I want the flowers NOW!

May 28, 2013 by

I keep staring at them, willing them to shoot up their yellow flowers. I want the color but my garden is taking its own good time. It’s still May, too early for most of the perennial flowers, especially these Western Sunflowers, to bloom. I’m feeling impatient.photo-2

Spring has been here forever.  I want warmer weather and the richness of the harvest. Silly of course, and just a passing emotional storm  Yet I’m aware that in our world of instant messaging, it’s easy to lose touch with the natural rhythm of things.

Waiting is seen only as a delay. Defining goals suddenly slips into a dissatisfaction with what we have now. Being where you are seems not enough. You forget to appreciate and enjoy what is.

Fortunately I can laugh at my impatience. It too will pass.

I walk back into the house remembering that now is the only moment I have.  And, I smile.

Filed Under: Heart's wisdom, Systems, We are creators Tagged With: , ,

The branches were bare!

May 6, 2013 by

Thursday. I planted the lovely little Red Chokeberry bush.

Saturday. I went to see how it was doing. There were no small white flowers, no delicate green leaves; just bare branches. The deer had dined!deer

All day I mourned the loss of this pretty little plant with its bird friendly berries. I struggled with whether I should replace it. Might it grow back? What would I need to do to keep the deer away?

Sunday. I began to think that this was a gentle wake up call. It was a reminder that I’m part of a bigger system, and not totally in control. There’s other life, with other priorities. A garden is not only about aesthetics, it’s also about lunch.

I had to decide what to do. Do I fence in the shrub? Buy something more deer resistant? Spray noxious concoctions to discourage the deer eating.  Do I walk away and grow flowers?  Somehow I think it is important for me to accept the fact that deer roam the city streets.  We’ve not found a way to coexist with the wild life that inhabits our cites. Is this natural? Well, at the moment it just is.

I don’t want to do battle. I don’t want everything I grow to be fenced in.
So, I’m planting a Molly Schroeder Viburnum, less tasty to deer. This new shrub will remind me I’m not alone on the planet. It’ll be a humble reminder that I’m part of something bigger and that my desires aren’t the only ones that count.

Monday. I’m posting this. It’s one of many lessons I’m getting about the systems we are a part of.  I don’t want this post to be a diatribe about too many deer in our cities.  It’s really a love poem to the complexity of life.

Filed Under: Intention, Systems Tagged With: , ,

I said, “It made me cry.”

March 24, 2013 by

As I watched, the tears came. It was a video a friend had sent me. When I told my friend I cried he got concerned, and said he wouldn’t send any more of those kinds of videos.

He thought my tears were a bad thing. But really, they were the kind that come when you ‘re caught unaware and, unbidden, your heart just opens. You deeply appreciate someone’s courage, their caring, their pain, their openhearttriumph…

This is very different from becoming distraught, worried  or distracted by another’s experience. This is about genuine caring: witnessing what is and not pushing it away, appreciating the human experience without getting lost in it.

Crying when your heart opens is like going through a doorway to a place where the “we vs. them” disappears. It’s true love and appreciation. 

An open heart, even with tears– it’s a good thing.

Filed Under: Creating with others, Emotion, Heart's wisdom Tagged With: , ,

Surrounded by time, what effect does it have?

March 11, 2013 by

Growing up, we had one clock in the kitchen. Adults had wrist watches.

This past Sunday, it was Spring Forward, or daylight savings time here in Ohio.time I checked our radio controlled clocks. Then, as I manually started to change the others, it hit me: I’m surrounded by clocks. A wall clock in the kitchen, a clock in the living room, a clock in each of our offices, two alarm clocks (his and hers) in our bedroom, clocks in each bathroom, then of course the ones built-in to the microwave, stove, computer, iPhone, car dashboard…

What does being surrounded by reminders of time do to us?…time passing; time lost (hurry! going to be late); time to be utilized (guess I can squeeze in one more thing before the next appointment).

time2Does the constant reminder create a subtle urgency; a need to “get on with it already!” What ever it is?

There’s evidence that losing the hour with daylight savings time negatively affects our health, disrupts our sleep and results in more accidents. But I’m beginning to feel that the whole emphasis on time is even more insidious. It pulls us away from our direct, sensuous, enjoyment and experience of life. Our attention instead is constantly pulled outward to the next thing to be done.

So I ask myself, “What clocks could I live without?” Maybe I’ll start small. Today, the bathroom clock is going to the basement.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Choice, Misc. Tagged With: , ,

If you are the environment you live in…

February 15, 2013 by

I like Peter Diamandis’s comment “you are the environment in which you live. ”  Creating works best when we focus on what we want. Negative programing shifts our focus to what we don’t want, fostering fear, worry, and negative thinking. I thought Peter’s study of Times Magazine covers was telling as well.

