Monday, December 23, 2019

The little light that spreads beyond...














Christmas is a time of lights, be it a tree light, candlelight, friend-light, family-light -- all capture the divine light. Looking at the Christmas tree the other night, one little bulb attracted my attention. Spraying out from it was a wider circle of radiating, golden, white-ish glow which was four or five times larger than when the tiny, dull-ish bulb was not plugged in. Now, being connected, the little tree light was transformed into dancing, sparkling, prism colors -- it felt and looked alive.

Then a thought, are we not like that little bulb that needs to be plugged in? To be light in the world requires intention. I have to do something. This fall I re-read Sanaya Roman's book Spiritual Growth. Her invitation is to build a larger, light body. After several instances lately, I concluded I definitely needed it -- a light that spreads out beyond me where love, hope, kindness, understanding reside, and where it is felt, heals and inspires inside and out.  Light is a living presence and does come when called, is drawn to us by our thoughts. I want its warmth, its healing properties, and its heart sweetening light. I want to be plugged in, switched on, shine out, and build a light body, at least, five times my skin container.

Yet, how do I charge this body of clay? Roman encourages us to actually image seeing light like a luminous liquid filling up the spine. Initially conjure the feel of it if you have to as imagination holds power. Then wait for it, watch the spine fill gradually, then feel light as substance spread out like little rivers to all parts of the body, the heart, mind, toes, and to the parts that hurt (inner and outer). Then release this luminous light out beyond the body, expanding its magic like starlight which does the same dance as it too radiates well beyond its shape and form.

This morning I woke with a shoulder too sore to move without pain. I had a full day so somewhat in desperation and using my imagination,  I put the image of the little candle I use when praying with its spray of dancing, light particles right in the middle of my shoulder and kept it there seeing it doing its healing all day. Whenever I went into the living room, the lights from the tree landed there as well. Did it work? Yes, in some mysterious way and not so mysterious way, it always works.

If I want lights on the tree or in me I do have to flip the switch, be it on the wall or in myself in order to become consciously aware of the divinity within. Here is the glow, here one sees with eyes of love, compassion, and beauty even in the darkness. Like the wise ones who followed the star in the desert to the child of light, one discovers en route that our hearts are the star.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Are you in the wind?















My Ex made his crossing Sunday gently and normally. One minute he was breathing and the next he was not. His wife was with him and then our children, myself, and hers arrived minutes after. We had held the watch and his younger sister took the nights for his last few days. He was never left alone.

Sitting at his bedside I thought, "Your presence, your love, and your wit were stronger and met us at every turn in spite of a label called dementia. You've been with us through it all. And now leaving your body, it is time or almost past time, almost."

Love seemed to saturate the room, yet I found myself thinking, "But you are so obviously not here." I kept feeling myself out. Yes, at least a million memories, at least. And no matter we were divorced after being joined for decades as life grows its issues but they were not soul issues, or integrity, nor love issues. And, we have been indeed blessed since with decades of caring.

Later in the afternoon, the minister gathered us around the bed for prayer, his wife on one side of his body and me on the other. In joining our hands, I reached for his wife's hand and she for mine. I don't know how it happened but we each took one of his. It was still warm. The circle was joined and we bowed our heads.

Next morning and waiting for one of our sons to arrive at Cora's for a very early breakfast, I step out of the car into the wind, its freshness, its chill. I love the wind, it often speaks to me. Thus, I had to ask, "Are you in the wind, my love?"  As if alive with force and presence, a gust tips me back on my heels. I laugh at the possibilities and feel connected in this simple mystery we call wind.

An ancient friend years ago, when hearing me dismiss the wind as merely wind, reflected quietly with compassion, "Ah, and you think of it only as wind." Now I needed to ask, "How come you are so present here in the parking lot, so here in the wind, more so than when you were alive and living twenty miles down the road? How come I feel elated, but the question is, can I trust it? I feel happy. Can I trust that? I don't understand. This is like walking on thin ice and I don't know when I will go under. I expect to feel hollow lostness, a bleakness but it is just not there. Should I feel guilty? No, it's definitely happiness."

