Being Grounded is Key to Nonviolence

Sturdy Old Pine in the Woods Out Back

The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King’s words touched me deeply when I read them on Monday, day 8 of the Gandhi King Season of Nonviolence with its theme of faith. I have faith that this dream can become a reality.

This week with the impeachment trial and revisiting the January 6 violence here in the U.S. it seems especially important that I’m taking time each day to tune in to the day’s nonviolence theme. We need not just a ‘season’ of nonviolence, we need to make nonviolence our predominate way of life. Not the ‘other’, those with whom we disagree or worse, but weeding out the roots of nonviolence in our own hearts and minds. This is great potential of our time.

I continue to find those roots as they show up in the events and interactions of daily life, each an opportunity to pause, breathe, and remember what my heart knows to be true: that we are all connected and that everyone has their story; we are all different, we are all the same.

I find that each day’s theme resonates differently, some more than others. As I began to reflect on today’s theme, groundedness, I recognized how important being grounded is to my ability to practice – indeed to live – from the powerful stance of nonviolence.  How do I/we stay grounded in a world where all too often chaos reigns?

As those who’ve been reading these weekly muses for a while know, I’m blessed to live in the quiet, grounding beauty of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in southern Colorado. Simply looking out into the woods that surround me grounds me in the reality that Gaia, Mother Earth, is my home/our home.   Peaceful daily walks with Zadie Byrd help me stay grounded. The impatience with her sometimes slow pace that I mentioned last week [click here if you missed it] melted this week when I learned that her vision has become impaired and that she’s developing arthritis, both contributing to her need to slow down and frequently stop.

As my impatience with her gave way to care and compassion, I set an intention of shifting other triggers of impatience to remembering oneness, to care, to compassion, knowing that I don’t know the story of why, for example, some folks drive at what I consider to be speeds way to fast on our rural, unpaved roads. As Dr. King reminds us, nonviolence is first an inside job.

I thought about that as I watched video on the first day of the impeachment trial. I wondered about the groundedness of those who participated in the violence of January 6 at the Capitol. Could someone grounded in Mother Earth and remembering that we are each one part of a greater whole perpetrate violence of any sort?

I ask that question without judgement and from a deep curiosity about how it is that we humans have for so long chosen the path of ‘power over’ rather than the truer path of calling on the ‘power within’.

Perhaps, as Gandhi suggested, we have forgotten who we are:

To forget how to dig in the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves. Mohandas Gandhi

And Black Elk further reminds us of grounding in the earth, our home:

Some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.

More importantly, I wonder how we cross this great divide between power over and power within, and thus land in where our true power lies?

Being grounded seems key, a starting point, foundation if you will, for examining our habits, our words, our choices and for changing them, with the intention to build our capacity for nonviolence.

As I look out at the pines in these woods, witnessing their height and their sturdiness, I think about the vast root systems through which nutrients and cooperative communication flow. How might we who walk here on the surface of this hallowed earth operate more like the trees that make our living on the planet possible?

Being in such questions with the deep belief that we can create our world differently helps me maintain my groundedness. I take the questions on my walks and carry them in me when I join friends to work in their winter growing dome. The questions live in me, not with pressure to find or know the answers, but with curiosity and a dream that one day nonviolence will prevail from the strength of practicing it in our hearts and our souls in daily life, lifting the consciousness of ourselves and all on the planet.

A Grounding Sight - Gentle Deer Resting in the Woods

Digging Deep

Morning Fog Over Blanca Peak

In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity. Albert Einstein

The sun will come up tomorrow … This song from Annie popped into my head this morning immediately following the fortunately fleeting and rather silly thought: Stop the World, I Want to Get Off. (Perhaps there’s something about movies I need to pay attention to …)

I don’t, of course, want to ‘stop the world’ and ‘get off’ despite this time of turmoil and angst. For that angst and turmoil is ripe with opportunities to learn and to grow, to dig deep inside, into your core to discover more of who you are and who you are uniquely designed to be.

