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Monday, March 21, 2011

Friday, March 18, 2011

Opening to Grace

Every week I've been striving for a different focus in my Sunday night yoga session.  Of all the yoga classes and teachers I have had, the one that impacted me the most always set an intention for the work we would do in that hour.  This resonated with me right away.  Not only was I able to bring more ease to the practice but also became more open to surrendering myself spiritually to the poses.

This week we'll focus on opening ourselves up to grace. 

There is something intuitively powerful about the word grace.  It holds within it an intrinsic beauty of expansion. When we extend grace to ourselves, we cannot keep it from others.  We can find grace within and we can also channel it from beyond ourselves.  Accepting grace is an act of surrender to a benevolent source that seeks to watch all things grow and develop into what the cosmic orchestra has ordained for them to be.

Grace can catch us unaware.  We feel it when we share in the joy and pain of another.  It washes over us and cleanses as it moves.  Grace is like a benediction.  A prayer for peace.  For mercy.  For forgiveness.   It is a call to compassion and charity.  Grace abounds.   It is limitless, a cup that over-flows. 

So today, give thanks for all that has been so richly bestowed upon you.  Allow and accept the generosity of all that is graceful to be yours.  Abide in grace.  

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Aspiring

I'm pondering tonight.  There is so much shit going on in the world.  And here I sit in the comfort and peace of my living room a million miles away from dictators, civil war, thwarted human rights, earthquakes, tsunami aftermath and the threat of nuclear reactor melt-down.  It would seem the Chinese curse of "may you live in interesting times" couldn't be more applicable.

Last night I watched the documentary Force of Nature/ David Suzuki.  I was moved to tears several times by this biography of such a thoughtful, intelligent, perceptive, humble man.  Suzuki oozes passion for the love of this planet.   We all know him as an environmentalist, but this doc brings you into his personal space, the events that have forged this exceptional human being.  

An interesting tie into current events is that Suzuki is a second generation Japanese Canadian.  Both he and his parents were born on Canadian soil in Vancouver.  This however did not insulate them from an onslaught of racism following the bombing of Pearl Harbour.  Anti-Japanese sentiment was at an all time high.  Suzuki's grandparents were returned by ship to Hiroshima while the remaining family members (along with many other Japanese-Canadian citizens living in the lower mainland of Canada's west coast) were sent to the Slocan Valley in British Columbia.  Not long after, Hiroshima was the casualty of the world's first nuclear bomb attack.

Here is a clip I love of Suzuki in 1972.  Long before he became a leading environmentalist, he had some pretty astute observations on what it means to be human.




Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sad

I find myself in a deep funk that I can't shake off.  And instead of feeling like I'm at the bottom of it about to make a turn-around... there still seems to be plenty of shifting ground under my feet.  Today is one of the darkest days I have experienced in quite some time.  It's like a cloud of oppression is sitting on top of me and every time I try to move or do something it bears down a little stronger.  Suffocating.

All I know for sure is that there is a lesson for me here.  For some reason this is what I need to experience, witness.  So instead of ignoring it or begging it to leave me alone, I'm inviting it in.  Asking it to sit with me.  Feel it in every aching part of my body.  So far it seems intent of communing in the middle of the night.  And well, if that's what it wants, then that is what I am going to give to it.

Although this little episode may appear to be masking as depression, I really don't think that is who or what this is.  It's just a part of me that needs some attention.  That can learn to let the dishes fill the sink and the bed go unmade.  And listen with a bit more sensitivity for this part of the journey.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

And again.

Some days I am a domestic goddess.
Other days I fail miserably.
But none-the-less, I keep trying.