Monthly Archives: September 2012

Wishcasting Wednesday (on Thursday)

What do you wish to do one day?

This sort of list is a bit dangerous for me to make, as I recently realized I am a doer, not so much a dreamer, and the lists I make of all the things I want to do would fill five lifetimes.

Live a simple, sane, wholehearted life, with plenty of joy, freedom, love, practice, connection, courage, confidence, wisdom and compassion.

Make my living (the $ part of it) from compassionate service, from connecting people to basic goodness, their own and that around them, so they can also live the kind of life I’d like for myself.

Publish, shorter works and books.

Offer ecourses, workshops, and retreats.

Make art that would justify an Etsy store.

Design and build my own web platform, for all of my work: art, writing, and teaching.

Perform music for an audience, using my voice, my ukelele, and maybe even my own original songs.

Spend a summer in Amsterdam, visit Japan, and travel around Europe. And, I suspect that the more places I’ve seen the more I might want to see.

Earn my certification to be a yoga and meditation instructor. Maybe there might also be some kind of other therapeutic certification as well.

Help form a collective, a co-op for women artists and healers.

Lead a retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center.

Own a home in Waldport, Oregon that can be used as, offered as a retreat center, for both personal and group retreats, (and allow for my own personal use).

Have a location in the Colorado Mountains where we could regularly visit with our dogs in the summer and fall.

Run a 10k, maybe even a half marathon.

Do yoga and a retreat with Jennifer Louden.

Make art and do service with Patti Digh.

Take pictures and walk on the beach with Susannah Conway.

Collaborate on something creative and brave with Andrea Scher.

Take a class and meditate with Natalie Goldberg.

Hear Mary Oliver read her poems, live and in person.

Do a duet with Danielle Ate the Sandwich.

Have an urban farm, which would include a flower garden big enough that during the season, I could have fresh flowers in my house all the time.

Be involved in service work, charity that makes a significant impact on suffering in the world.

Die an easy, peaceful death, allowing those I leave behind the same ease and peace, as well as confidence in the lasting nature of love.

Three Truths and One Wish

1. Truth: “Fear is the cage, and love is the key.” I can’t find the origin of this quote to be able to credit it to anyone, but maybe that’s appropriate–it’s so universally true that every wise and kind being (i.e. all of us, eventually), every being that’s ever lived long enough to know pain and loss, to be confused and generate our own suffering has known this to be true. Fear is like metal bars, chains, a dark room with thick walls and a locked door, the razor teeth of a crazed wild animal, something sharp and strong that traps you in its grip, no matter how hard you struggle against it. And love? Love is the softening, unlocking, relaxing, gentle release, tender wash of gratitude and ease, letting go–freedom.

2. Truth: Suffering turns me to practice, to the dharma (i.e. truth). If my life were easy, no problem, infinite, there would be no reason to practice. If I had everything I wanted, felt no pain, didn’t suffer or need anything, I would be content as is, there would be no motivation to deepen my spiritual life. Practice doesn’t make the bad stuff go away or stop it from coming, but it enables me to cope, to stay, to show up as I am and stick with reality as it is.

3. Truth: Hope and fear are equally problematic, both cause me to suffer in the way that they turn my mind from this moment. Confidence and courage, however, are about showing up, here and now, and sticking around, no matter what happens. Being who I am–shaky, raw, afraid, flawed, messy, and completely brilliant. Being where I am, with what is, not running away or rejecting or numbing out, staying with my experience in the present moment, standing where I am, standing in the truth, where life is.

One wish: That we wake up to our lives exactly as they are, see truth and reality as it is and stay with it, just as we are right now. That we have the confidence, the courage, and the compassion to continue showing up and sticking around, and that through our presence, we can be a comfort to others as they attempt the same.