HERE & NOW

 

Stay here. Right here. Right now.

In the here and now of this moment.

This is where our lives are lived out.

We can only be in one place at one time;

living and breathing in this lithe land of what is.

Back there is where what is was.

Up ahead is where whatever will be will be.

Back or forward, neither is here or now.

But here, here is where our choices are still gaseous,

and their consequences--good or bad--still liquid.

And now, now is when all things become solid.

So, here is where we can create 

our now of the future,

and now is when we can conceive

our here of the future.

Since this moment is the only time, 

the only place, you and I can ever “be”

it’s fortunate that we always have it with us.

If (or should I say when) we forget this,

we lose our place in the universe

and the home of right here right now

feels very very far away.

HAIL, JERRY, FULL OF GRACE

Did I really just say that? Blasphemous! Well…maybe not. 

Before you stop reading please let me make a simple point: Mary--and Jesus, for that matter--weren’t the only ones who were “full of grace,” that is, full to overflowing with God’s love and goodness in their lives.

So are you and me.

But it begs a question: Are we by nature full of grace or are we by nature in need of grace? My answer: We’re chock full! In fact, it’s the primary way we are created in the image of God. Ironically though, we block our own conscious awareness and lived experience of this fullness of grace simply because WE DON’T THINK WE HAVE IT--WE DON’T EVEN THINK IT’S POSSIBLE TO HAVE IT--replacing it with an imaginary need for it. A need that isn’t really there...because it’s already been met.

That’s sad.

Thankfully, having this grace (all the joyous fullness of God), is not based on whether we think it, feel it, see it or sense it. It's not based on our perceptions, opinions or beliefs. It’s based on God.

Period.

This was Jesus' point. From the compassion in his thoughts to the love in his words to the boldness in his actions he wanted everyone in the world to believe one fundamental truth--that each of us and indeed, life itself--is full of grace!

It changes everything. It means we have more grace than we need to fully engage and fully enjoy this incredible life…this incredible day…this incredible moment. It means we no longer need buy into the world’s premise that we are by nature needy. It means even our pain and suffering can have life-giving meaning. Hence Mary Oliver's "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Think we're not just as full of grace as Jesus and Mary? 

Now that’s blasphemous!

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK ABOUT GRACE.

BE STILL MY SOUL

Me. I’m in dialogue with my soul. 

I’m telling it to be still. 

What a thought. How audacious!

After all, my soul is already still. 

Always was. Always will be.

But maybe there’s some place else 

where the stilling needs to happen. 

So perhaps instead of talking,

I should be listening to my soul,

to what it would like to say to me? 

Could be that, by its stillness, 

it already is speaking to me, 

and rather loudly at that,

telling me to chill, saying, 

“Stop taking yourself so seriously!” 

Sounds like it’s addressing my ego

which just may be the culprit

that is stirring up my stillness.

In which case, as is often the case,

it's my ego that needs to be stilled.

“Start,” my soul is saying to me,

 “(and maybe end) by giving thanks,” 

because giving thanks 

doesn’t just entreat respect. 

It engenders reverence, 

reverence for life,

for all of my life--just as it is--

even when my stillness

is all stirred up.

WARM UP

WARM UP

Singers vocalize. Chess players do tactical move visualizations. Mountain climbers do straight leg bear crawls. Software programmers get coffee! 

Seriously?

Actually, programmers--at least the sharp ones--visualize the system, application, or code they're working with like it’s a house of cards which, if tinkered with before they’ve done their mental prep, may come tumbling down--with landsliding effects. (And yes, coffee helps.)

What do these all have in common? Warm ups.

But it’s funny. We don’t often think of warming up our minds. Yet no matter what we’re going to do today--morning till night--we’ll probably do it better/quicker/longer if we do a mindful warm up first.  

But how? 

One way, ironically: DON'T THINK. E.g. meditation: sitting/walking/breathing quietly letting the mind become a pond slowly stilling after a pebble’s been dropped in it. Why practice not thinking? It rids us of mental leftovers and brings us back toward our tabula rasa state. Besides, it helps balance out all the overthinking we’ll do today!

A second way? DO SOMETHING THAT INSPIRES YOU FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF BEING INSPIRED--read something sacred to you, view great art or listen to some good music--whatever lifts your spirits, brightens your mood, floods you with joy--and restores your love of YOUR life even though it’s not perfect.

A third? Get physical. Stretch. Do qigong. Work out. Go for a run. Do the barre. Do something that brings every cell of your body on board. A BODY ON FIRE IS A BRAIN ON FIRE.