Rabindranath Tagor, who I have mentioned before, wrote a poem in the Gitanjali after his beloved wife, daughter, and best friend had died within months of each other. Mourning his loss, he went up to the mountains for months by himself. From there he wrote, "Light, my light, eye kissing light, heart sweetening light, the dances my darling at the center of my life, the light strikes my darling the chords of my heart, the skies open, the winds run wild, and laughter passes over the earth."  I have wondered for years how could he feel such a heart sweetening light after such loss?

Now, somewhere in my awareness, I must have arrived at a new point. I get it. At least enough to say,  "Maybe you, who left your body yesterday are more in your essence, your greater understanding in your here-ness, now. This has nothing to do with belief, this I am experiencing.

"So, yes my love, I do feel you in the wind. You are as free as the wind in the Bay we brought our children up on. How can I not be happy, you gem of a man?"

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

It doesn't matter...





My Ex has had a type of dementia for a decade. Sometimes he is better than others and some days he isn't. Today was an isn’t. On the good days, he could always remember the past. For years when I would leave, he would come to the door of the unit, I'd unlock it, he would hold it open and wave, knowing he was not supposed to go further.

In spite of this afternoon being an isn't day, I drove back from his complex after a lovely visit of two people caring for each other. I felt it. I have been away in Tucson for the winter, it didn't matter. It didn't matter if I hadn't seen him for a while, it didn't matter if he could remember where he was, or who I might be. And I had no interest in asking.

When I arrived his eyes had just come from sleep and there is -- what to say -- a slightly absent look about them almost as if they are out of focus. It didn't matter that we divorced twenty-five years ago after being joined at the proverbial hip for thirty-four, plus the two years of seeing life differently. No, none of this mattered this afternoon, none of it.

Driving back from the complex he has been in for a few years, I thought, “Oh my land, you do not need head-memory to remember, to feel, to be moved, to laugh, to catch the joke, to find a situation funny, to be wise” And he was always wise in his way. We shared all those things today. He has memory, he can feel someone's love, someone's laugh, and that we did. I told him stories of people he had known well but does not remember, not today at least. However, I knew when he hit meaning, he was moved. The soul heard. I put the ginger snap cookie under his nose for a smell, enticing him to tea, down the hall to the dining room. It didn’t take much. He knew it was a bit funny and he laughed. His eyes twinkled when we caught that look of understanding and care we always had.

I asked him if he wanted to take a little walk around the perimeter of his unit. Indeed, he did. Walking, as we had done countless times, I thought, "We are like two old shoes." We were experiencing that feeling between us, we recognized each other -- all those years and all that love, we had built our own energy body together. Doesn't matter if he has a wife or children he loves dearly as he also has built a unique soul body with them that does not need a mind to be clear crystal or anywhere near it. He merely does not have head-memory, today.

Yet, the heart remembers well, his spirit-self, his soul-self recognizes and responds. No need of mind-memory today as a million, zillion moments of coming together as one big feeling of truth, that needs no words, was lapping each of us like gentle ocean waves.

I was so excited by the time I got home I wanted to tell everyone, you don't need memory to remember, as we are so full of feeling without it, so full of freedom, of joy. All this he gave me today, all this was wrapped in a ginger snap. And if someone asks how was the visit, I’d have to say “Just great.”


*I am now getting ready to go back to Tucson for the winter for a new season. Yesterday, he left his body, turned on his side as if he was sleeping. So he too welcomes a new season as well. I am sure.

Friday, September 27, 2019

When concern adds weight...














How many times have I felt badly for a person? How many times have I entered a hospital room with a heavy heart? How many times do I feel sorry for a person seeing/feeling their lead-weight of loss, illness, or misfortune? I consider myself a caring, concerned, and supportive person. And that is true and sounds good but is it really? What kind of energy might I be imparting?

The words remind me of the old cottage woman's wise caution one afternoon years ago. I had a question about a young man I was counseling. He was under a lot of stress in his home. Relating his circumstance I tell her, "He is only young but he feels tired, is not sleeping or eating well. Is he sick?

