Monthly Archives: March 2014

March 28, 2014 · 4:15 am

LABYRINTHS AND LIFE’S PATH

I walked a labyrinth today

The entry becomes the exit

Rock lined paths running side by side

One way weaves in and back again

 

I pondered in a labyrinth today

It seems a maze upon one’s first gaze

But dead end options do not appear

Walk in then out the sole choice no doubt

Motion in chorus body and brain

 

My mind wandered in a labyrinth today

Confuse or muse or time for inner views

The time was mine to be and see all gifts

I notice life’s nonlinearity

It is the same as the path’s winding trail

Life’s path seems to also bounce at random

 

Fifteen minutes was all it took

Concentration on winding paths

Freed my mind to further insight

I walked a labyrinth today

 

 

So, I visited a labyrinth today, if you somehow missed the introduction. A friend told me about this one in particular. I didn’t start the day with this on my agenda, but spending some time in morning meditation this plan became my reality.  While I was walking and thinking it seemed like hours of thinking was occurring in what turned out to be fifteen short minutes. Fifteen minutes!  We get four of those periods in every hour. If my walk around this labyrinth path were played out like this March Madness basketball stuff, I would have been out there for hours. But, I walked for fifteen minutes. I thought about what I want to do. I wrote parts of the verse above. I kept repeating, “I walked a labyrinth today.” The words for my verse just appeared. While walking the path, clearing my mind, repeating my mantra, creating new projects, and seeing career paths, a friend (different from the labyrinth recommending friend) came to mind a few times. When I finished the path and a text buzzed into my phone, (of course I had the ringer on silent…I was busy walking a labyrinth today) it was that friend. WHOA. That co-incident is for another blog (I think I say that every entry).

 

My mind was all a jumble this week because I have spent the last two weeks traveling to teach and speak at another college campus and going to a conference. I was also able to spend a long weekend with my cousin and her family. Over these two weeks, many ideas and thoughts about “what I want to be when I grow up” flooded in from many sources. New projects and new collaborations have seemed to drop from all over the place. It is very exciting to think of these opportunities. They are thoughts now…. but as we know those WILL become action. Cause and Effect is in action in tremendous proportions. In Nichiren Buddhism, we learn about conspicuous benefit and inconspicuous benefits. The conspicuous are the things you are hoping for, working, on and expecting. The inconspicuous are the things that just happen while you are busy working and living. I say “just happen” but it is all about the energy of action and thinking from a perspective of abundance rather than lack. Things happen when you are busy making [other] things happen.

 

When I got home from the trip to my cousin’s house, I was emptying my suitcase. I pulled out this small dish; you would put rings or earrings in it. There is a small peace sign in the bottom. I didn’t remember picking this up anywhere and forgetting it was in my suitcase. Upon texting my cousin to ask if she left it for me she said yes. Her text said, “I put it there! You bring me peace!” The visit was a great time to begin with, and now small present and 8 words made it even more special. The gift is, that no matter how long it has been since spending time we pick up at the same page, in the same moment, with the same energy, in the same love, bringing each other peace.

 

Labyrinths, conferences, trainings, and family oh my. How does all of this come together? The small things have huge impact. Fifteen minutes to ponder HOURS of work. I find a small dish with a huge meaning. Cause and effect is something we all have the ability to create and transmit through conspicuous and inconspicuous effort. What small thing has happened to you? What small thing have you planted?

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March 20, 2014 · 3:15 pm

I is me and I can be for we

Two of my favorite poems (or sayings) are by Jewish religious leaders. I like them because they remind me of the fact that I need to be my own person, but my actions are so intertwined with who I am and what I do that it is hard to not have an impact on those around me.

The first is by Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859). I found various versions of this saying, but I am presenting it here as I learned it.

If I am I, and you are you; then I am I and you are you.

But if I am I because you are you, and you are you because I am I, then I am not and you are not.

