"Downtime" - Rod MacIver

A crucial consideration in creating a [creative and authentic] life,
 is downtime.  By downtime I don't mean just time away from
the work.  I don't mean time to run errands or time to watch TV,
but time for reflection and solitude.  Time to let your mind
just wander to wherever it wants to go.  Time to absorb whatever
messages the larger universe might want to send.  Time to give
the messages deep inside your inner world an opportunity
to bubble up.

Without downtime [solitude], and it does require discipline and
planning, you lose touch with yourself.  You lose perspective on
the challenges of your life, and they start to take over.  You lose
access to your creative juice.  You may think that what you are
doing is dealing with pressing issues, and that those issues are so
important that you can't afford time away, but the message your
inner world will receive is that it is not valued.  It will then
retreat, and your [creative] work, your life, will lose power.

All the major setbacks in my life have come after a protracted
period of addressing pressing issues and not taking time off to
relax my mind and gain perspective.

Rod MacIver
Artist 
Heron Dance

~

Photo from the Internet

Happy July :)

Has anyone got an igloo I can use ?

LOLOLOLOL

 

An Inner Journey - Rod MacIver

A journal chronicles a journey
And the journey itself is home.

The journey in search of deeper awareness
The Source within
An inner journey that is not abandoned
Is its own triumph, its own work of art.

The journey itself is home.

~

There is an inner myth guiding each of our lives,
generally unknown to us.

Use your journal to explore that,
to explore the journey [the myth].

The value of journaling is the process of self-exploration
and self- nurturing [or self inquiry]

What is seeking to unfold in your life?

Ultimately the "goal" is to live in harmony
with your inner life [your Inner Being].

Rod MacIver

From: The Song Within

Heron Dance

~

Personal note:  I have been journaling as part of my
"journey" for over 40 years, as part of my "spiritual path",
a sort of "spiritual inquiry" and reflection...
For me “journaling” is not only about bringing mindfulness
 and awareness to my life, relationships, and spirituality,
but is a meditative practice to turn that awareness
 to the deeper space of inner Silence… 

MM

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Just Walk It - a meandering...

Some people's nature is made for Silence and Solitude,
others - not...

I crave it...

that is - my body and soul crave it...

I am often overwhelmed by the stimulation
of daily living, being pulled by the externals,
needing to turn to the Inner Life...

There are many ways of accessing our "Inner Being"/Essence,
or "The Divine", or "Source" - however one calls it;
through being out in nature, thru Dance, or writing Poetry,
in Art, or Music, and Meditation; however we are naturally
inclined.  It's an individual thing and "The Divine"/Source/Life
meets us where we are, *as* we are...

There are no "shoulds" or "have to's" in intimacy with
"The Inner Silence."
You don't have to regurgitate what you have been taught
was the "truth"; what you are conditioned to *believe*
as an established way of "believing" - a dogma...

Maybe we're just a dramatization/expression of
"Consciousness", or "The Source", or "The Ineffable";
Unique waves on the Ocean of Awareness.

No one person, religion, spirituality, philosophy or
institution *has* the "answer"...

The Real Source of "truth" is within, and transcends all
beliefs, unencumbered by religion, language, history, or culture...

Life unfolds differently for all of us.
And maybe it "happens" according to the way we "believe" -
who knows...

Go the way you feel pulled/called to go,
the path will change as needed.

Whatever your walk of Life,
whatever your nature,
whatever your path,
just walk it...

Mystic Meandering
March 15, 2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Remembering The "Inner Life" - a meandering...

What is the "inner Life"?  For me it is that Stillness of the
innermost Being, and attuning to the Rhythm of The Silence within -
just BEing in that internal space of Divine Silence - the "Gatekeeper
of the Inner Life" - experiencing "The Silence" that holds all -
until the entire Being feels "nourished" and restored - which 
does not mean I don't do anything.  There is always "doing" to be
done.  But there needs to be some life changes for me, so that I
may return to the Rhythm of the Inner Life.  I am fortunate as
a "caregiver" that I'm still able to get a lot of "downtime" - 
especially for my health..  But there needs to be some inner life
adjustments to help me access the "Inner Life" again...  Like:

The other morning as I lay in bed, waking.  Instead of getting up
right away, I started mindfully breathing in Light, bathing the cells
 of my body in Light, riding the Rhythm of the Breath; feeling the
Rhythm within again - laying there in silence breathing the Cosmic
Light, listening for the Inner Flow of Energy, and bringing my
awareness there...  Accessing the Space of Silence within settles me -
unwinds my mind, and fears, and stresses of the day.  It is the
medicine that brings me back into the current of the Inner Life
that abides in and animates this body...  Ultimately it's about 
remembering who/what I really am at a deeper level, beyond the
surface existence of being human...

