I took these photos at a Navaratri celebration in 2014. The awe I felt as the altar lights were turned on is still etched in my memory. For me, the experience started with glittering flames in a dark room.
Song Lyric Sunday: Give Me Love
Helen’s direction for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday is to share a song about love. Yesterday, I watched Across the Universe with my friend Kathie from Chosen Perspectives. All of the songs in that musical were Beatles songs. The song I have chosen, Give Me Love, was not part of that movie, but watching the movie sure put the Beatles on my mind!
Give Me Love was written by George Harrison sometime in 1971-1972. During that period of his life, he was helping refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War. George said this about the song:
This song is a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord, and whoever likes it
I believe this prayer is in the hearts of many of us today. I have felt comforted as I listened to it and hope you do too.
Lyrics
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Om m m m m m m m m m m m m m
M m m my lord. ..
Please take hold of my hand, that
I might understand you
Won’t you please
Oh won’t you
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Om m m m m m m m m m m m m m
M m m my lord. ..
Daily Prompt: Squat
I laughed when I saw that the Daily Prompt for today was “Squat.” My laughter was because it reminded me of something that happened in the 90’s.
First I will give some back story. When I first started going to Amma’s Amritapuri, India ashram in January of 1990, all of the toilets were squat toilets. I found them uncomfortable to use. My balance was shaky and as far as I was concerned they were just plain weird. Over the years, I became more used to them but I still didn’t like them, and I internally grumbled about them a lot.
Eventually, I became irritated by my own negativity. By then I had learned Byron Katie’s process for addressing negative judgments. At one point in her process you create “turnarounds” for a negative judgment and then examine the turnarounds to see if there is any truth in them. For example, if my belief is “Susan is angry with me”, the turnarounds would be “I am angry with me” or “I am angry with Susan.” The belief “My boss should listen to me more” could be turned around to say “I should listen to me more” or “I should listen to my boss more.”
One day in the mid-90’s, the familiar thought, “I hate Indian toilets,” ran through my mind. A voice within me said, “Now turn it around.” My immediate response was that the turnaround would be “I love Indian toilets.” That statement was so unacceptable to me that I wouldn’t even entertain the possibility that there could be truth in it. Then another sentence came to mind. “I love to hate Indian toilets!” That turnaround sent me into laughter and my energy shifted completely.
As the the years went by, most of the toilets in the ashram became toilets that combine the two styles, but once I had accepted the belief that “I love to hate Indian toilets,” I no longer had the strong negative reaction to them. Even today, I smile when I recall that long-ago incident.
Microscopic Views of Popcorn!
Two weeks ago, my friend Kathie from ChosenPerspectives sent me a link to a YouTube video, along with a note saying that she thought I would enjoy seeing it.
She was right, I did like the video and watching it gave me an idea; I would find out what popcorn looks like under a microscope. In order to do that I had to buy some popcorn. I, of course, wanted it to be popcorn that I would also enjoy eating, so I chose a bag of kettle corn.
Over the next few days, I nibbled at the popcorn, not stopping until the bag was empty. When it was gone, I bought another bag. At least this time I set up the microscope and took the photos before I finished the popcorn.
Letting Go of Suffering- Week Thirteen: Holding Yourself Accountable
It is easier to make contracts than it is to keep them. For example, if you made a contract not to eat chocolate, how long would you be able to resist if there was a piece of chocolate on the table next to you?
One way to increase the likelihood that you will keep your contract is find ways to hold yourself accountable. In my psychotherapy groups, clients do “Accountability Work” whenever they break their contracts. The structure we use looks like this:
The contract I broke:
How I broke it:
The mistaken belief that caused me to break the contract:
One or two things that I will do to prevent myself from breaking the contract again:
Here are some examples:
EXAMPLE #1
Contract I broke: I won’t eat junk food.
How I broke it: I ate a bag of cookies.
Mistaken belief that caused me to break it: My feelings are not okay. [Note: People often use overeating as a way to shove down their feelings.]
One or two things that I will do to prevent myself from breaking the contract again:
1) I will remove all of the junk food from my house.
2) When I crave junk food, I will call a friend and ask for support.
EXAMPLE #2
The contract I broke: I will not work more than 50 hours per week.
How I broke it: I worked 65 hours last week.
The mistaken belief that caused me to break the contract: It is not okay for me to say “NO.” [Note: You can’t say NO to everything you don’t want to do, but many people with this belief develop an unhealthy pattern of saying YES to everything.]
One or two things that I will do to prevent myself from breaking the contract again:
1) I will let my friends know that I am going to practice saying NO and would like their help. If they agree to help me, I will ask them for something every day for two weeks. [Note: This will also give you practice in hearing “NO.” When I did this exercise I asked someone to pay for my graduate school tuition!]
2) I will say the mantra “My needs are important” 1000 times a day for twenty-one days.
If you find yourself breaking a contract regularly, you may find it helpful to add a consequence to the contract.
Example #1
Contract: I will clean the kitchen before I go to bed.
How I broke it: I watched TV after dinner. I went to bed without cleaning the kitchen.
Consequence: For the 7 days, I will not watch TV until the kitchen is clean.
Example #2
Contract: I will exercise 3 times a week.
How I broke it: I did not exercise at all.
Consequence: Any week I do not keep my exercise contract, I will pick up litter for 45 minutes. I complete this consequence within 5 days of breaking the contract.
