How to Experience Life as an Endless Act of Love

Taking the hand of “What Is” is to engage in the dance of life.  Sometimes we join in gladness and sometimes we join in sadness, but when we lean into the arms of surrender we experience life as an endless act of love.

This morning – four years ago – I looked into my husband and best friend’s eyes for the last time. It was a magical moment of grace – free of fear or sadness. It began with the absolute knowing. In that clarity, there became nothing to do but to follow the lead of the moment. The handful of moments from first waking to last breath became a ritual of sorts. I had slept in a chair by the bed where he could easily see me when he woke. George had wakened fitful and perspiring.

I fetched the nurse to hurry up the meds and grabbed a fresh gown from the rack in the hall. To calm him, I filled a basin with warm water scented with lavender oil, aromatherapy, and began to bathe him; his face, his hands, legs, feet. The nurse helped me put on a fresh gown. Waiting for the clock to strike 7 and the pain pill to arrive, I did Therapeutic Touch to offer whatever relief or comfort I could. I knew he was slipping away quickly and by the time I had finished the treatment, he was gone. I climbed into the bed and fit my body into the familiar contour of his back and held him. He was without pain and I was at peace. Read more…

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Willing the Peace and Being the Joy of the Season

From Christmas 2009

Reading time: 10 minutes + -

My Sweetheart came looking for me last Sunday morning to bring me  a cup of coffee.  He found me in the living room washing the floor on my hands and knees.  “Why are you doing that?” he asked.  Anyone who knows me knows that housekeeping is not my usual thing.  In fact anyone who comes to my house without warning is witness to that.

“I just wanted to clean in the corners and behind the tree.” (as if that made sense).  It wasn’t a moment before that I confided I was a little bit sad about Christmas.  It was Christmas Eve three years ago that my beloved husband, George, began his final decent to his death in early February.  Little wonder that my sons weren’t all fired up about the holiday.  Of course, the tears that threatened just eased the flow of the other woes that didn’t quite fit with the tree sparkling with lights in the corner.

Then I just dumped out the whole gunny sack of emotions:  It was five days until  Christmas and I didn’t have the money to shop.  A business venture was turning sour and a friend I trusted had abused that trust.  I had neglected what was most important to me to ‘do’ other things and I was left with the emptiness of time wasted.  My house had been for sale for a year and a half and I had no idea what the spring held.  I had dreams and wishes – but right then I had a floor to wash.

Christmas has a way of shining a Klieg light on life.  Where’s the promised joy?  Where is the peace?  We can blame commercialism.  We can blame religiosity.  We can blame the market, the kids, our job.  But it isn’t Christmas that is wrong.  It’s that we are looking in the wrong place for its meaning.  It is not in the words of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”.  It’s not in the lineup for Tiffany’s.  It’s not in a cup of eggnog – rum or no rum.  It is not in a Norman Rockwell painting.  It isn’t even at midnight mass.  Peace and joy start on the inside and work their way out.  Christmas symbols are the map to find those twin twinkling lights within. Read more…

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One day my beloved Yoga teacher, G, sent me a A Note from the Universe. It was authored by Mike Dooley and was a sweet uplifting message. Here it is,

The things that are common to you, beloved, like windy mornings, starry skies, and old trees; rain, bees, strawberries, and doorbells; coffee, blue jeans, flowers, water, clouds and summertime… are not common to us.

Enjoy every single magnificent moment on Earth. . . W O W ! ! !

~ The Universe ~

PS. Believe me, time and space to us is like the ultimate theme park.

And there is always a long line up to get in there… lucky you!

I only had to get a couple more before I subscribed to the daily message. I was hooked but it wasn’t until the 10th message that I went to Mike’s site and signed up.  By the magic of the internet, I was able to put in personal goals and information and presto – the  messages from the Universe were just for me!  It’s a trick of technology but it feels so good that I am willing to overlook it and accept and look forward the happy thoughts each day.

I was delighted when I heard about this new book.  I read it cover to cover and have handed it off already.  I urge anyone seeking understanding of the simplicity and joy of life to buy it and read it.

