Refill

My head feels empty.

My heart feels still and quiet.

Drained of thought

emotion flat and soft

curious questions quiet

in the hum the electric fireplace

work days that kept

my head humming

my feet running

my hands caring

given to someone else

while I settle and refill

my heart and my head

for the next go round.

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

~ William Wordsworth

A Red Walker

She had a red walker.

A flat frame style without racing stripes.

She stepped on the bus.
She folded her red walker neatly,

tucked it beside her seat.

She folded herself quietly 
beside the red walker

while teens and young adults around

laughed, joked and texted.

A serious face without expression

but aware of those around her.

She sat in her stillness until

the bell rang for Stop Requested.

Rising, she unfolded her red walker

and stepped down from the bus 

as quietly as she had come,

mindful especially of her red walker

and returning home.

 “I always try to check my motivation and 

be mindful and present in the moment.”

~ The Dalai Lama, 

The World of Tibetan Buddhism

Situational Change

My poor baby - gone to the salvage heap!

To be mindful of one’s situation is to stop. Not a screeching, sliding stop - although that sometimes may be necessary. Rather like being rear-ended by a heavier vehicle. Today at 2:48 pm it was one year since that untimely event occurred. While I was not physically injured, verified by my physician and my massage therapist, there have been a small, but significant, number of events since that time leaving me wondering about a deeper nature of injury that could have occurred. Some may say that this is a natural part of the aging process. For little untoward events to occur. And I am 70, so I guess I have been aging. But I certainly have been walking and enjoying the city (and the bus system).

Regardless, being mindful of one’s situation, whether concussion, aging or just life events is to stop. To stop and feel one’s presence in the world. Just put your bare feet on the ground - or on your living room rug and grip it with your toes. That is your presence in this world. I had a lovely cold glass of coconut milk this morning. I felt the coolness of the glass on my fingertips, and the cool flavour of the milk as I sipped it slowly. Feeling my presence in this world. This place at my dining room table, which in this moment is my place in this world. 

As I worked in my kitchen yesterday, preparing today’s lunch for work, I could hear and see and smell each item I prepared. And taste! Frozen fruit pieces that escaped my thermos found their way into my mouth. These cool spring aromas were not strong and could easily have been missed save for my search for mindfulness. The crunch as I sliced through vegetables was extremely gratifying. Enjoy your day and savour each moment as you pass through it. Even those unpleasant ones - they just may have a bit of joy for you in moments to come.

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, 

but no one thinks of changing himself.”

~ Leo Tolstoy

To Be Mindful ~ 1

Midway through this month, I identified a useful and gentle theme - Mindfulness. In this busy world of multi tasking, we are inundated with surround sounds from the beeps of a garbage truck backing up, car horns unpredictable blaring, our telephones - more than just telephones - telling us of …..something…email, alerts, notifications. In the midst of all of these noises, each that have their own place, we have our own distractions in our homes and in our workplaces. Some of them are the same as those I’ve already indicated, however there are always extras. The coffee stain left by a colleague, incessant phones ringing that need answering, ….I’ll let you fill in the rest for yourself. We may share some of the same issues, but where work personalities are concerned there will definitely be differences. So this morning my blog post outlines some things I see as the benefits of Mindfulness in this rather mindless seeming world.

To Be Mindful

Momentary meditation

Intuitive imagining

Noticing nuance

Developing depth

Fanciful frameworks

Useful updrafts

Lengthening life

Natural names

Effective expectations

Soliciting sunshine

Strengthening silence

“Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. 

You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath 

the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

BeCalming

Mind full like chittering, chattering monkeys leaping branch to branch, swinging in wide arcs playing across space and time

Mindfulness 

calms chitter-chatter accepts distraction without shame or annoyance, settles swirling eddies of thought to focus on the moment.

“Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen.”

~ Rumi, Love’s Ripening: Rumi on the Heart’s Journey

Purpose, The Purple Dragon

Purpose, The Purple Dragon 

Purpose, the Purple Dragon

stayed quietly in the bushes

waiting for rain to stop falling

waiting for clouds to part.

After awhile, quiet became 

uncomfortable 

Purpose, the purple dragon

restlessly

pawed the ground slowly

stirring dry ground into mud

her wings feeling stiff with

waiting and wanting to fly.

Peering out from the bushes

A big drop of icy rain fell

Splat! on her nose

She wanted to scramble back

Into her bushy shelter but

her wings wanted to fly.

Her scaly clawed feet were getting wet.

So Purpose, the Purple Dragon

pushed off into the rain

her scales glittering with moisture,

looked deep into the clouds

and decided to fly

to adventures beyond the clouds.

“The greatest thing in the world is not so much where 

we stand as in what direction we are moving.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

To Cleanse

To believe in yourself

an inside halo'ed view

of a glossy inner core

that still knows 

the nugget of belief

in goodness and kindness

while still pawing through

generations of debris and baggage

wrappings of joy and happiness ~

a challenge against the outside world

carefully, or carelessly, constructed

patched and duct taped 

until that glossy inner core

became dusty and covered in grit.

Belief - an intuitive cleanser

even when it seems a mirage.

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. “

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe