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?

On Spiritual Emergence

Tags

emergence, possibilities, seasons, transformation

“Did you know that the monarch butterfly is on the endangered species list?”

That was the question posed by her as I was drifting towards sleep on Thursday. Needless to say, I came awake and immediately replied, “No. I had no idea. How can that even be?”

“It was just announced today,” she replied.

I was now speechless, so off to sleep I went, imagining that I would be having dreams of butterflies. But I don’t dream that much these days, so, I figured in the morning that the mind had closed the matter, at least for now. I did the morning meditation, came downstairs, made my tea as the younger puppy came out to the kitchen with her daily morning greeting of ‘toy in her mouth’. We went out to the deck and down the steps for the daily barefoot walk in the grass, and to check on the state of the flowers— both in the garden and the ones growing in the wild.

A bit of background. Mother and daughter have been volunteering at the local nature center, which also happens to have a ‘butterfly house’ as a main attraction. I get stories and updates, photos and videos of some of the butterfly activities, every time they go volunteer. I am planning to go visit soon, but for now, I’m enjoying all the education they bring me about caterpillars, milkweed, pupation and, yes, the emergence of butterflies.

The other backstory is that over the past few years, we have made several attempts to plant and grow butterfly-friendly flowers in our own garden. We have had some success, but none of the perennials have quite made it past a year or so. Until this year that is. This year, nature has seen enough of our fumbling and decided to show us how it’s done. The result has been at least a dozen or so, four to six feet tall, purple colored (loosestrife) butterfly bushes blooming alongside with the wild willows, just behind the fence next to the small stream that feeds the pond.

So, that’s the two-part background. For the first time all summer, in my daily walk along the fence to check on the forest, there was my first sighting of a morning visitor to the butterfly bushes. A majestic creature of black and gold wings, ordinary to many eyes but extraordinary to me in this time and space,, given all the context I shared above. How can this emergence happen, and so ‘quickly’ at that, considering the talk of ‘extinction’ less than twelve hours ago?

I don’t know. I will leave the space and time question for greater minds to ponder. Coincidence? Perhaps. And yet I am reminded of the quote that ‘what we call coincidence is where the divine decides to stay anonymous.’ The energy of the divine is rarely, if ever anonymous, is it? If that is so, then is it an ‘anonymous’ energy that makes our hearts beat, our lungs breath, our ears hear, our eyes see, our tongues taste, and our spirit emerge into light?

Perhaps the nature of the divine is one of constant emergence, not anonymity. This divine emergence manifests in us as our awakening every day to existence itself, to awareness itself, to bliss itself. Emergence of the heart, the spirit, the soul is an integral part of the divine plan.

The grand plan is perhaps for all of us to be like butterflies, spreading our wings as we bring color, light, and lightness to all whom we cross flight paths with, and share the stillness of our pauses as we sit briefly in-between flights, on purple bushes growing in the wild.

On your next walk or meditation, pay attention to signs of emergence being sent your way. Then, take a moment or so, and celebrate your ongoing emergence, will you? It’s about time, isn’t it?

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter chat and gathering on Sunday July 24 at 9amET / 1pmGMT/ 630pm India in #SpiritChat. Bring some photos of emergence, and I will bring tea and questions. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

A butterfly visits with the wild-growing purple loosestrife in the backyard…

P.P.S. I wrote this post Friday morning. Later in the afternoon, on the very hydrangeas that have been spreading fragrance all summer, there was another visitor. My wife confirmed that I wasn’t seeing things. Yes. It was a Monarch butterfly, red and black wings in all her royalty… my first sighting of the summer. 🦋🙏🏽😌

Video (11sec): A butterfly visits with the wild-growing purple loosestrife in the backyard…

Seasons of Renewal

Tags

light, new life, renewal, seasons, spring

Over the last week or so, I’ve noticed the slant of the sun’s light and the arc that sweeps across the sky in my northern latitude, has changed. My morning and evening walks have made me acutely aware of this change. As the sun rises more eastwards and sets more westwards a bit everyday, the March of increasing sunlight is difficult to ignore. Winter is still holding on, and yet, bit by bit, spring is loosening its grips on the earths and the waters where the Sun cannot yet reach directly. 

