September 22, 2012 ~ Feeling At Home

September 22, 2012 ~ Feeling At Home

"No matter what happens in the rush of daily life,

may your home welcome you at day's end

with comfort, peace and light."

~Corrine De Winter

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."

~Maya Angelou

As I visit with friends and family members while on vacation this week, I find the subject of HOME is very much on my mind. At a dinner gathering of several dear friends, women I've known since the early 60s—in the days before Paul Simon longed to be 'Homeward Bound'; before Bob Dylan asked 'how does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone'; before ET phoned his extraterrestrial home—in this circle of close friends, we shared stories of life changes and transitions. Each one of us has experienced major transitions involving family life and home.

It seems many in our generation are going through similar experiences. We live in a time of great change—the financial world is in upheaval, foreclosure rates are skyrocketing, communities have become more transient as people need to move to where the jobs are, and with the advent of the internet, many people can work from just about anywhere, so there is less need to stay in one place. It's a very different world than the one we grew up in.

Although my lifestyle in recent years has been somewhat transient, home has traditionally been very important to me. For me, home is a sanctuary, a retreat in which to relax and renew and uplift one's spirits, a place to express creativity, and a place for friends and family to gather in community. It's a place to center and ground and nourish body, mind and spirit for ourselves and our families, from which we go forth into the world strengthened and renewed.

I think in these times of change and transition we are needing to redefine, reframe, re-create our vision of what home is. In going through my own shifts and changes regarding home life, I have found peace, realizing that in essence the important thing is to feel at home within oneself, to be as Maya Angelou says "at home wherever I find myself" in the midst of outer changes. Also, in this day of globalization, we are beginning to really get how the world is our home and our attention is being drawn outward beyond our own backyards to seek connection with our world community. Our children know this; so many of them are traveling or living abroad and engaging in the world at large.

We find "family" in community, in churches, temples and synagogues, in our circle of friends, in 12-step groups, in dream groups, in all manner of groups. And ultimately we find the sanctuary of home within ourselves. My heart is full of gratitude today for the homes that have been my sanctuary, and for discovering the sanctuary within. This is sent with loving gratitude to my sister friends with whom I have shared the journey all these years.  Wherever you are, may your home welcome you at day's end with comfort, peace and delight.

September 15, 2012 ~ Synchronicity

September 15, 2012 ~ Synchronicity

"Synchronicity means a 'meaningful coincidence' of outer and inner events that are not themselves causally connected. The emphasis lies on the word 'meaningful.'"

~Marie Louise von Franz

"When you stop existing and you start truly living, each moment of the day comes alive with wonder and synchronicity."

~Steve Maraboli

So, I had a funny experience yesterday during my travels to New York—an experience of synchronicity that felt sort of powerful. I've been anticipating this vacation for many weeks, looking forward to visiting my son and his wife and also getting together with dear friends I've known since grade school days. After weeks of careful preparations to make sure things would run smoothly at the office in my absence, I was happy to sit back in my seat in the plane and simply relax. As I began to unwind and relax I found some emotions coming to the surface that took me by surprise. As I watched the in-flight movie Brave, my heart was stirred and the tears began to flow. I felt inexplicably open, tender, a little raw. And this feeling continued for the whole flight.

While at the baggage claim area at JFK Airport, I was contemplating this feeling that somehow something was opening up within me. As I walked toward the ladies' room I was overcome with a feeling that something transformative is going to happen during this trip—although I don't know what it is. Just then I looked up at the wall and saw this sign (the one in the image above), with the "W" missing from the word "Women". I smiled and pulled out my phone to take a picture of it. It felt like a sign...the writing on the wall, so to speak. It felt like a synchronistic punctuation mark to what I was feeling. 

