A Fly in my Tea

Kids, I woke up this morning thinking of this story I read in one of my books a few years back. The writer was attending a silent meditation retreat in a monastery. He was at the table, eating in silence as the group listened to readings, when he discovered a fly in his tea.

Leaning to the monk seated on his right, he quietly whispered, "There's a fly in my tea." The monk startled and very quickly took the cup and rushed from the room.

Being a westerner, the writer assumed the monk's distress was embarrassment at the fact of the fly in the guest's tea. But his thinking expanded by 180 degrees as the monk returned, smiling, sat down, leaned over and very comfortingly reassured him, "The fly will be okay."

Whatever the fly in my tea is today, whatever the fly in yours, may we cherish each being's right to live out its destiny. May we help those little flies out of the milky tea, so they can fly once more.

Weary Wolf Woman

[image from groundframed.com]

Wild Woman has been traveling for a long time.
She is weary from starting over again,
decade after decade,
lifetime after lifetime.

Somewhere, through this journey,
she began to Wake Up,
to travel more consciously,
to align herself with her inner wisdom,
which tells her she must evolve
this lifetime,
or be doomed to march in place
for yet another.

Wild Woman asks for guidance,
for assistance,
not so much in knowing which path to take,
(for the present path is the right path,
it is the Path That Is,)
but for the ability
to fully inhabit the present,
to integrate it with all of her pasts,
to ready herself for the merging
with all consciousness
that awaits
between worlds.

If Wild Woman can climb high enough
to see over the slippery mountain
of her life, and down the other side,
if she can align herself with evolving energies
and souls around the world,
this might be her finest contribution 
for the benefit of her  soul,
and for the planet.

Kids, the jury is out for me about reincarnation, though I am open to just about every theory possible on this planet. I have experienced some past-life memories which make me suspect my soul has lived in other bodies before this one. Right now I am reading Same Soul, Many Bodies by Brian Weiss, M.D., the author of Many Lives, Many Masters. It was sent to me by a dear friend.

The doctor is able to take patients back to former lives and even, in some cases, advance them into future lives. What he takes away from this is that if we evolve, our souls move forward with each lifetime, and that we choose the families and lives we undertake for the lessons we most need to learn. (In my case, I had to learn the same lessons many times. I am a slow evolver!) He says if we do not learn, we simply march in place, until we finally get the picture and begin to live more consciously.

He says, "We are eternal. Our souls will never die. We should prepare [for this]. If we prepare, our souls will move up the evolutionary scale, come closer to healing, come closer to the higher state. If we don't, we will recycle our present lives - in effect, march in place- and postpone to a future life the mastering of the lessons we might have learned in this one....... 

"If we can accelerate the healing process, the evolutionary process,  that is the most therapeutic action we can take, the best thing we can do, not only for our own souls, but for everyone in the world. This is what I have learned from my patients."

Do you feel time accelerating, as so many of us do? Do you feel the global consciousness trying to evolve, to rise up out of all of the discord so often caused by differing religions and beliefs, the great longing for peace and unity across this planet?

I take heart from all of this. We are a highly evolving, if often misguided, species.
This means that Peace is always Possible. Let us, consciously and lovingly - and hopefully - Occupy This Planet.

Namaste.

A Monk, on the Occupy Movement

Kids, in clicking through the peace bloggers who posted for the Blogblast for Peace on Friday, I came across this most arresting (no pun intended) video. This Ananda Marga monk, Dada Pranakrisnananda, is one of the most reasonable and balanced people I have heard speaking about the Occupy movement.

The peace blog where I came across this clip can be found at http://ballflutes.blogspot.com/2011/11/dona-nobis-pacem.html#comment-form

The blogger, Richard Ball, wrote the most reasonable, balanced, and best-considered post on peace that I came across this weekend. He made his own trek for peace by entering the desert - literally - and learning to internalize peace, which he now takes into his classroom working with troubled youths, where by simply Being Peace, he exposes them to a peaceful energy perhaps they have not experienced before.

Peace spreads. It is an energy, a way of being. Richard writes that the Occupy movement, to be successful, must proceed with love and shared humanity, not anger - the anger to which our society is so accustomed.

In my lifetime, I made a similar journey for peace, by stripping away everything in my life that was not peaceful. I found much with which to resonate on Richard's blog. And the monk, Dada, demonstrated, in the most peaceful way possible, a way to resist the status quo, which seems to know no other way to meet the peoples' protest than the old ways of force and oppression.

An interesting read, this morning, kids, and some inspiration for the journey.

Namaste!

On Harmony

[image sent to me by a friend, from weheartit.com]

This beautiful image makes me think of a quote a dear artist friend

of mine in Tofino, Julie Draper, once wrote:

"The animals already

are living in harmony.

