Restorative Calm

Maybe it was the full lunar, Blood Moon eclipse, Sept 7-8, or maybe the series of asteroids that NASA announced were zipping by Earth: QC5 and GE on September 8, and the closer QV9's (1,250,000 miles) flyby on September 10, 2025, or maybe it was the impending September 11 anniversary, or all three, but this past week has been arduous, indeed explosive. World conflict brought bombings, drone attacks, deadly protests, and in the U.S., the unveiling of shocking files, pictures, stories, and deadly political battles. Yet, this past week of threat and tragedy still holds the way to deeper spiritual realization, for those who seek it. I have been searching, inwardly, for the word or practice that can move us, from this volatile time, to restorative calm. This is the phrase for us this week: Restorative Calm.

Not all restoration is calm. The rebuilding of homes and neighborhoods, after the January fires here in L.A. County, was far from calm. Further upheaval was necessary in the rebuilding process—inspections, soil and air testing, debris removal with unrelenting trucks carting hazardous materials, planning meetings, insurance settlements, business workshops, etc. Calm expands as we learn to accept some degree of upheaval in a restorative process.

During the recent extreme heat here, I had a near empty refrigerator, so I placed an online order the night before, and scheduled my "pick up" for early morning. I could have everything safely in the freezer/refrigerator, before the temperature became unbearable. That morning, daylight streamed in the windows and I was unaware that the power was off, until the coffee pot didn't work. I started checking lights, but nothing was working, except my cellphone. I was not calm. At least, I had not opened the refrigerator or freezer, so what was in there was still alright, if I kept it closed. I knew, with the extreme heat, overuse of cooling can trigger neighborhood outages; no cooling can be deadly. I fretted about the outage, searched my phone, and discovered the outage was actually planned as a kind of safety-check inspection. It was expected to end approximately at the time I was scheduled to pick up groceries. That gave me hope, but I cannot say I was calm yet. Instead my mind was working on plans B, C, and D alternatives to storing some kind of food supply, as I watched the clock. Amazingly, at precisely the scheduled time, the power came back on. And stayed on. I jumped in the car, picked up the food, returned, and filled the refrigerator--grateful, and finally, calm.

Through out this mini-drama, myself as "watcher", watched my own process of anxiety, mingled with doubt (in the electric company website), along with a subtle dark shadow of fear of changing times, and yet, there remained a deeper spiritual trust that things would resolve well. The watcher was calm; the impatient, doubting one was not.

Today, and the week ahead, I encourage you to find spaces and time for calming yourself, and calming that bit of the World that is Your world--your space, your place, along with those you care for. This is a calm that allows you to rebuild, or restructure, or renew your way of being in these times. Restorative to me, implies healing. You may not think that you are the one that needs healing, but you are the access point; the main access you have for restoring calm around you. Peace and calm, begin with you. (Susan Nettleton)

For Poetry: https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/poetry/poems/inisfree.html https://boomerecocrusader.com/stillness-a-poem-to-restore-calm/ http://bibles.wikidot.com/sample-mitchell

Pause

The last few days I've been contemplating the power of the pause. The idea was triggered by a family 1st grader who has mastered the frustration of interruption. When annoyed by being interrupted in a project, she will hold up a hand that clearly signals "stop", as she firmly orders "Pause", until she is ready to divert attention from her task. It is a quite polished command. The charm of it initiated my contemplation on our human capacity to pause. While pausing is a form of stopping, it's power comes from it's temporary nature. We suspend action temporarily. That suspension can be a moment, or a much longer stretch of time; it can be restful, reflective, or disruptive. It can be calculated for a deliberate effect (creating a silence that invites the speculation of others, a moment of suspense), or it may signal our hesitancy and uncertainty.

We can pause by physically stopping activity and/or movement, and we can pause mentally, internally cutting off a stream of thought, letting our thoughts "rest" or fall silent. Pausing emotionally is a bit more difficult, requiring more practice, because our emotional states involve both physical and mental quieting. We can pause to "take in", as in letting ourselves be suspended in time, immersed in music, or absorbed in a sunset view, when the beauty of the moment suspends worry, or anger, or even physical pain. Or we can pause to "let go" to silence and the stillness of meditation.

