In the Bed of Creation Part II

"Quality of attention" was the experiment of last week, and if you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, check out Part 1. So, here's what I discovered--this crazy, delightful world with all its plethora of choices, can pull in a thousand different directions. In order to know what to give attention to, it helps to spend time each and every day establishing what I like to call, "my silver cord" or "anchor." Am I speaking in metaphor? Of course, I'm a poet! "Tying the silver cord" or "anchoring in" is something I try to do every morning upon rising. Here's what a perfect practice day looks like: ten minutes on the emWave to get connected to my heart, and then when coherence has been established in my body, and I'm purring like Yogini, I write for two hours. I do these two things before doing anything else. This simple personal practice limits distractions and clarifies my inner world, grounding me in what I consider lasting and true before I head out into the outer world with all its baubles and trinkets.

As some of you know, I've authored a novel on Joan of Arc, Child of God: The Humble Beginnings of Joan of Arc. For Joan, who was Catholic born and raised (not a whole lot of other options in the 1400's), she anchored herself to an orthodox God. She devoted herself with one-minded fervor (and great quality of attention) to freeing her country from English invasion. She is a true heroine to me for even though her inquisitors branded her a heretic and a witch, excommunicated her and burned her at the stake, she continued to profess her true identity--child of God.

Remember always what this blog celebrates..."that you are an expression of the Eternal. The body is the gateway. Read on (and on and on) if you need reminding." Acknowledging each person's inherent beauty and worth is what I aspire my full quality of attention towards each and every day. Tie to this silver cord of truth whenever you need bolstered and heartened.

In the Bed of Creation

Hopefully this title was provocative enough to get your full attention! I just went for a run after a day of rain, sleet and snow, and the beauty of the last remnants of storm clearing off the Sierra mountains was breath-taking. It was a much needed dose of glistening, sun-soaked glory after a weekend of sifting through emails and my “to-do” list. As I stood, immersed in the landscape and the much bigger expression of life, a simple phrase came to mind—quality of attention. 

What captures one hundred percent of my attention, like the stunning display before my eyes? Session time with clients, teaching, loving my husband (blush), loving yogini (um, if you wonder who this is, check out her splendor), physical exercise, writing, singing on the drum….You know what I’m talking about—times in life when you’re caught up in the flow of effortless action, lose track of time and are captivated; in other words, giving 100% quality of attention. 

Is it unrealistic to aspire to such awareness 24-7, even with email, to-do lists and the unpleasantries of life? As I pondered such thoughts, clouds cleared to reveal the robin-egg blue sky for which Tahoe is known, and I saw clearly the Charted Course to the North Star of giving everything 100% quality of attention:

1) Simplify unnecessary distractions (those things that drain energy)

2) Remember always what is loved and spend time doing it 

Did I run home and close down the email accounts (so tempting), huck my “to-do” pile to the four winds (even more tempting:), grab my writing pad and sequester away with my husband and my yogini? Heck no! But, I did unsubscribe to a few email lists, move the dwindling “to-do” pile from the center of my writing desk to the corner and then promptly fell into the bed of creation and produced this blog article. Ah, I’m so grateful clouds never stick around but eventually pass through to reveal yet another personal North Star—quality of attention. Tomorrow’s the start of a brand new week, with gobs of information and choices jockeying for my awareness. On what will I chose to invest my energy? Stay tuned, as I Chart the Course this week through the great experimental sea of life. As I push off the safe weekend shore, I feel a part two article hailing me. It has my attention....TTFN (Ta Ta For Now)

Energy Never Dies, It Just Changes Form

...Inner Constellation Truth #2 and I'm holding to it! Thank you, BC, for proving it once again, I love you. 

This Permeable Heart

©Karla Johnston, InnerConstellation.com

Written February 24, 2013 in honor of Bob Center

Going about my chores today 

lyrics of Lakota Sundance songs overshadow all thoughts,

work their magic and soon I’m captivated, singing along. 

By round four I feel ceremony’s rhythmic pull,

“Hmmm,” I think, “wonder if someone needs some prayers?”

Lakota songs used to plague me

like a persistent call from a dear friend

who wouldn’t let off until I answered. 

But this love affair has mellowed

and instead of being all-consumed

I carry on household tasks, 

join my voice to lyrics plucked from air, 

staying all the while curious and attentive. 

I make myself a well-earned promise, 

to pick up the drum when all commitments are done. 

A few hours later, as daylight folds into night, I learn sad news—

a friend has passed, died suddenly the day before from a heart attack.

I think of his greatest contribution to me—teacher of the songs.

I smile and strangely, I am not sad, knowing I’ve received a precious gift.

Elk hide drum is lifted from its stand

as mallet is finally grasped in hand.

Vibration of a holy prayer 

continues….  

