.
Recently some major maintenance on my house and garden has taken place. Where cars in this country are subject to a yearly maintenance check ~ for my house major maintenance is often done ‘as needed’, and the same goes, be it to a lesser extend, for my patio garden.
Yet now that it is all done, I am pleased with the result!
Living in a country where the creed of the Royal Family is “Je Maintiendrai” which translates to “I will maintain” ~ it makes me ponder ‘maintenance’...
Anything we would like to stay around in our lives needs to be maintained.
This is the case for material things like cars, houses, and gardens. It is also true for most other things in life. In order to keep something in our lives ~ or to keep something going ~ we need to put in time and effort. We need to maintain it.
Whether it is about friendships, family ties, or our Facebook presence ~ if we want to keep it around we need to maintain it.
It gets even closer to home when we are thinking about things like staying in shape, our physical, mental, and emotional health, our (youthful) appearance; life in general ~ the list can go on and on and on...
Like with major maintenance done to a house ~ there are aspects of our lives we maintain ‘as needed’. Other facets of our lives may do better with a continuous ‘maintenance plan’ where we put in a little bit of time every day in order to keep it where we want it to be.
Looking at it this way there are a great number of things we give time and effort every day ~ without even giving it a second thought. Usually we don’t look at it as ‘work’ as it is not job-related. It is just something we do...
It can be a good idea to evaluate all the things we are maintaining in our lives.
Just making a quick list of anything that comes to mind that we are giving time and effort on a regular basis ~ and then compare that to an equally swiftly created list of the things that are important to us.
This comparison can give us an indication whether we are spending our time and energy on our priorities ~ the things that are important to us ~ or if we are maintaining things in our lives that we really don’t care about anymore...
Or perhaps we find that what we thought were our priorities, in reality weren’t all that important to us at all...
Just observing where we stand on those things in our lives can then become very helpful in maintaining our balance in the life we live!
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Dancing Cattle
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The other day I saw this commercial on TV ~ two dairy farmers talking together about the Spring weather and the time when the dairy cows are being allowed to get out of the barns where they have been cooped up throughout the Winter.
The thing is that a date has been set for this event, and people can come out to a dairy farm close to them to see it happen...
It is the event of the dancing cattle.
When the doors of the barns are opened and the herds are allowed to go outside to enjoy fresh air, newly growing green grass, and with any luck a bit of sunshine ~ they will display their joy through ‘dancing’. Moving around each other, just like people might do. Truly enjoying the arrival of the new season and the greater freedom to move about.
The dance of happiness.
As kids we perhaps jumped up and down for joy.
Growing up most of us have let go of this exuberance. We have learned to express our happiness through words and smiles. Polished behavior that makes for a more comfortable, more predictable interaction with others.
In doing so we start holding back. Not only do we modify how we react, at the same time we also direct to which extend we will permit the energy of our happiness to flow through our system. The uninhibited experience of the joy of new things, new energies...
Making the experience more mental and less ‘of the heart’...
In the energy of today it seems we can benefit enormously from bringing together of the polarities into a balance, rather than choosing one polarity or another. In this case that would be experiencing in mind as well as in the heart ~ in thoughts and in feelings...
Allowing exuberant joy to bring balance to mind and heart; to our entire system.
Not keeping the experiences inside of us; bottling up our emotions ~ yet allowing those to flow, and allowing ourselves to move with that flow, to dance with that flow ~ may well be a way to reduce stress and enhance our sense of well-being and health...
If we would approach our lives more from this perspective, we may find that in permitting ourselves to fully experience whatever is going on around us ~ the greater the balance we stand to gain!
Going back to that commercial for dairy products, inviting their customers to observe the dairy cattle dancing for joy ~ it makes me think that perhaps we should even partake in that joyful dance!!
.
.
The other day I saw this commercial on TV ~ two dairy farmers talking together about the Spring weather and the time when the dairy cows are being allowed to get out of the barns where they have been cooped up throughout the Winter.
The thing is that a date has been set for this event, and people can come out to a dairy farm close to them to see it happen...
It is the event of the dancing cattle.
