Luke's Solstice Gift

“Become totally empty; Quiet the restlessness of the mind; Only then will you witness everything unfolding from emptiness.” - Lao Tzu

My soul has been longing for my body and mind to slow down, stop even, and step into the pace and rhythm of this sacred time of year. That, after all, has been my practice for many years. And, the quiet of the snow blessed woods calls me gently each time I step out the door or look out the window at the beauty.

This year is different though. The world is also calling me to participate: clients wanting a last session of the year, visitors needing lodging here and the Dragonfly House, and key staff changes at the local agency where I serve as President of the Board. And, that doesn’t include a few holiday activities that nurture me – body, mind and spirit.

Something needed to shift and I knew it wasn’t likely to be the world inviting me to stop (or me declining an invitation). I needed to get beyond the either/or [stop and turn off the world OR forego the nurturing of Solstice time] and move to both/and [participate in the opportunities of the events offered by the world AND give myself the gifts of Solstice’ nurturing].

And, no surprise, the amazingly sensitive and awesome teacher in my life provided just the path, hopping onto the couch as I was snuggled in with a cup of tea before beginning the day. No, he didn’t curl up at my feet as he usually does. Rather, he plopped right on my chest (all 60 loving pounds) and fell fast asleep. The choice was clear: seize the moment and use it to honor my soul’s longing OR deny the gift (get up, put a log on the fire, write my blog, etc. etc.).

I seized the moment. For a blissful hour I watched my thoughts conspire to move me into action (or at least into thinking about what I needed to do in the world or how events might unfold) as I simply relaxed on the couch and allowed myself to bathe in gratitude for my life and to feel the unconditional love of the Universe through its messenger of the moment, Cool Hand Luke Skywalker -Texas Ranger.

Luke’s gift was a reminder that life is rarely about the win/loose, either/or choices that we so often allow ourselves to fall victim to. Choices, yes they are the core of our journey. But, when we empty the clutter of thoughts that cloud our clarity we obscure the beauty of that power of choice.

Luke and I wish you the best this season and invite you to take time for you and your soul. We promise that you won’t regret it.

P.S. A Solstice gift for you. Last year on this Thursday before Solstice I wrote about the beauty and blessings of this special time of year when “All of heaven and all of earth coordinate at the Winter Solstice.” Gregge Tiffen*

Winter Solstice is the time of natural transformation, newness that comes forth with or without our awareness. Winter Solstice is the time when our receptivity is heightened in consciousness. Is it any wonder that with fewer hours of daylight, we are drawn inside into our homes, perhaps under the covers, and definitely drawn to be inside ourselves at this time of year?

The Way That Is In You

"Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you." - Carl Jung

As I was snuggled in front of the fire several mornings past about to begin my morning reading and quiet time practice, Luke, who had been sleeping at my feet, woke and began to scratch. He's been doing that more than usual,

and it reminded me of a comment that a dog trainer made some time ago about scratching becoming a habit in "OCD dogs".

Remembering her comment triggered a series of thoughts about our cultural habit of diagnosing and labeling behavior that doesn't fit the culture's definition of 'normal' (think ADD, ADHD, OCD, etc.).

I thought about how it seems to me we are trying to create a 'one size fits all' culture that, while it gives lip service to individuality, seeks conformity to some not quite clear definition of "normal". One size hardly fits anyone well. This is what I see when I look at our education system, much of the business and corporate world, and even health care. Learn this. Do this. Take this drug. Don't be different. Conform.

After a few minutes, I put aside that thinking and opened my Science of Mind
magazine to start my daily reading. The quote above greeted me, and I chuckled at the 'coincidence'.

Then as I reflected more deeply, I felt deep gratitude for the path that is uniquely mine and for daring to step out to discover and experiment with how the Universe works.

I'm grateful for those teachers along the way who encourage me. I'm grateful too for those who discourage and need for me to conform. Each provides information and experiences for me to discover more about 'the way that is in me'. I'm grateful for the experiences that I glide through with ease. I'm learning to see those that seem not so easy, even painful, as experiments in discovering and developing 'my way'. And, I'm grateful for them as well.

I'm reminded of Frank Sinatra's hit from my college days, My Way.  I trust I'm nowhere near my 'final curtain', but I aim to be able to sing it with joy and sincerity when I get there. For me, that is yet another way to define success.

Reflection for the Week: How true are you to ‘the way that is in you’?

Home!

"There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home…" - Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz

As I sit down to write this morning, I’ve been home from my wonderful 11 day Thanksgiving holiday for less than 24 hours. I’m struck more deeply than ever by how much I love my home, Luke and the quiet, consistent beauty of the woods where our home is nestled. I’m in that blissful ‘I never want to leave’ state of peace that coming home brings.

I’m also mindful that the events I experienced on this trip are rich territory for reflection now that I’m home, where reflection comes easily and nurtures me in so many ways.

