Morning poem

Early morning

In my ears, birdsong

I open my eyes

To sunlight on trees

In my hands, a warm mug of tea.

I breathe in the sweet scent of incense

In my heart, gratitude and peace.

Nowhere to go

Nowhere to be

It is all here, now

Love is really all there is.

Oh no, not you again!

Last week when I set off on my blogging trail, I realized my pack back was weighed down with 4 insidious characters – you may recall them, or perhaps you know them personally. Perfectionism, procrastination, judgment and worry? So I blithely chucked them out and breathed a sigh of relief, only to discover the little devils had crept back in again when I wasn’t looking.  Somewhat sobered, I realized getting rid of them wasn’t a once and for all event, but rather a daily practice. For me, that is meditation. The opportunity to sit and connect with That which is greater than I, with the great Silence from which all is born.

Now granted, more often than not that great Silence, that holy Presence, seems to be obscured by the noise of my thoughts…. But the key word here is “seems to be”…. for I know It is never absent or diminished in any way, how could it be, when it is Life itself, who I truly am? 

What I realized this week, which was a helluva’ week (you know the ones I mean), is that even with daily practice, those voices in my heads, those gremlins I mentioned above, never actually go away. The key, I think, is learning to recognize them, to know what they have to say… so their power is diminished and I don’t take them seriously.

So that next time Perfectionism shouts in my ear “That blog post is really not good enough to publish”, or Procrastination proclaims “We don’t really have to do that today, there is always tomorrow”, or Judgment sits on its high and mighty throne and declares “What makes you think you have anything new to say?” or Worry worms its way into my head and murmurs “How will I ever find anything inspiring to write about?”, instead of listening to them and believing them and wanting to hide under a rock, I can simply say “Oh you, yes I know you, you can’t fool me!”

And that’s it. I don’t need to engage. I don’t need to have a conversation. I don’t need to bargain, argue and match wits with those gremlin voices. I simply acknowledge their presence, and carry on with my appointment with the Divine.

I hope this helps you deal with any gremlins that might be weighing down your back pack, dear reader!

Peace and order

As I wrote in a previous post, my pursuit of a Zen like mindset and home/office environment has led me to explore the konmari method of dealing with clutter.

Like any journey, before you step forth on the path, there is always the mental, emotional, spiritual preparation. First, the dream itself… the destination that calls your soul and galvanizes you to make a decision, to take action.  Then, the mental, emotional, spiritual preparation.

So as part of my preparation for decimating my possessions, I sat down and asked myself the question that Marie Kondo poses in the beginning of her book.

What do I hope to gain through tidying?

Here is what came to me:

A sense of peace and order when I walk into my house or into my office.

The certainty that anything is possible, that nothing is obstructing me from my dreams.

Why do I want this?

Because I want to be a clear channel for whatever Life wishes to express through me.

Because I will feel happy and at peace, energized and enthusiastic.

It is a humbling thought that our relationship to things, to the physical stuff of life that we have accumulated, can be an obstacle to the expression of our greater good. You wouldn’t think that mere things could have such power, yet… it seems they do.

So here is my question for you beloved reader. If you too, have the urge to let go of a large amount of your stuff…. what is your why?  What do you hope to gain through tidying?

Clouds in the water

I drove my granddaughters to school this morning. We talk about the color of the water. The little one tells me the water is really clear but it looks blue because of the reflection from the sky. Her big sister told her it was so. 

We marvel at the beauty of the clouds reflected in the water. It is a good day, and we are blessed to be alive, to start our day surrounded by such beauty.

De-cluttering magic – letting go of the stuff of life

Last week on the blogging trail I chucked out a load of burdensome mindsets from my back pack.  This week, I decided, it’s time to tackle the actual physical stuff that clutters my desk, my shelves and my drawers – and hence my mindset.

I’d say I am a pretty organized person – I have my neatly labeled files, my tidily arranged storage boxes, in theory a place for everything… but the reality is, that despite my best efforts, it just gets out of hand. A few days of busyness, and lo and behold, the inevitable piles of paper, the stacks of books, the this’s and that’s, mushroom like magic, like mutant viruses intent on conquering my space.

Now, I know it’s me… only me who prints the paper and buys the books and acquires all this stuff and brings it in to my space….. and believe me I have tried almost every known system for dealing with it. Over the years I have probably purchased at least a dozen books on organizing your life, de cluttering, feng shui, etc., and yet wherever I look, office, living room, bedroom closet, and of course my sock drawer… there is always just way too much STUFF!  And did I say books? 

Speaking of books, I happened upon this little gem over the weekend – The life-changing magic of tidying up – the Japanese art of de cluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo. Her revolutionary method, which challenges the conventional little-by-little approach to de-cluttering, advocates a once and for all system that, she promises, leads to lasting results.

This caught my attention. Although I came to the conclusion that lightening my metaphorical backpack on the blogging trail was a daily practice, I’m not so sure that de -cluttering as a daily practice actually works. It really hasn’t worked for me, and judging by the fact that Marie Kondo’s book has sold over 2 million copies, I don’t think it works for most of us either.

So, I’ve decided to set my sights this week on liberating myself from the too much stuff of life, for once and for all. Sound unrealistic or overly ambitious?  Perhaps. Yet I know from past experience with short lived de-cluttering results, that it feels so freeing, so spacious, so fresh…. to have a clean desk and a minimal amount of stuff.

So starting today, until I’m done, I’m following Marie Kondo’s advice. “Start by discarding, all at once, intensely and completely.”

It will be interesting to see where this leads. Want to join me dear reader?