Boston: What Can I Do?

I debated about what to write.

I have much to say, but few words in which to say it right now.  (I did find my way to my paints.  You can see what I created over on the Being Breath Facebook page.)

I don't feel there is one right way for anyone to process the tragedy that happened in Boston.  

Turn within and do what you need to do, for yourself and for all of us.

A few resources for various paths:

Click to read more ...

September 12. The Next Day.

The Moments Before, 11" x 14", Acrylic on paper

For many of us, life changed on September 11, 2001.  

Of course I remember.  Whether or not you live in the United States, you probably remember too.

For some, the ground was shaken more than for others.  Some lost friends, family members, acquaintances.  Some altered their life paths to help, to stay in what one beautiful person on Facebook called, "the sacred silence".

Then came September 12, 2001.

Those of us who were blessed to wake up on that day had choices to make.  Now what?  

Then September 13, 2001.  Now what?

Each and every day after, eyes opening after a night of fitful or restful sleep, brain still blurry from the dream, we momentarily pause and consider what we are doing.

Most of the time, the answer is habitual.  Feet on the floor.  Shower.  Breakfast.  Get to work.

But sometimes, we are given the opportunity to pause.  We did so collectively on September 11th.  We do so in less public manners when a family member dies, when our heart is broken, when we lose a pet, when we receive news of an incurable illness.  As the ground is pulled from beneath us, we pause out of sheer uncertainty.

Now what?

What matters is not what happened to bring about the question, but how we answer it.

There is so much in this world that causes pain and suffering.  There are so many people, so many things, so many religions or political ideas or corporate actions that we could blame.  And yet, if we play out this continuing cycle of asking and answering, we find that responding with blame only leads to more pain and suffering.  Not responding only leads to what we've always gotten - more pain and suffering.  I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the pain and suffering.

Why is it so hard to understand that what we are doing in THIS moment is what causes all of our pain and suffering?

When this pause arises, I choose to answer a bit differently than I have in the past.

Now what?  I have no freakin' idea.  

This breath.  Now this one.  Now I'm hungry.  This food.  Now I'm hurt.  This tear.  

No one else to blame for this pain I feel.  Nowhere to retreat.  So these shaky words, spoken from what I know of truth and out of  kindness.

Return to the sacred silence.  Find the pause.  Run no more.  

Find your answer.

Namaste.

Just Making It Through The Day

Do you know this thoughts?:

Let me just make it through this.  I can relax tonight.  It's almost 5:00.  It's almost quitting time.  It's almost time to get up.  He can't cry forever.  Ten more years and I can retire.  Our next house will be perfect.  Next year, I'll be in shape and ten pounds lighter.  Let me just make it through this day.

I do.

Every day, I know one or more of these feelings.

And yet....  

My suffering arises because I think I'm supposed to be somewhere else, doing something else, instead of experiencing what is going on right here, right now.

Think about it.

It's a safe bet that you are stressed over something right now.  Money, a relationship, serious illness of a family member, death, global issues, personal health issues...  Me too.

These things hurt.  They push on our chest.  They bring tears.

But they don't need to bring suffering.

Knowing the difference between the pain and the suffering is a step towards peace.

May we all continue to know, to remember.

Right here, right now.

Namaste.

p.s. I'm excited to announce that tomorrow I'll have a guest at LifeUnity!  Stay tuned...  (and yes, know this while in this moment) :)

Our Video

I stumbled across this (I believe at Elephant Journal) this morning.  Almost immediately, the grudges of the morning fell away.

It is more than worth your 5 minutes to watch this.

And to examine the feelings you get when you watch this.

Regardless of what stories you have collected since this age, regardless of what resentments and horrors and pains and anger you have experienced, 

we are all this being

at our beginning - and we remain this being

at our core.

Can we open ourselves beyond the fears of attack and experience life in such a trusting way?

Can we, like the caregiver in the video, touch all things with such an awareness?

