Those Gone Before Us..

Without the stories of those gone before us where would we be? As my dear dad often said: If you can't serve as a good example, at least you can serve as a bad example, meaning of course that if others weren't inspired by us at least they could learn from our mistakes.

But isn't the purpose of all learning that we will stand on the shoulders of those before us and carry on the baton in whatever area we feel 'called'? 

How siblings go each their way, taking with them different learning from the same parents, the good, and the not so good that we want to do different in our lives, just as they did.

It takes humility to listen to and observe others, it takes time. Time well spent even though we might feel we're slowing down and getting nowhere fast. Focus our learning on what helps us to move forward in the area of 'calling' and expertise where we can draw most enthusiasm and joy in our lives. 

Why spend our time focusing on our past mistakes and weaknesses? Once we've learned, we need to move on, whether it's alone or through the help of others. There is no shame in calling others onboard, no shame in not being able to figure it all out by ourselves. That's what we are here for: helping each other on the road. And what joy it is to some day help someone else on the road.

Accessing Joy

Accessing joy is crucial to enjoying our life, yet don't we so easily forget it or seek for it in the wrong places? While a substance or person might help us forget our emotional pain, we still end up having to live with ourselves. And if I don't like who I am, what then?

Well one way of getting to like ourselves better is to tune into the idea of having a 'calling'. We're here for a purpose, a good purpose, a loving purpose. Within each one of us burns a small or big fire for something, a passion, enthusiasm. And only we ourselves can truly know what that is.

Others may suggest or encourage, but what truly makes us 'tick' can be very personal but also the most joyful experience should we tune into it and commit ourselves to pursuing it. For some it is having children and then nourishing them to become happy and good human beings. For others it is writing that book, developing that gadget, helping the sick, the elderly. Being there for the wounded souls of our society. A combination perhaps of several.

There are billions of 'callings', one for each person alive. Sure, many of us share a passion but to what extent we pursue it and develop it is a personal choice. The more meaning and purpose we can access within ourselves, connecting us to that love energy that abides deep within us, the more joy we'll experience.

It's all in our hands or should I say minds, allowing the subconscious passion to bubble up and find shape and space in our lives.

Everything will be okay in the end..

 

and if it isn't okay, it isn't the end!

Optimistic statements are crucial to our sanity. Again whether what we hope for comes true  is not necessarily the issue, the issue is that it enables us get moving rather than sitting worrying about or lamenting something.

We can do this. We can do what needs to be done today, and tomorrow, and the day after. We may not feel we can, we may not think we can, but applying that optimistic statement to the situation enables us to partake in the loving, creative presence that lives within each one of us and surrounds us.

A loving presence that can only be experienced now. It's like food, we can't eat enough now for tomorrow, we can't drink enough now for tomorrow. We can't tap into tomorrow's energy and creativity, but we can tap into that beautiful, gentle presence available to us here and now. I've become quite dependent on nourishing myself with some creative beauty in the moment.

Recently, on my previously mentioned cycle-trip 'from hell' where not only my back was in pieces but the weather was cold, dark and drizzly and the final bike ride along the River Barrow before new restrictions, became more and more scary due to the amount of flooding and mud we encountered. I ended up having to take the busy road instead. Cars zooming by, dirty old road with rubbish strewn at the sides. 

I was desperately searching for a redeeming factor and thankfully I found it: I started meditation on the rubbish: 'There is an old ice-cream wrapping that somebody put a lot of thought into designing and producing. People working in the ice-cream factory facilitating the process and enabling us to go into shops and choosing ice-creams in beautiful colour wrapping.

The broken plastic bucket, how proud the person must have been who invented the bucket and how we all benefit, and how beautiful that bucket was when it was sitting there in the shop ready for someone to purchase and make use of it. 

A pair of trousers covered in dirt and how many hands might have helped design these trousers, produced the initial material, dyed it, the machinery that was designed to sew them together. What a masterpiece that could go so unnoticed.

We're surrounded by wonderful designs and produce of thousands of people, people who have put their love and energy into making something useful and beautiful for us, for man- and womankind. 

My dreary cycle 'from hell' became an inspiring opening of my mind towards that ever present creative energy within each one of us. May we be more aware and allow that creative spirit flourish in ourselves and encourage it in each other!

Stories have so much to tell...

The fascinating story of the three wise men/kings who each followed a star which led them to the ruler Herod's palace looking for the special child who was to save and help mankind. 

Whether the story is fully, partly or not at all true, to me is not important. It's what the story does to us that's important. 

The wise men capture my imagination, that they would travel from afar, that they would honour a child with the most expensive gifts. It reminds me of how sometimes there is something that we know we need to do even though it might be out of the ordinary, even though others might think we're gullible, wasting our time or 'barking up the wrong tree'.

Once we start looking, there are so many amazing pioneers who have risked looking foolish in order to follow their 'vision' or dream. Artists and poets who only were 'discovered' after their death, perhaps too many people were jealous of them when they were alive and so they didn't get a chance to be appreciated. 

Of course we all need appreciation, but sometimes it's when we open ourselves to that creative, loving force and presence within ourselves and around us that we enjoy life. Having the admiration of many doesn't necessarily make us happy as we have seen with many well loved artists e.g. Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston who struggled with and died alone by their dependence on drugs.

