Have you ever found yourself in a situation where something needed to happen very quickly, and for that to come to pass, a bunch of other things needed to come together? And suddenly, as though someone had prepared the way for you, everything you needed to happen just happened, almost magically? People you needed to talk to suddenly appeared or called you, events were cancelled leaving you with time to care for other pieces, and so on?
This happened to me recently. It was a remarkable experience - so remarkable, in fact, that I remarked upon it to a mentor in the situation. She said, essentially, it happened that way because you dreamed it into being that way.
That is a stretch for me. And yet, it is certainly within the milieu of spiritual and personal growth, and/or pop culture (see, for example, Sweet Medicine SunDance Path Course of Study The Art of Dreaming, or Carlos Castaneda's The Art of Dreaming, or Harvey Mackay's Control Your Reality in Dreams).
I've experienced other instances of this, being at the right place at the right time for something perfect to happen. And in previous years I would probably have said, simply, sweet coincidence! Now I'm not so sure. I have a sense that there is some kind of interconnection between all things, which makes it possible either for me to know (at some still subconscious level) how to put myself in those situations, or for me to influence movements so that the situations are possible.
What do you think? Have you experienced this? Think the idea is ridiculous?
10 December 2010
06 December 2010
The Road Trip of Life
I came across a blog entry from Christopher Penn using a road trip analogy to illustrate the differences between vision, strategy and tactics, and, loving road trips but also knowing how they can sometimes go wrong, it provoked me into thinking about life.
Briefly, here is the analogy:
A strategic plan is like a battle plan: you are putting together the best plan you know how to make in order to maximize your chances for victory. With a battle plan, it may be life and death; with a strategic plan, it's usually not quite so dire, but definitely can be success or failure for your endeavor. So, how best to approach it? As a warrior!
Or, in this case, as a road warrior.
Starting from the bottom with tactics: when you're on a road trip and you run into a detour, what happens? You go out of your way, first of all, adding time and miles - energy expenditure. Second, you may get lost. Third, you may get distracted by what you find on your detour, spending more time than you intended. Fourth, you may get so very distracted by the entrancing things on your detour that you completely lose sight of your original destination and purpose, and either get completely lost or just decide to stay there.
Not all of these are bad outcomes. Sometimes, you have created your particular strategy (where you're going) or even vision (why you're going) from a place of ignorance: you simply didn't know a better reason or place existed. Well, now your detour has shown you that it does. Are you going to stick to your original plan even though you now know something much better, more effective exists? A good warrior will not.
On the other hand, it is also completely possible to become so immersed in details - follow this detour sign, then that, turn left here and left again then right, now where the heck are we? - that you lose sight of the bigger picture - the ultimate destination. You get lost, end up going in the opposite direction from your desired destination. This is astonishingly easy to do in life. In the satisfying of the moment-to-moment wants, or needs, or apparent needs, one can begin to make decisions which are not guided by the larger strategy and do not actually lead one to the desired destination - though they may make us momentarily more comfortable or happy or less distressed.
As I look at the times (and there are plenty) when I've gotten off track, they can certainly be characterized in this way: lost sight of the destination, started making decisions based on the wrong priorities.
- vision = knowing why you're going
- strategy = knowing where you're going (that is, the destination)
- tactics = having the map which shows ways to get from here to there
A strategic plan is like a battle plan: you are putting together the best plan you know how to make in order to maximize your chances for victory. With a battle plan, it may be life and death; with a strategic plan, it's usually not quite so dire, but definitely can be success or failure for your endeavor. So, how best to approach it? As a warrior!
Or, in this case, as a road warrior.
Starting from the bottom with tactics: when you're on a road trip and you run into a detour, what happens? You go out of your way, first of all, adding time and miles - energy expenditure. Second, you may get lost. Third, you may get distracted by what you find on your detour, spending more time than you intended. Fourth, you may get so very distracted by the entrancing things on your detour that you completely lose sight of your original destination and purpose, and either get completely lost or just decide to stay there.
Not all of these are bad outcomes. Sometimes, you have created your particular strategy (where you're going) or even vision (why you're going) from a place of ignorance: you simply didn't know a better reason or place existed. Well, now your detour has shown you that it does. Are you going to stick to your original plan even though you now know something much better, more effective exists? A good warrior will not.
