Watching our Words

Some thoughts on the election mania.

Words are amazing and hold such incredible power and energy. In a world of technological wonders of communication there seems to be little understanding of the energy the words we are speaking and writing have to create or to destroy, to give or to take life. Words are functioning as a mirror of the soul revealing the essence of who we are as human beings. They are showing in the most visible way the depth and the paradox of the human struggle that is being revealed. In that mirror we see and we hear the darkest of our evil and the brightest vision of our good. Yes! The primal conflict of ancient God's and Goddesses are at war within ourselves and our culture and are showing no intention of a truce or a ceasefire
.The word came to the human family as a gift from the Divine Creator.'in the beginning was the word and the word was with God' is the teaching of ancient scripture. With the 'word of God' all creation was brought into being. And everything created was pronounced 'good' and sacred.

Something has happened to the good word, the sacred word that gives creative life. Daily our lives are bombarded with words of hate and blame, persuasion and manipulation, judgement and ridicule, coming from political and religious leaders, spewed out from talk show hosts,musicians and even by children on the playground etc.The list is endless. All of these are death taking and death dealing, killing ever so slowly the creative spirit which is our natural birthright.

Words of compassion, encouragement, appreciation which call forth life giving energies are viewed as suspect. Is there something of a conspiracy against life itself happening here? Have we become as Eric Fromm observed, a death seeking society? Have we on a primal energy level made what a early writer talked about as a 'pac with the devil' the darkest of the dark side of ourselves. If so, we are watering seeds in our soul's soil which we can make a decision to change. We do have the ability to make a conscious decision of aborting their growth. So let us look carefully and mindfully into the mirror of our words and the values they are showing us.Some teachers speak of this process as deep looking and mindful speech. Some, confession and discernment. Whatever term we may give to this deep inner work about the words we speak, the question is, Are they giving life or are they destroying life? Whatever we give out to others, we are also giving to ourselves.

Thoughts ?

Sense Dance

Sense-Dance

In the early morning light of spring

The birds sing

Just because they sing

It is a chorus of angels

Warmth blended with taste of coffee

Enlivens my tongue

With memory of last nights dinner of Eastern rice,

Cooked by brown Asian hands,

Vegetables from earth’s home

Sweet red pepper grown from heirloom seed of Guatemala

Gracing shrimp from southern seas.

The gifts of the world slide

Across our tongues

All connected in that first cup of fragrant coffee

From Brazil

Sitting in my hand made wooden chair

Designed by ancestral mountain folk, my bare feet solid on cool concrete

Formed from what was a once sacred mountain

My prayer blanket wraps me in the warmth of remembrance of drums and singers moving in a dance circle of honor to life

                                     A blanket placed around my shoulders

The direction of my path forever changed with blessing

The morning sun lights up the greening earth

Tickling the scrapbook patches of the autumn oak leaves waiting to be mulched to feed growing plants

A friend’s smile breaking into laughter brings a smile to my own face

The covey of old growth oaks in their wisdom are watching us

Bringing forth their feathery blessing of new life pollen

The whole earth is smiling in this sunlit morning

No clouds in the eternal blue sky where a red tail hawk is flying

Across the valley, the aroma of fresh brewed coffee is dancing with the musky smells of earth, faint sweetness of spring flowers , a hint of wood smoke from last night fires, all leading the way across the trail of  my awareness

In the morning of this emergence once more of my awakening senses, my body self is born again in tranquility, renewal, balance and energy

Living the medicine wheel that I built from stones with my own wrinkled hands

Anne Clement. The Wordweaver at Singing Stones

The Great Work

The world as we know it and as we have created is not working. The indicators are all around us. In the midst of the dysfunction of our political, social, religious and educational structures, all showing their brokenness, there is a fundamental shift in consciousness of what it means to be human. A new being is being birthed in depth awareness that the mode of being human must be changed. The paradigm is shifting at a fundamental level

 Our world view has brought us into chaos and the edge of disaster. This lack of balance is being experienced as a universal kind of pain, a universal loneliness and alienation.

Charadin… something is happening to the whole structure of human consciousness a new kind of life is beginning

‘There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” Leonard Cohen

All action is social action. The question, the challenge and the dilemma is this “Is it turned toward justice and washed in goodness and compassion. Is it integrated around principles that manifest integrity and exhibits a leadership that is grounded and points toward wisdom.

Is our action centered and grounded in an I-Thou understanding and awareness that all life is holy and sacred; that all life is an interconnected whole in unity with the earth and one another, that ‘we are all relatives’

The call and the challenge is for a deep looking at our world and a deep looking at ourselves and to utilize available Spiritual Practices that direct our consciousness and energy toward wholeness that empowers and births us into an evolution toward  becoming ‘homo sapiens’ people of wisdom. This deep looking will open your heart and break your heart. At the edge of your heartbreak is your entry into the Holy Life, It is a journey home to our true selves

Neuroscience research reveals that our brain is changing, that there is a neuroplasticity to the brain that experience can change the way the neurons fire in the brain. Meditation, regardless of the faith tradition has profound effects on the way the brain functions.

