Sources of Inspiration

Tags

spirituality, awareness, inspiration, sources

It is perhaps in seeking a large refill of inspiration that has made the weekly nature walk a lifestyle habit for me. This week, I happened to make a list of some of the sights and sounds that were sources of inspiration on Friday morning.

A narrow bridge between two small mounds of grass. Blackbirds showing exquisite flight control in the midst of a swift breeze. The play of light and shadows under partly overcast. transitioning skies. Remnants of last night’s campfires in fire pits. Lunch tables in the grass, arranged in a circle. A white tailed deer who sighted me and bounded away in the forest. A windmill by the water that alternates between stillness and speeding up to the pace of the wind. A hare that sighted me and scampered across the path to the apparent safety of his brood.

And there were so many more elements that filled me with inspiration in the short walk. Every single element had a lightness, a simplicity, a nonchalance, a spontaneity about it; perhaps that is what made them unique, never to be repeated sources of inspiration. It is when we encounter the unexpected in nature, when we get glimpses of the infinite possibilities of life in our daily living, that we get filled with inspiration, don’t we?

I often wonder if my weekly walks are to remind myself of the truth that the greatest source of inspiration lies within me; nature simply reflects my remembrance of that source. How about you? What are some of your sources of inspiration? What are some qualities of those sources that keeps you returning to them? How do you stay inspired between ‘refills’ from your source(s)?

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday May 21 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 730pm India ~ share your inspiration. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Friday morning walk refills me with inspiration

A Mother’s Heartbeat

Tags

heart, heart matters, mothers, mothersday, vibration

I am walking the shore, looking at all the trees that have already shed all their blooms, when I suddenly come upon a late bloomer. It is full of the fragrance that I first felt, that announced its presence to me, invited me to visit with her. As I get closer, I take my sun-glasses off to view the astonishing sight created by this single tree. It is nonchalantly shedding blooms with every breath, not only onto the ground but also onto the heavy green algae sitting in the lake. The surface of the water is a triple layer of barely visible blue, covered by heavy green, and a carpet of fragrant white lightness covering it all like frosting in a cake. And the frosting is fragrant!

The resident blackbirds have spotted me now, and are creating a big ruckus, perhaps alerting the geese family with their newborns who are growing rapidly to adulthood, about the arrival of the ‘Friday Morning Walker’s’ intrusion. My heart has been captured by the tapestry in the water, and I move a few hundred yards to the opposite shore to get a better view of it all. The breeze picks up a bit on this warming morning, and every so often, the combination creates an ethereal shower of white on the water, whose thickness is starting to match the green algae underneath.

From my new vantage point on the other shore, I can see a second tree in the distance which has created its own field of white in the lake waters below it. The fragrance of the two, located about fifty feet from each other, is combining to create a new sense of harmony in the stillness. The heartbeats of the two trees seems to permeate everything that they do, including the giving with joy of the very blooms that make them so radiant and fragrant.

Is that what I am meant to absorb and take away from the walk this morning — to remember that the heartbeat of Mother Nature, of a Mother, is to bloom for all, to send life-giving energy to all in the world who are receptive to it?

I can stand here all morning and just observe my own heartbeat slow down and synchronize with that of the petals now seemingly falling in suspended animation. I think I will do just that. It feels good to harmonize with the fragrance and the unstruck sound of the universal Mother’s heartbeat.

Let the world wait.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter gathering and conversation in #Spiritchat, Sunday May 14 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India. We will listen and share with each other. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Our Walking Companions

Tags

solitude, spirituality, spring, stillness, stream of thought, walking

A female goose floats in the huge lake as the rain gently falls on this last Friday of April.

A female mallard sits in stillness on the inclined lakeshore as the male stands guard. I wonder if she is sitting on eggs, and if so, what defense do they really have against any attackers? Is it perhaps why they hang out by the bigger geese, who at least have some means, however limited, to ward off folks who may come near them with their beaks and demeanor? The ducks literally have no defense, other than that of the community which they reside in.