Filed Under: Heart's wisdom, Perception Tagged With: , , ,

Fixing isn’t always what I want

February 6, 2013 by

Two years ago a candle melted on our fireplace stone mantle. I tried everything anyone suggested to get it up. I scraped, ironed over a brown paper bag to soak up excess wax, used degreasers, and finally carburetor cleaner to get the oily stain out. All suggestions were unsuccessful, many gave me a headache.DSC02414 - Version 2

I explored going to a local stone place to replace the worse section but I’m not doing it. Seeing the stain still bothers me!  WHY am I not taking action?

As I was berating myself for not getting it off my “to do” list the other day, it dawned on me:  I was solving a problem, not creating something I wanted. Yes, the stain bothered me, but I don’t particularly like the mantle. There is no energy around fixing it.  I’d fallen into the trap of fixing a problem (I really should…) vs. creating what I want.

So now I’m exploring what a different mantle might look like. I’ll create it or decide to live with what I have. Either way it’ll be a clean choice and will free energy that’s been trapped in the “I’ve got to get this fixed” mode for the past two years.
Creating works! Shoulds?…Well, not so much.

Filed Under: Choice, Fear or Courage, We are creators Tagged With: ,

Luck? Perserverance? Timing?

October 29, 2012 by

Cathy Thomas has written about her own creating process in getting her book published.

“For several years I have had the intention of writing a book. …..I can tell you that at the start, the idea of me actually writing a book seemed really crazy. …So what I did was just start… And then…my dream got stuck. I just could not get it to move forward.”

The creating process can be messy, with many opportunities to just give up. In Cathy’s case, there were no heroic bells and whistles…just a thread of desire for it to happen that kept it all moving. She listened to her own sense of when to move and when to let it rest. She was open to it not happening at the same time she still wanted it. Creating often requires holding polarities: seeing the end result complete but being OK with not having it;  being willing to put a hold on something but still be alert to possibilities…..

Read the rest of Cathy’s post here:   Making your Dream Become a Reality.

 

Filed Under: Creating with others, Heart's wisdom, The Creating Process, We are creators Tagged With: , ,

Changing one word…

October 15, 2012 by

What if you could change one word and shift what happens next?  One word that creates new possibilities as you expand vs. contract your thinking?

Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, had been a professional stand up comedian who did improvisation. Improvisation requires you find ways to use whatever the audience throws at you. You need to be able build on what has been introduced.

Mr. Costolo carried what he learned doing improvisation into his job at Twitter, “running a company of 1,300 employees.” He uses a basic improv principle, one essential for keeping the improv going.

While seemingly simple, it is actually quite profound.

“He rarely uses the word ‘but.’ Instead, he says ‘Yes and…’ –an improv principle that allows people to discuss something without disagreeing.”

It allows the actors to think about and use what was just said; building on it or not, but not discarding it.

In improv, this can lead to some pretty funny scenarios. In life it just might get us to expand our thinking instead of contracting around our point of view.

Yes and…?

Filed Under: Creating with others, Perception Tagged With: , , , ,

Our heart is also our personal GPS

September 22, 2012 by

We know the heart is a muscle that pumps blood through our bodies. But it turns out, in addition to being a physical pump, the heart generates an  electromagnetic field that extends out from the heart itself. The more coherent the field’s sine-wave, the greater our intuitive ability, our creative responses in situations and our sense of well-being. Learning to generate a more coherent field is an important skill for those interested in being effective creators. At the heart of creating is the ability to chose our responses and what we want in life vs. reacting to situations and the opinions of others.

How does heart coherence work? “Now researchers theorize that the energetic heart functions as a “receiving station” through which nonlinear information couples to the physical heart (The Energetic Heart). By intentionally engaging sincere heart feelings like love, care, appreciation and compassion, participants in studies have been able to generate a coherent or sine-wave like heart-rhythm pattern. HeartMath theorizes that the more coherent people are, the more receptive they become to this field of intuitive heart intelligence.” from HeartMath.org.

The energetic heart is our personal GPS system for choosing wisely, reducing stress and achieving results we care about.

There are simple tools you can use to tap the power of your own energetic heart. But like all things of value, you have to practice them and, remember to use them. Simple doesn’t mean no effort. But with practice you can live with less stress, be more effective in your choices and positively affect those around you. Not bad!

Filed Under: We are creators

In the shelter of a tree…

September 3, 2012 by

We take for granted the benefit nature bestows on us. Six months after a tornado hit Moscow, Ohio, one woman remembers:

She “used to be able to walk from her home for five blocks down toward the river and be under trees nearly the whole time. Not anymore… now she knows why she has always loved Moscow’s trees … There is the shade, of course. But now she says the wind feels different. It is harder when it sweeps up from the river. And she can hear the barges that carry coal to the William H. Zimmer Power Station on the north edge of town.”*

So here’s to greater appreciation of those everyday things, like the trees we take for granted or get annoyed at when they shed leaves or nuts: the “things” we will truly miss when they are gone.

*The Enquirer, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012 p. B6.

Filed Under: Perception, We are creators Tagged With: , , ,
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