Evolution and growth

There’s only Love

/ oneheart / 2 Comments

I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase before and have maybe even contemplated it. What does it mean to say there is only love? When you say something like this to others it can spark different emotions. I’ve noticed some get quiet and contemplative while others get angry, annoyed and even defensive. If seems to some that it is some airy fairy super idealistic and simplistic view of things that has no basis in reality. Others are certain that this is just a trite spiritual cliché.

I can only tell you what it means to me as I have given it some thought. At the moment of death or contemplating the moment of death it seems that all the extraneous stuff falls away. Beliefs, proclamations, judgements, grudges, our ideas about how life should be and even our bodies fall away. It is the biggest letting go of our lives. We are letting go of absolutely everything because as we know we can take nothing with us. If we are lucky when everything else falls away it leaves nothing but love and the focus on loved ones.

I can only tell you what it means to me as I have given it some thought. At the moment of death or contemplating the moment of death it seems that all the extraneous stuff falls away. Beliefs, proclamations, judgements, grudges, our ideas about how life should be and even our bodies fall away. It is the biggest letting go of our lives. We are letting go of absolutely everything because as we know we can take nothing with us. If we are lucky when everything else falls away it leaves nothing but love and the focus on loved ones.

Many master teachers and gurus point us to the moments before death as a powerful contemplation. My teacher Mooji would often say, “die before you die.” Meaning die to everything false, unimportant and temporary while you are still alive. What remains is only love. On your death bed you will most likely not be concerned with politics or the final score of the ball game. You will only want those that you love to be around you and you will want them to know you love them.

Western cultures tend to ignore the fact that death is actually a part of life, everyone’s life. In fact we die mini deaths throughout our lives. We shift, grow, change and transform in an ongoing process of letting go and surrendering. While still very much alive we die to old ways of being that have become outmoded or restrictive. We are vulnerable and stripped down to the core as we begin anew only to begin another cycle of birth and death and birth again in gradual dress rehearsal for the main event – our physical death and release of the body.

In the end there is only love because it is timeless and transcends even death as it is carried forward through our loved ones.  

What if…

/ oneheart / 4 Comments

Is healing moving from a sick state to a state of wellness?   Or perhaps it is making peace with what is.

Healing implies there is something needing to be fixed.  A person in need of healing is needing to be delivered someplace that they currently are not.  It means the sick person or an emotionally unstable person is in need of something that they don’t have naturally.  

Maybe to heal means nothing of the sort.  Are we missing the boat all together?  Maybe healing is as effortless as a flower blooming.  What if healing behaved like the ocean ebbing and flowing endlessly and freely?  What if healing is as natural as being awed by the night sky?  What if healing were one big game of Russian roulette and your destiny is already in the cards? 

What if it’s all one giant game and when we leave this planet we realize that we were just participating in one big experiment to teach our souls how to play?  What if we are all just spiritual beings who have elected to have a human experience?  

What if all of this is supposed to teach us lessons that can’t be learned any other way and when you learn what you came for its time to go?  What if dying means you’re freed to move on into a realm where polarity does not exist, there are no governments and you are free from this dense physical realm?  What if dying is as easy as taking off a heavy winter coat and letting it fall to the floor?

Is it someones destiny to get well and another to get sick and die?  Can we make new decisions that effect our destiny? 

I don’t know about you but these days have me contemplating my humanity and coming face to face with not knowing.  I don’t know the answers to these questions but I do feel in my bones that there is a power greater than me. These are the mysteries that keep me on my toes and alert! 

Part of my daily practice is to make space inside myself for the unknown and some days I’m good with this and other days, well, you know how it goes. 

Today I feel lighter and unexpectedly more liberated from this contemplation and I hope you do too.

Living from the Heart

/ oneheart / 2 Comments

Our hearts are certainly complex and capable of opening and embracing the most unexpected dualities and differences. The heart will feel what it feels even when it is not convenient and doesn’t look good on paper.  It can inspire us to become better human beings when we dig deep and have the capacity to forgive what is seen as unforgivable. It has the capacity to heal us by opening up even after it has been broken or start over when it seems that all has been lost.  It can find a path through adversity where our thinking mind would be rendered useless.  Love, compassion and empathy can flow freely through the heart where the mind would be calculating and planning to see what makes the most sense.  

The best way is to make use of both the mind and the heart.    Most of us are skewed and rely heavily on our rational, logical thinking and don’t balance it with the wisdom  and perspective that is available to us from our hearts. Bowing the head to the heart in a symbolic act of surrender to love and openness can feel like a leap of faith. It might even  feel scary and foreign in certain situations.  What do you have to loose?  You can put your boundary back in place if need be but how often do you consciously take the walls down and open up?  Try approaching something with kindness instead of judgement or criticism and see how it works.  I have witnessed kindness, openness and love completely disarm and transform the most difficult and complex situations.   

Without being open and loving to ourselves first it is not possible to offer this to others. We can only be open and loving to others to the extent that we have offered this to ourselves.

Collectively we are being called to go deeper into our hearts and learn how to live from its center.  It is our only hope if we are to overcome the division that is currently so common place in the world.  Meeting life with the mind connected to the heart begins as an inner journey and extends beyond our personal lives touching all who we come into contact with.  

