Some of us are fond of saying “the devil made me do it” when we’ve done something we’re not too proud of.
We might as well say “the ego made me do it” because the ego is our own personal “devil.”
In God’s Care by Karen Casey
I certainly experienced that devilish ego on Friday. I have been privileged to spend time with my nephew as he is stabilizing being a contributing member of society following time incarcerated. Old patterns revealed themselves in unwholesome ways as I pulled tightly his financial reins I had been recently entrusted to.
Casey says, “Sometimes we like to claim that we weren’t in complete control of our actions, that we were overcome by an irresistible urge. We can’t, however, say that with a clear conscience. At one time in our addictive past, maybe, but not now. Now, we can be responsible. An urge can overcome us only to the extent that we let it – only as we give it the power of believing in it.”
Ego would have us believe we (or others) are weak, vulnerable, without what we need. Believing these lies can make us afraid. Ego makes us afraid. I was feeling very afraid.
Even thought I was feeling afraid, I was afraid for him, not afraid of him. Nonetheless, the way I know ego had taken hold and I was in fear not love is that my blood pressure shot sky high.
Another quotation from, In God’s Care, “We have a choice. We can listen to the voice of our ego or the voice of God. How can we tell the difference? By how we feel. The ego’s urgings always leave us with some misgivings. God’s guidance assures us.”
To help me begin to listen to the voice of assurance, I put my feet in some warm water, grabbed my earbuds, and tapped through her Surrogate Tapping Meditation with Jessica Ortner.
(Note: If you are new to tapping or want a reminder, the locations you will be rotating through with each phrase as you tap along with Jessica include: (1) the karate point on the side of your hand, (2) the point where your eyebrow begins, (3) the point where your eyebrow ends, (4) under your eye, (5) under your nose, (6) on your chin crease, (7) along your collar bone, (8) under your arm, (9) and on the top of your head.)
Please only do this when you are sincere about saying, “I infuse this situation with love… I let go of my need to control… I infuse this situation with hope… I have faith that there is a greater good behind this situation… Nothing needs to be fixed… Everything is working in a greater order… This person has inside what they need… As I see their gifts and power, they begin to see that themselves… This is a blessing in disguise… As I laugh in the presence of darkness, we are brought into the light… As I smile in the presence of darkness, we are all uplifted… Even though I perceive this situation as a bad one I have faith that there is a greater good behind this… I live in my truth… The truth that I have the power to transcend any situation… The truth that others have the power to transcend any situation… Even though I have judged this situation, I deeply and completely love and accept myself… This person has what they need… I have what I need… I have faith that this person I love will do what is right for them… The outcome is greater than I could have ever imagined…”
I am breathing myself into the present moment as I wait further news of the journey of my nephew, David. This morning something happened at the house in Allegan and he may not be staying there after tomorrow. He already has permission to go back to the Mission in Holland where he knows he will be safe. (See Google Maps and 70×7)
Needing to breathe yourself into the present moment may be new to some people, but it is definitely not new to this recovering disembodied spiritual bypasser. I need to regularly remind myself, “My breath in my body, my body on the ball, my fingers on the keyboard (or in the car or on the bed).”
From The Dharma of Dogs: Our Best Friends as Spiritual Teachers:
I noticed how unselfconscious she was—steeped in the present moment, attentive to her surroundings and needs—and, of course, how she acted instinctively. If she wanted something, she went for it. If she didn’t like the vibe, she walked away. If something startled her, she shook it off. If someone approached her too fast or broke her (or my) boundaries, she growled at them and guarded me. She didn’t second-guess herself. She didn’t temper her natural responses or worry what others might think. She did what she did. She was what she was. And if other people or dogs didn’t like it, so be it.
These were vital teachings for me, not only because I was a disembodied spiritual bypasser—someone who uses spirituality to escape the human experience—but also because I was a good girl, ultra-polite, a people pleaser.