We decide which stories we take an interest in and what we focus on in those stories. By focusing on hopeful stories that reflect forgiveness and goodness we are opening ourselves to that beautiful, loving presence accessible to everyone who wants it.

Where is the sun..

Isn't the sun such an experience of love, relaxation and beauty, such a lift and sense of freedom that when we don't experience it many of us struggle. My 'uplifting' nature walk is dull until I experience the sunlight.

I've had to learn to tune into the sun above the clouds, to thank the loving presence for being always present as is the sun above the clouds. I sympathise with the diligent people who built the Newgrange grand passage tomb more than 5200 years ago to capture the sunlight starting to return when the days got longer around 21st of December. I however need the sun on a daily basis. So what do I do?

Yes, I tune in to the sunlight which energises us all, which helps growth, boosts our immune system and lifts our depression. And when I don't see it I relive the strong experience I had in Lanzarote some years ago when I lay down on the hot beach, listening to the sound of the waves and bathing in the sunlight. Total bliss and relaxation. And it gives me joy. So who cares if people think I'm crazy? Who cares if for a few moments I live in a fantasy world if this relaxes me, boosts my immune system and lifts away depressive feelings? 

To me the sun carries enthusiasm and energy and I pray that we will all have enthusiasm and energy for the day. That all of man- and woman- and animal kind will be on fire with that overwhelming power of goodness, warmth, generosity and gratitude that is an accessible reality and experience to anyone who wishes to partake it in. Let's do it. Let's look beyond the veil and partake!

Who am I?

The advantage of a lockdown and not being allowed to go anywhere unless one is an essential or front-line worker is the time one has to look into other people's lives and views. This morning I was deeply moved by a new documentary about Prins Henrik, the recently diseased French husband of Danish Queen Margrethe and the struggle he had to feel at home in Denmark due to the lack of definition of his role. 

The footage of the couple is deeply moving from the point of view of their obvious great love for each other. Prince Henrik was a very present father to their two sons. He had dreamt of becoming a pianist but his father hadn't approved and he ended up becoming a diplomat after having served time in the French army. 

He seemed to have struggled his whole life with not having a clear identity within the Danish Royalty apart from being the Queen's husband and a father and grand-father. At one point when his oldest son took on the Queen's duties and he himself was 'demoted' he fled to France as he felt humiliated and hurt. However, the Queen and boys followed him and he returned after three weeks.

What is moving in the documentary though is that Henrik little by little starts to enjoy his life more and not care so much about the public perception or his own identity. I am guessing that he discovered that greater, permeating love and goodness within himself and around him that enabled him to say that he was proud that Margrethe and he had a 40 year+ harmonious marriage and that the most important thing in life is to spread joy. That in the end the goal is to make everyone happy. A life well lived is it not?

Getting out of bed..

Getting out of bed isn't easy when you're nice and comfortable and nobody expects you to be anywhere at any particular time, as might be the case for a number of us during the stay-at-home lockdown. It being the cold and dark time of year, all good intentions of a healthy and energetic start to the day can quickly fade into the background, especially if one is also nursing some sort of injury whether it be physical or emotional.

For me, somehow getting out into nature is a good start to the day, it gives me the opportunity to tune in to the bigger picture, that loving presence which is so easily overshadowed by the survival instinct of wanting to make an impact, wanting to get things done. Worry about the future, of not being heard, not being seen, not leaving something valuable behind on this earth. 

And I think of the many people who are not being heard, nor seen nor taken seriously. Those who toil for the rest of us in overcrowded factories, exploited in rice-fields or living in overcrowded, unhygienic circumstances. What change have I made to their lives, how have I helped set them free? I don't know how they ended up in those situations, I cannot choose for them. But I do know that there is a permeating, loving presence available to everyone of us. 

A loving presence that can give us courage, like Harriet Tubman who courageously escaped slavery and then risked her own life again and again to smuggle out hundreds of other slaves. Or Anthony Ray Hinton who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit, yet opened himself up to loving and caring for his inmates and forgiving those who had deliberately put him away. He tapped into that loving presence within himself and around him in spite of suffering cruelty by prison-guards and judges.

We may not live in extreme circumstances, and yet we all get a new chance every day to tune into that loving presence of care and goodness which exists deep within ourselves and others. The happiness we get from living in that world of love and care for ourselves and others, from being altruistic and serving each other, not at the expense of ourselves but in harmony with our talents and energies. Tapping in to our character strengths and using them for the betterment of mankind in whatever situation we're in right now.

And so I look at nature, how, the tree that freely gives of itself to the benefit of the earth and its inhabitants. Bursting with colour and freshness in spring, giving us oxygen, store carbon, and providing us material for tools and shelter. There is no end to the importance of the trees. Yet, they simply stand there and do their thing, come rain, hail or storm, they keep giving and giving, transforming whatever nutrition they can take out of the soil, whatever light and water they can absorb. And so I pray that all of us will serve each other, will serve mankind with the same selfless energy and beauty as the trees. That I will serve mankind, my neighbours and family with that same altruism and care.