On The Wings of Dreams
The Spirit of the Earth
The art of patience
I’m thinking crocuses.
February may still belong to winter, but we do get those first few hints of spring to tempt and tease us. Every now and then the air will smell like it wants to be spring. Like spring may be hiding just around the corner, peaking out at us with a mischievous smile and a wink.
A look out the window brings a reality check. There’s snow on the ground. A cold wind is blowing. The earth is frozen and there’s nary a crocus in sight. Then the craving for spring rears its head! These thoughts brought me to this month’s theme:
Patience
I know there are a few naturally patient people, but most of us have to work really hard at it, especially in the 21st century, where immediate gratification rules the day. We are rewarded for speed and how many things we can accomplish at once. Multitasking has become a required skill.
Think back to a few hundred years ago where it might have taken two or three generations to build a single cathedral. You might work your whole life and never see the end result. Can you imagine having that kind of patience and persistence in modern day America? We are not interested in anything that doesn’t show results and rewards for our efforts – the sooner the better. I think we have lost something precious, being in such a hurry all the time.
If April, as T. S. Eliot once wrote, is the cruelest month, February could stand as the most tedious. Thankfully, it’s also the shortest! But right at its beginning we hit the smack middle of winter. We watch the groundhogs and their shadows to see just how much longer winter will last. How silly of us!
The reality is that there is plenty more winter to come before nature’s potential bursts into blossoms and butterflies. That potential requires our patience, unless we are to needlessly suffer the longing for what cannot be. Nature has her cycles for good reason.
How then, do we engender patience?
It may not be easy but it is a simple practice. It’s one that I touched on in my October essay on time. Look for the positive, the cheerful, and the satisfactory in what’s happening right now. Does longing for the warmth and bounty of spring bring happiness? Is the feeling of longing an enjoyable one? Well, perhaps once in awhile!
Yet, the ability to adapt to all manner of changing circumstances is what has held humanity in good stead for millennia, so I am not advocating a resigned acceptance to unfavorable conditions. Instead, it is more of a day-to-day appreciation and an understanding of the nature of ripening and unfolding. The best of things often require a lot of time and attention.
The “I want” feeling we all sometimes experience can serve us well, inspiring us to positive changes. But if we only operate under “I want” and neglect the grounding aspect of “I am”, we are never fulfilled and always impatient for the next thing. There’s no savoring of what we already have. There’s no thoughtfulness concerning our plans and goals. It’s a rush for more acquisition.
Our world demands a lot of us, and the competition can be fierce. The patient person, however, doesn’t always see things in terms of competition or of winning. Power often lies in the ability to value an experience over the gaining of one thing or another. Sound sophomoric? Perhaps. Yet no one can take what’s inside you away from you. Memories, loves, dream – they are all yours to keep with no competition whatsoever.
Simply slowing down also fosters patience. Literally. Physically slowing down the pace at which we move creates not only better quality results, but also lessens the stress and tension our bodies must endure. I think we can all agree that less stress and tension are good things! By slowing down, we may also discover a gracefulness we didn’t know we possessed. I highly recommend yoga and/or meditation practice as a way of teaching yourself to slow down while accomplishing much, much more.
And, if after all of that, you still long for spring more than you can stand, perhaps it’s time to break out the colored pencils and sketch a few flowers. Or maybe pick up a few essential oils and mix a pleasing blend that reminds you of spring mornings. There are lots of ways to use your imagination and creativity to sooth your spring-deprived self!
In the meantime, silly as I am, I’m hoping the groundhog won’t see his shadow and we’ll have an early spring. After all, what’s better than blossoms and butterflies? Well, maybe chocolate!
Peace,
Tee
I’d love to hear from you. Email me at teespirit@gmail.com
2008: Time to Play
Happy New Year!
Here we are once again, at the turning of a new year, saying goodbye to the joys and sorrows of 2007 as we reexamine what we may create in this new, clean slate of a year.
It really does feel that way to me this year - that we have a wide-open space in which to make powerful choices that will set the tone for years to come. In my mind I of think of 2008 as the “blank page” year or the “lump of clay” year. What will we create?
Or a better question: How will we create it?