I mentioned Tina Williamson’s blog 5 Masks We Wear and Why We Should Take Them Off in a sermon given at St. John UCC in New Buffalo, Michigan, on Sunday, October 29, 2017. The Mother Teresa mask is the “Nice” Persona. Think about this as the instruction on airplanes to put your own oxygen on first in the event of an air incident. Honoring your own genuine needs is the only honest way to truly love and be there for others. You are no good to anyone if you’re drained and depleted. Taking off the Mother Theresa Mask is the beginning of self-love and it is within your reach. We break the people-pleasing habit, one moment at a time, breathing into the present moment.
Dogs and cats (and all of nature) are essentially grounding our energy fields. Pet’s are pure, positive energy. I am a huge cat person, rarely meeting a cat I can’t love, as you can see in these photos of me with Zeus.
Today especially, I am grateful for grounding into pure, positive energy.
I am not sure who the spiritual teacher was that first told me whatever message you receive for another, realize the message is for you first. That message or lesson or truth also applies to the other, but it is for YOU. Perhaps it was something learned in Ryan Elliott’s L-O-N-G intake form for hypnotherapy. I do recall hearing it from Angel Gail Konz. This morning I had opportunity to remember it again!
“Don’t we all want to be needed?” It was a rhetorical question via text. A follow-up to a our earlier conversation.
“Maybe not,” I wrote back. I could instantly see it related to Sunday’s sermon coming up. I recall how clear I was that this week’s talk was to be new: I was not to give the one I had recently shared in another church. “Let’s talk after dinner,” I responded before sending her this:
The Recovering Hero Proclamation
I have no need to save others.
I have no need to rescue others.
I have no need to outshine anyone.
I have no need to out-think, out-perform,
out-produce anyone – including myself.
I do not need to know anything.
I do not need to be an expert.
I do not need to fix anyone, or any change anything.
I do not need to dazzle, impress, or inspire anyone.
I do not need to be the hero of my own story.
In truth, I am organic, evolving, and fallible.
I allow things to unfold naturally, and I trust the flow.
I joyfully accept and experience my humanity.
I need nothing.
All already is.
Blessed be.
~Aaliyah LivingWell
aka Gina Dawn Gavaris
GeneratingLove@aol.com
www.GeneratingSolutions.org
I kept working on the sermon, adding this teaching from Aaron:
A more wholesome attitude might be rather that an initial ego intention, ‘I’m going to save the world,’ we start with the loving intention to see how we can dance with others and with the Earth and with spirit to co-create deeper peace and well-being for all sentient beings. We invite ourselves to be open and listen, to be guided, rather than having the ego dictate, ‘No, it should be this way.’ When you do this you find there truly are no limitations.
I looked again at the original writings on the Drama Triangle and added this to the sermon notes:
In 1968 Stephen Karmpan wrote an article about the Drama Triangle. On this triangle are three interconnected roles: Victim, Rescuer, Persecutor.
A Rescuer often gains great satisfaction by identifying with their care-taking role. They are generally proud of what “helpers” and “fixers” they are. Often they are socially acclaimed, even rewarded, for what can be seen as “selfless acts” of caring. They believe in their goodness as chief caretakers and see themselves as heroes.
Behind it all is a magical belief that, said out loud, might sound like, “If I take care of them long enough, then, sooner or later, they will take care of me too.” But, as we’ve already learned, this rarely happens. When we rescue the needy, we can’t expect anything back. They can’t even take care of themselves – much less be there for us!
This morning, an extended time in meditation allowed me to bring to mind the opening line I had keyed in for the sermon: People want to be helpful, to be useful. We have ways of being helpful and useful that are more wholesome than others.
F!A$#
Something clicked and I could see how hard I had been pushing her to experience something other than what she was experiencing. I had been doing the same thing I was trying to get her to stop doing.
Forgive me, Dear One.
When others seem to me to be in internal conflict or when conditions are difficult or “others” are caught in effort rather than trust, I am being lovingly invited to totally trust God in all of life. As I remember that grace moves through all of our days I am able to relax and breathe and let go.
