Eyes Open!

The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don't go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don't go back to sleep!

Rumi

What will you see this week? Open your eyes to new experiences, new learning, a new You!

 

The Guest House - Rumi

and one of my most favourites....
 

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.






Rumi

Be afraid, be really afraid

It is hard to be zen-like through our day.

We are in a culture that has been enlightened about the harm caused to our environment by plastic bags. The other day, I carried my own fabric bag to a retail store and made some purchases. Then I stood there, waiting. The young female behind the cash, stood there waiting too.

I asked her in a calm manner, "When a customer brings their own bag, do they no longer get their purchases packed?" She stared back. "Just a question", I said. (Of course at the back of my mind I'm thinking to myself, haven't I just saved this store the cost of their bag. Should I not expect some service?) "Just a question" I repeated, waiting to see if perhaps her response would indicate that it was store policy not to touch a customer's personal property.

But her words flabbergasted me, "You could have asked" she said. WHAT? Since when do I have to request customer service? I am annoyed that service has deteriorated to this point. It seems that the customer is NOT always right.

Don't go to a store with your own bag and expect to be served, you too might be disappointed. I am beginning to understand why people joyously shop on their computers at midnight.

When I shared this unhappy interaction with a colleague, she told me of one of her latest experience. She asked an employee at a local grocery store where she could find a certain product. His answer was "I don't know, I only work here." No, he was not trying to be amusing.

Sometimes, I don't think even Rumi could help me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

The Field

We start out with the best intentions, and then get way laid by life. Sometimes it’s big things, like a family that moves just as we are about to launch our stuff in the high school drama club, sometimes it’s a run-away parent, a broken leg prior to the big game, or a broken marriage.

Surprisingly enough, it can also be small things, a missed bus makes us late for an interview for a job we would clearly have hated, a flat tire takes us to a coffee shop where we reacquaint with an old high school friend. How many times do we think that we’re going in one direction and then find out it is taking us to something better? I know a man who ruined an Achilles tendon running, and then took up yoga to rectify it.

I took up yoga on the advice of a friend who said that 50+ was not too old to start! Through my 134 yoga visits of stretching, bending, and flowing, I have learned more than I can explain. That breathing through the learning really does help, how our body teaches patience and then rallies to our demands, how the joy of finally getting the asana can carry you for an entire day. Even though it’s nice to be naughty, how much are you willing to do to be good? Will you stick to the surprise ending to see how far it can take you? Even though my 184.5 hours of yoga are a far cry from Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours to greatness (Outliers, 2008), I am a better person because of it. I have a long way to go but as Rumi said "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I will meet you there."

The Universe conspired to bring a wounded runner to an unsuspecting soul, and it gave me someone who makes me smile every day.

Together we have balanced, OOOMMM’d, twisted, and seen the room upside down. We have grown stronger and more flexible together. We could sit together endlessly under a Bodhi tree. Namaste to Rob, Tamara, Tom, Deanna and many others for being a part of our story.