Cosmic Gardener – Cultivating a Life

Serve your Self
Serve your Soul.
Serve your Soul
Serve the Whole.
All One.

Taking care of ourself is important to/for the quality of our life.

“And if I asked you to name all the things that you love,
how long would it take you to name yourself?”

Show up.
Get to know yourself.
Find your Light.
Life finds you.

In a relatively short period of time a friend has experienced multiple life-altering challenges, personally and within extended family. With resolution in sight of the most recent concern our conversations have shifted to what to expect when life returns to “normal.” Seems to me that normal is an illusion. A figment of our imagination at best, in reality, more like a moving target.

Rather than asking What’s Next? or its variation, What NOW?, perhaps a better question is What’s Now?

Asking What’s Now? keeps us focused on what needs to be done in the moment to be adequate to the tasks at hand. Being present also makes it easier to recognize treasured opportunities when they unexpectedly show up, or to find center as we surf the adventures that come with Life’s next wave rather than to be caught in its undercurrent.

What if I had married that person? Taken that job? Spent the summer in Europe when I was 21?

What if I hadn’t moved to Peoria? Made that investment? Quit college?

Often an exercise in analysis paralysis, What Ifs can be paralyzing. But what if it was productive to ponder the What Ifs?  What if instead of obsessively dwelling on them we reframed them?

This is, after all, Earth School. What if we looked with new eyes on the choices we have made and in so doing were not only better able to understand and process their inherent lessons, but also to embrace how said learning may have actually polished the diamond of our core being?

What If reminiscence was a way for our soul to help us to celebrate our lives by living more fully in the now?

What If, indeed.

Follow the Light … wherever it leads you …

Sage advice from a feline friend.

Fulfillment is more than feeling full. Fulfillment is the result of mending the holes in our soul.

If in the filling up that follows we share the overflow, we are filled anew.

It has become my habit to stretch daily to improve my physical flexibility and resilience and in so doing to manage the changes in my body in a positive and supportive way. Change is the constant in life. Change in all parts of our Being; physical, mental, social and spiritual.

Life is a master teacher. During a time of giving care to a loved one I learned a core lesson. I learned that by asking

‘What do I need to do to manage this situation
without giving away my peace of mind?’

that I gained perspective not only about next steps but also about what was important.

It is the soul’s intent to grow and in, through and with that growth, to serve.

How can I grow?

How may I serve?

Like many others I am extremely troubled by the all-too apparent divisiveness presently manifest in what is commonly referred to within (perhaps mistakenly) “civilized” society, globally. In particular the vilification of the other. No matter who or what that other represents in one’s eyes.

Whether differences appear overtly as in matters of skin color, apparel or behavior; or in perception of ideology, religion or political affiliation, the other has increasingly become suspect. Rather than making an effort to understand differences, all too often those not like us are not only vilified but also punished, or even cast out.

An outgrowth of such limited and self-justifying thinking at times also manifests as a disregard or even disrespect of our animal brothers and sisters, and of our Mother Earth herself.

I have come to believe that there is always another way to look at things. Albert Schweitzer’s concept of “Reverence for Life” embraced all life and earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in the mid-20^th century. Seeking center, balance and peace of mind amidst current social, political and environmental chaos and stress I turned to my own Higher Angels for perspective. Serenity was offered to me with this thought:
…… Judge no one. Bless everyone.

We don’t have to agree on anything to be kind to one another.

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
~ The Dalai Lama

In a protracted period of semi-isolation, a friend, house-bound and more sedentary than not began to work jigsaw puzzles. Through the hours over days that stretched into months of putting them together she learned, assimilated and practiced skills applicable to assembling a life.

Pacing. Patience. Perseverance.
Discernment. Surrender. Perspective.

When you stay the course all the pieces generally end up in their right place. Even if some of the pieces are missing there is beauty to be found in the big picture.

Who among us is always put together?

While Earth School lessons surely grow our souls, sometimes in the course of study they also bringing us to our knees. It is a position that can either lead us to prayer, or to despair.

At times we look both ways, up and down. It’s good exercise for the heart.

Love endures. Nay, prevails.

Change has at its foundation chaos.
Chaos is transformative; it disembodies, and creates.
Embrace change.
Bless the chaos.

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
~ The Dalai Lama

It is only under extreme and prolonged pressure that diamonds are formed. Without abrasion they won’t shine. Other raw elements under pressure become coal. Without fire it serves no purpose.

Both are intrinsically valuable.

Some days sparkle.
Some days are dark.

Both are intrinsically valuable.