Puttin' On The Ritual

"This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don't have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. And I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn't have the specific ritual you're craving, then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising, fixing your own broken-down emotional systems with all the do-it-yourself resourcefulness of a generous plumber/poet. If you bring the right earnestness to your homemade ceremony, God will provide the grace." - Elizabeth Gilbert

It's tough in some ways to be of a mind that gains little from church services or Bible studies. I feel more spiritually fulfilled in small groups of open-minded discussion and support of our perceptions of God's role in our lives, the steps in an ongoing journey to a better life on earth and reveling in how fortunate we all are. Privately, I feel sufficiently close to God through simple prayers of thanks for any number of infinite gifts in an average day. Thank goodness that enough people are fed through corporate worship that there are opportunities to share through my musical and creative talents. And rehearsing for those opportunities is a peaceful form of individual worship for me. Funny how the creation puzzle has just enough pieces to form a whole.

Off Limits

"You might just as well hang it up and kiss God good-bye if you really need to keep blaming somebody else for your own life's limitations." - Elizabeth Gilbert

Kinda silly in a way, isn't it? On one hand, fortunately, it's unnatural for me to get angry at God. Even as people are dying all around my Mom lately from various cancers... they still led full lives and were apportioned a good part of creation to enjoy during their time here. And then during a meeting someone will say something contrary to my way of thinking, and it'll get steam billowing. That person who... is simply another part of creation from the same God. Just a little closer to my "ego," which I seem to guard with illogical fervor as if it were more within my control and less a part of God's plan.

Humanity is all about limits. They may not always be enjoyable, but there's always something nearby to enjoy, so why not?

Master Of The Inner Universe

"Yoga is about self-mastery and the dedicated effort to haul your attention away from your endless brooding over the past and your nonstop worrying about the future so that you can seek, instead, a place of eternal presence from which you may regard yourself and your surroundings with poise." - Elizabeth Gilbert

Besides the too-familiar neuroses of brooding and worrying, this speaks to me because of the emphasis on what little we can control. We can master ourselves to know our own natural flash points, weaknesses, and passions. We must dedicate ourselves to this cause, focus far more than is habitual on our state of mind or presence. And it helps immeasurably to weigh ourselves in the surroundings of the big picture... that our biggest mistake is unknown to billions of others, and practically nonexistent as far as the universe is concerned.

Smilin' Island

"The Yogic path is about disentangling the built-in glitches of the human condition, which I'm going to over-simply define here as the heartbreaking inability to sustain contentment." - Elizabeth Gilbert

On this day-off celebration of American independence, I awoke around noon and gathered thoughts gradually. Deciding to get the day off right with some exercise, I found myself in unhurried contentment while cruising in the Saturn toward Four Seasons. At that moment it didn't matter how many red lights I encountered or how many people cut me off. I was complacent and happy, just enjoying the day. Why ever leave this mental station? Why feel the need to dive into the water and swim for some bigger island? Why despair when a seagull makes an unwelcome deposit on my head, when there's an ocean of cleanser around? It's a healthy thing, to choose to stay on the smilin' island, ignoring the calls of the sailors offshore.