The Royal Road

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The ‘City of Saint Francis’ and the ‘City of the Angels’ are connected by an ancient road, the Royal Road. And while this road in its current existence is a highway connecting both cities, it still bears the markers of its historic past. At one time the Royal Road didn’t necessarily connect those two cities ~ the  600 mile road connected the 21 Franciscan Missions and their support sites.

In a certain sense this makes this road what I would call a Sacred Site line ~ an energy line connecting two or more sacred sites that have a similar energy with each other...

Pondering this for a bit, there are several observations that strike me as interesting...
First, the ‘City of Saint Francis’ is situated ‘above’ the ‘City of the Angels’. I would have expected to see it the other way around, as the Angels are Heavenly Beings, while Saint Francis was a good hearted, and likely enlightened human being.
Another thing is the way the Royal Road has transformed itself from the ancient trail into the highway it is in this present time.
Most other ‘Sacred Site lines’ I have worked with or travel along are a lot more quiet ~ even can have a contemplative energy. Some were, and still are pathways of pilgrimage. Roads one would travel with the goal to visit this sacred place one would find at the end. And walking this pathway usually was a transformative experience in its own right ~ especially in those days when one would take the time to actually walk that road...

The Royal Road is now traveled at speeds that often exceed 70 miles per hour. And if there is anything being pondered while taking that journey, it might well be the question how fast we will reach our destination...
And while the Royal Road still bears its ancient name, it will not take you to visit all the old Missions anymore. To do that, one has to get of the highway and travel to a much quieter space; at a much more leisurely pace ~ into a more peaceful environment. A peace that both, the ‘City of Saint Francis’ and the ‘City of the Angels’ seem to have lost...

When I take all of this in to consideration when I observe my own, personal ~ even spiritual path I can’t help to come to the conclusion that the place to express myself ~ spiritually or otherwise ~ is in my daily, mundane life. Making the way I live my everyday life perhaps even more important than ‘living the way of the Angels’... On top of that ~ while I may have a tendency to rush from one place to the next; transformation and peace are found when I live my life one step at a time...
That then, truly is a ‘Royal Road’!
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Creativity

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The dictionary gives the definition of creativity as follows: the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. And often our understanding of creativity is exactly that ~ coming up with imaginative ideas that subsequently are expressed creatively; through painting, writing, sculpting etc.
Yet, if we look at all the instances and situations in our day to day lives where we come up with original ideas and innovative ways to deal with the matters at hand ~ it seems like our creativity stretches well beyond the arena of the arts.

When we use our creativity, we create. We bring something that wasn’t there before, something new into the earth plane. And this something new can be a thought, a joke, a project, a way of dealing with a specific situation ~ and of course any expression through art.

Looking at creativity from this perspective, it seems that we are more likely to use the word ‘creativity’ when it is related to any form of art. As soon as we start using our creativity in our day to day lives or in our jobs we tend to choose different words like innovative, resourceful, or even visionary.

Creativity is something for artists. And artists are often seen as a breed all their own. Perhaps not willing to live conform the expectations of others. Not having the same perspectives on life in general most of us non-artists have. Their creativity is not limited to their expressions in their chosen form of art ~ their creativity has become their way of life...
While some artists manage to have great financial success ~ for a lot of artists the creative flow is prioritized over monetary gain; ensuring a somewhat less than optimal income.

It is not necessarily what we would want for our kids. Ideally, we would wish our kids to ‘fit in’ and to ‘do well’. So at a certain age we start telling our kids that there is a big difference between the real world and whatever they experience in their imagination. And as the imagination is deemed less and less important in life ~ the creative flow starts to wane as well.
In a sense, the more our kids adapt to what is expected of them in the ‘grown-up world’ ~ the more they seem to lose the capability to see things differently, innovatively... The more they adapt ~ the more their originality is pushed aside. And with that creativity is pushed aside as well.