She nods, seeming less concerned than myself. "It is as it must be. When you are concerned for him it weighs him and adds to his weariness because you don't see it positive but as sick which adds to the negative force. You must help others change their perspective. Subconsciously, he knows you fear for his health." Imagine our thoughts can be that powerful. This is fascinating. My genuine concern can add emotional weight and negativity to my young friend's spirit. Amazing, it can make his energy heavy and denser. This then applies to everyone I encounter! If I look at them or at the situation negatively, with weighted concern she is telling me, I can add to a person's weariness and heaviness. And he can even be affected by my fearfulness for him.

I never forgot her comment which has me checking since, "What kind of energy do I give people under the guise of support, care, and concern? Was I wrapping them in a heavy, wet blanket of negative undercurrent through my good intention of caring ?

However, in those days of the cottage woman, it was not commonly known that we humans are not solid but essentially 99 percent dancing energy and light particles. We also were not aware then that when two entangled particles are separated by miles and scientists tickled one, the other responds instantly in kind. Plus, I had never considered thought as being a thing with weight, affecting the energy and spirit of others.

The cottage woman’s words still guide me. We are, each and every one of us, hurting about something at this human level. There is a lot to feel bad about. However, there is another place other than weightedness that is not so limiting as my old friend pointed to -- a different space in us, a place bigger than us with a bigger feeling.

Others, indeed, need our care, concern, and support as we need theirs. Yet, I have learned my Light body has more magic and power than that heavy one my old friend was addressing.  And every time I/we connect with Light as a living consciousness, we are building a bridge between ourselves, others, and a larger reality that offers much more than weariness, heaviness, and possible fear.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Let the little things explode...















This week a reader was telling me that some big things are coming up that will leave her at times unhappy and emotionally challenged. After sharing her difficulties, she asked, "What can I do for my soul and spirit?"

Reflecting on those seasons for myself, when life feels vacant, unhappy, when the big things seem in disarray, I go for the little things. Through them, light, largeness, spirit, and magic manage to arrive and I am served.

 Yet, I need to stop and look to see larger, even at the commonest object. Let's say this hand typing here. Taken for granted, it didn't even exist in my awareness until I just stopped to notice. Slowly, lifting it off the keyboard, I move it sideways, beginning to feel air, space, and then five fingers. The slower the motion, it comes to me all the work it has done, all the dishes it has washed, all the care it has given in one form or another, all the love it has touched and been touched by.

I begin to feel differently. This appendage I hardly ever notice is not so common. In these few moments of stopping and pondering, a little caring flutters, no matter one finger is crooked and the skin is as wrinkled as a raisin. I also know a courageous young woman that looks down to no hands, no feet which she lost recently. Again I spread my hand before me, move it slowly across in front of me, feeling it, marveling a bit, and actually loving it. This is a different inner space than disarray. This is love, I have a hand. Ah, and here comes gratitude, the route and root of prayer -- soul and spirit food.

We can make an intention to see the world differently, to feel the world differently, to relate differently. Let stopping, let slowing a movement, let feeling the energy field, and let the little things be our teacher.  I experience mystery and magic in the little bee, outside my window. It should not be able to fly because its aerodynamics is against all the laws of aviation. The wings are too small. Yet, flying is how it pollinates much of the world's flowered beauty and food supply.

Last week I swam with the sandpipers, thousands of them in flight. They are feeding up for their non-stop 5000 km flight to South America. They are 23 cm long! I heard the swish of their wings. felt their miraculousness and let the disarray of spirit dissolve in the seeming mundaneness of bird, bee, hand, and heart.

Ah, the power of little things, they strengthen the spirit and fortify the soul. One need only stop in the middle of what one is doing and look, feel, ponder for a minute or two. It's all there. Let the outside become the inside. A wise woman tells me, "You line up your heart and mind. Hold them in this tension. Then it is different, it is only with the heart one sees rightly, the light comes through from the divine, it explodes and a beautiful thing has happened."




