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Namaste …

Namaste is unfamiliar perhaps to many of you and certainly not a standard “holiday” greeting. Yet, when I read this paragraph recently:

In India when we meet and part we often say, “Namaste,” which means: I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides; I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where, if you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us. ~ Ram Dass in Grist for the Mill

I was moved to share it. A similar expression of Namaste comes from singer/songwriter, Trish Bruxvoort-Colligan:

Namaste

Namaste, Namaste, I greet you with my heart wide open.
I bow to the place in you where God dwells.
In Light and Love we are one. We are one!

I wish I could share with you a recording of her angelic voice singing that sentiment!

Namaste is based on an understanding that God – or Universal Love – is within each and every one of us. At any point in time, we may not feel it within ourselves or see it in another’s actions. But, what if we did? What if we lived from and into Namaste each time we connected with a family member or stood in a check-out line or passed a neighbor on our daily walk?

How can we bring the essence of Namaste alive this holiday season?
How do we greet one another with “heart wide open”?

 

I believe that Namaste is asking us first to go deep inside and find within ourselves the root, the core, the indwelling love, the inner perfection, perhaps the personal “God within.” This means that we must see, accept and move beyond elements of our human expression which may not resemble love – qualities such as hate, anger, fear, doubt, confusion. Yes, they are in you – and in me – just as each of us is and expresses compassion, empathy, joy, connection, love.So, first we connect within and honor the place “where the entire universe resides — the place of love, of light, of truth, of peace.”  We go there each dawn and again before each and every interaction of the day. We go within and become one with our innermost loving source. We open our heart.From there, from this loving, accepting, honoring energy, we greet others with “heart wide open”. Looking past the more negative elements of their human expression and looking for the indwelling “place of love, of light, of truth, of peace” we find it! It is there.

This is how we greet one another with the essence and intention of Namaste, with heart wide open.

Throughout the holiday season and beyond, I greet you with heart wide open. I wish for you an ever expanding understanding and experience of Namaste, of Love greeting Love.

Namaste, my friends.

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2020’s Perfect Vision

Recently I found myself journaling scraps of ideas about the year that is coming to a close:

  • a year of intensity
  • opening minds and hearts to previously unseen or ignored people and situations
  • opening to compassion for pain previously unseen, unimaginable
  • looking into the mirror to see where I’ve been complicit in the injustices around me

And then it hit me: 2020 is truly the year of perfect vision! The year has, in fact, sharpened my vision. The cataracts which blocked large segments of society’s dysfunction and injustice were stripped away. A light shown unto the whole and into the cracks and crevices to reveal both creativity, love, compassion, generosity and injustice, fear, anger.

So, are we – you and me – ready for perfect vision? Would we rather close ourselves off, shut our eyes, restore those cataracts, remove our glasses and choose to see only what fits our preferred paradigm? Will we choose to approach the happenings around us with This too! or, with No, not this!

2020 ripped off the band-aids and revealed so much on so many levels.

As this year draws to a close with so many unresolved situations in our midst, I invite each of us to ask:

What changed in my family, my “pod” during COVID restrictions?
What did racial injustice, shootings, protests and riots waken me to?
Waken within me?
What does wearing a mask, social distancing and quarantining
reveal to me about human connection?
In what ways am I called to heal the division that 2020 has revealed?

These are huge questions! Yet they are ones each of us is called to explore if our families, communities, our country and our world – if the human family – is to survive. Thank you for all the ways that you will focus on healing in the time ahead. You are a gift!
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(un)Certainty …

Have you ever had the experience of being 100% certain about something only to discover later that you were wrong?

I have!

And while I was holding tightly to what I “knew was right” I was blocked: closed to any ideas to the contrary, closed also to information from my body, emotions, intuition and the world around me.

Certainty, it seems, creates blockage, prevents learning, expansion, change in perspective and growth.

It also creates fear. Why? When I am SO certain that “it” is true, when I am holding so tightly to my world view that nothing else could possibly be valid, right or good, I live in fear of losing “it”.

Certainty breeds fear.

I have heard that there really are only two emotions, Love and Fear, and that love cannot co-exist with fear. Expressed another way, all emotions reside on a spectrum between fear and love:

FEAR … hate … anger … discomfort … contentment … passion … LOVE

Shawn Galloway expresses some choices we have between love and fear in his powerful song, I Choose Love:

If certainty breeds fear, what about uncertainty?

It would seem that uncertainty is a state of not knowing which, if accepted and explored, leans toward expansion and growth.

What helps uncertainty move healthfully toward expansion?