Being ripe with opportunity is the nature of crisis. Our task is to choose to feast on the ripe fruit of what is at hand and discover points of learning, points of pivot. Crisis demands adaptability: a willingness to change. Do what you must to navigate, to survive, to thrive. In no way does embracing opportunity minimize or, as some might suggest, deny hardship or despair: the very issues of survival that are faced each day across the globe. Opportunity invites us to embrace challenges as our teachers. As surely as those who stand before us to share what they know, life’s events have within them the potential for learning knowledge that becomes wisdom. That wisdom we carry forward in our BEing FOREVER.

The knowledge that becomes wisdom does not cease to exist when this physical body takes its last breath. That wisdom lives on in consciousness, that part of our BEing that is infinite.

As surely as this is true, then we must have within us and available to us, the knowledge and wisdom of our past. Pause, let that sink in. Each of us know more than we are aware that we know.

We, you and me and all who are walking this earth, were made for this time. Perhaps we have faced crises, turmoil, or upheaval akin to today’s life conditions.

As I reflected on this idea, I began to wonder and ask: what about today’s world feels familiar? What do I KNOW that will support me in navigating this time? What pivots do I need to make to honor and align with my wisdom?

What about you? In the deep quiet of introspection, meditation, dreamtime, or walking in nature I invite you to join me in beginning to ask and discover:

·        What inklings of familiarity do I have about this time?

·        What does my heart KNOW that will guide me?

·        What hunches have I ignored that I need to pay attention to?

·        What pivots do I need to make for the sake of my learning, growing, and Being all of who I came here to be?

Notice what arises as you simply take the bold step into curiosity. Let’s see what this wild and crazy life has to offer as we wind down the current cycle and prepare to usher in a new one that will dawn very soon.

The Sun is definitely shining on the Ziggurat this beautiful morn!

Fertile Ground

Past their peak, but there is still much beauty in this aspen grove.

What we need is not another doctrine, but an awakening that can restore our spiritual strength. What made Mahatma Gandhi's struggle a great success was not a doctrine—not even the doctrine of nonviolence—but Gandhi himself, his way of being. A lot is written today about the doctrine of nonviolence and people everywhere are trying to apply it. But they cannot rediscover the vitality that Gandhi had, because the ‘Gandhians’ do not possess Gandhi's spiritual strength. They have faith in his doctrine but cannot set into motion a movement of great solidarity because none of them possess the spiritual force of a Gandhi and therefore cannot produce sufficient compassion and sacrifice. Thich Nhat Hahn

In the midst of the muse reflecting on the insights and inspirations which have crossed my path this week I was looking to discover if there is a common thread or theme. Then, life popped in unexpectedly.

It has been my practice for most of the 370+ weeks to ignore all incoming calls, emails, etc. Wednesday mornings are devoted exclusively to musing and discovering what wants to be shared in this week’s post. Today I needed to break from that pattern to handle a time sensitive issue regarding my cousin’s estate.

The issue addressed (at least for a bit), I gently returned to the muse and the message.  Noticing the broad scope of ideas and events that sprouted to take root in my attention this week, the phrase ‘fertile ground’ came to mind. I was aware of all that screamed for attention that I mostly gently (and sometimes not) turned away. What about my fertile ground guides me to make those choices?

I’m aware of and embrace the idea that deep change is underway individually and collectively for humanity and throughout all of nature and our precious home, Mother Earth. (Beyond this earth, I suspect that the same is true – but that is perhaps a muse for another day … As Above, So Below … As Below, So Above …). What about my fertile ground has me see life in this way and to be curious about the thresholds that are before me/us in the days, weeks, years ahead?

From what fertile ground does my conviction that how we choose to BE as we walk through this change is, moment to moment, determining how that change will be? What cultivated my deep knowing that ‘by our thoughts, our feelings, our beliefs and our actions we are co-creating our life, our future – individually and collectively’?

I think that somewhere along this 70-year path of my life, I embraced building my spiritual strength (you wondered, didn’t you, what the heck the quote had to do with this muse?).  Decades ago, weary after years of political activism and hard driving in my profession, I was exhausted and fearful that I couldn’t keep up (whatever the heck that meant at the time). A seed of metaphysical curiosity sprouted as I took time off to figure out what to do with my life.