Several years ago when I used to spend a lot of time sitting in
The Silence, just listening, and breathing, this came:

"You must come into the eternal Rhythm of "The Quiet..."
You must learn to live in and from"The Silence"
which does not mean 
live in silence,
but to live in/as
"The Silence" that is
from the eternal vastness
and depth of
True Silence...

~

Find your authentic self 
here...

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Nov. 21, 2013

~ 
Photo - Northern Lights
from a calendar

 

Reveille - Ruth Bowen Hersey

When a new day wakes me, each
worry rises too, greets the morning,
rubbing the eyes and joining the others
that crowd around as we
all, the whole battalion of us, put
on our work boots and dress ourselves
and prepare to pretend we've got it all together.

Each morning we put ourselves together.

Ruth Bowen Hersey

 https://thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com

posted with permission

~

Photo - taken by my brother
My Dad's Army boots

~

Personal Note:  I love this poem because sometimes now,
since I became a "caregiver", this is how I feel.  Every morning
boots on the ground, hit the ground running, feeling overwhelmed,
 like I'm always trying to "put myself together" meeting the challenges
of this "new" role... 

Things need to change...

I need to remember my Inner Being, my Inner Life...

Stay tuned...:)

 

Inner Life - John O'Donohue

The visible world is only the shoreline of the magnificent
ocean of the invisible.  The invisible is not empty, but is
textured and tense with presences [energies].  These
presences cannot be named; they can only be sensed, not seen.

When you name a dimension of your experience, one of your
qualities or difficulties...you give it an identity.  It then responds
to you according to the tone of its name... 

The wildness of the invisible world is nameless.  It has no name.
A first step towards reawakening respect for your inner life
may be to become aware of the private collage of dead names
you have for your inner life.  Often the experiences of
wilderness can return us to the nameless wildness within.  
Sometimes, go away to a wild place of your own. Leave
your name and the grid of intentions and projects and images
which mark you out as citizen Z.  Leave it all and let yourself
just slip back into the rhythms of your intimate wildness.[rhythm]
You will be surprised at the lost terrains, wells, and mountains
that you will rediscover,  territories which have been buried
under well-meant but dead names.  To go beyond confinement
is to rediscover yourself.

John O'Donohue
from Eternal Echoes

~

Photo taken by my brother
Plum Cove Gloucester MA

 

Your Inner World - Rod MacIver

The Ocean within you is the universal reality or essence 
that dwells withing all beings...  Discovering this ocean is
vitally important for the discovery of balance because it 
provides a place of peace for you to return home to
despite all the chaos of the day.

Joel and Michelle Levy
Living in Balance

~

A friendship with your quiet interior allows you to better
understand the patterns of your life.  A special power comes
from diving deep into that world and accessing the wisdom it
contains.  It is a place of wisdom and peace, but our relationship
with it requires nurturing.

Your inner world guides you without you knowing it.  Our
thought patterns determine the quality of our lives.  The question
is, how can we gain access to the potentials of "knowledge" [knowing]
contained in the depth of us, how can we achieve increased capacities
of direct intuition [experience] and enlarged awareness...

A life journey, a creative journey, grows out of the seed of one.s song.

How would you describe the current of energy, the life force inside
you...?  Our most important relationship is our relationship with our
 self, with our interior world.  What do you do to nurture that
 relationship?  How you nurture that relationship will determine the
 quality of your life.

Rod MacIver
Heron Dance

~

What we call fate does not come to us from outside; it goes forth
from within us.

