Timers

We, in America, could easily be crowned the biggest time watchers on the planet.  In our own personal space, we have access to info on time passing in at least three ways--our alarm clock,watch, phone, computer.  Now add the clock on the wall, the radio, the TV.  Every form of transit has the time posted for us, our churches ring out the hour.  Schools, places of business have clocks in easy view.  It makes me wonder if the real attraction in shopping and eating out has to do with the absence of time keepers in those establishments.

It has to be anxiety producing, this obsession with tracking our moments.  Seeing no possibility that we're going to give it up any time soon, I'm taking the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach and offering a way to steal a little time for ourselves.  I'm going to call it the ten minute rule:

Select a timer of your choice, and I know every electronic device we own has one.  Or use the wind-up timer in your kitchen if you haven't yet succumbed to living your life by beeps.  Set it for ten minutes.  These ten minutes are yours.  Just for you.  Within your ten minute bubble of time, you are free to do anything, or nothing you choose.  It could be ten music minutes, then breathing minutes, ten dancing minutes, ten reading minutes, ten bike-riding minutes, ten watching the stars minutes, ten sudoku minutes.  All for you, in your ten minute bubble. 

Then, back in everyone's time, things may flow easier, be less crowded, less down to the minute.  Thanks to one simple ten minutes of time just for you.

Empty Tank

This is for those times when you feel hollow inside, empty in a way that feels like you will never be full again, when there are only questions and no answers, when help seems far, far away:

• Give yourself over to the experience of emptiness. 
• With your focus fully on the emptiness, ask for help from the Beings of the Light Communities, not needing to know anything about them.  With only the thought that they are indeed there.
• Not knowing what their solution will be, open to the possibility of their complete understanding and allow, surrender, to the giving of exactly what you need.  So you are no longer empty, you make room for answers to come, you know firsthand help is with you.
• Honor them with your gratitude in whatever way seems right to you.  

Know that you are, and will always be, blessed.

String of Lights

Now, in the twenty-first century, we are so familiar with the qualities of electricity that we play with it.  We have learned, among other fascinating things, to make strings of lights for stretching out and wrapping around and decorating.

With this acceptance of electricity's ability, this belief that energy can work this way under our belts,  we can reach just a bit further and see the possibility of stringing our own lights in our own way of playing.  A connecting game we can fire up and play any time we choose.  It goes like this:

• Imagine, pretend, or make believe you can, just by following your breath, travel in to your very center to see the spark of light that resides there. 
• Beginning to play, image its shape, color, intensity.
• Imagine your light charging up, brightening, dancing even.
• Notice that you can "see" with your inner eyes the spark of someone you would like to connect with.
• Send out a filament of light to that spark, the first in the string you are making.
• Imagine that you send out through the filament the invitation for that spark to send out its own filament of light to one that it would like to connect with, beginning to build the chain.
• With the momentum that builds, there will be more invitations and connections and light flowing in all directions in the filaments so that the string may form interconnected patterns of lights spreading out all around.
• Enjoy!

Soul Food

The alternative title for this post could be "The Care and Feeding of Your Soul."

Bodies need care and feeding, as we are well aware.  Our soul part has needs as well, on just as regular a basis as our body part.  Not to say that soul care and feeding requires participation in a religion.  Or a belief, beyond recognizing that humans are comprised of two parts.  And possibly not that; the offerings for soul care and feeding I make here may look very unlike what one would imagine nourishment of a soul to be.

• Find things that make you laugh.  Belly laughs have especially high nourishment content.
• Like yourself, warts and all.
• Assume that everyone, including yourself, is doing the best they can at the moment.
• Look for the good.
• Engage in enough exercise to cause heavy breathing.  Soul nourishment gets in the oxygen line behind the brain, the heart, all other organs.
• Do something for someone.  Size does not count.  Egos measure, souls do not.
• Take your soul out for a walk, enjoying the view, the sweet air, the sun, the rain, the snow, the wind, the stars.
• Show your soul a good time with caring company--friends, family, lovers, pets.
• Treat your soul to some beauty--art, dance, music.
•  Give your soul a little quiet, unbusy time, listening to your breath, feeling your heart.  Your body is its temple.