I’ve nurtured that ground (not always consistently) since it sprouted. I’d like to think that I have some measure of spiritual strength as a result. As I choose how to navigate and BE in the changes upon us, I aim to make choices from a place of spiritual knowing rather than from some prescribed doctrine (religious, political, etc.). That is the fertile ground on which I stand from which the seeds of my expression flow. That is the ground I choose to nurture and grow.

What about you? What is your fertile ground? What is your state of being in the world? What attention is needed so that you can meet the thresholds before you with strength, conviction and with love?

A Quiet Hike in Nature’s Beauty

Inviting Curiosity Amidst Chaos

A New Day Dawns - Curious What It Will Bring

You can apply curiosity to all your experiences in life. … Your own life is the parameter of your experience which is your own world. To begin to accept this provides you with the incentive to take responsibility for the power you have over your own world. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: An Air of Optimism – May, 2011)

I started my morning feeling a touch of sadness and worry. I wondered what wanted my attention other than writing this weekly muse. As quickly as I asked, answers came: a strange dream of someone being humiliated publicly (ugh!), concern about Zadie Byrd, a memory of discovering Luke’s tumor about this time last year, and addressing the issue of mice in the house (more ugh!). Nothing earth-shaking or life threatening, just life. Let them go for now.

As I turned my attention to the muse, my first thought was of the world’s chaos and the battles being waged over power, power that is powerless when our agreement is taken away. Underneath the drama of the news, our individual power often lies wasted (to the glee of those “in” power, I imagine).  As we wake up and understand the world anew, any power over us is surely at risk.

As I gaze into the woods out back, I see beyond where I could just 10 days ago. The same is true out front. With the fire mitigation’s removal of undergrowth, I experience openness, an expansion of what’s now visible.

That goes both ways of course. Passersby on the road out front can see more of the Dragonfly House. Mentioning this to a dear colleague earlier this week, she suggested that it is a metaphor for my becoming more authentic and transparent. Now there is something for the muse to chew on for a bit!

The idea surely deserves consideration as I think about building a visual barrier of some sort out front. If my intention is to become more of my true, authentic, soul self, do I want to screen that off? Do I want to limit my ability to see what’s out in the world? My how a single suggestion invites curiosity!

Besides, ‘who am I?’ anyway? Now there’s a question to be curious over!

Asked through the ages, that question is fundamental to understanding our stories and the structures and institutions that we’ve created from those stories. They are imbedded in us, paradigms comprising the so-called ‘reality’ that we walk through each day.

As I gaze out at the world beyond these woods, that ‘reality’ is in chaos. Much of it is crumbling before our eyes, obsolete in the face of new discoveries about our true nature. Yet fighting to hang on. Known. Familiar. Comfortable, even with its discomforts.

We humans do that in life – hang on to habits and ways that no longer serve us. I smoked cigarettes and stayed in a marriage well beyond the time I knew that each was no longer good for me. Even today as I long for and open to a new, unfolding world, my invitation has conditions: I hold on to old habits and ways that are comfortable on some level, even in knowing that they inhibit the new from coming forth.

THIS is what really invites my curiosity! Even in my hesitancy, I invite the unfolding of a new world by exploring. What IS possible in a universe of infinite possibility? What are the worn out, disproven stories that continue to hang on until, with awareness, we stop using them as frameworks for our choices? How do I live in this world, yet withdraw my energy from systems that no longer work (health care, financial, etc. etc.)? I AM curious! You?

When things fall apart, the hopelessly radical becomes common sense. Charles Eisenstein (The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible)

This week, I invite you to be curious and “hopelessly radical” about the deeply imbedded stories, the paradigms, of our world. What is our responsibility – individually and collectively - for using our personal power to lay the old to rest and invite a new world with new realities into being? How can we make radical the new “common sense”? In short, where will we pivot?

I found this episode of Gregg Braden’s Missing Links series a thought-provoking place to engage in this exploration. I hope you will as well!

