What Comes Next: Love Relentlessly

WHAT COMES NEXT 

“Love relentlessly.” -Diana Butler Bass

Love relentlessly, she said,
and I want to slip these two words
into every cell in my body, not the sound
of the words, but the truth of them,
the vital, essential need for them,
until relentless love becomes
a cytoplasmic imperative,
the basic building block for every action.
Because anger makes a body clench.
Because fear invokes cowering, shrinking, shock.
I know the impulse to run, to turn fist, to hurt back.
I know, too, the warmth of cell-deep love—
how it spreads through the body like ocean wave,
how it doesn’t erase anger and fear,
rather seeds itself somehow inside it,
so even as I contract love bids me to open
wide as a leaf that unfurls in spring
until fear is not all I feel.
Love relentlessly.
Even saying the words aloud invites
both softness and ferocity into the chest,
makes the heart throb with simultaneous
urgency and willingness. A radical pulsing
of love, pounding love, thumping love,
a rebellion of generous love,
tenacious love, a love so foundational
every step of what’s next begins
and continues as an uprising,
upwelling, ongoing, infusion
of love, tide of love, honest love.

~Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Agenda today:

1. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

2. Review Essential Intentions

3. Love meditation

Sabbath for Proaction

When I first read about the concept of proaction in Stephen Covey's book, I was amazed to learn that I have the freedom and responsibility to choose how to respond rather than going through my life reacting to things as they arise; that I can control my moods and my impulses, rather than letting situations and people’s words sway me.

I've gotten much better now at being independent and disciplined - at letting praise and criticism roll off me; at feeling good because of my inner light rather than as a response to what others say; at having equanimity in the hard times. And I've also gotten better at looking my moods of avoidance in the eye and having the strength of my convictions.

Today I have a day to myself, and I'll take time to be proactive and disciplined with some things I've been avoiding, and also settle into meditation on the various people and situations in my life and how I can better respond to them.

Agenda today:

1. Read "Everyday Simplicity"
2. Resilience tasks
3. Proaction plans
4. Love Meditation

Say Yes

I hope to have the integrity to say yes, to act with truth, with love, with honor. Truth is a continual revelation, a constantly unfolding series of insights about how my mind works, how the world works, and how I might best act with more love, honesty, generosity, justice, and peace. Truth expands my understanding of life to give me clarity.

But there I am often stuck- I struggle sometimes against apathy, and sometimes against mind-numbing fear. Here is my growing edge; every day presents an opportunity to get on track. I hope to have the courage of my convictions- to follow the life path I know I need to follow. My anxiety and resistance is wasted energy: I KNOW my path, and I need only relax into the love of the Universe to act on my knowing, to take the next step.

“But however Truth comes, it bears with it just enough of its own sense of rightness to overcome the fear of risk taking. While genuine risk plays a crucial role in all of the Habits of Love, it is perhaps most keen in the Habit of Truth. At too many forks in the road, anxiety stops us from following Truth's suggested direction. What will happen if I say yes to Truth as I recognize it? That question can arrest us in our tracks.” ~Ed Bacon

 

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries
2. Read "The Creativity Book"
3. Simple project list

Valentine's Day

Saint Valentine was a third-century Roman Christian who died on February 14. The poet Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle probably invented many of the romantic legends about Saint Valentine, in the fourteenth century. 

Valentine made by a student of mine.

After that, it became a custom for a man to write a romantic poem to send to his beloved on St. Valentine's Day. Very fancy paper cards, with lace and ribbons, became popular in the 1840's, and that custom expanded into sending cards to Mom and Dad, and friends of all kinds.

Agenda today:
1. Mindful of love

2. Mindfulness practices
3. Make Valentines

Full Snow Moon and Lantern Festival

Tonight is the full moon called the Snow Moon; also called the Atchiulartadsh, or "Out of Food" moon by the local Kalapuya.

We've not had any real snow this month, and we are not out of food, but it is a lean time: Lean on light, barren garden beds, and low on energy.

Tonight is also Yuan Xiao, the 15th and last day of the Chinese New Year Festival. Yuan Xiao means "first night", meaning the first time that the full moon is seen in the New Year. 

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon. The February full moon is a good time to explore what it's like to be the receptive earth, accepting the seed and willing to nurture it. 

Agenda for today:

1. Vision walk

2. Celebrate receptivity

3. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

4. Make tang yuan, sweet dumplings
5. Hang a lantern
6. Riddle guessing

Tu B'Shevat

Tu B’Shevat (to b’sch VAHT), the Jewish New Year for Trees, begins tonight at sunset, the evening before the full moon. This is the season in Israel when the earliest-blooming trees start a new fruit-bearing cycle. In contemporary Israel it’s celebrated with tree planting ceremonies and a focus on ecological awareness, and a seder (ceremonial meal) of tree fruits.

Agenda: 

1. Tree of Life meditation

2. Plant a tree

3. Intentions for Earth-Care

4. Share a seder meal