Excerpts from Diane Mariechild's "Open Mind"...

KINDNESS

MAY 3
The deepest secret in our heart of hearts is that we are writing because we love the world, and why not finally carry that secret out with our bodies into the living rooms and porcbes, backyards and grocery stores? Let the whole thing flower: the poem and the person writing the poem. And let us always be kind in this world.
-NATALIE GOLDBERG

My friend Linda told me a story about a delivery man she saw on the street in San Francisco. As Linda walked by the delivery truck she saw the driver walk up to two homeless men who were sleeping in a doorway. The driver said, "Excuse me, I'm sorry to disturb you but I need to bring things through this door." He was so gentle and loving it brought tears to her eyes.

Kindness is simple. All that is needed is to treat others in the same way we wish to be treated. None of us like to be ignored, talked down to, or interrupted. We become agitated by being pressured or rushed. We don't like to be the butt of a joke or talked about behind our backs. "Let us always be kind in this world. "

 

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Patience

MArch 3

She who loves roses must be patient and not cry out when she is pierced by thorns.

-OLGA BROUMAS
 

These are simple words of wisdom, yet ones we need to hear again and again. We work very diligently to attain the things we think will improve our lives. It is easy to delude ourings totally convenient selves by thinking that we can make this  comfortable and eliminate all pain. This unrealistic thinking is disconnected from the truth of physical life. How do we learn to take the bitter with the sweet? We have so many cultural messages that deny this reality. "Don't take that lying down." "Get out there and fight." "Look out for number one. " 14 You can have it all." The idea that we have ultimate control and can force the circumstances of our lives to be just to our liking dies hard. Even new age teaching with its holistic perspective falls into confusion with its dualistic thinking. The right affirmations, the right diet, the right thoughts, will bring you only pleasurable life experiences. This thinking is another way of disguising the ego's need for control with positive, upbeat language.


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PRAYER

JANUARY 5

Stars give her strength

Sun turn her eyes

Moon guide her fee,

Earth turning bold her

We pray for her

We sing for her

We drurn for her

We pray
 

                           -CHRYSTOS

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MEETING THE SHADOW

OCTOBER 30

Many traditions have incorporated the (evil) side in Goddesses like Kali and Dakini and concepts like "bell realms" encountering your shadow side. There's a tremendous richness in the idea that you can see your bell realm ... we can meet and embrace our evil.

-MAYUMI ODA
There are many special celebrations in the Women's Sacred Mystery School. Two in particular encourage us to meet the shadow. Hallowmas is an auspicious time to meet the darkness. Dances are created to encourage meeting the dark energy. Dancing, we touch the Earth, we spiral around and down, we dance into the dark. We meet this energy and move with it, opening ourselves to its transformation. The night of the winter solstice we hold an all-night vigil without sleep. We chant, we meditate, we dance, we sing, we cry, we pray, we laugh. There is storytelling and there is silence. The lack of sleep invites us to drop our defenses and we avail ourselves of the precious opportunity to meet the shadow and dance with our demons. Yes, there is fear and trepidation. The courage comes from our willingness to meet together, to dance with and embrace the fears. Then there are no surprises. We know the evil inside. This creates safety. There is less danger of entrapment from the unconscious. There is power here. It is the power to act in balance, the power to give and the power to be.
 

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LOVE

OCTOBER 29

Love as a power can go anywhere. It isn't sentimental. It doesn't bave to be pretty, yet it doesn't deny pain.

-SHARON SALZBERG

Love is often confused with romance. In romance we have projected an idealized image onto the loved one. We do not really see the other person. Gradually the high intensity of the romance fades and we see the person with flaws. The love we expressed has been limited. Both partners have been projecting their illusions onto each other. We have been using the person as an object to meet our personal needs. Sometimes the illusions remain in place and we feel as though we have won. Other times the illusion slips away and we lose.

True love has no object. It is a warm, caring, kind attention that is given without expectation of any return. When we have expectations, we are bound to be disappointed. When we have expectations we are not able to receive what is there. We are too focused on what we want. To some it may seem unrealistic, being able to give without expecting anything in return. The miracle of love is that it moves in a circle, so when we give love in an openhearted way, it does come back to us.

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