Right Here, Right Now

*Note: This was written in 2010. It is now April 29, 2013.

       

Do you ever just stop, take a look around, and think to yourself how you never thought you’d be “right here, right now”?

 

Do you ever let your life rewind in your mind’s eye and assess the events that led up to Now? How every tiny event got braided with the next, until your life has become one apparatus with long strings hanging down to the burbur carpet?

 

It’s as though you can funnel those strings through your fingertips, yet it’s impossible to grasp the full picture of what they will look like once they’ve become a part of the whole. And you can trace your fingertips backwards, to the tight ball of yarn… You never imagined it would end up looking the way it does now; this half-finished product…with some gaps here and there, from days when you weren’t spot-on with your craft, days you were distracted from the image you held in your mind from when you first picked up those needles…days when you just simply stuck it through the wrong spot. But that’s ok, because when you look at the piece, imperfections and all, you can genuinely say that it still looks beautiful; it’s still exactly what it’s supposed to be, what it was meant to be, all along…

 

Tomorrow marks the 11-year anniversary of Dad’s death. April 29, 2010. I have a student who was born on the same exact day that Dad died. April 29, 1999.

 

I wonder what the time was when she greeted her loved ones. Was is possibly during the same moments that her mother was in sheer agony, so was I?

 

Possibly so. Except the end results were polar opposites…Her emotions took a turn for the better, mine for the worse. Her life gained purpose, mine lost meaning.

 

He was 65 and his crocheted piece came to fruition. No more string left to loop through … I’ve still got some strings hanging from my own ball of yarn, but they fall into the darkness of the Unknown

 

I hope that when I start to reach the end of my strings that I will be able to gaze into the reflection of the piece admirably, knowingly. And I pray that I will be surrounded by loved ones who can trace their fingers on it, right beside me, while we talk about how all those different paths led us to Now.

 

Exactly where we’re supposed to be.

How to Make a Lucky Penny

“See a penny, pick it up; then all day, you’ll have good luck.” We’ve all probably heard some version of the saying, and I bet many of us have picked up a penny or two from time to time, heeding the superstition.

In regards to a recent purchase, my change was some bills and one penny. I know a lot of people freely give their pennies to that small dish on the counter that may or may not display some type of catchy poem about how you should leave a penny because there may be a point in time when you are the one who needs a penny.

Well, I didn’t leave my penny in the dish.

I’m kind of a penny weirdo; I always have to check the year on pennies when I come into contact with them. The reason for this dates back to an incident that occurred to me several years ago, and I suppose by checking the pennies’ years, it is sort of a confirmation to me that I didn’t conjure up some fabrication of what actually occurred. (Maybe that story can be another post.)

So, even though I saw the little red penny tray there on the counter, and even though the thought flitted through my mind to toss it in there, the penny was a bit dingy so it took some time for me to make out the year, and since I typically try not to make a spectacle of myself (hey, I said ‘typically’), I wasn’t going to eye the little slab of copper right there at the counter. Naturally, I went on my way. After exiting the store, I was finally able to decipher the year: 1994. ‘94 was an awkward year, what with being a freshman in highschool and all, and I have no real emotional ties to that one. Clearly, this was just a regular old penny.

Usually, when I get to the car bearing loose change, I plunk my change into the little space in the dash; you know, my own little “Leave a penny...” tray, just in case I ever need one. But not this time.

I held this one tight as I walked to the car, and into it, I poured love. And before I flicked it onto the pavement, I prayed a hearty prayer for whomever will be the discoverer of said penny. I prayed for any troubles they may have to dissipate, for love and compassion to encompass their life, for their life to immediately improve, and for them to learn whatever it is they are here to learn so that soul growth results. The penny clanked against the asphalt, rolled a bit, wobbled, then came to rest. I gave it one last look, sending as much positivity as I could as I walked onward.

As I got into my car and started it up, I visualized a person finding it and taking a moment to stoop down to pick it up, and I imaged in my mind that person, eyes closed, sending an intention, a wish into the Universe after having discovered their lucky penny. And for those few seconds, I imagined their life being truly blessed.

Now, I’ve come across a lot of pennies on the ground in my day: shiny ones, dull ones, corroded ones, bent ones, ones with significant years, ones with years I’d rather forget. But today it occurred to me the possibility that any one of those pennies that I have discovered on the ground during this lifetime may not have been accidentally dropped (or placed there by a guide or angel or deceased loved one)... the possibility that somewhere along the line, there may have been another individual in the world who had the same instinct as I did and blessed a penny and sent it off with well wishes... the possibility that my life is such a beautiful one due to a stranger sending out a random prayer and positive intention.

Maybe, just maybe, the previous owner of one of my metal treasures sent a similar intention:

“That thou mayest have pleasure in everything,
seek pleasure in nothing.
That thou mayest know everything,
seek to know nothing.
That thou mayest possess all things,
seek to possess nothing.
That thou mayest be everything,
seek to be nothing.”

(-St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel)

Earthing for Earthlings!

