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My cat doesn’t have to be told to notice anything.
When she’s being petted the way she likes, she purrs and holds still. When something is happening she doesn’t like or that frightens her, she moves away. She can move away very fast. If she wants to be petted in the middle of the night, she scratches me. If she wants me to roll over, she pushes and scratches me. If she wants to be fed at say four in the morning, she bites my feet.
It’s pretty simple. She knows what she wants and she finds her way to it.
How do you do? My mother made me say that as a greeting to people I met for the first time. The answer was usually a lie. “I’m fine and how are you?” Were they always fine. How do you answer that? And are you really that way? Whatever you said you were?
Don’t give the news that’s fit to print, tell it like you feel it. My cat knows how she feels. How do you feel?
“The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of
thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If
only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”
Albert Einstein
These beautiful paintings are done by my friend Tilly Strauss
They remind me of what we have and what we lose when the earth is threatened.
As far as the earth goes, I believe it will not be destroyed by our actions. It might be different but it will still be. But it might be just so different and not really hospitable to the life we have become used to living.
It’s up to each one of us to make a difference, then the collective can live up to its name.
When my dog Liam comes looking for love, he isn’t expressing need. He’s full of himself and if I’m doing something else he does too. Until he sees a gap, then he enters and asks and I think the sun has come out. That’s Liam.
He doesn’t stress about my lack of communion, he doesn’t feel “less than.” He just waits for another moment. It always comes to him. When he wants play he grabs a toy and growls at me. If he gets nothing from me, he joins me at my feet. No less of a being than he was before.
I marvel at his equanimity. His strength and courage, the faith he has in himself. It isn’t even faith. That’s too thought-out, too human. He’s just who he is and that’s that.
I love to have Liam around me. He’s in balance and keeps me that way.
This morning I woke up to the amazing moon setting. The sky was so blue and I had to think where I was and what was I, what had I been doing. It was almost as if I thought I had been awake while the moon was doing its night thing.
I’m reminded how little my awareness counts. When I first started to meditate I was on a ten day retreat and we were asked to spend an hour doing “bare attention.”
I was so pleased to say how much I had seen, how I had observed this little thing and this other littler thing. I was filled with attention to details all around me.
My teacher was kind, he merely nodded and smiled. Later with a rush of red-faced awareness I realized I hadn’t done what was asked at all. It wasn’t about seeing what was around me that I was to spend my hour. No, not at all. But it would be years before that could wedge its way in to my very full and proud mind.
I was filled with facts and proud of it. Games with random facts were my pride. I could answer any question – bidden or not! No, it was years to my realization that what was inside was the fodder of practice. What was inside was the goal. I couldn’t have appreciated that and I didn’t. Not before I was ready.
I excused myself because I was so concentrated on what was outside. Looking for the right shot, the perfect moment was my only goal. I was like a herding dog with sheep. One thing dominated, it was all I had, my best shot.
I finally forgave myself a few years ago – after years of my hair standing on end every time I thought of that moment with my teacher. I was sure he would remember me for that. I was sure I would have remembered me had I been in his place. Still dominated by fact and memory was I!
It’s a slow process guiding inward. Still noticing, still doing what I do, but noticing intention. Noticing the back side of what I do. I notice that involves a lot of acceptance on my part. For myself. For others. I didn’t drop my bags right away. In a pinch I can still see the value of wit and sharpness as my goals of choice. But gradually I’ve learned to take a bit more time. To breathe before thinking, to think before speaking, and from time to time, to actually let something go.
And that’s when I really start noticing. I really start looking. And I feel I have something to say – if asked.
In preparation to help people solve their most pressing problems and help them with their most sought after concerns I googled “what do most people search on Google” I got a smallish list of famous people and astrological quests.
It was clear to me there was nothing I could help with in those categories. So I searched deeper. Slightly different but similar issues came up. I thought, “aha, people are not looking for answers to what is bothering them, they want distractions – and, yes, help with the future!
Realizing I was on my own I abandoned Google and went to titles of books. Jackpot! People Google distractions but they buy solutions! I’m in the game!
If anyone knows how to quantify the amount of hours spent getting help vs. hanging out online, I’d love to know. I have the feeling people are swift in getting their help and spend the rest of their hours online playing games or getting quotations to impress us.
How many CSI re-runs do you watch before you get enlightened? Yes, that’s a joke! Don’t give me a number!
But my point is that we are anesthetizing ourselves with crime shows and reality TV and loosing our voice doing it. Yes, our voice. The one you speak your Truth with, the one you answer your mate, your friends, your boss. They know what you say. Do you?
When your “true self” is wrapped up in the reality of others’, when you know more about Bree or Michael or someone on Lost than you know about your child, spouse or parent, well, you might be a little lost. I just went to the Lost site and found that six million, five hundred eleven thousand, six hundred seventy-three people have gone to the site and “liked” it. Wow! They’re lost!