The goose has now come near the shore where I stand. Her peace is remarkable as she sits still in the rain. The father has now joined in the swim, even though he is about thirty feet away from her, which is about the same distance that she stands from me. We form an isosceles triangle whose base is the sixty foot distance between me and the father, who is slowly turning away and lengthening the gap between me and him.

The mother is now floating in the smallest of circles, virtually in place, in the clear portion of the water surrounded by heavy layers of algae. I am writing as I watch, a few feet from the water on the third of four steps, where the next step I take will put me right next to the water. I take that final fourth step and I must have crossed her line because she instantly sets off an alarm call. I step back and she is immediately silenced, as if I must have stepped back from her circle of perceived danger.

The rain keeps falling, even picks up pace for a while, and I am still standing still as I write, right next to an apple tree with the softest of white petals in full bloom on my right and a crab-apple tree in the distance on the far shore where the sun rises on my left. She has moved away from me a bit – the two sides of the isosceles are about forty feet now.

Oh wait. The father has returned to the far side of the lake to the shore by the windmill, to check on the three babies that have hatched over the past week or so. She gets a bit more trusting of me in my stillness, as she is now only twenty feet away, eyes towards where her babies are on the far side.

The rain is really starting to pick up now, but the tree that is literally growing leaves as I write is providing enough of an umbrella that I can keep writing. I am also in the company of the birdsongs coming from the tall trees lining the shore where the mallard couple is still parked. I can see that the goslings are now playing in the rain in the distance.

The mother has apparently decided that it is time to head back to the newborns, as the male of an incoming couple of geese tries to go after her and chases her out of the lake. The alarm calls go out from amid the trees that two intruders have arrived to claim the waters. Serenity turns to stress in a few seconds, and the mallard couple decides to take off. Such can be the cadence of life during a morning walk on the lake with friends.

The smallest of the newborns has now ventured almost to the middle of the lake. The rain is filling my phone’s screen with raindrops and I can barely write any more. It’s time to perhaps head back to dryness.

As I head back to where my car is parked, I’m glad, as I always am, that I decided to ignore the mind’s rationalizations and walked anyway today. On the final stretch, I remember to express gratitude to the new parents and their goslings, the mallards in their stillness, the resplendent apple blossoms, the birdsongs, the rain, and even the intruding geese who eventually disrupted the reverie.

Every walk, even around the same lake and on the same trails, is different. It is perhaps because my heart and its receptivity is a bit different in every walk. I am particularly reminded today that even though I start every walk by myself, I never really end up walking alone – companions inevitably join in.

How about you – why do you walk? What are your favorite walking paths? Who are your frequent traveling companions?

Kumud

P.S. Do join the friends of #SpiritChat as we gather in twitter in our weekly walk on Sunday April 30 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India. We will walk, rain or shine, with some conversation and questions. Namaste – AjmaniK

Apple blossoms in the rain – my walking companions on a spring morning…

Through Earth’s Grace

Tags

awareness, celebration, Earth Day, grace, relaxation

It’s Earth Day today, April 22 2023. I am waking to heavy rain bringing in a cold front. Rain, shine, fog or snow, I am deeply grateful whenever my day begins with…

The first step is to sit comfortably and feel the healing light and energy from the Earth entering the body through the tips of each and every toe. This light is then moving slowly through the feet, the ankles, the legs, the knees, the thighs, and pausing in the torso. The Earth’s light then moves up along the back, rests in the shoulders, shifts to the front and moves up along the stomach and the chest, and relaxes the entire upper body. Down along the arms and elbows and wrists it goes, reaching all the way to each fingertips, filling them with light. The Earth’s light then shifts to the neck, the jaw, the face, lips, nose, eyelids, ear lobes, forehead, and finally emerges from the top of the head, relaxing everything it touches.

Every single morning that I remember to accept the grace of the Earth’s healing light, and practice the sequence of relaxation described above, I am reminded of the Earth’s ever-presence and its ever-giving. In my experience, the beauty of the relaxation practice is in its simplicity, its accessibility and its sustainability.