They are waiting for us

to join them there."

A Dog Called Jack and a Boy Called Damian

Here is my cutie-pie little great-grandson, Damian, who looks so much like my only granddaughter, and his mom, Ali. Damian and I spend Fridays together and he has had a crash course in getting over his fear of dogs, since I live with so many of them (four at last count!) Of course he knew Pup, too.

I remember when Damian was just weeks old, and he and Ali were visiting. She had laid the teeny baby on the futon in the back room to sleep and, in going down the hall, I chanced to look in and see Pup sitting staring at him, with his head cocked. He had never seen a human so small and was trying to puzzle it out. I brought him out of the room, thinking, after all, he is a wolf. I know he never would have hurt him, but still.........

Anyway, last night I started to read Damian a book called A Dog Called Jack. I had picked it up at the library, hadnt looked through it, it looked like a happy read...........as I read, though, the dog began growing old, I started to see where it was heading, tried to hold onto myself, kept reading, with my voice getting thicker and thicker. And then Jack died. OMG.

Damian said, "That is so sad. It makes me feel like crying right now." And I choked out, "It makes me....think of......Pup." and Damian and I exchanged a devastated tearful look. "Boo-hoo," I said, with a weak smile, and he nodded.

Yes, I still have my other dog, and yes, three others are a room away. And I hand out treats to all the dogs I know. And one day might like to have a puppy - a dog small enough to pick up, for a change.

But I could have a hundred dogs, and it still wouldnt fill the place that is Pup's alone. I still am stricken with sudden tears when I think about my boy.

However, it wasn't long before Damian cracked me right up. I am struggling with a bad perm right now, so my "hair" (more like a haystack) goes well with my cackle. It was perfect for Hallowe'en, I'd open the door and the kids would all scream. (Just kidding, no one even came, they were likely too scared. "A witch lives there! And about a hundred dogs!")  

I was telling Damian that Jas has to go to the groomer and that she doesnt like going. I told her, "You have to suffer to be beautiful, you know, as my mother always said." Then I reflected thoughtfully, "Hmmmm....I've suffered a lot, and I didn't get beautiful." Damian said honestly and sympathetically, "No, you didn't."

Did I ever laugh!

Dona Nobis Pacem 2011

The Blogblast for Peace, spearheaded by Mimi Lenox at Mimi Writes, is about to begin. All day November 4th, peaceniks from all over the world will be flying our peace globes and exchanging our wishes and prayers for peace. If you'd like to join in, go get your globe on the blogblast site and help us shift..........shiiiiiiiffffffffttttttttt.....the collective consciousness, which is groaning its way towards birthing a more peaceful paradigm in countries all across the planet, in the only place where peace can truly flower: every human heart.

Om Shanti.

(I am a peaceful soul.)


Peaceful
as the ancient wise old
stones
that rise up gray
against a brooding sky

as detached
as the dove-shaped clouds
that wisp serenely
by


Our souls have
traveled
far
'cross distant galaxies
from their home of silence
beyond the stars


From the moment we are born,
we are returning
along a pathway
that is
uniquely
ours


Om Shanti
I am a very
peaceful soul.


Tell me your dream,
and is it peaceful too?


How came we here
to this veiled question
written on the sky?


Another path diverging:
walk on,
or just go by?


We live this life like a dream
that is dreaming itself.
Bemused we ponder
the way
we're meant to take


We sleepwalk
through our
solitary choices
and, at dream's end,
of one accord,
we wake.

The Wild Pacific Trail on the West Coast of Vancouver Island

~ we live in such a beautiful world!

May all beings
be peaceful.

May all beings have
what they most need.

Namaste.

The eve of Dona Nobis Pacem

Good morning, kids. Mimi Lenox over at Mimi Writes, has written the story of her grandpa and his marbles, how the Blogblast for Peace really started, as she does every year the night before the blogblast begins. The linky is up if you already have your globe and your message ready.

If you still wish to join, here is the link, where you can choose your peace globe.

http://mimiwrites.blogspot.com/p/blogblast-for-peace-2011-how-to-get.html

We will all be flying our globes tomorrow, all day, all around the world. I intend to spend the day visiting peace lovers everywhere, and drinking lots of tea.

I'll post mine a bit later. I wish that humans could learn to be as present, as in-the-moment, peaceful, respectful of boundaries, and unconditionally loving as our dogs. We know how to do it, and be it, for they show us how.

Ms. Jasmine is sleepy this morning, like her Person. But she gets to nap, while I get to go to work. Next lifetime, Wild Woman wants to come back as her dog:)

Peace, kids - its time has come.