Follow your bliss.   Joseph Campbell told me this many moons ago.  I was reminded of it again by way of an online course I am taking from Cynthia Bourgeault.  So I ask myself the question again today.  Am I following my bliss?  Am I doing what I need/want to be doing to fulfill my tiny little part of this big universe?

Some thought and reflection to attend to over the next few days.

Peaceful Path

And a man said, Speak to us of Self-Knowledge

And he answered saying:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets
   of the days and the nights. 
But your ears thirst for the sound
   of your heart's knowledge. 
You would know in words that which
you have always known in thought. 

Say not, "I have found the truth,"
   but rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul."
Say rather, "I have found the soul walking along my path." 

For the soul walks along all paths.

The soul walks upon not as line,
   neither does it grow like a reed.

The soul unfolds itself
   like a lotus of countless pedals. 

                     - Kahlil Gilbran


 

“But listen to me. For one moment
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you.” 
― Rumi

Sadness

I cry tonight for Boston, for the people whose lives have been forever altered by an act of senseless violence,  But I also cry for Kabul and Aleppo and Baghdad and Jerusalem. For innocents die there every day too.  And I pray...please heal us.

"How many deaths will it take til we know,
that too many people have died?
The answer my friend, is blown in the wind.
The answer is blowing in the wind."

Anger vs Empathy

I didn't sleep well last night.  I have an in-law who seems over the past few years to have become very angry and cynical.  He espouses a world view that differs from mine.  And that's ok.  But the attacking and angry way he communicates his view became offensive to me.

I spent time with him yesterday at a birthday party for a family member.  He started into a "speech" on all the problems in the United States, from gays (no marriage) to education (a cesspool)  to gun control (no controls) to democrats (screwing up the country since before the Civil War), et el.

I don't know if he wanted to debate all of this or since he had a captive audience, it was one more place to voice his opinions.  (he is prolific op ed contributor to the local newspapers.)  I did not join in the debate...for two reasons.  I am a conflict avoider. It is not one of my better traits.  There is always conflict and the ideal is to address it in the most loving way possible.  I have much work to do on that.  But the bigger reason is that debate would have been useless.  I think rather that look at an opposing opinion, he much more wanted the chance to prove himself right and others (me) wrong.

 I struggled with anger last night, angry at his angry words...hence my lack of sleep.  I came across a quote this morning which has softened my anger and moved me back toward love.

"The opposite of anger is empathy."

I will practice empathy today.

"Out beyond the fields of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field.  I will meet you there." - Rumi

 

 

This is by far my favorite time of the year.  Easter is my favorite religious celebration and Baseball is my favorite sport.  Some musings on both.

 

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, the first Easter without mom.  She left the planet in May of 2012.  .  Mom always had brunch on Easter Sunday.  She put so much effort into what was always a fabulous spread of culinary delights.  Mom was a great cook.  Tradition changed.

 

Our family enjoyed Easter brunch yesterday, gathering at my sister's house.  It obviously wasn't the same without mom but there was something other than mom missing.  One of the dishes mom always served was a thin ham and sauce concoction that you put over biscuits.  No one could find the recipe.  We had everything else, the egg casseroles, the danish, the fruit, the goetta (a German breakfast sausage popular in the Greater Cincinnati Area).  

 

Maybe mom had a hand in that.  We think maybe the recipe was never written down.  She just knew what to do.  Maybe mom kept that with her yesterday to let us know that it's ok to move on. She's ok. We'll see her again soon.  Thanks mom and Happy Easter.

 

Today is Opening Day in Cincinnati, an unofficial holiday.  Hope springs eternal on Opening Day.  The start of a new season; anticipation of a great year; the promise of warmer temperatures, the smell of spring;  Of all of the sports, only baseball, I think, is better experienced in person, at the ball park.  

 

Baseball is such the antithesis in our warp speed world.  No time, no clock, 9 innings, could take 2 hours, could take 4.  Beer, peanuts, hot dogs.  Being outside on a warm sunny day...

 

“People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you look around", you'll say, "It's only $20 per person". They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh...people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”
― James Earl Jones