As my fingers fly across the keyboard right now a dear friend is meeting to set up hospice care for her mother. My friend has had a history of white-coat syndrome—she has been very fearful of all things medical.
This is part of an email message I sent to her:
What comes to mind is that hospice is not-hospital, and not-medical, as it is truly more spiritual. In the way of loving release, the information and the service is about how to keep your mom as comfortable as she can be for as long as God gives her. Even with everything I knew (and all of my first-hand experience with people passing), the morning my mother-in-law was dying I asked Hospice to send someone out to help guide and support me.
God was so involved in all of that. The hospice nurse that came was named Stacey, the same as my daughter. Stacey was kind, she was competent, and she was explicit in explaining things to me in a way I could understand.
Once I knew what I needed to know (the physical signs and processes of the soul preparing to leave the body) I was able to help the rest of Mom’s family be at peace with what they were seeing.
I reminded my friend the focus of today’s meeting is not her but her mom, and not about her mom’s dying, but about her mom’s living as comfortably as possible for as long as possible and then going to Heaven.
Many have shared similar stories of the wonderful state we call “Heaven.” Many have told of angels who guide, support, and protect us.
Heaven is beautiful and one thing you can be sure of—the universe is friendly. If you need more proof of that fact, let me know if you might enjoy listening to a talk I gave at Pilgrim Congregational on October 15, 2017: “Universal Recovery.”
I wish we had recorded the last song. Imagine arms waving in the air singing….
It has been a truly amazing week. Put yourself in the backseat of my vehicle last Friday as I left Saint Joseph before dawn, and drove to Holland to pick up my nephew. We then drove to Allegan, from Allegan to Grand Rapids, from Grand Rapids back to Holland, from Holland back to Allegan, and then I drove back to Saint Joseph. I was reminded of how we would go for walks in the neighborhood with grandson Bradley when he was little. We made everything an adventure. We were not just walking, we were celebrating life.
Last Friday, my nephew and I were not just driving, we were sharing moments and making memories.
I have been thinking a lot about the gifts we get when we give.
I have also been thinking about the gift of our vulnerability.
My nephew and I ate apples. “Honeycrisp are my favorite,” he cooed.
We munched on almonds. “Oh, I love almonds,” he announced.
We crunched Chinese cracker/cookies and he compared them to the texture of pork rinds. “Do you like pork rinds?” he asked.
If you have never seen it, you may want to watch Brené Brown’s TED talk “The Power of Vulnerability.” Here are some of her words:
There was only one variable that separated the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging and the people who really struggle for it. And that was, the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging believe they’re worthy of love and belonging. That’s it. They believe they’re worthy. And to me, the hard part of the one thing that keeps us out of connection is our fear that we’re not worthy of connection, was something that, personally and professionally, I felt like I needed to understand better. So what I did is I took all of the interviews where I saw worthiness, where I saw people living that way, and just looked at those.
They fully embraced vulnerability. They believed that what made them vulnerable made them beautiful. They didn’t talk about vulnerability being comfortable, nor did they really talk about it being excruciating — as I had heard it earlier in the shame interviewing. They just talked about it being necessary. They talked about the willingness to say, “I love you” first … the willingness to do something where there are no guarantees … the willingness to breathe through waiting for the doctor to call after your mammogram. They’re willing to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out. They thought this was fundamental.
We were so long at the Secretary of State we were late for his doctor appointment, and while we were not successful obtaining his license at that time he has it now! We knew we were going to be late, so we called. When we got there I explained everything we had been through that day to get to the doctor and why my nephew really needed to be seen that day. I also told them I know how difficult it is when someone is not able to be on time. I asked them to please do what you could.
As we waited, we watched a baby.
We were late for that, too, but after my nephew saw the doctor we made it to his job interview! He is still in the running for that job, and we are grateful and also for a couple of other solid opportunities.