Before we can find our Self.

There are early morning sounds in the street below me. I have just returned upstairs from the first day at my ‘nano’ office. It is a display window in the lane that runs between Cumberland and Yorkville in the trendy heart of Toronto. I used green painters’ tape to fix a piece of paper with the word INSPIRATION in orange lettering on the back wall. I also placed three smooth stones – two black and one white – on the floor and traced the word again in the dirt and footprints of the last ‘tenant’.

Why did I do that? I’m not entirely sure. Its the first gesture of a new beginning.

It’s my birthday today. And it seems as good a day as any to ask myself such questions. The window will emerge from this one word to eventually display vibrant and joyful works of art by painters I know, respect, love, and admire. They are friends of mine and over the next year we will make the world more beautiful through works of art and more inspired through labours of love. Right here in the middle of the city.

I have not only surprised myself, but I have dumbfounded most of my friends.

Here’s another question: “What the heck am I doing here?” I have not only surprised myself, but I have dumbfounded most of my friends who would have thought they knew me well. Being here, now, was beyond anyone’s expectation a few short months ago. This time last year I was likely sitting on my back deck with a creamy cup of coffee loving how the early morning sun glimpsed through the trees. Read more…

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Last night I watched Bill Maher’s show. Other than the ‘out there’ HBO license for language I find his take on things incisive and he brings a necessary attention to much we might otherwise be complacent about. One of the panelists quite succinctly said that until we get over our addiction to oil and gas the drilling and risk will go on. Another panelist opined that the answer to our energy concerns was not going to be found down any hole – but by looking up to the sun and the wind.

From the perspective of holism, what we do for ourselves we do for all. We cannot point any fingers or place blame until we look to ourselves to see how we support the very activity we love to hate.

Here is a great article that I received today. Timely message. Check it out!

I won’t have a backyard in my new home – but I will be in walking distance to most all that I need. I’m looking forward to that.

It is the many small acts that each of us can do with ease and simplicity – once we are conscious – that add up to a solution.  Can you or I stop the leak?  No, but we can curb the demand by reducing the use of fossil fuels and force change by demanding alternative energy sources.  Think about what you can do today.

Cheers!

From here I can see forever.

Ever see the truck commercial where the vehicle is sitting at the tippy top of a rock overlooking the entire Painted Desert with red rock buttes reaching the 360° horizon? Did you wonder what it might be like to be at the top of your world and have a panorama of possibility? Read more…

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THE LAW OF GARBAGE!

In the middle of the night when I am wont to wake, I sometimes surface with those trailing tendrils of prophetic dreams. Last night, the dream was about searching for a job of a certain description. I was using search terms similar to those I had used a year before and found that the jobs that came up were the same as the previous year. Not only that, they seemed to have a similar feeling of negativity. Curious. Read more…

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And the Great Rubber Band Remedy!

Do you remember the I Love Lucy episode when she and Ethel get a job in the chocolate factory? At first they are keeping up with the conveyor belt and then as it gets faster, they miss a few, pocket a few and then end up shoving handfuls of chocolates into their mouths until they are sick.

Well, it might be okay at the outset to make a bit of lemonade when life hands you lemons, but in the long run all you end up with is a sticky mess that doesn’t quench your thirst. Another thing that happens is that as your boat floats off course on a sweet and yellow sea you are so busy with processing lemons that you take your eye off the horizon – your goal – while your charts blur. Read more…

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Do you know the way back to peace, beauty, health, and happiness?

Today is Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday which is the day before Good Friday when Jesus made the symbolic gesture of washing the feet of his disciples. Tomorrow commemorates the day that He was arrested, tried and nailed to the cross. On Sunday – millions around the world will celebrate the ascension. When I ‘googled’ Maundy Thursday there was a litany (forgive the pun) on which Christian denomination named the day, what. Where the root derived through the cultural shifts of history and which nation said it first – and for goodness sake, what calendar you might be following. And here you go – getting distracted by the detail. Read more…

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