Love is why I came here in the first place.
~John Denver
Reflections
Namaste on TV
In following an unexpected trail of webby bread crumbs recently, I came to a YouTube video of Joan of Arcadia.
I always loved this show and also the show’s theme song by Joan Osbourne, One of Us. I loved the premise of Joan Girardi, (Amber Tamblyn), finding God each week in everyday people – a fellow student, a mime, a homeless man, a club DJ, a girl on the color guard at school, a soccer mom and the list goes on. The message is ultimately about the Divine in each of us, and the essence of the greeting Namaste. The song’s refrain is this:
What if God was one of us,
just a slob like one of us,
just a stranger on the bus
trying to make his way home.
Namaste is a greeting used by many Hindu, Taoist and Buddhists which literally means “I bow to you.” It is said with the hands together in prayer position over the heart chakra and with a bow of the head. It is the divine spark in one person acknowledging the divine spark in another. To me it is one and the same as to what Joan of Arcadia was all about … acknowledging the divine in each other – finding the divine in each other – sometimes in the most unexpected places. As said in Wikipedia, (where you can also read more about the show’s premise), “No specific mention of any “true” religion is ever made, and God quotes Bob Dylan, Emily Dickinson and the Beatles, rather than any scripture or verse” and is always very human in his/her appearances. I suppose it may be easy to look at this TV show in the light of one religion, but in the end … the message is the same, and enlightening from any angle.
The YouTube video I described is no longer available, but you can hear Joan Osbourne singing it plus the lyrics are also here.
In the Moment
At 4:30 this morning I was jarred into awakening by the sound of my currently empty garbage can hurtling across my back porch to points South. (It was placed there as the least likely spot to be pushed around by winds gusting to 50 mph. Clearly, the wind knew better than I.)
And at that pre-dawn hour, when many unwelcome thoughts clamber into our consciousness, a score of them crowded my mind. They all had to do with the future and with things that in all likelihood would never come to pass. But such is the mindset when we are catapulted into wakefulness from a sound sleep.
Some time later, curled up on the couch with my coffee and happily-fed, drowsy cats, I opened up to read from The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo. In language far more poetic than my own, he described the ancient human challenge of staying in the miracle that is and not falling into the black hole of what is not. He provided a simple breathing exercise to let go of all the imagined outcomes that are not yet real. In other words, be in the moment. Perfect.
So this evening, just about 12 hours after my abrupt morning awakening, I was working at my desk. The wind continued to wrestle with the trees and I looked out the window to see the magnificent sky pictured above. At first, I thought to continue my work. Then I realized that that sky was the miracle of now, exactly what I had been reading about and reflecting upon. I chose that moment.
The Longest Months
It’s about now, towards the end of January and all through February … and OK, through much of March … that seem to be the longest months. Despite the fact that the days are getting longer, the sun rising earlier and there now being light at 5 p.m., it feels like the darkest part of the year. Some call it the Winter blues or the Winter blahs.
The holidays are over, and for those of us who don’t care about football there’s not much exciting going on … just a wait until Spring. So I remind myself, that even though it’s cold there, too, there is still phenomenal beauty around us. Somewhere, (in this case, Canada), the aurora borealis is dancing ….
And somewhere, here Hawaii, the sun is bright and the water is calling.
And somewhere, right in our own hearts and homes, there is still warmth and love and creativity and reason to celebrate the winter. Whether it’s curled up by a fire or in front of the TV, making a pot of soup or doing a jigsaw with the family, each day is new and holds the promise of some small wonder. We’re called upon, as always, to be in the present, and not spend our time waiting for something to come. It’s already here.
Open the door and welcome it in.
Searching for Serenity
Recent events have me pondering … journaling … rather than recording my thoughts in a public forum. As you are well aware, there are times in our lives when we have to take certain events and look at them from every angle, trying to get them in some comfortable spot so we can live with them, especially since there’s nothing we can do to change them. And aye, there’s the rub.
I am not good at helpless. I am particularly not good at helpless watching another – in this case, an animal – who is suffering, and for whom I can do nothing. There are times when we really have to come to grips with whatever it is and accept our own limitations in action regardless of how our hearts are reaching out. In all the years I have been involved with animals, rescuing and healing them, and, depending on the circumstances, finding them homes, those situations that have been the most painful have been those where I could do nothing.
I have been told many times along the way that it was not/is not my responsibility to save everyone .. or every animal … that each of them, like each of us, is on his or her own journey, and I can only do as much as I can do. Whatever the issue is, and it may be different for many of us – animals, children, the elderly, loved ones, those persecuted unjustly for any reason, anyone suffering – if we have a heart, we want to do something … make it better.
But sometimes the change has to be within ourselves. To accept our limitations and to understand that our inability to alter one circumstance does not mean we are failing … it only means that sometimes, despite our desire, it is not ours to change.
So I have found myself thinking a lot of the Serenity Prayer, written by twentieth century American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr. As short as it is, it is brilliant and to the point. I’m sure you are familiar with it.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.
I believe that sometimes we need to accept that just being who we are is enough. And that sometimes, achieving that may be a lifelong lesson given to us again and again until we finally know it to be true.
Still A Dreamer 