Rainer Maria Rilke

With thanks to Heron Dance

~

Photo from the Internet

 

The "Work" of Happiness - May Sarton

 I thought of happiness, how it is woven
Out of the silence in the empty house each day
And how it is not sudden and it is not given
But is creation itself like the growth of a tree.
No one has seen it happen, but inside the bark
Another circle is growing in the expanding ring.
No one has heard the root go deeper in the dark,
But the tree is lifted by this inward work.
And its plumes shine, and its leaves are glittering.

So happiness is woven out of the peace of hours
And strikes its roots deep in the house alone;
The old chest in the corner, cool waxed floors,
White curtains softly and continually blown
AS the free air moves quietly about the room;
A shelf of books, a table, and the white-washed walls --
These are the dear familiar gods of home,
And here the work.....can be done,

For what is happiness but growth in peace,
The timeless sense of time when furniture
Has stood a life's span in a single place,
And as the air moves, so the old dreams stir
The shining leaves of present happiness?
No one has heard thought or listened to a mind,
But where people have lived in inwardness
The air is charged with blessing and does bless...

May Sarton
from: Collected Poems: 1930-1993

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

Inner Life - John O'Donohue

The visible world is only the shoreline of the magnificent
ocean of the invisible.  The invisible is not empty, but is
textured and tense with presences [energies].  These
presences cannot be named; they can only be sensed,
not seen.

When you name a dimension of your experience, one of
your qualities or difficulties... you give it an identity.  It
then responds to you according to the tone of its name...

The wildness of the invisible world is nameless.  It has no
name.  A first step towards reawakening respect for your
inner life may be to become aware of the private collage
of dead names you have for your inner life.  Often the
experiences of wilderness can return us to the nameless
wildness within.  Sometimes, go away to a wild place
on your own.  Leave your name and the grid of intentions
and projects and images which mark you out as citizen Z.
Leave it all and let yourself just slip back into the rhythms
of your intimate wildness.  You will be surprised at the
lost terrains, wells, and mountains that you will rediscover,
territories which have been buried under will-meant
but dead names.  To go beyond confinement is to
rediscover yourself.

John O'Donohue
from: Eternal Echoes

~

Photo - taken in Gloucester MA
 by my brother

Spirit and Mind - Etty Hillesum

Spirit and mind should feed each other.  What you must
not do is rely on some external certainty, and that means
being secure in yourself and at peace with yourself, but
also that your mind is allowed to explore what makes life
hang together, not because you want to achieve something
or you want to succeed at something that interests you, but
because you happen to have been created with a passionate
and honest concern for what goes on in the world, and
above all for what goes on in your inner world.

You shouldn't live on your brains alone but on deeper, more
abiding sources...  You should gratefully accept your brains
as a precious tool for delving into what problems your soul
brings forth... And have ever greater trust in intuition...

Etty Hillesum
from: Etty Hillesum - Essential Writings

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Quartz Crystal with reflection of light

The Inside Door - Jan Richardson

You have looked
at so many doors
with longing,
wondering if your life
lay on the other side.

For today,
choose the door
that opens to the inside.

Travel the most ancient way
of all:
the path that leads you
to the center
of your life.

No map
but the one
you make yourself.

No provision
but what you already carry
and the grace that comes
to those who walk
the pilgrim's way.

Speak this blessing
as you set out
and watch how
your rhythm slows,
the cadence of the road
drawing you into the pace
that is your own.

Eat when hungry.
Rest when tired.
Listen to your dreaming.
Welcome detours
as doors deepen in.

Pray for protection.
Ask for guidance.
Offer gladness
for the gifts that come,
and then
let them go.

Do not expect
to return
by the same road.
Home is always
by another way,
and you will know it
not by the light
that waits for you

but by the star
that blazes inside you,
telling you
where you are
is holy
and you are welcome
here.

Jan Richardson

https://janrichardson.com/

via - No Mind's Land

"Sabbatical Life" - A Reflection

Over the last few years I've reflected on the idea
that the life of a "mystic" was supposed to be about
"sabbatical" - you know, living a monk's life :) -
spending days in Silence, meditating, continuously
aware of the Pure Being that we are.  And yet,
in reality, I am continually pulled outward into the
requirements of daily living with its ups and downs,
preoccupations and distractions.  Of course!  Aren't we all! 
That's just how life is...

