MOVE CLOSE IN

I love this idea of taking the first step.  Just the first step.   All of us have one or many things we wish to do or create or say or complete.  It is so easy to get lost in the idea of all those pieces that go into the whole process.

When I garden, I don't go sit inside and plan what I need to to do.  I go out into the garden and do the NEXT thing that comes into my sight.  The next thing that wants me.  The next thing I can do right now.  Right NOW.   That will inevitably lead me to the thing right behind it.  It is a good way to begin that next task.  That next piece of creativity, that next work project, job application, dinner or self improvement thing on the list.  

David Whyte has a lovely poem about  this..   I love the line "start with the first thing, close in..."   Here it is for you:

START CLOSE IN

Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way to begin
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.

To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes an
intimate
private ear
that can
really listen
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

START CLOSE IN
River Flow
New & Selected Poems
Many Rivers Press © David Whyte

Photo: © David Whyte 2013: Monastery Door: Ittingen, Switzerland.

OK SO SAY YOUR THING TO THE GODS, THEN PUT ONE FOOT DOWN IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION... THERE YOU GO.      Blessings,  Misty  10/31/14

SHE RISES!!!!

Think of each of the six balloons as thoughts.

Imagine the first one lifting ever so quietly into the sky.

Stop.  Look at the photo.  Look at #2.

Close your eyes and let it rise also.

Stop, look at the photo. Now #3.

Rest your eyes,  See the first three rising..  #1 is almost out of sight now.

Peek at #4 and BREATHE deeply...  as you exhale, it starts to move upward.

Watch it in you mind's eye.

Keep your eyes closed and let the FIFTH one go now....

Rest.

Look at the picture

Inhale slowly but deeply.

As the last one rises, you look upwards in the dark morning sky and see all six.

As you close your eyes, you see the first one vanish into darkness.

You breathe deeply again and do the same watching each one shifting into the night.

Each time one goes away, you focus on your breath and inhale large.

As the last one diminishes, you feel your spirit lift with the morning air.

Softly with your eyes still closed, you can feel the sunrise on your face.

It will be a day of MIRACLES, BLESSINGS AND GRACE.


This is meditation.  Just this...


                           Come back and look at the picture anytime you need a rest.

                                  Happy weekend.  Misty  24/OCTOBER/2014

SOUNDING, CLATTERING HOME

The phrase that caught my attention this week goes something like this:  "It is better for everybody when it is better for everybody"

Remember when candidate Barack Obama told Joe 'the Plumber' Wurzelbacher that “my attitude is … when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.”

                                  Can I really be happy walking by someone who is suffering?  Even if I block it out of my sight does my soul feel the pain?  There is evidence that we DO feel the energies around us, be it human or animal or if you will allow this idea....feel the earth itself speaking.  People will often dream of planetary ills, unrelated and sometimes unknown to them.  Yes, we dream on the individual level regarding our own plights in life, and yes, we dream of the world symbolically seeing the world as representative of our inner selves and struggles, a more EGOcentric projection of our experience of the world.  It is also true that we dream ECOcentrically as well often dreaming of animals in their own right, not representatives of us, but as fellow travelers, seeking a voice from the spirit world.    The Maori tradition is to believe that the whole world dreams, and that dreams have a spiritual life, seeking to raise us into a new sense of the world, and more clearly, waking us to knowledge that lies deep within our being.  The point is there are plenty of places to drop the gift of benevolence.

Remember that wealth can be measured in smiles or warm jackets or a box lunch or a movie pass or just simply sitting beside someone for 5 minutes, so they do not feel so alone.

Sometimes, we have difficulty even being generous with ourselves.  Sometimes we are so focused on being generous to ourselves that we forget that at a deep heart level we need to help those around us to step one step closer to the sun.

Can you feel the ripples of hope and kindness moving out into the world from your actions?

As we move into the abundance of the fall season, a time of reaping all manner of harvest, just for today, be generous.  Quietly and surely, consciously and with grace, lighten someone's load.  Surely yours!  but knowingly someone else's.  Look around the choices are many.  Find three people in your life and make their day!

Pass it on!                

Blessings to you,  Misty

October 17, 2014

UPWELLING

I recently heard a lecture on oceans.  I came across a word that I had not heard before:  UPWELLING.  It refers to wind and temperature conditions that cause the cold water at the bottom of the ocean to rise to the surface.  Those Nevada folks have heard of Pyramind Lake “turning over” allowing the green algae to rise to the top.  This is the same process.