Just as bodies do not do well with toxins, there are things that are toxic to souls as well.  I mention this because an undernourished, poisoned soul will not leave us.  It will just not be able to offer us those experiences that give life its richness. 

To give you an idea of soul toxins: anger, jealousy, holding grudges, violence, retaliation.  In short, anything we do that shuts us down, cuts us off from others. 

And so, here's to a robust, well cared-for, exuberant soul, no matter the circumstance or the challenge life here on earth may bring.

Rites

I feel a rite coming on. . . . 

We've all got it in us, that desire for ritual.  I believe we've gotten lazy with our expressions of ritual with long established customs taking the place of fresher, and dare I say deeper enactments of what is close to the human heart.

(The one exception I see is the free-flowing rites around the Thanksgiving table, and more power to us for embracing the beauty in that sharing).

We need our own, individually created rites to mark passages, invoke aid, celebrate.  So if you are a far out kind of person, your rites can be reflective of that, and if you are of a more traditional bent, you can borrow from that richness in what you create.  Here's a couple of examples to get the juices flowing:

The Star Celebration
On a clear night, in a location outdoors and away from the effects of electric lights, place yourself standing in full view of the celestial bodies.  Then, gazing up and opening your arms wide, breathe in, celebrating the brotherhood we share with all.

That, in case you missed it, was the far out ritual.

Three Candles
This rite works nicely at the beginning of a new year, calendar or birth:
Place three candles in a row facing you, and beginning on the left, light each candle.  Saying as the first is lit, "I express my gratitude for all that has passed that strengthens me."  Saying as the second is lit, "I honor all that I have become."  Saying as the third is lit, "I embrace all the opportunities that await me in this coming year."

One last note--simple, everyday rituals carry as great a value as big statement rituals if we allow ourselves to put our hearts into them.  So go ahead, greet the sun, wash your hands of worry, blow kisses, post sticky notes, share drinks, save seats, wave good-byes, send up prayers.  Your world will be remarkably enriched when you do.

The Grease

During the days I commuted, sitting in traffic and looking for ways to distract myself from time ticking away, rude drivers, and long long lines of cars stretching out in front of mine, I listened to talk radio.  Mostly news and traffic updates and opinion pieces.  Forgettable, really.  Except for one interview with a self-help kind of guy who said things that sounded not too outrageous, with the exception of something about maintaining your chakras, which I didn't know I had, and how to deal with things going badly.  He said, in that cheerful tone early risers use when they genuinely are morning people, "Say, "That's great!'"  I couldn't imagine anything more foolish, saying what clearly isn't, is.  And then I tried it.

Un-great didn't turn into great.  What did happen with this forced bit of optimism was a sort of greasing of the wheels.  New thoughts started coming.  Helpful thoughts.  Moving forward thoughts.  Thoughts about what could be seen as good about the situation that I certainly didn't see when it happened.  So I could move forward, find solutions and not feel like the universe just shat on me. 

I recommend it.  It you find yourself stuck, you've now got grease.  And that, my friend, is very great. 

Holidays

They're playing holiday tunes in the department stores.  Just yesterday I walked into to a jazzy rendition of holiday spirit in a cozy and inviting setting we all would like to imagine to be at the heart of our seasonal gatherings.  This inspires me, this stage setting, to share what I see as the secret to a truly wonderful holiday in five simple words:

Expect less and give more.

In that order.  Because, get real, we start from our own needs and wants before we move on to seeing what we can give. Get over imagining there is a moral high ground that puts others first and set your expectations at a level that won't get in the way of genuinely enjoying ways to bring joy. 

You're going to have a hella great holiday season!