Keeper Of Our Stories

Tags

mothers, mothersday, spiritual practice, stories

Swami Tyagananda, the head monk of the Vedanta Society of Boston was our invited guest speaker for the third Foundation Day celebration of the Vedanta Society of Cleveland this weekend. His two lectures were titled “Do you remember?” (Friday) and “Keeper of our Stories” (Saturday). While I will share more about the ‘remembrance’ lecture at a later date, I will share a few thoughts on today’s talk.

In most cases, if we want to truly learn about the childhood of a friend or family member, it is best to ask their mother(s), yes? The mother is one individual who is a natural ‘keeper of our stories’. Their memory bank is full of our stumbles, our successes, our natural preferences our aptitudes, and much more. And they have a plethora of stories connected with the many phases of our life.

It is not necessary that the mother, the ‘keeper of stories’, be the birth mother. Indeed, in many cases, this is not the case. In many cases, the ‘keeper’ may initially be the birth mother, but then transition to a different ‘mother’ or even a ‘father’ at some stage in our lives. If were are truly fortunate, there may even be multiple ‘story keepers’ of our lives.

What may be important for our mental and spiritual health is to ask the ‘keeper’, at some stage in our lives, to tell us our own stories. It can create many wonderful moments of awareness, growth and add depth to relationships. Story-telling and listening can begin with as simple a question as – tell me a story about when I was in middle school? Do it sooner than later, because once the keeper’s gone, the stories will go with them…

There comes a stage in our lives when we, the children, have an opportunity to become ‘keepers of our parents stories’. A decade ago, on a trip to India, I happened to ‘interview’ my mother’s mother about the stories of her childhood, and my mother’s childhood. Grandma was a wonderful story-teller! As a result, that forty-five minute video has become one of the most cherished records in the family vault.

When our parents enter their second childhood, we have yet another opportunity to become ‘story keepers’. It gives us an opportunity to wonder – what were our mothers (or fathers) really like as children? How much do we know about their dreams, fears, best friends, food and clothing preferences when they were in kindergarten? In middle school? In high school? And so on…

The Swami extended a dual invitation to us today – to learn about our stories from those who keep them for us, and to become the keeper of stories of those who once kept ours. I share that invitation with you. Share some stories. Be a keeper and a giver. It’s a great way to celebrate life.

Kumud @AjmaniK

Join our weekly twitter chat held Sunday May 14th, 2017 with the #SpiritChat community. Bring your stories to share about your childhood, and the ones who kept them. Namaste.

The Keeper of (my) Stories…

Our Freedom Journey – What’s Your Story?

Tags

freedom, journey, stories

Sleeping in – Will Today’s Journey Even Begin?

It’s Saturday morning and I am half-awake, Lazing in bed, hoping to catch a few extra minutes of sleep before I get going. I know what time it is by looking out the bedroom window at the amount of sunlight reflecting off of the trees laden with leaves. Just to make sure, I flip over the phone. It’s six twenty nine. I really have nowhere to be this morning, and I have already missed the pre-sunrise window’ to ‘sit’. Sleep a bit more, I tell myself. Everyone else in the house is still fast asleep…

Setting Up for the Journey

The next time my eye opens, the phone says it’s five past seven. (No, I do not have a ‘real’ clock in my room. I have tried that, and it made a ‘clock-watcher’ out of me. So, it now sits in the bedside drawer). Now, it’s decision time. I am either going to literally drag myself out of bed and ‘sit’, or… well, there is really no alternative. Today’s journey needs to begin ‘right’. So, in the next few minutes, I am all set up on my favorite handloom-woven mat, my back-pillow and my blanket. One final glance at the phone sets the beginning time for me. It is twelve past seven. I am ready for today’s freedom journey. I begin with a ‘full-body’ relaxation, sitting in a cross-legged pose, grounded.

Energy surge – Sitting up

Grounding is an essential part of this freedom journey. Some days, that comes through physical connection to the earth. Some days, it comes from this current that flows through you. Today, it was both.
I ‘told myself’ to sit up straight as I began, and almost immediately, the energy flow started from the ground up. This ‘double-grounding’ was very welcome, as I had begun today’s journey with a very low physical energy level – sleepy and a bit grumpy – but that was soon to be history. The grounding flow continued. It was as if Mother Earth had opened up a special geyser, just for me – I could tell that this was going to be a special journey. But wait. What’s this? My thought orchestra was also being energized, drawing from this energy boost, Tuning up! What am I supposed to do now? Help! Anyone?

Give me sixty seconds

No sooner had I ‘asked for help’, that the guide appeared. I have done this before, so I knew that a response would be forthcoming. Over time, I have trained myself not to be shy or afraid to ‘ask for help’ when needed. I am among those who no longer believes that I can negotiate all the obstacles on my own, be my own guide. Today, I needed help to ‘tone down’ the orchestra a bit, or at least harmonize the different instruments. “Give me sixty seconds,” – came the response – “of silence uninterrupted by thought.”

Sixty seconds of uninterrupted thought? That’s it. That should be easy peasy. Here we go.

I am not sure how long it took me to string together sixty seconds, but the only way I could do it was to countup to sixty. One thousand one, one thousand two… and so on. One thousand sixty. Well, that didn’t work. Let’s go again. Finally, there was a countup where I did not make it past thirty… I was immersed. Then I seemed to be dissolved . And all that was ‘left’ was my grounded connection to Mother Earth. Aha. Maybe that is why ‘grounding’ is important – so that you can ‘return’.

On the return, among a sense of serene light, I was asked – see what happens when you ask for help, sit still to receive, and give the sixty seconds you are asked for?

Sixty seconds – Reprise

I figured I was all done with today’s journey. But, before I opened my eyes, I wanted to relax out of the journey – slowly. So I did a very slow count – again to sixty – one thousand one, one thousand two, and so on. I tried to slow down the count as much as I could, but finally, there I was. One thousand and sixty. That’s all.

I opened my eyes, searched around me for my phone, flipped it over, and glanced at the time. Twelve minutes past eight.

I had journeyed into freedom for exactly sixty minutes.

Even though I had ‘given away’ sixty seconds when asked, they had been returned to me. As sixty minutes. A pretty good return on investment, don’t you think?

Kumud @AjmaniK

The Story Continues – #SpiritChat Sunday July 10th

The story above is part of my freedom journey for today. Journaled immediately at journey’s end. Mostly unedited. What’s your story? Will you share a bit of it with us? Where did you begin? Where are you now? Whom are you traveling with? Who have you become? Where are you going? What is your biggest distraction? Who or what inspires you to continue? What ‘bridges’ have helped you on the way? If so inclined to share, do join us, Sunday June 10th 2016 at 9amET/1pmUTC in #SpiritChat on twitter. I will host on the topic of “Our Freedom Journey” as we continue the theme of #Freedom for July. Thank you for reading. Peace and love to you and your friends and family. Namaste.

Bridge in Rocky River Reservation (photo by @AjmaniK)