Memories

Blessings of Being Awake: I was up too early this morning trying to keep control of my schedule and as I stood in the kitchen thoughts floated in and out of my consciousness. And I remembered my Uncle Harry who now of blessed memory once told me I was a writer. He was famous to me and his words and our relationship meant a lot to me. So if he were around I would thank him for blessing me. Arthur K once told me if you write you are a writer. I believe that and yet that does not honor the uniqueness of each of us to offer to the world our perceptions that fill emptiness, stimulate curiosity, deepen understanding, enhance imagination or inform or entertain or just keep track of a very busy and full life.
Spiritual Challenge: I want to honor Uncle Harry by dedicating this writing to him. I cannot tell his widow or his son as they have disappeared without a trace. I want to reach across time to when we were together near Camel Back Mountain or on Temple Street and laugh and cry with him. He was my hero. He never wrote anything that was published yet he had many friends who did. He was written about in a book and it still sits on my bookshelf. He was also my role model, he dedicated himself to the well being of his patients. He and my Aunt Norma always welcomed me into their home. I often stop and smile remembering to step outside my only child box, daughter of fiercely independent parents heritage and being the center of my universe to know, honor and remember those whose essence are woven into my being-ness.
Spiritual Practice: Write, write, write I tell my clients, express yourself on paper, do morning writings as Julia Cameron suggests in The Artist's Way or Natalie Goldberg teaches in Writing Down the Bones. Tell you your story. Writing grounds me in the moment, makes me stop and do something that connects the dots of my life. While I was away from home space the last two weeks I took my journal and each morning noted the Hebrew and secular calendar day, counted the Omer and wrote what I had been doing the previous day and what I was about to do and then just let the words, feelings and thoughts flow onto the page. When I got home I had a record of my journey and while I was gone I never felt lonely as I was present with me the whole way. What a gift from you, Uncle Harry, thanks for seing me in a bigger way than I could see me in that moment.
Blessings of the Vav: I am complete and the story dynamically continues! TG!!!!

Building on a Legacy While finding Balance

Blessings of Being Awake: Sometimes I wish my mind would just stop for a moment and then it happens and I wonder if I too have 'the disease.'

As I was reading one of the several books I have laying open around my home I read a phrase from The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz that sang to me, 'together we can do anything.' The image that forms for me is of many bodies working together for a common good creating high energy. It is the next step to 'we need each other', it is a doing. I have noticed that I like doing, being physically involved in an activity. I love to travel and yet nothing felt right until cousin Linda said we going canoeing in the south of France in August and my heart got excited. Now that sounds like fun! Like paddling down the NC river with Tracey and Joan, totally involved...body, mind and spirit.
Spiritual Challenge: I remember once taking part in a road trip with many cars following the same route. I felt the same kind of electricity and excitement. It is that high I seek in between the quiet times of being alone and musing and working independently, well just my G!D and I. The challenge for me is remembering together does not have to mean lots of people. TED offered a lecture by Elizabether Gilbert that Lyndon sent me the link to recently. She talks about the creative process being a collaboration of the Divine and you and that worrying about doing it yourself ALONE can be daunting and bring on 'writers block' among other narrow, small grasshopper-like feelings. Yet when I remember the muse, diva, G!D, however you want to call 'it', there is a truth that creates a rippling effect to the autonomic nervous sysytem causing a deep full breath.
Spiritual Practice: When I was visiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondecherry, India I met a devotee from Japan who had her paintings on display. When asked about her creative process she spoke about her inspiration that came from a Divine source. I remember wondering what that feels like to be inspired by the Divine, G!D and wanting a piece of whatever that was. While living in Gainesville in the late 70's I went to see 'For colored Girls Who Consider Suicide When the Rainbow Isn't Enough' by Notzange Shang. One character said 'I found god and she is in me.' That phrase has stuck with me all these years and while I have practiced and imagined the Indwelling Presence, Shekhina, within me, not until I read 'The Shack' did it actually happen. My practice now is to notice my child spirit who sometimes is frightened of the night and the bullies and the alone-ness and the inactive-non-doing time and soothe her with knowing the Divine energy. In these moments I am feeding the hungry ghost and a smile relaxes on my face and I am resting in the arms of my Beloved.
Blessings of the Vav: I am complete and the story dynamically continues! TG!!!!