Naturally, the memories of a fun, relaxing week with my cousin and her dogs in eastern Washington top the list. How we easily adapted when a dead battery aborted a planned hike out to Kamiak Butte, choosing to hike an urban trail, and stopping for coffee along the way. No lattes in the woods, and nature’s beauty abounds in the rolling hills of her small college community.

Although I love my morning walks with Luke, it was nice to have a break from our routine and to sip tea or coffee over a daily newspaper with comics (in color!) each morning. I saw a couple movies (5 minutes away vs. 60 miles) and enjoyed great food, including a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Each morning I awoke looking up at a piece of art woven by a friend here in Crestone. And, most important of all, just hanging out with my cousin in the beauty of her art-filled home made for a memorable trip. Friends who know us both say we’re more like sisters, and I agree.

Events at the outset of the trip are also on the reflection list, including how I navigated a situation that arose with the person I’d engaged to stay with Luke. When she didn’t arrive as planned, a friend came to rescue him from six hours in his kennel (I thought he’d be there a couple hours at most) while I was on the road to Denver some 200 miles away. After a restless night wresting with not having care for Luke and what seemed to be an aborted trip, my friend called and said “I want Luke to stay here with me while you’re away. Go. Have fun!” And, that I did.

As I settle in to sort mail, pay bills, stack wood along with other so called ‘chores’, I have the joy of reflection to look forward to in this season that, for me, evokes just that: going within and reacquainting me with me.

Reflection for the Week: What rich territory is available for you to reflect upon as we enter this winter season?

Giving Thanks

This week, I am steeped in gratitude. Although I live life with deep gratitude, this week of Thanksgiving as I slow down and spend time with family I am especially grateful for so much - family, friends, home, nature's beauty, health, and (of course) Cool Hand Luke Skywalker.  I'm grateful for the many people whose paths mine has crossed and the learning that happens in those intersections.

I often quote Gregge Tiffen, whose private sessions and writing continue to have a profound impact on my life.  Reading and reflecting on his Thanksgiving Prayer in a way that personalizes it for me has become a part of my personal Thanksgiving celebration. Thus, I share it with you once again this year.

May you have some time for quiet reflection and for giving Thanks in your own personal, special way.

Thanksgiving Prayer by Gregge Tiffen

Dear God:

I wonder sometimes how you put up with me and all the other people who call upon you only in times of need, but hardly ever in times of celebration.

I am so grateful for your patience and understanding and know that, if I would but try, I could express the same to all that I meet.  I am ever mindful of your infinite wisdom and thankful that it expresses in a quiet tolerance that allows me to experience life in my own way.

I am happy in the understanding that, although you hold all knowledge, I am allowed to search and discover in my own way and at my own pace.  I appreciate you leaving me to my own devices and methods, so that the thrill of discovery is never diminished or impaired and becomes a lasting part of my personal wisdom.

I thank you for the opportunity that I get every day to grow and expand in mind and consciousness; and for allowing me to make my errors and accept my victories, for in them I find my identity and my reason for being.

Thanks too, for the people who have crossed my path.  Some have been warm and loving and some have been hostile, but all have shown me that goodness and mercy comes in all sizes and shapes.

 And most of all, thank you for granting me the experience of self awareness. Without that I would never understand the warmth of the sun or the brilliance of a winter's day, nor could I comprehend the wonder of a child's smile.

I know that I don't come to you often enough, to sit silently in your lap, but when I do, there is always room for me there and your comforting arm is always around me.  I am so thankful that I am your child, and right or wrong, your love for me for never changes.  Thank you for welcoming me back home once again on this Thanksgiving Day.

©G-Systems International ………. http://www.g-systems.com

Independence Is The Law

"Dependency is a basic violation of Universal law." - Gregge Tiffen

There is no question in my mind that the radical, revolutionary visionaries that founded the United States were deeply in touch with Universal law and sought to create this nation aligned with Universal principles.

I also believe that we’ve strayed as a country and as individuals from living fully into the independence that was a pillar of their creation and still is immutable Universal law. Taking responsibility for operating from independence requires attention, awareness, and (gulp) courage.

I’m coming to experience (and thus to deepen my belief) that at any moment, in any circumstance I have the power, the free will to choose differently. The rewards for making those choices are vast and deep, the most important being the joy of self-satisfaction and its deepening to self-love. These are not selfish, self-centered ways of being. Rather, they are what we are meant to experience as we chart the path of our lives in alignment with the unique blueprint that we each came to this life with.

The process of purchasing a home provided many opportunities to do just that. I did my best to rise to each occasion (and I forgive myself for not always doing so or for being less than gracious through part of the process). As I look back at the hoops that I jumped through and the amazing support that I received, I’m aware that at every turn, every hurdle I remained at choice. I never felt a sense of being a victim or of ‘having to do’. I chose with each hurdle to act from ‘okay, here’s my next step, let’s see where it leads’ rather than ‘I have to do this because, if I don’t, they will (or won’t) …’.

