Back to the ordinary

I came across some fine words attributed to William Martin which celebrates the ordinary. It reminds me of an earlier post which made reference to John Shotter celebrating the amazingness of the ordinary. I feel like ordinary is being reclaimed as a term of affirmation and admiration. It is in our ordinariness that incredible feats happen.

Spring is knocking at the door

The first signs of spring are gathering along the hedgerows
Clusters of engaging snowdrops eye those passing by
Tantalisingly they call in the spring
Reminding us of the endings of winter
The biting cold and endless darkness is waning
And yet this is the darkest hour before
The dawns of change
These are tough times for many
The challenges and triggers are coming thick and fast
Like deadly hunters arrows seeking their prey
It's hard not to take it personally
Our egos tussle and wrestle their foe
The snowdrop stands so tiny and humble
Reminding us that great strength can come in the smallest
most hidden away forsaken places
Less we judge and more we flow with the ever turning wheel of life
Nothing stays the same
Nothing
All will pass
All will change
Hearts remain open

In the words of the Tao Te Ching

Carrying body and soul and embracing the one,
Can you avoid separation?
Attending fully and becoming supple,
Can you be as a newborn babe?
Washing and cleansing the primal vision,
Can you be without stain?
Loving all men and ruling the country,
Can you be without cleverness?
Opening and closing the gates of heaven,
Can you play the role of woman?
Understanding and being open to all things,
Are you able to do nothing?
Giving birth and nourishing,
Bearing but not possessing,
Working yet not taking credit,
Leading yet not dominating,
This is the Primal Virtue.

SING

Solid as a rock

    Solid as a rock

Rooted as a tree

    Rooted as a tree

I am here

    I am here

Standing strong

    Standing strong

In my rightful place

    In my rightful place

This recall song was shared by Sofia Campos (Board Chair of United We Dream).

Wintery darkness leads us to the mystery

Listening to Peter Senge speaking today at the Presencing Institute's Global Forum he spoke about the human drive to simplify; in order to understand, in order to control. Hence we have academics reducing their knowledge into models and theorems that can only ever really approximate the real world. And we find corporations seeking to create pattens and mono-cultures of products, goods and foods. At the heart of all this simplification is the mystery, a much deeper complexity. How we approach the multiverse of complexity is quite different to the world of simplicity, hierarchy and order which seeks to control and take dominion over that we are ultimately apart.

This led Peter to turn to an ancient sacred text that has been telling us this very same thing for thousands of years in a much more eloquent way.

The opening lines of the Tao te Ching say ...

The Tao that can be spoken of
Is not the Everlasting Tao
The name that can be named
Is not the Everlasting name
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth
The named is the mother of ten thousand things
Therefore, ever desireless
One can observe the hidden mystery;
Ever desiring
One can observe the manifestations.
These two issue from the same origin,
Though named differently.
Both are called the dark.
Dark and even darker,
The door to all hidden mysteries.


And this brings me to the teachings of a lesser known person Tchenka Sunderland, an astrologer amongst many things, who has been telling those who wish to listen that we are living in a time of too much light and that we should be less afraid of the dark. Winter is the time of year to become aquainted again with the dark, both in the season cycle outside and in our own embodied inner journey of the year. Only by returning to the dark can we renew, refresh and return again. If we don't allow for winter we literally burnout. Society burns out and individuals burn out. Hence we live in a world were the suicide death rate out ways any other form or cause of death in the world today. We are burning out through climate change and all the present consequences to life that come with that and we are burning out ourselves and all the psychological pain and suffering that comes with that to communities, families and friends.

When will we stop simplifying and controlling the complex and start to live gracefully in the mystery embracing the darkness?

Forgiveness

Towards the end of 2013 the word that appeared before me to frame my 2014 was forgiveness. And it was a word for a while now I have resisted. In the last few years the words that have come to me Dance ... Freedom... Spaciousness... have been easier to embrace. And yet when forgiveness came it felt qualitatively different.

I have been listening to a short promotional video for a book called Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth A Collection of Essays edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee.



In this piece I heard the voice of Winona La Duke put into words the transformational and healing powers of forgiveness and why it is so necessary for me to go through this experience.

It is no longer okay to look away from the pain and suffering taking place around me, within me, by me, to me. Focusing attention on the positive exclusively is to avoid acknowledging the grief that is present and growing. This is not an indulgent, narcisistic solely inward looking retrospection. It is connected and inseperably joined to the whole.

There is a wail and cry to be heard if I listen deeply enough. And it has something to say, something to share and teach me. I would if I were more bold expand this beyond me to others, however, that is your journey and rightly your decision to make.

As Winona says, "The process of apology and redemption or forgiveness, is a mutual healing process."

 

H.A.P.P.Y

24hrs of Happy

A toe tapping tune

The soundtrack for the weekend

An epic video for an infectious song

Clap along if you feel like happy belongs to you

Posture

mermaid
openness
love
vulnerability
flow into encounter
dance and play
be open
curious
listen

tree
growing
upwards
feeling the wind
towards the sun
open blue
sky
be

be like a tree
be like a mermaid
be free