Life is Sweet

The human condition. Today I will call it the process of remembering and forgetting. Remembering that I am spirit and divine. Forgetting my true nature. How many times a day do I go through that process? On a good day frequently and always returning to remembering. On a bad day I am lost in the forgetting. Fortunately there are guides to help me stay in better spiritual condition.  Last week I attended a retreat at Yogaville.

Ayurveda and Durga Leela offered us the Six Tenets of Recovery, incredible tools to encourage, and support the process of remembering. www.yogaofrecovery.com

Life is Sweet. This tenet is a reminder that I can absorb sweetness from all aspects of my environment. All I need to do is open my senses to the bliss that appears in each moment. That can be a friends smile, the sound of a cardinal singing in the tree outside my window, or the taste of a fresh peach.

For most of us our first taste was mother’s milk the essential building nutrient for our bodies and our emotions. We hold onto the memory of that sweetness. We long for it and search for that feeling in healthy and destructive ways. When we are not dealing with people well we abuse that sweet taste with addictive people and substances. We grasp for something to fill us, anything to avoid the pain of loss of that state. Then nothing compares with the memory and we are lost in the forgetting.

The first step in coming back to remembering is a big one. I have to own that I am powerless over my thoughts and longings. As I accept that powerlessness I can surrender the grasping and searching and become a willow tree bowing and bending in a dance with the wind. Some days this requires no effort on my part. On other days I am like a salmon caught in a rill trying to bump my way out. Today is a good day.  I am remembering well.

Where are you on the wheel of the human condition? Are you remembering, or are you forgetting who you are?

A Womb with a View

Forty thousand women stand up and claim their wombs back!

The thunder of their drumming feet as they march,

the harsh echoes of their raucous cries

abruptly wakens people everywhere, in cities,

within verdant farmlands,

and in sleepy villages’ people’s nerves jump

and twitch from the shouting

“no more, you cannot have more of me!”

Love your Fate – Even if it Looks Like a Wreck

“Love the One You’re With” by Stephen Stills, is still one of my favorite oldie songs. “The song includes this line “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”.  My take on that is to love the life-altering events I face, the challenges I encounter, no matter the wreck that occurs.  When I am not loving my life and I am searching for that proverbial greener pasture I am fighting what is going on inside and around me. I am acting as if I think I know better what kind of life I should have now.  There is always a purpose to any failure, so-called disaster as long as I am learning. Any wreck I have encountered I have learned from, and grown into a stronger woman. And in every difficulty I have found the strength I need, and realized I am never alone.

Joseph Campbell said, “Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called ‘the love of your fate.’ Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, ‘This is what I need.’ It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge.

Faster Than a Mint Julep

Thank god no one has ever called me pretty,

I am too fast and furious for trivial things.

The first six months of my life I slept in a baby carriage,

rolling through the shifts from room to room

I watched the ceilings as I lay on my back.

Today I never wear hats; they flatten my curly brown hair,

unlike cool slim blondes, who make the art of

wearing hats look pretty and important.