Gazing in the Mirror

January 19 - Seeing the Day as the Gift it IS

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness. It took me
years to understand that this too,
was a gift.
~ Mary Oliver

Create or perish is the eternal
mandate of nature. Be constructive
or become frustrated is an equal
demand. You cannot escape the
conclusion that whatever this thing is
which is seeking expression through
everything, it can find satisfactory
outlet only through constructive
and life-giving creativeness.
~ Ernest Holmes,
This Thing Called You

Not every day goes smoothly and we are often obstructed or diverted from doing what we would rather being doing by the impacts of other people with ideas of their own or needs to be filled or even the demands which they make on our life's allotment of time. To be certain the clock keeps ticking. Sometimes there is nothing we can do but take it as it comes, as it is. However I do believe that regardless of how our perspective may judge this day as a happy "good" one or an aggravating "bad" one, there are always gifts to be recognized. I am a "silver lining" kind of person.

Silver linings may mean only lessons learned, been there, done that, no need to repeat. The gift may be in more clarity about what we do want in our life. The gift may be greater self-respect and care. It is often hard to be patient when we have plans for how we are going to spend our day and our time and someone else has a different idea. Then we must decide if our idea is more important than the gift of giving to the other person what it is that they are needing from us. More and more my own patience comes from understanding that my attention fulfills the need for intimacy and closeness in another person and even if I am not recognizing the mirror need within my own self I am actually fulfilling that same need in me.

In my weekly Life Visioning meditations, I am asked "what gifts do I have to share ?" It is good to contemplate this. Even though the list often does not change much from week to week, sometimes something new will turn up or my focus will be less on something that previously I considered valuable. As human beings we are all born with certain instincts, deep encodings and given a hefty dose of familial and societal programming. Certain gifts seem to pass down through the generations – such as innate intelligence, artistic ability, organizations skills, strength, nurturing, etc. When we use these talents, skills and natural capabilities, we become a gift to the constant requirements that Life has for the support of ourselves and others. We are provided for by the resources of the world around us and by our ability to make use of these. Ever has it been so.

When we feel frustrated by what is, we can choose to think creatively about our situation. Is there another way, a different response or is cooperation with the harmony of what is the best choice ? There is always something seeking expression through our very lives and it flows best out into the world when we are non-resistant to whatever is. If that non-resistance isn't possible for whatever reason, then it is time to go deep inside for creative inspiration. I have always found something of usefulness there when I have opened myself up to receive that.

It may seem that we have some problem but the existence of a problem is also the invitation to discover the solution to it. It is always there, always a possibility, even if the solution is "not yet". Even so, seeking a solution often helps us to grow in understanding of the world around us and the people who inhabit this world along with us. There have been times in my life when I had to give up everything and start all over again from scratch. The givingness of the Universe appeared and gifted me with all manner of things that I did not pay for and would not have chosen for myself but were perfectly suited to fulfill needs that I did have.

So today has been the kind of day, when an impulse that my husband had turned into activities that I had not planned and what I had planned to do may not get completed today. We have been waiting for over 3 hours for some technical assistance in the form of a contractor who keeps sending email updates that he still intends to show up and assuring us that it will "all get done". While his arrival time may not present any particular concerns for him (he did eventually arrive) it has kept us hostage to the all-day waiting game. The gift ended up being getting some chores done that I never find time for because they weren't all that appealing to me but no one else was going to do them. So regardless of what has or has not happened today, it is still a gift to breathe and know my heart still beats but also to see the silver linings.

~ perspective

More and more I seem able to be
in a space of allowing whatever is
to be exactly what it is without
fighting against it.
I know that the place to address
circumstances not totally of my liking
is by mental clarity regarding my
preferences before a manifestation
becomes solidly visible.
I doubt that I could possibly see
the fact that I am living an incarnated
life as anything but a gift no matter
what my circumstances are.
Being able to adapt with changing
circumstances as they unfold in the way
that water adapts to rocks and changes
in elevation in a stream has proven to
make living in general easier for me.
When a day is all said and done,
most days I can definitely see where
I ended up on the plus side even when
it was not exactly the way I think
I would have chosen for the elements of
the day to be.

#attention #clarity #creativity #demands #frustration #givingness #harmony #intimacy #patience #receptivity