Daily Om Thursday

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Lydia | Leave a comment

Apple blossoms (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bloom Where You Are Planted:
Now Is The Time

The time to blossom is now, not sometime in the future when you believe the stars will be aligned for you.

Having a vision for our future that differs from our current circumstances can be inspiring and exciting, but it can also keep us from fully committing to our present placement. We may become aware that this is happening when we notice our thoughts about the future distracting us from our participation in the moment. We may find upon searching our hearts that we are waiting for some future time or situation in order to self-actualize. This would be like a flower planted in North Dakota putting off blooming because it would prefer to do so in Illinois.

There are no guarantees in this life, so when we hold back we do so at the risk of never fully blossoming. This present moment always offers us the ground in which we can take root and open our hearts now. What this means is that we live fully, wherever we are, not hesitating because conditions are not perfect, or we might end up moving, or we haven’t found our life partner. This can be scary, because we might feel that we are giving up our cherished dreams if we do not agree to wait for them. But this notion that we have to hold back our life force now in order to find happiness later doesn’t really make sense. What might really be happening is that we are afraid to embrace this moment, and ourselves, just exactly as we are right now. This constitutes a tendency to hold back from fully loving ourselves, as we are, where we are.

We have a habit of presenting life with a set of conditions—ifs and whens that must be fulfilled before we will say yes to the gift of our lives. Now is the time for each of us to bloom where we are planted, overriding our tendency to hold back. Now is the time to say yes, to be brave and commit fully to ourselves, because until we do no one else will. Now is the time to be vulnerable, unfolding delicately yet fully into the space in which we find ourselves. ~ Madyson Taylor, Daily Om

This post is easy. The Daily Om article states it all in a neat little package. Tomorrow, when the time is right, and I can’t right now because ___________ (fill in the blank), are all excuses that we tell ourselves to avoid living our best lives, in the present moment. Although we know the truth, we kid ourselves into believing that this life is infinite. We place all of our dreams, hopes and desires, in a beautiful, embossed box, where they will be safe — until tomorrow. On a daily basis, we save the “good” china and silverware for special occasions, and we relegate that “little black dress” and sexy lingerie to the back of our closets and drawers, waiting for the “right” moment. Our hearts are swollen with all the words and sentiments that we wish to convey to our loved ones, at the “right” time. Well, I was recently reminded by the death of a high school classmate, that tomorrow may never come, and the “right” time is at this very moment.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” reason to explain our propensity for procrastination. It could arise from a variety of emotions and beliefs, but in reality, none of that matters. It’s all about letting go of all that is keeping us from our hopes and dreams. By doing so, we free ourselves from an uncertain future and consciously embrace the way that we really choose to live our lives.

As I write this, it reminds me of a poem that I read about letting go. (It touched me so much that I added it to my website as one of my favorite poems.) In addition to addressing the issue of letting go, it recounts many of the reasons we use to justify clinging to the status-quo. Although the poem refers to the female gender, it applies to every man and woman who is waiting for the elusive “right” moment to present itself before realizing their dreams. Read it, heed it, and go ahead — allow your life to blossom, beyond your wildest dreams, because the “right” moment is now.

She Let Go

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.
She let go of the fear.
She let go of the judgments.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.
She let go of the committee of indecision within her.
She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.
Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask anyone for advice.
She didn’t read a book on how to let go.
She didn’t search the scriptures.
She just let go.
She let go of all of the memories that held her back.
She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.
She just let go.
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the prayer line.
She didn’t utter one word.
She just let go.
No one was around when it happened.
There was no applause or congratulations.
No one thanked her or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.
Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.
There was no effort.
There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.
It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.
~ Rev. Safire Rose

The Choice Is Yours

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Lydia | Leave a comment

Sunrise at Malibu Lake in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, California, which is located on the northwestern edge of Los Angeles County, May 1975 (Photo credit: The U.S. National Archives)

It was near the end of my almost month-long stay in Los Angeles, and I’d finally made it to Malibu Beach. It was a perfect day for the beach, sand castles and sand angels. I find the rhythmic, gentle roar of the ocean waves mesmerizing, so I sat for a while taking in the seemingly infinite expanse of the water.

Soon, I was standing in the Pacific Ocean with my g’son awaiting the crash of the surf as it hit our bodies. I waited with the anticipation of the 3-year-old standing beside me. At the moment of impact, the surf dispersed the sand from beneath my feet, and I was on the verge of losing my balance. I must admit that my initial feeling was one of fear and loss of control. So, it was no surprise that my body reacted instinctively and went into a ‘fight or flight’ mode. My muscles tightened and my breath quickened, awaiting a nonexistent foe.

Assessing the situation, what I felt was akin to the earth giving way beneath my feet, and I, like a drunk college student stumbling home after the latest frat party, swayed to and fro, barely keeping my balance. Although I tried, I couldn’t formulate the words to explain the feeling to my son-in-law, who was nearby taking photos. From out of nowhere, I felt it–a moment of sweet, exhilarating perfection, followed by an acceptance and surrender to the feeling. My body sensed it as well, because almost instantaneously, it relaxed and my breath deepened. Bliss replaced the tension that I’d spent moments ago. In those brief series of moments, there was no agonizing about the past, or yearnings about the future. There was simply that perfect moment when everything made sense, and all was right with the world. Without thinking, everything within me knew that this was it, the elusive present moment. To my utter amazement, as I stood there in the ocean, the same thing happened two more times.

