Mindful Mondays: Just Breathe

Today I invite you to take a breath.  A deep, long, intentional, mindful breath.

Go ahead….take another one.  Maybe close your eyes this time.

Cuz sometimes in life that is the only place where we can find a sense of peace and release, even if for a fleeting moment.  That is just how magical your breath is. 

A breathing meditation from The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Naht Hanh:

As you inhale, be mindful that “I am inhaling, one.”  When you exhale, be mindful that “I am exhaling, one.”  Remember to breathe from the stomach.  When beginning the second inhalation, be mindful that “I am inhaling, two.”  And slowly exhaling, be mindful that “I am exhaling, two.”  Continue on up through 10.  After you have reached 10, return to one.  Whenever you lose count, return to one.

Mindful Mondays: Wisdom from the Elders

There is such wisdom that comes from our elders.  In a society that rushes through life and celebrates youth, we miss out on stopping and taking time to be present with the old folks.  When we sit and listen to the stories, the struggles, the joys and then the reflection that comes with looking back on decades of a lifetime, one can see how our elders can be our modern day prophets.  They hold a spiritual wisdom that has been tested through death, birth, uncertainty, change, and opportunity.  Much spiritual wisdom can come from a long life.

I want to share some wisdom from the elders in my life and from the elders/ancestors in the lives of members on this listserv.  (Some quotes are paraphrased.)

May these words from our ancestors and elders guide you wherever you are on your journey right now. 

On Spirituality . . .

God is in charge and all is well.  Divine order. –Grandma Gummer

Whatever it is you’re hoping for or praying for, just take it one day at a time. –Granny

You have to pray, plan, and persevere. -Rev. Gwen Hall

On Success. . . 

Keep your eyes on the prize. –Monte Posey

Don’t put off what you can do today for tomorrow. -Grandpa Henry George Buzan 

On Fear and Struggle . . .

 Do you know how camels avoid the sun? They face the sun head on and use their own shadow to avoid the heat.  That's a lesson about how we can face our own fears.  -Mira Lee

It’s all in the mind….you can think about things in negative ways and make life harder or you can think about things in positive ways and make life easier.  I choose the latter. –Grandma Petersen

On Others . . .

When you meet somebody for the first time, just do not judge them good or bad.  Give time to know the person. Then you will know the person better. -Amma

Don't be envious or jealous because there will always be someone who has more than you and there will always be someone who has less than you. -Cecilia Storey

Special thank you to all the readers who shared wisdom from your elders and ancestors!

peace,

Natasha Burrowes

Spiritual Director, Educator, Writer

Mindful Mondays: Holding Onto Your Moral Power in Trying Times

Don’t become the chaos that is around you.  Don’t be seduced into participating in the negative thinking that surrounds you.  Don’t become what you are fighting against.  Hold onto your peace.  Hold tight to your integrity.  Hold firm to your moral power and agency. 

In the United States, this can be particularly difficult to do an election year when there is much negativity, divisiveness, judgment, deception, and hate.  It’s easy to scroll down your Facebook feed these days, turn on the television, open the newspaper and just get caught up in the chaos that is being created to make a profit off of your fears.  It can be difficult to hold onto your integrity and moral power when you are living in the clutches of oppressive systems and ways of thinking that have the sole intention to dehumanize you, to reduce your worth to your labor or spending power.  It can be challenging to hold onto your integrity and moral power when you have people or situations in your personal life that are negative and have a disregard for your highest good. 

All of these things can be an assault on your outer life, but it doesn’t have to be an assault on your inner life.

In trying times, it is even more important to cultivate the stillness, the peace, and the quiet within you in order to keep your integrity in tact.  Mahatma Gandhi says, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This is easy to embody in times of peace, but can be challenging to do in times of chaos or tension.  The world needs you to hold firm to your vision for peace, justice, and equity.  The world needs you to model it, to embody it.  Cultivating peace and justice within you is also part of peacemaking and justice-making work.  In fact, it is the most important because the transformation needed for our world, our communities, and our families is deep within you.  Practice mindfulness, breathe, connect with nature, cook a meal, pray, do whatever it is you need to do to expand a sense of stillness and peace within yourself because transformation and change is now…. it’s in every moment and we need you.

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.  More than that, it is cooperation with violence.  The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace.  It destroys his own inner capacity for peace.  It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the roots of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

- Thomas Merton from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Mindful Mondays: Who are you?

Oren Lyons was the first Onondagan to enter college.  When he returned to his reservation for his first vacation, his uncle proposed a fishing trip on a lake.  Once he had his nephew in the middle of the lake where he wanted him, he began to interrogate him.  “Well Oren,” he said, “you’ve been to college; you must be pretty smart now from all they’ve been teaching you.  Let me ask you a question.  Who are you?”  Taken aback by the question, Oren fumbled for an answer.  “What do you mean, who am I? Why I’m your nephew, of course.”  His uncle rejected his answer and repeated his question.  Successively the nephew ventured that he was Oren Lyons, an Onondagan, a human being, a man, a young man, all to no avail.  When his uncle had reduced him to silence and he asked to be informed as to who he was, his uncle said, “Do you see that bluff over there? Oren you are that bluff.  And that giant pine on the other shore? Oren, you are that pine.  And this water that supports our boat?  You are this water.”

-Anecdote taken from the Onondaga tribe (upstate New York) from The World’s Religions by Huston Smith

Who are you?

Woman. Man. Black. Asian. Hindu. Muslim. Canadian. American. Mother. Sister. Uncle. Grandfather. Educator. Gay. Heterosexual. Artist. Educator. Nurse . . .

Us human beings, we are social animals and much of our conscious identity lies in who we are in relation to other human beings.  Most of these are constructed identities and are based off of social agreements that are limited by place and time.  These social identities can help us situate ourselves within communities, families, and places.  They can give us a role.  Sometimes these identities are limiting and other times they are liberating.  Sometimes they represent who we are and sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes we claim these identities for ourselves and other times people project these identities onto us.  Either way, these identities are who we are socially, but who else are we?

We have an ancient identity that we often overlook, our identity as creatures of the Earth.  We are related and connected to all of Creation.  What a wonderful thing to realize that we are not only part of a human family, but we are part of an Earth family and an Earth story?  We are connected to a process that started 4.5 billion years ago. We are part of a living and breathing organism, created and wonderfully made.   There is a life force in Creation that is powerful, resilient, and steadfast.

So the next time you need strength…

the next time you feel like you aren’t enough . . .

the next time you feel like you don’t know who you are or where you are going…

tap into the life force of Creation that is running through you and that IS you every moment you take a breath.