First, I like this because saying it and listening to it is a little like watching a tennis match. You have to keep your eye on the ball as it volleys back and forth from “I” to “you.” It is fun to listen to and a bit of a brain twister as you are trying to make sense of it. I like the pure simplicity of it as well. I know, bouncing “I” back and forth nine times with one hand and bouncing “you” to and fro with the other hand at first is not really the definition of simplicity. It’s the literary version of patting your head and rubbing your tummy.  But, there are only 11 different words used here in a 41-word stanza.

Think about what it means. “I am I” is that I am my own person with my own agenda doing my own thing. It is up to each of us to define and delineate who we are in the world. The word “I” is always capitalized in the English language (not necessarily in all other languages) as a reminder of our own self-importance to ourselves. Our own self-confidence and self-concept is important to the creation of our values, attitudes and beliefs. The “you are you” piece is the recognition of this I concept for all people. I gotta be me and you gotta be you. It is ok that we maintain our I-ness side by side, but in the end, we are responsible for ourselves. Doesn’t the Cher song say that in the end we all sleep alone?

So, having made the case that we are responsible to and for ourselves it would seem that we are being a little self-centered here. This is where my other favorite saying from these two Jewish leaders steps as a complement. I was visiting Edinburgh, Scotland one year. It was my first day and jet lag, and the fact that the sun was up at 4 in morning made me a little restless. I got up and ran. I ran by the Jewish Center and on the sign in front was this next saying. I stopped to memorize it and then ran back to the B&B and wrote it in my journal. It was a saying of Rabbi Hillel (110 BCE-7CE):

If I am not for myself, who is for me?

And if I am for myself alone, what then am ‘I’?

And if not now, then when?

I like this because, I think, he is saying that we need to stand up for ourselves and have a sense of our own identity and values. We have to make our way in the world and we have to tell people who we are, because, really who will do this for us? At the same time that we have to have the chutzpah to take a stand for ourselves we have to remember the world doesn’t revolve around us alone. If we don’t remember the others in our world, the world around us, and the collective then what are we really? Perhaps just a selfish (insert your own pejorative comment here) that is only out for ourselves.  Finally, when are we going to start this? I just saw a Facebook picture post that said, “There are 7 days in a week and someday isn’t one of them.”

So perhaps I will try my own literary volley

And now I see that I gotta be me to contribute to the we.

And you can toss in a few to do what you can do.

Then together we can say that I am I is not an alibi

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March 14, 2014 · 5:06 pm

My Grandma always said

My grandma had a saying for everything; I guess that comes with being a grandparent eh? Some of them were just funny (funny ha-ha and funny quirky). She was quite the performer too. She could tell a story, dress up, do a skit, and perform at a moments notice for those at the dinner table or a crowd of a hundred. She could pull up a prop and get into character at the drop of a…well a napkin, let’s go with that. When she was waiting for something she would say, “It won’t be long now, said the monkey when the train ran over it’s tail.” When you asked if she would like to more to eat her response was classic, “Oh, I have had an elegant sufficiency, anymore would be superfluity.” Yep superfluity is a word, (noun, superabundant, excessive amount). Now I don’t know if all of these sayings were original, or if she borrowed them from somewhere else. In my world, she is a God. Oh, she would not like that analogy at all, well at least a Minor God, or maybe just a Saint. Suffice it to say she was/is pretty important to me so if she said it, then she gets the byline on life’s references page.

One of the things she would say is, “I can do anything I want to do.” As kids we would challenge her, “Ok, fly!” Her response was simply, “I don’t want to.” With this great laugh that I can hear to this day, and a twinkle in her bright blue eyes. Ah, to be with my Gram again! As kids, my brothers and cousins, we would just laugh. She was grandma and said funny stuff all of the time. As I grew older and started to think more about this, she was really teaching us something very important. We CAN do anything we want to do. We do have the ability to set our attention and intention to make things happen. She certainly did this in her own work as a seamstress/decorator. Her customers would come to her and describe a room setting, or whatever they wanted created in their homes. She would draw a picture of the description, which is amazing as a story already. THEN, she would make the vision without a pattern. Her customers would say the picture was better than they had imagined, and the final product was more than perfect. She could do anything she wanted to do. She said it. She believed it. She did it.

