I am a barometer, not just using my senses to navigate my world. I use my whole field, the space around me and in me. I forget I am more than my body until I feel overwhelmed and overloaded. My energy field needs care. My body needs care. My mind needs care. My goal is to manage a balance, manage my attention to each facet of my being. It’s easy to forget when my mind latches on to fear. I find my disassociated self and float back home again. This is my task day after day, no matter the body pain I am in; no matter my fearful mind; no matter the breaking of my heart. It’s up to me to pull focus back to balance. It’s up to me to recognize when I wander. It’s up to me to disengage. It’s up to me to engage. Life is a doorway. Life is a black pit. I choose the focus.
I’d like to share the words of Hopi Indian Chief White Eagle as captured in March of 2020, on the current global situation.
"This moment that humanity is living through can be considered a door or a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the door is yours. If you consume information 24 hours a day, with negative energy, constantly nervous, with pessimism, you will fall into this hole. But if you take the opportunity to look at yourself, to rethink life and death, to take care of yourself and others, you will go through the door.
“Take care of your home, take care of your body. Connect with your spiritual home. When you take care of yourself, you take care of others at the same time. Do not underestimate the spiritual dimension of this crisis. Adopt the perspective of an eagle that sees everything from above with a broader vision. There is a social demand in this crisis, but also a spiritual demand. The two go hand in hand. Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. Without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and futility.
"You are prepared to go through this crisis. Grab your toolbox and use all the tools at your disposal. Learn to resist by the example of the Indian and African peoples: we have been and continue to be exterminated.
But we never stopped singing, dancing, lighting fires and having joy.
"Don't feel guilty for feeling lucky in these difficult times. Being sad and without energy doesn't help at all.
Resilience is resilience through joy!
"You have the right to be strong and positive. You have to maintain a beautiful, cheerful and bright posture. This has nothing to do with alienation (ignorance of the world). It is a strategy of resistance. When we walk in the door, we have a new view of the world because we have faced our fears and difficulties.
"This is what you can do now:
Serenity in the storm,
Keep calm, meditate daily,
Make a habit of encountering the sacred every day.
Demonstrate resilience through art, joy, trust and love."
Participants’ Reflections:
That was very powerful, both your words and the reading. I was caught by the phrase that joy is resistance. I think in these dark times, which I find to be dark and worrying, that is a hopeful light to hang onto.
Thank you. I too was struck by both parts. The phrase I sat with was encounter the sacred every day. I feel like it’s a real hook for raising our vibration. When I am encountering the sacred, it’s like time beyond time, there is no time, there are hardly any thoughts. It’s a beholding. I really think that’s a way to push back on the fear, stress, and uncertainty. I had a recent experience. I looked down and saw a stem of green leaves with a dark pink blossom with yellow dots in the center growing out of a driveway. I picked it and wanted to gift it to someone who would appreciate it. I gave it to a very fragile, schizophrenic woman who loves flowers. To me, that was sacred. Thank you for that. The words, “Encounter the sacred in everything” is going to be a sign I put up in my house. At first, I thought I’d have to go outdoors to find the sacred, but I made a list of sacred things I can find indoors.
Thank you for this reading. It was so full. I was drawn to that same line. It is my goal every day, to find the sacred in every day. I learned that from the dog keeper story in the Valley of Detachment. It’s not about being on a spiritual quest looking out there. It’s about looking for a spiritual connection in everything, even in doing the dishes or walking the dog. I refocus my mind so that I do household chores out of joy and service. I’ve done it for a long time. Yesterday, I got angry at someone and it was a shock to my system. I turned it into using the anger as fuel to express my feelings but didn’t take it out on the other person. Then it was over and I’ve been reflecting about how that anger came up. I want to be in serenity. It’s good to be aware of my emotions and to use them in a sacred way, to acknowledge them and own them. I too want to make a sign with those words as a reminder.