There is, luckily, another way to spend our time. Let’s begin with appreciation. Appreciation is the highest achievement of the human soul. How often do you engage it? How often do you express your “like” for something – that’s not on facebook? How often do you tell the “ordinary” people in your life how extraordinary they are? How often, instead of reaching for that cookie, do you reach for yourself – take a breath, meditate, have some alone time, some “with” time with the one you love. Oh, did you say, “I love you.” That’s always a good thing to do.
The other day I was walking with our dogs in the field alongside our house. I had just watched “About A Boy” for the second or third time and the song “Killing Me Softly” was not leaving my mind. Seriously not leaving. As in the only thing I could hear.
So, I often sing with the dogs, they are the only ones who will hear me without comment. They sometimes perk their ears and look at me if I do some chanting, but a song slips right by them, they are intent on the pace or the smells.
So when I burst into song they didn’t skip a beat. Noses to the ground we kept a leisurely pace and as I got into the second stanza I realized the field was full of dogs. All the dogs I’ve ever walked came to me, all the dogs who have ever sung with me or gone about their business to my song were there.
Zoe and Misha, Dae and Esme, Luna (who always sang with me) and Gordita all romped beside me. Of course on the leashes were Guinnie (Guinivere) and Cho and Jules with Liam(Jack Russell) running like a little motoring thing all round.
And I thought, “The song brought them!” Then I wondered how could I sing so much, how could I have them here all the time. So human of me, so quick to cling and strive!
In a moment I knew it was not the song, but my resonance with the song. My Beingness was full with the song. My Being was not doing anything else. My Being was song. And when that happens, when we are in tune, in sync, in the zone, that’s when we allow what we know, what we want, what we dream to come to us. When we become who we are, then the magic gets in step with us.
If we have a tuning fork set to C and we vibrate it, C will happen. If we have a dream, a feeling, a desire that is set to our truth, it will happen. If we don’t let it all out, if we are afraid of its power, over us, over others – that’s a projection, because how would we know?
So much of what we do is set to the tune of an outside scale. So much of what we learn is played to music that isn’t quite right for us. It is my belief that we surround ourselves with animals because they are who they are. The hamster isn’t anything but, same for the horse, dog, cat – we’d probably all say “particularly cats!”
We do our best to see that they have species specific and age appropriate living and dietary arrangements. Even in this economy the pet stores are better off than the banks. In my experience we give our pets the benefits we can’t/won’t give ourselves. What would it take for you to look at yourself, feel who you are and what your dreams are and just take a step toward that dream? Do you think you take an extra bite of something, a sweet, bread, T.V.? To get through the anxiety of that truth you just told yourself. Is your idea of what you want so big it feels untenable? Do you stick “I can’t do that without upsetting everything?’ on your dreams?
I’ve rescued greyhounds for twenty years, I watch the new ones come in and look at the stairs. Then they either avoid them (until we teach them) or they look at me and think I want them to do it so they try to go up the whole flight at once. It takes some time for them to chunk the task down and go up or down one or two at a time. This is important for us too. How often do we think we have to “do it all?’ How often do we get accolades for how much we do, for how much we take care of? We are programmed for Doing. We are also programmed for Being. We can access both and we’re smart enough to play with the difference.
Give your song a sing, a chance. See how many steps can be taken to your dream. Chunk them down, patience is precious, patience is gold. Give yourself the time and space to be full with your accomplishments. Every day find the ten or twenty things you love, you cherish. Every day find the ten or twenty things you want to do, want to have done when you look back. Look back, see what you’ve done. See if keeping your desk or kitchen neat is in the best service of you and your unique talents. Find the nut of you. You are the only one you are. No body thinks, looks, acts like you, has your genius. Don’t expect anyone to be you or guess you or think you. And, please, don’t expect anybody to live you. You’re the boss of this one, you’re the only one who can do It!
Give in to your nature. Be yourself. Trust. Your Self is waiting for you. Be the Self worth waiting for!
Have you ever thought about the difference between caring for and serving? Well, in my experience, if I care for you, I don’t get much – respect, money, or acknowledgment. But if I serve you, I give you something of value and I get more for it. Including your looking me in the face.
You don’t get as much either if I take care of you, I may be a faceless servant doing a job. If I serve you, you probably asked for it; went to a site, signed up. Went to a school, filled out a form, maybe even paid money.
I take care of many beings. I have rescued dogs, cats and horses. If I see an animal on the road, I help it. And while I am not a nameless, faceless entity to them while I am cleaning litter, picking poops, mopping up grass and throw-up, I am not using much of my skill set either. In my service of the animals I am fulfilling my need to be useful – of service. It comes from my heart and that makes a valuable contribution to my idea of how I want to be in the world and how I view myself.