Sometimes I think I may be delusional to think that it is
possible to live according to the Inner Rhythm, focusing

on the Inner Life...

I also sometimes wonder if I'm being selfish, self-centered,
narcissistic to want to focus on the Inner Life...  Is this just
hidden ego? - rhetorical question. :)  I don't see this as an
escape from life, but a call to a way of being - and yet it
eludes me.  

When I ride the waves of this Inner Rhythm in meditative
Silence, I can feel the chaotic surface waves dissipate.  But
at times I also find myself making the distinction between
life as it is and the *idea* of the "sabbatical life" - creating
 a separation where there is none.  When in fact it is more
one's orientation towards life and living that matters - one's
relationship with life as it is - and - with "The Ineffable
Mystery" within...  I'm still working on that...

I know that ultimately it's not either/or, but both/and:
living in harmony with life as it is - surrendering to where
LIFE wants to flow - to the wholeness of Being;
living fully from a deep, abiding *awareness* of Pure
Beingness within - and - the awareness that it's really
all "The Mystery" living ITself here anyway...

I may have romanticized the "sabbatical life", but it still
calls to me, feels like a very deep and vital need - this
resting in the awareness of Pure Beingness - like breathing.
And at this point, for me, it requires Silence and Solitude,
which is why I post about it here :)  

The "key" seems to be - to be willing to face into the realities
of living, the requirements of daily living - while at the same
time being deeply aware of the deeper Rhythm within; not having
any preconceived ideas about what "sabbatical life" should look like,
 but being open to The Rhythm of the Inner Life - while learning to
ride the waves of daily life as they come.
.  They are not in opposition to each other, but flow together.

~

Mystics are people who quest for wisdom or for God,
[or the Truth of Existence, etc.], not in the world of
externals but in the microcosm of their own soul.  There
they follow themselves to be fully present to the experiences
of a deep-felt joy or sorrow, of beauty or suffering, of gain
or loss, so that these opposing poles might in time reconcile
and grow and ripen into a harmonious whole - which wells
up as peace that defies all rational explanation...

Anne Marie Kidder, Editor
 Etty Hillesum: Essential Writings

Etty Hillesum - Mystic of the Holocaust

True peace will come when every individual finds peace
within himself; when we have all vanquished
and transformed our hatred for our fellow human
being of whatever race - even into love one day.

~

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty:

to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves,
more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others.
And the more peace there is in us,
the more peace there will also be
in our troubled world.

Etty Hillesum
from: An Interrupted Life: The Diaries

~

Etty Hillesum, known as the Mystic of the Holocaust, was a young
Jewish woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation
and who died as one of the millions of victims of the Holocaust.

Russian authors and Christian mystics likely contributed to Hillesum's
understanding of spirituality.  She did not strive for ecstasy, but longed
to meet the depth of her own interior and life itself.  She had little
interest in organized religion of any kind.  In a time when the "whole
world [was] becoming a giant concentration camp," she felt one must
hold fast to what endures - the encounter with God at the depths of
one'sown soul.  Her spirituality was not confined to her intellectual
understanding of a greater power.  In the concentration camp of
Westerbork, she had unusual experiences of spiritual awakenings
 and insight.

"I now listen all day long to what is within me, and am able to draw
strength from the most deeply hidden sources in myself.  I keep
following my own inner voice even in the madhouse..."

Hillesum suffered inner turmoil during her young childhood, but
increasingly transformed into a woman of maturity and wisdom.
She writes:

"Everywhere things are both very good and very bad at the
same time.  The two are in balance, everywhere and always.
I never have the feeling that I have got to make the best of
things; everything is fine just as it is.  Every situation,
however miserable, is complete in itself and contains
the good as well as the bad."

In touch with the equilibrium of a bigger picture, she continuously
 drawsfrom this interior place to find meaning in her current reality.

Her transformation unfolds, and she records a slow emergence of
astounding inner freedom.  She could no longer
"live with the kind of hatred so many people nowadays force upon
themselves against themselves..."

Her diaries record the increasing anti-Jewish measures imposed by
the occupying German army, and the growing uncertainty about the
fate of fellow Jews who had been deported by them.

On Sept. 7, 1943 she and her family were deported to Auschwitz.
Her parents were killed in the gas chambers.
Etty died there November 30, 1943 at the age of 29.