Thank you. That was beautiful. I’m immediately drawn to anything from Native Americans. I always feel sad for them because they were so mistreated and so were their lands. It’s encompassing. As for the sacred every day, I think it’s wonderful. I find some little thing in nature every day and everything stops even for a second. It’s a wonderful feeling. Your words this morning are a reminder to not let the pandemic fear get to me. My fear is increasing with the new variant and me unable to get vaccinated.
Shirley says: Time is of the mind. It’s another example. When we pay attention to time, it’s the mind’s attention. But when we are in our heart, all time goes away. It’s a wonderful recognition. And that’s how it is on the other side in spirit, there is no time.
During the meditation, I was thinking about loving Native American culture in high school. Where I live, the main roads were originally paths in the forest that Native Americans walked. I love the image of the connection. When I was young, I imagined I was walking in the same footsteps of the Native Americans before me. One of the oldest ecological systems in the country is near where I live. That is the sacred to me.
I love the fact that our minister at our church opens the service by mentioning whose land we are living on. It makes me grounded in the history.
This is interesting. The word ‘sacred’ is what came up for me, around building. I have to do a workshop and I’ve been thinking about the elements. The workshop fell into place, its purpose, its structure. It brought in art. We were sitting in a circle and I had the participants share paint tubes and making dots. As they received a paint tube, they looked at the person and felt the thankfulness of receiving. And then holding it and using it, thanking the sacred, and blessing the person they pass the paint tube on to. To do that with maybe 10 people is like a microcosm for life. Then I reflected on the piece I am getting. I felt the dots of paint were putting the colors in my chakras. Then taking the water colors and watching it just grow. It was a way to feel my whole aura expand with the color in what felt like a new way. Thank you for that gift.
Thank you. The part that resonated for me that I held during the meditation was either passing through a doorway or falling in a hole. I just returned from a difficult journey. What I experienced in meditation in the last few days, I would stand on the edge of the hole. People I loved were in the hole. I watched them fall in the hole and felt them wanting to pull me in the hole. I held my boundaries to literally stay on the edge. Thank you for the reading. It was helpful. For me, it was about staying balanced and protected. I needed protection at the same time. Feeling the love for my family. There was a balance there as well. Thank you.
Shirley says: I am so familiar with that feeling of seeing the loved ones in the hole. It’s so seductive because of loyalty to jump in the hole with them. Not jumping in by honoring my boundaries with awareness is the key. And there’s a backlash when one doesn’t join the other in the hole. It’s powerful. You put words to it nicely. You described it perfectly. It’s very clarifying for me, with situations in my life where I choose to not get in the hole. It’s hard to not join in but I won’t. Your courage helps me have the courage, so thank you.
What you were just saying brought to mind for me my family member’s suffering so much. And the hole. I’m always feeling his suffering. If I don’t have the sacred moments every day, like connecting with one of my kitties, I am so enveloped in that hole of suffering. I wouldn’t be able to get anything done. I’m already in the hole, just not at the bottom of it. It’s already depleting my energy.
Shirley says: I’m not sure I would consider you being in a hole. Because being in a hole is letting the mind lose control and live in the negativity of everything around us. There’s certainly an aspect of the hold when caring for someone so chronically-ill but there’s also the caregiver maintaining self-care and managing their mind while in process. I think that’s something to ponder. It’s not necessarily a hole. It’s just an extremely difficult situation that one can continue using boundaries and self-care, mindfulness with awareness instead of assuming one is automatically in a hole. Something to think about. You can get into the hole, but you can get yourself out of it again.
Thank you for joining us. Thank you for listening to the powerful words of White Eagle’s message. They are so powerful and humbling. Another wonderful metaphor for our toolbox. I hope you have a gentle day with awareness of the sacred. It is in everything and sometimes it takes a long time to find it, but with curious eyes we can. Have a blessed day.
Photo credit: Grant Lechner on Unsplash