Upwelling is a process in which deep, cold water rises toward the surface

Winds blowing across the ocean surface push water away. Water then rises up from beneath the surface to replace the water that was pushed away. This process is known as “upwelling.”

Upwelling occurs in the open ocean and along coastlines. The reverse process, called “downwelling,” also occurs when wind causes surface water to build up along a coastline and the surface water eventually sinks toward the bottom.

Water that rises to the surface as a result of upwelling is typically colder and is rich in nutrients. These nutrients “fertilize” surface waters, meaning that these surface waters often have high biological productivity.  Therefore, good fishing grounds typically are found where upwelling is common.  

The more I thought about this as the day was passing, I sort of fell in love with the idea of a human UPWELLING.  A regular turning things over.  An annual ( bi-monthly, weekly, daily) shift of our inner selves.

I think we humans tend to put things away within ourselves in an orderly manner.  We have made decisions along the paths of our lives as to what is important.  I don’t think we often get down under the top of the stack. 

My idea is that, like the ocean or other large bodies of water, our surface waters become depleted from overuse.   Our ideas, resources become become diluted and weak.   What happens in an UPWELLING is that everything gets upended and the rich waters from deep in the belly of the water are allowed to become a part of the daily fare.

Certain seagoing mammals travel the upwelling along the Western coast of the USA and Canada to reap the tasty rewards that the waters are tossing  up to the surface..

How might we find these deep sources of nurturance and sustenance?   Can you make of list of ways you might access these places within yourself?

Might the list include:

Meditation?

 

Travel/Change of Scenery?

Observation of the Natural World?

Where is your UPWELLING?

How do you turn your deep water upside down?

Here's to the feast within!  Erase the board and let something else surface in you!

                           Blessings,   Misty

                                                                 Saturday October 11, 2014

SPARE CHANGE

I was talking to a client this week and he was saying that a particular phrase has been revisited in an AA meeting.  It had to do with getting ready, really ready to change.   Here it is:

“I want what you have and I am willing to do whatever it takes to get it.”

Often we think of something we would like to do differently.  We say “Oh I want that too.”  But without the end of that sentence above, we are staying in the TRYING NOT DOING thing.  Trying is trying, doing is doing.  They are not interchangeable.

I was watching a late night talk show on TV and the emcee mentioned that he was eating no meat, no daily and no oil.  He coincidentally had a chef on his show that night, one booked many months in advance.  He usually cooks and eats whatever the chef has brought.  It was interesting watching him in this segment.  I could actually SEE the difference between TRYING AND DOING.   He was being interested and polite, but he wasn’t going on about how beautiful and tasty everything looked. 

He was back behind some line that he had drawn.  I could see that he was in the “do whatever it takes” place.  Granted he is a man with over twenty years in recovery from drugs and alcohol, so he has some practice in learning to listen to another part of his mind, but as I said, I could physically see the difference in him.  Not a rigid resolve, white knuckling attitude, but clarity.  Once behind the line he drew, he rested there.  He didn’t torment himself with what might be or could be, or even should be.

It made me think

about 

how 

we 

learn 

this.

It seems to me that as we learn to have integrity in the world, that is, being who we say we are, we are not only teaching others to trust us, but we are teaching ourselves that as well.  We are saying, I can be trusted to be who I say I am, even if it rains, even if I get mad at you, even if I am having the worst day ever.

Do you live in this world?  When you make decisions, are you willing to do them NO MATTER WHAT?  Are you willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES TO KEEP YOUR WORD TO YOURSELF AND SOMEONE ELSE?

It  is easy to get sloppy with our words….”See you soon” when we don’t mean that, “I will call you” when it is unlikely.

So to change ANYTHING, we have to be willing to DO WHATEVER IT TAKES…………..   Will you?

Saturday thoughts this 4th of October.  Blessings, Misty

RESTORATION

The ability to refresh yourself, whether it comes with sleep, food, contemplation or play, lies in importance at the same level as the need for stimulation, activity, achievement or challenge.

When we cook meat, we know to let it rest for five or so minutes before we cut into it, thus allowing the flavor and liquids to resettle themselves among the tissues.  The flavor doesn't drip onto the cutting board and we are allowed to savor it, deeply enjoying

So remember to let the juices of the day...resettle and find their right places within you.