But let’s back up a step in the process. Last week I realized the month was coming to a close and I had no topic for this month’s Tee Reflections. I fired off an email to Laura, asking her what she thought. Her response was, “”Be like a child and play.” It’s in the Bible, the Tarot, and certainly in my heart!”
Of course. And, in the way of the synchronous Universe, I received two other emails mentioning the importance of play. Then the icing was a Solstice visit by my dear friend Valerie, where so much of our conversation was based around the ‘work as play’ theme.
It’s pretty nice to live in a world where you ask a question and the same answer falls into your lap from multiple sources! Thanks, Universe!
At first, I considered all the different meanings of “play” – as in perform, or fool around, or pretend. All of them valid, but the search made me realize that I needed to expound a bit. Because what I believe this year is about is engaging all of our differing and varied experiences in the “spirit of play.”
SILLY GIRLS IN THEIR LITTLE GIRL HATS!
That’s more like it! Because all of our experiences are heavily influenced by the state of mind or being that we bring to them. Just like observing light influences whether it will appear as a particle or a wave, our attitude influences our experiences. I talked about this in more detail in “Balancing the Spiritual Mundane” back in September.
There is, however, a good deal more to it than that. Because it is exactly when we play that the most wonderful mistakes occur that are likely to end up being strokes of pure genius. When we break out of our usual modes of activity, and fool around a bit, suddenly we have invited the creative spirit into whatever we are doing and - watch out! Anything could happen!
Perhaps that sounds scary. If anything can happen, then it could be bad just as easily as it could be good. Well, yes. But the question is, can we learn to experience bad and good with the same joyful spirit? What happens when we bring the qualities of innocence, curiosity and fun into even the most challenging and difficult aspects of our lives?
2008 is a great year to find out.
I remember in my childhood playing games that mimicked the adult jobs that seemed interesting to me. So even though my own first grade teacher may have been grading our papers with exasperation or perhaps perfunctorily stamping smiles or frowns at the top of the page, when I played school I was having a great time. Can that still be? Can we play at our work? Can we allow it to be fun?
I mean, what if it wasn’t all so SERIOUS? And why does making something serious mean that we will get a better result? Will the stressed out, serious doctor who is trying to cure a patient succeed better than the happy, dedicated one? Shades of Patch Adams, I know. But it is true! The dedicated part is what matters. The perseverance is what is important. But does a frown on our face mean we get a better result?
Why can’t it be a “smile of concentration”?
I also remember that one of my favorite things in the world (other than having fun myself) is to watch people who are just enjoying the hell out of what they are doing. It’s contagious. Suddenly you are recalled to what that feels like. You are inspired to have some fun of your own.
CELEBRATE!!
We were all five years old once, and that spark of playful imagination is still alive inside of us. Bring it to the specifics of your life. When you smile and play, opportunities too wonderful to dream suddenly pop up in your life. When you play the “what if” game, solutions come that would make a five year old proud to know you.
In this way we can help to heal the world. In this way we can make life better for each other. It is a choice, after all. Choose to smile in your heart. Choose to love life back, because life loves you, with all of its might, every single moment.
Peace,
Tee
p.s. I’d love to hear from you! email me at teespirit@gmail.com
“Silly Girls” photo copyright 2007 by Linda F. George
Winter Solstice Theme: Exploring the Creative
Where, oh where, has our creativity gone?
Anyone missing the sunlight? Yes, here we are in the midst of the darkest time of the year. The month of the Winter Solstice (this year on the 22nd), December holds very few hours of daylight for our enjoyment. Add into that equation the busy preparation for the holiday season, and it seems the best we can do with our creative energy is wrap a pretty package. And even once the sun returns to its season of waxing on the solstice, we hardly notice it until around March.
It all sounds rather dark and gloomy, yes? Especially when we consider how many of us fall into depression after the New Year makes its grand entrance! Well, I dislike waste of any kind, especially when it is juicy and creative. Time to switch perspectives.
Unfortunately, the words creative and creativity have become all but meaningless from overuse. Even self-expression has lost its punch, too - having a rather narcissistic ring to it. Let’s face it, you can’t order creativity at the drive-thru. The muses are tricky, secretive and shy. They are also stubborn and seem to show up only on their own terms.