The increased range and angle of the Sun creates increased warmth in the earth during the day, which lets the soil do more its work of awakening the roots during the night. Or at least that’s what I imagine. The birds have already awakened to the season and the cries of fledglings demanding food in the nests outside our living room windows are ample proof of this. In addition, there is the music of the shrills of blackbirds on cattails harmonizing with the squawking of the arrivals and departures of new flocks of Canadian geese in the lake every morning and evening.

The not-so-hidden message in the midst of all this new activity seems to be a call to renewal. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the timing of this message coincides with the renewal of hope in our heart. We feel renewal because we can see the beginning of the end of the pandemic that brought a lot of components of our lives to a standstill over the past year. We may sense renewal because nature is reminding us of the consistency of natural life-cycles that have persisted through millennia, despite our ignorance of, or interference with them. 

It is often said (in metaphysics) that outer Nature is simply a projection of our own inner nature. The state in which we see the world without reflects the state of our world within. If this is true, then every season, every transition, every change in the amount and intensity of light and warmth within our heart is reflected in the external world of Nature. If this is true, then every moment that we invest in healing, reflecting upon, and meditating on the source of light within our heart becomes and opportunity for renewal of both our inner and outer world. 

I posit that This is the true invitation of the season of renewal. I further posit that we can evoke and invoke the season of renewal in whenever we so choose to renew the awareness of our heart’s light. It is when we awaken to the light of our truth that we can stream, and yes, even binge-watch, all the seasons of renewal within our heart.

And now, it’s time to walk the dog, or rather, let him walk me outside. It’s a beautiful spring day outside. Namaste.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and chat with the #SpiritChat community, Sunday March 7 2021 at 9amET / 730pm Inda. Tell us about your favorite season of renewal! Thank you. – @AjmaniK

Sunlight falls on Autumn’s leaves in Spring – March 6 2021

The Heart’s Transitions

Tags

changes, seasons, transformation, transitions

I hadn’t seen them on the pond lately, which seemed to coincide with the fact that it had been heavy, overcast and a bit gloomy over the past few days. The cloud cover had been so thick that it was difficult to discern the sunrises and sunsets. However, last night, as I was woken up by the almost-full moon shining outside the window among scattered clouds, I anticipated that today was going to be different.

Sure enough. They came by the hundreds, in groups of two dozen or so, as they landed ever so immaculately in the water and made their way on to the frost covered ground that was being quickly warmed up by the languidly rising sun. The ones who had already claimed their temporary abode on the shore, raised quite a cacophony to welcome the next batch. The first transition that had started at sunrise, was fully underway. 

The second transition would happen around noon. All of those who had gradually made their way into the warming waters, would now reverse course and park on the grass for their afternoon nap. I did not see them make the third transition today, but I imagine that it was sometime before sunset. They had all taken off, onward in their migration south, by the time I went outside at dusk. 

Nature teaches us a lot about transitions, and how to possibly simplify our lives by paying greater attention to them in our daily actions. The rising of energy into the heart at dawn, the peaking at ‘solar noon’, and then the waning at dusk — all these transitions give us guidance, if we so choose to pay attention. On a slightly longer time-scale, there are the transitions marked by the lunar cycle — one which is most noticeable to the heart at the advent of the full moon. Further more, there are the seasonal transitions. The farther away we live from the equator, the greater is the variation in the length of daylight with the seasons.

The seasons makes for a more subtle energetic transition for the heart . We often become aware of this transition hrough our emotional response, particularly when the days trend towards becoming really short between fall equinox and winter solstice. And so, here we are. The short days of late autumn and the full moon is upon us again. A lot of nature’s daily, monthly, seasons, and annual transitions are temporary. And yet, the heart does not need to necessarily follow suit.

