Morning Trip (373)

”Recalling these teachings as I ride my bike so freely in the sunset through Bali, I keep making prayers that are really vows, presenting my state of harmony to God and saying, ‘This is what I would like to hold on to. Please help me memorize this feeling of contentment and help me always support it.’ I’m putting this happiness in a bank somewhere, not merely FDIC protected but guarded by my four spirit brothers, held there as insurance against future trials in life.

This is a practice I’ve come to call ‘Diligent Joy.’ As I focus on Diligent Joy, I also keep remembering a simple idea my friend Darcy told me once—-that all the sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people. Not only in the big global Hitler-‘n’-Stalin picture, but also on the smallest personal level.

Even in my own life, I can see exactly where my episodes of unhappiness have brought suffering or distress or (at the very least) inconvenience to those around me. The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefitting act, but also a generous gift to the world.

Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people.”

—-Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love p. 160

My Experience with Earth Harmony Ritual

I began writing this as a comment back to Dana over at Southern Herbalist. OH MY GOODNESS GOSH! I didn’t realize I missed the link before now (wednesday nov. 30)

I wrote: ha!
I knew before I hit the post that you’d tell me to clear it all and then sit with each one, to talk to it…and wait till I could hear it 😛
we so fuuuuuuuuuuunny!!

And then, I typed what follows, and then I decided I should just blog about it. So, here it is, my traveling back to myself…

I cleared the table today, I was even moved to salt scrub the surface of the table AND the wood tray that held many of the items! Then I salted me! 😀
Then I said, in my meaningful combination of snark and really meaning it: Ok, You gave to me these things to help myself and then to help others. I am feeling stressed or ungrounded and I do not trust myself to choose what to do next. Please increase the energetic feeling of each so that I do not make a mistake that might harm myself or, in turn, others. (I had moved everything to the chair, washed the tray and put it outside to air dry. Scrubbed the abalone shells, with salt–which I never EVER do. Grabbed each item and got IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK! I didn’t feel broken. AND, I knew what to do with the things I needed to put out as having been finished or used up. I ground some, snapped some and put them all into the center of the cat-mint and wormwood bed and thanked them for their use, like I do with burned smudge. Daughter brought me home a giant chunk of stone with crystal and some forms of chalcedony inside–much like a geode, but without much hollow space. It’s on the table. Mason jar with dried bunches of lavender. I got these fresh over the summer wondering what possessed me to do so. I added a sprig from the junipers outside the front door and three sprigs of fresh rosemary. The candle came back. The selenite stayed too. The spent matches holder is full of cloves. The wands and other wood bits that very strongly said KEEP ME are now inside a basket with sweet-grass, sage, cedar and other such items. A tiny basket now holds all of my stones that I picked up and put all in one spot, to smudge, they seem happy there so I will see. Both baskets and feathers are on the cleaned tray!

House feels so much better kiddos shouted what are you doing to the house and they came down to SIT AT THAT TABLE!!!

Thanks for posting what you did Dana, I didn’t feel able or trusting me enough to take care of it without the impetus of your blog.