"Behind Each Eye"

Four Sisters

It had been over 40 years since we had all been together. Separated by the annihilation born of a traumatic youth, we finally trusted enough to reunite to see our mother after all these years. It was moving to me to observe us, 4 women now, cooking, navigating the kitchen, each doing her part as only four women who have raised children know how to do. Silently, musically, harmonized with no outer conductor needed.

We return next month, to Florida, to move this our mother who never mothered very well, to a safer place where we can all be there for her in her elder years. She is alone and she needs to be mothered and we can be that for each other and for her.

Bring what you are looking for.

Behind Each Eye

Spring overall. But inside us

there is another unity.

Behind each eye 

one glowing weather.

Every forest branch moves differently

in the breeze, but as they sway,

they connect at the roots.

~ Rumi

The Power of Quiet

Koi Pond, Kauai 

 

"In a gentle way, you can shake the world."  ~ Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

 There is more and more research being done on the valuable perspectives experienced and seen by those of us who are introverted. As we live in a culture that values extroversion to an extreme, introversion has often been characterized, if not overtly, as an undesirable attribute to have, especially if one wants to get ahead professionally or socially.

 

Well, what is now becoming more and more obvious, is the powerful contribution the introverted way of operating brings to any conversation, leadership role, or certainly any creative endeavor, and one book that is brilliant in exploring and revealing this value is Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power  of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

 

If you are interested in understanding an introvert's perspective and its value, or if you are interested in validating the value you know you have always possessed as an introvert (!), check out this TED talk by Susan Cain, and "may the Force be [gently] with you"!!

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html

Jake

Jake
1995 - 2012



He had a way of looking at you until you understood what he was saying. I loved how he would reach up his paws onto the couch to be picked up as I sat quietly writing in my journal. His soft purring soothing, leaning his pristine white self against my leg, while he looked over the space of the room as if holding court.

I stand on my back deck overlooking the canyon and there is a hawk soaring elegantly on the breeze of this beautiful summery afternoon. It seems to me that Jake's spirit is soaring onward just like that.

Thank you for being in our lives, for all of your love, and for being such a great good joy and solace these 17 years.

Peaceful ongoing to you, dear, beautiful, loving old friend.

Breaking Free ...

"Out of a hundred thousand kites,
At best but one or two break free;

And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands,
O Mother, watching them."

~ Sri Ramakrishna

Cultivating a Growth Mindset

"Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not ..."

~ Luke 12:27

How willing are we to listen to the Silence?
To listen to the quietness inside the cacophony of our own thinking?

Are we interested in growing? There's learning, and then there's growing. What's the difference?

Learning occurs mostly from the outside-in, utilizing the intellect to store more memory. A very good and useful practice to be sure. Growth, on the other hand, is more of an inside-out process, a process we allow to unfold us: without toil, without spinning - through stillness, from
Center to circumference.

It requires a type of deep listening to what we don't know, to a realm of creative mystery which is the realm of genius. It requires the willingness to be uncomfortable in not knowing, in not having an answer: a "growth" mindset.

Growth requires a willingness to learn how to tolerate our own survival patterns squirming in the face of uncertainty.

In being willing to stand in this Silence of not knowing, Infinite Intelligence reveals to us the answer to the question we have brought, the solution to the problem with which we are wrestling. The answer actually precedes the question, pushing the question up to consciousness so that we can ask it and become aware of the next insight.
Such is the beauty and possibility of a problem.

"Consider the lilies ... how they grow ...
and yet ... Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

How do they grow?
And unfold in such Beauty?

How do we grow?
What beauty within us will unfold?

© Laura Basha, PhD, 2012

The Gift of Insight

Give yourself the gift of insight.
Clear your head. Forget what you know.

Listen deeply to the quiet.

Allow yourself to see what you haven't seen.

© Laura Basha, PhD

The Balast of Tranquility

As I talk with people both in my coaching practice as well as in my studio space with other artists, the conversation of loneliness arises. There is a valuable needed respite in being alone, however, there is also a different experience one can have from experiencing long periods of aloneness.

Sometimes aloneness with one's thoughts can breed a loneliness born of the feeling of isolation, and as much as we value and are amazed by the miraculous creations emerging from the world of technology, this isolation is augmented by an ever increasing reliance on technology as opposed to personal interaction.

It isn't always noticeable, but such isolation is a high price to pay for advanced communication development. A discontent, a malaise, a needless negativity can arise from such loneliness, and energy is expended in dramas that could be utilized for authentic self expression, contribution, and growth.

Some measure of peace of mind, some access to tranquility, is needed for the evolution of consciousness, the awakening to creativity and possibility, the realization of health and well being. And this peace of mind needs to come from within, from Center to circumference if you will, to be powerfully dependable in the midst of any circumstance. Any tranquility based on externals is a false sense of peace, for any third force that so intends can shatter it in an instant. Practicing tranquility generates a foundational balast of peace in the midst of loneliness, confusion, excitement, any of the fluxtuations of life experience.