Wednesday, July 31, 2019

"a very little tea..."















When human beings participate in ceremony, they enter a sacred space... Time takes on a different dimension.... (They) become filled with the energy of life, and this energy reaches out and blesses... All is made new, everything becomes sacred.  
                                                                                                       ~ Sun Bear*

In the late afternoon sun, I settle down to do some painting.  A piece of wharf for a backrest and slate rocks for a seat. I have a pristine view of the boats and fish shack. No one is in sight. Perfect for the work I want to accomplish. An hour speeds by.  Then chatter.  I turn my head,  Two men are coming toward me. They spread a rug on the rocks. My view of the fish shack is partially blocked. I am annoyed. With miles of unoccupied shale-rocked coastline, why did they have to choose here?  Yet the scene before me piques my interest.

A black-bowel-like object is placed on the rug.  A teapot is carefully placed.  Two small bowls, a whisk, and several other things are put in their proper place. The men kneel before the arrangement. I begin to realize one view is simply being replaced by another.

The tea is ready. Each movement, reaching for the cup, pouring the tea, using the whisk, bringing the small bowl to the mouth is executed in a slow, graceful motion. I watch closely. My breath deepens.  Passer-byes, walking the wharf behind me, whisper.  A seagull’s perfect shadow makes its languid way across the blue, grey slate rocks, guiding my eyes to pearls of bobbing color -- yellow, red, and white Cape Island fishing boats.  Sea and sky are twined in twilight rose-blue.

 My painting, my annoyance is forgotten. The ordinariness of the late afternoon has been penetrated. I am stilled by this tea ceremony or as Christopher Robin observes, this “very nearly tea”. Yet observing this ritual, this ancient tradition on these slate rocks I enter holy space. “All is (indeed) made new, everything becomes sacred.” And, I am served.


* Sun Bear was a writer of Ojibwe descent. 









Thursday, June 27, 2019

What is essential...















"What is essential is invisible to the eye."
                                               Antoine Saint-Exupery

Though the years, when people mentioned angels, I have relegated them to wings and church windows. Yet, the other night I happened to see Lorna Bryne on YouTube while searching for some music. Her looks reminded me of a special friend who had passed away several years ago so I clicked on the link. Bryne was talking about her angel experience with such humility, unassuming innocence, and light that I listened. This woman was born, seeing angels. They helped her and told her early in her childhood that she would be writing books someday, in spite of having severe dyslexia.*

 From childhood, I have also felt well-guided. In crunch times, I asked and help happened. Sometimes this help was so direct, timed, and definitely responsive, I would laugh. Thus, I concluded early, I was guided so the name "guides" was a natural monogram. This help seemed quite down to earth and even had a logical response that my human brain could appreciate. Now, I walk in that presence without question.

However, my experience with guides seemed different. They felt particular, where angels felt a little "airy fairy" from my material perspective. Yet, I hadn't quite counted angels out because of a wise woman I have known for years who sees angels. No fuss is made, she never thinks it's amazing and I just think, knowing her, maybe she does. In fact, not long ago we were eating at an outdoor restaurant. Looking past me and smiling she tells me, "Oh, I was just watching that person over there walk through an angel."

And, at various times I have asked what they are like. She responds matter of factly, "They are light beings and are lovely. You know, like the light coming through the trees in the morning, like eagle wings which I don't always see. They have a poetry and prose loveliness."  Another time, she said, "I am seeing two eight footers, sort of transparent and when we walk through them they have a wonderful healing effect. You know they say ghosts feel cold, but with angels, I feel warmth. There seems to be a hierarchy but it is not that some are better than others, it is that some have attained. It's then a responsibility. It's about foot washing and about simple responsibility for what one has attained."

Indeed, I would say, my wise friend has an interesting angel acquaintance and I have an active guide response. I love asking and being answered. Is there a difference between the two experiences? I don't know. Yet, Antoine Saint-Exupery has it right, "What is essential is invisible to the eye." however, we experience it.