Initially, I struggled with this topic. There has been so much written on creativity – some of it helpful and some just plain not. How to talk about creativity in a way that is concretely helpful? How to shed some light into these dark months and show how wonderful they can be? The answer came during a recent extremely challenging travel experience. Cancelled flights and luggage lost and there it was, staring me in the face.
The path that leads into our creative source is to step outside of our comfort zones with a cheerful, curious disposition. Three thousand miles away from home, with nothing but the clothes I was wearing and a few essentials in my backpack – I shut off my whining, complaining voice and stepped into the experience.
Now, I was in the smack middle of San Francisco, and I am NOT a city person by any stretch of the imagination. I could have chosen my old patterns of thinking that say to me, “I hate crowds and concrete and noise!” Instead, I threw myself into the alien rhythms and entered what Zen students call “Beginners Mind.” Basically, it is viewing your world and experience like you are three years old and your subjective likes and dislikes are not yet in place.
What happened was beautiful and amazing. Without my literal and figurative “baggage”, I was laughing, I was writing short stories and slice-of-life vignettes. I felt creative and inspired and free!
How can we apply this lesson without the stress and expense of my experience? Well, lose your baggage. Put it down! Structure your day differently. Step outside of your comfort zone. Pretend as if you have never seen your life before, and look at it with those three year old eyes. Slow down and really observe. Question your routines and see what inspiration arises. Because it will arise - honestly.
Creativity is not confined to particular art form, although you may find yourself writing, painting, dancing… whatever! The trick is, if you set aside what you think you know, and what you think your life is about – even temporarily – you will reap the rewards of new inspiration and an incredible sense of freedom.
Dark months, smark months! There is no depression here! There are only limitless areas of our inner world to explore as we realize that our lives are not set in concrete. Our lives are organic, fluid experiences that thrive on a little shaking up of perspectives, now and then.
We can become like seeds planted under winter’s frozen soil. Who knows what flower we will become in the spring? For now, in the dark, we can dream away – play with our lives and experiences wherever possible. Don’t put your tree in the same corner you have year after year – shake it up! As nice and comfy as our routines can be for us, if you are looking to invite the creative spirit into your life – you’ll need to give her something interesting and new to experience!
I’d like to end this month’s essay with the metta prayer – very appropriate for this season of renewal and rebirth.
May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.
May all beings be free!
Happy Holidays!
Peace-
Tee
p.s. I’d love to hear from you! Email me at teespirit@gmail.com
Those Good Old Dark Months
I was going to write about creativity for the month of November, but another, stronger impulse came to me and is still appropriate for this darkening time of year. It’s all about how to work with our struggles and challenges in positive ways.
As much as we all want to be beacons of love and kindness, there are internal struggles that we face everyday, some of them with the strength to bring us down. While there are often external reasons for our inner turmoil, we don’t always have the ways and means to do anything about them. In other words, our need to “fix it” is thwarted, at least in the short term.
What we are left with is a frustrated unhappiness that can lead to depression and anxiety. Now, I am not qualified to speak to this issue in any professional, psychological way, but there are definitively spiritual, energetic elements that offer possibilities for transformation. In this universe of cycles and seasons, everything has its place – including the not-so-pleasant, often infuriating and semi-paralyzing season of emotional overload.
Our world and our lives are constantly asking so much of us. Infinite choices are all around us, and yet we can feel like we are trapped with no choices at all. So while you may be able to make a choice between scrambled eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, there are increasingly limited choices on how to create your life, which leads to emotional overload.
Here’s how we turn the thing on its head. All of that emotion and unhappiness is also personal power. A very over-used term, I know – but there it is. Call it will power or kundalini energy or whatever you like. There’s a lot of it inside each one of us. When we are depressed or afraid, that energy can put us into lockdown or frighten us into bad choices. Excuse the terrible metaphor, but your inner plumbing becomes clogged and causes quite a stink! Time for the plunger!
STINKBUG!
