Taking Time
We're cruising right along in these pandemic times. Lately I have been working in a warehouse packing food for families into boxes. The past few days I have gotten intimately familiar with little plastic containers of pears and peaches, plastic boxes of individual cereal bowls, cans of mac and chess and ravioli. Volunteers come and pick up these bags of food to distribute to families at local pickup-points, all schools, as far as I know. This has got me thinking. I wonder if we could start a gardening program that showed kids and families how to grow their own food. Canned food is great but it is not that nutritious and there is no deep connection with the Earth in opening a can of food and eating it. Plus is does not really help the problem of food insecurity by relying on others so much. I feel like teaching people to plant a garden and working directly with the Earth would be more valuable. I have enjoyed working in a warehouse and meeting all the volunteers and getting to know the staff but being under the sun with the wind and the trees and the birds singing while helping others learn to grow things seems heart warming.
There are some local urban farms that I have thought about checking out. It would be fun to see what they are up to. I wonder if they work with schools and families. Maybe there are some partnerships just waiting to happen. Often in my life I have acted as a connector connecting people to people and to places and maybe even ideas.
My idea would to teach kids and families about the Earth and staying connected to it. Within this zone of openness of being outdoors and of being open to learn about the Earth it would be a time to hear the buzzing bee that flies by ones head and to perhaps address that fear where therein lies a greater fear of nature, perhaps. I remember reading a study that the more we expose ourselves to plain dirt the healthier and less stressed we become. Once when I was in the mountains with some classmates the teacher directed us to smell the dirt. First, we just smelled pretty much the surface of the Earth, then we dug down a bit, maybe two or so inches, and smelled a little deeper. It smelled so rich and fulfilling like I was smelling millions of years right there in the soil as if it had waited that whole time to be unearthed and discovered.
I know we dig a lot as a society. We dig and we grow food. We pour chemicals on the ground to keep the bugs away and some too to make it grow. Then a machine comes and takes the part we want to eat. Maybe what is left behind gets turned back into the soil. It comes to us in a little pouch. How wonderful! In this time of pandemic it is nice to stop and take a breath and realize that there is more to life than running around and making money. There is so much healing potential and much to be learned just by opening the door and taking a walk out in nature, just by planting a garden, or reading a book in the backyard underneath the trees and feeling the sun on ones face. It is a time to appreciate our time.
We need time to appreciate our time. In a fast paced industrial world we are not always granted that. It would be my dream that we do take this time and slow down a bit and take a closer look at the tiny things crawling on the ground, at our inner world in daydreams and meditations and slow walks, at each other and open into deep conversations. Stop making assumptions or trying to categorize people. People are so complex. As soon as you try to categorize them it like taking a bird and picking off one fragment of a piece of a fragment of a feather and saying this is who he is. But its ok. I like for people to challenge me because then I can look at myself a little more closely and challenge my own beliefs and assumptions.
We live in a complex world, for sure, but it does not have to be so mindless. To be mindful we have to take a few moments to breathe and settle in and listen. I am hopeful that during these challenging times we can learn a bit more about each other and the world and to not be afraid of what we hear or read but to use it as a tool for growth and assessment and even challenge what we hear.
What I have learned lately is that a lot of people have died from this coronavirus- .014 % people of the world (1,000,000 out of 7,000,000,000), to be pretty precise. That is not a huge percent but it is enough to make us all go pretty fucking crazy and buy up all the goddamned toilet paper. But I am not really worried about wiping my ass right now. I've got enough for the time being. I am not really worried at all less my mind run astray and my thoughts become dark. I know we are all doing our best and we are meeting needs and needs our being met. It is a great time to really address what is important and to come together, so to speak, and not freak out but to use our collective selves to stop for a moment and care a little less about the small things, like your neighbors dog peeing in your yard, and more about the big things, like showing love and compassion.
Sometimes it is hard to do that when you can't trust people. They say that trust must be earned. I guess that is true. There is also the idea that why should I not trust you since you have not given me anything to feel untrustworthy about. You know you can trust someone when you can say something and then not have it thrown back in your face at a later time. So trust does take time but at least we can do away with the assumptions and see people at their best, see the best in them, and bring out the best in them.
How do we bring out the best in others? I think of Gandhi here and others who practiced the golden rule and did unto themselves as they do others; as they practiced what they preached; as they were a light unto the world; as they saw themselves in the other; as they saw God in the other as they saw it in themselves- "the kingdom of God is within you" and "that which I have done you will do and greater".
Most of us are Christians but we do not really know what that means. For me it means being a light in a darkened place. It is continually tuning into to my heart and listening to its desires. It's showing kindness and being kind to ourselves. It is nourishing in the Earth as it nourishes our bodies. Our bodies are a vehicle for this divine creature running and walking and talking around in it.
I hope that we can remember that love is- it simply is. It is also thoughtful and listening, it's nurturing, and true love is unconditional. May you find joy in the small things- like a light turned on (which really isn't so small)- and compassion in the big things- like giving your mother a hug.
