Saturday, October 13, 2018

Learning To Live


What if you were sent here by something larger
Not against your will or wishes
But in alignment with your deepest longing
What if it was as simple as finding what you love
And letting it teach you how to live.
                                     ~Oriah "Mountain Dreamer" House


Photo by Karen Davis at Open Door Dreaming

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Healing Ourselves and Our World

When I told my story of being beaten and raped as a young woman, my mother said I was "just looking for attention."

Telling my story helped me heal anyway.

I pray that this is true for Dr, Christine Blasey Ford, no matter how the vote in the US Senate goes.

When I hear women say that if Ford drank at a party she "deserved whatever she got" I wonder what happened to them when they were young, and how much pain is buried deep so they can say such a thing about a fifteen year old girl.

Let's not call each other dehumanizing names, even in our own minds. Because if we can only work for fairness by making those who disagree with us something less than fellow human beings, on some level we lose the shared humanity that will let us go forward together.

When I was a child, I was taught that Jesus said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Even then I knew it was a revolutionary idea and something very hard to do. I also knew it did not mean being passive, but meant participating fully in shaping our shared world.

I pray we can find ways to stop injustice and work for real peace without putting the other out of our hearts. I know it's hard. If it wasn't hard I wouldn't have to pray about it.

When I told my story of being beaten and raped as a young woman, my mother said I was "just looking for attention."

Telling my story helped me heal anyway.

~Oriah "Mountain Dreamer" House

What Moves Through Us

Some days we find ourselves agitated no matter what is happening (and let's face it, if we are agitated we can always find something to pin it on.) Other days- like today for me- we find ourselves sitting with equanimity and calm for no apparent reason. Which is to say that although we can cultivate agitation or equanimity, these feeling states also seem to arise at least in part independent of our efforts and conditions. It's tricky, but probably best not to identify too strongly with what arises either way. Still, we can enjoy a little (mysterious) equanimity as I am today, when it arises, while it lasts. :-) ~Oriah

I am reminded by the photos of Karen Davis at Open Door Dreaming to see what arises within or around me as weather. That's not to say I am passive in response- if it rains I open my umbrella; if I am agitated I do not listen to the news but put some music on instead- but the idea of weather helps me not take what is arising within or around me, quite so personally.