My spell-checker underlines the term with that red squiggly line, but I have a feeling it won’t forever, as “earthing” becomes more familiar to our society.

“Earthing involves coupling your body to the Earth’s eternal and gentle surface energies. It means walking barefoot outside and/or sitting, working or sleeping inside while connected to a conductive device that delivers the natural healing energy of the Earth into your body… (It) diffuses the cause of inflammation, and improves or eliminates the symptoms of many inflammation-related disorders…lowers stress and promotes calmness in the body…normalizes the body’s biological rhythms…protects the body against potentially health-disturbing environmental electromagnetic fields (EMFs)…” (Earthing, p. 10-11).

I had come across a reference to the book, Earthing: The most important health discovery ever? by Clinton Ober, Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., and Martin Zucker, and  was so moved by it that I ordered it. Now that summer has provided more free time for me, I have finally been able to begin to wrap my mind around it.

As I was reading it this afternoon, something struck me:  the difficult student who always had his shoes off. I don’t know how many times I tripped over those things throughout the course of the school year! I was OK with him taking his shoes off, if that made him more comfortable. When other kids would ask me if it’s OK to have their shoes off, my response would always be something to the effect of: “If your feet aren’t so stinky that they’re keeping a neighbor from learning, it’s fine by me!” This one student, though, never did ask; he just did it. And he did it every day. But why?

Now, let me paint a simple picture of said student. This kid was all over the place, all the time. I can handle a high-energy kid, but when you throw in bouts of disrespect for others and frequent negative attitude, then that rubs me the wrong way. He was my challenge this year. He was my “give an inch, take a yard” kid, but it was more like give an inch, take an entire football field! I loved him nonetheless. And I loved him even more deeply when I read what he wrote in my yearbook:

                 Mrs. Wright, I know we had our ups and downs, but you’re still the best teacher ever, and the only one so far who didn’t request for me to change classes…

Now, if that didn’t take my breath away and steal a piece of my heart, forever…

Every time I’d try to analyze this guy, my instinct always fell back to the idea that kids really are different these days; that they are here to change things up; to break down our current non-working systems in order to rebuild new ones, ones that work in partnership with our changing societal needs. That thought would help me muster patience, somehow (usually).

We all need it, but if there were some sort of scale to measure the degree of need in regards to grounding, he would definitely fall toward the end of the spectrum of most need, in my opinion. Could it have been a natural instinct for him to take his shoes off in order to ground himself? Maybe taking his shoes off was a coping mechanism. Maybe that was a way for him to center himself, naturally. I don’t know…but it’s something to ponder.

I’d been reading that book at the pool this afternoon, and when I got up to come back home, I began to slip my rubber-soled flip flops on, then thought better of it. My feet were much happier pressing into the grass instead of scooting along in my stiff shoe-coffins.  I think I need to make it a daily practice to let my feet embrace Mother Earth; I think we all do.

I hope we all will.

Let It Go

I was about to start this off by saying what a valuable lesson I have learned in this lifetime, but in all honesty, it’s a continual learning process for me…I relearn it all the time, as different “opportunities” present themselves:

As soon as you release something, it fixes itself.

Take tonight, for instance:

When I’d retrieved my phone to add an appointment to my calendar, I discovered that all my calendar entries were gone. Completely gone. My first instinct was to chuck my phone through the wall, but I held off. I breathed in; and I breathed out. I still wanted to take a sledge hammer to it, as my phone has been doing these types of things lately, and it’s disconcerting, to say the least. Instead, I chose to release it, as I wondered if maybe it was a sign to not be so attached to appointments and to not be so caught-up in the future; maybe it was pressing me to live in the Now…which it did.

I let it go. I told myself that whatever it was that was on my calendar will resurface if it’s important enough. I cut it loose. And lo and behold if I didn’t restart my phone to find my calendar was restored!

Would it have been restored even if I hadn’t had that mindset, even if I hadn’t “let it go”? Maybe; maybe not. I could pick petals out of a flower all day long and still be uncertain. But it sure felt right, knowing I could let it go and not be stressed; to live in the moment, with true assuredness that everything unfolds exactly as it should. Because it does. It always does.

How smoothly would things flow if I could do that all the time?

I’m on it.

The I LOVE Project: A Pantheistic Perspective

It all started with the pantheist…

It was many years ago, when I was living in Iowa, that I’d gone to breakfast with family after church service. Our waiter was the most interesting fellow. He was jolly, good-natured, and actually sat down to converse with us, which is not common for wait staff to do, at least in my own personal dining experiences. He just seemed to generally love people…and life!

I was truly inspired by this waiter…this man who introduced a term to me that summed-up my inner knowing about religion and spirituality, yet I hadn’t known there was a word for it: pantheism. (Encarta dictionary states: 1. belief that God is everything…the belief that God and the material world are one and the same thing and that God is present in everything.)

And another source:pan·the·ism

noun

1.

the doctrine that God is the transcendent reality of which the material universe and human beings are only manifestations: it involves a denial of God's personality and expresses a tendency to identify God and nature.