I imagine that every one of us has their own ‘go-to’ practice of relaxation, renewal and inner restoration that taps into the ever-abundant grace of Mother Earth and her ever-flowing resources that are all around us. There is often one or more of Earth’s five core elements that we may have an affinity for – water, earth, fire, air and ether – and the elements we choose for our practices may even change over time.

Which of Earth’s element(s) do you have an affinity for in your daily practices? Are there any particular physical senses that are most effective for you to connect with the core of Earth’s ever-loving grace? How does the health of your physical relationship with the Earth influence your inner awareness of truth and existence?

Kumud

P.S. Join us Sunday April 23 at 9amET for our weekly gathering and conversation in #SpiritChat on twitter as we celebrate ‘Earth Week’. Bring some of your favorite Earth-photos and Earth-poems to share. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Resources: More details of the ‘Earth’s healing-light relaxation’ are available at heartfulness.org or in the free HeartsApp app.

Apple blossoms blooming…
(Earth Day 2023… Happy Birthday, Mom!)

Seasons of Renewal

Tags

intention, renewal, seasons, spontaneity, spring

The first day of April started like most days of the last two weeks of March. Morning meditation was followed by writing of morning pages by by cracking open the window of the upstairs bedroom to hear the birdsongs of spring and breathe in the breeze whistling through the fast-greening willow bushes. However, today, there were some additional sounds that I hadn’t heard in a while.

These were the sounds of the excitement of children laughing and giggling amid the raucousness of the geese on the lake. I could see neither groups, hidden as they were from my line of sight as I looked straight across the inlet that opens up onto the wider portion of the water. Where were all the kids, and what were they doing outside in what sounded like very large numbers on this brilliantly lit Saturday morning?

My questions were answered as I came downstairs and walked into the backyard with the dogs for their morning play. The hill across from my yard, just beyond the fast-greening willows, was filled with plastic eggs of different hues and colors. The laughter was coming from the kids who were all gathering with their parents for the annual egg-hunt on this Saturday before Easter. It is always a joy to see the anticipation of so many young kids getting excited about something so simple as the idea of collecting eggs filled with candy on a Saturday morning.

Why did such a simple community create such a sense of joy and renewal in my heart?

One reason for renewal was perhaps because the event was simple, it was outdoors, and it brought together the local community for a celebration that adults and kids were enjoying. The lines at the two ‘food trucks’ — one selling fancy hot chocolate and treats, the other offering gourmet pizza and snacks — spoke volumes about the renewal being offered to the body. The laughter of the kids as they traversed the hill for their eggs spoke about the renewal of the heart and raised the spirits of all those watching and participating. 

Morning meditation filled with light, followed by writing of morning pages, watching a community event filled with kids over coffee with the family and the dogs — my heart was filled and renewed, and it wasn’t even 11am yet on the first day of April! What else was this season of spring going to hold in renewal for me? I can’t wait to find out.

How about you? How do you discern when it is time to set an intention for inner renewal? Have you found yourself seeking to renew particular areas in specific ‘seasons’ of your life?  What seasons or events create a sense of spontaneous renewal for you? 

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly chat and community gathering in #SpiritChat on twitter, Sunday April 2 at 9am ET/ 1pm UTC / 630pm India. We will talk about the seasons, about renewal, and make some new friends. I will bring some questions, and look forward to your spontaneous answers. Namaste – @AjmaniK

A butterfly visits a hydrangea in bloom / and I wonder / who is renewing whom?

Freeing Yourself from Expectations! by @AwakeningTrue

Tags

expectations, freedom, lightness, spirituality

Over the past few months, the weight of expectations has been a frequent topic in conversations with family and friends, and in my own thinking, journaling, and choices.  Each of us has a very personal relationship with the many expectations in our lives — our expectations of ourselves, what we expect from others and, of course, what we believe other people expect from us.  

