Water drop splashing — MSN clipart photo provided by NVTOffice Clips
THIS MOMENT MATTERS . . . even in the writing of this story, I notice moments as fleeting, difficult to observe and yet compelling. My thoughts want to bounce around, sort, try to understand and decide what to do next. Herein, I believe, lies the secret that matters most in our lives, our happiness, and that is to take time and notice the moment. Continue reading
Photo by Pat Ruppel – Evergreen Lake House
The mountains and lake were beautiful this morning at Evergreen Lake – I wanted to breathe it all in and hold onto it – not let it fade. I’ve been at the lake often but in looking around this time I was particularly captured at how life seemed to jump out at me – offering itself. Life really is a dance.
It was my first Tai Chi class. My husband had practiced the art many years ago but I know very little about it. What I wasn’t prepared for was my experience.
I’m told by those who practice Tai Chi it balances your life when connected to the life force – chi. For those not having a clue to what that means (believe me I’ve been there) it is something similar to being ‘in the zone’.
I felt awkward not knowing the movements or flow. It was like the first time I stepped out on a dance floor stumbling and moving one way while everyone else moved the opposite. As I watched and tried to repeat the steps I felt totally out of sync and overwhelmed. My brain tried to process one thing and my body something else.
A third of the way through the class, we stopped for further instruction and I noticed this ‘weird’ feeling in my hands. I’m familiar with energy work like acupuncture and Reiki but this was different. It wasn’t a soft, warm tingling sensation – it was a strong, swirling pulsating vibration in my hands. It scared me for a moment. I felt as if something had taken over my hands.
When I spoke up and mentioned that I felt a ‘weird’ feeling in my hands, the others seem to know exactly what it was. It was the connection of the chi energy force in my body.
It passed and we finished the class but yet I was somehow different. I noticed somewhere deep in my soul there was a shift – something had changed. Just this morning I was thinking about a topic to write similar to this experience but from a different perspective.
I had thought about how fleeting things are in life and how we can’t seem to ever hold onto the satisfaction of it. It started with the alarm going off to get ready for this class.
It’s only been a short while since I was in the routine of getting up by the alarm every morning to get ready for work. At the time, I was happy with that routine but noticed how the grind took a toll and much effort to maintain.
Now, I’m home, a free spirit with no routine – stay up until the wee hours of the morning and sleep in. But notice no routine also takes a toll and I’ve gained weight and my body is getting lazy and sluggish. I thought, “Isn’t there a happy medium where one can flow with life and not work so hard at it?” “And, when a perfect moment is captured why can’t we hold it?”
You know those moments when life is full and there’s nowhere else in the world you’d rather be. You want to soak it in and savor it. Spiritual writings say humans make life way too hard and complicated and that happiness is a natural state of being – every aspect of us is human, spirit and God.
I felt that today in the shift. I felt the peace and love of life flow through me and it has stuck. I still feel it and with excitement looking forward to the next moment – next adventure.
Pat – from the ol’ kitchen table
Photo by MSN free Clipart Image from officeimg.vo.msecnd.net
A couple of lyrics from a song “Pacing the Cage” (written and sung by Bruce Cockburn and also performed by Jimmy Buffett) makes me wonder about the world as I see it today. It’s not bad – it has just become different and maybe we can change with it:
“I never knew what you all wanted, so I gave you everything.” … AND
“Sometimes the best map will not guide you. You can’t see what’s round the bend.”
I’ve taken notice lately of a lot of dramatic changes not only in the ways we communicate, earn a wage, but how we relate to each other to name a few. What appears to have worked well in the past doesn’t quite work as well and I see more people frustrated and “pacing the cage”, so to speak.
It’s all linked together and I’ve wondered how we’ve given everything and traded our souls for a false security? Only we don’t realize the security is false until our jobs are outsourced or our partners move on to someone else. Sometimes we feel we’re doing all the right things and yet we feel anxious, pacing.
We invest in a college education only to find when we graduate the jobs are not there. Or you work your whole life and follow the rules only to come up short at the other end wondering what happened to it. Then you dig in and work some more only to realize your value in the workforce is not as great because of your age.
Could it be what we’ve bought into all along are not the real goods? Could it be what we’ve been programmed and conditioned to believe has not just been for our best interest but rather to make it easier for others. Maybe by following the rules we believed we would in turn always be taken care of. We no longer had to think for ourselves – it was someone else’s responsibility.
In school we’re signaled when to move from one class to another or you start work by clocking in and clocking out when you leave. Somewhere along the way we’ve sold out and learned to move along with the masses instead of engaging with our true nature and talents and being rewarded for that.
This new world will require us to deliver unique gifts and talents that have value and we have to learn how to move with it. No longer accepted will be the cookie cutter – template approach but unique services and products with our personal intellect and energy, individual connection and quality.
I would suggest that if you feel a little restless and “pacing the cage” it’s because of the shifts and changes in the world and it’s time to step back and take inventory of our lives and make some changes.
Take back our lives and depend on ourselves to move forward with the talents we’ve been given. The world is waiting and hungry for what you and I have to offer. There’s a genius in each of us. What do you think?
Pat – from the ol’ kitchen table