For a Five-Year-Old
Posted: February 26, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: Children, Fleur Adcock, Identity, Internet, life, parenting, Poetry, Seva, Spring, writing, yoga 1 Comment…
A snail is climbing up the window-sill
into your room, after a night of rain.
You call me in to see and I explain
that it would be unkind to leave it there:
it might crawl to the floor; we must take care
that no one squashes it. You understand,
and carry it outside, with careful hand,
to eat a daffodil.
I see, then, that a kind of faith prevails:
your gentleness is moulded still by words
from me, who have trapped mice and shot wild birds,
from me, who drowned your kittens, who betrayed
your closest relatives and who purveyed
the harshest kind of truth to many another,
But that is how things are: I am your mother,
And we are kind to snails.
Rest.
Posted: February 19, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, Identity, kindness, love, meditation, Omaha, passion, Poetry, Prose, rest, Richard Jones, winter, writing, yoga 2 Comments…
It’s so late I could cut my lights
and drive the next fifty miles
of empty interstate
by starlight,
flying along in a dream,
countryside alive with shapes and shadows,
but exit ramps lined
with eighteen wheelers
and truckers sleeping in their cabs
make me consider pulling into a rest stop
and closing my eyes. I’ve done it before,
parking next to a family sleeping in a Chevy,
mom and dad up front, three kids in the back,
the windows slightly misted by the sleepers’ breath.
But instead of resting, I’d smoke a cigarette,
play the radio low, and keep watch over
the wayfarers in the car next to me,
a strange paternal concern
and compassion for their well being
rising up inside me.
This was before
I had children of my own,
and had felt the sharp edge of love
and anxiety whenever I tiptoed
into darkened rooms of sleep
to study the small, peaceful faces
of my beloved darlings. Now,
the fatherly feelings are so strong
the snoring truckers are lucky
I’m not standing on the running board,
tapping on the window,
asking, Is everything okay?
But it is. Everything’s fine.
The trucks are all together, sleeping
on the gravel shoulders of exit ramps,
and the crowded rest stop I’m driving by
is a perfect oasis in the moonlight.
The way I see it, I’ve got a second wind
and on the radio an all-night country station.
Nothing for me to do on this road
but drive and give thanks:
I’ll be home by dawn.
: Puzzling :
Posted: February 17, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, Buddhism, compassion, cycling, family, freshly pressed, happiness, health, hipster, kindness, life, love, lululemon, meditation, nature, passion, running, writing, yoga, Zen 11 CommentsThe truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away. Puzzling-
Meditation is like that. Full of seemingly impossible contradictions! Meditation is tedious and difficult to write about given our connected-analytic nature. Meditation is much easier to explain to someone who habitually thinks poetically. Like the inspired yoga instructor who creates a magical flowing class off the top of their head, or the mountain biker who flows with little effort on tight single-track. Meditation, my kind of Meditation that is … Centers on expanding our logical thinking into poetic and logical thinking. Still with me?!?
How then do we tap into being both a logical thinker, in addition, to being a poetic thinker? This is the essential transformation that a deeply rooted Meditation-Mindfulness practice teaches us.
…
Allow me to change logical thinker and poetic thinker into – Mind and Heart.
A few years ago, I decided to attend a local workshop and “learn” to meditate. The plan was to attend this workshop, receive a mantra or whatever and instantly become healthier, increase my focus, and calm my crazy mind in like, 13 1/2 minutes of practice twice a day. That was the promise printed on the meditation workshop website. I was “that dude” at the time before tearing my knees apart. An over-achieving runner, and I prided myself on the hard, mindless work I put in daily. Maybe this mindfulness meditation stuff would help me compete at a higher level?!?
On the day of the workshop, as I signed in and unfolded my freezing yoga mat in the picturesque studio, something began to stir within my mind and heart. I had a warm sense of excitement and anticipation that quite surprised me. I literally had no idea what to expect from this class, however in some “weird” way, I resonated with the people who were presenting the workshop and my fellow class mates – Each one of them had a sense of calm that was palpable and real. I listened attentively to their words and the stories they shared, but it was something far beyond the resonating words that was connecting with me, stirring my soul. It’s as though I had passed through a doorway into a serene, peaceful place where my heart expanded and connected to world spinning around me.
This was the first time that I had an awareness of my mind, separate from the peaceful part of my heart.
Daily Meditation:
There are two ways of experiencing Mindfulness … Mind and Heart.
For You, Friend
Posted: February 12, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, compassion, friends, friendship, gratitude, kindness, love, Mindfulness, Omaha, passion, Poems, Poetry, Seva, Ted Kooser, Valentine's Day, writing 5 Comments…
this Valentine’s Day, I intend to stand
for as long as I can on a kitchen stool
and hold back the hands of the clock,
so that wherever you are, you may walk
even more lightly in your loveliness;
so that the weak, mid-February sun
(whose chill I will feel from the face
of the clock) cannot in any way
lessen the lights in your hair, and the wind
(whose subtle insistence I will feel
in the minute hand) cannot tighten
the corners of your smile. People
drearily walking the winter streets
will long remember this day:
how they glanced up to see you
there in a storefront window, glorious,
strolling along on the outside of time.
Jail : Sentence :
Posted: February 10, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, blogging, Consumerism, cycling, gratitude, Identity, kindness, love, Mindfulness, Omaha, passion, Prison, social media, writing, yoga 14 CommentsIf I spent ten years in prison, I’d probably come to value the small things in life. Things like good food, a comfy bed, and a toothbrush sharpened into a shank-
How can we spring ourselves from this “social media” jail sentence we conveniently lump on our weary souls? For me personally, capturing and restoring a sense of gratitude is the ideal antidote for the nauseating cycle of egotism we confront on a daily basis.
Propping the world on my shoulders, believing and behaving as though I am the center of your attention when I put forth a self-serving blog post. And you know what? Being the center of attention is both exhausting and futile.
I challenge you to reexamine the meaning of gratitude and kindness – Taking to heart the profound impact and value they impart on our lives. Without them, we will struggle to get over our preening, look-at-me sense of self-importance.
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As the seasons gently begin to change, I start to look within and begin to write about the “things” for which I am truly grateful – Your continued support, Family and Friends, Yoga, Cycling and maybe a few other “things” as well. I ask of you – your patience, as I try to move past the obvious and explore deeper the gifts I may have overlooked in the past; becoming aware of how many people made this possible through their hard work. As well as paying deeper attention to nature’s boundless wonders, beauty and mysteries as I once did as a child and have awakened once again as an adult <— Used loosely.
Daily Meditation:
When we learn to forget ourselves – We can enjoy our lives, fully, in this inspiring moment.
CultFit 