We finally got lunch at 5:05 pm. I know exactly what time it was because we missed happy hour at Arby’s by five minutes. I splurged for a Jamocha Shake anyway. As we ate, we marveled at all we accomplished that day and how much fun we had together.
Brown observed another significant aspect of those who were willing to be vulnerability:
And so these folks had, very simply, the courage to be imperfect. They had the compassion to be kind to themselves first and then to others, because, as it turns out, we can’t practice compassion with other people if we can’t treat ourselves kindly. And the last was they had connection, and — this was the hard part — as a result of authenticity, they were willing to let go of who they thought they should be in order to be who they were, which you have to absolutely do that for connection.
Tomorrow morning I will go back to Allegan. I will take gifts of bedding and towels and dishes and a coffee pot. People have been generous and we are thankful. We might again go to Holland, I don’t know for sure yet. Where ever we go, it will be an adventure.
This evening my nephew said, “I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
I told him repayment for kindness is never necessary. I suggested he just hold his gratitude in his body and say, “I am so grateful I can feel my heart full to overflowing.”
“I know where I was 51 years ago today! Happy birthday to our sweetest darling,” I sent email to our daughter.
“Thanks for keeping me!!!!!” she responded.
I quickly wrote back:
That made me cry….
You were not a planned pregnancy, but you were a totally wanted baby. We were madly in love with each other and madly in love with you.
You are the joy of our lives.
And a truly remarkable (and HOT) woman.
And an amazing mom.
And an inspiration.
These are just a few of the things that are true about your magnificence!
She also quickly wrote back: “LOL – now we are both crying! Well, being loved so much, unconditionally, your unending support, and your amazing example is how I am the woman I am today. How could I be anything but remarkable, hot, amazing, inspirational and magnificent when I come from parents that are remarkable, hot, amazing, inspirational and magnificent!!! I love you both so very much!!!!!”
My day did not go as I had expected. I did not get out for a bike ride and I did not make it to Sangha or to see the film “Rooted in Peace.” Instead, I drove my nephew (out on parole just 32 days) to a Men’s Mission in another county.
On the drive emotions were tense. We did not know if the Mission would accept him because he had no proof that he had been a county resident for at least 30 days. Calls to his parole officer; calls to the Mission; more calls to the parole officer; and even more calls to the Mission.
Google Maps first delivered us to the women’s shelter. They gave us the address for the Men’s Mission.
Then Google Maps took us to a senior facility. Explaining that we were trying to find the Men’s Mission, a woman with kind eyes and a soft voice said, “I don’t know how the GPS got you here, we are not even on River Street, we are on State Street.”
Another woman—a colleague of some sort—stopped and got a map for us and gave us directions to the Mission. Then the two of them brainstormed other possible resources, the one woman taking time by providing addresses and phone numbers.
Someone at 70×7 Life Recovery answered the phone, made a call to the Men’s Mission, and got my nephew into the Mission for the night!
Every moment men and women all around the planet face overwhelming odds to put their lives back together. Certainly families in Las Vegas will be doing that following the mass shooting. Those who have lost their homes and businesses in the recent hurricanes will be doing that. Mothers whose children and wives whose husbands have recently passed will be doing that.
“You are just in time for dinner,” my nephew was told upon arrival at the Mission. We declined a sincere offer for us to join them for dinner, needing to get back home.
Leaving my nephew at the Mission, we drove again in search of some “cabins” that rent for a weekly amount. His parole officer had told him about them and we had missed the dirt road when we looked for the earlier. This time we spotted the row of mail boxes. A thin, fragile, woman stood in front of them, with extremely poor dental hygiene, but she was willing to answer our questions. “Are you a resident here? Is this the place that rents by the week? Do you know if there are any vacancies? Do you have a stove and a fridge? A bed? (She said you have to furnish your own bed.) Do you know the number we can call?” She did not know the number.
I spotted a sign with the number to call about rentals at the end of the drive on the side of the building. “We can pull in and get the number,” I told her.
