Namaste …

Namaste is unfamiliar perhaps to many of you and certainly not a standard “holiday” greeting. Yet, when I read this paragraph recently:

In India when we meet and part we often say, “Namaste,” which means: I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides; I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where, if you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us. ~ Ram Dass in Grist for the Mill

I was moved to share it. A similar expression of Namaste comes from singer/songwriter, Trish Bruxvoort-Colligan:

Namaste

Namaste, Namaste, I greet you with my heart wide open.
I bow to the place in you where God dwells.
In Light and Love we are one. We are one!

I wish I could share with you a recording of her angelic voice singing that sentiment!

Namaste is based on an understanding that God – or Universal Love – is within each and every one of us. At any point in time, we may not feel it within ourselves or see it in another’s actions. But, what if we did? What if we lived from and into Namaste each time we connected with a family member or stood in a check-out line or passed a neighbor on our daily walk?

How can we bring the essence of Namaste alive this holiday season?
How do we greet one another with “heart wide open”?

 

I believe that Namaste is asking us first to go deep inside and find within ourselves the root, the core, the indwelling love, the inner perfection, perhaps the personal “God within.” This means that we must see, accept and move beyond elements of our human expression which may not resemble love – qualities such as hate, anger, fear, doubt, confusion. Yes, they are in you – and in me – just as each of us is and expresses compassion, empathy, joy, connection, love.So, first we connect within and honor the place “where the entire universe resides — the place of love, of light, of truth, of peace.”  We go there each dawn and again before each and every interaction of the day. We go within and become one with our innermost loving source. We open our heart.From there, from this loving, accepting, honoring energy, we greet others with “heart wide open”. Looking past the more negative elements of their human expression and looking for the indwelling “place of love, of light, of truth, of peace” we find it! It is there.

This is how we greet one another with the essence and intention of Namaste, with heart wide open.

Throughout the holiday season and beyond, I greet you with heart wide open. I wish for you an ever expanding understanding and experience of Namaste, of Love greeting Love.

Namaste, my friends.

Gratitude for the challenges …

{NOTE: If you have recently been through great pain and loss, this post may not be for you at this time. Please be gentle and listen to your inner being.}

Thanksgiving day is approaching and I’d like to offer a twist on the usual message “be grateful for all the gifts you’ve been given”. Let me begin with these lyrics from the band, Cloud Cult:

It’s easy to be thankful for the things you’ve got.
It takes guts to give thanks for the things you’ve lost.

They struck me as extremely powerful when I first heard them. As I think back on events in my life which represent loss or challenge or great pain, I notice the gifts. Here are just a few: Continue reading “Gratitude for the challenges …”

My Wish For You …

My Wish For You This Holiday Season

May you be present to your own well-being, self-care, self-acceptance and self-love. We cannot give away what we do not possess.

May you soften around a tradition you find difficult.

May you open your heart to a challenging personality.

May you realize that no one you see today is the same person you saw last time you were together and, therefore, listen with curiosity and an “I don’t know” awareness.

May you remember first to love yourself, second to be the love that you are, and finally to see this love everywhere in everyone.

Wishing you a gentle, joyful, healthy, love-filled holiday season!

Family, Friends and the Holidays

The holidays are, for many, a difficult time of added activity and expectations, an increased amount of family and friend time – or loneliness and sadness if you don’t have connections with others.

If you find the holidays challenging or stressful, read on.

If you find them wonderful, read on! You are probably the light, joy, safe space and energy needed by those around you.

The song, “The Grand Design” by Greg Tamblyn is a beautiful message about our inter-connectedness as human beings. Continue reading “Family, Friends and the Holidays”

Do you succumb to this violence?

Ease in Abundance

“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”

– Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

“… it destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom …” This points me to an understanding about being and doing. Continue reading “Do you succumb to this violence?”