What if we were to prepare our heart for some permanent transitions. What if we were to permanently transition our hearts from indifference to compassion? From doubt to faith? From weariness to resilience? From indifference to empathy? From callousness to kindness? From arrogance to humility? From sadness to joy? From condemnation to respect? From prejudice to inclusion? From debasement to dignity? What would our inner world look like if we were to effect one or more of these permanent transitions?

When, where and how do we begin the heart’s transition? More importantly, why would we want to do so? Even more importantly, what would we be willing to give and accept, for such a transformation of the heart? 

Kumud

P.S. The migrating geese, another few flocks of them, will be back tomorrow. It’s supposed to be another day of sunshine. Join us for their  morning song and conversation with the #SpiritChat community on twitter, Sunday November 29 at 9amET. I will bring some tea, cookies, and yes questions. We will work on our heart’s transitions. Namaste – @AjmaniK

When transitions become transformations…

On Life’s Inequalities

Tags

equality, equinox, nature, privilege, seasons

In order to understand the idea of inequality, we may be well served by first defining ‘equality’. Simply stated, equality is the state of being equal in status, rights and opportunity. It is often associated with fairness, equity, impartiality and justice. It is apparent that equality and its associated traits and virtues are wonderful, if not essential, for humans, communities and societies to practice and embed in their lifestyle.

And yet, equality is a fleeting thing at best. If we look at nature, inequality seems to be everywhere. The robin lays a lot of eggs, but not each one of them hatches. Among the ones that do hatch, not every fledgeling is equally healthy. Some flowers bloom more beautifully than others, even though they may grow on the same branch, and tree. In fact, flowers on the same branch often compete with each other for sunlight. Nature is full of examples of inequality, both in flora and fauna.

Two instances when nature may come close to exhibiting equity is at the moment of the equinoxes. Every spring and autumn, at a given hour of a given day, the sun crossess the celestial equator. We observe, even celebrate these days as those of equal sunlight and darkness. It is only on n these two days of equinox that nature’s law seems to benedict equality upon her two hemispheres. On every other given day of the year, inequality of light and darkness is the natural law. And we humans, along with the flora and fauna that we live amongst, have learnt to thrive in this inequality of nature!

Similar to the two days of the equinoxes, there are perhaps two other instances in which equality is the natural law. Is it in the two instances of our birth and our death that we are equal in nature’s eyes? Is it not that the beggar and the king are ‘equal’ in birth and, particularly, death? Every living moment between those two moments has the potential to subject our lives too inequality. We might as well adapt, change, learn to live our lives well, swim and thrive in this sea of inequality, yes? Make no mistake. This isn’t a call to surrender and accept unfairness, inequity and injustice. We may have bigger battles at hand.

Our battle is for the abolition of the use and abuse of privilege. Our battle is against those who would use privilege to keep us from the opportunity to strive for natural justice. Equity, ethics, empathy and equality are all part of our core spiritual existence and heritage. Our battle against privilege will return us to our core values and existence, to equality through Oneness.

What can inequality create? Thirty three years ago this month, a young boy left behind everyone that he had known, spent the better part of twenty four hours migrating across the oceans to the unknown. With suns, moons and stars guiding his eyes, he traveled to a land which held out the promise of equal opportunity. A lot of equinoxes have since been celebrated by him in his adopted land. The boy has grown, but the dream has not yet gone.

The dream has in fact been transformed into a practice that his heritage has long known: “to arise, awake, keep aloft the banner of love, and to stop not until the goal is reached!”

Kumud

P.S. What’s your story of adapting to inequality, of celebrating equinoxes, of battling privilege? I invite you to share with the #SpiritChat community, Sunday September 22 at 9amET on twitter. Namaste – @AjmaniK

On Stages and Transitions

Tags

seasons, stages, transitions

At this time of the year, when a change of seasons seems imminent, it is natural to think about transitions in our lives. The notion of transition was brought home to me with great force this week as I found myself stretched thin to support two very close families who were experiencing major transitions of their own. The first was my mentor of twenty five plus years – a father figure of sorts – to whom I found myself saying farewell to. I took along a few of my favorite spiritual books, sat with him, read to him, reminisced a bit about our years, and wished him well on his transition.

