Home Again!

July 31, 2011 By

I’m back again after a wonderful week away from the stuff of home.  I had planned on writing and continuing my exercise routine, but that didn’t happen!!  Sometimes it is very necessary to just sit back, relax and ride the river of life.  It was great fun.  I took part in and thoroughly enjoyed one of Lisa’s Dream Wheel workshops,  read, visited with friends, napped, ate too well, saw two good movies (Beginners and Submarine), played Parchese, watched as Zoe and Noah had a swimming lesson.  They spent one night with us and we had a great time reading tales of Brer Rabbit, together, each one of us enacting a different character.  I loved being hugged, kissed and adored by my grandkids. We laughed lots and enjoyed the cool mountain air of Western North Carolina.  While it was over 100 degrees and humid here at home, it was in the upper 80’s and much drier in the mountains.  On the drive home yesterday, I was well aware of how altitude keeps us cooler.

Clara, Myself, and Patti.

Very special Noah!

Zoe, growing toward adulthood way too fast!

The only down part was watching the debacle of our law makers playing, Let’s Make A Deal.  I found the following quote in my mail box today and thought of them.  And that’s being polite about how I feel.

Mindlessness, however petty, is reckless at its heart. It only postpones; it never takes us anywhere. Mindfulness, by contrast, is patient, careful. It takes a longer view.

Joan Duncan Oliver

Filed Under: Travels, Wise Words

Kindness

June 27, 2011 By

Purple Coneflower with Bumble Bee, Copyright Joan Z. Rough 2009

A friend recently shared this poem with me, saying that reading poetry gives her hope.  I concur.  In just a few short lines a poem can lift me from a deep, dark pit of despair into a world glowing with joy.  For me, the poem below speaks of how life can bring us to our knees and fills us with its essence.  A life lived in kindness is a life fulfilled.

KINDNESS

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye

Filed Under: Navigating Through Life, Poetry, Wise Words

Gratitude

June 11, 2011 By

To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe–to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it–is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

Joanna Macy

Child with her puppy, Northern Canada, Copyright Joan Z. Rough, 2007

No matter the number of fires, droughts, tornadoes, wars and the ridiculousness of politics, good things are happening all around us.  We can use our time beating our breasts, weeping and wringing our hands or we can join the dance, give a helping hand to those in need, open our hearts to the lilies that bloom by the side of the road, the nest of downy robins in the maple tree across the street and all those who stand beside us regardless of who they are because we are all one.

Metta to everyone on this lovely summer morning!

May you be happy.  May you be safe.  May you be free from suffering.

Filed Under: Wise Words

Opening Up To Life …

May 29, 2011 By

Angel in Florence, Italy, Polaroid Transfer on Water Color Paper, Copyright, Joan Z. Rough, 1998

When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dying nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid. You’re able to keep your eyes open, your heart open, and your mind open. And you notice when you get caught up in prejudice, bias, and aggression. You develop an enthusiasm for no longer watering those negative seeds, from now until the day you die. And you begin to think of your life as offering endless opportunities to start doing things differently.

Pema Chodron

Filed Under: Wise Words

Saving The World

February 22, 2011 By

A kitty at the SPCA waiting to find her forever home .

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

Clarissa Pinkola-Estes

 

I always believed that in order to save the forests of the world I had to do something major, like chain myself to a tree.  Julia Butterfly Hill lived in a giant redwood in California for 738 days to keep it from being cut down.  She is a brave, inspiring soul and I’ve always aspired to do something as equally brave and inspiring.  But that is not who I am.  For one thing, I’m 68 years old and climbing the tree in the first place would be a major problem.  My thermostat isn’t working like it used to and I’m always either too cold or too hot.  I would need to bring a truckload of sweaters and sports bras up the tree with me.  I get sore sitting in the same position for 30 minutes, never mind 738 days. I’d need to bring my Pilates teacher, Jessie, with me, to help me stretch and keep my body in some kind of shape.  And what about a bathroom?  Chaining myself to a tree isn’t any better actually, though I wouldn’t be afraid of falling out of my nest while I was taking a nap.

But I do want to save the world.  I always have.  And it’s not just the forests I want to save, it’s the whales, bats, homeless people, and those who are being murdered in Libya for the sake of an insane dictator.  I want to provide homes for every kitten or puppy that is allowed to be born because pet owners won’t have their dogs and cats spayed or neutered.  I could go on and on.  I  have a very difficult time seeing the world in the state that it is in right now.  All of that speaks of empathy but it also says a lot about the control issues that I’ve finally begun to let go of in the past several years.  The truth is, I can’t control anything, except my temper, which from time to time has a way of running away from me and doing her own thing.

So what does an ordinary, aging, empathic like me have to do to feel that she’s doing something worthwhile to serve?  I’ve been working on the answer to this question for a long time and I’m beginning to believe the wise ones who have said, stay calm, bring love and happiness into the world.  No matter what your own troubles may be, smile and say hello to those you pass on the street.  One of them just might need that smile to keep from doing something tragic.  When you smile your soul lights up.  When you help someone cross the road your soul lights up.  When you donate a bag of dog food to the SPCA your soul lights up.

When you give a gift of kindness your soul lights up and you will be doing something to save our world.  That is our work.

 

Filed Under: Navigating Through Life, Wise Words
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