When the doors of the barns are opened and the herds are allowed to go outside to enjoy fresh air, newly growing green grass, and with any luck a bit of sunshine ~ they will display their joy through ‘dancing’. Moving around each other, just like people might do. Truly enjoying the arrival of the new season and the greater freedom to move about.
The dance of happiness.
As kids we perhaps jumped up and down for joy.
Growing up most of us have let go of this exuberance. We have learned to express our happiness through words and smiles. Polished behavior that makes for a more comfortable, more predictable interaction with others.
In doing so we start holding back. Not only do we modify how we react, at the same time we also direct to which extend we will permit the energy of our happiness to flow through our system. The uninhibited experience of the joy of new things, new energies...
Making the experience more mental and less ‘of the heart’...
In the energy of today it seems we can benefit enormously from bringing together of the polarities into a balance, rather than choosing one polarity or another. In this case that would be experiencing in mind as well as in the heart ~ in thoughts and in feelings...
Allowing exuberant joy to bring balance to mind and heart; to our entire system.
Not keeping the experiences inside of us; bottling up our emotions ~ yet allowing those to flow, and allowing ourselves to move with that flow, to dance with that flow ~ may well be a way to reduce stress and enhance our sense of well-being and health...
If we would approach our lives more from this perspective, we may find that in permitting ourselves to fully experience whatever is going on around us ~ the greater the balance we stand to gain!
Going back to that commercial for dairy products, inviting their customers to observe the dairy cattle dancing for joy ~ it makes me think that perhaps we should even partake in that joyful dance!!
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Friday, March 23, 2012
New Things
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We all have things we wish we could have in our lives that up to now we haven’t had... Whether it is something on our ‘birthday wish list’, or something that we have been working toward for some time ~ every once in a while it is time for something new.
Often this ‘something new’ brings changes with it.
If we would like to redecorate the house ~ before we can bring in the new furniture, we need to take out the old furniture. And this can bring along an interesting process of decision-making. The easiest possibility is when the old furniture is really on its last legs, broken, or otherwise without any worth whatsoever. In that case it is just a matter of discarding it. Although if we feel it is still worth selling ~ we need to decide how to go about it. Through Ebay? Or a garage sale? Graigslist? Then, applying a value to each piece we are putting up for sale, there is always a chance that we feel this tingle that wants to back out of the whole thing. After all, if it is still worth that amount of money, should we just keep it a while longer? And even if we are happy to sell it, how long are we willing to be involved in getting rid of the old ~ even if it would bring in some money?
But then, when everything is finally cleared out ~ there is the excitement of the new being brought in!
It is easy to see how the process works when talking about furniture.
Yet the process is the same for pretty much anything new we want to bring into our lives. Whether it is something physical, something material ~ or a new perspective, a new attitude.
If we want to perceive life in a new way, it is necessary to let go of the way we have looked upon life up to now. If we want to do different things, we need to organize an opening in our calendars ~ literally create an opening in which we can plan this new activity...
And like with the furniture ~ this takes us through a series of decisions on how to go about it to create the space for the new things to fit into. And it gives us an opportunity to observe how this brings changes into our lives that make our lives better.
Desired changes. New things we have been wishing ~ and sometimes waiting for...
Every once in a while it is a good thing to look at what new things can make our lives better!
.
.
We all have things we wish we could have in our lives that up to now we haven’t had... Whether it is something on our ‘birthday wish list’, or something that we have been working toward for some time ~ every once in a while it is time for something new.
Often this ‘something new’ brings changes with it.
If we would like to redecorate the house ~ before we can bring in the new furniture, we need to take out the old furniture. And this can bring along an interesting process of decision-making. The easiest possibility is when the old furniture is really on its last legs, broken, or otherwise without any worth whatsoever. In that case it is just a matter of discarding it. Although if we feel it is still worth selling ~ we need to decide how to go about it. Through Ebay? Or a garage sale? Graigslist? Then, applying a value to each piece we are putting up for sale, there is always a chance that we feel this tingle that wants to back out of the whole thing. After all, if it is still worth that amount of money, should we just keep it a while longer? And even if we are happy to sell it, how long are we willing to be involved in getting rid of the old ~ even if it would bring in some money?
But then, when everything is finally cleared out ~ there is the excitement of the new being brought in!
It is easy to see how the process works when talking about furniture.