Etty invites us to be the "thinking heart" of our country.
as it hangs on the brink of perpetual chaos and conflict...

From - Western Mystics
and Wikipedia

For The Traveler - John O'Donohue...

Thought I’d share some photos of a little trip down the road we took today to open country to get away from the hectic life stream that surrounds us here in the burbs - to be in the unattached quietness of Nature…   Smelling the fragrances of earth blowing on the prairie wind across the prairie grasses, sitting in the utter silence of life under the expansiveness of the open sky opened me to inspiration again… In our travels we even found a little pond with croaking frogs hidden among the marshy grass.  Under each photo is an excerpt of a poem by John O’Donohue, called “For The Traveler”…

"Every time you leave home,
another road takes you
into a world you were never in."

"When you travel, you find yourself
alone in a different way,
more attentive now
to the self you bring along;
and how what meets you
touches that part of the heart
that lies low at home."

"A journey can become a sacred thing.
…free your heart of ballast
so that the compass of your soul
might direct you toward
the territories of spirit
where you will discover
more of your hidden life
and the urgencies
that deserve to claim you."

"When you travel,
a new silence
goes with you,
and if you listen,
you will hear
what your heart would
Love to say."

Excerpts from the poem: “For The Traveler”
by John O’Donohue

From the book: To Bless The Space Between Us

The Simplicity of Silence...

~

The Rhythm of Silence within is simply found through sitting in meditative silence and listening for the Inner Flow, the Inner Rhythm of Silence, and bringing our awareness to That…  Being in the Rhythm within unwinds “you” – the little me with its stresses and worries and fears.  It unwinds the body, and the thoughts, emotions and feelings that have become our habitual response to life.  It is the medicine that brings us back into the current of Life again – the Inner Life of Spirit…

In the midst of chaos there is always Silence.  In the midst of complexity there is the simplicity of Awareness – if we just notice.  If we just get Quiet and listen…  Each of us has our own way of experiencing this deep Silence within, that brings us to a greater awareness of our “Divine” Nature within.  Simply be open and It will find you…

Reach deeply into the Stillness
within you…
The Primordial Space
of Silence
and thrive there…

In the Stillness is
the congruency of Life…

Be with this Stillness,
with Sacred Silence
and awaken to Its Rhythm…

Mystic Meandering

Meditative Writings

2006

~

Photo of Fall leaves remaining on a branch
 color inverted digitally

Finding The Rhythm of "Silence..."

Photo and Quote by: Larry Kanfer
Photo called “Gatekeeper” from: “On Second Glance”
Published by the University of Illinois Press

~

Winter is upon us, much like the above photo; intuitively the time for hibernation.  And I’ve been a cranky contemplative because I am not getting enough solitude, quiet, and meditative Silence…  I’m needing to be in "The Stillness", finding the Rhythm of Silence within again – just BEing in that space of Divine Silence until my entire Being feels “nourished” and restored.  It appears that life may soon afford me this deep necessity, allowing me to spend more time in Inner Quiet– the “Gatekeeper” of the Inner Life - listening to "The Silence"; which does not mean I won’t be *doing* anything. HA! There is always "doing" to be done.  But there are some life changes on the horizon that I hope to write about in some future-now…

Finding the Rhythm of Silence is simply sitting in silence, listening for the Inner Flow, the Inner Rhythm and bringing the awareness there...  Finding the Rhythm of Silence within unwinds you - unwinds your thoughts, your feelings, emotions and stresses of the day.  It is the medicine that brings us back into the current of Life - the Inner Life...

From The Silence today:

“You must come into the eternal Rhythm of ‘The Quiet…’
You must learn to live in and from ‘The Silence’
which does not mean
live *in* silence,
but to live *in*
’The Silence...’
from

the eternal vastness
and depth
of
’The Silence’

~

Find your truth
*in*
’The Silence’”

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
Nov. 21, 2013

~

Also see: Perfect Pulsing Silence


May we all find The Rhythm of Silence in our lives...

Photo:

I just love this photo,

the simplicity, the zen-like quality;
the tangible silence…
It is an old newspaper clipping from years ago
found in one of our archive boxes recently.