The One Impossible Thing...

The happy heart gives away the best. To know how to receive is also a most important gift, which cultivates generosity in others and keeps strong the cycle of life.

Dhyani Ywahoo
Voices of Our Ancestors

I have been away from the intenet for nearly two weeks! A long hiatus. It looks as though there have been many visits here in my absence. I hope you haven't given up on me!
The quote about the happy heart came to my box today, from Gratefulness.org and I wanted to share it with you. I have been on both the giving and receiving end of the cycle. I guess I've always been a bit of a Franciscan by nature, believing that "things" are never permanent, and not ultimately of the most importance. Giving away a car, picking up a hitchiker, giving up a bag of cookies (on the healthy side of things) to a guy whose sign said he hadn't eaten in two days, and whose radiant face and happy exclamation as I tossed him the bag made me believe it was true; giving a tithe, even when practicality says it isn't prudent to do so; taking time to listen, inviting a stranger to tea, or giving away some furniture to a young woman with a baby who had very little...we give in many ways during any given day. Do we do so with a happy heart? Or begrudgingly?
Recently, things have been a bit rough going for me. I can remember a time when I moved into a new apartment and a friend came by with her truck to take me garage saling on a Saturday morning. All I had to spend that morning was $50, and somehow, we found everything I needed for my apartment within a couple of hours. Nice things too. People just wanting to lighten their load of stuff they really didn't need.
That was many years ago. This move has been different. I have friends who have literally kept me from landing on the streets! But the easy syncronicities aren't there. I seem to be out of sync! It's easy to keep the faith when things "flow." When life gives to us from it's amazing abundance, and we find generosity at every corner. But what of faith when everything is a struggle? When life seems stingy. When any past good we may have done, has no bearing on what happens to us in the present? Is it karma? I don't buy into that. Someone inspecting my life might say that some of my unwise choices, and there have been those, have taken God's favor away. Nah...I don't buy that either. We feel this need to explain why people suffer, why people are poor, why the sick are sick. That way if we're really good, those things can't touch us. But the truth is, none of us are invulnerable. Suffering comes to our lives. It hurts. We bleed. Our hearts break. Our souls feel weighed down by the difficulties.
I did find a candle holder at a yard sale. It has some beach stones in it, and there was a nice purple amythest. When I picked up the amythest, (is that the right spelling?), there was some wax on one side of it. So I cleared it off, and found a word inscribed on that stone: "Faith." It brought some tears. Especially when later that morning I went to church and the priest preached a sermon about remembering the poor, giving when the poor need something from us. He didn't preach with some apology for Jesus hard words to the young man who had kept all the commandments and asked Jesus what to do. When Jesus said "Give all that you have to the poor and follow me..." that was the one impossible thing for him to do. No apologies from Jesus either. I left church that morning knowing that God is with me, despite my lack of wisdom at times, despite my stubborness and all my mountain of fears.
That Jesus and his hard words...IMPOSSIBLE words! He always asks the one thing that is impossible of us...and we find that when we place our hand in God's hand, the impossible becomes possible. It may bring tears and loss and some suffering, but it always brings a gift. A treasure. The pearl of great price. I have no doubt that God never gave up on that young man who kept all the commandments, but couldn't give up his wealth. I have no doubt that at some point, that young man did that very thing and found heaven in the midst of what seemed as the greatest loss.
So, I'm wondering what impossible thing God is asking of you?
"With God, ALL things are possible!"
So we continue to live our lives with some kind of hope, knowing that when we face the impossible obstacle, God is right there in the obstacle, whispering "have faith dear one. You are not alone."  At least that's what I've been hearing lately. 

Feathers




public domain photo taken by Rita Ballantyne

  Haven't been spending enough time out in nature lately.  My heart has been heavy, feeling a bit like lead, truth be told.  Perhaps it's to be expected, now that the year of traveling has ended and I have found a home.  Perhaps it's the change of seasons.  I generally love the autumn, it's always been my favorite time of year.  But this year I am missing upstate New York and the brilliance of the season there.  Of course, if I really remember this time of year in upstate New York, we'd get a few days to ooo and ah over the trees, but then, when the trees were at their absolutely most beautiful, the rain would begin, and go right through the month.  None the less, I am thinking about the wonderful harvest festivals and fields of pumpkins, and, and...Oregon is beautiful. 

What is it about the human heart?  Always yearning for what it doesn't have?  Always looking backwards or forwards, aching and missing and dreaming.  And in the meantime, we miss the thing right in front of us...like that feather in your path.

I love to find feathers.  Not the feathers of yesterday's gossip.  But the feathers that birds have left, feathers which have fallen, right in my path.  When they arrive, they signal to me that I need to wake up, pay attention and open my heart to some special experience that will come to me that day.  Usually a wonderful conversation with someone.  Sometimes a visit from Spirit in surprising ways.  Sometimes a tangible gift follows.