“I can give the number to you. I can see it from here.” She read the number to me, making sure I had written it down correctly.
Today was a day with thoughts of resilience. I found these words online: Resilience is that ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever. Rather than letting failure overcome them and drain their resolve, they find a way to rise from the ashes. Psychologists have identified some of the factors that make someone resilient, among them a positive attitude, optimism, the ability to regulate emotions, and the ability to see failure as a form of helpful feedback. Even after misfortune, resilient people are blessed with such an outlook that they are able to change course and soldier on.
That ability to regulate our emotions is a very big deal. I choked back tears as I thanked the woman with almost no teeth but very good vision and we slowly drove through allowing me to take a couple of photos of the modest cabins. I don’t know if my nephew will live there. Thinking about that possibility seems at once both tragic and triumphant.
I wonder what someone could do with that amazing vision. Perhaps she could read to the blind.
Profound gratitude for those who make a place for men and women who find themselves homeless washed over and over me.
I told my nephew perhaps he will come to work at a Mission someday.
For sure, today, we had much to be thankful for. Even Google Maps sending us somewhere other than where we thought we were headed so we could end up getting there….
WE HELP OTHERS OVERCOME
One Story. One Relationship. One Day at a Time.
70×7 Life Recovery provides the tools to assist those in the addiction recovery process. If you are re-entering society from a life of incarceration – you are recovering your life — you are starting over. If you are looking for a place to find freedom from drugs, alcohol and other addictive habits — you are starting over. 70×7 Life Recovery works with individuals in letting go of the prison or addict mentality.
Our Mission is to restore Dignity, Purpose and Hope to a recovery community one Relationship at a time.
Today, I will stop straining to know what I don’t know.
To see what I can’t see.
To understand what I don’t yet understand.
I will trust that being is sufficient,
And I will let go of my need to figure things out.
The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie
My heart and mind is so full my fingers must dance around the keyboard so I can sit in my skin. Sometimes you see life’s unfolding right before your eyes as has been my experience in spades the past couple of days.
I had been invited to join a friend in Sunday’s Apple Cider Century bike ride. We have done it together before and had a great time but it was forecast to be very hot for September in Michigan. I thought that was why I was iffy about whether I was to go.
Saturday evening I got word about a close friend who was in the hospital in another city following back surgery. She had been doing quite well but ended up having back spasms that they could not mitigate. “This would be a good time for a visit,” was the text message from her fiancé. She was experiencing inconsolable pain when I arrived. This is the same friend who was my advocate and healer when I had surgery in November 2012. It was an honor and a horror to be there with her. And I was not alone.
Our now mutual friend met me there at the hospital. It was Doris who introduced me to Healing Touch back in the nineties. I choked back the emotion as I began doing the work. What a sacred circle of love we are….
Thankfully, a whiff of relief came from the combination of medical intervention, energy healing, and grace. Several hours later, she was settled back in bed, her fiancé was with her, so I headed home. Another text from him popped in as I was driving, “She is sleeping soundly now.”
Before going to bed I sent a my friend a text message saying I was just now home and so I would not be joining her on the bike ride the next morning.
Sunday morning at 9 am I received a text message from my sister in Texas asking if this was a good time for her to call me. I have not spoken to her in decades…. I told her it was a perfect time for her to call. She was sharing a health situation she has been navigating because it might have an impact on my sister and me and our daughters. She had undergone surgery about 8 weeks ago. Is it a coincidence about that same time I was feeling the need to go to Texas to see her?
We talked for an hour. It felt like no time had passed. In our heartfelt sharing the chasm of religiosity that had been a greater distance between us than the miles from Michigan to Texas dissipated like a bubble when it pops.
If I had been on the bike ride I would not have been available for that call.
After we hung up I sent her this photo that is hanging on my wall here in the tiny house.
Affirmations:
I do not know what is the truth for you.
I know what is mine to know in each moment.
I trust in my inner guidance to guide me to what is best for me.
