Hope

What if it were this easy?

What if we could look up the hill when we’re slogging through the dark places of our nightmares to see a sign announcing hope only 16 miles away? Not only that, we’re offered rest and time out for a little fishing.

Hope is a commodity so dear to the human condition we’re willing to walk through the fire if we think hope is waiting with a cold drink and cool towels on the other side.  We all seek the relief of hope.  

What happens if we’ve trusted the sign, and we’re halfway down the trail with a burning thirst and blisters and wonder if we really saw a sign?

When the flare isn’t this clearly visible, where do we find hope?

Often, hope ignites when a complete stranger shares a moment of compassion through kindness and our optimism restores or hope may be a spiritual gift from a gracious Universe very personally invested in our aspirations.

Most frequently, hope resides as an eternal spark in our own murky interior. When we can’t find hope in the present we can access our memory of hopeful times and memory will stimulate a regeneration of incentive. Because of the way the mind works with memory, the same chemicals produced at the time of the initial hopeful episode recreate in the present and flood through our systems to bring the uplift we desperately need. This is one of the times there is merit in looking back.

We humans are in all, amazing creatures.

Intention and Carrots

The carrots in the cold bed garden are sprouted and at the stage where shoots differentiate into the ferny stalk we recognize and stop yanking out as another annoying weed. 

Poke a seed into the ground when it’s cold, dark, deluged with rain and there’s a reluctant nagging doubt spring will ever arrive. 

Abide.  Hope. 

Imagine the seed becoming a carrot. Or a beet.  Or an onion. We have no guarantee of what’s transpiring beneath the surface of the soil while we wait for germination to construct the end result.

Intention is rather like a carrot.

The smallest kernel of an idea or desire, sown  in the gloom of uncertainty where we can’t know for sure anything is happening. Time. Meditation and prayer.  Then a tendril of manifestation so small we could mistake it for random coincidence. Patience. A gradual recognition of stirrings for the next step and  glimpses of a propitious design. Intention aligned with universal movement and fruition.

Flow.

Making "it" work...

Trying to force fit a situation because it “should” work out is like brown bagging pastrami sandwiches to a Buddhist retreat and believing the dichotomy will be successful in the long run.

Matrix

Time and truth elegantly intersect to inform our awareness of how and when we’ve compromised our integrity, and thus our health.

Kid's Today

Some of you may recall my guest post on Lisa Nowak’s YA blog about kids these days. Fasten your seat belt because here we go again. I heard a comedian disrespect kids today as impatient with technology when we should be counting our blessings that we even have technology. I agree with the comic, however, I didn’t appreciate the way he chose to dismiss young people to make his point and garner a few laughs.

Admittedly, I’m a log jam in the flow of evolution, so indigenous and mammalian I won’t live long enough to experience any internal shift toward speed no matter how hard I try to force one. The seasonal rhythms have governed my life and the patterns are imprinted and set.

As a world population, we’re genetic cave persons. Only in the past century have our bodies been required to deal with electricity, land speed, air travel, woofers, lasers, microwaves … and velcro - ad infinitum. Society, technology, whatever ology out there is accelerating quicker than we’ve ever experienced as humans and genetically we’re scrambling to adapt. Some question whether our ethics are evolving as fast as our technology let alone our physical bodies.

Children are coming into the planet wired to keep up with their environment. Anyone under twenty is obviously smarter and faster than we are. They make connections and see solutions while we’re stuck on assessment and analysis. Each child has their unique genius. They know what they want and how to achieve their goals. Many of them are looking past their own self serving ends to make contributions on a world wide scale because of the technology available that makes connection possible.

Medication seems to be the  current solution spearheaded by school systems and physicians. Slow kids down enough to dissect and understand the alien when what we really need is to allow them to show us how to integrate the light speed of a new way of being. The real issue is our ineffectiveness at managing all the tools and toys we’ve invented. How sane is that to create the monster and tell the people who might know how to tame the beast they need to be on drugs? In some cases, valid biological issues need to be addressed with medication. Our own envy and confusion when presented with these amazing Beings is not a good enough reason to drug our children.