David Whyte has said "To rest is to become present in a different way than through action, and especially to give up on the will as the prime motivator of endeavor, with its endless outward need to reward itself through established goals."   Isn't that lovely?  Allowing something other than achievement to be the carrot and the stick that moves us along.  I remember someone telling me once about an artist that had applied for a sabbatical saying that what he wanted to do with his time was "to indulge in creative indolence...."   and he got the grant!

I love looking up words and seeing the broad and archaic definitions.  It is a way to deepen our understanding of our language.  You can see on the left that the word Restoration includes the idea of "giving back".                                                                                                                                                        So here is an idea.  To fill yourself up, give something away.   

                                                                        Here is a prayer for you: 

 Let me be someone's blessing today.

              

              Let me be someone's blessing today.

  Let me be someone's blessing today.

                                       Thank you!

 We need to remember to occasionally remove all the STUFF, the stimulation, clutter, lists, agendas, activities, behaviors, things..............be still, watch or close your eyes, but think about LESS than you were thinking about 5 minutes ago.  Find SILENCE.

                                                                   Find SAFETY.

                                              Feed your little hearts and then sleep!

Blessings to you all on this last Sunday in September, hugs, 

B. Misty  27 -September-14

RIDING THE LOOP

                                                                                             photo by Robert Warren
                            Riding the Loop

               Does the glass

       Know the heat of the oven?

               Does the rain

       Miss the elusive cloud?

               Does a frog look at fish     

       And feel a kinship?

               Do we all long for early places

       Where life was in another form?

               Or is it just the humans,

Watching the sea that know belonging?

                            Blessings,  B. Misty Wycoff

                                                 September 20^th, 2014

FINDING THE THIRD VOICE

A friend recently sent me a link to an article from the New York Times.  It was an interesting piece on diversity.  It was more specifically about how colleges could do more to create and encourages dialogs about diversity.  I have included the link for those that might want to read the whole piece.  It is  certainly worth your time.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-demanding-more-from-college.html


The article points out that colleges encourage people to find their own groups...like seeking like:   botanists finding other botanists, engineers finding other engineers, republicans....republicans, dog lovers......dog lovers, etc.

It is certainly understandable that we enjoy people with similar interests, points of view, lifestyles.  But the article makes the point that it doesn't exactly open our minds to other viewpoints, encourage diversity within our own circles, or ways of thinking.  In my last blog I was talking about how we seem to have lost the ability or interest in dialoging with anyone with a differing point of view.  Instead the trend seems to be to just try and make anyone who doesn't agree with us look stupid, or just wrong.

Although I promise that this is not becoming the central theme of these blog pieces, I did think we might just go one step further in this particular exploration.  Let's do a bit a self examination here.  I spoke last time about the idea that if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem, a cultural construct from the 60's counter culture.  The question now is how often do we allow ourselves to even entertain another perspective.  And if we do, how do we respond to it, and further how often do we engage in dialogs in these areas?  

The New York Times article encourages the practice of students deleting 4 of their current bookmarks and adding 4 from other viewpoints and perspectives.   Would you consider this?  Why?  Why not?   I am not suggesting that you make yourself miserable with engaging for long periods with people or groups that make you sad or scare you, but this is really an exercise in listening...This may seem to be mostly about politics, but this idea has relevance in relationships as well.

How often do we really LISTEN to our families, spouses, children, parents when their views are diametrically opposed to our own.  Can you listen?  Can you sit for a moment in their shoes?  Can you engage the problem that they are stating from their perspective and seek solutions relative to their needs?

Check yourself:

How often do you LISTEN to any views besides one's that reflect your own opinions?

What happens to your voice, your words, your emotions when you do?

If world cultures settle disputes the way that we do personally, would there be a world full of war or peace?   



It is time in our culture to really look at our own behavior in this area.  Again, another quote from the 60's:  "Be the change you want in the world".  In your relationships, as in community, political, religious or social areas, can you really SEE the other person's perspective and can you honor it, respect it and find a way to live  so that each of you can feel good.  

I have talked before about WIN WIN situations.   Take this as a reminder to look for more of those in your life.  Move beyond the duality of right/wrong good/bad and find the THIRD ANSWER.  Think about what that might mean...

Keywords:  LISTEN, ENTERTAIN NEW AND DIVERSE IDEAS, ENGAGE WITH THEM AND LOOK FOR THE BRIDGES AND COMMONALITY THAT CAN BRING RESPECT AND PEACE.




A world of blessings to your hearts.  Misty,  9/12/14