winter solstice inspiration…

What To Do the First Morning the Sun Comes Back
by Roseann Lloyd

Find a clean cloth for the kitchen table, the red and blue one
you made that cold winter in Montana. Spread out
your paper and books. Tune the radio to the jazz station.
Look at the bright orange safflowers you found last August—
how well they’ve held their color next to the black-spotted cat.

Make some egg coffee, in honor of all the people above the Arctic Circle. Give thanks to the Sufis, who figured out how to brew coffee from the dark, bitter beans. Remark on the joyfulness of your dishes: black and yellow stars…

Now that you’re hungry, toast some leftover cornbread, spread it with real butter, honey from bees that fed on basswood blossoms.

The window is frosted over, but the sun’s casting an eye
over all the books. Open your Spanish book.
The season for sleeping is over.
The pots and pans: quiet now, let them be.

It will be a short day.
Sit in the kitchen as long as you can, reading and writing.
At sundown, rub a smidgen of butter
on the western windowsill to ask the sun:

Come back again tomorrow.

community

Thinking about what it means to be a part of a community and how, organically we are naturally all one. In our society, we have denied this more and more and have brought ourselves to point of destructive separation. Deepak Chopra elegantly presents the ideas of community on a cellular level. A small excerpt from The Book of Secrets provides a wonderful parallel for thinking about ourselves at a microcosmic level and expanding that outward to apply to our lives.

“The wisdom you are already living – Identifying with the body’s intelligence.

1. You have a higher purpose
   Higher Purpose: Every cell in your body agrees to work for the welfare of the whole; its individual welfare comes second. If necessary, it will die to protect the body cells perish by the thousands every hour, as do immune cells fighting off invading microbes. Selfishness is not an option, even when it comes to a cell’s own survival.

See more: http://toliveconsciously.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/identifying-with-the-bodys-intelligence/

intentions

I have been busy lately trying to make some money and some of my favorite activities have had to be postponed. The quality of life changes when you have to chase the dollar. Some things that fell to the wayside were getting exercise, meditating, sleeping, socializing and writing my blog.

My sweet friend Robin suggested that the pile of notes I made that were all intentions for my blog could make a good subject for the blog post. Pictured here is a little pile of notes, usually scribbled in the car during my commute. For the most part they were ideas that I wanted to get back to and investigate in deeper detail. I was listening to Deepak Choprs’s The Book of Secrets, and it was completely amazing and tought
provoking.

So presented here, the note on the top of the stack is a reminder of the 3 qualities of essence that permeate the universe, according to Deepak:
I exist, I am aware, I create.

 

job#1139: “Orange Peel’s Pocket” bookmark

Date: Fall 2011

Client: Rose A. Lewis, author

Assignment: Design a bookmark promoting “Orange Peel’s Pocket” and 3 other books by the author.

Challenge: Show 4 book covers and several reviews in a fun, yet legible way.

Result: Using Garamond for the font is reminiscent of old schoolbook typefaces and seemed fitting for a promoting children’s literature. Designing with bold colors the author favors helps the cover art illustrations to pop off the page.

reflecting pool

Lincoln, Massachusetts, October 2011

This photo is of a pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts, along my daily commute to work. I have driven by countless times, watching the changing atmosphere, light and color. Today I decided it was time to stop and take the photo.

What strikes me about this scene is the pool of water, so flat and reflective, amazingly held in place by the earth’s gravity. It looks just like a mirror . This scene of the reflecting pond reminds me fondly of setting up a tiny village and nativity scene under our Christmas tree. For many years as a child, my mother and I would carefully arrange the village; me on my belly under the tree, my small hands placing all the elements by my best design. We had miniature buildings whose roofs were covered in ‘snow’ and sparkling glitter that was just like sugar crystals. There were miniature animals and a couple conical pine trees with the same snowy glitter. . There was a mirror, edges coated with sparkling ‘snow’ that we would find a special place for, and in my imagination, it was just like this reflecting pool. The water and it’s reflections takes on a magical quality for me.

stellar parentheses

Cassiopeia, Polaris, Ursa Major

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 35 years of skywatching and stargazing, I was completely amazed to see an arrangement of stars in a way that I have never noticed before. It was about 6am on Tuesday in late October and I was taking a walk in the pre-dawn. The sun was still not up and the sky was crystal clear. The stars were still visible, but mostly only the brightest ones since dawn was approaching.