Instructors tend to panic when a child thinks beyond their scope and thank heaven for gifted programs and educators with the foresight to implement them. Profound gratitude to the teacher who recognizes a child that seems slow may be operating at a frequency so fast we can’t even relate.

One of the reasons some doctors are so ready with the prescription pad is they don’t understand how to effectively mediate their own compassion so they prescribe for their patient in an attempt to ameliorate their personal pain when they’re not omnipotent and omniscient, or in other words, don’t know how to fix IT. Perhaps, it’s our approach and attitude that warrants fixing.

I have the good fortune to know amazing young people and children.  One young woman is training to be an aerialist with the circus.  When’s the last time any of us had the same nerve and discipline to live a dream?  Or what about the six year old who broke open his piggy bank and gave the money to his mom when her purse was stolen? I was at a birthday party for a two year old recovering from cancer treatments.  She noticed I didn’t have any cake so she scooped up some of hers with her tiny hand and plopped it on my plate. Where are we on the spectrum of giving so generously? If we’d open our eyes we’d see a great hope for our future in the children and young people around us who manage in their audacious purity to remind us to dust off our jaded ethics.

The comedian was preaching gratitude. How about some gratitude for these Beings who are showing us the way out of the mess we’ve made for them of the planet they’ve come to inhabit? At least as much as we’ll be able to muster as genetic dinosaurs.

The O word...

I was just getting my head out of the hyacinths when realization hit that I have several large projects looming. Being a competent, well-adjusted, mature adult, I proceeded to remind myself even I could eat an elephant a bite at a time. Then, the projects took on the energetic appearance of a rogue bull charging down on me at full speed and I envisioned my skewered future as a tusk decoration.

Still in pajamas, I curled up in the recliner in preparation to hyperventilate. I called Janet, a friend of mine. This amazing woman is a Conflict Specialist and certified in mediation. She’s also very good at strategic planning. As usual, she was able to cut through the extraneous material straight to the core of the matter.

After her dry comment about feeling my agitation (did I mention she’s also an intuitive?) several hundred miles away, she reminded me, “You have all the time in the world”. Yes, I really do. I have all the time and assets I need to live my mission, and to accomplish it in the perfect order for me. She told me to get a grip because I was stressing myself out without actually going anywhere - an exhausting state to be in, wasting the resource of the moments I have. Janet stated we can overwhelm in our mind and we can reverse it in the same space. We have a choice. The elephant stopped to munch leaves as we talked.

We’ve traded these phrases back and forth for years when one of us has faced a crisis – real or manufactured by our own psychosis. When I left orchestra rehearsal last night, the bass player stated he was much happier since he’s clued into the concept people are imperfect. What a relief to find I’m in good company and have wonderful people around to point out growth is always possible.

Back to Janet. She counseled me to purchase a calendar dedicated specifically to the project, a large one with plenty of room to write in each date square. (And yes, I still have the smaller one used to keep all the plates spinning.) After a stint at the office supply store, I chose a very plain one I could fold up and toss in my computer bag to take along. All of the flowers and beaches on the other ones will only be a sidetrack for the artist self. She said mark the due date and work backwards from there to chunk it down in to pieces easily handled, marking the interim deadlines in special colors. I’m big on colors and visuals. My dear friend reminded me to build in the time for research and cooling off before review.

I have to admit my ego is screaming to add I already knew all of this. Yes, and it helps to be reminded of our skills when we lose sight of them occasionally.

The pachyderm is now a cute little baby nudging my elbow to get on with it. I have a plan.  I feel confidence return and know I am truly in control of my experience. Opportunity for fun and relaxation is built into the progress. So, the sun is shining today. Spring breezes are pressing me to take a jaunt outside. I’ve put in my time, and with a clear conscience am on my way out the door. I’m organized.