Yesterday, Joey and I drove to the mountains ... a play day ... stopping wherever the mood struck us. We had a few things we had to do ... buy more corn for the deer, stop at two of the stores that were having spring sales ... the rest was to go wherever the wind blew ...
I like unstructured days ... no plan ... no deadline ... no schedule ... just letting life unfold as it will ... I found some cool treasures ... I watched some interesting people ... Joey told me some neat things about what we were looking at that I wouldn't have known and he might not have shared if he hadn't been reminded by something he had seen ...
Living in the now. I like it! I like the easy way Joey and I talk about things ... good things ... bad things ... happy news ... disturbing news ... NO TOPIC is off-limits but all opinions are safe. I don't judge him and he doesn't judge me. It's okay if he has to explain it twice for me to understand ... It's okay if I have to repeat something because he might not have heard me the first time ... We see things and tell each other little memories that we are reminded of ... It's like looking at each other's photo albums ...
In the middle of exploring, I heard the sweetest sound yesterday ... I heard children giggling and playing in the garden center ... I smiled ... I thought about PolarB and her bear that giggles ... She would have loved to hear those children ...
I looked around the shop and every one else was smiling too ... which almost made me chuckle at how easily laughter can spread cheer ...
Today was a reading day ... I am reading several books at once (again) but the overwhelming theme is simplicity ...
Simplicity.
You know we grown-ups make things much more complicated than they have to be! I heard a man say once that any idea that's worth anything should be able to be explained in a way that a six year old child can understand it ... and if you can't do that ... then, go back and study some more because you don't know the topic well enough to understand it yourself!
At the time, I thought there would be very little for me to contribute for the rest of the seminar! LOL!!! Short-sighted of me and I missed the point ... If I am describing a car accident someone else had, I will miss some of the main points ... but if I am describing a car accident that I had ... I can tell you every moment in the same slow-motion clarity that I saw it in the first time!
Simplicity.
He was just saying we have to LIVE IT to truly KNOW IT.
Simplicity.
Most of the answers we need are already right here inside us. Our life's experiences were the training ground for where we are now ... but why do things get so mixed up if we already know the answers? Well, that's simple too. Some of the information we have come to accept as GOSPEL isn't GOSPEL but our personal experience and some of us let past hurts and disappointments color the way we react to things that happen to us now!
I heard a story on tv today as I was walking through the living room ... An elderly blind lady was being moved to a new old folks home ... On the way there, they were describing her room, the bed covers, the curtains ... and she said, "I love it!" They said, "Are you sure? You haven'teven seen it yet!" and she said ... "I don't have to see it to know that I love it. I have to decide to love it sothat when I see it, I really will love it.!"
Simplicity.
I liked that story ... It was more than positive thinking ... It said to me that most of the things we fear ... even the things that hurt us ... happen inside us, and often with very little input from anyone else! Other people don't hurt us. WE HURT US!
Did you ever see the movie, The Karate Kid, or any other martial art movie where the Grasshopper Character says don't fight force with force ... ABSORB force ... Go in the same direction and let the force move past you ... It's only when we fight it or try to avoid it that it knocks us down!
Simplicity.
Things we learn in the physical world can also apply to the spiritual and the emotional world ... In fact, some of the things we learn in one area will help us in several others ... if we let them!
Simplicity.
I saw a quote today ... "Patience is a gesture of profound kindness. We all have moments when we stumble and lose ourselves in our stories, fears and fantasies. And we can all begin again in the next moment, recovering a sense of balance and openness. Patience teaches us to seek an inner refuge of simplicity, balance, and sensitivity in even the most turbulent moments. It is about learning to be good friends to ourselves. Blame, judgement, and avoidance only divorce us from ourselves and exile us from the moment. Impatience always leads us away from where we are; wanting to jump into a better, more perfect moment. Impatience is the manifestation of resistance and aversion, it is the face of non-acceptance. Impatience never leads to the calm, simple contentment of being,but to perpetual restlessness and frustration. Patience is one of life's great arts, a lesson we learn not just once, but over and over. In the moments we find ourselves leaning into a future that has not arrived, we can PAUSE and learn to stand calmly in the moment. When we find ourselves frustrated with ourselves or another, we can remember that THIS is the very moment we are invited to soften our resistance and open our hearts ..."
Simplicity.
When bad things happen ... Don't fight it. Don't run away. Stand calm, move slightly to the side and let it pass you by ... just like in those martial art movies!
Simplicity.
If you forget to be calm and it knocks you flat ... learn ... Center yourself, face the attack and calm yourself. Move slightly to the side and let it pass you by ...
Simplicity!
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