I easily forgive and release what is no longer the best for me. Betty Lue’s Loving Reminders
“What do you think about Mediums?” she asked.
She had come along with her husband who was helping my husband build a new porch.
“I love them,” I replied. “Why do you ask?”
She went on to share about her niece having recently received a message from Theresa Caputo, the Long Island Medium. The niece was not a believer, but she knew beyond a doubt the message had come from her mother to offer her support and encouragement.
As the other two women arrived, I whispered, “This conversation probably is best finished now because Marge (not her real name) would likely not be comfortable with the subject.” I knew Marge had a very different world view.
We all pulled up bar stools around the island in our tiny kitchen. I poured ice water and put some chips and homemade chocolate chip cookies on the counter and stirred the sloppy joes on the stove. Soon the first woman began telling the story about the Long Island Medium’s message to her niece, and before I knew it I was also telling about the time my client blurted out, “So you are the woman with the green fairy hanging above the table!” A medium had told her about a woman with a green fairy hanging above her table.
I could tell this did not sit well with Marge. She actually got up and walked away as I shared how the medium my client had visited lived a normal life in her community but would travel to other locations to give messages from loved ones who have passed, messages which are always loving and reassuring.
I went on to explain how the medium tried to ignore the spiritual gift for a long time. One day (several years prior) this medium was at work when the image of a young woman’s face popped into her mind’s eye, along with a message. Not recognizing the face and somewhat accustomed to strange inner experiences, she ignored the message until later that evening when she saw the same face on the 6 o’clock news! A fatal auto accident had taken the life of that young woman the night before and it was obvious she had been given a message to the family.
Running from the living room choking back tears, she knelt in the privacy of her bedroom and sobbed as she prayed, “God, I don’t know why you gave me this gift, and I really have not wanted it, but if you will guide me I will do my best to share what you call me to share.”
This morning I was still processing all of this and wondering if I should send Marge a text or a note acknowledging what seemed to be an uncomfortable situation with the subject. Lost in that make-believe world as I was making my bed, I stepped on something. There on the floor was the gemstone given to me a couple of months ago by a woman in my hometown who gives spiritual readings. I had been instructed to put the stone under my pillow, and it had been tied in a drawstring bag and safety pinned to the pillow all this time. The bag was still tied, and still pinned to the pillow inside the case, but the stone had been on the floor and was now in my hand.
I began to think about the courage it takes to honor our experiences. I remember when a dear friend apologized that I had been “outed” because she had written about me in her blog, saying that I talk to dead people. (See Ella’s Soapbox.)
As I held that gem stone in my hand, this is what I heard in my head:
I don’t talk to dead people. I talk to people no longer in body.
Just because you haven’t had the experience does not mean that the experience is not real. And just because someone’s experience of God does not fit with your experience of God, does not mean it is not a valid experience of God.
I wonder why the woman told the story about her niece’s message from the Long Island Medium knowing Marge would likely not be comfortable with the subject of mediums. And I am curious about my own sharing the story of the medium who told my client about the woman with the green fairy hanging over her table. We may never know for sure the answers to all of our questions but Marge’s husband passed away one month ago today…
I just spoke with a dear friend. She is my sister from another mister. We are soul mates, and we have such sweet sincere respect and love for one another. We were sharing about the privilege of lifting one another up, and being confident we always get our turn. The metaphor that popped into my mind is that of a seesaw.
Seesaws (also known as a teeter-totter) were commonplace on the playgrounds where we grew up.
The seesaw is supported by a single pivot point. As one end goes up, the other goes down.
My heart is filled with compassion for so many in our world. Irma has left many homeless, even if some only temporarily. It will be a long while before things settle to a new normal.
A friend here in Michigan fell and is now in the hospital in horrific pain made worse by his blindness. He has lost his sister and his brother and now lives alone.
What is an appropriate response? The following email message came from my teacher/friend, Barbara Brodsky, and her teacher/friend, Aaron. I have not asked permission to share it with you, but I know they will be glad to have you take it to heart and to share it with others.
