An Eagle, An Egg, And A Lesson In Patience

Growing up I always remember my mother telling me, "Patience is a virtue." That was because I got so impatient waiting for special events like Christmas, Easter and my birthday to arrive. After what seemed like a eternity they always did come but seemed to depart much faster than it took for them to get there. In school, our teachers would always remind us that is was the tortoise that won the race by being slow, steady, focused and patient.

I don't think I've ever learned more about patience than I have the last 8 years watching the beautiful and courageous Decorah Eagles on their Ustream channel. If any of you have followed my blog over the last 3 years you know that a year does not go by without my mentioning them at least once. Through funding from a program called The Raptor Project, cameras have been set up high in the trees on the grounds of a working farm and fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa. There we are treated to a bird's eye view (no pun intended) of the lives of this remarkable and beautiful pair of bald eagles as they return every year to the same tree to repair and rebuild their birthing nest, lay their eggs, hatch their chicks, and raise them until they are old enough to go off on their own. As remarkable as these creatures are when it comes to parenting - we humans could take a few lessons from them - what I have been most struck by this year is their patience. 

From the moment the first egg is laid, there is one parent or the other on the nest 24/7. One day I took some time to just watch the mother eagle as she kept her eggs warm, rising only to roll them from time to time and rearrange herself. The rest of the time she sat. And sat. And sat. There was such a presence of patience and peace about her. She was keenly aware of what was going on around her, always on guard for any threat to her eggs, but looking at her I realized I was envious of her ability to sit still and be totally present to the moment and her surroundings. She was living in the moment, doing what she needed to do, not worrying about having to be somewhere else, or about completing and endless to-do list. She just sat, serene, regal, patient and, from all apparent appearances, at peace. 

Ah wouldn't it be nice if we could all find that kind of patience and peace in our everyday life? When I am sitting in meditation, I can guarantee you that I do not even come close to Mother Eagle.  If I could get even 1/10th closer to being able to be that patient, what a gift that would be. Then I was reminded that in the garden, just like in that nest, the plants and trees do exactly the same thing. They grow. They flourish. They sit in silent splendor and do their thing. It is only we humans that defy nature by trying to be everywhere and do everything at once.

So maybe this week we should try to take a page out of Mother Eagle's playbook and make some time to just be, to sit in stillness, totally aware of the present moment, and patiently wait for the Universe to lay its wisdom on us. Think what we could hatch with that kind of connection! 

And so it is. 

Straining to Grow

This time of the year is always difficult for me. I begin seeing the first shoots of the daffodils and crocus starting to push through the dirt and I get the urge to haul out all of my gardening paraphernalia and get moving. I want to clear away all of the dead branches, the fallen leaves and the dead foliage from last year and start preparing beds for their new plants ... and then I have to stop myself. I have lived up in these parts long enough to know that just because we've had a few warm days and the green is starting to return in tiny increments, it doesn't mean that it is time to garden. I would be surprised if we did not yet get hit with some snow or a late frost. Doing all of that clearing would take away any protection the plants beneath would have against such a drastic weather change, and delicate new plants would hardly survive.  Even though I am straining at the bit (to borrow a little horse wisdom) to get the gardening season underway, wisdom and experience tell me that by being patient, watching the weather and starting slowly, the end result will be well worth waiting for. 

It is natural to get excited when we are hit with the creative urge, or when a new idea takes hold. We want to jump in with both feet and "get it done." However, sometimes by pushing and forcing our will on the project because of our attachment to the outcome, we are unhappy with the final results. Last month when we looked at the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra, he reminded us that: "Grass doesn't try to grow, it just grows ... Flowers don't try to bloom, they bloom." When we calm down, sit back and sense where our idea or project wants to go, and then take one small step in that direction, we will be lead naturally and without strain to the next step, and the next, and the next. It is in our detachment to a specific outcome, and our allowing for the infinity of possibility to open up to us, that we not only end up with a much better outcome than we could have imagined, but we find that we have enjoyed the journey even more.

So yesterday on the first day of Spring, while the sun was shinning but the wind was still blowing cold, I walked around the garden beds and started making a list of what I could do now, and what I would hold off doing until later. Then I took myself back inside to sit by a window and watch the robins, back from their winter vacation, pecking at the bread crumbs I'd left them while I sat in silence to see what message from my gardening muse might be trying to surface - but I left my gardening work gloves out, just in case!

And so it is. 

