I ran across this phrase “always and already” in a book by one of my favorite spiritual teachers/writers Adyashanti. The phrase filled me with reassurance. We are always and already enlightened. We are always and already existing in Oneness. We are always and already cherished by the Beloved. We are always and already empowered. We […]
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I was watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas with my grandchild recently (for the umpteenth time). Every time I see this movie, I’m reminded of its simple message about the holidays. Even when all is lost (spoiler alert), the Whos down in Whoville remember that the true gifts we give each other come from the
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[Note: I’ve been trying to update something on my subscriber service, and apparently my last post got resent one or two extra times to some people. If that happened to you, I apologize for the annoyance. Hopefully, everything is fixed now.] Someone complained to me recently that she had gotten away from her spiritual practice
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Darkness overtakes the light Inviting entry into mystery Gathering before the time of stillness Turning inward after youth Releasing breath by breath What waits is yet obscured It waits in quiet To carry us gently into new beginnings
Wanting to be good is a good thing. Right? I want to be a good person, a good mother, a good friend, and so on. And I want others to see me as good. I want my goodness reflected back to me in how others think of me, talk about me, and act towards
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Touch. Many people are expressing a need for touch in this time of pandemic social distancing. We miss being touched. We miss touching others. We think of touch as an external, physical connection. But touch can also be internal, emotional, energetic. We can touch with the heart of compassion. Absolutely anything that arises in
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For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 When we read this verse, we might yearn for that time of seeing face to face, when all things become clear and we see things as they really are. We don’t often pause to wonder if we will like
Sitting by the fire In the dark early morn Watching out the window As shadows emerge from blackness Shadows becoming trees As light seeps into the forest The sun will be here later Now is the time of in between The liminal space of possibility The secret taste of sweet unknown
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Summer is the season of pure yang energy. Its element is fire. Its organ is the heart. Yang energy is active, hot, rising, powerful. When someone is wildly successful, driving forward, dominating the competition, unstoppable, we might say, “Wow, she’s on fire!” Our western culture highly values yang energy. Idle hands do the devil’s work,
Arising in darkness As summer’s light fades Entering the in between Where mystery beckons “Come”
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Solstice calls the lightThrough the darknessThrough the coldEach day a few steps closerEach day a little brighterThe earth warms to her touchAnd stirs in winter’s stillnessBuds quiver on bare branchesWhispering welcomeWelcome home
Darkness darkness, be my pillow Take my head and let me sleepIn the coolness of your shadowIn the silence of your dreamDarkness darkness, hide my yearningFor the things that cannot beKeep my mind from constant turning Towards the things I cannot see ~Stephen Stills Today is the first day of winter, the season we associate with
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I woke up this morning feeling so grateful, grateful for everything. Really, everything. If you follow this blog, then you know I’ve been through some challenging times in the last year and a half, and especially in the last few months. I became sorrow’s apprentice and learned to grieve (still learning). Along the way, amazing
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I’ve been going through a challenging time, really for the last year and a half, but especially in the last couple of months. A time of opportunity to go deep, and deeper still. A time of breaking open whatever has been closed. A time of emptying out on the inside and stripping away on the
I recently wrote about grieving unmet needs. This has led me to a deeper exploration of grief and sorrow. Someone suggested that I spend some time with grief as my teacher, comparing it to my relationship with my martial arts teachers. Intriguing…. So I find myself a novice once again (sort of a grief grasshopper
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To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. ~Wendell Berry As we passed the equinox in September, I wrote about the season of darkness, about
This chapter is a dance between Tao and Te – Tao as the source of all things, and Te as the life force that sustains all things. Many chapters focus on one or the other, so it is enlightening to see here the interplay between the two fundamental concepts of the Tao Te Ching. It
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The equinox has passed. Night is now longer than day. We are entering the gradual darkening until winter solstice calls the light to return. Darkness gets such a bad rap. It’s scary, it hides secrets and shame, danger lurks in its shadows. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it is gray and rainy much of the
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