Yet the process is the same for pretty much anything new we want to bring into our lives. Whether it is something physical, something material ~ or a new perspective, a new attitude.
If we want to perceive life in a new way, it is necessary to let go of the way we have looked upon life up to now. If we want to do different things, we need to organize an opening in our calendars ~ literally create an opening in which we can plan this new activity...
And like with the furniture ~ this takes us through a series of decisions on how to go about it to create the space for the new things to fit into. And it gives us an opportunity to observe how this brings changes into our lives that make our lives better.
Desired changes. New things we have been wishing ~ and sometimes waiting for...
Every once in a while it is a good thing to look at what new things can make our lives better!
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Like Clockwork...
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There is a certain amount of belonging when things are moving along like clockwork. A smoothness; an ease of living.
It is something you can count on ~ something that will happen in the right order, at the right time.
Its predictability helps us sense the order of things ~ not just of the actual events that are happening like clockwork, yet as they take place exactly when they are supposed to take place they become part of the framework of our personal lives.
As such they help create the structure in our lives that makes us feel good about our lives ~ and perhaps even about ourselves...
On one side, the things happening like clockwork are first and foremost the passing of time throughout our days and nights. Although the hours can seem to stretch into eternity in some cases while shrinking into seconds in other times ~ the factual progress of time is precisely that: like clockwork!
Other things that happen like clockwork are the cycles in nature.
Winter moves into Spring, which progresses into Summer, which turns into Fall, and before we know it, we are back in Winter again. Or the phases of the moon ~ from the new moon to the full moon, and back to a new moon again. Like clockwork.
It is something we can count on.
We tend to like to have those things in our lives we can count on. Like a comfortable routine that allows us to do the things we need to do every day in an efficient manner ~ without giving it too much thought. In a way, we can come to depend on the structure, order and regularity we bring into our lives that way.
In other words ~ we like the things that happen like clockwork...
Yet even clocks can break, stop moving the hours ~ the tick-tock we didn’t even realize we heard anymore fading into a deafening silence. And when that happens, suddenly things aren’t adding up quite like they used to.
It doesn’t have to be an actual clock that stops ticking. Other ways in which the stream of events that ‘happen like clockwork’ can throw us off can be when Spring is exceptionally warm one year ~ giving us the impression that we have moved from Winter straight into Summer ~ skipping the Spring time altogether...
Or something like traveling to a different time zone and finding that the things that happen like clockwork at home and the actual time in that place don’t add up anymore. What we call jet-lag.
They are small things in reality that can have big effects on our lives.
And that too is something that tends to happen like clockwork...
.
.
There is a certain amount of belonging when things are moving along like clockwork. A smoothness; an ease of living.
It is something you can count on ~ something that will happen in the right order, at the right time.
Its predictability helps us sense the order of things ~ not just of the actual events that are happening like clockwork, yet as they take place exactly when they are supposed to take place they become part of the framework of our personal lives.
As such they help create the structure in our lives that makes us feel good about our lives ~ and perhaps even about ourselves...
On one side, the things happening like clockwork are first and foremost the passing of time throughout our days and nights. Although the hours can seem to stretch into eternity in some cases while shrinking into seconds in other times ~ the factual progress of time is precisely that: like clockwork!
Other things that happen like clockwork are the cycles in nature.
Winter moves into Spring, which progresses into Summer, which turns into Fall, and before we know it, we are back in Winter again. Or the phases of the moon ~ from the new moon to the full moon, and back to a new moon again. Like clockwork.
It is something we can count on.
We tend to like to have those things in our lives we can count on. Like a comfortable routine that allows us to do the things we need to do every day in an efficient manner ~ without giving it too much thought. In a way, we can come to depend on the structure, order and regularity we bring into our lives that way.
In other words ~ we like the things that happen like clockwork...
Yet even clocks can break, stop moving the hours ~ the tick-tock we didn’t even realize we heard anymore fading into a deafening silence. And when that happens, suddenly things aren’t adding up quite like they used to.
It doesn’t have to be an actual clock that stops ticking. Other ways in which the stream of events that ‘happen like clockwork’ can throw us off can be when Spring is exceptionally warm one year ~ giving us the impression that we have moved from Winter straight into Summer ~ skipping the Spring time altogether...