We get curious. And curiosity is an open state – open to new ideas and fresh perspectives. A few days ago, I penned this short poem:

Uncertainty

Uncertainty breeds curiosity.
Curiosity fosters connection.
Connection builds community.
Community nurtures love.
Love heals.

Uncertainty leads through connection to love, which heals. What would unfold in our families if we came together with less certainty and more genuine curiosity this holiday season? What would unfold if we all released some of our certainty about the political and social unrest in our country and allowed for a bit of curiosity, connection, community and love? Will you join me in practicing uncertainty today?

Where are you 100% certain?
How might you shift to 90% certainty?
75%?
50%?

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We Are One

This morning, not unlike many mornings, I’ve been present with all that is going on in and around me and our world. So much pain and suffering, unrest, fighting. So many in service to those around them trying to bring a bit of gentleness, healing, ease and love into the world. I was reminded of song lyrics which came through me some 17 years ago which reflect what I see today. They speak to the wide range of experiences and emotions present but also to what some of us know to be a wider truth:

In the midst of all of this, we are one.

How can that be? We don’t act like “one”. We fight. We destroy. We kill. Yet, we are one body of humanity. We are one world wide civilization on one planet, Earth. As one, these actions are not hurting “the other” — they are hurting “me”. When I get caught up in wanting to inflict hurt, I try to remember that we are all in this together. I see that it will take each of us wanting to resolve our differences peacefully, to support one another graciously, to desire that everyone live in simple abundance in order to bring harmony to the chaos. It is from this awareness that I try to do my part and bring the best of me forward. When I do this, my impact on the world is powerful, positive and healing.

Today, my part is to write this tidbit and share a few inspirational words. If they touch you, pass them along. If they soften your heart, smile. If they inspire you to action, act!

What is your role in the healing of humanity today?

Here is the song which came through me so many years ago.

We Are One (Listen)

There are people everywhere who are happy,
People everywhere living life so free.
And we are one with all the people everywhere
One in Spirit, One in Love. And there are

People everywhere who are hungry,
People everywhere who are lonely.
We are one with all the people everywhere
One in facing life with hope. There are

People everywhere who are angry,
People everywhere fighting for a cause.
We are one with all the people everywhere
One in purpose, One in Truth. And there are

People everywhere who are crying,
People everywhere who are dying.
We are one with all the people everywhere
We are one in death in life. We’re one with

People everywhere, from all nations,
People everywhere, every race and creed.
We are one together hearing Spirit call
We are one in heart and soul. We are one.

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How Are You?

In March, I invited you to be discerning about how you were nourishing yourself. The questions I posed then are perhaps even more relevant today:

What are you listening to?
What are you taking in to your innermost being?
What are you believing? Fearing? Reacting to?
What are you trusting?
How are you responding?

Please pause now to listen for your answers.

I ask again, how are you? Perhaps, like me, you have experienced some of these: confusion, sadness, frustration, loneliness, anger, connection, love, simplicity, joy. Maybe you have been close to someone who got sick – perhaps even died, alone. If that is so, I am sorry. So sorry. Maybe you’ve been a front-line worker or been deemed “essential” and you just keep going through it all. To you I offer my deepest, most sincere thanks.

Maybe what has you unsettled is the impact of George Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests. Or perhaps it is your own growing awareness of the pain human beings inflict on other human beings. Maybe even a growing awareness of the pain that you inflict on others in thought, word and deed.

Possibly, you have experienced a personal trauma totally unrelated to current events. If so, I hope you have the support you need to move through to the other side. If not, who can you ask? And what is it you most need from them?

Me?

Sometimes it is overwhelm and a feeling of helplessness that is most present. That is, until I remember each of you who is hurting for any of the reasons above (or anything else for that matter). Sure, I have struggled with the changes that the pandemic has brought upon me and my loved ones. And I have struggled to listen, learn and tend to what is mine to do with the life energy and blessings that are mine in this time of intense unrest in our country and this world we share. At times my body has practiced its well-learned depression response. But, with awareness of good health, a loving husband and family, a home and financial security, deep and abiding friendships, trust in a power greater than myself, and a daily gratitude practice, many of my struggles dissolve into nothingness.

Wherever we find ourselves along the spectrum from barely coping to thriving and grateful, we can ask those questions above. If we listen carefully, we just may hear a still, small voice from within or a powerful message from somewhere outside that has the next bit of guidance we need. Perhaps we hear:

Slow down.
Talk less. Listen more.
Consume less.
Take one small action.
Love yourself.
Tell another what you love about them.
Express your gratitude.
Call your Mom.
Learn the truth about “it” from experts.

Thank you. I wish you peace. I wish you hope. I wish for you to know without a doubt that you are loved.