Either way, my actions might well have been the same. But the gift of making them from a place of choice protected me from any sense that I could lose or be hurt. I was willing to ‘let the chips fall where they may’. At its core that is the promise and the gift of independence.

Today, I not only own a home that I love (and look forward to sharing with others who need and want respite from the busy, noisy world), I have a deep sense of gratitude and satisfaction for how I walked through the process. The home and other material things I can’t take with me when I’m complete with this life, this body. But, the satisfaction, the gratitude and whatever wisdom I gained from the experience are forever a part of my consciousness.

Invitation For The Week: As you bask in the stars and stripes, the red, white and blue, enjoy a burger and your beverage of choice, take time not just to be grateful for the promise of independence, but reflect on the attitude you bring to your life’s choices and the freedom those choices represent. Are you operating as you are meant to: independent of all others? Rinse, repeat, and ask again.

New Year New Beginnings New Measurement

"There is not just one world available to you. There is another world, and you have the power to choose where you wish to reside."  Gregge Tiffen

As the new calendar year 2014 begins and the light returns, I’m filled with awe at the possibilities that present themselves not just daily, but moment to moment to deepen my knowledge by using what I know to live more fully into being the creative force in my own life that I am designed to be.

The Solstice marks the beginning of a new cycle for the planet and the turning of the calendar to another January 1 signals the beginning of new cycles in business and other aspects of life. Each are convenient times to create our own personal new beginnings. These are times, especially the start of a new calendar year, when our culture and our systems support us to make changes, to begin again.  We evaluate where we are in our health, our wealth, our well-being. Then, we set goals to give us focus and guide the choices that we make about what action to take next.  For the most part these goals are of the world we have come to accept as ‘real’, the one in which we have placed our quest for happiness, for health, wealth and well-being.

While these goals may bring us achievement, they don’t measure our personal progress in consciousness, the knowledge that becomes wisdom that goes with us when we leave this body behind.  While they may bring satisfaction for a period of time, soon after we celebrate the accomplishment, we hop back on the hamster wheel of life, challenged by this world to go for ‘more’.  The world we’ve come to call the ‘real’ world has no concrete, stable standards. Its rules change. Thus, one day we ‘win’; the next we ‘loose’, regardless of what we’ve done.

I’m not suggesting that we are victims of this world that we’ve made real, but rather that we look beyond AND within for a different world. A world where the way things operate never changes, although how we use the operating manual is a laboratory for growth. I’m suggesting that we discover additional measures to anchor us in a world with ever changing expectations.  To create these measures for myself, here are the questions that I’m considering:

• What am I here to learn?
• What qualities in my life do I choose to more fully develop?
• How well do I see everything in life as opportunity?
• How strong is my belief in the personal power that I have been given?
• How well am I using my capacity to live in the world without becoming of it?

As I launched my part in this new year, I trekked to the top of the Ziggurat … to give thanks for life and the natural beauty that abounds and to choose which world I will inhabit and depend on in the coming year.

As you launch yourself into this new year … whether diving off the high dive into the deep or gentle entering one step at a time, I invite you to join me in creating new measurements as a part of your new beginnings.

Experiment for the Week:  As you kick off the new year, review your goals and look deeply into each one. What deeper measures of success do you see?

The Connecting Power of Gratitude

"Be kind. Be connected. Be unafraid." Rivera Sun - The Dandelion Insurrection*

As I sat in gratitude for a simple but delicious meal this week, I took time to imagine with gratitude everyone who played a part in this food being on my plate. I don’t just mean the people who raised the chickens that laid the eggs or the baker who baked and packaged the bread or the dairy that made the butter. I mean everyone!

We don’t often think further than the food itself or, maybe, the growers.  As I reflected upon just how many people it takes to get a few simple things on my plate (not to mention, the plate, the cutlery, the placemat, the napkin, the table, the stove, the cookware, the fuel, etc.), I realized in some new way just how connected we are and sensed the power of this awareness as a seed for creating new stories and new systems for our time.

Imagine for a moment how much love the world would be flooded with if we took time in our thankfulness for everything to have a moment of awareness and gratitude for everyone involved. Take that egg for example. Here’s the start of my list of who it took to get that egg on my plate:

• Linette and Scott who raise the chickens that laid the eggs
• Yours truly who picked up the eggs at their farm
• Everyone involved in creating the materials to build the chicken coop and those who built it
• Everyone involved in growing and transporting the food that feeds the chickens
• Everyone involved in creating the carton for carrying the eggs
• Everyone involved in building the vehicles that transported the above AND the roads that were travelled AND the materials for those vehicles and roads

And, that’s just the eggs (before they were cooked)!