2.

any religious belief or philosophical doctrine that identifies God with the universe.

The night before receiving Tao, I read the Tao Te Ching, and it spoke to my soul on so many levels. So simple, yet complete. It’s like a part of me shouted, “I know this!” as though it’s familiar, yet there’s a certainty that I’ve never heard anyone speak of it, at least not in that way, at least not in this lifetime.

Receiving Tao was a very spiritually uplifting experience for me. I was filled with awe, and my master was a gentle man with kind eyes. He just looked…well, happy; genuinely happy.  The experience left me with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. And just thinking of how this sacred practice reached me is breathtaking; the paths that led me to that specific juncture in life… the paths I’d taken that led me to right there, right then; and how I got to right here, right now. Life’s web of events is amazing, and all that I just said doesn’t even begin to touch on the expansive miracle that it is!

“Just realize where you come from; this is the essence of wisdom.” (Ch. 11)

The I LOVE Project: Energy Cleansing Baths

It gets harder and harder in today’s world to stay balanced. So much gets us out of kilter. The running back and forth, the deadlines, the energy vampires that surround us (you know – those people that just suck your energy straight from your essence). It’s so important to cleanse – yes, the physical body, but the aura/energy field, too – in order to regain a state of centeredness, so as to function at one’s best.

I’m not 100% certain which book or blog or article or entity I picked this up from, but I am so thankful that I came across it, and even more thankful that I make it a part of my routine, even if only on a monthly basis when I really could use it weekly (or more!). I’ve done this enough to where I’ve come up with my own rituals, and it is so helpful in cleansing my energy field, putting me in a better mood, helping me de-stress, and it’s great for my skin, too; the benefits are amazing.

Here’s what I do:

Run a hot bath; sprinkle a box (1 lb) of baking soda into the water. Use that same box and fill it with Epsom salt (I have used plain and I’ve also used lavender for a calming effect– both are great!), pour about half of the salt into the bath and get in, and then I pour the rest over my body. (It helps to already be wet, as the salt will then stick to the skin.) I do this so I can use some of the salt as an exfoliant. Rub the salt into the skin, gently, especially on the arms and legs; I’ve noticed that the more tender areas, like the stomach, etc., can get a little irritated, but the irritation doesn’t last long (at least, for me), so see what works best for your body.

I set the intention to be cleansed in body, mind, and spirit, as I believe that makes a big difference in the positive effects of this practice. I often think of an old prayer from back in my Catholic Church days: “…wash away my inequities and cleanse me from my sins…” so I’ll include that, but I’ll also say a personal prayer of my own.  Then, I lie back and relax for about 15 minutes or so.

There are a few things I do to enhance the experience. First of all, when I submerge my ears, I can hear my heartbeat, and it makes for a beautiful meditative experience. It reminds me of drums, and my imagination drifts to a spiritual drumming ceremony, and that, to me, is calming and invigorating, at the same time. I’ve also taken these cleansing baths with a meditation station playing on Pandora, and that’s also nice, but often just the sound of my own heartbeat is what I need for serenity to take over. And if any other sounds resonate throughout my home or seep into my home from an outside source, instead of allowing them to distract me from my moment of peace, I allow them to play along with the heartbeat drum, creating a harmonic tune. Breathe as deeply and slowly as possible.

I will also occasionally roll my knees from one side to the other, for a few spinal twists. In addition to that, by rolling the head from side to side, with the head on the back of the tub, it not only massages the head itself, but helps to loosen the neck muscles, as well, which proves to be very relaxing.

When I’m finished soaking, I run the shower and rinse with cool water; the contrast in temperature is just plain awesome!

Be careful in getting out; I’ve found that I’m often so relaxed, that I’m light-headed. I grab a towel and lay it on the bed and lie down in a relaxation pose. Lying on the back, imagine what one’s arms do when someone says, “Stick ‘em up!”, with the arms forming a 90 degree angle: put your arms in that position, and breathe deeply and slowly, and just relax, eyes closed.

This is seriously one of the most remarkable experiences; no lie! Next time you’re feeling the need to unwind, I highly recommend this energy-cleansing bath!

You owe it to yourself.

Namaste.

The I LOVE Project: Tag! You’re It!

Yes, my husband and I still play Tag (although, with today's kids, it has evolved into "Infected" but it's the same idea). It can get pretty competitive, actually…I will even chase him out the door in my robe in the morning, if I have to, in order to maintain the title. Heck, I’ve nearly run after him wearing less that that! I know that we could probably rename the game Who is Feeding-Into Their Ego the Most Right Now? but it’s still pretty fun.

The game was on full-force earlier this evening, when I was trying to write my blog post, so that’s why I’m still up, later than I want to be, in order to meet my writing goals for the day. I’ll probably be tired tomorrow. I might be on the cranky side until my tea or Spark kicks in. And I may even have a “bad-hair” day.

But guess what?...

I won!