On the other hand, it is also completely possible to become so immersed in details - follow this detour sign, then that, turn left here and left again then right, now where the heck are we? - that you lose sight of the bigger picture - the ultimate destination. You get lost, end up going in the opposite direction from your desired destination. This is astonishingly easy to do in life. In the satisfying of the moment-to-moment wants, or needs, or apparent needs, one can begin to make decisions which are not guided by the larger strategy and do not actually lead one to the desired destination - though they may make us momentarily more comfortable or happy or less distressed.
As I look at the times (and there are plenty) when I've gotten off track, they can certainly be characterized in this way: lost sight of the destination, started making decisions based on the wrong priorities.
20 November 2010
Power is a Horse
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Or so they say, reminding us that wishing and begging are two flavors of the same thing: being squarely rooted in lack, with no activity to bring about gain and an accompanying air of not deserving the gain being sought.
If beggars and wishers alike are horseless, what is the nature of the horse? In her book Medicine Cards, Jamie Sams writes about Horse as a teacher of power, a connection that resonates well with this adage. Power is what's missing when name a goal or desire but do nothing to achieve it.
In their vision statement, the non-profit group known as the Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society (DTMMS) identifies power as a horse as well, along with beauty, knowledge, and freedom - the defining qualities that bring about a better world. Again, this is not just about waiting for things to get better - it's about making it happen.
One of the teachings of the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path (the spiritual lineage of DTMMS) looks at what it takes to master power. The secret? The Teacher of Loneliness. Hmmm.
On the surface, loneliness seems a bad thing - it certainly gets a bad rap. Loneliness is something we try to fix or solve, a state we try to avoid.
But in truth, loneliness is unavoidable. Our lives are so uniquely ours, there is no way to exactly align with another's. And really - isn't that a relief?
Meanwhile, birth and death are things we must do on our own; it's in the grand design. And though we may fear them because they are unknown, deep down isn't there a quiet knowing of just how utterly precious they are?
So, loneliness is a given, and there's something precious about it. But what? How about this: when we're lonely we don't even have the option of trying to please someone else. Being born and dying are audacious acts that are not performed for any other human being - they are fundamentally our own. And every lonely moment in between is the same story - when I'm the only one around, I'm the only one left to please.
Power is facing the depth of my own desire and purpose, stripped of the distractions of who I think I should be for others. Power is a horse we were each born to ride.
If beggars and wishers alike are horseless, what is the nature of the horse? In her book Medicine Cards, Jamie Sams writes about Horse as a teacher of power, a connection that resonates well with this adage. Power is what's missing when name a goal or desire but do nothing to achieve it.
In their vision statement, the non-profit group known as the Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society (DTMMS) identifies power as a horse as well, along with beauty, knowledge, and freedom - the defining qualities that bring about a better world. Again, this is not just about waiting for things to get better - it's about making it happen.
One of the teachings of the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path (the spiritual lineage of DTMMS) looks at what it takes to master power. The secret? The Teacher of Loneliness. Hmmm.
On the surface, loneliness seems a bad thing - it certainly gets a bad rap. Loneliness is something we try to fix or solve, a state we try to avoid.
But in truth, loneliness is unavoidable. Our lives are so uniquely ours, there is no way to exactly align with another's. And really - isn't that a relief?
Meanwhile, birth and death are things we must do on our own; it's in the grand design. And though we may fear them because they are unknown, deep down isn't there a quiet knowing of just how utterly precious they are?
So, loneliness is a given, and there's something precious about it. But what? How about this: when we're lonely we don't even have the option of trying to please someone else. Being born and dying are audacious acts that are not performed for any other human being - they are fundamentally our own. And every lonely moment in between is the same story - when I'm the only one around, I'm the only one left to please.
Power is facing the depth of my own desire and purpose, stripped of the distractions of who I think I should be for others. Power is a horse we were each born to ride.
19 September 2010
Rejuventation
I have been working (and working, and working - which is just wrong) on finding some balance in my life. I have a darned good life - but sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed by it. Often. In fact, almost perpetually. And this has been going on for several years now, intensifying each year. Doesn't that sound charming?
Let's face it: there is just not much I do that I am willing to give up. So I'm not going to achieve balance by making more time in my life. In fact, I generally speaking would like to spend MORE time on each and every one of the things I already do.
That's it's own challenge. But the question of how to rejuvenate myself has become critical.