Can expectations be positive? Of course! My parents had expectations that my brother and I would be kind and compassionate, that we would study while we were in school, and that we would become “responsible adults.”  I am certain that there can be many positive effects of expectations throughout our lives.  What I have been considering recently, though, are the other types of expectations, those that become the SHOULDs that weigh us down.  Those expectations can add stress and pressure to our lives, and often result in self-judgment and self-criticism. They distract us from our experience of inner-peace and joy.  

Expectations come in all shapes and sizes, and they can be REAL expectations that have been communicated to us or by us, or they can be IMAGINED expectations that are born in our assumptions about what others want from us.  Either way, expectations can become invisible burdens that we carry with us every day.  They weigh us down, but we carry them only because we decided to carry them.  We are the only ones who can create the pressure of expectations in our lives.  It is true that other people can expect things from us, but what they expect from us can only create pressure if we allow it.  The choice is always ours.

I have decided to surrender my habit of creating unrealistic expectations for myself, and my habit of accepting the weight of other people’s expectations.  I have decided that being free of weighty expectations is a state of mind, and a state of heart.  I invite you to release the pressure of expectations, real or imagined, and to let go of what others think of you, want from you, and expect of you.

Let’s explore feeling free!  Let’s explore moving through our days listening to our heart instead of listening to that voice – ours or someone else’s – telling us what we should do.  Let’s explore a life where there is no SHOULD.  Let’s imagine ourselves as beautiful, brightly-colored balloons, floating without resistance, gratefully choosing to soar above the tethers that would weigh us down. 

Sharon Kathryn D’Agostino —@SharonDAgostino, @AwakeningTrue and @SayItForwardNow 

Author’s bio: I believe in the power of love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and gratitude! And I believe that each of us has an important role in shaping a kinder, gentler, more compassionate world for all.

Kumud’s note: Join our weekly twitter chat, Sunday March 26 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India with Sharon as she steps up to lead #SpiritChat with her insights and questions. Thank you, Sharon!

Freedom from Expectations…

Photo Credit: © Blueenayim | Dreamstime.com

The Beautiful Struggle by @merryb923

Tags

awareness, beauty, spiritual practice, struggle

Nothing is permanent, the only guarantee in life is that there will be change, and that things come and they go. As this presents challenges in our lives, it also encourages growth and reveals opportunities. 

Although the word “struggle” usually has a negative connotation, it really is just a sign of growth and evolution. It is an invitation to show up for life and discover what is meaningful, and which gifts you possess. It is an opportunity to use your superpowers.

What kind of superpowers do you possess? How did you find them? What are some superpowers that you admire in others? How do they demonstrate these powers? These are questions that could never be answered without struggles, and they reveal so much beauty in our world. The fact that we must struggle makes the world more beautiful. 

When life is looking dreary and lacks luster, it may be time to invite a struggle. Whether it is releasing a toxic relationship, finding more meaningful work, or adjusting your priorities, there is something that must change to bring color back into your life, to shake things up and look for a new path to walk. Remember, everything is temporary, this too shall pass, just be present. 

Looking forward to #spiritchat tomorrow to discuss the Beautiful Struggle. 

💖 MerryB

The beautiful struggle depicted by the angry sea on a stormy day (Wells, Maine)

Join in our weekly gathering and conversation, Sunday March 19 at 9am EDT with guest host @merryb923 in #SpiritChat on twitter. Thank you for stepping up and leasing the chat, Meredith! – Kumud

The Joy of Inner Peace by @JanetNestor

Tags

inner peace, journey, joy, spirituality

We are all on a journey to our sacred inner oasis. We want to connect to ourselves, life, and the divine. We want happiness, joy, safety, and inner peace. The issue is we don’t always know how to create it. However, if we find it once, we will keep striving to find it over and over again!

Our spiritual journey lasts a lifetime. When did you first become aware that you were a spiritual seeker? I was about 30 years old at the time and attending Adult Children of Alcoholics 12 twelve step meetings. Before ACOA I had no understanding of self-care, meditation, and no concept of how to create joy or inner peace.