*Bryne's books have now been published in 30 languages and in over 50 countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIYJ22Cu0nI

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

god the parent...

Clean up day. The sidewalk at the front of the house is stacked with boxes, an old chair, and dismantled cupboards. The pile of junk is shrinking by the hour. At this rate, the pickup truck won't have to come tomorrow morning. While reorganizing the stack to keep the sidewalk clear, a young man in a plaid shirt, jeans, and a peaked cap approaches. He asks, somewhat disbelieving if he can take the cupboards away. I assure him he would be doing me a favor but I don't have a crowbar for him to dismantle them. He hurries off down the street telling me to hold them as he will be right back.

A few minutes later, bending on one knee and rearranging the cupboards, I spot a pair of very little running shoes standing before me. Looking up and staring me in the eye is a two-foot-high replica of the young man who left a few minutes earlier. I catch my breath -- the same blond hair sticking out under the ball cap, the plaid shirt, and the smallest pair of blue jeans I have ever seen. Yet, I think this can't be his child, the young man hardly looks beyond child-age himself.

As he re-arranges the cupboards. I make eye-level conversation with his replica. The child is a bit shy but surprisingly responsive. I ask him his name. He murmurs, "Gerrit". And the young man is indeed his Daddy. Incredible, either I am as old as antiquity, or parents are younger now. Surely I didn't look this young when I had my four children in my early and mid-twenties. Yet, I must have been near his age.

Finally, with a couple of cupboard doors in one hand and the child's hand in the other, I watch them head home -- two silhouettes backlit by the evening sun. Their elongating shadows ripple the sidewalk. The father skips, adjusting his steps to little steps. The tiny jeans bulging out cause a waddle. Diapers, without a doubt.

I wonder at the miracle, of kids having kids and of what the great spirit in her wisdom trusts us with. The child looks up to the father, maybe asking him a question. He knows his Daddy has the answer, yes, all the answers. He is supposedly god-wise and totally to be trusted. This young parent in blue jeans, plaid shirt, and ball cap is the beloved...







Thursday, April 18, 2019

You cannot swish through prayer...













Below is an excerpt from a visit with the cottage woman several decades ago, yet recorded then in the present tense. The italics are my musings on what she is saying. That spring day I needed insight into praying and its validity. Her wisdom, always simply put, seemed to inform me from a deeper or larger perspective and still does today.

At the end of that afternoon visit and just before she was to leave, I asked how I could pray more effectively.


Each person must be given space and time...

Before the cottage woman leaves, I need to ask about my uncle Ned. He is my mother's youngest brother and lives in Florida with his partner.  He tells me on the phone how much he enjoyed our family talks, during the previous summer. 

Now he has been diagnosed with throat cancer.  I have started praying for him but feel it is a feeble effort.  I also want to encourage him to visit again this summer.
 Nodding, this wise, old woman instructs, "You must continue to give him energy if he is to visit again. You still have an opportunity to work with his pain this summer, if he chooses, but he must be given the energy to do that.  You just listen.  If his energy drops low, you will pick it up." Really, praying lends him energy. Then maybe, I can lend him not only healing energy but also love and joy.

"Indeed, yet prayer is not effective if you swish through it." Oh, I know she is referring to my on-the-run prayers. Besides, I still don’t have confidence that my praying works.
"Yah indeed, prayer does not look tangible but it is, indeed, real." She continues, "Each person you pray for must be given a space and a time.  A mere second is not a fact.  Effective prayer is individual space given to each person one is praying for.  Scanning is not the same as focusing.  Take each person in their own turn.”

Attention and focus are what counts...

“Well, I am feeling uncomfortable about not praying as much as I should." It takes time to stop and pray.
 She bends closer and a wisp of hair falls past her ear.  "Good.  We are watching when you are uncomfortable. That awareness of being uncomfortable and knowing that we are here gets your attention.  That awareness is listening." This kind of listening is something she keeps trying to teach me in almost every visit.  "Effective intercession does not depend on time but on attention.  Your focus is what counts."

