True Aspiration

Beauty All Around

I am on holiday in the English Lake Disrtict at the moment and, to my mind, this is a truly beautiful place. Majestic mountains and fells, sparkling lakes, rushing rivers and waterfalls all contribute to this stunning landscape. There are gentle scenes as well as rugged wilderness areas and everything seems in harmony and proportion. The farms and dwellings, built of local stone and slate, and the ancient dry stone walls blend perfectly into the landscape, enhancing the scenery. Even the sheep seem perfectly placed on the hillsides! I love this place and am drawn back by it's beauty time and time again. No wonder the romantic poets and so many artists have found endless inspiration here.

As I walk around, there is so much to appreciate - a delightful toadstool, the turning leaves of autumn, the gnarled roots of an ancient beech tree, sunlight reflecting on the water, boulders on the lake shore.....so many beautiful things!

When we perceive beauty, it has the ability to move us emotionally. This is a spiritual gift that puts us in touch with our highest self and connects us to the well of joy inside of us. When we see beauty in an object, it is our joy manifesting. The more we are in touch with the joy in our heart, the more beauty we will notice around us. For beauty is everywhere.

Although it is easy to perceive the beauty in a wonderful landscape such as this, once we open our capacity to see things in this way, we find it there in everything. See the beauty in a cobweb, a garden weed, a shabby piece of furniture, a muddy puddle. Our perception of things is a choice and we can choose to see the good, the wholesome and the beautiful all around us.

Enjoy all the wonders of this earth and know that you are beautiful too!

Autumn - a Poem

This week there has been a change in the air heralding the onset of autumn. Although yesterday turned out really hot in the afternoon, the night air was cool and it has been a very autumnal day today. This prompted me to write a poem to record and welcome the changing season.

Autumn

I noticed a change today
There was a different quality to the light
Sharper, less diffused
And the air was crisp and thin
And I breathed it in with thankfulness

The robin’s song has altered too
His notes more mellow, more relaxed
Less urgent than in the spring
As I listen, I appreciate his wholesome voice
The satisfaction in that heartfelt song

Though the spring fills me with anticipation
And the summer rewards me with utter joy
I mourn them not right now
For autumn is offering her bountiful fruits
Her sense of completion and wisdom untold

There is a fullness now
A sense of deliverance, of homecoming
A peaceful calm pervades the earth
And as night falls, the stars light up the velvet sky
And I am in love with the season of riches unsurpassed

By Dawn Dowsett - 12th September 2009

I'd Pick More Daisies

I picked up the following piece in a shop a few years ago. Copied onto a plain piece of paper, there were a pile of them for people to pick up. No author's name was given but a little internet research has revealed it to be Nadine Stair, aged 85. I have referred to it many times as it talks of living moment by moment, appreciating the simple things and letting go of the need to strive.

I'd Pick More Daisies

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I know of very few things I would take seriously. I would be less hygienic. I would take more chances. I would make more trips. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers and watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. You see, I am one of those people who live prophylactically and sanely and sensibly, hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I have had my moments and, if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead each day. I have been one of these people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it over again, I would go places and do things and travel lighter than I have.

If I had to live my life over, I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would play hooky more. I wouldn't make such good grades, except by accident. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I'd pick more daisies.

By Nadine Stair

We have the chance NOW to opt for a simpler life, a life of joy, appreciation and ease. Just for today, try to relax and let go, be easy on yourself, do what feels good and maybe pick some daisies. 

 

What Is Your Music?

Last night I went to see some live jazz. I am lucky that we have excellent jazz bands playing every week a mile from my home, ranging from trios up to big bands. Well last night's quintet were outstanding and the guy on trombone said that, at age eleven, he had heard a recording of a world class trombone player and it sent shivers dowwn his spine. At age eleven! He knew right then he had to learn the trombone and has been playing ever since. As he played and also listened to the other musicians' solo performances, you could see the passion on his face and, in fact, in his whole body. He was living the music - it was coming through him and he couldn't stop it. He was born to do this.

