Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Transformation

Transformation is so clear this time of year, well, every time of year really, every time of day, moment by moment.  I’m not sure why I feel more alert these days but there’s something about the ripening of pumpkins that speaks to me, hollows me out with the rounding need to expand and stem.

Yesterday in a book by Flora Thompson, I read about a children’s game where the children find a place outside and touch the earth lightly, and bounce up and come down, singing, “We are bubbles of earth.  Bubbles of earth. Bubbles of earth.”

I’m inspired to see myself as a bubble of earth.  

Thich Nhat Hanh says that, “When we are able to take one step peacefully, happily, we are for the cause of peace and happiness for the whole of humankind.”

That seems especially key these days especially as thoughts are with the oil spill off Huntington Beach and all the creatures at risk.

The root of the word transform is “to move into beauty”.

May this be so!

Stinson Beach on a foggy day, which is not today –
Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Reverence

This morning meditation called me, not as something on my to-do list but like food or water or the rising sun and setting moon.   I meditated and went outside in the dark to water plants.  The moon was still up in the west and now this first day of autumn, the sky is radiant with sun pouring through.

I honor the day with these words of Br. David Steindl-Rast:

In each of us there is a spark that can reverse the trends of violence and depression spiraling within us and in the world around us. By setting in motion the spiral of gratefulness we begin the journey toward peace and joy.
Inhaling the scent of Jasmine

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Breathing

This morning I’m with these words from Shunryu Suzuki Roshi on“Breathing”.

What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

Perhaps that’s why I relate so to watching the tides move in and out, and the individual waves moving as a group.  No “I” – just a swinging door.  

Yesterday I was at the park with Grandchild – Grand Child.

Magnolia Blossom – Breathing
Honoring in and out, life and death – One!

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Mother’s Day

I wake and stay in bed listening to a symphony of bird song, twitterings and tweets, caws, and turkey gobbling that percolates through all my cells.  It’s morning in May and we celebrate the mothering that connects us all.  

This quote from an unknown source comes my way today.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try doing it the way mom told you to in the beginning.”

Perhaps there’s a way to balance that, or perhaps not, but today I remember all the women in my life, related and not, who’ve enriched, guided, brightened, opened, and paved my way. I’m grateful for celebration and honoring, a day to be with the birthing that continues to transform and unfold.  

Yesterday I emailed a friend and the email returned with what augments all her emails.

I offer it here.  

Five Vows From Joanna Macy and the Work that Reconnects:

I vow to myself and to each of you:

  • To commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings.
  • To live on Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products, and energy I consume.
  • To draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future generations, and my brothers and sisters of all species.
  • To support others in our work for the world and ask for help when I need it.
  • To pursue a daily practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart, and supports me in observing these vows.”

I sink into the truths of this mothered by the roots, branches, leaves, and fruits of trees.

Learning from Trees

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Focus

On a day that is exquisite with trees filling space with buds and leaves,  and birds singing and sweeping through the air, I read this from Heather Cox Richardson:

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed his state’s new voter suppression law last night in a carefully staged photo op. As journalist Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out, Kemp sat at a polished table, with six white men around him, under a painting of the Callaway Plantation on which more than 100 Black people had been enslaved. As the men bore witness to the signing, Representative Park Cannon, a Black female lawmaker, was arrested and dragged away from the governor’s office.

I put it with the news of a week or so ago. in a decree approved by Pope Francis, the Vatican said that priests cannot bless same-sex unions, describing such relationships as “not ordered to the Creator’s plan.”

The church said, “The blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit”.

In my lifetime, I’ve seen change, and then, these two things happen and I’m caught in a collision of what seems to be so obvious, evident and true – the need for equality and freedom for all, and then there’s these broken and disintegrating steps unaligned with what I believe the majority of people think and feel.

We can know this is a last gasp effort to leave control in the hands of a few, and still it’s hard, and yet, people are gathering in vigils of solidarity and peace.   I focus there and on opening leaves and birds calling and building nests.

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

My Guidance for Today

When the basis for your actions is inner alignment with the present moment, your actions become empowered by the intelligence of Life itself.

– Eckhart Tolle

Tennessee Valley

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Like a Jellyfish

This morning I woke feeling myself sinking calmly into a pond, anchored like the lotus, content to sink into mud, and then, I thought of mushrooms and mycelium, mycelium running all through the earth, connecting, unseen, and then, I felt myself as that reproductive body, the mushroom, popping up and out with rain.  We’ve had rain.  

I should check my yard and see what’s growing there but now in this moment, sprouts rise and bloom from my heart.

I feel content these days.  Garrison Keillor writes of that place.  Perhaps it’s a Midwestern thing that signals connection with a few, and yet …

Ken McLeod in Reflections on Silver River writes this: 

As my teacher once said, “If you could really take away the suffering of everyone in the world, taking all of it into you with a single breath, would you hesitate?”

And then he introduces Tonglen meditation as a way to begin.

Today I float up and down like a jellyfish trusting immersion in my environment and unfolding in and as what comes and goes.

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Learning!

The poet William Stafford, was a registered pacifist in the United States. From 1942 to 1946, during WWII, he worked in camps and projects for conscientious objectors. He was paid $2.50 per month for assigned duties such as fire fighting, soil conservation, and building and maintaining roads and trails.  This poem speaks volumes to me. 

Learning
 
A piccolo played, then a drum.
Feet began to come - a part of the music.  Here comes a horse,
clippety clop, away.
 
My mother said, "Don't run - 
the army is after someone
other than us.  If you stay
you'll learn our enemy."
 
Then he came, the speaker.  He stood
in the square.  He told us who
to hate.  I watched my mother's face,
its quiet.  "That's him," she said.
 
~ William Stafford ~
 
(The Way It Is)
 
Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Good Morning

I wake early today and go outside to look at the moon.  The owls are hooting and now I know this is the mating call of the Great Horned Owl I’ve been hearing, and male and female are back, and if all goes well, we will have baby owls in late March.   What an omen of Joy!

Yesterday I was watching the crows and the hawks screeching across the sky.  Was it battle or play? It looked like play as though each was perfecting its flight and hanging out as our weeks of rain lead to sun today.

Nature shines through more clearly with the leaves fallen and coating the ground.  Branches stroke the heart with their reach and bend.

I’m with this haiku by Issa this morning.  This is one translation.

Does the woodpecker

stop and listen, too?

evening temple drum 

May your day be one of beauty and peace!

Morning Sky to the East



Morning Sky to the South