Pat | Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom

(Picture from Microsoft Clipart) ~~~ As we go through the ebb and flow of life we need not get too comfortable with what we’re doing or what we have. This little phrase reminds us that nothing is permanent. That can be encouraging if you currently are experiencing valleys in your life but it also applies when you’re flying high. I think that’s why our fulfillment only lasts for a short time – nothing in form is permanent. It was never meant to be.

We have identified and attached to what we see, what we have and do – all forms. We don’t even know there is anything else as we have forgotten there is another part of us. We have separated ourselves so much from our true essence that we believe that the world as we see it is all there is. These are so-called truths we have accepted and believed but it doesn’t mean they are true. When we get hold of the deeper meaning of the truths that have been written and spoken down through the ages we will awaken to the amazing beings we were created to be. Eckhart Tolle in last night’s telecast with Oprah said, “We are the Universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.” This is the other part we forgot about – who we really are – the Universe expressing itself.

The human part is form and, therefore, impermanent along with all the other things that are form. Whatever you own, the places you go, what you do, will all over time disappear as it belongs to form. There is nothing wrong with this. We just have to realize for which these things are for – to enjoy and share with others. It’s when we are looking to these forms for fulfillment, believing this is who we are or here is where I will find who I am, that we are disappointed when they don’t meet our expectations.

Your essence part, Beingness, is who you really are and is your life connection to the I AM. It never diminishes, deteriorates or lacks in anything. It is LIFE coursing through your body and when the body can no longer function and dies your essence leaves and goes back to its Source.

As we live this life in our forms, I believe we’ll learn how to balance the human part with the essence part. Part of the balancing is to become less attached to those forms in our lives and just appreciate them for what they are. If we lose them or they change we won’t be so devastated – this too will pass; or, if we land an important job and acquire fame and money we won’t be proud or puffed up – this too will pass – because we will know this is all part of form and that is what form does but it isn’t who I am.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

– The Holy Bible – KJV (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

From the kitchen table – Pat~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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(Picture from Microsoft Clipart) ~~~ A lot of what I’ve been reading lately impresses on me the importance of bringing our Being into whatever we do throughout the day. From that we can become more awakened.

Akemi in her blog, Yes To Me had a recent post, The X-Factor of Entrepreneurship, that really brought it home for me when she said, “BE who you intend to be whatever you are DOING”.

She talks about asking for guidance in clarifying her niche when guidance came quite unexpectedly. Akemi goes on to tell that there was a book signing going on at a book store she stopped in after she left her CPA’s office and she stayed on to listen to the author speak. In the Q&A segment, she listened closely as Neale Donald Walsch relayed a personal story of how he was frustrated in wanting to be a wise man to others but couldn’t seem to accomplish that. He was asked what did he need to DO right now and he answered in frustration that he needed to go to the store but that wasn’t what he wanted to do. He was then told to be the wise man he wanted to be while he was going to the store.

As it turned out, he met a woman who was frustrated and upset with she saw her child picking grapes while she was tending to something else. She yelled and hit the little boy’s hand. Neale noticed this and went up to her saying she didn’t need to do that to her child. That made her more upset as she told her stories and shouted her frustrations but he repeated what he said 2 more times. She finally realized something had happened and sobbed asking him if he was a minister of some kind.

What I realized in reading Akemi’s account of this story is that every moment we can bring our Beingness into whatever it is we’re doing – driving, phoning a friend, scheduling appointments, working at your desk. In fact, if we bring this Beingness into every moment of our lives we join with the Source’s life energy and free up the flow for things to move in our lives for what we really want to do, as it did for Neale Donald Walsch.

There is something very powerful when we learn to bring our Beingness in our everyday lives, no matter what we’re doing. As Eckhart Tolle said in his web telecast tonight with Oprah on his book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61)(Paperback), “BE a conscious space of presence if you want to help people.” When you allow whatever you’re doing and what others around you are doing to unfold as they will, you are holding that space for it all.

I think the more we learn to be conscious of who we are and feel it and live it everyday, there will be a transformation in our lives and in our world.

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This morning as my husband and I were walking out to the car to go to work I was surprised to see 4 deer pull their heads up and look directly at me only 20 feet from where we stood. I talked to them for a moment and they just stared not really bothered by this interruption to their morning. They were standing next to our parked car, so we had to walk towards them to get in and my husband got as close as 8 feet. Then, as we were about to drive out, we saw the rest of the herd walking down into our yard with their buck. In total, there were about a dozen deer. What a way to start out your morning, huh?

Living in the Rocky Mountains, I always marvel at the wildlife as we see it more frequently living among them in their habitat. We’ve had bear get into our metal shed and tear it up, hear the coyote howl regularly all through the year, see the bunnies and fox. If we had a fresh snowfall the night before, in the morning the yard is transformed into a wonderland of tracks. It is such a blissful sight to take in.

When I was a little girl and saw Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, I always fantasized playing and walking and just being with the animals like Snow White. When I’d go to the zoo and see the wild tigers and elephants, I’d wonder what it would feel like to curl up with one of those big creatures and experience their energy and power. Dr. Wayne Dyer in his book, There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, quotes from Patanjali (author of Yoga Sutras who lived C. First to Third Century B.C):

“When a person is steadfast in his abstention from harming others, then all living creatures will cease to feel enmity in his presence.”

Dyer talks about St. Francis of Assisi and how he would tame wild wolves that were destroying livestock by merely being in their presence.
Wild animals would feel the love that radiated from him; doves would fly to his hands. They all ceased to feel enmity. What a wonderful image. St. Francis didn’t have any special powers – no more than you or I. He just made himself available to and aligned himself with the Creator. ~~~ (Picture by Microsoft Office Clipart.)