Here, in the US, we traditionally have several rejuvenation choices at our disposal: eating, sleeping, watching tv, taking a holiday or vacation, going out drinking/partying. Some of those never worked for me; and now, none of them really do.
I've been watching my energy levels as I go through my days, to see which of my activities leave me energized and which leave me drained.
A good indicator - if a little late in the process - is checking in on how much hope I have. Am I looking forward more than I was before to what's next, or to tomorrow, or to my next class or work task? If so, whatever I just did brought some energy back into the system - good! If not, if I'm dreading it and/or feeling like I don't have what it takes to get through it, then we have a problem.
I am surprised to see that some high-energy-output activites, like leading classes, are my current rejuvenators. Go figure!
And I am curious: what do you find rejuvenates you these days?
Let's face it: there is just not much I do that I am willing to give up. So I'm not going to achieve balance by making more time in my life. In fact, I generally speaking would like to spend MORE time on each and every one of the things I already do.
That's it's own challenge. But the question of how to rejuvenate myself has become critical.
Here, in the US, we traditionally have several rejuvenation choices at our disposal: eating, sleeping, watching tv, taking a holiday or vacation, going out drinking/partying. Some of those never worked for me; and now, none of them really do.
I've been watching my energy levels as I go through my days, to see which of my activities leave me energized and which leave me drained.
A good indicator - if a little late in the process - is checking in on how much hope I have. Am I looking forward more than I was before to what's next, or to tomorrow, or to my next class or work task? If so, whatever I just did brought some energy back into the system - good! If not, if I'm dreading it and/or feeling like I don't have what it takes to get through it, then we have a problem.
I am surprised to see that some high-energy-output activites, like leading classes, are my current rejuvenators. Go figure!
And I am curious: what do you find rejuvenates you these days?
16 August 2010
A Spiritual Path Requires Balance
What is a spiritual path? Great question! The two preceding posts by Woman in the World definitely stir up some familiar thoughts, memories, and feelings. I, too, grew up Protestant. (Although likely in very different flavor than she did - the whole mega-church thing is a little suspicious among the Christians I know and love.) And by my young adult years, I also was yearning for something more.
For me, the initial hallmark of that longing was better recognition of the balance between the male and the female energies. I went to churches and prayed with people that were very inclusive of women, but the Christian pattern of either starting with male images and references and then working to expand from there, or of relegating the female to key support roles while defining the starring roles as male, just didn't work for me.
I found the counterbalance to this in pagan/wiccan spirituality in my 20s. There, the honoring of the feminine helped me learn about the unbounded mystery and power of the feminine, and taught me to a better connection to the earth and sky and moon, and to honor the wildness of nature that I found both around and within me.
But, indeed, my experience in pagan spirituality was a counterbalance - as skewed toward the feminine as my experience of Christianity was skewed toward the masculine. In both places I found myself subtly at war, working against the settledness and constraints of these spiritual expressions in order to honor something I knew instinctively as missing or off.
When I found the Flowering Tree Lodge, a teaching the Sweet Medicine SunDance tradition, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and had a palpable feeling of "coming home" - in large part because male/female balance is such a core tenant in this tradition. Here I found a radical challenge to know and discover on a daily basis how men and women are equal, even amidst all our differences; to honor and develop both the masculine and the feminine energies within me in balance; and to understand how its the balance and interaction of these two energies that makes creation possible.
And that, creation, is what I see as the defining characteristic of a spiritual path. Woman in the World talked about it as growth, some might call it evolution, or you might even just call it change. All of it is an act of creation, a birthing. And birth requires the egg and the seed and the mystery of what is made in their joining.
Like Woman in the World, I now have the sense that many forms of spirituality have the capacity to be a spiritual path: Christianity, wiccan spirituality, Judaism, etc. To find that stream, though, requires finding those arenas that are truly alive, that are based in the balance of female and male energies and thus able to produce life.
Celebrating and appreciating the life that has been produced has its place - I do enjoy showing up at 2 p.m. for the guided tour of some historic mansion where I learn about the story, triumphs, and challenges of some historic figure. There is much to be learned and appreciated there. But wandering repeatedly through those rooms is a path to nowhere.
The old saying "we create the path by walking it" says it well. Walking naturally happens in balance, shifting from left to right to left to right in a smooth flowing motion that takes us where we want to go. And it's out of that balance that we create the world we choose to walk in, and the person we choose to be in that world.