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung coined the term 'synchronicity' in the 1920s. I love the story he relates about the inspiration for this concept. He had a patient who was experiencing difficulty making breakthroughs in her therapy. He says:

"I was sitting opposite her one day with my back to the window, listening to her flow of rhetoric. She had an impressive dream the night before in which someone had given her a golden scarab—a costly piece of jewelry. While she was still telling me this dream, I heard something behind me gently tapping on the window. I turned around and saw that it was a fairly large flying insect that was knocking against the windowpane from outside, in the obvious effort to get into the dark room. This seemed to me very strange. I opened the window immediately and caught the insect in the air as it flew in. It was a scarab beetle whose gold-green color resembles that of a golden scarab. I handed the beetle to my patient with the words, 'Here is your scarab.' The experience punctured the desired hole in her rationalism and broke the ice of her intellectual resistance."

Many of us have had some experience with synchronicity...you know, like that book that falls off the shelf which contains exactly the information we need at the moment...or like when we think about an old friend we haven't spoken to for years and how uncanny that they call at precisely that moment! How do we explain these synchronistic experiences? I don't believe we can, but if we are paying attention, they may open our hearts, expand our consciousness, allow us to connect with the realm of mystery, or the mystical if you will. The experience is usually so powerful that it makes a soul impression, touching us at a level that pierces the intellect, the analytical mind, and allows for the possibility of inner transformation.

It feels like being touched by an angel. May our days be alive with wonder and synchronicity. 

September 8, 2012 ~ Restoring Balance

September 8, 2012 ~ Restoring Balance

"Silence is like a cradle holding our endeavors and our will; a silent spaciousness

sustains us in our work and at the same time connects us to larger worlds that,

in the busyness in our daily struggle to achieve, we have not yet investigated.

Silence is the soul's break for freedom."

~David Whyte

A glorious weekend of hiking and playing in the sun dappled waters of the Navarro River in the redwood country of northern California has renewed my spirits and provided some insight and perspective on the rhythm of life as I have been living it. There was something liberating about being "unplugged"—out of cell service range, with no access to a computer, a TV or radio; no ability to text, tweet, send emails, catch up on the 24/7 news cycle. There was just be-ing ~ walking among the giant redwoods, basking in the noonday sun, sitting by the fire at night listening to scary stories and singing camp songs, connecting with nature, with oneself, with others in ways our busy lives don't always allow.

On the drive home I found myself reluctant to pull out the smart phone and check messages, emails, and texts. I waited as long as I could. The contrast of the weekend apart gave me perspective, revealed to me the imbalance of it all. How freeing it was to not feel like I should check messages in case someone needed an instant reply. What is so very urgent? How did we get to this place where we need information instantly and we need people to reply to our calls and messages right away? We put so much pressure on ourselves.

Even this blog...I've come to the realization that attempting to write every day for 365 days is actually not honoring my own inner rhythm. It will still be "a year of living in gratitude"...writing as the spirit moves and sharing the pearls of insight I find along the way...just not necessarily every day!

I love the yin-yang symbol. The ancient Chinese got it right. We experience wholeness when there is a balance of yin (feminine, dark, rest, contraction) and yang (masculine, light, activity, and expansiveness) and we allow for the natural flow of one into the other. We experience more harmony and balance when we honor our body's natural rhythms of action and inaction, rest and activity. Even the heart rests between beats and the lungs rest between breaths.

So, I have resolved to initiate another spiritual practice: remembering the Sabbath. Wayne Muller wrote a wonderful book titled Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives. The book offers suggestions and practices from various spiritual traditions designed to help us unplug and find peace in the spaciousness of rest and silence. He says: 

"'Remember the Sabbath' means 'Remember that everything you have received is a blessing. Remember to delight in your life, in the fruits of your labor. Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of it.'"

One can take one day during the week, or an hour every day, or whatever time frame feels right—to unplug from the media blast, to cease activity, to center within, meditate, rest, take a walk among the trees, smell the roses, just BE, experience one's natural rhythms, one's connection to life. Wishing you this kind of peace today and always. Blessed be.