100 Pieces of Paper

I have to admit that I'm an old-fashioned kind of girl in some respects. Here in this age of technology and information-at-our-fingertips overload, I still write things down by hand. Maybe it goes back to all those years I spent in libraries doing research and having to copy things from the reference books that we couldn't take out. Or, it could go back to my days as a reporter for a small town daily when my notebook was never further than my purse. Perhaps it's just because I love the feel and the sound of pen on paper, of words taking shape under my fingers - the love of a writer for what she does. 

However, my addiction to writing things down had, I am ashamed to admit, gotten out of hand. You see, I didn't always write things down in a notebook. No, I grabbed whatever piece of paper that was within reach and wrote down whatever quote I had just seen that touched me, or a line from a book I was reading that I wanted to reference back to on some project I was currently working on. Since I am a committed recycler, I cut up paper that has only been used on one side into the size of a notepad and use it as such. Hence the piles of little 3 x 5 slips of paper that are sticking out of the front, back and middle of the notebooks I bought to one day actually copy them all down so they are all in one place. Oh, I do make use of technology from time to time. I keep my cell phone handy and use the memo app to write down my grocery list as I think of things I need and, if I see or hear something I want to remember, I use that feature to write it down ... until I end up with a list a mile long on my phone as well. It got to the point that it was seriously affecting my work because I could not remember where I put that quote I saw the other day that would be just perfect for that new chapter I was working on, or for Flower Bear's Thought For The Day (daily on her Facebook Fan Page). So, I finally stopped all of my other work and made the decision that I would spend a couple of hours to copy all of the little slips of paper on my desk and the endless memos on my phone into one place. Little did I know when I sat down to do this that a couple of hours was not going to even make a dent in the pile because it had grown to a slightly over 100 little pieces of paper! It took me working a couple of hours a day for an entire week to complete the project. I now have all of my quotes and bits of information in one notebook, with another one empty and ready to take on anything new. I have committed to checking in every morning right after I finish journaling to enter anything I may have jotted down on the run the day before. And you know what? My writing started to get better. My mind was free, ideas started flowing, and I felt as if some great burden had been lifted off my chest. My piles of paper were literally and psychically weighing me down.

The moral of this story is that we let so much of our outside life pile up into piles and piles of little pieces that it blocks our creativity: lists of things to do, places to be, people to see, projects to work on, It's more than just putting everything down in a day planner or on a calendar. It's making a point to take time each day to review, remove the unnecessary, consolidate and make sure that none of it takes away from your real life, the one you were put here to live, and the work you were put here to do. Life was meant to be enjoyed not managed.

Gee, maybe I could arrange all of those quotes by subject: gardening quotes, spiritual quotes, women's quotes ... somebody stop me!

And so it is!

Making Our Own Music: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success - Week Seven

"When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music."

Kahlil Gibran

The seventh, and final, spiritual law of success is the Law of Dharma. The Law of Dharma states:

Everyone has a purpose in life ... a unique gift or special talent to give to others. 

And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals. 

You have a gift. I have a gift. Each and every one of us has a gift, a talent, something we can do that no one else can do exactly the same way that we can. It is why we are here. It is what we were put on this physical plane to do. It is that one thing that, when you are doing it, time passes without your notice and the Universe speaks to you in a way that only you can hear.

I would be willing to bet that the most asked question on the face of the earth is: "Why am I here?" You are here to fulfill your purpose. Which, of course, is followed by, "But what is my purpose?" There are three tools you can use to find the answers to your questions:

1. Finding our true self - inside each and every one of us is "a god or goddess in embryo that wants to be born to express our divinity." The best way to do this is through prayer and meditation. There is a reason why just about everywhere you turn you are hearing people praising the rewards of meditation: it works. When you sit in the stillness and silence of your innermost soul, and listen for the answer to your questions, in time, they come. I start my meditation every morning by asking the three soul questions: Who am I? What do I want? What is my purpose? Sometimes I only get one answer. Sometimes I don't get one at all. What I do get is clarity. When I let go of the past and the worries of the future, the present moment opens up to me in all its infinite possibilities. In that moment, I can be anything and I can do anything.

2. Find what makes your heart sing - as the opening quote from Kahlil Gibran tells us, we are the flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. What makes your heart sing? Is it being out of doors in nature? Is it playing a beautiful piece of music or, even better, composing it? Is it putting words to paper and expressing the dreams and desires we all share? Is it caring for children? What do you do that makes the hours fly by? Make a list of those things and keep it handy because we will use it to address our third tool.

