“That which I do not forgive in you, lies unforgiven within myself.”
~ Buddhist Proverb
This morning’s early sunrise seems to capture so perfectly the renewed calm, both for mother nature and for myself. A large group of white butterflies danced below, and I found myself laughing … If only I could focus on my meditation as intently as my cat was focused on her prey ….
So yesterday, I found myself in the position of either taking care of myself, or pleasing others. It’s caused me to reflect on why the options feel as though they are mutually exclusive? Reflecting brought me to one of my favorite posts over at TinyBuddha.com
“A friend knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”
There is a tribe in Africa where the birth date of a child is counted not from when they were born, nor from when they are conceived but from the day that the child was a thought in its mother’s mind. And when a woman decides that she will have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, by herself, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child that wants to come. And after she’s heard the song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child’s father, and teaches it to him. And then, when they make love to physically conceive the child, some of that time they sing the song of the child, as a way to invite it.
“God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.”
So it’s overcast today! Will I obsesses on wishing for sunshine, while neglecting to bring an umbrella? Surely not. Yet this is exactly what we so often do in life: We focus on what we can’t change, while ignoring what we can ….
Yesterday, a note from a friend prompted me to consider the steps I’ve taken to begin to find peace from within …. It’s been a long haul. What are we actually responsible for? As woman, mothers, owners of businesses, wives, girlfriends, daughters, we are taught that we must take care of other people. And men too: Society and our media often show men helping the damsel in distress or being solely responsible as the financial foundation for their family.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
~ Viktor E. Frankl
I sat with interest under our partly cloudy skies this morning. I had a fitful night’s sleep, mind was busy, cats were oddly huddled up next to me, then around 3AM a strong windstorm blew through, and shook the house. I got up, and browsed the web via Stumble Upon … My favorite tool for “counting sheep”. I was grateful for the clouds, as I knew they would allow me an extra half hours sleep.
“I see skies of blue, and clouds of white … The bright blessed day, dark sacred night … And I think to myself ….. What a wonderful world”
~ Louis Armstrong
Ah yes, I’m feeling back to my chipper self this morning after a day of rest. I was up before my alarm, and am feeling very inspired. And I just can’t keep that song out of my head, even though my skies aren’t very blue …
The first thing I came across on my FB scroll this morning was a quote by Abe Lincoln …
“We so often clear the clutter from our homes, but not our heads – do both!”
~ Watching Whales & Princess Sassy Pants
So today, I officially missed the sunrise. My iphone is there beside my bed, but I obviously didn’t set it. I awoke to the scream of two seagull, and my cats going nuts … Namaste peeping in this own unique way: “Peep-Peep” … “Wake Up”!
I went and lay back down. Oh, if you could only hear the chatter that was going on inside my head …
“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”
~ Umberto Eco
Happy Sunday and Happy Father’s Day! And wow is it HAZY this morning! Thanks to Spencer for teaching me the secrets to manually focus our camera, as it was having a real tough time on auto focus. It almost looks like I’ve photographed the moon ?!?
As I sat this morning, I was thinking through my move yesterday. I’ll share some lessons tomorrow, because I’m not done sorting through it all, which means that I’m sure more lessons will appear.
“Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.”
~ Edwin Way Teale
I’ve been waiting here for an hour, hoping for these clouds to clear out today, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. So I’ll try to at least make my words cheery …
Speaking of clearing out, today I’m headed to vacate my storage unit. It’s the remaining junk and records from my computer business. Last year, I consolidated 40,000 cubic feet of stuff down into 1,500 cubic feet. Today, I hope to half that.