What were you born to do? Many of us do not have the clarity of our trombone player at such an early age and we drift along in life out of touch with our true passion. All my life I have had a strong love of animals and nature. At the age of three I knew all the animals in the PG tips tea card sets. Anyone could test me and I knew them all from Aardvaarks to Tapirs to Wildebeest. I guess as my dad sat with me telling me the names, I wanted to remember them because I had a natural excitement and I came alive when I looked at or talked about animals. Later in life I didn't pursue my love and went for "practical" vocational options. Then when I got my first dog, Hazel, nearly 10 years ago I had that alive feeling again and I absolutely know that, along with nature and spirituality, animals have to be an important part of my life. Our new puppy Daisy is a real joy and the two dogs are getting along so well together. When I am with them I feel in my element.

So for each of us our "music" is something different and actually something unique because our perspective is totally individual.  I heard Wayne Dyer quote "Don't Die With Your Music Still Inside You". There are lots of musical metaphors that relate to the way we feel and how we resonate in the world. You feel good when you are "in tune with" something, when you do something joyful it "makes your heart sing", when you are in balance you are "in harmony". This is because we live in a wonderful universe, which means "one song", and together everything is orchestrated to create the whole.

Get in touch with your heart and remember what makes it leap with joy. Then do that - whatever it takes. I honestly believe that it is our life's mission to follow our bliss and do what makes us feel good, and if we all do that it will be a happier world. 

A Perfect Life?

The birds are nesting all over my garden and in the nearby hedgerows. Inevitably I am finding dead nestlings and the other day there was one in the middle of the patio. I have no idea how it came to be there as no nests are close enough from which it could have fallen.

I usually find this kind of thing upsetting and feel sad for the little creature that has had it's life cut short. But as I pondered on this I wondered what was the "right" length for a life? This tiny bird had never opened its eyes, never grown a feather, never left it's nest except to die. As I held it in the palm of my hand I observed a tiny miracle. Through its transparent skin I could see its spine and internal organs, all perfectly and beautifully formed. I noticed the yellow gape around the beak, designed to encourage parental feeding. The skin was so delicate and not damaged in any place. Its tiny pink legs and feet were perfectly intact.

Could this have been a perfect life? Who are we to know whether a desire had been born to touch the earth for a few hours? To experience life in the egg, growth into a perfect tiny body, the process of hatching and feeling the warmth of a mothers breast in a nest built just for the purpose. As a few tears of joy for the miracle of life rolled down my cheek, I knew for sure, in absolute certainty, that this was a manifestation of life perfect and complete.

As life is not an individual thing, it moves into the spaces created by desires and leaves only when there is total fulfillment. In our attachment to the physical form and our identification with the individual we lose sight of the whole. Life goes on eternally in a myriad of apparent forms, but always as one.

Nature's Springtime Abundance

It has been a glorious warm, sunny April here in Norfolk, UK. A wonderful time of year when nature is well into its growth cycle and everything is proliferating. If you stand and watch you can almost see the plants grow and you can certainly feel it. The life force energy is so strong.

Along the lane where I live is a wood that is carpeted with bluebells right now. This is an amazing and beautiful sight and I feel truly honoured to engage with these wonderful beings of the plant world. They hold nothing back, unfolding their beautiful blooms and holding them proud. In the gentle breeze they allow their heads to nod, never resisting anything. Along with the exquisite scent that they offer, all of the senses delight in their presence. There is an air of deep peace and serenity in a bluebell wood. There is sound but all is in harmony - the birds are in full spring song and I hear the cuckoo calling, a call which is a real symbol that springtime has arrived. I feel reverence for this experience, this sharing with nature, and know that I am a part of this too.

When I look around me I see only abundance, the true generosity of nature. There is no striving to grow, there is just growth. No effort to be, just being. No urge to control the course of life, just a total allowing of life to flow through form, whatever that form may be. Nature is the greatest teacher. It shows us how to be in the flow of life, not getting in the way of ourselves, knowing that all is well and in its proper time and place.

Oh, how I love the spring and all its generous gifts!