Looking UP into Grandfather Juniper
Life constantly offers us the opportunity to consciously choose to step into its ever upward spiral. To discover, learn, and grow from each experience we encounter on our path.
Yet sometimes we experience life as swirling noisy events, activities, people all seeming to attempt to grasp our attention and pull us off Life’s spiral.
I aim to make conscious choices that keep me on that upward spiral. That’s the place where head and heart, walk and talk are aligned. Grace is easily accessible. Breath is slow, steady, deep. Love and trust along with curiosity keep the tenacles of doubt, worry, and fear at bay. An easy flow where the journey is energizing not exhausting. The place of co-creation.
In my humanness I sometimes fall short of my lofty aim, descending into the swirl of incoming news from the world and events needing my attention, feeling the weight of each choice and distracted by the noise – sometimes real, sometimes imagined.
Yesterday the real noise of a roofing crew overhead outside beginning the noisy task of replacing the metal roof while indoors a plumber was finding yet another issue with the boiler that heats the home, met news of a friend being injured while travelling, along with a turn of events in an intense family situation, and an evolving concern in my immediate neighborhood.
Experiencing personally the intensity of events I often observe and hear about from others, I (mostly) maintained grace in a few challenging interactions with the roofing contractor, and I trusted that the plumber would be able to resolve the boiler issues so that I could warm the house on what was forecast to be the season’s coldest night so far (he did!). By days end I was exhausted.
As I fell asleep a few hours later, I prayed for deep rest along with ease and clarity in the day ahead.
In the quiet pre-dawn darkness after a deep sleep and before the roofing crew arrived, I reflected on yesterday’s events realizing that while I didn’t fall off the upward spiral, I hadn’t been fully grounded there. The swirl had pulled me into its grasp a bit. I wanted to create this day differently.
Recognizing my high need for quiet, I’m spending much of this blog day away from home and the noise overhead, enjoying the slow pace of a local café and attending to other things that I care about – supporting a family member and gathering information about a proposed project’s impact on our neighborhood, and, of course, The Pivot). I’ll sustain and maintain a more grounded position on the upward spiral and be more alert to if, when, and how the swirl tries to pull me into its grasp. And I’m guessing that at this day’s end, I may feel weary but not exhausted and that satisfaction and gratitude will be my assessments of the day.
In the intensity of current life are you on Life’s spiral or in the stressful swirl?
As the week winds down, Halloween is upon us. The veil between worlds is experience by many as thin. We are midway between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice here in the northern hemisphere, celebrated since ancient times as Samhain. I’ll be celebrating this turn of the season toward Winter’s call to slow down and focus within. What a blessing to keep us on Life’s spiral and out of the world’s swirl.
Season’s Turning