I feel a bit like I've been cheating on Wellness Wednesday posts. How many Wednesdays did I miss? Ummmmmm a few. But despite missing posts, Wellness Wednesday has been very meaningful to me.
I've been reading several books simultaneously - among them the much touted Tolle book and a few others, including ODAT materials (I'm leaving that a little coded on purpose) and I'm learing, or re-learning many things. The most important, at this moment is, "Be here Now." I think I'll never outgrow this phrase and I'm grateful to the Teacher, Ram Dass, for transmitting this simple code....Be here, right here...there's really no where else to be.
Tolle repeats this missive, and explains it in several different ways, and invites the reader into deeper places - sometimes I live in those places, sometimes I imagine them, and other times I remember that once I lived in those places. But after all is said and done, "Be here now" is all there is. Be in this moment, relish this moment, wallow in the PURPOSE of this moment.
And, what is the purpose of this moment? This is my favorite part of the Tolle book, though I'm sure there are more profound lessons......the purpose of this moment is .....
THIS MOMENT
(okay, I'm paraphrasing but that's my understanding of it.) If one is sewing, the purpose of the moment is to sew...NOT to complete a garment, or a quilt, a present, a task or a job - the purpose is to sew. How....how much of life's worries and tulmults disappear if you really wallow in the moment? (Or! be here now!) Think about this - FEEL this...(I have been!) If I accept this moment....such beauty burns into me, puts me on fire and somehow, I am less tired, I am more deeply at peace, I am ALIVE. One stitch...one stitch...is it perfect? Ummm it is a stitch, and now another....Yes, they are both perfect.
These things make me think of something I remember reading a million years ago (sok, I can be there old because only this moment matters and besides, wherever you go....there you are!)...by Alexander Solzenitzen. (yes, I really read it, my freshman year in High School.) Solzenitzen is speaking of the unspeakable torture and evil of the gulag. And so, the reader wonders, how does a human live through that??!?!?! And he answers with much the same answers above....be in the moment, each moment, taken by itself is manageable. Solzenitzen says that when aware of each moment there is incredible realization that everything which is needed is provided. Wow...that's stayed with me since High school; each moment, in the midst of what seems like unbearable pain (Tolle would say, I think, the ego percieves and nurtures the pain) is entirely livable. If Solzenitzen can live through the gulag, and forgive and love his captors - surely the small little details of my life can be accepted.
Which brings us back to Tolle...acceptance, he says, is tranformative. Be here now, accept that you are here now.... Accept. I wish I could put words to how just repeating the word makes me feel, "accept...accept." It has become sort of a mantra for me, and I repeat it constantly...."Accept." Accept and submit to the moment, for it too shall pass...such freedom.
So..what's this got to do with Wellness Wednesday? I've been working on it. I've been breathing into the moment, filling myself with NOW and accepting now - even the rotten Nows and I'm finding that in the middle of the rotten, wonderful, glorious and damnable nows, there is something constant....I think the Watcher, the Witness, the I AM...that part of me which just is, which is at peace, which embodies equanimity.
I haven't magically lost a bunch of weight, I have not escaped the chronic pain of fibromyalgia and my relationships are not perfect - but in the middle of all that imperfection, in each moment, in each now, it is absolutely perfect.
These things make me think of something I remember reading a million years ago (sok, I can be there old because only this moment matters and besides, wherever you go....there you are!)...by Alexander Solzenitzen. (yes, I really read it, my freshman year in High School.) Solzenitzen is speaking of the unspeakable torture and evil of the gulag. And so, the reader wonders, how does a human live through that??!?!?! And he answers with much the same answers above....be in the moment, each moment, taken by itself is manageable. Solzenitzen says that when aware of each moment there is incredible realization that everything which is needed is provided. Wow...that's stayed with me since High school; each moment, in the midst of what seems like unbearable pain (Tolle would say, I think, the ego percieves and nurtures the pain) is entirely livable. If Solzenitzen can live through the gulag, and forgive and love his captors - surely the small little details of my life can be accepted.
Which brings us back to Tolle...acceptance, he says, is tranformative. Be here now, accept that you are here now.... Accept. I wish I could put words to how just repeating the word makes me feel, "accept...accept." It has become sort of a mantra for me, and I repeat it constantly...."Accept." Accept and submit to the moment, for it too shall pass...such freedom.
So..what's this got to do with Wellness Wednesday? I've been working on it. I've been breathing into the moment, filling myself with NOW and accepting now - even the rotten Nows and I'm finding that in the middle of the rotten, wonderful, glorious and damnable nows, there is something constant....I think the Watcher, the Witness, the I AM...that part of me which just is, which is at peace, which embodies equanimity.
I haven't magically lost a bunch of weight, I have not escaped the chronic pain of fibromyalgia and my relationships are not perfect - but in the middle of all that imperfection, in each moment, in each now, it is absolutely perfect.
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"Accept" It's a powerful word - thank you for reminding me of it!
ReplyDeleteI got goosebumps reading your post. Well as fired up as I am lately, I just have to read Eckhart's name and get a warm chill of connection that someone is also reacting to his book. I didn't mention it in my post but the reason I had such an amazing birthday is because of his book. I was in the moment and I didn't have expectations as I would have in the past. It was incredible. I too am practicing lots of breathing and enjoying the moment for what it is. When I hear myself complaining about the weather, it is almost as if there is a broken tape player inside me. Then I take a breath and I feel what I am feeling. I am warm (in my woolies), I am comfortable, I am. That is all there is.
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