Power of the Heart

My talk last week on Heart-Based Living got me thinking about one of the first times I made a visceral connection to the power of my own heart. I still very much remember the day, three years ago. I was struggling with a decision I had made to distance myself physically from a difficult family member. After years of heart-ache, I had decided to stop participating in the chaos and instead send care. On this particular afternoon, I had begun the oh-so-familiar pattern of worry but in midstream remembered my commitment to send care. I sat down and began a series of heart-felt statements, envisioning them first for myself and then for my family member:

May you be happy,
may you be healthy and strong,
safe and protected,
free from inner and outer harm.
May you live in your world with ease and grace.*

As I completed my last well-wishing phrase, the phone rang, punctuating the silence. Amazingly, I heard the voice of my loved one on the machine and rose from the couch to answer. In the twenty-two years since moving far from home, I could have counted on one hand the number of times this family member had called. I picked up and replied, "I was just praying for you and me." What followed was one of the best conversations we had ever shared. When we hung up, I was convinced that tremendous power lied not in statements of well-wishing but rather in the shift of my perception.

A journey of the heart began as I started consciously tending the ephemeral parts of me and my loved one: in dreams, in letters, in phone calls. I continued to maintain physical distance, investing instead in the power of my heart.

Three years after I committed to heart-based care, my loved one passed away. When I attended the funeral, family assumed I harbored regret over not seeing him before he died. Words could not explain how completely opposite of regret I felt--instead, through the softening of my own heart over the years, I experienced complete reconciliation. A few hours before my loved one's passing, I was gifted with a face-to-face visit with him in a dream. It prepared me for the transformation that was about to take place. Throughout the dream references to the heart abounded.


*adapted from traditional Metta or "Loving-Kindness" phrases

Happy Valentine's Day

What does it mean to live with more heart? Treat yourself to a no-charge retreat this Valentine's weekend as we explore the body's physiological response to stress and simple, skillful ways to access the intelligence of the heart and literally change the body's response. Results will be tested using HeartMath emWave technology--a simple biofeedback tool  built on over two decades of research that puts intangible emotions such as love and care into visible and subjective results.

InnerConstellation.com delivers services based on this philosophy: body is the gateway to health and well being and heart is the master regulator. Hope to see you this Friday, February 15 for a fun, interactive heart-filled evening.

"Where you tend a rose...a thistle cannot grow."

I love this quote from the classic, The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (which you can get for free as a Kindle Book. I love the Kindle free library!):

"Where you tend a rose...a thistle cannot grow."

It neatly sums up the entire premise of her book which is the importance of our thoughts and what we chose to cultivate within. I'm reminded of a quote in my Kindle ebook, Child of God: The Humble Beginnings of Joan of Arc. Joan's town of Domremy had recently been attacked by the English. A battle waged within her as she witnessed the cruelty of man and found herself at a critical juncture of decision--how would she respond? Archangel Micheal visits her and upon seeing her struggle gently inquires:

"Where do you permit your mind and heart to take you? Do you allow the vice of discouragement to wind its way inward, or do you allow the Voice of guidance to provide sweet consolation? Do you listen to language of sad earth, or language of hope?"

Interestingly, when I wrote the above passage years ago, it was taken directly from a private journal entry, and the question had been posed to me. I, too, had been at a critical point in my life and was reminded of the importance of cultivating consolation, compassion and goodness--the rose.

If goodness is within, there is no room for its opposite--where you tend a rose...a thistle cannot grow. On this snowy afternoon, may the peaceful blessings falling from the sky here in Tahoe find their way to you and cover the inner garden you're tending with a blanket of inspiration.

Martin Luther King, Jr. STILL gives me goosebumps...

Happy MLK day IC peeps! As is my MLK holiday tradition, I just finished listening to MLK's "I have a dream..." speech. It's by far one of the top 10 speeches in American history in my humble opinion, a close first to Abraham Lincoln's, Gettysburg Address, "Four score and seven years ago...." which in fact highly influenced MLK's dream speech written one hundred years later as he built upon Lincoln's 1863 unheard of proposition that "all men are created equal." MLK is a prime example of a man who pursued his North Star with great devotion and diligence. I highlighted him last year in a MLK Freedom Series blog article.

Even though MLK's physical form is gone, his merits, words and ideals are far from dead (IC Truth #2 Energy never dies it just changes form)--I still get goosebumps listening to him, especially these lines:

• "In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."

• "There are those who are asking...'When will you be satisfied!'....No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

The first quote is a beautiful reminder to conduct oneself by LIVING his or her highest ideals (North Stars), which for MLK and the civil rights devotees were justice and freedom for all. The second quote is a beautiful visual using the metaphor of nature, which is 100% equanimous, always, no exception. 

May you remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today and be inspired and filled with his goodness, his mercy and his belief in things yet unseen. In thanksgiving, how might you--"...allow freedom to ring--when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last."