3. How can I serve - How can I take something from my list, infuse it with my own brand of spirituality, and use it to serve others? How can I make a difference in even one person's life? It can be anything as simple as smiling at everyone you encounter during the day, or holding a door for someone, all the way to using your time and talents to save the planet, the animals, the children, or to lift someones spirit and help them to soar.

When you can put the answers to these three questions together, you will have found your dharma. Then you can live each and every day with purpose, clarity and joy. As dear Dr. Wayne Dyer was always fond of saying, the only thing we can do with our lives is to give it away. Find a way to serve. 

How will you make your own music today?

And so it is. 

Note: My sincere thanks to Deepak Chopra for writing The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and sharing your own gifts with the world. You are surely living your dharma. 

It's Just A Matter of Trust: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success Week 6

The Sixth of the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is the Law of Detachment.

"In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty ..." - Deepak Chopra

Wisdom in uncertainty? How can that be?

We touched on the idea of detachment a bit last week. This week we take a closer look.

The quote above refers to the fact that by allowing ourselves to dwell in uncertainty, we are free from the things in our past that tie us to fear in moving forward. When we open ourselves up to uncertainty, those things have no hold over us and we are free to move into the realm of infinite possibility where we can manifest anything.

"Easier said than done," you might say, and you'd be right. Attachment is based on fear and insecurity. We all want to feel safe, and the idea that fear of the unknown is more scary than fear of the known is a trap we all fall into. We may not like it where we are, but what if what is ahead of us is worse? Better the devil that you know than the one you don't right? Wrong! With the Law of Detachment, when we step into the field of uncertainty, we get to choose. We get to set our intention, fuel it with desire, and then send it out into the Universe to bring us all kinds of choices and opportunities to manifest our dreams.

One of the hardest parts of using this law is the idea that if we want to be free to make our own choices, we have to be willing to let others do the same. We cannot deny others the right to change and grow just to make our own change and growth easier, for that is also a form of attachment. Moving into uncertainty means giving others the freedom to do the same. If you love them, you have to let them go on their own journey of discovery just as you go on your own.

Here are three ways you can put the Law of Detachment to work in your life:

1. Allow yourself and others the freedom to be who they are. Do not seek to force your solutions and ideas on your own problems or theirs for that is only creating more problems.

2. Let go of the idea of having to be certain. Do not let fear and insecurity keep you from the totality of possibility. When seeking a solution or a desire to manifest something, factor uncertainty into the equation.

3. Let yourself get excited about being uncertain instead of being afraid of it. Turn it into an adventure! See where being open and not locked into a particular outcome can lead you!

Like looking for buried treasure, the Law of Detachment can take you on a journey of fun, excitement and magic, and who couldn't do with a little fun and magic in their lives?

And so it is.

Wishing and Hoping - The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Week 5: The Law of Intention and Desire

" Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment ... intention and desire in the field of pure potentiality have infinite organizing power." Deepak Chopra

The 5th of the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is the Law of Intention and Desire.

When we desire something, we usually have a specific outcome in mind. I "want" a new job, I "want" that amount of money, I "want" the perfect relationship. But desire without intent is weak because by locking our sights on a specific outcome, we rob ourselves of the infinite number of other possibilities that are out there. There could very well be something even better in the field of pure potentiality. Intention is the power behind desire. Intention is desire without being attached to a specific outcome. We are then open to the millions of possible outcomes that are out there just waiting for us. Once we state our intention, born out of our desire, and then put our attention on it, the Laws of the Universe will find its matching energy and send it to you.

In 1992, I found my perfect, happy home, the first place that had felt like my true home in my entire life up to that point. I spent 8 very happy years there. Then economics forced me to move closer to where the jobs were. I was suffering both physically and financially from the expense, wear and tear of a 50 mile round trip drive to work 5 days a week over often treacherous winter roads. For the next 15 years I swore that I would find a way to move back home again. I could see the town in my mind's eye, could see the little streets, the open fields outside of town, the blueberry farm and the maple trees. Most of all, I saw the house I'd had to leave and could not get that particular house out of my mind. In 2014, after fracturing my hip and leg on a poorly patched city street and being confined to my 3rd floor walk-up apartment for 8 weeks, I sat in my kitchen and cried out, "I just want to go home. I don't care how. I just want to go home." Not more than a month later, the people I had rented my former home from, who had sold the house and moved away only to return, had purchased another house 2.5 miles outside of town and had a ground floor apartment for rent ... right up the hill from the blueberry farm. It was not in town where I had originally wanted to be, but it was home. I have been here just a little over a  year and, as Joseph Campbell would say, I have found my bliss. Once I gave up my attachment to having to move back to a particular house on a particular street, the Universe led me home.