So we can be the Christ consciousness or the Buddha Mind. The Kingdom of God can come within us. We can be Peace rather than hoping for Peace.

At the edge of the heartbreak or the frontier is the creation of the contemplative life style. Here is the world we have, the present moment, the way it is. Here in the cracks of the world we have, we are opening the heart of the Cosmos, not as an escape waiting for the second coming but as fully awake human beings who are the second coming, the Christ Presence, the Boddisatfis who hold the earth and who the earth holds, We are the Earth Holders engaging in the Great Work. The Earth is our Mother Womb, our studio of art and our practice center. We walk and live on Holy Sacred Ground. The earth holds the Medicine. It will show us how we are to be the Healing Artistic Earth Holder as the fully awake human being. As Earth Holders we exhibit and generate a leadership style that is grounded in deep wisdom, an internal moral authority and integrated principles. in which there is reciprocity of high trust and high productivity.

Some essential elements which emerge from this essential deep looking of contemplative practice. One is a proactive vision in which you take responsibility for your life and get in unity with your soul. As you discover answers to the question, ‘What is life really about?’ the creative energy and new vision takes shape and form.

Another element is connected with deep respect and reciprocity for all other beings, honoring the wisdom of all in an I-Thou relationship, an awareness of the God, Christ-Buddha-Sacred-Holy nature. The result is a mutual creation that is of benefit for all. Call it a win-win result if you will but it   goes way beyond into the area of the holy and the numinous.

The movement is then into community which is much, much more than the sum of individual parts or private effort. It is synergized energy emerging from the flow of the beloved community’ which is not just a place of refuge but is a birthing place for the new creation of the New Human Being.

The next strand of this four fold process is integration, the wholeness of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Here life is whole and life processes are in a continuous, interactive and interdependent dynamic that is alive and lively, renewing and empowering. What is true for the individual person is true for the cosmos. We have arrived to our true home after a long journey.

This process is perhaps as ancient as the earth and life itself. The ancients called it the wheel of life or the sacred hoop. Welcome onto the Medicine Wheel. and The Great Work, the dream of the earth.

Claiming the Vision

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” John Wesley

“I will pour out my Spirit upon all peoples. Your son’s and your daughter’s shall prophesy. Your Elders shall dream dreams and your youth shall have visions” The Prophet Joel

Never discount the inner stirrings of your heart. It is here that we begin to ask the most ultimate of questions,’ how are the coming generations to live'?

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”

…….Margaret Mead

“Even a thought, even a possibility can shatter us and transform us,”

Our visions shape us. Our visions control us. Our visions are determining factors in who and what we become... TS

When ordinary people do simple things, it changes the world.

If you dream it, you can do it.

“A dream is a wish your heart makes” Walt Disney

“The world has need of rainbows, of promises and dreams”

THE 'WONDER WORKING POWER' OF OUR INTENTIONS

The Body, Mind and Spirit are so closely interconnected that not a single word or thought can come into existence without being reflected in the personality, health and behavior of the individual.
We have thousands of thoughts and intentions throughout the day. They are like seeds and the ones we focus on are the ones which grow and flourish. Working with Positive Intentions and visions and allowing them to work for us creates energy that is Life giving for ourselves, for all others. Even the Plants Grow and Flourish. It becomes a whole different garden. But we need to watch out for the weeds!!! We need to be aware of which seeds we are feeding.

 

All in the details

 It has been weeks of preparation
 lists lists lists of all the do's
There is the offer of a loving home for the guardian dog
another to care for the wild felines with daily food and water
an unexpected offer of brand new luggage
others to water  the plants these hot august days
A ride to the airport with a gracious attitude
 I am not a detail person but
 There is  care of the mail
 connect with family and the vet
 Check flight schedule and boarding passes
 clothes to take and all the vitamins
 A few medications and allergy free foods
 I am packing just right for the airport police
 Bj's bag of food, toys, water treatment and his liver treats
 Type out the inscruction for  emergency numbers
 I am not a detail person.
 Yes, Oh Yes there are keys for the cat person and  the friend person
 that is coming by to keep the house company for a while.
  I know I am going to forget something and leave it behind.
 I  know! The phone charger.
            Details rattle my serenity, Mess with my inner peace
   Then I remember or perhaps discover
           How rich my life is with all the ones who are caring for me while I   am       away.
 So I offer  gratitude for these  details. They clear the way for me to be.
And this blog is one more detail.
.......the wordweaver