Teachings from Nature Continue…

/ oneheart / 6 Comments

I often walk in the morning and am stunned by the consciousness that abounds in nature and the lessons that can be gleaned by one who is paying attention. Natures communication is subtle and usually speaks to me through my intuition. I know this because often strong feelings are inspired and when I take the time to be with these feelings often they speak volumes to me. Recently I wrote about my sunflowers in a blog called A Sunflower Taught me about Overcoming Adversity. You can read it here.

For my whole life nature has spoken to me although I didn’t always know it.  I’ve always known that nothing that comes into my awareness is wasted and that the universe uses every opportunity to teach and inspire me.  

Trees are awesome teachers that possess great strength, stillness, resiliency, connection, goundedness, beauty and resolve.  These are just a few of the adjectives that come to me off the top of my head but I’m sure you can add your own to describe your favorite tree.  

After hurricane Isaias the messages from nature were coming to me loudly and I would pass many downed trees during my daily walk.  When I stopped to pay homage to these giants that had given way and were broken or pulled up from their roots I was stunned to feel great resolve and strength.  When I stood with the tree to sense more deeply I felt none of the emotions of sadness or loss that I felt but a knowing that its life was not over because its visible form was gone.  It’s as if the tree was trying to convey to me that it knew what was coming and that the wind sent a warning through its system but being a tree it knew there was nothing to “do.”  The tree had no choice but to continue standing in its lifelong spot and weather the storm taking whatever mother nature threw her way.  The tree had to “be.” There was no fear for its future or memories from the past.  There was only the present moment 

When the wind gust pulled on the tree and the deep roots snapped there was no stopping it from going down.  Down she fell taking the soil and power lines with her and darkening all the homes on her grid.   It only seems right that such a magnificent being should have such an impact on us when her outer physical form comes crashing down.  

The tree knew there was nothing to do and simply had to take what was coming.  She did this with power and grace knowing that her outer form would be no more.  Her deep, deep roots carry on with her connection to all the other tree beings and they still share information, nourishment and more wisdom than we can possibly know.  You see the trees were here before us and they will surely out live us.  They have seen a lot and weathered many storms and will carry on even when its outer form is severely damaged or compromised.  And when the tree is completely uprooted and no longer visible to us still its life will continue. 

Unlike humans, nature uses its interconnectedness to benefit all of life.  The form of the tree has changed but still it continues in its vital role to all its neighbors.  

A sunflower taught me about overcoming adversity

/ oneheart / 10 Comments

I know this title may raise some eyebrows but it’s really true.  As an amateur gardener I have had the pleasure of learning many lessons from my vegetable and flower garden most  recently as a result of hurricane Isaias. (I still can’t pronounce this name!!)

In Early May our town was giving out free packets of sunflower seeds.  They encouraged us to plant them as a way of uplifting our town during the Covid pandemic and seeing them would make us smile and brighten our day.  I happily picked up my packet of 12 seeds and followed the planting directions carefully.

After a few weeks of caring for the spouts the day came to plant them outdoors.  It felt like I was sending my children off to the first day of kindergarten.  I placed them all carefully into their spots and then constructed a make-shift mini fence around each one.  Can you tell what kind of parent I would have been?  I watched them like a hawk everyday.  Some faired better than others and 4 in particular shot up and had very strong thick stems and had the promise of turning into big flowers.

It took quite some time for them to grow to the point that they were ready to flower.  Then comes hurricane Isaias.  The wind was blowing so strong I could see them getting pummeled  and I was very worried.  I quickly threw on my shoes and raincoat and ran outside in an attempt to give them support with some tall bamboo rods.  The wind was dangerously strong  making it unsafe for me and I had no choice but to leave them on their own for the duration of the storm.  

The next day I looked out my window and to my amazement all of the sunflowers  in the front made it through the storm!  Then I looked out my back window and two out of three had fallen on the ground; one was completely severed and the other was bent with a large gash in it’s stem.  Naturally I assumed only one would survive. 

Three days later I looked out the window again and the sunflower that was severely hurt and lying on the ground was still alive.  To my joy and amazement its bud was still attempting to follow the sun.  I ran outside to see if I could save it.  The stem had a bad 8 inch split but I was able to support it with bamboo rods and a bandage.   She stood again injured but proud!

I watched as the other sunflower next to her bloomed into a large bud attracting all the pollinators.  I examined the bud up close and was stunned the the beauty of how mathematically perfect it was.  The injured plant carried on but was developing more slowly and gradually.  The familiar green bud appeared and then to my amazement I noticed not only was there one bud but there were 5 buds in total!!  My injured plant was going to bloom more than any of the others! Wow!! 

Not only is it true for plants that overcoming adversity and suffering helps them to open, strengthen and develop resiliency but it’s true for all living things.  It was so beautiful, simple and powerful to watch the sunflower flourish despite having endured such a test.  

I learned a lot from watching my sunflower.  It wasn’t thinking about its struggle it was just engaged in a natural process called life.  Life threw it a curve ball and it had no resistance and there was no need to process feelings or overcome past conditioning.  It was tremendously reassuring for me  to watch its progress and see that adversity and suffering is just a part of the natural unfolding of life for all living things.    It’s not only natural but an essential part of life that helps us all to thrive and grow even stronger than we thought possible.  Next time you have to weather a storm of your own be on the look out for the gifts you unexpectedly receive.