There’s a power and possibility here that I’m only just glimpsing as I write.  Our systems today use our inter-connectedness to create dependence and fear.  Through awareness and gratitude, we each can choose differently. We can choose to honor our inter-connectedness with thankfulness to each and every human being who plays a part in the bounty, however great or small, that we experience every day. Imagine a world with that much love and gratitude!

Although the sun has set on yet another Solstice and Christmas, let the year ahead have us feel gratitude not just more deeply, but more broadly as well.

Experiment for the Week:  For one thing on your plate at a meal, create a list of everyone involved and lovingly honor all those whose efforts made it possible. What do you notice?

*Rivera Sun weaves a powerful story of and for this time in The Dandelion Insurrection. Always and all ways a great read! You can find her here: http://www.risingsundancetheater.com/wpblog/ and on Facebook.

The Gift of Solstice

"All of heaven and all of earth coordinate at the Winter Solstice." - Gregge Tiffen*

Winter Solstice is the time of natural transformation, newness that comes forth with or without our awareness. Winter Solstice is the time when our receptivity is heightened in consciousness. Is it any wonder that with fewer hours of daylight, we are drawn inside into our homes, perhaps under the covers, and definitely drawn to be inside ourselves at this time of year?

Solstice is the birthday of the Planet and was celebrated as such with reverence and respect in ancient times by our ancestors who lived in close harmony with the Planet’s rhythms.

Solstice is the time of completion and of new beginnings. The old cycle (year) is done. We are presented with the opportunity to declare completion and move on with awareness of the seed of newness that is planted inside. A new ‘you’ with its potential to bring wondrous change in the cycle ahead is ready, provided you are willing to claim it.

In keeping with my understanding of ancient traditions, I take time at Solstice to create a personal ‘silent night’, a time harmonize my rhythms to those of the Planet, to with love and gratitude let go of everything from the year behind, and to acknowledge the seed of newness inside.  And, I invite you to take a few moments or even a few hours to create your own and to acknowledge and embrace the potential of the newness in you.

Start by harmonizing with nature. If you're blessed as I am to live in nature’s beauty, take a walk. Observe and honor the rhythms of nature, whether the slow steady growth of a tree or the daily cycles of ocean tides.  If nature is not outside your door, then sit quietly and imagine your favorite place in nature. Feel yourself in that place. Allow those rhythms to bring you the quiet peace of the season.

Next, create an atmosphere and attitude of gratefulness and let go of everything that has come to you in the cycle ending. Your aim is to empty and prepare a space for the new. Thus, let go of not only what doesn’t serve or suit you, of those things you consider ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’, but of everything: every attitude, your wants and desires, your fears, your hopes, your stories about the events of the year ending, the people in your life.

Finally, when you are ready (perhaps after only a few moments, perhaps a few hours), evoke the sound of newness with the declaration “I am new”.  This is the place where heaven and earth come together in you, as you. The new you is ready to meet, greet and receive the gifts of the new cycle.

May the blessings of your unique newness follow you into and throughout the new year.

*My understanding and celebration of Solstice, while it is my own interpretation, comes primarily from the work of Gregge Tiffen. You can learn more about Gregge’s work at www.g-systems.com. And, you can purchase from his collected works, including his telling of Winter Solstice – The Christmas Story, at http://www.p-systemsinc.com/publications.htm.

Thanksgiving Prayer

Thanksgiving Prayer by Gregge Tiffen

Dear God:

 I wonder sometimes how you put up with me and all the other people who call upon you only in times of need, but hardly ever in times of celebration.

I am so grateful for your patience and understanding and know that, if I would but try, I could express the same to all that I meet.  I am ever mindful of your infinite wisdom and thankful that it expresses in a quiet tolerance that allows me to experience life in my own way.

I am happy in the understanding that, although you hold all knowledge, I am allowed to search and discover in my own way and at my own pace.  I appreciate you leaving me to my own devices and methods, so that the thrill of discovery is never diminished or impaired and becomes a lasting part of my personal wisdom.

I thank you for the opportunity that I get every day to grow and expand in mind and consciousness; and for allowing me to make my errors and accept my victories, for in them I find my identity and my reason for being.

Thanks too, for the people who have crossed my path.  Some have been warm and loving and some have been hostile, but all have shown me that goodness and mercy comes in all sizes and shapes.

 And most of all, thank you for granting me the experience of self awareness. Without that I would never understand the warmth of the sun or the brilliance of a winter's day, nor could I comprehend the wonder of a child's smile.

I know that I don't come to you often enough, to sit silently in your lap, but when I do, there is always room for me there and your comforting arm is always around me.  I am so thankful that I am your child, and right or wrong, your love for me for never changes.  Thank you for welcoming me back home once again on this Thanksgiving Day.

©G-Systems International ………. http://www.g-systems.com