Taking A Time Out

March 12, 2012 By

Weeping Cherry

I love the quote that Tiferet Journal posted on Facebook today:

“Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest & let the spirits fly in & out. “

I’m taking this to heart.  I’ve hit a wall in my writing and it’s time for me to take a little break from being so OCD about it.  This week and maybe even next week, I’m taking a break.  The weather here is supposed to be spectacular with temps in the mid-seventies. Sounds like gardening weather to me.  Everything that usually blooms much later in the spring is blooming here now, including magnolia, forsythia, daffodils, crocus, snow drops, cherry trees and pears.  I’m going to clean up what the winter rendered dead, prune and reshape straggling shrubs, get my hands dirty and play with my plants.

I also plan on making art.  The encaustics have been calling my name for several weeks now and I’ve been ignoring them, believing that writing was all I could handle. Not true!  Without some balance in my life, everything comes to a screeching halt.

And finally, being the introvert that I am, I realize I shut myself off in my studio way too much.  Tomorrow I’m having lunch with a friend.  Not only are the windows in my house open letting the promise of spring spirits fly through.  I’m opening the big window in my heart and coming alive.

Filed Under: Encaustics, Healthy Living, Life, Matters of the Spirit, The Garden, Writing Tagged With:

A Letter To Santa

December 6, 2011 By

Store window, New York City, several years ago.

Dear Santa,

I’m sure you don’t remember me.  The last time I wrote was just before my best friend in second grade, told me that you didn’t exist. I was horrified and when I asked my mom about it, she smiled and said my friend was right.  I got mad and locked you away in a little trunk where I kept the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.  Way, way, way in the back of the attic.

I recently unpacked a few things from my last move, and found the tiny box I put you in so many years ago. There you were, covered with cobwebs, holding on tightly to the Tooth Fairy, and not giving the Bunny much room. I took you out, dusted you off and thought I’d bring you into my studio where I’d be able to look at you and rethink the idea of the giving of gifts and the spirit of the holidays we celebrate in December.

Yes, I know about baby Jesus and the great teacher he became. But when I got my knuckles wacked with a ruler in the religious instruction class my mom made me go to and the priest said my brothers and I didn’t exist in God’s eyes because our parents were married by a justice of the peace, I kind of gave up on all that.

Now I follow the teachings of the Buddha who never got hung up on the problem of who declared my parents married and whether or not you or I exist.  I concentrate on Loving Kindness and living in the present.  The Buddha has helped me see that behind every bit of darkness, there is light.  That I don’t have to jump through crazy hoops to be a good person. All I really need to do is be kind and never cause harm to others. Sounds like the same kind of thing Jesus taught, but got screwed up by a bunch of people who needed control over everything and everyone. What harm does a Justice of the Peace do by declaring two people who love each other married?  And what about if they are two women or two men instead of a man or a women? Who gets hurt?

I’m very discouraged by all of the hate in the world.  We seem to hate for such a wide variety of reasons … for who we love, the color of another’s skin, the religion they may follow, or wanting to win an election so that those guys lose control and us guys can come up with our own rules and make everyone do what we want them to do.

So Santa, I’m asking for your help.  Instead of bringing everyone all of the stuff they put on their wish lists, please give them the gift of tolerance for all of those we share our planet with.  Please include kindness, the ability to share, food for those who are hungry and a job for anyone who can’t find one on their own.  A roof to keep the weather out would also be a great idea.

With those kinds of gifts, everyone would begin believing in you again.  And the Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and all of the other great teachers would love you and all of us too!

Joan’s Inner Child

Filed Under: Childhood, Christmas, Life, Matters of the Spirit, wonderings

Be Careful What You Wish For

November 10, 2011 By

Buddha, Photo by Sharon Martinelli

When I was preparing to move to Virginia from Vermont, back in 1979, a few of my friends said I really needed to be careful down here in the Bible Belt.  They were sure I’d be swarmed by Born Agains wanting to save me. My off the cuff remark to them went something like this: “Don’t worry, when they knock on the door to invite me to church, I’ll just tell them I’m a Buddhist.  They’ll never come back again.”   I mean no disrespect.  It is just that I’ve had my tangles with organized religion and don’t want to go through any of it again.

I planned to use those words the same way I often tell people that I’m a poet when asked what I do, mostly when I travel and don’t feel much like talking.  It’s generally a real turnoff and the questions end.  Thankfully, I’ve never had the person say, “Oh, I’m a poet too!” or “Where can I find your books?”  

It’s not that I’m don’t want to be kind or friendly.  I love talking to people I don’t know. It’s just that I am a bit of an introvert and when I’m belted into my window seat, hurtling through the sky at a gazillion miles an hour, I love watching the landscape unfold below me.  I find myself doing some of my deepest wonderings about the Universe and how I got here.  Perhaps that sounds strange or even crazy, but that’s how it is with me.

When I was moving, I was not a Buddhist and had no desire to become one.  Nor was I poet when I first started saying that I was. Virginia seems to have some strange, magical power, because it is here that I started studying Buddhism and also began writing poetry.  I’m still studying Buddhism and have a meditation practice. But I’m very much a hybrid when it comes to spiritual matters. Though I’m still writing, it isn’t poetry, at the moment anyway.

I’m extremely happy that some Entity saw fit to introduce me to Buddhism and to help me start writing.  But I’m even more happy that I never told anyone that I was running from the law, a prostitute or a banker.  I wonder where I’d be if I had?

Filed Under: Matters of the Spirit, Navigating Through Life, Poetry, stories, Vermont, wonderings
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