By doing this service I am forwarding my sense of good in the world, I am participating in a higher vibration than just myself. It is not a job.
If I have a job, when I go to it, when I participate in living and working amongst/with other people, I feel a brightness, I come to them with a full complement of participation. I am not needy.
If people are nice to me – or not – I have a sense of myself within myself and the world within myself. I have done important (to me) work and what I receive from the world is the icing, I have eaten my cake and I don’t have to choose whether to eat it or have it.
Not your business name but the name people think of when they read your statement, your copy, your bio, your blog. The name they give you in their mind (nice person, want to know them – that kind of thing) the minute they see something you’ve put out into the world. Is it the logo you chose, the background of your Tweeter page? Is it the way you presented your ideas in Squidoo? Did you talk about yourself, what you like, trust, want and stop there? Did you include thoughts and facts about yourself in addition to trying on the needs and wants of others?
For me it’s the personable way you might explore yourself to me. A misspelling won’t turn me off too much but if there are too many txt’s and lites, I’m gone. I love dashes and I personally use too many parentheses – which I hope won’t be a problem for you, I know a little cuteness goes a long way! How you expose your life without too much information but enough to help me know I can trust (or not) your ideas, what thoughts come to you, how much we might share.
This last is crucial. What might we share? It’s a key in the deciding route we all take on the road to purchase. We are all looking for the Something that will make our next – career, baby quiet, dog lie down, smell go away, best cup of – there are no exceptions, we are going to contact someone for an issue we are dealing with. That Someone is going to fill our needs and make us feel good at the same time.
I’m a poet in one of my lives and when I send poems out for consideration I hope I have done my homework and looked at the magazine before I send and I hope the editor will actually look at my work before it’s sent back in the envelope provided. I was an editor once and I noticed that I wanted as much from the poet as they wanted from me. I had a problem to solve, an itch to scratch and I hoped that every piece of writing coming to my desk would be the one I’d be excited to read and want to publish.
There are no exceptions to this dance. We are all in the market for something. We all want to pay for some things and get some things free. We don’t want to pay for everything and we don’t want everything free.
This is a great time to be a small business in a big world. We are all looking for the niche where we will find comfort. The best places in my kids’ schools were the reading nooks where they could curl up and read or just look at books. They could be surrounded by comfort and get some cool information or a great story. Let your business be a nook, it’ll be on everyone’s list of things to do.
That’s a question we might all find ourselves asking from time to time. Or worse, complaining or thinking we should be somewhere else. You know all those bumper stickers that say “I’d rather be……” Well, it is a question we should ask pretty often. The real question that most of us dare not think about is, “Am I spending these precious hours/minutes/days of my life doing what is good for me to be doing?
Do you ask yourself that question? And what answer do you get? Because if you can’t think of a good reason to be where you are, to be doing what you’re doing, to be with who you’re with – then you are in over your head. Or under your head, as in the case of an ostrich. Where is your head? That should be on your mind 24/7. It’s the only way to sanity. Otherwise you are making up stories, justifying (making up stories), explaining (making up stories), reasoning (making up stories).
Remember the weak link in the chain? How the strongest chain is only as strong as each individual link? I know the saying was the weakest link, but I don’t want to get into judgement calls. I want you to think about how strong is your link right now to what you are doing. How strong is your commitment to what you are doing? The link’s on you. The link’s IN you.
It’s not that you have to love every minute of what you do. Everyone has to do stuff that’s not to their liking – but, the big picture has to fit what you want to do, your goal, your dream, your reality. If you have to anesthetize yourself to get through part of a day, you’re wasting your time and probably that of everyone around you.
What can you do to get in synch with what you are doing right now. Can you tell yourself how you feel without getting nervous about what will happen when you know the answer? Can you stand to make a list of what you want and don’t want, what you like and don’t like. I’m not talking about a wish list or a complaint list. I’m talking about seeing what it is you are doing in a clear enough light to get some answers about your heart’s true mission.
In my study of meditation I’ve learned that menial does not equate with lowly. The person who cleans up, edits, cooks is often more important to the life of business/monastery/country than the person who heads it. More than likely the people you know best will be the ones who make a business function. In my experience, the best run businesses are headed by someone who is not afraid to do a small task. I know a very wealthy business owner who is out in the parking lot every morning picking up cigarette butts people throw out. His business is the whole business.
If you can love the small parts of what you are doing probably you’ll love the larger parts. If you can get with each minute, the hour takes care of itself and your goal will look more reachable to you. I know they say that about pennies and pounds too and I hope you’ll look for the shiniest penny you can find in every minute you spend, whatever it is you are doing. Don’t “Just Do It” but make sure you like the process. It’s where it’s at.