There is a series of books I read some time ago that I fell in love with. They’re about a tracker’s life and experiences in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The tracker and author’s name is Tom Brown Jr. and when he was a child all he wanted to do was spend time in his beloved Pine Barrens. When he was around 7 he met another boy, Rick, about his age that liked the same things. Rick had an elder that taught them about the seasons and wildlife and how to walk in harmony with nature – his name was Stalking Wolf (Grandfather). In the beginning of his book, The Tracker, Tom describes what he felt about Stalking Wolf when he says:

“Stalking Wolf taught us how to be silent and watch what was going on. He had a special look that said he was giving us a hint to something that would seem obvious to us in a moment. When he saw that I didn’t understand why he had to be silent to see better, he said, “Go feed the birds.””

All the experiences and mysteries of the woods, birds and wild creatures unfold in these books as he learns to listen, track and move in harmony with nature.

Like St. Francis of Assisi and Tom Brown Jr., we can also learn to experience the wonder of nature if we approach it with reverence and are steadfast in abstaining from harming others, as Patanjali said. Animals can discern your intention from the energies we give off. They can read our hearts and sense more about us than we know about ourselves. As we become more awakened, the animals will respond to our new beingness, and we’ll walk among them in harmony and peace. Can you imagine that?!

Tom has a tracking school in New Jersey – Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracking School. He has written 16 books, and I’ve listed a few you might be interested in:

The Tracker
Awakening Spirits
The Way of the Scout
The Quest: One Man’s Search for Peace, Insight, and Healing in an Endangered World (Paperback)
The Vision: The Dramatic True Story of One Man’s Search for Enlightenment (Religion and Spirituality) (Paperback)
The Search: The Continuing Story of the Tracker

SPECIAL NOTE: I apologize to my fellow bloggers for not being as active in reading your posts and stumbling and commenting. I just started a full-time job this week. I haven’t had as much time to keep up with the feeds and e-mails and I’m a little overwhelmed. I hope to get a handle on it as I get used to being back into the corporate world. Thank you for your continued support and patience.

Pat from the ol’ kitchen table

(Picture by Microsoft Office Clipart) ~~~ I was sitting here tonight thinking about writing my post. I like to share stories and thoughts with you regularly but no ideas were coming. Sometimes, I have an idea I think about for a couple of days and other times like this – no thoughts, but then the words just happen.

Earlier, before I sat down to write, I was observing and exploring what it feels like to just be – allowing the present moment unfold the way it’s supposed to happen. One of the ways you can access that space is by paying attention to your breathing – in and out. No judgments, no expectations – just observation. It simulates the ocean and rhythm of the waves flowing out and pulling back in – back and forth. When we allow ourselves to be quiet by watching our breathing, it cuts out the mind chatter. To me, this is being – being in the present moment.

If you’re thinking, “Let me try this or do that”, you’re not allowing and surrendering to the moment. You’re mind is orchestrating again and you won’t find the present moment there. You have to let go as you watch your breathing.

We all want to find that place of peace. Sometimes, we just want to escape from the noise and chatter but what better place can you distinguish the space of being in the present moment than in the midst of confusion and disorder? Jesus demonstrated it when he walked on the water in a storm. We can tap into our source of creativity and find the answers to our deepest questions in this space of being in the present moment. It’s waiting to be discovered but can’t be accessed through the ego.

Notice and feel the water as you wash your hands? When you walk up the stairs, pay attention to how your body balances itself as you take each step and the movement of your muscles and joints in motion moving up the stairs. Don’t put any labels on it just suspend your thoughts and be aware. This is the beginning of the awakening of being in the present moment.

David said in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God”. There’s that word be again and look at what company it keeps. As we move along this path, our journey becomes easier and the load gets lighter as we learn to be with the ebb and flow of life unfolding in the present moment.

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I remember several years ago at a group discussion one of the questions I asked was, “Do you think it’s possible for humanity to live in harmony?” I was surprised to hear how fast and loud their response was – a resounding NO! We talked about it more and it looked grim based on what humans do to each other, animals, wildlife and the environment. Is there no hope?

After awhile, they all turned to me and asked me what I thought and I must admit I didn’t have an answer for them at first, still recovering from their response. But as I thought about it I asked them, “What seems to be the one thing all humans desire?” They write about it, sing about it – dream, play, and talk about it – it’s LOVE. So, it seems logical to me that, if we all have a deep, inner desire to love and be loved, harmony is possible.

Why is it then that we can’t live in harmony if we desire love so much? Maybe it’s because we’ve forgotten – maybe what we have come to believe love to be really isn’t love. Maybe, it’s just our ego acting out disguising to be love. If we can’t realize our connection to everyone (no exceptions) then our idea of love has been misplaced and misguided.

(Picture by Microsoft Office Clipart)

Eckhart Tolle in his book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61)(Paperback), says:

“The atoms that make up your body were once forged inside stars, and the causes of even the smallest event are virtually infinite and connected with the whole in incomprehensible ways.”

Love isn’t: “If you do something for me, I’ll love you” – or – Love isn’t: “Behave and believe like I do or I’ll love you”. Love is allowing others to follow their path and process their life as they need to in order to learn and grow and through it all seeing that part of them that never lost its shimmer or gloss forever connected. We look at the package and love one another based on the package but it’s what it contains that is complete and whole. The love God imparted within His creation is never lost.

So, what do you think – “Do you think it is possible for humanity to live in harmony?” Don’t look at the circumstances in the world or even what’s going on in your community or home. Look at what God looks at and see what He sees and then answer. As John Donne so eloquently wrote:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Taken from Dr. Wayne Dyer book, Wisdom of the Ages

From the ol’ kitchen table – Pat

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