Here, in this transitory moment,
is everything you need to know.
The whole story. All the answers.
Take it in. Let it find its home in you.
Taste its flavors. Feel its song.
Know its peace.
Mandala
Author: Susan Minarik
All the Glistening Mornings
Two fireflies danced through the woods last night,
the sight all the more precious now that their season
has reached its final days. Overhead, the first evening stars
sparkled against a dark velvet sky whose western horizon
still glowed with a deep orange gold. I slept in the sweetness
of perfumed air that carried the songs of crickets and frogs.
Then, when I woke, the world had been transformed,
the night’s twinkling lights exchanged for a shimmer of dew,
its tiny globes sparkling from every emerald blade of grass.
Such gifts, so freely given! These wondrous, velvet nights,
and all the glistening mornings.
I Surrender
Okay, summer; you win.
I admit that at first I was put off
by your incessant rains. And when
they ceased, I didn’t trust your dazzle,
seeing it as so much show, an act.
But now you have convinced me.
Your sincerity is everywhere, deep
in its greens, devoted in its endless
display of color. And at last
your warmth has penetrated
my understanding, and I want
nothing more than to sink
into your loving emerald arms.
Light Rolling Down
The creek, despite our abundant rains,
is surprisingly dry, its rocky bed exposed
along the shore and making islands
in its center. Still, sheltered as it is
by the wooded hills, it cools its surrounds
and sings its quiet song. And here and there,
where the light rolls down and falls
beneath its surface, you can see its clarity.
Light does that. Its radiant energy
rolls all the way from the sun, down
through the millions of miles of space,
through the layers of atmosphere and cloud,
past the thick canopy of dancing leaves
and through the slow whispering waters
until it finds earth, bouncing off everything
on its way, flowing right into your eyes
to show you clearly the truth of what’s there,
the Yes of all the things that were hidden
in shadow before it came, rolling down.
Postcard for my Friend
Oh yes, there are lakes here, too,
shimmering bodies of fresh water
that reflect the blue sky and the green
of the forested hills surrounding them.
Silvery fish swim in their waters, and geese
paddle past or bask on the shores in the grass.
And oh! The wildflowers dancing on the shore!
This is summer in its perfection.
Wish you were here!
The Time of the Rocks’ Remembering
The creek is nearly dry now,
the rocks that make up its bed
exposed. Feeling the dry air
against their surfaces, they remember
the high places from which they fell
ages ago, and before that, the eons
they spent inside the earth’s womb
until the thunderous tumult pushed
them upward through its crust until
they reached the sky. They recall
the way trees grew between them,
winding their great roots in a living caress,
freeing them, one by one, to tumble
downward, to begin the long journey
home.
On Seeing Hosta Blossoms
Every now and then something catches my eye,
and I hear a whispered invitation: Look.
I’ve learned humbly to accept,
to focus my attention
on the sight before me.
Then I gasp in wonder and awe.
Easing into Happiness
Ask yourself:
What would it be like to feel contented in my life?
What would it be like to feel capable of dealing with whatever comes along?
What would it be like to feel centered and at home with myself, where I felt free to choose whatever would bring me the greatest sense of well-being?
Two weeks ago I invited you to create dramatically heightened happiness for yourself. If you decided to play along, those are the questions you might have considered. (You can still choose to ask them of yourself now, if you like. The option to choose happiness never goes away.) They’re important questions to consider. They’re the ones that begin drawing you in the direction of a freer, more joyful life.
Once you roll those questions around and decide you want to taste more of this contented-capable-centered stuff, you’re ready to begin claiming it for yourself. And the first step to staking your claim is to set your intention to be happy.
To set an intention is different from wanting or wishing for something. It’s not the same as setting a goal. An intention is a decision you make, sincerely, about how you want to expand your experience of life to include more happiness. It’s a commitment, a ruling-out of all other options. It’s saying to yourself, “I’m choosing more happiness for myself, and I’m going to have it, by gum!” (“By gum,” if you haven’t heard that expression before, is something like “dagnabit.” It’s a from-your-gut statement of unmovable determination.”)
