This week, Jamie asks: What space do you wish to create? My initial response, first thought, immediate wish as I sit at my cluttered mess of a writing desk is to create space here, space for creating, contemplating, practicing. I wish to clean, clear, and organize, to get rid of what doesn’t belong here, what isn’t serving or inspiring me.
I wish to create space for my body’s wisdom, to be able to connect with its ability to heal, to trust it to tell me what it wants, what it needs, to take the opportunity to support its health and wellness, to make room for breath and movement and rest.
I wish to create space to rest, relax, be at ease, to restore and heal.
I wish to create space to learn, mainly through reading and contemplation, but through connection too. I have access to such a vast and rich amount of wisdom and sanity, in textual and physical forms — soft animal bodies and wild hearts, blood and alphabet — and am wishing for the space to connect with it, consider it.
I wish for the space to be present with my little family, to give attention to the dogs, to connect with Eric in an easy, gentle, loving, content, mindful way.
I wish to create space for what truly matters, to clear away all the stuff and nonsense that no longer serves me (if it ever did), to make way for what is precious and important.
I wish to create space for things to take root and grow, to cultivate what will nourish, give joy, ease suffering.
I wish to create space for stillness, calm, acceptance, self-compassion.
I wish to create space to be, simply be, with what is exactly as I am.
Enough. These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.
This opening to the life
we have refused
again and again
until now.
Until now.
~by David Whyte
P.S. Thanks to Mr. Salahub for the pictures of Red Mountain Open Space.
1. Wisdom from Geneen Roth, ending with such a good question,
This morning, as I begin preparing for our twice yearly retreat, I remembered something that I realized years ago, when I was struggling with my own weight challenges: that until and unless I wanted something more than I wanted to be thinner, I would never lose weight and keep it off. Not in a way that didn’t include deprivation and judgment. For myself, I had to want to know what was at the bottom of my eating. I had to want to touch that hunger. To become aware that the whole thing wasn’t really about food, but about something much more profound–and it was that that I had to want to touch, know, heal. Once I did that (and it was a process, not a one-time event), the weight came off, and stayed off for all these years.
So–what do you want more than you want to lose weight? What do you really really want?
If we are to sustain this world of wonder, what is essential in our response is not just action but a shift in consciousness, a shift away from seeing the Earth as something separate from ourselves, as a resource to be used and abused. Real sustainability is not the sustainability of our present lifestyle — our image of progress and economic growth — but the sustainability of a sacred Earth, rich in biodiversity and wonder.
12. Daily Truthbomb from Danielle LaPorte, “You can always find someone who thinks you’re an idiot. Speak up any way.”
13. The Forest House, East Sussex. I posted about this last week, but this week SF Girl by Bay shared even more of the pictures, along with a link to the original site with the full set. I want to go to there.
14. New paintings from Paul Bond. The way he describes Eleanor Dreams of a Miraculous Rescue, made me tear up. You see, I know the real Eleanor, who I called Danger Baby and now Danger Kid, because every time I see her, I want one just like her. I am going to happily settle for a print of this painting instead. Paul says this about it,
The resulting scene became a story of innocence. Of a child’s belief that she can always protect and nurture those things that she loves the most. And a prayer that the adult Eleanor’s of the world never stop cherishing whatever calls to them.
“What makes the content you create awesome is that it’s a story told through your unique lens. It’s you, telling a story. It’s you not giving a fuck about anything but telling that story.” ~Paul Jarvis
It’s about connection. It’s about being open. It’s about being vulnerable and true and courageous.
It’s about yoga as a path to self-realization.
Not one blinding flash when we suddenly become enlightened.
But those small moments of self-realization that happen every time we step on the yoga mat. When another illusion drops away. Another samskara dissolves. Another insight arises.
That’s what it’s about. That’s what yoga as a path to self-realization means.
We realize, moment by moment, all that we are not. And one day, when all that we are not drops away… there we are.
31. Amy Seeley singing Beloved, frogs and bugs and maybe crickets singing in the background. No matter the version, the piano in this song wrecks me.
32. 7 Behaviors to Stop Tolerating in Others from Marc and Angel Hack Life. I would add that these are behaviors we should also attempt to stop doing ourselves.
33. “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one” ~Bruce Lee
35. This wisdom from Thubten Chodron: Wishing others to be happy doesn’t mean we give them everything they want, because sometimes what they want can be harmful. Wishing them to be happy entails wanting them to be free from pain and loneliness.
36. Fat Shame, (btw: there is language, but I love what she has to say).
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 