Blossoms Around Town
I was cranky at work today. I remembered to open to beauty. The scent of these lilies of the valley reminded me of my maternal grandmother and old-fashioned French perfume.
I was cranky at work today. I remembered to open to beauty. The scent of these lilies of the valley reminded me of my maternal grandmother and old-fashioned French perfume.
The great texts and teachers of meditation exhort us to look within with the promise that by so doing we will find great peace or bliss or splendor.
For many, though, initial attempts at meditation are just as likely to reveal troubling aspects of the self or agitating thoughts as any sense of beauty or quiet and the reaction can be a dismissal or disbelief in such teachings.
The exhortation to look within is not directing us to introspection or the self-examination of therapy (which are also useful in appropriate circumstances), but rather is inviting us to open to seeing that the beauty and specialness that we might believe of and recognize in others is also within ourselves.
Only when we can first look inside ourselves with love and empathy, can healing, change, growth, and compassion begin regarding those things that make introspection scary and challenging.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Perhaps I would find more credibility in the map if the well-meaning creators of the “U.S. Peace Index” recognized that real human beings who wish to live in peace and who are U.S. citizens reside in the District of Columbia (though perhaps they are not included because local governance of the citizens of the District are subject to the whims and opinions of elected officials from both the most and least peaceful of states and thus are governed by the whole map). It is of interest nonetheless.
My top word for the week is “dank,” which evokes so much in so little space.
I was attending a conference for much of the early part of the week and simultaneously needed to meet a combination of expected and unexpected deadlines.
I had the delight and nourishment, though, of my daily practice and teaching.
Through making art — however we do it — we find the beauty that is there. Even in the circa 1974, tied for the second ugliest building on the National Mall, Frances Perkins Department of Labor Building before 8am on another dank morning.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.