Spiritually, our capacity to Pause is an aspect of our intuitive nature. In these shifting, unsettled times, we learn to lean on the inner directive, the guidance that is both a natural flow from this Life, this World we belong to, and the larger Transcendent Field I call God. We can Pause, in inner listening, for direction. We can Pause in silence, whatever form our religion or meditation path. Those Pauses may be brief, but powerful--simply stopping, and turning to That. Other times, there may be a restlessness, perhaps an invitation to a Pause in the routine and rhythm of your set order. New doors open unexpectedly. It's not always so clear where we are headed, and what we should do differently, if anything at all. The power of Pause is useful here. Those who are impulsive, might benefit through Pausing before acting. Those who are bound by strict routine, yet pulled to the unfamiliar, might benefit by a Pause in the fixed order of repetition. Pause can be a window of experimentation. The beauty of Pause is that it is flexible--suspending ideas, temporarily shifting action, and evaluating what unfolds.

Regardless of the social order's pressure of constant urgency, not all things are urgent. Spiritually, there remains stillness, peace, and the saintly, "leisureliness of eternity." Consider this week that you have time to Pause, reconsider, listen, absorb, discover the way for you, now. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry:

https://www.nickleforce.com/poetry/2017/7/12/pause-now

https://morethanmindful.com/wp-content/uploads/Between-Going-and-Staying.pdf

https://public-domain-poetry.com/susanna-moodie/pause-26450

Labor Day

Monday, September begins with the federal holiday, Labor Day, marking the "unofficial" end of summer. The holiday, established in 1894, has an interesting history, formed during a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization. The speed of industrialization required an increasing demand for workers, who faced harsh conditions, low pay, and little concern for their health and environmental risks. Over time though, workers formed trade unions and developed the power of collective bargaining. Collectively, they established basic rights, negotiated increased pay, and improved safety conditions. And Labor Day became a day to highlight workers and their ongoing contribution to the country's achievements and wealth. While there is much to consider about respect and recognition of workers in 2025, (massive layoff's, firing of government workers, dissolution of jobs, deportation of thousands of migrant workers), as well as the escalating promotion of, and investment in, Artificial Intelligence, (with uncertain consequences for workers), this Labor Day, I invite you to personally reflect on labor as Love.

We are all workers, everyone of us works in one way or another. We expend energy--we may work for our personal well-being and comfort; we may work for our survival, we may labor at a task for our own pleasure and interests. In this context, labor is not limited to a job. Neither is it necessarily "work as worship", which is the idea of uniting our work in the world with our spiritual practice. Rather, I am inviting you to experiment with the discovery of Love at the root of work.

My thoughts go back to 40 years ago, to one of the first meditation classes I taught. I remember there were 17 people in that class, there to learn introductory meditation. During one of the meetings, a woman spoke of her frustration with her life and her "housewife" role. She particularly resented time she spent dusting her home as a meaningless use of time. In contrast, she imagined my life as a psychiatrist, teaching a meditation class, as something important and inspiring. I had to admit, I didn't dust much--not that the house didn't need it, but there was no time. I worked, I was a wife and mom, I cooked, did laundry, cleaned what I could, when I could. I talked about Meditation as my center, out of which, all other tasks arise. I encouraged her to consider dusting as a way to practice meditation; let dusting be a meditation, through intent, focus, and discovery. Today, I would tell her to try naming her dusting, Love. If it is only duty, or a sense or responsibility, "the shoulds, musts, oughts and have to's" as my teacher used to say, there is nothing life sustaining there.

This is not about making yourself love something you do not love. It certainly is not about forcing yourself to do things you hate doing. Rather, it is about the possible discovery that underneath what you name as labor, as work, as duty or responsibility, or even necessity, may in actuality be driven by Love. Why not start with the assumption that Love brings the task. Love unfolds the work. Love fulfills. If Love seems far, far from a task or responsibility, take a deeper look, or move on to another experiment in labor. May this week lift your labors in a discovery of Love. (Susan Nettleton)

For Poetry: https://wordsfortheyear.com/2020/04/25/gift-by-czeslaw-milosz/

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57673/to-be-of-use

https://poets.org/poem/work-4

Charred Sutra

This final Sunday in August, 2025, hopefully brings an end to the extreme heat in Los Angeles, County. I've been exchanging thermometer readings with friends along the Pacific coast, from Portland to San Diego. The heat has been difficult, but we've adapted. Here in L.A. County there has been quick responses to erupting fires, and welcomed evening cool-downs. The Public service announcements remind us: "Stay cool, stay hydrated, stay informed." Staying cool can be a reminder that navigating heat, traffic, and other people involves patience and care for others; staying hydrated, includes being aware that water is necessary for your cognitive functioning and awareness of what is happening around you and others. Staying informed, is more than the weather report--we live in complex times, high heat is a call to simplify your movements for the day. It means adapting your day to our shifting environment. To me, "informed" also means following the inner directive and a spiritual perspective. While the West Coast is in a heat wave, the East Coast faces flooding, brooding storms, and the need for similar vigilance.