Within this wondrous universe there are people helping people and smiling with their eyes, especially since you cannot see their smile due to a paper mask over their face. Within this wondrous universe there are gardens and cans of food all working together to provide and nourish our communities. Within this wondrous universe there is love, a great unseen but felt force; a great seen force- seen in our backyards and in our grocery stores and in our mirrors. Go ahead and clean your mirror and look a little deeper.
There are some local urban farms that I have thought about checking out. It would be fun to see what they are up to. I wonder if they work with schools and families. Maybe there are some partnerships just waiting to happen. Often in my life I have acted as a connector connecting people to people and to places and maybe even ideas.
My idea would to teach kids and families about the Earth and staying connected to it. Within this zone of openness of being outdoors and of being open to learn about the Earth it would be a time to hear the buzzing bee that flies by ones head and to perhaps address that fear where therein lies a greater fear of nature, perhaps. I remember reading a study that the more we expose ourselves to plain dirt the healthier and less stressed we become. Once when I was in the mountains with some classmates the teacher directed us to smell the dirt. First, we just smelled pretty much the surface of the Earth, then we dug down a bit, maybe two or so inches, and smelled a little deeper. It smelled so rich and fulfilling like I was smelling millions of years right there in the soil as if it had waited that whole time to be unearthed and discovered.
I know we dig a lot as a society. We dig and we grow food. We pour chemicals on the ground to keep the bugs away and some too to make it grow. Then a machine comes and takes the part we want to eat. Maybe what is left behind gets turned back into the soil. It comes to us in a little pouch. How wonderful! In this time of pandemic it is nice to stop and take a breath and realize that there is more to life than running around and making money. There is so much healing potential and much to be learned just by opening the door and taking a walk out in nature, just by planting a garden, or reading a book in the backyard underneath the trees and feeling the sun on ones face. It is a time to appreciate our time.
We need time to appreciate our time. In a fast paced industrial world we are not always granted that. It would be my dream that we do take this time and slow down a bit and take a closer look at the tiny things crawling on the ground, at our inner world in daydreams and meditations and slow walks, at each other and open into deep conversations. Stop making assumptions or trying to categorize people. People are so complex. As soon as you try to categorize them it like taking a bird and picking off one fragment of a piece of a fragment of a feather and saying this is who he is. But its ok. I like for people to challenge me because then I can look at myself a little more closely and challenge my own beliefs and assumptions.
We live in a complex world, for sure, but it does not have to be so mindless. To be mindful we have to take a few moments to breathe and settle in and listen. I am hopeful that during these challenging times we can learn a bit more about each other and the world and to not be afraid of what we hear or read but to use it as a tool for growth and assessment and even challenge what we hear.
What I have learned lately is that a lot of people have died from this coronavirus- .014 % people of the world (1,000,000 out of 7,000,000,000), to be pretty precise. That is not a huge percent but it is enough to make us all go pretty fucking crazy and buy up all the goddamned toilet paper. But I am not really worried about wiping my ass right now. I've got enough for the time being. I am not really worried at all less my mind run astray and my thoughts become dark. I know we are all doing our best and we are meeting needs and needs our being met. It is a great time to really address what is important and to come together, so to speak, and not freak out but to use our collective selves to stop for a moment and care a little less about the small things, like your neighbors dog peeing in your yard, and more about the big things, like showing love and compassion.
Sometimes it is hard to do that when you can't trust people. They say that trust must be earned. I guess that is true. There is also the idea that why should I not trust you since you have not given me anything to feel untrustworthy about. You know you can trust someone when you can say something and then not have it thrown back in your face at a later time. So trust does take time but at least we can do away with the assumptions and see people at their best, see the best in them, and bring out the best in them.
How do we bring out the best in others? I think of Gandhi here and others who practiced the golden rule and did unto themselves as they do others; as they practiced what they preached; as they were a light unto the world; as they saw themselves in the other; as they saw God in the other as they saw it in themselves- "the kingdom of God is within you" and "that which I have done you will do and greater".
Most of us are Christians but we do not really know what that means. For me it means being a light in a darkened place. It is continually tuning into to my heart and listening to its desires. It's showing kindness and being kind to ourselves. It is nourishing in the Earth as it nourishes our bodies. Our bodies are a vehicle for this divine creature running and walking and talking around in it.
I hope that we can remember that love is- it simply is. It is also thoughtful and listening, it's nurturing, and true love is unconditional. May you find joy in the small things- like a light turned on (which really isn't so small)- and compassion in the big things- like giving your mother a hug.
Within this wondrous universe there are people helping people and smiling with their eyes, especially since you cannot see their smile due to a paper mask over their face. Within this wondrous universe there are gardens and cans of food all working together to provide and nourish our communities. Within this wondrous universe there is love, a great unseen but felt force; a great seen force- seen in our backyards and in our grocery stores and in our mirrors. Go ahead and clean your mirror and look a little deeper.
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