Onward! Upward! Pivoting Into the New!

Openness and Expanded Visibility in the Woods Out Back

Sacred Fare for Cultivating Health

Sunset in the Woods - Waiting on the Full Moon to Rise

Health is the state of natural harmony producing optimum performance. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: The Hidden Wealth of New Worth – April, 2011)

A different morning pattern emerged today. ‘Walk first,’ I heard as I rose and began to move about. Usually I sit and, on blog day, write the post before the morning walk. But the nudge felt right. We geared up and headed out.

The morning air was crisp; the sky, a bit hazy. Still. Quiet. We walked slowly. That is Zadie Byrd’s way. I’m grateful. She reminds me of my pace and to stop, observe, use my senses as she tunes her nose into the corner ‘doggie-net’ to discover who has already come by.

Although today’s musing was but a bundle of seed thoughts in my mind, I relaxed into the patterns of our walk, knowing that one of the seeds would sprout, wanting to be shared. No rush!

What emerged once we returned home and I settled down, pen and journal in hand, was what has been a theme for many of us these past few weeks: maintaining health.  I was reminded of Gregge Tiffen’s definition of health that I wrote about several years ago (read it here - http://cindyreinhardt.com/blog/healthy-thinking)

Creating and maintaining our health is a personal, individual path. That’s true today amidst the pandemic, and it will be true beyond this event.  The choices we have are, perhaps, more pronounced today, but boil down to choosing between love and fear. Which will we feed?  Will we tap into the raging fear or find a fare that better serves us? How might we reorder the letters of ‘scared’ to create this as a sacred time and feed ourselves a fare that cultivates health of body, mind and spirit? How can I acknowledge fear when it is present, without giving it my power?

These are the questions I’m asking myself from day to day. And, then I’m listening and observing and exploring.  What dietary fare does my body need and want this day?  What supplements?  What dietary advice is out there that will support my health?

I’m struck by what an individual journey diet, exercise, rest, and such are. There is no ‘one size fits all’.  It has me wonder, beyond current events, how with a better understanding of our individuality we can create a true ‘health care’ system rather than our current disease management system that seems stretched beyond its capacity.

But I digress. I find myself doing so frequently these days, putting attention on ‘from this, what else is possible?’ personally, locally and globally. While there will be an ‘after this’ that I’m curious about, today I want to put attention on our health, yours and mine, and share a bit more about the path I’m choosing.

I’m aiming each day to remember that there is a Universal hand in this experience and all events. That the qualities of the Universe (spirit, God, or whatever you choose to name it) are ever present and available: abundance, beauty, harmony, joy, love, light, life, peace, power. Where one is present there be them all. Find one wherever you are.

I’m being gentle, VERY gentle, with myself as I aim for more awareness and mindfulness in my choices. As I carefully choose food for my body, I’m choosing information and spiritual food that will support my mental and spiritual health. I limit news to reading (not watching or listening) what is current in my community so I can adjust as warranted. Beyond that, I scan for trends that may inform my choices in all domains of life and feel that politically curious part of me with a scan of headlines and staying informed about social, economic and environmental issues and movements that I care about.

But my main fare in keeping this journey sacred is spending time in the beauty of nature that surrounds me (I am so very, very blessed!) and reading or listening to thought leaders presenting thoughtful, uplifting ideas and tools to consider and practice. Among the many that have move me this week is Sounds True founder, Tamy Simon, interviewing Michael A. Singer (author of The Surrender Experiment). Find it here along with many other good listening experiences on Simon’s podcasts) https://product.soundstrue.com/resilience-in-challenging-times/?_ke=eyJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJjaW5keUBzdAWNjZXNzem9uZS5jb20iLCAia2xfY29tcGFueV9pZCI6ICJKTURnYXEifQ%3D%3D.

If you’re challenged to dance with fear and transform it, my colleague and friend, Kathy Wilson has written an informative series over the past three weeks in her newsletter The Journal of Spirited Coaching (click here for a list on her website) http://www.warrior-priestess.com/Newsletters/#archives

All that we take in must be digested and either absorbed for our health or eliminated. That’s true of our food as well as the fare we feed our hearts and minds. Be care-filled in your choices.

