I sit down to write something introspective and revealing. But words do not come. So, I think, does the tree ponder what makes it grow, or does it just set down deep roots and seek out that which nourishes it’s being?
I came across a few blog communities this weekend that I know at least of couple of you would find touching in your journeys. There is the My Sacred Life project over at Zena Musings. Participants in the project blogged a photo each day for 30 days, with the goal of exhibiting something from daily life that connected that person to Spirit. While many of the participants in this project have already done their 30 day stint, I, a latecomer, nonetheless think that this type of artistic focus and purposeful recognition of that which connects us to our center is an exercise I think I can gain from. In follow up to her Sacred Life Project, Zena Musings has started Sacred Life Sundays, which is a weekly project of the same nature.
Motivated by that project, Lunar Musings launched Wellness Wednesdays as “a day where we can collectively observe our commitment to wellness by sharing the things that we do for ourselves that support our health”.
Another one is the wikilists of Cool People I Know which is a project started by Cool People I Know. The wiki contains the lists of 100 Things that folks have put down in writing as wanting to accomplish - ya know, a life list. For me, it feels really good to commit these things to paper, rather than letting them rattle about in my mind. For where I am at with my life now, it seems after checking the box on things like my education and career, I have in front of me a new humongous canvas, and I need to sketch out how to use that canvas, which paint colors and textures I want to remain when no more canvas is left for me to use. I have a started a list at the wiki, but am archiving my list here. I put a few things I have already accomplished, some things that are works in progress, and mostly things that I still have yet to do. (I’ve only gotten up to 56…)
I have come across so many lovely and inspiring blogs while wandering these communities and I will be dipping my toes into the new waters over the next few weeks and months…seeing what I can learn from them and myself along the way.
Photo: Lady on the Wall; Sienna, Italy. By ~summer~, 2006.
You Worry Too Much
Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You say,
I make you feel dizzy.
Of a little headache then,
why do you worry?
You say, I am your moon-faced beauty.
Of the cycles of the moon and
passing of the years,
why do you worry?
You say, I am your source of passion,
I excite you.
Of playing into the Devils hand,
why do you worry?
Oh soul,
you worry too much.
Look at yourself,
what you have become.
You are now a field of sugar canes,
why show that sour face to me?
You say that I keep you warm inside.
Then why this cold sigh?
You have gone to the roof of heavens.
Of this world of dust, why do you worry?
Oh soul,
you worry too much.
Your arms are heavy
with treasures of all kinds.
About poverty,
why do you worry?
You are Joseph,
beautiful, strong,
steadfast in your belief,
all of Egypt has become drunk
because of you.
Of those who are blind to your beauty,
and deaf to your songs,
why do you worry?
Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.
You are the security,
the shelter of the spirit of Lovers.
Oh the sultan of sultans,
of any other king,
why do you worry?
Be silent, like a fish,
and go into that pleasant sea.
You are in deep waters now,
of life’s blazing fire.
Why do you worry?
From: ‘Hush Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi’
I have apparently become numb to current events. I have such low expectations of BushCo and Congress.Inc’s will and ability to steer things in a direction away from perpetual endless war, underfunded health care and schools, increasingly long lists of species that will vanish from the earth, contaminated food supplies, lead in kids chew toys etc. etc. that I won’t even engage in coffee shop conversation regarding these issues. Add on to that the global shame of human rights abuses in Burma, border incursions in Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, war in the Congo, etc. etc. - issues that a qualified President would have a hard time with, let alone an unqualified President…and I’ve just basically had it with letting these things into my heart anymore. All these things get cataloged, but they are filed under “things I care about but am helpless to influence” (capitalist contributions to 501c(3)s aside).
I mean, what I am I’m supposed to do? Sign one more petition, send Georgie another handwritten letter, tell Barbara Boxer I love her for trying to hold someone accountable for WWII era groundwater pollution, get excited when Bush Countdown clocks show 466 f’n more days of military industrial administration, attend another rally, wear pink, vote, all the while drinking my fair-trade shade grown coffee (grown outside my locavore radius)?
Yeah, yeah, I could quit my job, become a UN worker running around picking up the victims of war with less than adequate resources, join a commune and make my own cheese till I get so tired of the smell of a patchouli and the sound of off-beat drumming that I run back to the City, go on a hunger strike that will be ignored, but the truth is, aside from my obvious doubt in the paradigm shifting influences of these actions, I’m relatively comfortable despite my discomfort with the world, I have a career in a field that doesn’t greatly offend the universe, I’m happy, I’m safe…and this whole “try to change the world” thing now has a feel so not in the way of the Tao. My anger and frustration just ties me up in knot, with no resolution and little improvement in sight. And with so much contentment in my day to day existence, why should I drag myself down just by caring too much?
Perhaps this realization that the only part of the world I can change is my part of it is why I sink myself into the garden and embrace the more tangible lifestyle changes that make me proud of the choices I make, regardless of the ways of the world.
I just took a shot of echinicea straight to my soft pallette. (”Soft pallete”. I heard that used on the Next Food Network Star last week. In reference to Spanish food…Food. Food makes me quite content.)
But back to the echinicea, it left a very healthy sensation in mouth, even for all its bitter taste.
I need to take some time off the internet crack and do some things in the next coupla months. My KIVA investment is going to Senegal. I have lots of work to get done and feel like I need to focus a little better and deal with some schizzit. There are peace rallies forming all over the place, some biggies coming up, New Years for instance. Holidays means baking and back home friends. And I need to paint. K.I.T. via the gmail and I’ll see ya on the flip side.
~Summer
UPDATE: I’m just addicted. Why fight the power?
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