Dear friends,
I have been watching the news and weather through the weekend with sadness, as I know is true for many of you. Harvey caused (and continues to cause) so much suffering as people lost homes, livelihoods and even lives. Irma will continue such suffering. Deep Spring Center is a national/ international sangha. In the past weeks and this week, I have spoken to friends in Texas and now in Florida, who have lost homes, have had to evacuate, and have felt bewildered and afraid. Such pain is a natural consequence of such uncertainty. We cannot fix it for ourselves or others, only hold it all in love.
My first tendency was to think, “I offer you love,” whether it be to a person, place or situation. Aaron reminded me that to offer love is a subtle act of separation. It’s better than nothing, and does help, but it is also me, separate from you, trying to give you something to help your pain. It is a statement that it is your situation and pain though, and I need not experience it directly.
He asked me to substitute, “I hold you in my heart,” with the recognition that we are one. “Your pain and my pain are one; your loss and my loss are one.” As in that beautiful chant with the lines, “because I am in you, and you are in me.”
The natural human tendency is to want to separate ourselves from pain, from chaos and from helplessness, and to feel safe and in control. But life is often not that way. Acknowledging this truth, can we allow ourselves to be truly vulnerable and be touched by our pain?
Please join me opening your hearts to our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our children, ourselves, in Houston, the Caribbean, Florida, and also in Mexico that has just suffered a strong earthquake, in places where there is war, and in the parts of the world where people go to bed hungry and sick. Please join me with the loving thought, “I hold you in my heart. Your pain and my pain are one.” In this way, the true energy of Love becomes available to all. We are not helpless; this is something real, to open our hearts to our own and the world’s suffering. We are bigger and stronger than we think.
May all beings everywhere be free of suffering.
May all beings dwell in the Heart of Love.
May all beings everywhere find freedom and perfect peace.
With love,
Barbara and Aaron
Some days we are up physically and down emotionally. Other days we are up emotionally but down physically. Whether the storms of life have you at the top of the seesaw where it is high and dry or the bottom where it is flooded with pain, we are able to know the truth of the ups and downs. As Barbara and Aaron expressed, “May all beings everywhere be free of suffering.” We are bigger and stronger than we think.
Please be extra gentle with yourself during these highly charged, transformative times. We are all so beautifully sensitive to the collective experience – and especially right now.
We are sending our blessings to those in the many places where there are wildfires, floods, and approaching hurricanes. Peace, love, and blessings to all people, all creatures, and all lands everywhere. So many new beginnings are underway. ~ Matt Kahn
This photo was posted on Facebook by my son-in-law, Doug Dodge, along with his comments about yesterday’s hurricane damage: One of my favorite places in the BVI’s (British Virgin Islands). This is a picture of one of the rental fleets. They have total devastation and nothing left. We have met some great people over the years that live there and our hearts go out to them. Their only income is tourism and they have nothing to offer now. Please keep them in your prayers.
At the time of this blog’s writing many friends and family and people we may never know across the state of Florida and other parts of the southeastern US are dealing with the anticipated devastation related to hurricane Irma after seeing what she has already done. This all makes me aware about the need to plan for dealing with devastation.
Some will blame God, others will blame humans for accelerated global warming. Many will be second-guessing choices they have made to build, live, visit, stay or go. It is natural to be awash with emotions as we anticipate and/or witness devastation, but blame and remorse are not helpful.
Perhaps Ira Byock’s book, The Four Things That Matter Most, now updated for its tenth anniversary, can offer us some advise. Byock says four simple phrases “stating the obvious” allow us to experience the benefits of letting old grudges and toxic emotions:
And there are things we can do. We can give money to organizations we know are responsible with their dollars and have good sense about what is helpful at what time. We can pray. We can also do Tonglen to assist in the processing of all of this collective emotion. If you are new to the practice of Tonglen or you will benefit from a refresher, please read “Terrorist Attacks and Tonglen.”
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