At first, my experience blew me away, and I wanted it to happen again. I am an unabashed seeker, like the majority of us, and long to live my life without the baggage borne of the past or future. The name of my blog, “Seeking Querencia,” says it all. Having spent a lifetime “living” a soul-sucking existence that can easily lull you into a sense of normalcy, I wanted to experience life’s moments, every precious one of them. There, I can let go of worries and wounds of the past and the never-ending daydreams about the unknowable future, and as it is said, to “stop and smell the roses.”

What I slowly realized is that it was those moments preceding my “transcendental” experience that held the key to my goal. It is then when I choose to let go of my endless thoughts and feelings about the past and the future. When we dwell in the present moment, there is no past or future. As Eckhart Tolle is known to say, there is only the now. The past and the future only exist in our minds and clinging to them only serve to strengthen them and prolong the hold that they have on us. They hold no significance. More importantly, they block our path to the only moment that is available to us, the present moment.

Each moment is a morsel that has within it the promise of infinite possibilities. They hold, among other things, a potential world of grace and mystery, and as they drift on by, they, too, become the past. We will never know what beauty, joy or wonder was within our reach, because the moment shall never come again. Mind you, the past is not irrelevant. It informs who we are. Yet, we are not meant to live there, we are meant to learn from it. The future, in spite of careful planning, is amorphous, and short of being able to see into the future, it eludes us and takes our attention from what is before us.

In those perfect moments that I experienced, I choose the present in lieu of the past or future. By doing so, I claimed the only moment given me. I love the following quote by Martha Graham, the acclaimed dancer and choreographer. She said,

“All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”

The last sentence wallops me. When we embrace each moment fully, we invite the present moment, not as a fleeting occurrence, but as a way of life–a fully aware and experiential life. From now on, this is what I seek.

How do you practice living your life in the present moment? I urge you to share your experience with us.

Quote Tuesday

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Lydia | 2 Comments

Morning Meeting (Photo credit: Lyle58)

“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

Happiness: A State of Mind

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Lydia | Leave a comment

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~Abraham Lincoln

Today began with all the earmarks of a bad day. I woke up 20 minutes before my mother’s 9 A.M. doctor’s appointment. I had a good hair day on a morning that it insisted on raining. I stopped at the grocery store for five items: milk, cat food, grapes, bananas and lettuce; and after purchasing ten times that amount, I arrived home without two of the items that I intended to purchase. So, I drive home uneventfully. I am about to get out of the car and it suddenly occurs to me, I am sitting in our driveway (in pain, but let’s not even go there!) with my Mom and groceries in tow, and the door key is IN THE HOUSE! Yes, I have managed to lock us out of the house. (The door key fell off the key ring and I’d forgotten to put it back on before we left.) Everyone with a key to the house was anywhere from 16-25 miles (one way) from our front door. We had absolutely no way of getting into the house short of driving through the front door and believe me, for a brief second, I considered it.

Instead, I called my daughter who never answers her phone. She didn’t disappoint. I reluctantly called my poor, harried husband who works over 40 miles round-trip from our home and is quite busy at work. He was in his office and answered the phone. After beating around the bush and pointless pleasantries, I finally got around to why I was calling. He, without the slightest aggravation or smugness, replied, “OK, no problem, I’ll just come home and let y’all in.” I apologized profusely and he said, “It could happen to anyone.” Have I said that I love my husband? Well, I love my husband. After calling him, I put the phone down.

Where? At that time, I couldn’t tell you. And the rain came. There I am out in the rain, retracing my steps, looking high and low for the phone–no phone. Did I mention that it was raining even harder at this point? I could not find the phone anywhere and in spite of my attempt to will the thing to ring, it didn’t. Naturally, none of the myriad people who call me daily choose to call at that time. As I learned from my days as a young girl waiting impatiently by the phone, it never rings when you want it to do so. Finally, I gave up and settled in the car, silently berating myself for being so dumb as to lock us out of the house, and for everything else that had gone wrong thus far. Yes, I decided, this was indeed a bad day.

My knight in shining armor arrived sooner than I’d expected and I resisted offering another round of apologies. He opened the door with no hint of annoyance. I immediately ran into the house, grabbed the house phone, run-walked out the door and started dialing my mobile phone. I was certain that it was in the garage, but no ring-ring to be found. I’d already searched the car and knew it wasn’t there, but it had to be somewhere, so I said, “what the heck.” Now, remember, it is still raining outside. I dial the number. To my surprise and relief, I hear a muffled ring-ring, ring-ring, ring-ring. The sound suggests that it is indeed in the car. I try to follow the ring before it stops. It stops. I dial again, same story. I repeat this four times and I still cannot find the phone. By this time, I am really aggravated and the lettuce is in the trunk wilting.

I storm out of the car, press redial and stand there in the rain. The phone rings. Ring-Ring, Ring-Ring, Ring-Ring. I am confused because I hear the ring loud and clear, it is no longer muffled. My eyes follow the sound. They follow it right to my phone–sitting on the roof of the car, in the rain! It was right there all the time. At that moment, I burst out laughing–at myself for leaving the phone sitting on the roof of the car where it was rained on, for misplacing the phone in the first place, for not seeing it the scores of times that I got in and out of the car, for locking us out of the house and causing my hubby to drive all the way home to let us in, for getting my Mom to her doctor’s appointment late, for all of it.

I realized then and there that I could look at everything that happened today from two perspectives– one negative and one positive. Either way, I have the power to control whether I have a bad day or a good one. I can chose to allow these mishaps to ruin the rest of my day or view them as the minor bumps that they are, and to be happy. I chose how I will respond to them. They, in and of themselves, do not dictate how I feel. I do. Although I do believe that we can chose to be happy or sad, I cannot tell you what choice I will make in the future, not even tomorrow. All that I can say is that for the present moment, I chose “happy.”