Smells Good Enough to Drink on a Warm Spring Day!

TWO!

From ONE - Split! - Two

You cannot separate yourself from the Universe. … I must find within the separation the basic one unity so that I never really leave the thing I am separated from, and I never really leave the Universe or you. … We have never left each other. Gregge Tiffen (The Language of a Mystic: Polarities – February, 2009)

When I noticed today’s date – 2-20-2020 – this morning as I began to write, I felt a surge of curiosity and sensed ‘Wow, what a powerful day!’  I wondered ‘what’s up with two … and with the sum of today’s 2s, 8?’

As I reflected a bit and read from Gregge Tiffen’s booklet quoted above, I thought about the seeming paradox that there is a Universal Law of Separation, yet we are not separate from the Universe or from one another. The number ‘2’ represents this. From ‘one’ we get ‘two’. Those ‘two’ each contain all the qualities of the One from which they came. And, everything came from the Universe.

There is beauty in the number ‘2’ for without two we could not experience and learn about balance and harmony. It takes two to tango, the saying goes, and when we dance together, we demonstrate the synchronous joy of the Universe as One harmonious unit.

When I need to make kindling for starting a fire on a cold winter’s morning, each swing of the maul or the hatchet separates one piece of wood into two (okay, sometimes I need two swings to achieve separation, but that’s a topic for another day!). I repeat from each of those two and two becomes four, et cetera, until I have the size needed. Each piece retains the qualities of the first piece I split. And, that first piece has the qualities of the tree from which it came. And each piece has all the qualities of the Universe.

I take this back in time to the beginning of the tree from which the log came. At some point a seed separated itself from another tree and fell onto receptive ground. That seed held the potential to become a tree. Over time it did so, growing in receptive ground that likewise contains all the qualities of the Universe. Yet the soil and the tree are distinct manifestations, both necessary for the seed to fulfill its potential.

Eight is the number that represents manifestation. Viewed laying on its side, 8 is the symbol of infinity. From One, separation brings Two, an infinite cycle throughout all time and across everything in this wonderous Universe.

We are not separate from the Universe or from one another. You cannot separate yourself from the Universe period! You just cannot do that and nothing can. That is the Law, and that is how the Law operates. The premise is that you are not different from the Universe from which you are drawn. Gregge Tiffen (The Language of a Mystic: Polarities – February, 2009)

What is possible to manifest if we learn to live from knowing and understanding this basic Universal truth?

Favorite Old Tree — from a seed and with all the characteristics of the Universe

In The Flow of Life

Leaves on the Trail: The Flow of Life

The whole concept of life is flow, flow and more flow. Gregge Tiffen (The Language of a Mystic: Innovation – October, 2009)

The flow of energy in the Universe is constant, as it is on our precious planet and for each of us. We see this all around whether we are in nature or in the midst of urban life. Nature flows in her cycles. We humans do likewise. As energy flows, change occurs.

Witness the flow of light from night to day and, through the day, the return to darkness. The earth is in motion. Night fades and the gentle light of day comes forth: dawn.  As the earth spins, the sun appears to rise in the sky bringing the bright light of day. We witness this flow of life daily: change, flow, constant, consistent.

We are not mere observers. We participate in the flow of energy as well. The same raw, pure energy that moves the earth is ours to use in whatever ways we choose, or whether we choose or not. That energy is the flow of life.

Yesterday I found myself in the midst of feeling the energy of deep sadness. Tears flowed and, though I had other plans for the day, I didn’t want to stop them. Something needed to flow out, to be released and returned to source. Something wanted to be cleansed.

I cried for Luke’s passing, discovering indeed that tears remained to sooth that loss. I cried because our vet is retiring and won’t be available to provide her loving care for my next canine companion, while shedding tears of joy for her courage to follow her heart’s desire. I felt the curious energy of paradox, of both/and: delight for her, sadness for what feels like a loss to me. I was reminded once again that nothing stays the same. Flow, change, growth are the natural flow of life.