For me, that's the basis of a spiritual path.
For me, the initial hallmark of that longing was better recognition of the balance between the male and the female energies. I went to churches and prayed with people that were very inclusive of women, but the Christian pattern of either starting with male images and references and then working to expand from there, or of relegating the female to key support roles while defining the starring roles as male, just didn't work for me.
I found the counterbalance to this in pagan/wiccan spirituality in my 20s. There, the honoring of the feminine helped me learn about the unbounded mystery and power of the feminine, and taught me to a better connection to the earth and sky and moon, and to honor the wildness of nature that I found both around and within me.
But, indeed, my experience in pagan spirituality was a counterbalance - as skewed toward the feminine as my experience of Christianity was skewed toward the masculine. In both places I found myself subtly at war, working against the settledness and constraints of these spiritual expressions in order to honor something I knew instinctively as missing or off.
When I found the Flowering Tree Lodge, a teaching the Sweet Medicine SunDance tradition, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and had a palpable feeling of "coming home" - in large part because male/female balance is such a core tenant in this tradition. Here I found a radical challenge to know and discover on a daily basis how men and women are equal, even amidst all our differences; to honor and develop both the masculine and the feminine energies within me in balance; and to understand how its the balance and interaction of these two energies that makes creation possible.
And that, creation, is what I see as the defining characteristic of a spiritual path. Woman in the World talked about it as growth, some might call it evolution, or you might even just call it change. All of it is an act of creation, a birthing. And birth requires the egg and the seed and the mystery of what is made in their joining.
Like Woman in the World, I now have the sense that many forms of spirituality have the capacity to be a spiritual path: Christianity, wiccan spirituality, Judaism, etc. To find that stream, though, requires finding those arenas that are truly alive, that are based in the balance of female and male energies and thus able to produce life.
Celebrating and appreciating the life that has been produced has its place - I do enjoy showing up at 2 p.m. for the guided tour of some historic mansion where I learn about the story, triumphs, and challenges of some historic figure. There is much to be learned and appreciated there. But wandering repeatedly through those rooms is a path to nowhere.
The old saying "we create the path by walking it" says it well. Walking naturally happens in balance, shifting from left to right to left to right in a smooth flowing motion that takes us where we want to go. And it's out of that balance that we create the world we choose to walk in, and the person we choose to be in that world.
For me, that's the basis of a spiritual path.
14 August 2010
More on the concept of Spiritual Path
I finished up my last entry with a statement about finding what I needed, namely, a spiritual path. That, of course, brought up more questions for me. For example: why did I need a spiritual path? Why wasn't what I had in my church-of-origin "good enough"?
And here's the truth, sad though it may be: I needed a spiritual path because this whole connection to spirit thing was very hard for me. I could not conceive of what it was, nor how to do it. (Or, at least, say I was blocked in my conception of it.) Though I definitely got something, a variety of things, out of going to church, I felt something missing, and I did not know how to take what I had into what I was seeking.
In other words, I needed more help. I needed something that would start where I was, and that would speak to me in a language that I could understand. That is really what I was looking for.
And the very first thing I needed was a better (that is, more understandable to me), broader, different, deeper, something, understanding of what spirituality is, of what "spirit" is. Some of the first teachings (they come along in the first year of Red Lodge, for example) in the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path are related to exactly that: our human aspects (emotions, physical, mental, spiritual, and soul force) and what part they play in our lives. For me, that was very helpful indeed. Without that teaching, I'm not sure I would have made it.
So, one of the biggest gifts this Sweet Medicine SunDance Path has given to me is simply the ability to expand my understanding of what a spiritual connection is and how one might make that connection. For that, I am and will forever be grateful.
And here's the truth, sad though it may be: I needed a spiritual path because this whole connection to spirit thing was very hard for me. I could not conceive of what it was, nor how to do it. (Or, at least, say I was blocked in my conception of it.) Though I definitely got something, a variety of things, out of going to church, I felt something missing, and I did not know how to take what I had into what I was seeking.
In other words, I needed more help. I needed something that would start where I was, and that would speak to me in a language that I could understand. That is really what I was looking for.