 Then she adds, "The person (Ned) has the need to know love.  At this point, he feels isolated, needs to talk, feels very misunderstood and feels not seen or heard."
Being several thousand miles away, I ask, "Who can help him?"
 "In part, the person who feels so moved.  Each can send love in their own way."

What has stuck with me over time are her words, "You cannot swish prayer" and the person that can help is "the one who feels so moved." The latter reminds me of Gregg Braden* when he asked a venerated, Tibetan monk in the highlands of Tibet, how did he pray? The answer was profoundly simple, "The feeling is the prayer."

That feeling is for whatever catches me and I relate too, be it young families separated at the border, sixty miles away, or maybe the feeling for the earth trying to rid itself of toxins. Thus, when the feeling is really there, I am constantly discovering, the prayer begins to pray itself.


*Braden is renown for his work in the study of science and spirituality which I have referred to in other writings.

Thursday, March 21, 2019

to the moon and back...















Several weeks ago, I received in the mail a large heart which said, in inch high letters, "to the moon and back." It hangs here in my living room, intriguing me when it catches my eye, which seems to be frequently. So, I ask, "What is it that draws my attention, makes my heart take a leap? What lures me like some magic, mystical magnet to this seemingly small, round ball in the sky? Some nights, out on the deck or standing on the desert floor, the moon and stars just seem to scoop me into this feeling of great upwardness. Then, I find myself flying through the stars and heading to the moon.

Yet, this is not really the moon the astronauts walked on, kicking its sand and dust. (Although they are one.) I want to go to the moon that is written about in poetry, fable, and song. "Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars, fill my heart with song, and let me sing forever more.... "* That's the moon Tiny Tim wanted to go to when he shouted with joy on a cold winter eve, several centuries ago saying, "I'd love to go to the moon."  Ah, the moon of intrigue, folk tale, and soul food.

Several years ago, in Copenhagen, I strolled past Hans Christian Anderson's house on the canal where he wrote thirty-four verses about a lonely boy and the moon, which, (somewhat paraphrased), begins, "I am a poor lad...one evening I sat in the window...opened the encasement, and oh how my heart leaped up with joy. Here was a well-known face, at last, a round friendly encountence, the face of a good friend I had know at home. In fact, it was the moon who looked in on me...."  I can see this small boy as I write, called Hans, looking to the moon and the moon looking in on him, as if it were not a century or two ago.

Yes, this moon does appear to look back with compassion on our human condition. So when I go to the moon, I'd like to visit the dark side, as well. I don't want to miss it. I think it is pretty amazing -- to be free of human stuff. For to know the dark side, is truly to know ourselves.

Tiny Tim, the poor lad and we, have a relationship with a little round ball in the sky. How seemingly insignificant? But is it really? What value can we put on a shout of joy on a cold, dark, winter night or find companionship in a velvet, silent presence in our loneliness? The heart expands. It's no little thing to walk on a beach or the desert sand in the moonlight with love -- be the companion, a child, friend, dog, lover, or oneself.

How invitational, this moon of the sage, poet, and storyteller. How do we explain this sacred coming home in ourselves to a place where we are not alone? I can't, of course. Yet, a sweet song of mystery and magic does breathe in our hearts.

*"Fly me to the moon..." is written by Bart Howard who sounds like he may have taken the same trip as Tiny Tim...

Friday, February 22, 2019

What does love want me to do today?








The morning begins early at 3 a.m. I listen to some beginner-blues-piano riffs on YouTube. Now, too late for more sleep, I look to the day. The question put is, "What does love want me to do today?" A slight surge of sweetness, anticipation, a tinge of excitement ripples, beacon-like -- invites a curious heart.

What does love want from me today? I will call my son this afternoon. Ah, a small round hole of dull light in the blind catches an eye. Suddenly, it burst into star-like rays of dancing color telling me its source is just peaking over the Rincons.  Later, it will ask me out to play.  Yesterday, an onion dropped on the floor and glancing down, there lay the mystery of the Nautilus, a circle circling to infinity and veins mapping its skin as they do on the back of my wrinkled hand. And, oh, how lovely that love calls us to play.