As I felt into the depth of my sadness, I realized that I was shedding tears for others: families who lost their homes and four-legged companions in a nearby community; canines in need of loving homes at the shelter I visited earlier in the week; the creatures in the forest that has been burning some 40 miles north since early September and the humans impacted in so many ways by that same fire.

And, I cried for humanity, for the pain and suffering that we perpetrate on one another and on our planet. I wept for our ignorance which in no way is bliss.

When darkness came, I put my head on the pillow with gratitude for the day’s cleansing tears. As I embraced the day, the grace of wondrous curiosity began to bubble: What else is possible? How might I direct my energy now? What can emerge in the spaces created by what I call ‘loss’ and with the dawn of each new day?

Dawn: How Will I Use the Energy of This Day?

It's NOT Beyond Me (or You)!

Fall Sunset over the San Luis Valley and San Juan Mountains Beyond

No matter what knowledge you want, no matter what guidance you seek,and no matter the circumstances, there is a place in the Universe that is personal and directly accessible for you to meet any one of your requirements.  Gregge Tiffen (Earth and Second Earth, Book 3 in The Collected Works of Gregge Tiffen)

A common thread that weaves through much of my adult life is a curiosity around tapping into knowledge, intelligence, wisdom that is beyond what I can observe using my five senses.

Perhaps I was born with it. As a child I would wander down to the pasture and talk with the cows. In this moment I don’t remember the substance of those conversations, but my guess is that they were more interesting and, perhaps, informative than interactions with people.  Indeed, most likely it was people particularly family and teachers, who interrupted that communication flow and my trust in it. After all, I’m sure their message was something like ‘be normal’ or ‘this is the right way’.

In college I was introduced to ‘Silva Mind Control’ and much of the reading and learning I’ve participated in over the years includes this idea of tapping into to ‘something’ beyond my five senses. As I reflect this morning, I’m grateful for what I know and use. I’m humbled by the tools that I’ve learned, but lie dormant, dusty even a bit rusty, from lack of use.

I wonder why that’s so in our world where science continues to ‘discover’ the ‘secrets’ known in ancient cultures?  Then, I remember my childhood in the pasture with the cows. That wasn’t considered normal. Whatever ‘it’ was, it wasn’t what needed to be learned or how to learn it.

Like many others, I was guided away from anything that wasn’t rational or logical. Beyond my own personal childhood experience, I see that logic and rationale are tools of control, used by us all to influence one another for good or for ill. And, used by those who want power over others.

The knowledge of our individual power and our personal, individual connection with the Universe has been drummed out of the culture for ages, hidden away by those who desire to control others.  As a result our systems – education, finance, business, health, politics, government, religion – have control as their foundation. They are based on power ‘over’ rather than power ‘of, by, and for’; domination rather than dominion.

Going beyond the logical, rational, mechanistic world is simply not supported by the systems around which our culture is organized. That we need new systems is a muse for another day. For now, I recognize that, though dormant, the seed of curiosity was planted, and whatever I’d learned was part of me. Stumped or confused about a decision I was facing, I shunned ‘I don’t know’ in favor of ‘I wonder if’. From time to time, I’d pull out and dust off a tool and apply it to whatever issue happened to be in front of me.

While that’s served me pretty darn well in life, I’m curious what more I can tap into. With deeper awareness what more do my cells have to say? What knowledge might the 70 plants that I’ve just moved indoors for winter have to impart? What messages do the creek, the sunrise, the sunset, the wind, the pines, the nuthatch hold for me if I will but listen? Beyond this plane, what knowledge and wisdom are within reach, if only I will listen within?

I’m grateful for remembering that nothing – NO thing – we need or want to know is beyond us IF we truly want to know and use our will to go beyond what’s normal, or easy. Then, with focus and courage apply ourselves to the quest.

Six of 70!

INWARD and ONWARD!