Recently I heard a presentation by Dr. Vincent Harding, a friend and confidante of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was talking about a book that he wrote with Daisaku Ikeda, America will be! The title comes from a Langston Hughes poem. Dr. Harding said, “Our dreams are only a fraction of what we can do. Our lifetimes are only a fraction of what we can dream.” I tried to find if he was quoting Hughes again. I couldn’t find a poem that used these lines. But, this line reminded me of my gram’s “I can do anything” axiom. The truth is, our ability is largely untapped. If you could do anything you set your mind to, what would it be? What have you created and completed from just your thoughts? Truly, the answer to that is EVERYTHING, since all of our actions were thoughts first then carried out. We do have the ability to do anything we want. What do you want to do? When will you start?

I will leave you with two Langston Hughes poems I did find.

DREAMS

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

And, this one reminds us to live NOW.

“Life is for the living.

Death is for the dead.

Let life be like music.

And death a note unsaid.”

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March 6, 2014 · 5:11 am

Consider CO-incident versus a coincidence

Plain and simple….I don’t believe in coincidence. I believe that everything happens for a reason and IF we look into the situation at hand we can learn something it. Before I go on, let me soothe any that might have a Pollyanna (this-is-too-much-positivity-for-me) alert going off right about now. I don’t believe that EVERYTHING that happens has epiphany status nor do I think we will have major discoveries every single day. Simply put, our lives are both the sum total and the result of the energy generated by our thoughts and work

But…As I said…I don’t believe in coincidence.  By coincidence, I mean a fluke, an accident, or just dumb luck (I realize that dumb luck is highly scientific, forgive my pompous use of technical terms). Having said all of this, let’s look at coincidence from a different perspective.

Co – (according to my favorite app of all – dictionary.com) is a prefix that when attached to a word it is can be an “auxiliary subsidiary.” It complements (which is to say it accompanies or harmonizes with) the first word.  I like this CO thing so far.

Incident – Aptly (or perhaps App-ley) speaking this is an individual occurrence or an event. This episode or a piece of the action somehow fits into the story of our lives. An incident occurs in connection with something else, or somehow pertains to an event or a series of events. The family tree of the word incident has quite a history. In 1412 incident occurred casually with some thing else. 1462 it was an event viewed as a separate condition. Jumping to 1925 it came to be used to say, “by the way.” As in, by the way I don’t believe in coincidence.

So now, we have the Co to the incident that makes the party of the first part (i.e., Co-) somehow influencing the party of the second part (i.e., incident). Wait, wait, wait, that probably confuses things even more. J Maybe a diagram will help. Coincident Pic

The solid line connects CO with the INCIDENT showing that to which we refer as the EVENT. The dotted line shows the other incident that was viewed as a separate condition (a la 1462) that has some energy or impact on the complementary event. Thus (b) could be the precipitating event that has some meaning for the main event.

Our actions create energy and have an impact on our lives and those we interact with every day. What we think about has an impact on our actions. We are what we think about. We are what we give attention and energy. I read somewhere (a long time ago) that it takes 7 years to make an overnight success. Our success doesn’t happen through coincidence, it happens by focus and creating a series of events in our lives. Our inner ability drives our momentum.

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, 
 Your words become your actions, 
 Your actions become your habits, 
 Your habits become your values, 
 Your values become your destiny.”   -Mahatma Gandhi

The Chinese character for LUCK is the COmbination of opportunity and preparation. The CO-incidence of how we prepare and focus complements opportunity.  Chinese LUCK Symbol

The incidents we create and insert in our way complement the present and the future events that will happen by CO-incidence. Some state lottery slogan is, “ya gotta play to win.” The incidents we create every day are those complementary auxiliary subsidiary events that will influence more events. Karma is action, it’s cause and effect. What effect have you caused?  For yourself? For others? How’s that working for you?  I hope it is working well…..

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