Verbal Flow Archives
Stitching Together A Year
As I write this final post of 2018, I am thinking back to the ways this year has been stitched together. Recently, as a guest on a podcast, I was asked to consider how I work to inspire a sense of community. I answered that I believe it's mostly just by showing up. My teacher, Kim Manfredi, described this idea of showing up for the daily rituals of life with a Buddhist expression: "Chop wood. Carry water." When I'd get tangled in what the next step for the business or teaching might possibly be, she'd repeat this saying. The expression is a reminder that through it all--the bright moments and the dark wretched ones--we must keep showing up for the daily work of life.
The Peace Project: Conversations and Connections
The Peace Project is being birthed from a desire to come together with community members in an effort to connect at our deepest level: that of the story of our humanity. No matter what our background, there are story threads that connect us…
The Opposite of Hate Isn’t Love
Sally Kohn says, "The opposite of hate isn't love. It's connection. You don't have to love people to not hate them. You have to to see that you have something at your core, a fundamental humanity, a fundamental goodness, that transcends the division."
In Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, Women, Friendship
In light of the feeling of division in the world, I've been wanting to share stories of people in the community. When we share stories, I believe, we realize our shared story is greater than any division. My hope has been that by using this…
Gratefulness: Being Awake and Alive
Why not start spiritual training with a foot bath? For an experience in which our sense spontaneously spark off a grateful response, a foot bath is not a bad choice. Your heart and your tongue may not yet be ready, but in their own way your toes will start to sing gratefully. Can anyone deny that this is a step in the direction of "life abundant"? ~From A Listening Heart, by Brother David Steindl-Rast
Light and Summery
Light
You do not need to fetch it or make it.
It is in you.
The chaos out there roars, so dark,
but sit still and listen:
"Let there be light" speaks in your darkness.
Let it be.
Let it become you. Fill you.
Ageless, it claims you.
Calm,…
A Practice of Love
Between the moments when I woke and when I sleep, there is abundant possibility, beauty met by frailty for sure. I can only imagine. I began, though, with a yoga practice on my mat, where I also had both plans and possibilities and; intention and imagination. Though I framed the time with what I intended to unfold, the richness and subtlety of feeling, sensation, and surrender met me and beckoned to me to be present for the beauty that would come with being present to all the ways life would show up for me—on my mat and off.
Great Leaps
Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions ~Hafiz
Listening to an Oprah podcast interview with Brene Brown on Shame, I heard her quote a therapist friend who said, "Keep your shame up front because it can only take you down from behind."
Creating Paradise
In a time of destruction, create something; a poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; one peaceful moment. ~Maxine Hong Kingston
Create something that looks and feels like paradise. I have heard this directive lately in my life and in my body. What to do with it? The world is full of destruction. Could it be that even one act of love, one act of courage could create something that allows a rebirth of paradise lost?