And the very first thing I needed was a better (that is, more understandable to me), broader, different, deeper, something, understanding of what spirituality is, of what "spirit" is. Some of the first teachings (they come along in the first year of Red Lodge, for example) in the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path are related to exactly that: our human aspects (emotions, physical, mental, spiritual, and soul force) and what part they play in our lives. For me, that was very helpful indeed. Without that teaching, I'm not sure I would have made it.
So, one of the biggest gifts this Sweet Medicine SunDance Path has given to me is simply the ability to expand my understanding of what a spiritual connection is and how one might make that connection. For that, I am and will forever be grateful.
06 August 2010
What Is a Spiritual Path?
Not so long ago I asked a friend - someone I know has a variety of spiritual connections - what she considered to be her spiritual path. After some reflection, she responded that her art was her spiritual path.
That conversation set me to thinking about the meaning of "spiritual path" as opposed to "spirituality."
I grew up in a Protestant family. I went to church for many years, and had very moving spirtual experiences. But, as I look back on that time, I know that it never felt like a path. That is, I felt like I was either in or out; either connected to Christ and God, or not. And in my conversations with Christian friends, and with folks who were evangelizing, that was usually the question: have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior? If one had, then one went to heaven; if not, well, tough luck. Rather than a path, it felt more like a fork in the road.
The church I attended has grown from a rather small neighborhood church to a mini-megachurch in the years since then, so obviously what they are doing works for a lot of people. It just left me feeling like there should be more - but I didn't have any idea what that "more" might be.
Though I was aware that one could mature emotionally and physically, and continue learning, I had no concept of the development of spiritual maturity.
Years later I found the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path. In this tradition, there are progressions of ceremonies and teachings for the development of spiritual (as well as emotional, physical, and mental) maturity. I initially came in because some of the teachings were so immediately useful - but have stayed because it consistently helps me to see increasingly deeper things about myself, about life, about spirit; and gives me tools to grow with that. It's incredibly rich and varied, and has this progression - which, in my experience, works.
As I reflected on the conversation with my friend, I realized that this progression, this growth path, is exactly what I missed in my earlier Christian experience.
So, for me, there are 2 keys to "spiritual path": the connection to spirit, and a path for growth.
Now, with more knowledge and experience, I know that Christianity also provides this. Could I have found this at the church I attended early in life? Not easily. Had I wanted to become a minister, I might perhaps have found it in the education. In an earlier era, I might have found it as a nun. But my childhood church was more focused on building a cohesive community than on individual spiritual growth (beyond the necessary acceptance of Christ, of course). It wasn't quite what I was looking for.
I was looking for what I needed: a spiritual path.
That conversation set me to thinking about the meaning of "spiritual path" as opposed to "spirituality."
I grew up in a Protestant family. I went to church for many years, and had very moving spirtual experiences. But, as I look back on that time, I know that it never felt like a path. That is, I felt like I was either in or out; either connected to Christ and God, or not. And in my conversations with Christian friends, and with folks who were evangelizing, that was usually the question: have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior? If one had, then one went to heaven; if not, well, tough luck. Rather than a path, it felt more like a fork in the road.
The church I attended has grown from a rather small neighborhood church to a mini-megachurch in the years since then, so obviously what they are doing works for a lot of people. It just left me feeling like there should be more - but I didn't have any idea what that "more" might be.
Though I was aware that one could mature emotionally and physically, and continue learning, I had no concept of the development of spiritual maturity.
Years later I found the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path. In this tradition, there are progressions of ceremonies and teachings for the development of spiritual (as well as emotional, physical, and mental) maturity. I initially came in because some of the teachings were so immediately useful - but have stayed because it consistently helps me to see increasingly deeper things about myself, about life, about spirit; and gives me tools to grow with that. It's incredibly rich and varied, and has this progression - which, in my experience, works.
As I reflected on the conversation with my friend, I realized that this progression, this growth path, is exactly what I missed in my earlier Christian experience.
So, for me, there are 2 keys to "spiritual path": the connection to spirit, and a path for growth.
Now, with more knowledge and experience, I know that Christianity also provides this. Could I have found this at the church I attended early in life? Not easily. Had I wanted to become a minister, I might perhaps have found it in the education. In an earlier era, I might have found it as a nun. But my childhood church was more focused on building a cohesive community than on individual spiritual growth (beyond the necessary acceptance of Christ, of course). It wasn't quite what I was looking for.
I was looking for what I needed: a spiritual path.
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