In the beginning and throughout our journey we need teachers; people who can show us how to find the gifts of joy and inner peace that reside within our own being. And we need communities that support our journey. #SpiritChat has always been one of those communities for me. We grow together every Sunday!

There are mindful ways to learn what joy and peace feel like – how they impact our mind and body.  Mindfulness is focused awareness. We learn to witness our own body and emotions, become aware of our own inner nature, and then learn to live within our awareness. Becoming aware and experiencing heart virtues like joy and peace deepen our spiritual experience.

To really know what joy, love, peace, kindness and other virtues are, we need to experience them when they are paired with negative opposites. We all know that embracing heart virtues bring us energetically to a higher frequency. What we don’t know is what negativity takes from us.

We can use sensory awareness to make fun, laughter, joy, inner peace (and all the other viruses) part of holistic awareness, our energy system, and our heart center. When that happens, the energy of the virtues flow through our body connecting us to joy and inner peace. This activity is easy and is something we can teach our children and grandchildren.

Create a list of heart virtues that you want to adopt. The list might look like this: joy, love, kindness, peace.

Once you have your positive list, create a list of opposite emotions: sadness, hate, meanness, war.

You will need eight 3×5 white cards or pieces of clean white paper. No lined paper or paper that has been used before.

Write each of the words on the card or paper – one word on each card.

Hold the word joy between your hands until you can feel the energy of it flowing through you. You can feel the frequency of joy vibrate between the palms of your hands and perhaps vibrate through your whole body.

Then hold the word sadness between your hands and feel its vibration. Once you have felt the vibration of sadness, hold joy between your hands again. This keeps your vibration high as you complete this activity.

Repeat with each of the word pairs. Love-Hate, Kindness-Cruelty, Peace-War. Remember to hold the positive word, then the negative word, and again the positive word.

You will be surprised at what information you take in somatically, mentally, and emotionally. You intuitively know the importance of choosing a positive, joyful way of life. Words matter much more than we imagine! Words create our body’s chemistry and our quality of physical, mental, and emotional health.

If our body chemistry is positive, we experience positive emotions. which generate a positive, heathy inner environment. That balanced chemistry allows us to feel inner peace and joy.

If our body chemistry is not balanced, we experience emotions that are negative. Negativity limits our ability to experience joy and inner peace. Adding positive thoughts and actions gradually create a chemical change that results in a positive physical-mental-emotional-spiritual change.

If you try this little activity, let us know at the beginning of the chat!

Thank you for inviting me to be a guest host, Kumud. I look forward to our Sunday, March 12th #spiritchat.

Janet Nestor

Editor’s Note: Please join our long-time friend, supporter, participant and advisor to the #SpiritChat community, Janet Nestor (@JanetNestor) as she hosts our weekly chat on Sunday, March 12 at 9amEDT / 1pm GMT / 630pm India on twitter. Thank you – Kumud @AjmaniK

Janet Nestor, Author of “Pathways to Wholeness”

‘Hold the word Joy between your hands…’

Celebrating Our Colors

Tags

celebration, colors, poetry, spring

It was about a week or so today that the first color of spring first burst upon us by the fence line in the backyard. The two willows which we had planted when we first moved into our new home a few years have back have grown from a foot high to at least eight feet. Both of them were proudly sporting their full blooms of pink and white flowers that stood in contrast against the still-leafless trees of the forest. At first sight, they looked very much like the light coating of the first snow of a season that paints every branch of the willows with a delicate white. 

In the week since, the March of the blooms has been held back a bit with the weather going back and forth between winter and spring like a kid trying to master their new yo-yo. As a result, the hydrangeas are lying in wait for a consistent warmup before they will set forth their colors. After a couple of initial sightings, the orange breasted blackbirds have also seemingly slowed their migration to the backyard forest from the South. It has been left to the mallard ducks to add color to the local lake with their brilliant blues shining amid the many pairs of nesting geese.