Here are three steps you can take to implement the Law of Intention and Desire:

1. Make a list of your intentions and desires. Carry it around with you. Set aside some time each day to go into the stillness and silence where you can focus your attention on your list.

2. Release your list to the Universe and trust that it has a plan for you in keeping with what you desire. Let go of any attachment to a specific outcome.

3. Practice present moment awareness each and every day. Refuse to allow obstacles and challenges from taking your attention away from present moment awareness because it is in that precious, present moment that your desires and intentions will manifest. If your attention is elsewhere, you may miss a golden opportunity.

This morning as I looked out of my window to greet the day, I was blessed with the presence of some badly needed sunshine and blue skies. Even though the temperature was still a chilly 28, the snow that had all melted on Saturday was gone and even the birds seemed to be happier with all of their soaring and singing in the sun. I'm setting my intention for the Ground Hog to be right this year and for spring to come early. How about you? What are you setting your intention for?

And so it is.

The Harmony of Creating - The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success Week 4

Week 4 of the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is the Law of Least Effort.

It never fails to make me laugh when the Universe presents me with moments of understanding by plopping me right in the middle of the lesson I need to learn. Take yesterday, for example.

Monday is usually the day that I write and post my blog. I like to do this on Mondays because it sets the tone for my week and, hopefully, fires me up to work on some other creative projects. I try not to break this deadline that I have set up for myself because I can also be the Queen of Procrastination if I try (and most times I don't need to try very hard). However, yesterday they were calling for some bad weather that was headed our way and I decided that getting to the store and stocking up on things I needed should probably move up my to-do list for the day. I could always get the blog written and posted when I got back. However, the heater in my daughter's car had other plans. After hitting a few stores in 16 degree weather with my youngest grandchildren in the back seat (ages 6 and 9), the car heater, which had been giving her some problems, decided to start blowing cold air. So we had to cut our shopping trip short and proceed to the mechanic's shop to see if they could remedy the problem. We did not want to chance anything else going wrong with all of us in the car when it was an hour plus round trip for them to drop me back home where I lived. Besides, by that time we had blankets on our laps and our ear muffs on in the car!

Luckily the problem only took about 40 minutes to fix and we all got home safe and sound if a bit chilled from the experience. I was in no mood to sit down and write a blog. I wanted a hot bowl of soup and a hot cup of tea. In previous times if something came along that ruined my self-imposed deadline, I would fume and fuss. This time I told myself that the world would not come to an end if I posted on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday, that my ever-faithful readers would understand, and that my entire writing career had not just been dashed to pieces by a faulty car heater. So imagine my laughter when I opened the book we are studying here and saw that the lesson for this week was The Law of Least Effort.

The Law of Least Effort tells us that when we push, and shove, and try to force our desires into manifesting, it ends up being a much harder process than it needs to be and often does not work at all. We are told to take a look at the natural world for our answers. Grass doesn't try to grow, it just grows. Birds don't try to fly, they just fly. Fish don't try to swim, they just swim. When we marry the natural intelligence of nature with harmony, joy and love, we find that we can create with effortless ease. Here are three ways to put this law into practice:

1. Acceptance - We can stop fighting against people and situations as they are. They already exist. The Universe already exists as it is and you can't do anything to change it. Accept things as they are in the moment and stop struggling with how you wish they were.

2. Having accepted the person or situation as it is, we can now take responsibility for how we choose to act or react. It is usually the case that it is not the person or situation that is the problem, but how we perceive and respond to it or them. We can decide how we want the moment to play out by the choice we make right here, right now.

3.We can also set the intention to establish our awareness in defenselessness. That means that we do not need to insist that our way or our point of view is the only right one, and that we can easily remain open to the ideas and opinions of others without the need to change them. By not being rigidly attached to any one idea or concept, we are free to effortlessly create how we want this moment, this day and this life, to flow and perhaps, in so doing, we may find a new and even better idea that works for us.

When we can set the intention to accept each moment as it is, take responsibility to how we respond to it, and remain open to the flow of ideas and concepts that are all around us, when the season is right, we will find that manifesting our desires is as effortless as we allow it to be.

And so it is.