Love also wants an object to love.  A new keyboard makes me smile rather than frown, yet this smile need not move the lips as it spreads its warmth in the chest and makes the fingers itch. We say,"I love that."  I love the blouse I'll wear today. Yet, it isn't the blouse or the keyboard -- not the object, but the love.

And, where has love also led me? Being aged, through countless loses. You learn to take the knocks in one form or another. It isn't always chocolate ice cream Yet, love is the great teacher in this human school as it shapes us in its light.

What does love want me to do in this day, this world?  It invites me to witness to myself and to that larger essence?  Love is lonely by itself and needs to see, hear, and relate. It anchors, saddles me, and I am not alone. And even when I might be sad that can only be love, as, without love, there is no sad. It also puts me into kindness, compassion, and the beauty of its loveliness. Then, I see differently, more with magic eyes.

What does love want? An answer whispers back, love wants me to expand my little heart and love today -- be it an onion, a son, a tree, a lover, a prayer or a spark of morning sun bursting into rays of dancing color through a little round hole in the blind.  Love wants us to love and play at loving, no matter what it takes.


Monday, January 28, 2019

Waiting, a sacred act...
















It's about 5:30 am. With a laptop on one shoulder and files in a backpack on the other. I head for Starbucks for four hours of writing. I have a small corner there that if I arrive when they open, feels all mine for a few hours.

I never turn the light on when I step out on the second story deck so I can see the stars and the lights rippling on the water from across the lake. Being in a slight hurry, with eyes to the sky, I make the usual sharp turn right for the stairs. Instantly, pain shoots through my leg, Then I am upside down in flight, and banging this and that. With the momentum of body, computer, and backpack I know I am heading down. I grab a white vertical rail and vicariously hold the position. My feet are on the deck, my back is on the second step, heading down. I attempt to breathe and there is not much that doesn't hurt.

The cause of this flying leap was a large plant pot in the corner of the deck. A wind storm the day before had blown it horizontal, and left it blocking the stairs. However, the good news is, I didn't break a bone yet back tendons and muscles took a beating and one leg needed it's dressing changed twice a day for several weeks. All in all, my life came to rather an abrupt halt. Ceiling-watching filled the weeks as the only relatively painless position I could find was lying flat which initially meant: no walking, no sitting, no computer, no writing, no piano playing, and no picking my Grands up at school for a dairy treat.

Now, ceiling-watching wears enormously thin rapidly and does not leave one many active options. It's rather like living in a void, an emptiness -- this waiting to heal, to getting back into life. Thoughts can dull and turn negative if one is not watchful. Thus, after the first couple weeks, when progress seems snail's pace, it is not the physical body but possibly the emotional body that may need some care. Yet, it takes an effort to drag oneself away from the gravitational pull of unhelpful thought.

However, thankfully, ceiling-watching has another partner called Waiting.  This non-activity appears to be a passive, tedious exercise.  Yet, within waiting is passion.  Both words, passive and passion have nominally, the same Latin root. I also discover waiting is like a box of energy which has space and dimension that can be used and worked at if I ask -- what thoughts, emotions will serve my higher self?  What does waiting want from me and what do I want from me?

Waiting to hear, I begin to watch differently, think and thus, feel differently.  The body does want to heal itself, inside and out.  The self and spirit long to expand. A richness, aliveness, and a fresh newness begin to enter body and spirit.  At one time or another, adult children, friends, my Ex, a stranger, and Grands occupy the blue chair at the end of the bed. And, I resolve that every face coming through that door will be the most special face in the world and I will love it.

Yes,  waiting is a passionate act and has a sophistication when giving oneself over to it. We wait -- to heal, to rejoin life, for a child to be born, and we wait for the beloved. Something is going to happen, some compassionate moment, some Royal visitor. Indeed, as scripture tells us, those who wait on Spirit will renew their strength and rise on Eagle wings...

I am writing now from Tucson, almost three months later, and still doing a little ceiling-watching as I continue to learn that, waiting itself is a sacred act.