I found Cassiopeia first, one of my favorites – the “w” most often on it’s side in the northern sky. Then I found the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major off to the right. Smack-dab in the middle was the North Star, Polaris. They were all shining clearly and it struck me that the two constellations looked like parentheses to the North Star. That made me smile! I never noticed them in this way!

Just as I was taking in this sight, two meteors came striking down from above right in front of the North star, before my very eyes. I think I shuddered or shook – it just totally took me by surprise and was a special moment for me. I can’t tell you how many summer evenings in August I have sat out waiting to see the meteor showers and feeling lucky to see one or two shooting stars in an hour. To just gaze up and be paused there just at the perfect moment to see a shooting star felt so wonderful!

challenges and gratitude

These are certainly challenging times to live in and I have learned so much from the personal challenges I have faced. I understand that my own challenges are not necessarily as difficult as those my friends and family have struggled with, but we all live our own lives and our challenges are relative to our own experience.

I am humbled by my sister-in-law who has struggled with lymphoma for years. She has weathered many, many trips to Boston for treatments, endured a bone marrow transplant that knocked her flat, along with countless other health maladies she has endured. Yet, she is one person I can count on to take  a positive spin on life when confronted with a bad situation. She manages to always have good things to say, uplifting advice, compassion for others and a sense of humor and grace.

Over the past few years, and especially when I was in yoga teacher training, I  learned so much about looking for and appreciating the good in life and not focusing on the negative aspects. I have worked at shifting my perspective from complaining to appreciating, from adding up the negatives to counting my blessings. At first is seems fake or silly but after practicing turning my thoughts around, it has become a way of seeing and a way of living.

Being grateful for even the smallest thing – tuning in to the blessings all around – is so powerful and life changing. That gratitude is like a magnet, bringing more good things, and minimizing the pain that can be either real or imagined when facing challenges.

This image of a Buddha statue on the Lantau Island in China is one that inspires me to remember gratitude in the face of challenges.

finding money

This is the way the day started….. a cool, sunny early autumn day,  a walk to Sandy’s beach. Finding money in the sand. Would certainly like the trend to continue!

the badger and the eagle

Today I summoned the badger and the eagle from my collection of Zuni fetishes (animal carvings). These are two of many fetishes I collected on a trip to the Southwest in 2003. Zuni fetishes are made of many types of stone carved into equally as many animal forms. They are believed to have mystical powers. I simply started collecting them since I found them to be lovely, miniature sculptures, each with it’s own special quality.

The badger symbolizes perseverance and the ability to reach a desired goal. The eagle symbolizes a soaring spirit that can rise above personal problems and has a connection to the divine. Both my eagle and my badger are made of Picasso marble.

I feel a connection to both conceptually today and hope their mystical powers support me!

“What you seek, you already are” …Deepak Chopra

 

According to Deepak Chopra, in “The Book of Secrets,” Chapter 4

“What you seek, you already are. Your awareness has its source in unity. Instead of seeking outside yourself, go to the source and realize who you are.

Pitfalls of the seeker

- Knowing where you are going
- Struggling to get there
- Using someone else’s map
- Working to improve yourself
- Seeking a timetable
- Waiting for a miracle

There’s no better way to be a genuine seeker than to avoid these pitfalls.”

 

The Book of Secrets is quite rich with elegant information. You can read more by clicking this link:

http://www.beliefnet.com/Wellness/2004/10/You-Are-What-You-Seek.aspx