Our Spiritual Quest

Tags

awareness, december, journey, light, spirituality, winter

On some mornings, particularly on heavily overcast ones, where the carpet of the sky is laden with the dust of the night, we trade sunrise and sunlight – or rather accept, as we cannot really trade anything that doesn’t belong to me – for stillness and reflection amid the deep peace that nature offers to us – and wander in our quest, even if a bit seemingly aimlessly for a while…

only to be led to new paths which we may have often passed by but did not have the courage or willingness to explore because we were enamored by by the familiarity of chasing sunshine – and we then see all too familiar sights from new heights and with new insights as our eyes stretch and work a bit harder in the relative darkness…

to realize that there is yet enough light, even on those overcast morns, to discover the berries of winter, watch a pair of mallard ducks peacefully swim alongside a troika of geese in the stillness of the lake – and even when they swim out of sight, we know that they are there, somewhere, from the gentle wake that spreads from their meeting in the middle of the lake to the shore and breaks up the reflections of the tall trees in the water…

perhaps some day, when the calling is loud and deep enough, we will understand more the reasons – but until then, our quest, our journey towards peace and exploration, peaceful exploration, continues, powered by the energy and light of all those who have gone before us…

as we know fully well by now, we are at peace in the knowing of its glow, that the sun shines bright above the overcastness, and that the source is awake in its effulgence, and that permanence is its nature because it reflects within us when we look with new sight…

Yes. There is light enough for our quest, no matter what it is our heart may be seeking. Peace, hope, love, joy, light – they are all serendipities to be found on the way, and our practice may even help to establish them permanently within our heart. When our daily practice, informed by our quest, becomes a lifestyle, we can find ourselves awakening with more lightness every day to the goodness within us and those around us.

Let there be light enough, to keep our quest alive.

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly twitter chat, Sunday December 5 2021, with the #SpiritChat community on twitter. We will continue our quest with holiday goodness and goodies. Come share with us. Namaste ~ @AjmaniK

Nature’s gifts… for December’s quests…

On Spiritual Radiance

Tags

celebration, healing, radiance, spring, winter

There was no mistake about the invitation. The morning sun had finally made its way through the haze as is crested over the ridge, seemingly at the same moment that I reached the bottom of Cedar Point hill. The only question was whether I was going to turn left or right onto Valley Parkway, park in one of the alcoves, and accept the invitation to walk.

And walk into spring I surely did. Unlike the day before, when spring seemed imminent but wasn’t quite there yet because the river was firmly frozen and the wind that blew through the clearings was swift enough to crinkle your bones, today was different.

There was a certain radiance in the invitation today. A radiance that spoke through the ever so slightly higher pitch of the songs of the birds. A radiance that invited the fishermen to walk out to the middle of the river on the sheet of ice still thick with opacity. The radiance made the water flow briskly in channels between the ice floes, and also started to create pockets of water inside the thick sheets.

And so I walked, letting the radiance of it all warm me from head to heart, bathe me with the light breeze that flowed from under the bridge as I walked out on the rocks towards the middle of the river until my passage was blocked by sheets of ice laden like layers of lasagna. Right there, in that stillness amid all the music, I spontaneously started singing – a prayer that invokes health and wellness for the universe and all her beings.

An invocation for guidance in our paths, to prepare us well for our walk, to give us strength to endure winter and also give us lightness to welcome the radiance of spring. A prayer of gratitude to all those who are walking with us, have walked with us, and whose radiance continues to reach us from the wide yonder beyond. Right there, on the rock in the middle of the river, came the awareness of the beautiful, gentle energy of the divine feminine, and its influence in my life.

And so I walked some more, absorbing, healing, sending thank you notes to all the women – mothers, sisters, aunts, teachers, grandmothers, my wife and daughter, and all the ladies of #spiritchat. All of you have raised me up, and it is from you that I continually learn the singular fact that radiance requires no medium. It is an energy like love, like kindness, like the light streaming through the trees and making patterns on the melting snow, which gives your heart the distinct knowing that, yes, you too, are the spring to somebody’s winter.

There is great joy in acceptance – to accept the invitation to walk, to be That radiant spring.

Kumud @AjmaniK

P. S. Join us Sunday, March 10 at 9amET/ 630pm India (note that US shifts to daylight savings this Sunday!). We will celebrate and honor the radiance of spring, and share team and cookies for International Women’s Day. Namaste – Kumud

Witnessing radiance – standing on a rock ledge in the middle of the Rocky River, as the river melts around me…

The river flows North to Lake Erie, and small, frozen waterfalls serenade her passage

The play of light and shadows, spring radiates into winter

The halfway point… I walked out into winter… I paused… I returned with spring…