The second transition has been more of a roller-coaster ride so far. My ex-neighbor of many years, fighting the battle of his life, who keeps making one remarkable recovery after over the past two weeks. I thought I had said my final farewell to him (in the physical) Friday night, only to find out that he had a good night’s sleep and was sitting up in a hospital chair this morning! It made me wonder, at least for today: how far does the extent of knowledge and expertise of experts and specialists (in medicine) really reach?

So, here I am. Talking to you about life’s stages and transitions. I am truthfully at a loss for words to describe the experiential, first hand observation of the strength that goes beyond the physical. It is one thing to believe in the immense power wielded by the energy dimensions beyond the physical, but quite another to experience it twice within a week. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the Upanishads:

“No mortal lives by the in-coming breath (Pråna) or by the out-going breath (Apåna), but by another on which these two depend” – Katha Upanishad

Why do I use these two examples to talk about transitions? It is perhaps because these two events reminded me to focus on, draw strength from that which lies beyond what our senses inform of us of. We tend to trust what we see, hear, and feel, and the opinions of authority figures, say in fields like medicine. It often takes transition events to inform and educate us, to look beyond our sensory inputs. It is perhaps in transition from one stage to other that science meets spirituality. To parphrase one of the most famous scientific figures of the last century:

“I want to know the thoughts of the divine – the rest are merely details” – Albert Einstein

On my nature walks, as autumn approaches, I am led to ask – where does this seemingly immense amount of energy that it takes to transition one season to another come from? (And yes, I ask that same question in spring too!) In a similar vein, where does the energy that fuels the will to live come from? How do we prepare for the next stage of our storied lives, and to experience the great transition that we refer to as ‘death’ (of the body)? What is the nature of the energy that fuels our transition to the next stage of our spiritual journey?

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. I invite you to join all of us in the #SpiritChat community, Sunday September 17th 2017 at 9amET/1pmUTC. We will try and share some light on this subject (with an attitude of lightness). If you cannot join us in the live hour on twitter, I invite you to reflect on the topic and share some of your ‘transition’ experiences. Namaste.

Flowers in various stages of transition ~ Summer flows into Autumn…

Related post: https://spiritchat140.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/transiitons-and-spirituality/

Tags

seasons, spirit, spiritchat

The Seasons of our Spirit

The first weekend of September is traditionally the ‘End of Summer’ in the USA. Schools have re-opened, back-to-school shopping for supplies is over, parents are taking a breather after a summer filled with ‘camps’, vacations and traveling.

While we would all like the ‘endless summer’, I wonder how many would enjoy something like that? For it is the change of the seasons, summer followed by Fall and preceded by Spring ~ the contrasts between them ~ that add color and ‘spice’ to our lives. I am always amazed at how many of my memories of being in the USA are connected with the seasons, and the periods of transition between them. As we prepare for Fall or Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, mornings get a touch of chill and the days get shorter.

Yes, our physical bodies can feel the change ~ but, what about our spirit? How does the end of summer affect your spirit? Does it welcome the change or does your spirit hanker for the long days and warm summer nights of summer? Does your spirit, your mood, your mental state change with the seasons? Is there a particular season when your spirit feels light (or heavy)?

Come join us in a discussion on ‘The Seasons and the Spirit’ in a twitter chat on Sunday 4th September at 9am EDT (note new time for this week) (USA, UTC-4) or 6:30pm (India) in the #SpiritChat room (web link). You can also send a tweet with the hashtag #SpiritChat from your twitter platform to send the community your message.

(photo courtesy wikipedia.org)

P.S. I invite you to leave us a note or comment to enjoy, even if you will not be available online during the scheduled hour. Be well, and enjoy your holiday with friends and family.

Kumud