This means that the way we relate to creativity is more complex than one would have thought at first glance. Although we can watch the expression of somebody else’s creative flow in awe ~ on average we ourselves would rather fit in...
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Sunny days

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Sunny days are good days. In most cases...
On top of that, sunny days have a lot of connotations ~ a lot of ‘extra’ meanings attached to them as well.

Whether you like the sun, or rather stay away from its warm, bright energy ~ on most occasions sunny days are ‘feel good’ days. Days that can give us energy, that makes us feel vitalized.
Sometimes the bright light of the midday sun lets us see pictures that are way more clear than we are used to. Literally and figuratively. And that then, is what sunglasses are for. Again, literally and figuratively.

When our lives are filled with sunny days ~ it tends to say that our lives are easy. Without obstacles, unfolding dramas, or other distractions. Wen we are walking on sunshine, everything in our lives is going our way...

On the other hand, when things get a little dark and gloomy ~ we may choose to lift our spirits with a cup of ‘liquid sunshine’. A ‘cup of Joe’ to make everything look a little brighter.

Patagonia has lots of sunny days. The temperature is described as a ‘dry heat’. And the pizza restaurant in town says that their pizza is healthy.
The landscape is surprisingly green. The afternoon thundershowers are responsible for that. Yet it is dry enough for everything to be dusty. Something you might not even notice as you drive through the area, until you leave the paved roads and venture out on the unpaved, or dirt roads.
And in this harsh, yet green place there are an incredible amount of hummingbirds to be seen. Tiny, fragile looking creatures that are hard to notice once they make it to the branches of the old mesquite trees. They are enjoying the sun. They are flocking to the feeders people hang outside, filled with sugar-water. And as long as the days are sunny, as long as they are being fed by their human admirers ~ their days are sunny on more than one level...

in a sense, our lives are similar. Even when the weather is sunny ~ even when our days seem filled with sunshine; when we leave the known, paved roads, we are bound to leave traces. To stir up dust. Even in a landscape that is otherwise green...
Sunny days are to be cherished ~ if not in the literal sense, than most certainly looking at it from a figurative perspective. Yet even sunny days bring their own dust; their own dark side in a sense.

For us as unique, powerful individuals it is how we grow. Through enjoying the sunny days, just as we deal with the dusty heat it can bring to our paths...
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Borders, boundaries and limitations

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Any journey we undertake has the ability to make us more aware of our boundaries, and in a sense of our limitations. This awareness then can help us to re-evaluate where we stand, and how we create and protect our boundaries. Without the limitations.

When our travels take us away from our daily lives, yet within relatively familiar surroundings ~ for instance a trip to a different part of the country you live in ~ this is a process that takes place pretty much inside ourselves. Even though it is instigated by the different, new surroundings we may find ourselves in; the new people we meet.

As our travels take us to an altogether different country, all of a sudden we are confronted with borders. Borders between the country we call our home and that other country. And also borders between our values; the rules that we live by in our daily lives and the rules and regulations of that other country that we are traveling to...
And so the process of becoming aware of our own boundaries is not just an inner journey anymore ~ it now has an outer aspect to it as well. In other words, it is not just about our reactions to the new environment, the new people we meet ~ it is perhaps even more about the circumstances we encounter, and how our values and the values of that other person (or country) can work together. Or can clash.

Either way the process of gaining awareness about our boundaries and limitations can take place. We can broaden our horizons in a fun and exciting way as we get to know new perspectives, new ways of doing things that we might not have thought of living in our own familiar area.
Yet when something happens that perhaps even gets you in a position where the border you desire to cross becomes a line in the sand ~ we are likely to feel limited by that experience, rather than feeling the expansion we were expecting...

In a sense, a lot of the borders have become ‘lines in the sand’. Where they used to be the demarkation between ‘here and there’ ~ they are now also the boundaries that we need to protect against unwanted influences, undesired actions ~ and not in the least that which we fear may put us and our environment in danger... So we limit access to that which we call our own. We limit how we behave, as well as how the other person is permitted to behave. And as we put limitations on ourselves and the new people we meet ~ we protect what is our own.