The first thing you can do to free up this blockage is to get physical. Olivia Newton-John’s song aside, physical activity of any kind can loosen up the inner clog and get our energy flowing properly again. If you are like me and have a mental aversion to the term “exercise”, then don’t think about it that way. Instead, think in terms of movement and making your body happy. Our bodies love to move and crave activity. Walking is the simplest way to get things moving, but if you can’t get outside and have nowhere to walk, dancing is another great alternative. Put your favorite music on the stereo and spend a half hour just moving to the musical rhythms. Doesn’t matter if you can’t dance, you can move and music is a great motivator.
The second approach to moving this energy is to simplify. In other words, instead of looking at the long list of “have to’s” and “shoulds”, narrow down your focus. What is right now? What is possible at this moment? Narrow it down to one thing, or if there is no thing, then allow yourself to 100% have some R & R. Movies and bubble baths are good examples. One of my favorites is to reread a favorite novel (it’s like going on a vacation of the mind). The point is to stop your mind from its endless struggle to figure things out. If there is no appropriate action to take, take the opportunity to just BE! Give your mind a good place to rest and let the rest go.
Lastly, all of that energy can be directed into something creative. Ah, but that is next month’s theme! (Shamelessly, I’m trying to hook you in to coming for next months Reflections!)
Seriously, we are way too hard on ourselves most of the time. The Universe is very good at sending us just what we need to keep evolving, and sometimes it can be a bit too generous. That’s when it is helpful to remember we are all on our own hero’s journey. There are monsters and guardians, mentors and angels to help and hinder us. The good news is that we can all be angels for each other!
Peace-
Tee
p.s. I’d love to hear from you. Email me at teespirit@gmail.com
Entering the Busy Season
Welcome to October! I had to say that because I absolutely love this Time of Year. Crispy leaves and cool nights – not to mention colors! Goodbye heat and humidity! Lovely to be outside, lovely to turn off the A/C and lovely to rake all those leaves! Well, truthfully I just let mine stay on the ground and rot. Great fertilizer, you know. It’s also a great Time to watch moonrises because they tend toward the big, fat and orange. Nature loves to show off her magic in October!
October is also the last month of the year that is a mostly “holiday-free zone.” Perhaps a great occasion to think about Time, because we’re all about to be in short supply of it. I could go on and on listing all the ways you’ll be busy from now until the end of the year, but I think you all already know. So let’s get straight to the bones of the thing – how can we bring the spiritual into our concept of Time, possibly making the next two months less stressful and more joyful.
Personally, I have a life-long love/hate affair with Time. I love it! Lots of it! As long as it belongs to me, that is. I tend to be a Time-hoarder, and resent all stretches of it that have labels like “obligation” or “on the Time clock” or “waste of my” on them. The good news is: Time can be your friend.
How to Make Friends With Time
Eckart Tolle (The Power of Now guy) talks about two kinds of Time – clock Time and psychological Time. Clock Time is “I have set aside 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to do housework today.” Psychological Time is “It stinks that I have to do housework today.” More or less.
The point is that like with any relationship, it’s how you treat Time that creates how you experience it. If Time is going to be your best bud, helping you move through the busy days ahead, the trick is to turn it into an ally.
Usually we think of Time as a duration of experience. It’s a sequential thing – past, present and future. Each moments slips relentlessly into the past and we perceive it as gone. Each new moment is forever ahead of us, in other words, we never get there. Where does that leave us? Right here, right now. And right now is when Time is the best friend you ever had.
And the Trick Is…
We have our schedules and we make our plans. That’s all fine and dandy. But (and here’s the kicker) how much of your attention is usurped by what happened yesterday, or what you have to do tomorrow? A good example is the complete ruination of a beautiful Sunday evening because your mind keeps dwelling on work Monday morning at 8 a.m. Now whether you love or hate your job isn’t the point. The point is if you kept your attention on the beautiful Sunday evening, then Time (who’s suddenly become very friendly) will stretch and unwind. The pressure is off and there is nothing but this amazing present moment that belongs to you.
So many wonderful things happen in the here/now. Toads hop, birds chirrup and chatter and children laugh at their toes. The gifts of Time are infinite when you simply rest your attention just where and when you are.