But the firmness of your intention doesn’t mean it should be a struggle. In fact, the intention to be happy is more like letting go of stress and struggle, of sinking into the ease of contentment. It’s a matter of allowing yourself to make little moment-by-moment adjustments, little choices for your well-being, as you go throughout your day.
Dr. Joe Dispenza, who teaches people how to create dramatic changes in their lives, explains that your intention has vigor when you combine it with the feelings you expect it to produce. So take some time to recall and savor how it felt when you were completely content, when you felt self-assured, when you felt grounded. It’s the emotion of happiness, this combination of contentment, capability, and centeredness, that carries your vision of happiness into your reality.
Here’s what you do: In the morning, before you open your eyes, think about what it would feel like to be happy as you go through the day ahead, at ease in it. Imagine how the activities you have planned for the day would be done by a contented, confident, centered person.
Happiness researchers Foster and Hicks suggest that one way you can do this is to think about the things you have planned for the day (finishing the report, doing the laundry, making the commute—whatever) and then say to yourself, “I intend to get the laundry done-and to be happy doing it.” Add the phrase “and to be happy doing it” after each activity you imagine yourself doing through the day.
You’re making a mental movie here in the moments before your day begins, a little video of the day ahead where you star in it as a confident, relaxed you, content to be doing whatever task is at hand, open and accepting of whatever comes your way. Imagine feeling completely at ease and centered. Feel the feeling of it.
Then, pay attention to the emotions that arise during the day—stress, irritation, frustration, disappointment—that anchor you to your old way of being and decide if they belong in your future. Remember what the feelings from your morning movie were like and see if you can let yourself sort of sink into them, the way that you would sink into a warm, welcoming pool.
Dr. Dispenza, in his YouTube video on Intention, says to notice what you’re thinking/feeling, and to practice maintaining your future feelings (the happiness you intend for yourself) continuously in order to build the new neural connections in your brain. “What you practice, you get good at,” the old saying goes. Your happier new life is something you move into by practicing it – both mentally and in your behaviors.
One way to turn things around when you find that you’ve slipped into a negative mood is to ask yourself what’s good about the moment and see how many things you can name.
Watch for little signs that you’re on the right path. They’ll pop up like surprising little notes of joy. Notice when you experience more happiness and how good it feels. Notice smiles as they spread across your face. Catch yourself laughing. Then, when you’re making the next morning’s “Movie of My Day,” incorporate those feelings into it and dare to turn it up a notch higher.
Make it an intention to keep practicing, to stay aware. Once you start getting those bright, little joy-flashes, you’ll never settle for humdrum again.
Wishing you a week of gentle, joyful smiles!
Next week, we’ll look at what it takes to stay on track.
Warmly,
Susan
Image by Vilius Kukanauskas from Pixabay
The Tale of the Sewing Bugs
Even then, I was mesmerized
by your iridescent color.
And I’m not sure that I believed
what my mother said was true.
Looking back,I can suppose
it was one of those days
when I had already asked her
a hundred questions before
I pointed to one of your kind
and asked her what it was was.
I’m almost embarrassed to tell you.
But she said it was a sewing bug
and that its one and only mission
was to stitch up children’s mouths
so they would never speak again.
My friends and I would scream
and run from your species
as you darted among us in our play.
If my mother’s ploy was to silence us,
I guess she failed. But today
when I see you, I smile, remembering,
and you seem to shine all the more
for the doubled joy you bring.
Like Flowers in a Dream
The Rose of Sharon floats on its ocean
of green like flowers in a dream, soft,
with a meaning all its own. Rising
from its center, magenta secrets
point upward like the peaks
of a crown, hinting rare jewels
might lie at its center, some wisdom
perhaps, that will be revealed
if I wait and watch for yet
one more day.