Can you, just for today, see in EVERY being with whom you interact this gentle, little child who exists beyond whatever they choose to express to you?

Can you, just for today, see this being in yourself?

Namaste.

World Work

I recently came across an article titled "Redefining Work" by Brandy Gallagher.  Here is a segment that caught my attention:

"How might we shift our work, or even the notion of right livelihood, into our 'world work'?  And what is the definition of 'world work'?  I see it as the process by which we consider the inner work we do as in fact shifting and changing one small piece of the outer world.  Shifting, healing one little piece of the world at a time - now that could be 'response-able' right livelihood!"

Later, she writes,

"Redefining value...time to get back to the pond and them [sic] wood ducks with my kids and do a good job at my world work!" [Communities, Fall 2011]

Allow me to add one more perspective (that synchronously fell into my reading over the past few weeks):

"We are here to express our gifts; it is among our deepest desires, and we cannot be fully alive otherwise. ... We are here to create something beautiful, I call it 'the more beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible'.  We are afraid, but when we do it for real, the world meets our needs and more.  We then find that the story of separation, embodied in the money we have known, is not true and never was." (Charles Eisenstein, Sacred Economics, p. 154, 156)

(Add to this the ongoing work to which I am attracted, that by Maia over at Liberated Life Project where she combines personal work with making the world a better place...and I'm beginning to get the message.  I'm a slow learner.)

There is a shift happening, one that everyone I talk to feels in some way or another.  

It is a shift away from our status-quo, individualistic, non-sustainable way of living, producing, and consuming.  It is a shift towards co-creation.  It is felt as simply an unease with the way things are, a resigned knowing that things can't continue in this manner (lest we destroy ourselves completely), and/or an inner pull towards doing something different.

I am so deeply honored to be a conscious part of this shift.  

But I cannot do it alone...none of us can.  (That is kind of the point.)  

I feel the pull and have been blessed to be (or purposefully put in?) a situation where I have the time and resources to do something about it.

With those fortunes come great responsibility.  This is what I am now awakening to.  LifeUnity is my world work.  

It includes those things I am doing to raise my children and care for my family, as well as the attention I put into my own awareness, growth, and wellbeing.  It also includes engagements with the world outside of the home - my local community and my network of amazing souls online.  I cannot neglect any of these for long without feeling a void and need to redirect my attention.

I have a responsibility to myself, my family, and to you.  It is a responsibility to constantly open myself to new perspectives beyond judgment.  Once I do so, I find ways to integrate these perspectives into practical matters (driving, bills, laundry, parenting, running, health, etc.).  I continuously invite myself AND each of you into this practice (for, indeed, it is a journey everyone must make on their own).  I do so for the benefit of us all.

Previously, I have tried to focus my efforts on EVERYONE.  Why?  Because everyone could benefit from this awakened way of living.  That meant trying to grow my online presence, attracting Facebook followers, marketing, networking ...doing everything that the current business model tells me I need to do to grow.  After all, isn't that the point?  To grow, expand, share my message with the world?

And repeatedly, I've worn myself out.

Like the bodhisattva Kuan Yin and a growing number of people with whom I interact, I hear the cries of the world.  I know that my own struggles - family issues, money troubles, health scares, deaths, parenting problems, relationship fights - have given me insight into only a small segment of the pain.  I don't know the challenges of war, I've never not been able to get food or water, I don't have life-threatening health issues.  Yet I feel the suffering of everyone in those situations.  

If we are all connected in some way, as I believe we are, it is like knowing the whole of the body, the being.  The heart might be healthy, but if the stomach is bleeding I still feel the pain.  The body might be healthy, but if the mind is disturbed I still feel the discomfort.  We all do.

Enter the dance between awareness and attention.

My awareness includes all of the beauty and all of the suffering in the world.

My attention is where I can focus on my World Work - the small but essentially important work I can do to lessen that suffering and to create more beauty.

The next post will continue this important conversation, including what this means for online interaction...and how you can take part.

Until then, I invite your input.

Namaste.