Aligning with Grace

I am marveling at things I recorded in a journal a year ago. Though I have journals going back to when I was 15 years old, I rarely revisit them. Why? Many reasons, but that's beyond what I want to share today... This year, I decided to go back and review what I wrote and plan to dive further back into the shelves housing my collection. I am deeply touched by the level of insight and prescience I experienced in the last year and look forward to revisiting other journal entries. "For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice." T.S. Eliot Maybe you already keep a journal. Maybe you think you can't do it. But here's the thing: It can be whatever you want, when you want.  Over a period of nearly 55 years, my journals have taken shape as poetry volumes, and evolved into various formats. They have been collections of favorite quotes or lists of books read, or pictures, or an assembly of practices I found help...

The world needs your kindness... And it needs mine as well... It needs ALL of our kind acts, if we are to survive as a nation and as a planet... I have been reflecting on this a lot of late, wanting so desperately to withdraw further from the world, and I've already done a good job of that. Yet, I cannot ignore so much of what I read that brings to mind the urgency of needing to change our directions - as peoples, as nations, as religious traditions, as leaders, and as the trampled and abused earth that we live on.  I am forced to weigh the impact of my actions, of my thoughts, of my words... The Dalai Lama has often written that kindness is his religion. He has taught that we do not need complicated philosophies or religions to abide by - we just simply need more kindness. We just need to exercise more kindness overall... The story of the Good Samaritan especially comes to mind here. A man of a different tradition and nation - chooses to make a difference - h...

I wrap myself up in blankets and don toasty slippers on these cold winter days... I drink tea, and move slowly, and I think of what I would like to birth this year... There are so many things I would like to do and experience, but now is not the time for that. Now is the time for entraining with the rhythms of nature - it is a time for slowing down, for practicing self-care, and for nurturing the soul... Somehow, I sense this year will be different. I choose to dedicate it in a different way than I have in the past... There is much to do - much to clear - different directions to take - and all will unfold in its own time and in divine order... I embrace the long dark evenings and let go of what does not serve, in so many ways... I warm my hands around one cup of tea after another, and reflect on the attributes and values I want to cultivate this year. Like Pope Francis, I want to focus on the embodiment and greater reflection of mercy. But in order to do that, I must exer...

I am drawn to go to the river on this windy, and beautiful fall morning... Several years ago, I began so many mornings like this, going down to the river, with my kayak in tow, which I had aptly named "Grace," and into the waters we would go, to pray, to meditate, and commune with nature... I am not able to do this at the moment, for I lack a vehicle in which I can haul my kayak, and so today, I simply sit on a bench, looking out at the broad expanse of the river in front of me, and begin to do Metta practice for many in need. I give thanks and express gratitude for so many things in my life, chanting the Reiki precepts slowly, and with great care, mindfulness, and devotion, as if lost in a reverie not of this world... As I lose myself deeply in these spiritual practices, I feel buoyed by the Divine Presence surrounding me - and tossed about like a leaf in the wind and grace of God's love... I dance joyfully, following its gentle lead and rhythm... I marvel at t...

Sometimes, a word keeps showing up everywhere you look and everywhere you turn.  Other times it might be an experience. And sometimes, it's both at the same time... The more we practice - particularly meditation - the more we come to inhabit a state of grace. Paramahansa Yogananda in his writings, described how the deeper one meditates, the deeper one can go - the range of depths and experiences can never be plumbed in this life time. We never arrive. There is always so much farther one can go in the practice and in communing with the Divine. I find a certain comfort in that. Both Yogananda, and a gifted therapist I once visited, who was a devotee of Yogananda, asserted that over time, the practice of meditation leads one to inhabit a state of grace, more often than not. In time, the practice can lead to bliss, and eventually bliss will prevail as a state of being. It seems like such an amazing gift to me! Lately, everything I hear, read, or listen to reminds me of the st...

For only the second time since my surgery last summer, I stepped into the river... It's not like I haven't been in the river at this time of year before, but never in capris, and short sleeves, and my purple crocs! I pushed away from the launch site, and felt both freedom and exhilaration, as I paddled into the river, in Grace, my trusty kayak, who also accompanied me upstream day after day, just a few years ago, as I battled depression... But today, the only tune that played in my head, was, "I'm free! I'm free!, " by The Who. I know. I'm dating myself... I paddled to the Maryland side of the Potomac River, only intending to be there for a bit. I had a lot of work waiting for me back home. And, I was overwhelmed by the many needs out there, and so many requests for Reiki, prayers, healing energy and my time... I intended to say a few prayers, and somehow decide who needed them most today, and head back... But, God had something else in store for me. I was...

Sometimes, messages come to you in the most unexpected ways... Sometimes, you ignore the message the first time, and it keeps coming back to you again and again - a second, and a third, and maybe a fourth time... Yesterday was one of those days filled with unacknowledged or partially understood messages, and this morning seemed merely a continuation and extension of those lessons... Yesterday, as I waited in the doctor's office for a routine check up, I read a sermon written by Barbara Brown Taylor , from her book, Home by Another Way . Since we are partly into Holy Week , nearing the conclusion of Lent , I am choosing to read material that is relevant to the liturgical season, or is, at very least, spiritual in nature. The section I read in Taylor's book was based on a passage from St Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians , where he described a particularly challenging experience in his life, without actually identifying what it was. He describes it as "a thorn in t...

Today I woke up feel very down, but in the morning I was reminded of the title of this blog - "Aligning with Grace" - which means in essence, to live from a place where we are always aligning with the Divine... I shared with my students this morning, that I do not always feel like I align with the Divine. One of them seemed very surprised I said this, because she felt that I do this. I gently noted, that I strive to align with the Divine for the most part in my words and actions, but that I know I often miss the mark... I was reminded of the importance of aligning with the Divine, as I read the daily update on my friend Lili Cunningham, who is transitioning. Her husband Bill, titled the post, "Turning to the Light." And I thought to myself, when we align with the Divine - we turn towards the light, as a sunflower does, which the update duly noted. My friend always did that, for she lived fully and deeply, in all her experiences and encounters. Now, in her slow and f...

Life has a way of coming full circle and cycling through so many things... On Friday, almost three years to the date - I visited the river with the friend who first brought me there. Both of us had not returned there together for one reason or another, and I wanted to mark our return visit as the remaining "bookend" experience to a phase of my life and its conclusion. Yes, three years ago, I both visited this river and and began this blog - never imagining the role that both would come to play in my life! Three years ago, when my outer and inner worlds collided and unraveled, I came to visit the river daily, urgently and fervently engaging in Lovingkindness practices and other meditations as a form of healing and releasing animosity toward individuals and situations I felt had deeply wounded me. For nearly a year and half, in the throws of deep depression, I visited this river, and began kayaking, as a therapeutic way of taming my own inner turmoil and emotions as I paddled u...