And this too, is a process that takes place on an outer, as well as on an inner level...
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Getting ready...

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There is always something to get ready for... whether it is getting ready for work, getting ready for a night on the town... But there are also longer term things like getting ready for an exam ~ depending on the exam the time for preparation can after all  be quite long...

It seems ~ when you think about it ~ throughout our lives we are getting ready for things...

Getting ready to go to daycare; preschool; grammar school; high school; college;  job interview; date; wedding... There doesn’t seem to be an end to the list ~ we are always getting ready.

This brings up the question if ~ while we are getting ready for our next event ~ we actually take time to enjoy life. If we take time to smell the roses along the way. Or if we are only focussed on the next goal ~ the next mile stone even ~ that we want to reach.
In a sense we are living in a goal oriented; perhaps even goal driven society. Taking time off to do anything else than preparing for the next race toward the new goal can be something that is frowned upon. Even taking time off for vacationing is only okay if it doesn’t interfere with reaching our goals. And this then does restrict for instance duration o our vacations ~ and sometimes the places we spend our vacations at...

But is this really what life is all about? A succession of races toward ever changing goals?

I guess that depends on a couple of things like your value system, and perhaps the decision on how much you want to conform to the value system of the particular society you are living in...

If your personal value system puts a high priority on material things; if you have a great sense of competition and feel it is important to be the best at everything you set your mind to ~ if you want to put yourself in a position that will permit you to make a ‘more than decent living’... Than maybe a lifestyle of getting ready for the next event; the next race, isn’t all bad...
On the other hand, if your value system deems different things are more important ~ things like spirituality, or enjoying the moment ~ or even celebrating life whenever and wherever you et a chance to do so... Then perhaps those should be your priorities.

Interestingly enough ~ where the first example seems to bring a greater productivity into your life, and the second example sounds more like a ‘happy-go-lucky’ lifestyle ~ it is hard to say which one ultimately will be more ‘successful’ when looked at from a perspective of our individual, personal paths.
Yet whichever route you take ~ every once in a while get ready to sit back, relax, and to take some time to smell the roses...
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Weather

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The weather. Any time you run out of things to talk about; something to say ~ you can always start talking about the weather. As it turns out, now more so than ever before ~ as the weather patterns seem to be changing so rapidly nowadays...

And as the weather takes another unexpected turn, not only can we just talk about it ~ it is something we can enjoy, or even complain about.
One thing is certain ~ there is plenty to talk about.

Out here, the seasons seem to be shifting forward. Spring came early. Summer was wet. And now Fall has rolled in with a vengeance. Stormy weather. Lightning and thunder. Rain and hail. And all of that way before the turn of the seasons.

As Autumn is here ~ so are the chestnuts, acorns, mushrooms... Flowers that other years would still be in full bloom, now are diminished into watery shadows of their beauty.

I can’t help but wondering if the Winter will come in just as early ~ with just as much conviction. If the Winter will bring us the cold temperatures some of us may remember from our childhood. The ice and snow that have become somewhat less common over the past 20 years or so ~ which now seem to return. Sort of like a practical joke on global warming.

A couple of days ago I heard someone make the argument that as the seasons seem to shift to ever earlier times of the year, Summer vacations probably should follow suit. Say in May, rather than July.

Looking at the differences in the weather; whether it is just a shift in timing or perhaps more a matter of intensity. Whatever the season ~ the weather seems more intense now than it has been in the past. An intensity that is not confined to the weather.
Everything feels more intense. Things, situations, and yes, people. It is as if the calmer, maybe even more ‘long term’ energies have given way to these intense, momentary energies.
And with that comes a sense that what is happening is just for now. We want everything, and we want it now. Because tomorrow we may have lost our interest in what is happening today... Like in our lives the time and focus are shifting forward just as in the weather around us.