The myriad colors of the season may be delayed, but I am sure that they won’t be denied. Like the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore wrote in his “Song of the Bird”

O Flame of the Forest,
	All your flower-torches are ablaze;
You have kissed our songs red with the passion of your youth.

In the spring breeze the mango-blossoms launch their messages to the unknown
	And the new leaves dream aloud all day.


It is only a matter of time that the ‘flame of the forest’ shall kindle the hearts of the birds and along with them, we shall see that  ‘the flower-torches are ablaze’. The birds’ songs will be ‘kissed red by the passion of spring’, and the ‘leaves shall dream aloud all day.’ Isn’t it wonderful that we can trust the poets of the world to remind us that we can find color in any season if we choose to let poetry into our hearts? What would our lives be like if we allowed ourselves to add more color to our lives through art, prose, theater, dance and so much more that enlivens us?

Spring is as good a time as any to add more color to our lives than we currently may be enjoying. If you need an excuse to dive headlong into more color, perhaps consider the Indian festival of colors – Holi – which falls on the full moon day (March 7/8) this year. Wear some colorful clothes, splash some virtual paint on some screens, write a verse or few of poetry with a theme of your choosing, break out some real crayons or paint brushes, share some sweets with a neighbor and more. In short, do whatever will bring a bit of lightness and playfulness to your heart. That’s what a sense of color can do for our spirit. 

It can make us feel like ‘mango-blossoms (that) launch their messages to the unknown’. Who knows — we may even pause the asking of questions and simply immerse in the colors of spring for a moment. 

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and conversation on twitter in #SpiritChat, Sunday March 5 at 9amET. We will share some colors with each other – bring your favorite pieces of poetry, artwork, artists, and more to share. I will bring some questions and treats. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Willow blossoms are the first to arrive with spring colors to the garden…

On Powers of Observation

Tags

awareness, choices, observation, spirituality

Small though it was, the bridge itself had never actually moved. I thought it had been removed by human hands because it was in relatively poor shape, but the fact was that I had just stopped seeing it. I had assumed that it was gone, and in its place was a relatively small stretch of water which I could just as easily jump move for walk around to get to the other side of the embankment.

All of that changed this morning, after six odd months of getting my shoes wet while navigating the stretch of water. The bridge reappeared in my awareness, where it had always remained, slightly hidden beneath the overgrowth. It hadn’t been touched by human hands, because some of the boards were still missing and others were still broken. A few feet left long, about a foot wide, just enough to support one human’s or deee’s crossing at a time, over an invisible body of water.

My delight at meeting this old friend was instant. It wasn’t that the friend had walked away from me. I had just stopped noticing my friend by thinking that it had disappeared from where I thought it once used to be – over that same patch of water which I was now regularly jumping over or walking around. It was a beautiful reunion today, as I walked through the tall grasses, stepped on the first of the boards gently, and slowly crossed over the few feet that held me as surely they always had in the past.

Once on the other side, I looked back and said thank you for reappearing, for giving me space to explore alternate pathways to the other side. It felt like a reunion with a long lost friend who I had stopped observing because I was too busy or distracted, or because I made the assumption that they did not want to be seen by me any more. The power of observation works in many different ways, doesn’t it?

Have you have ever experienced the sense that you have been observing certain things differently within you on your walk of life? Which observations tend to come from wisdom, and which ones come from assumptions? How has the power of observation affected your relationships with others?

Kumud

As I was leaving for home, the Sun started emerging from behind the clouds above the tree line in the distance and I realized that like the bridge, the divine rarely move away from us – it is we who shift our heart’s focus of observation. The good news is that it remains within our powers to shift our focus back to divine awareness, whenever we so choose to observe it again.

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and conversation, Sunday Feb 26 at 9amET / 2pmGMT on twitter in #SpiritChat. We will discuss our powers of observation among friends who are with us in our journeys. Namaste – AjmaniK