This week, someone sent me a brief story of the "Charred Sutra." Sutras are ancient and medieval Indian texts revered in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. These condensed "truths" open to deeper interpretation and meaning. I don't know the original source; there are many stories of Sutras lost, or partially burned in fires. In this tale, it was dawn when a novice monk found the sutra fragment; the rest had burned in the night's fire. As he lifted the burnt page, ashes fell everywhere. "Master," he pleaded, "how do I save this wisdom?" The master blew at the fragment, watching it as it scattered and dissolved in the garden. "Now," he said, "read it in the cucumbers growing through the soot."

This struck me as an ancient tale of living teachings in the midst of changing times--of fires, floods, and seasons, of Nature's return, and what we consider sacred. After January's destructive Eaton fire, we were warned not eat anything from the backyard garden for a year, except for the thick-rind citrus fruits. Chemical analysis had shown the ash contained potentially harmful chemicals, and it would be safer to wait for next year's crop. The charred sutra tale felt particularly significant in 2025, a time of changing climate. We can't eat the cucumbers this year, but they will return.

As I mulled over the story, I met layers of meaning. Is an ancient sutra as wondrous as a living garden bringing forth food? Well, it depends. I considered the times when I am seeking some spiritual understanding or guidance. I might flip through my books--that could include the Bible, or other religious texts, or poetry, and an idea, an answers, a spark, grabs me. Sacred Sutras are sparks of ancient wisdom and insight that can ignite us thousands of years later. But they also, like all religious teachings, can crystalize, become rote and empty ritual, and even blind us from seeing what Life offers us now. There is another kind of ancient wisdom in every garden. And not only the way of cultivation--the way of food, clothing, shelter, companionship, and creativity can be found in contemplating the living, natural world. Read it all, "in the cucumbers [in the whole of Nature's story], growing through the soot." Consider this week, that Life is urging You to adapt. Life is urging You, to recover awareness and sensitivity of this Natural world as it shifts. Yes, it is a collective task, but we begin with ourselves. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://spiritoftrees.org/poetry/woods

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RilkeRainerM/Silentfriend/index.html

https://intrinsicheart.com/the-seven-of-pentacles/

Silence

"Listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world." —Jack Kerouac

Today, I invite you to return to silence.  You may have a lively social day ahead, or you may feel the need to hover around the latest shifting news, or a long "to-do" list, but regardless, of whatever commitments, consider some time for silence; if not today, then during the week ahead.  Recently, someone wrote to thank me for the Hillside Source website's recording of my 2018 talk on The Harvest , including "harvesting silence".  The email triggered my own need to return to this particular spiritual practice. Today, I offer it to you.  

My early encounters with spiritual silence came through my exposure to meditation; silence is often an aspect of meditation.  Over the years, I learned many "techniques"--not all are silent. Meditation is more of a quieting, a quieting that includes the body's relaxation, the breath softening in slow rhythm. As emotions and thoughts settle, the focus can suddenly "shift gears" into a infinite, nameless field.  Mantra's, or prayer, or images, can be part of the stream of awareness.  Stillness and silence can be a kind of background for contemplation, or alternatively, the stillness, the silence, simply take over.  To me, every meditation is different, is movement, is "live" and unpredictable.  

During those early years of meditation, I attended and led retreats that usually included a meaningful day of silence.  But the full force of what I term spiritual Silence opened 15 years later with my early encounters with U.G. Krishnamurti, and extended to 17 years, often spent in deep silence.  We sat in silent chairs next to a crackling fire places.  We sat in silence in parked cars in parking lots, waiting for others as they ran the day's errands.  There were silent drives through eerie forests with crystal ice branches and piled soft snow in stunning stillness; silent drives on spring-time roads, lined with vibrant flowers, bursting with color and sunlight; miles and miles of drives through empty desert silence, the mental chat stream of thought finally giving way.  

