 Spiritual: May 16, 2012 Issue [#5049] |
  Spiritual
This week: Mind Your Self Edited by: KimChi  
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Welcome to the Spiritual Newsletter. I'm Kimchi, your hostess this week.
This newsletter explores matters of the spirit; it's a place to talk about little concerns of the heart and the big questions of the soul. Feel free to add your comments, questions, and ideas for topics.
The Spiritual Newsletter Team
KimChi
kittiara
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Recently I had a birthday, no major life stage to celebrate, just another opportunity to use up all the "over the hill" plates. This particular milestone (46) tripped me up and I went crashing through my life and into despair. Struggling to my lily-white knees gave me the time and opportunity to look around at the life I've created and compare it to the life I crave.
Besides finding myself short on quite a few fronts, the interminable hours of depression forced me to look at the world from new angles (like my bed.) With nothing to do and nowhere to go I replayed the movie of my life like a drowning woman. Contrary to grandma's wisdom and scientific evidence, the more I did ~nothing~ the more my mood lifted.
After a week of nothing-ness, I emerged from my cocoon with fresh silken wings, eager to strike off in a new direction even while determined to stop and gather nectar from each rose on the path.
I have become mindful, deliberate, even. I relinquished my failure at multitasking in favor of the now; to thank the flower for its flexible stem and heady scent, to weigh my words before speaking quietly into my phone so as not to disturb others, to concentrate on the road signs and traffic instead of singing or chatting or worrying I'm late.
Ultimately, I learned there is nothing but this moment, a key component of Buddhism I espoused philosophically but missed spiritually. Only when I pay attention to what is before me can I integrate wisdom and truth and creativity. While others might be pros at doing eight things at once, multitasking quite literally drives me insane. As I've always been a spaz, aging didn't cause this problem, but ironically aging has repaired it.
Paying due diligence to each tick of the clock is certainly difficult in our fast-paced culture, but not impossible. Grandma would tell me to slow my roll, keep my ears open and my mouth shut, and take time to smell the flowers.
I tried, Granny. I meditated and cogitated and prayed but mindfulness eluded me until I acted in complete opposition to society's rules--I quit. Dropped everything, my conceptions of bias and authority, wisdom and reverence. I had to do no-thing to relearn how to do everything--absorb each millisecond for exactly what it is and no more or less. So if conventional methods of mindfulness (or gardening or music or driving a race car) don't work I know now I can always just give up, which leaves room to start over. No shame, no pain, no expectation, only a fresh start and this moment.
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 Mindful Presents
This moment hangs between
the yesterdays and tomorrows
that we're always talking about
always worried about.
| |  | A Moment In Life (E)
I love mindfulness. It can turn even the mundane into something beautiful. ~ ruwth
#1524279 by ruwth  |
As the sink is filling, what do I hear? I listen to the splash of the water from the faucet.
| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1770245 by Not Available. |
Driving, I see a window, yellow with incandescent light.
I wonder about the hand that flipped the switch.
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1753288 by Not Available. |
for what world could exist in day
without a prolific mind that creates
a night in which the stars can play,
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Question
How can you encourage mindfulness?
richardhead: Hello kimchi, A friend of mine on Kauai's name is Ray Golden. He had a sign on his bedroom door that said," Silence is Golden ", I sure loved it when he was!
Aloha, Marlin
embe : Hello Kimchi,
Herewith my poem to share with your readers.
From embe.
There's a dear and precious little note
these tears in my mother's bible,
though it's worn and faded now
her blessings for me the child,
she reads those stories
troubled in her mind.
Her dear little David
years are passed away,
of my heavy load of fear
who became a King at last,
famous with Uriah's armies
the lust of my mind for his wife.
Bathsheba delivering our baby child
dying punished for my wicked ways,
well those days are passed away
but their memories linger on.
My dear mother taught me
with a bible in her hand,
the golden silence
abiding in my heart.
To walk a narrow way
there upon the hillside,
Jesus her great grandson
appeared in the clear blue sky,
her holy spirit set free into heaven's
multitudes of angels praising her name -
johnny1209: I am a psychologist and hear about 7 to 10 patients a day. I have 5 kids from age 2 through 12. I don't remember silence. Even when I pray, God is there giving orders. :) My sleep is full of noisy dreams too. If I ever have silence again, I'll let you know. - Pax, John
traciashalom: A piece of writing where many can relate to. Short and neatly describing the passion of silence. I like it.
"Invalid Item"
BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful  : Plenty of things.
"Elegy to Imagination"
carogers: Silence is good for me that I can take that time in the morning with no TV, no distractions and write, check my email and write more and rewrite. I have a window of about three hours that I can do this and it's a special time for me.
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