A few weeks ago, when I thought I was leaving the area to go back to New York, a friend and I had taken the dogs out to the lake for a walk, and had brought our lunch with us.  We had a great time together, though my friend's dog is older, and took a couple of tumbles on the rocks.  Still, he seemed happy to be out, sniffing the smells.  Joy, my dog was happy as could be.  We walked and explored, found a really large agate and some other beautiful stones, munched on our sandwiches and then walked back to the car.  I trailed a bit behind, wanting to drink in the beauty one last time, watching for the eagle or osprey which frequent that place.  As I looked down where I was walking, I noticed feathers.  Small feathers in abundance.  They were caught all the way along the crumbling pavement by my feet.  Clumps of them all the way along.  And they didn't all look like they had come from the same bird.  I smiled.  Knowing that my path, wherever I was going would be full of Spirit's gifts and assistance, full of good hearted people, wonderful conversations, deep connections and provision.

Some of those feathers were no doubt goose feathers, but a week or two later, I was reading about eagles and osprey in a coffeeshop, and there were photos where I guess they were preening, and there were bunches and clumps of small feathers that looked surprisingly familiar.  Wow.

The natural world is so full of surprising and beautiful gifts.  What will fall in your path today?  Keep your eyes and your heart open.  There's a world of possibility out there.

  

POISON

Wish there was some way to put a label on "gossip."  It is poison.  I detest it.  I don't participate in it, and I stop people from doing it around me.  Spreading rumors that are often lies, colors perceptions about people.  I wish there was some way to wake people up to the reality of the harm that can be done...just how destructive it is to speak ill of others when we may not know the truth or the whole story.  There is no such thing as "harmless" gossip.  And sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that we're just trying to be supportive, talking about someone's situation with someone else, when in reality, we're gossiping. 

I appreciate that old story about a woman coming to a man's deathbed and apologizing for gossiping about him and asked him to forgive her.  Her words had tarnished his reputation, and kept him from being able to do business successfully, and even interact with his neighbors in the way he had before the gossip started. 

The man said he would gladly forgive her if the woman would do him a favor.  "Take a feather pillow and cut it open and take it to the window."  She did as he said.  "Now empty the pillow."  And she did.  They watched as the feathers were carried off by the wind in every direction.  "Now go and gather all the feathers up.  Every single one"

"I can't do that...there's no way to find them all!"  She gasped.

Yes, that's what gossip does.  There's no way to bring back the words, no way to stop those words from flying to all the ends of the earth.

Maybe she left there changed.  I hope so.

"Aloha..."  May we bless others today.  Encourage, build up, speak well of people, believe the best of others until we know the whole truth, and then try to heal the world instead of using words to harm.

Aloha!



public domain photo

 Woke before 4 am this morning.  My sleep patterns have been a bit off.  The full moon seems to have that effect on me.  I'll let you decide what that means!  But here I am at the page, my little cardtable sqeaking away as I write, the beads on my lamp jiggling, a smile on my face.

Lately I've been trying to live more in the spirit of  "Aloha."  Many of you probably know that Aloha means more than hello and goodbye.  It is a blessing.  The Hawaiann people believe that affirming the beauty and goodnes of things and people is a blessing, while complaining about them is cursing them.  So we have a choice each day about how we are going to approach our lives and the world.  None of us can completely avoid complaining.  It's human nature.  But we can outweigh the cursing with blessing, naming and appreciating the goodness in our lives.  I guess it's similar to the movement abroad that is about gratitude.  And when we bless and affirm the goodness of another or of nature, that comes back to us.

No wonder I've had such a rough year this past year.  Whew!  All the complaining I've done in my life is coming back on me!  Augh!  I have a lot of work to do if the blessing is going to outweigh all the complaints!

So, today I will try to bless...even the things that seem less than wonderful.  Today I will try and see the beauty and goodness in all of creation.  It's not hard to see at all.

I think of the Rogue Valley World Ensemble that played and sang for a lively audience last night, their music spilling out, children dancing wildly and happily, old people smiling, tapping feet, holding hands, families spread out over the grass on their blankets and chairs.  Joy!  What a gift of joy!  What enthusiasm!  It's contagious.  There was a new friend sitting next to me, sharing the experience, her face alight with smiles and laughter.  I think of how I went to that concert, my body tense, my heart heavy, the complaints definitely outnumbering the blessings!  And when I left, walking back to my car in the fading light, a harvest moon coming up over the mountains, I felt myself blessed, surrounded by the beauty and peace of this place.  Thank you singers and players of music!  Thank you for lifting our hearts.

Thank you dear reader, for taking the time to come to my blog.  Thank you for reading these words.  Many of you I know well, can see your faces, and I bless you this day.  I bless your open hearts and open minds.  I am grateful for your presence in my life, for the love you bring to this world, and to me!  I feel your smiles, can hear our shared laughter over something we both find funny.  I am grateful for your work in this world...whatever it may be!  Cooking good food; writing, editing, singing, dancing, cleaning bathrooms, building houses, directing, leading, following, caring for children, caring for elders, dreaming dreams!

With some of you there is a daily connection that has blessed me over many years, and for others there is less contact, and yet the contact we have has such depth and gift within it.  And still others are unknown to me, you are mystery out there in cyber space.  I send you love and light, praying that your day is full of surprising joy! 

Well...that was a start for the day, and already my heart is lighter!  That's the beautiful thing about "Aloha!"  The results can be felt immediately. 

Try it!