So when you are standing in a long line waiting to pay for your holiday purchases, instead of getting impatient (with all the toe-tapping and deep sighs that includes) why not look around you? I mean, the clerks went to all that trouble to put up pretty lights and colorful baubles, why not enjoy them? Also in that line are other people, sighing and toe-tapping themselves. If you begin to enjoy your “waiting in line” experience, you will be surprised at how the entire mood around you seems to shift. Smile at it all.
No Time is wasted, ever, unless you choose to do so. Even if your present activity or experience seems pointless, dull or even unpleasant – you can change all of that in an infinite moment. Simply settle yourself right where you are in Time and space and watch the show. Really observe it, like you are a recently landed alien seeing Earth and all her wonders for the very first Time. Allow it to become part of you.
Here’s a good quote to end with this month.
Each thing I do I rush through so I can do something else.
Stephen Dobyns — “Pursuit” - Cemetery Nights, 1987
Really, what’s the rush?
Peace,
Tee
Email me at teespirit@gmail.com
A Theme for the Autumnal Equinox: Balancing the Spiritual and Mundane
As with most extraordinary and wonderful things in my life, the idea for writing monthly essays for On the Wings of Dreams came about in a very ordinary and casual way. During a morning coffee chat on the phone, I mentioned to Laura that I would like to begin writing nonfiction articles again. Her response was, why not put them on the lil’ shop’s website? Hmmmm. Good idea!
So here we are, the first in a series (hopefully!) of conversational essays on all things spiritual, with a dash of the mundane thrown in for good measure. It’s the mundane that adds the spice to the spiritual life, you know. Which brings us to our first topic…
A Theme for the Autumnal Equinox: Balancing the Spiritual and Mundane
Sunday, September 23 marks this year’s Fall Equinox. According to Webster’s, an equinox is “the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth’s equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth.” Just think, all over the Earth, day and night were equal for one day. The whole Yin and Yang perfectly (or approximately) balanced for everyone. Nice thought, especially the “balanced for everyone” part.
Traditionally, the Autumnal Equinox has been celebrated as a time of harvest. People ate a lot of bread and drank a lot of mead, and generally had a grand old party before the dark and cold of winter set in. At least, this was true in the northern hemisphere, but we were talking about all over the earth, weren’t we?
All over the Earth, things are drastically out of balance. Look around and we see too much spiritual, or too much mundane, or not enough compassion or not enough food. Yup, the swinging scales of Justice are gyrating all over the place. But what can we do? It’s all so big and out of our control. Often we: a) get depressed b) pretend it’s not happening c) become angry and critical d) forget about it and watch television. None of which make a positive impact on our beleaguered world. So what are the good choices and what do they have to do with balancing the spiritual and mundane?
All too often we get caught up in thinking that if something is spiritual, that means it’s an awesome, monumental and incredible thing/place/activity that we mere mortals can never comprehend. Seas part, fatal diseases are healed – that sort of thing. And while those miraculous things can, in fact, be spiritual when they happen, they are not the overwhelming majority of spiritual things that happen every day in each of our lives. You know what I’m talking about – someone holds a door open or smiles as you pay for your lunch. That’s good stuff. It also really, really helps bring the world into balance. The more we approach each thing we do with love and attention, the more the whole planet wakes up! It’s a contagion, but of the good kind.
So maybe we can’t control the wars and the greed and the suffering on a global scale – at least not yet! But we can invest our attention and kindness on each and everything thing we do. Truthfully, cleaning the bathtub can be a completely uplifting spiritual experience when approached with the right attitude. The more of us living our lives with joyful hearts, the less suffering all of us experience. And this is not a 1+ 1 = 2 type of equation. This is an e = mc2 type of equation, the kind that can’t be measured in usual terms. In other words, the difference we can make is not just one of six billion (and counting) human beings on the earth. We are such vital and important parts of humanity that we never know where our smallest efforts are going to effect the big picture.
To quote Mohandas Gandhi:
What you do is of little significance, but it is very important that you do it.
Why? Because we never know just which small, insignificant thing that one of us does with a compassionate heart, will be the thing that saves the world. Or – at least starts the world-saving ball rolling.
Peace-
Tee
p.s. I’d love to hear from you. Email me at teespirit@gmail.com