the class could see the cover.
Excitedly pointing to Arjuna’s imagine she said, “I bought The Gita: For Children by Roopa Pai just today!”
The Gita for Children contains this very epic the man had shared with the class….
Sacred Stories
Gathered with a spiritual group on Zoom, the teacher asked us to pay attention to how we experience when we meet someone, such as walking down the street or in the hall of the facility where she lives. She said to bring to mind someone or something we find very pleasant and notice how it feels to have your energy centers (chakras) open. Set that feeling aside. Then bring someone or something to mind that we find very unpleasant and notice how it feels to have your energy centers (chakras) contract. Set that feeling aside. Then she said to step back and notice the contrast.
“When open, my energy spirals outward…. When contracted, it spins inward and feels tight,” one member commented.
The conversation slipped easily to old habit patterns of contracting, not being skillful, getting emotionally triggered and reacting to others and events.
One member of the group commented that it is helpful to remember we humans, too, are mammals. When a dog gets startled or feels threatened or wants/needs something, it will bark. Barking is normal!
So often humans judge others or ourselves as not doing it right, not being good enough, or in some way being inferior because we bark. Barking is normal for dogs and humans.
Perhaps we will all benefit by remembering the humor in a dog’s setting an intention, “I’ll never bark again!”
Then another member of the group asked to share something. “Here is evidence that everything is connected. I want you to see what I put in my sketch book today.”
Here is a photo of that sketch:
Ha! After all, dog is god spelled backwards!
Sacred Stories
It was Christmas following the passing of her husband in November.
Searching for anything that would allow her to celebrate with their son and daughter, she settled on a three-wicked candle.
They would each light a wick, as an expression of their continued love of him.
But Norman Hans Thor, a near-life-sized moose, caught her attention as she passed a toy store window on her way to purchase the candle. The totally spontaneous purchase of Norman, as he is affectionately called, took over her mind completely. She forgot all about the candle in the excitement…
Later, when she returned to town to purchase the precious candle, she was thrilled to find that it was on sale at 50% savings!
Later, she found a Christmas candle holder that fit their special candle perfectly. Despite being totally blackened, the silver-plated holder cleaned up to reveal it’s true light.
One of her husband’s nicknames was “Young Buck.”
She shares, “Meeting a moose in a toy store window and finding a silver plated candle holder in the trash at a gas station is all about reminders that we are supported in every moment.”
And the EnneaThought® for the Day (Type Six EnneaThought®) expressed this same truth:
As you approach the start of a New Year, you can prepare for the transformation of your personality into Essence by realizing how extensively you are supported in every moment.