The intensity of the weather, and the intensity of our lives put us in a position in which it is harder and harder to relax. To take time to take a deep breath.
Like with the seasons that seem to have ended almost before they have begun ~ we seem to run from one thing to the next without smelling the roses and enjoying life as it happens...
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Release

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There are a number of reasons why we would release things from our lives.

There are the things we just don’t need anymore. They probably have been quite useful in our lives in the past, yet at some point in our lives we decide that these things are not as useful as they once were ~ they have lost their purpose. That is exactly the point at which we re-evaluate whether to keep it in our lives... Or if we rather release it.

Then there are things that simply are not our responsibility. Chances are they never were in the first place ~ yet somehow they became part of our lives.
When responsibilities are in play, it is not always easy to see whether it (still) is our responsibility, or if it isn’t (anymore). Take raising our kids. When they are young, they depend on their parents for their care ~ and yes, they are most definitely our responsibility. Then, as they grow up, even have children of their own, they can carry the responsibility for themselves. They now carry the responsibility for their children.
At this point ~ all grown up and in the midst of life itself ~ our kids are not our responsibility anymore. So it becomes a responsibility that ~ while once it truly was ours ~ it now ceases to be. And so we can release this responsibility if we choose to.

In a sense the process of evaluating and releasing things from our lives is an artful one. There is usually no sharp line; no clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when we start the process. For most of us how we feel about something may well give the clearest answer whether we are ready to release that particular thing from our lives or not...
And often there is a sense of fear associated with that process as well. What if you make a wrong decision? What if you would release something from your life that seems to have no purpose anymore, yet would regret having released it after the fact ~ when it is gone?

All of this makes the ‘art of releasing’ also a process of personal growth. A process through which we learn to trust how we feel about things. We learn how to make decisions; set priorities. We learn how to create space in our lives for new experiences; new things...

And perhaps most of all, we create an opportunity for ourselves to let go of those things that have made our personal paths more difficult than they needed to be.
We can bless them, release them, and finally get on with our lives...
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Dependencies

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We all have people and things in our lives that we depend upon. Just as others may depend upon us, upon the things we do, how we care for them, or even the money we earn. And though we may not like to be dependent on someone or something ~ in reality we are. We may not even give it a lot of thought in every-day life; it is just one of those things that is this way...

The true nature of the dependency only shows itself in those times when the circumstances are such that we cannot depend on that which always was there. Rock solid. At the tips of our fingers. And when that happens, life can get complicated in a hurry!

Wondering how that works?
Then just for a moment imagine that for the next week or so you won’t have access to a computer...

No internet, no email, no Facebook, no chat-rooms. Banking either has to be done the old fashioned way; by going to an actual bank. Doing some quick research suddenly involves the yellow pages and a telephone.
And at that moment it hits you: You can do most of those things like browsing the internet, reading and sending your email, keeping track of your friends on Facebook on your smart-phone! Even an iPod-touch will suffice, as long as you have a wifi connection.

And before you know it, you are doubly dependent on your smart-phone.
But let’s think of what would happen without a smart-phone at hand while there is no access to a computer...

It is somewhat of a time-warp situation, as it brings us back in time some 20 or so years ~ to a time when messages were sent in hand written letters. It would take some time to write them; and then it would take another couple of days ~ or weeks ~ for the letter to get to its destination; dependent on how far away that destination was. Telephone calls were easy, yet moderately expensive; especially when calling abroad.
In other words, keeping track of friends, sending and receiving messages ~ business related or otherwise ~ took time. Lots of time.

In our lives today we are used to sending emails and receiving the reply the same day ~ or perhaps the next day. If it takes any longer, we get worried something is amiss.
We have become dependent on all kinds of instant communication ~ whether it is checking the news, browsing the web, or yacking with our unseen friends in chat-rooms.

And it is surprising ~ or at least it was to me when I found myself in that situation ~ how easily we can be thrown off our daily routines when something like that~ something we depend upon ~ falls away...
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