The Gift of Pain and Ignorance

Waterfall on Cottonwood Creek - The Flow of Life

The pain you experience is your ignorance holding itself up to you so that you may find the knowledge it requires. There is always an opportunity to learn when you are ready. Our particular ignorance leads us to our next school, next lifetime, next family, next mate, next job, next health challenge, next drama, or next crossroad. Gregge Tiffen (excerpt from Life in the World Hereafter, The Journey Continues in The Journey Continues: In Search of Wisdom – September, 2010)

Earlier this week, an article I’d written was turned down for publication. Ugh! I was surprised. It’s a great article (one of those that flowed easily onto the page when the opportunity presented itself) and I knew that the publisher needed it. I was hurt. And, I was a tad angry.

For a little while I let these emotions have their way. I moped a bit and threw myself a little pity party. On some level I knew that my reaction is not who I am or how I choose to be. Yet, the emotions overtook what I know, and, in that moment, I could see no path other than the dark, slippery slope I was on.

I went in search of distraction: something to make the discomfort go away. Thankfully, no relief there.

So, I went to the woods and walked the labyrinth out back.  Slowly, step by step in the spiral, I let go. The shock, the hurt, and even the anger slowly floated away.  Then I was able to engage curiosity and ask ‘what is the opportunity here?’ What can I learn from this? What do I need in order to step into the exhilaration and flow I was experiencing before this little bump in the road?

Simply asking the questions with a sincere desire and intention to know shifted my energy. As I consider possible answers, one leads to the next. Step by step. New questions emerge. My view of opportunity expands beyond our culture’s definition that limits opportunity to business, money, going somewhere or doing something – external matters, doing not being.

We are here to have experiences through which we acquire information and knowledge that someday distills to wisdom that lives with us beyond this life, this body. Those experiences from other lifetimes are in us, in our cells. That is how we ‘know’ those things that we cannot explain how we know or where we learned them. That experience is what comes forth as intuition and instinct. That is the wisdom of the universe available to us, if we are willing to learn to tap into it.

Ignorance is not bliss. It is simply the lack of information or knowledge.  Pain is but physical or mental discomfort or distress. Both are barometers indicating change that asks for our attention and opens the door of opportunity for growth. We ignore them at our peril.

Labyrinth in the Woods Outback

The Other End of the Rainbow

Sunset in the Sangres

To realize Universal reality, we need only open ourselves to our innate, insatiable curiosity to seek the broader knowledge of many things – then to embrace the adventure. Then we will know ourselves as children of the Universe. Gregge Tiffen (Life in the World Hereafter: The Journey Continues)

… You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should … Max Ehrmann (Desiderata)

If, as I suggested last week, adaptability is a pot of gold at one end of the rainbow [http://cindyreinhardt.com/blog/adaptability-a-pot-of-gold], then surely curiosity must be the gold at the other end. Or, heck, perhaps curiosity stirs the pot …

Gregge Tiffen’s words above struck a chord this morning as I began my day, curious about the direction of this week’s post.  What, I wondered, was the common thread among the week’s experiences that ranged from lots of time for quiet reflection to a few profound interactions with others?

What does the writer/social activist in the midst of revising her next book have in common with the woman whose daughter collapsed and was given a five percent chance of survival? What does the mystical writer have in common with a friend spending hours at her elderly mother’s bedside? What do I have in common with each of them and with the seasoned professional evaluating where to take her career and life next?

We are each on a quest. Beyond caring about results (we do!) we are curious to know what we’ll discover along the way. Each of us in our own individual way is using curiosity as a force: energy to move us forward (hopefully, more gently than not) on our own path, at our own pace.

But, curiosity does not operate alone. Perhaps more important than the thread of curiosity itself, I realized that curiosity operates within the context of our beliefs (duh! blinding flash of the obvious!).

When those beliefs are centered in gratitude and love, curiosity calls forth the commitment and courage necessary for us to step into action. While curiosity and love may not clear every obstacle (what fun would that be anyway?), with loving curiosity, obstacles become mere challenges and opportunities along the way.

With loving curiosity, we can embrace our childlike nature, knowing without a doubt that we are indeed children of the universe, and despite appearances to the contrary, a benevolent universe that is unfolding just as it should.

The Heart Rock Collection Grows!