Easily Amazed

Sunset over Rocks
Originally uploaded by evobassman

Another prayer said at my grandfather’s funeral

Birth is a beginning
And death a destination.
And life is a journey.
From childhood to maturity
And youth to age;
From innocence to awareness
And ignorance to knowing;
From foolishness to discretion
And then, perhaps, to wisdom;
From weakness to strength
Or strength to weakness –
And, often, back again;
From health to sickness
And back, we pray, to health again;
From offense to forgiveness,
From loneliness to love,
From joy to gratitude,
From pain to compassion,
And grief to understanding –
From fear to faith;
From defeat to defeat to defeat –
Until, looking backward or ahead,
We see that victory lies
Not at some high place along the way;
But in having made the journey, stage by stage,
A sacred pilgrimage.
Birth is a beginning.
And death a destination.
And life is a journey,
A sacred pilgrimage –
To life everlasting.

– from Gates of Repentance, “The New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe.”

Part of my self-care practice is noticing my own patterns for being and doing. Here’s a recent conversation with Meredith expanding on some of our current observations:

Meredith says,

This work just keeps taking me on the most amazing journey. I never really feel like I know exactly what I am doing, but rather that I am just being, in presence, in the most open-hearted manner I am able to open, coupled with with deep listening. I am filled with gratitude – thankfulness on so many levels.

And my response,

I sure do hear you on the abundance of gratitude-thankfulness. For me, I tend to start in a place of being and then I get seduced by the flurry of possibilities, visions, and pathways for action that come my way. I jump on a train with the intention to ‘bring something to life’. I go along for a few stops… and then realize… wait, what happened, where did my being go? How’d I get swept away into this flurry of doing? The first clues that usually get through to my awareness are when I notice I’m feeling anxious around all that I want to accomplish. That’s when I know it’s time to step off, breathe, feel the life, love and beauty around me, and listen to what is emerging NOW. The doing that needs attention always arrives in the right timing… I don’t have to arrive before it does. I just have to be here, centered and alert, listening to what is emerging. I love watching myself fall on and off this train… seeing my growth unfolding!!

What patterns do you notice in your life… related to being and doing, self-care or anything else your heart wishes to share!?

Hello!

I’ve started a new blog, Educating for Wholeness. My intention is to use this blog as a way for me to keep track of the various activites, thoughts, stories, classes, groups, articles, etc. that I use in my work as a school counselor. I’m hoping the labels might help me organize… we’ll see. I also want to make the materials available for other interested people outside of my school community.

Right now I’m struggling with the word lessons. The tag lesson plans gets used alot. Looking at dictionary.com, lessons:

1. To teach a lesson to; instruct.
2. To rebuke or reprimand.

I’m okay with the definition 1 but 2 gives me the creeps. What feeling do you get from the word lesson? Do you have another suggestion? And how about Educating for Wholeness… any thoughts on what that title brings up for you that you’d like to share?

Perspectives appreciated,
Ashley!

In a conversation at Heartmind Community, David D, a nurse consultant specializing in suicide and self harm, shares about his practice for processing the extreme situations that he engages at work:

My wife and I both often come home straight from some hospital trauma, have done throughout the more than two decades we’ve had kids. We’ve always made straight for each other like homing missiles and encouraged each other to unload, and the kids fully expect us to be standing or sitting together quietly rambling on for a while…! Then, romping around with the kids and the dog for a while and being as childlike as possible myself is great for switching my brain into different mode. Also, I tend to jump into trainers and go for a run, dive into the gross physical for a while, breathe fresh air and generate some endorphins. Its also made daily spiritual practice compulsory rather than an option I can drop…. Hey, occupational trauma can have lots of benefits, come to think of it…..

In parenting groups we talk at length about self-care and how we can’t give to others what we don’t give to ourselves. Often parents’ highest wishes and intentions are to be present for, nourishing and supporting their children. And yet if the emotional tank is empty in relation to oneself, it is not possible to genuinely be deeply emotionally present for another. David’s post gives concrete examples of ways to refresh and replenish

• Make contact with other humans and release excess emotional content
• Model for children the necessity of this process (self-care) and create routines where children can expect this to be the norm
• Get active and step into experiencing life that is happening now — with the kids, the dog, the fresh air, etc.
• Play, be childlike
• Recognize what is essential for sustaining such degrees of information input (i.e. spiritual practice becoming compulsory)

David also says that he appreciates this work because:

It s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s me until I end and widens the horizons of being beyond any notion of me.

mmmmm…now that’s what living is all about, eh?

How do you care for yourself?

Today was a beautiful day filled with experiences of sharing, supporting, being supported, learning, remembering, discovering, growing, laughing, crying and lots of loving.

These images capture some the environment that held me close today and I’ll share a few nuggets of thought that emerged.

Guiding inquiries: How may beauty awaken this moment? How may beauty transform me?
Possible harvesting questions when working with groups: How will we stay connected? In what ways will we continue to learn together?
Mental meandering: Looking at paths to healing… paths that lead people to unfold expanding fields of health and wholeness. Inquiring around choices to experience healing through a path of agonized suffering and choices to experience healing through a path of courageous love.

Droplets On Cucumber Runner
Originally uploaded by mommamia.

The pendant is a Maori design called Koru

“The koru reaches towards the light, striving for perfection, encouraging new positive beginnings…

The koru, represents the unfolding of new life, that everything is reborn and continues. It represents renewal and hope for the future.”

Welcoming Rosh Hashanah, I go to a place that is sacred to me… nature. I perch upon a drifted tree that rests along the Puget Sound shore.

Listening to the waves
Studying their ways
Following reverent lines of life

And reading from my prayer book,

With the setting of this evening sun, united with people of every place and time, we proclaim a new year of hope. Divineness of the universe, let Your light and Your truth come forth to lead us. These flames we kindle are a symbol of Your eternal flame: may they open our eyes to the good we must do, moving us to work for harmony and peace, and so making the world bright with Your presence.

…May we turn from our old errors and failures, and look ahead with fresh hope and determination…and give thanks for the goodness we have experienced during this past year…May the new year bring renewed strength and peace to the world.