Quality of Life - Rod MacIver

The tendency is to trade our time, our lives, on unnecessary
distractions...

Simplicity... - allows us the freedom to say no to activities and
projects [or to people].  Simplicity contributes to independence
from the dominant culture and its preoccupation with the extreme,
the ridiculous, the trivial.  Simplicity enhances our ability to
create a work of beauty, to be independent, to deal in truth.

In that way, simplicity contributes to the courage of conviction.

The spiritual life has always been the simple life, the reflective
life.  Simplicity enhances your relationship with your inner
world.  Reducing clutter and focusing on the essential [the Essence]
is an important aspect of slowing down.

The soul is simple; it doesn't relate to complicated.  It needs
simple pleasures.  Wisdom asks for simplicity -- the elimination
of unnecessary distraction...  What is the essence here?  What
can be removed without detracting from the whole?  Where's the
juice?

...

What can you cut out that you wouldn't miss?  What can you give
away without impacting the quality of your life?  Where's the juice
of your life? What can be removed to allow you to focus on that?

...

The thoughts offered above were originally written to myself in
my journal.

Rod MacIver - Heron Dance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Dance Between the Worlds - Joseph Campbell

As we love ourselves, we move toward our own bliss, by which
Joseph Campbell meant our highest enthusiasm.  The word entheos
means "god-filled." Moving towards that which fills us with the
godhood [or Buddha Nature, The Mystery, Pure Consciousness,
etc.], that place where time is not, is all we need to do to change
our world.  Then we, naturally and without effort, love others
and allow them to move beyond their self-imposed limitations,
and in their own ways.  The goal is to evolve to that place where
the energy that had been projected outward to correct the [them]
 world is turned around to correct oneself - to find your own "track"
[rhythm] and to dance, in balance between the worlds.

Following your bliss, as Joseph meant it, is not self-indulgent
but vital; your whole physical system knows that this is the
way to be alive in this world and the way to give to the world
the very best that you have to offer.

From: A Joseph Campbell Companion
Selected and edited by Diane K. Osbon

with thanks to HeronDance.org/e-journal

Photo from the Internet

 

The Song From Within - Robert Henri

There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day,
when we see beyond the usual - become clairvoyant.  We reach
then into reality.  Such are the moments of our greatest happiness.
Such are the moments of our greatest vision.  At such times, there
is a song to which we listen.  It fills us with surprise.  We marvel
at it.  We would continue to hear it. But few are capable of holding
themselves in the state of listening to their song.  Intellectuality
steps in, and as the song within us is of the utmost sensitiveness,
it retires in the presence of the cold, material intellect.  It is
aristocratic and will not associate itself with the commonplace -
and we fall back into our ordinary selves.  Yet we live in the
memory of these songs, which in moments of intellectual 
inadvertence have been possible to us.  They are the pinnacles
of our experience and it is the desire to express these intimate
sensations, this song from within, which motivates the 
masters of all art.

Robert Henri
artist and writer in the 1800s
from his book The Art Spirit

from: HeronDance.org

Here's to the song from within.  That shy song that retreats
from the commonplace.  The song needs downtime, space,
in order to emerge.  It walks the slower, gentle path.

What does yours have to say, to sing?  Like a little flame,
easy to extinguish, needing nurturing, needing recognition.
In harmony with that song, I am alive, powerful, happy, at
peace.  I live in wonder if I make room for that song.

But it is shy, disappears at the slightest discontinuity.  Few
are capable of holding themselves in that state of listening.
I'm often not.  But it is, nevertheless, worthy.

Rod MacIver
artist and writer

from Rod's new Heron Dance website and e-journal.

During these times we all need inspiration and to
find our creative expression.  All you creatives, 
artists and writers might enjoy his inspirational
e-journal and reading about his "journey."

~

Photo from the Internet