Better yet, do some of each. 

Here’s to eliminating the landslide effect on our day caused by not doing true mental warm ups...and to being at our mindful best.  

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S THINK ABOUT HOW TO WARM UP OUR THINKING.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

What’s in the box is what matters.

The gift. Don’t give up until you find it.

It’s always there. Hidden. Somewhere.

These things that happen to you,

don’t think they are somehow the contents.

No, they are just the box.

And what’s in the box is what matters.

Hidden in plain view. Waiting.

The gift may be your very own resiliency

hidden in the box called, “Why My Life Sucks.”

The gift may be your inherent resourcefulness

hidden in the box called “Scared of Scarcity.”

The gift may be your innate resolve

hidden in the box called “Ambivalence or Whatever.” 

The gift could be just about anything, couldn’t it? 

So many gifts inside each of us. Waiting. 

Waiting to be discovered, engaged, enjoyed.

Maybe more than we can open in a lifetime,

and what if this is each box’s real purpose:

To keep us pulsating, if sometimes palpitating,

while motheringly teaching us 

to open ourselves to our gifts, our giftedness,

and to the giftedness of others. All others.

It makes me wonder, wonder a lot.

Maybe you really are God’s gift to the world.

Maybe I am, too.

WE HUNGER

For kindness

For challenge

For understanding

For welcome

For stimulation

For safety

For security

For approval

For answers

For meaning

For worth

For intimacy

For status

For compassion

For strength

For stamina

For beauty

For diversity

For health

For wealth

For wisdom

For wellbeing

For forgiveness

For joy

For pleasure

For acceptance

For truth

For permission

For integrity

For luck

For loyalty

For community

For individuality

For power

For providence

For satiation

For gratification

For work

For play

For peace

For love

No wonder it seems we’re always hungry.

No wonder, rich or poor, our lives are so much alike.

No wonder we have the gift of each other.

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S THINK ABOUT HOW WE ARE MEANT EACH OTHER.

THE QUIETING

Ever Approachable One,

I need neither wonder nor worry

if you’ll appear, or if you’ll speak.

You are always and ever present, 

even while I wander.

It is I that evades this quieting

even when I do come, 

when I, with my ageless agendas, 

my prodigious lists, 

my passion for productivity,

arrive clothed in boundless babble.

But when I lay aside every weight, 

every woe that clings so closely,

when I bare my whole shorn self,

it is then that you help me 

see through me to you,

and through you to me.

It is then you breathe new life 

into this valley of dry bones,

and I rise up bone to flesh, 

heart to mind, mind to spirit,

and dance into this new day

less rattled than when I came.

WE ARE NOT OUR STORY

 “That’s my story, I’m sticking to it!” 

Cute phrase. I’ve said it many times. But it’s not just cute. It says something about our penchant for attachment. Obviously, it’s impossible to live without our “story,”--without being attached to where we’ve been, how we got here, and why it all happened. And after all, our stories are endlessly fascinating, aren't they?! (If you say yours isn’t, well, that’s fascinating, too.)

But when we “stick” to our story, we’re stuck.

Why? Because we are not our story. Rather, our story is the after-the-fact consequence, the passing aftermath of who we are at any given (and rolling) moment. Our “story” is largely irrelevant except for the parts we deem otherwise--the parts we choose to stick to.

What is attachment? It’s the significance (read: degree of stickiness) we give to each thought, feeling, person, relationship, event, and experience, etc, that happens in our lives. If we attach little significance to something (good or bad) it has little or no effect on us--on our thoughts, feelings and subsequent decisions. But if we attach a lot of significance to it, we’re choosing to make it part of our identity and we're injecting its relevance to everything we think, say and do. 

So let’s beware. Let's be aware.

Some people think their story is absolutely everything that has ever happened to them. Yes and no. For all practical purposes, our story is really only comprised of the things to which we are attaching significance. That’s what makes it “our” story.

The good news? We each get our own glue stick.

“See, I am making all things new…” (Revelation 21:5)

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S THINK ABOUT THE STORY WE’RE STICKING TO...OR NOT.

TODAY'S LEAD STORIES

When this day is over,

its moments but memories,

in the newspaper only I will read,

what’ll be my lead story for 

who I genuinely affirmed, 

what of me I gave to the world, 

when I offered unspoken kindness, 

where I made heart-healing amends,

and, front page above the fold,

why I took these roads less traveled?