Or something like traveling to a different time zone and finding that the things that happen like clockwork at home and the actual time in that place don’t add up anymore. What we call jet-lag.
They are small things in reality that can have big effects on our lives.
And that too is something that tends to happen like clockwork...
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Friday, March 16, 2012
Busy
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We are all busy.
Busy with jobs, with kids, with our families... Busy living our lives.
It is something that seems to be embedded in our culture. We need to be busy. With something. With anything. Because if we are not busy, something probably is wrong.
It is almost a backward way of looking at not only the things we do, but also why and how we do them. Because if being busy is the normal ~ then what happens when we find ourselves in some extraordinary circumstances? And how would we look upon not being busy? Or those that are not busy?
As ‘being busy’ has become the norm ~ not being busy is not a valued position. It implies that you are either not very important; or perhaps even lazy. Not being busy is not something that is being appreciated. And as we all want to be appreciated ~ we have a tendency to make sure we are busy. Even if we are just being busy running errands. Busy checking our email. Busy grocery shopping...
And when we would find ourselves in an extremely busy situation, we become just that ~ extremely busy. After all, it is likely to come with extreme appreciation...
The question then becomes; if we try to be always busy ~ for whatever the reason ~ what will give us rest and relaxation? Where will we find the point of balance to set off these times of being busy?
When will we take some time to smell the roses?
I sometimes wonder what would happen if I would approach the spiritual path with the same urge to be busy? Somehow ‘I am busy meditating...’, or ‘I am busy being still...’ sound like a contradiction in terms.
So how do we fit a spiritual path into our busy lives?
It helps to have meetings with like-minded people as it is a lot easier to keep an appointment with others, than it is to make (and keep) an appointment with yourself.
Something else that can help is to take, say 20 minutes each day at the same time of the day to be still, meditate, (day)dream ~ to listen to the answers within. The things we know, yet don’t always allow to come to the surface.
Taking a mere 20 minutes a day out of our busy schedule can bring us many benefits.
It can provide us with an anchor for all the things we will be doing the rest of the day. It can allow us to step back from a situation we are in and observe it from a different perspective; a higher perspective that an expanded awareness can give us.
Those 20 minutes can give us that point of balance from which we can embark on the rest of our busy day...
.
.
We are all busy.
Busy with jobs, with kids, with our families... Busy living our lives.
It is something that seems to be embedded in our culture. We need to be busy. With something. With anything. Because if we are not busy, something probably is wrong.
It is almost a backward way of looking at not only the things we do, but also why and how we do them. Because if being busy is the normal ~ then what happens when we find ourselves in some extraordinary circumstances? And how would we look upon not being busy? Or those that are not busy?
As ‘being busy’ has become the norm ~ not being busy is not a valued position. It implies that you are either not very important; or perhaps even lazy. Not being busy is not something that is being appreciated. And as we all want to be appreciated ~ we have a tendency to make sure we are busy. Even if we are just being busy running errands. Busy checking our email. Busy grocery shopping...
And when we would find ourselves in an extremely busy situation, we become just that ~ extremely busy. After all, it is likely to come with extreme appreciation...
The question then becomes; if we try to be always busy ~ for whatever the reason ~ what will give us rest and relaxation? Where will we find the point of balance to set off these times of being busy?
When will we take some time to smell the roses?
I sometimes wonder what would happen if I would approach the spiritual path with the same urge to be busy? Somehow ‘I am busy meditating...’, or ‘I am busy being still...’ sound like a contradiction in terms.
So how do we fit a spiritual path into our busy lives?
It helps to have meetings with like-minded people as it is a lot easier to keep an appointment with others, than it is to make (and keep) an appointment with yourself.
Something else that can help is to take, say 20 minutes each day at the same time of the day to be still, meditate, (day)dream ~ to listen to the answers within. The things we know, yet don’t always allow to come to the surface.
Taking a mere 20 minutes a day out of our busy schedule can bring us many benefits.
It can provide us with an anchor for all the things we will be doing the rest of the day. It can allow us to step back from a situation we are in and observe it from a different perspective; a higher perspective that an expanded awareness can give us.
Those 20 minutes can give us that point of balance from which we can embark on the rest of our busy day...
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.
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