The assignment for this week is to be accountable for your contracts. In the box below, write the two contracts you will focus on this week. They can be the same ones you worked on last week, or new ones.
Do accountability work any time you break one of your contracts:
The contract I broke:
How I broke it:
The mistaken belief that caused me to break the contract:
One or two things that I will do to prevent myself from breaking it again:
After completing your accountability work, ask yourself if you need to add a consequence to these contracts. If so what consequence will you set?
Consequence Contract 1:
Consequence Contract 2:
Each day this week, journal about your experience with contracts and holding yourself accountable.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
See you next Monday for the fourteenth lesson.
To find the lessons in this series that have already been published, click here.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Amma Quote: Light a Small Lamp
Instead of cursing the darkness, let each one of us light a small lamp. Isn’t it because of darkness that we know the greatness of light?
Do not worry; the darkness cannot remain for long. Always remember that after every night, there is a dawn. Let us never lose our optimistic faith.
—Amma —
A Surprising and Disturbing Discovery: Part 3
In Part 1 of this series, I showed photos of the bird houses in my back yard and the nests I found inside of them. I questioned why one of the nests almost filled the bird house. I also wondered why the big one had a flat top leaving no place for a nesting female and her eggs.
In Part 2, I relayed that readers had informed me that it was a wren who had built the big nest and I shared information I had learned about wrens since my first post. In addition, I wrote about what I found when I took that nest apart.
In Part 3, I will share microscopic photos of all ten of the nest’s components and then let you know why I still feel disturbed.
(Note 1: The numbers near the photos below correspond to the numbers at the top of this post. Note 2: You can click on the galleries to enlarge the photos.)
#1
#2
#3a
#3b
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
While I love the beauty the microscopic photos revealed, there was one material that greatly disturbed me. That was item #10, plastic. I was dismayed to see how much plastic was in the nest when I took it apart.
I know that birds, fish and other creatures can get sick if they eat plastic. Here is a photo that was taken of the contents of the stomach of a dead albatross at Midway Island.
I have to wonder if the fact that this wren’s nest had a top on it was because the bird was sick from eating plastic and its brain was not working correctly. There is no way to know.
Shared with Senior Salon and Lets Create a Fine Chain…
Daily Prompt: Lush
When I think of the word “Lush” the first thing that comes to my mind are the gardens in Amritapuri, India.
Music Beyond Borders: Voices From the Seven
During my Tai Chi class this morning, I learned that the Seattle Symphony gave a concert last night featuring music and musicians from the seven countries affected by the recent immigration executive order. It was streamed live on the Seattle Symphony website and also on Facebook Live.
I just finished watching the concert on YouTube. The music was incredible and I enjoyed being introduced to instruments that were new to me. My heart was so moved the performances that, by the end of the concert, tears were rolling down my cheeks.
This concert is an excellent example of how to build bridges instead of walls.
Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
May all beings in the world be happy.
Peace, Peace, Peace
A Surprising and Disturbing Discovery- Part 2
Last week, when I cleaned out the three birdhouses in my back yard, I discovered that the nests inside of them were different sizes. One had barely been started, the second was 2-3 inches tall and the third almost filled the bird house.
In Part 1 of this series, I showed photos of the bird houses and the nests and questioned why the one was so big. I also wondered why the big one had a flat top; there was no place for a nesting bird and her eggs to lay.
Several people who read my first post told me that the big one was a wren’s nest. One reader thought that the bird houses were too close together and that the wren who made the big nest had chased the two other nest builders away. Another reader joked that the bird who made the big nest must have had OCD! No one speculated about the flat top.
I did some investigation. After looking at photos of wrens’ nests, I realized that the readers were right; the big one was a wren’s nest. From an Audubon Field Guide, I learned that a male wren may build several nests. When the nests are finished, the female wren chooses between them. The guide went on to say that the male may build some incomplete “dummy” nests. After reading that, I realized that it was a good possibility that the same wren had built all three nests.
I took the big nest inside so that I could look at it closer. Once I removed the top layer, I discovered a section that looked like a plug. It was much denser than the rest of the nest.
I wondered what the plug had been plugging. When I looked underneath the plug, I saw this:
It sure looked like an area that could have been meant for the female and her eggs!
The Audubon Guide had mentioned that wrens may puncture the eggs of birds that are nesting nearby. It also said that a female wren may leave the male to take care of her eggs, and go nest with another male. I wondered, partially in a joking way, if the female had not approved of any of the nests her partner had built and had taken off to find another male. If that was the case, had the abandoned male decided to plug the nest and add a solid roof on top so no other bird could use it? How in the world had he built the plug? I was left with another set of questions.
After finding the plug and the place that might have been intended for the female, I went back to examining the whole nest. I discovered it was made up of at least ten different materials.
I separated much of the nest into ten piles. The remainder looked like this.
I took a sample of this conglomeration of substances and looked at it under the microscope. I was mesmerized by what I saw. (Click on the gallery to enlarge the photos.)
I had intended to make this a two-part series but have decided to divide it in three instead. In Part 3, I will show you microscopic images of the ten types of materials I found when I separated the components of the nest!
Shared on Senior Salon and Lets Create a Fine Chain…
For last segment go to: A Surprising and Disturbing Discovery- Part 3
Living, Learning and Letting Go 