Even though it was difficult to leave each visit, in retrospect, I see that it was necessary.  Each return home brought a new appreciation of silence in general, and a deepening need to enter it, and hold it.  But I rarely had the time. Then silence opened the door--and I discovered it everywhere, and most available in things around me. By things, I mean the inanimate world.  Listening to the silence of things, brought an atmosphere of silence.  Moments of silence accumulate.  Each time of turning to the immediate silence of a thing, or a room of things, even if overlaid with "noise", brings a connection to the silence at the core.  The practice of silence then, is a giving way to stillness and the absence of not just sound, but the absence of separation. Silence extends to the natural world, including the problematic world of people.  You can find that silence anywhere. Take the time this week to listen beyond your world of thought.   (Susan Nettleton)

Listen, my child, to the silence.
 An undulating silence,
 a silence
 that turns valleys and echoes slippery, 
bends foreheads
 toward the ground.

—Federico García Lorca

for poetry:  https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/H/HsuanChuehof/22Ihaveent/index.html                                                                                                                                                      https://predmore.blogspot.com/2021/05/poem-r-w-thomas-but-silence-in-mind.html                    https://sacredpoetryproject.com/silent-friend-of-many-distances-feel/

Beauty

This is a good week to re-discover Beauty! Despite the turmoil of the world and whatever weather conditions you maybe facing, Beauty remains an ever present aspect of Life. As individuals, we have our differing and unique ways of nurturing ourselves. One of them is our awareness of Beauty in its varying forms. Neuroscience and psychology tell us that perception of beauty involves the interconnection of our senses (including color perception) and our emotions, thought, and culture. We respond in different degrees to scent, texture, shape, hue and intensity, tenor and pitch. Some people find beauty in symmetry; some in asymmetry. Sometimes Beauty arises from complexity, sometimes from simplicity, partially based on our cognitive preference! I like the definition giving in the Free Dictionary: The quality present in a person or thing that gives intense aesthetic pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind or the senses. I would include "the happenings" as well. Happenings are events that bring pleasure/satisfaction to the mind or senses. and (I also add) our hearts. Ultimately, our perception of Beauty belongs to the Spiritual Realm. What is Beautiful to your heart?

A friend of mine recently wrote me that she had been seized with a sudden and intense need to de-clutter her house, to set the house and herself free of the unwanted past, the excess, and the unnecessary. This sudden onset of need propelled her into a whirlwind of release, and then, after car loads of dispersion, the pressure receded again. Layers of 'too much' were gone, and rediscovered Beauty reigned again. The process of release doesn't have to be total to be healing. The idea here is release and rediscovery uncover the Beautiful.

That rediscovery, or renewed awareness, can surface in different ways. When my grandchildren ask me, "What is your favorite color?", I usually answer yellow. They are now old enough to protest that I never wear anything yellow. True! I own very little of anything that is yellow. "Ah", I explain, "yellow is the color of the sun, and that yellow, shines as the dawn, and gives us daylight, so that we can experience the Beauty all around us." "That yellow gives the right tone of beauty to oranges, peaches, apricots and tangerines in the yard, and summer dresses, and swimsuits and beach shirts, whatever their color."

We also meet Beauty as ongoing discovery through the world of ideas and in our sense of belonging to this Life, Like Grace, Beauty is a gift. Yes, the world struggles, all forms of life have their time of struggle. Creativity itself is often struggle, as new Beauty arises, in its' infinite forms and manifestations. Yet, Beauty is a balm; it soothes and uplifts. Take a Beauty break, away from the news, squabbles and scandals. Right where you are, is something Beautiful. It may even reveal to you, the Truth. (Susan Nettleton)

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty”— that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. John Keats

for more poetry: https://www.sharonsinger.ca/poem-of-the-week/august-federico-garcia-lorca

https://www.kayebarleymeanderingsandmuses.com/2015/04/welcome-morning-by-anne-sexton.html

https://readalittlepoetry.com/2023/10/09/a-blessing-by-james-wright/

Wake Up!

Today's post is a section of this morning's Zoom talk. If you would like to be on our mailing list for future Zoom talks by Dr. Susan Nettleton, email us at: hillsideew@aol.com or the contact box of our website: hillsidesource.com

This morning I am encouraging you to Wake Up! It's August, the solar mid point of summer is August 7, on Thursday. The rhythm of summer as a season though, is often condensed by Labor Day or school schedules that initiate our awareness of Fall. I begin with this to remind us that our cultural reframing of the seasons can be a subtle disruption of the natural rhythms of Life. And that in turn impacts our awareness with a conflict between our ideas and concepts, and the way our bodies developed in response and rhythm with the natural world. One theme to consider today is "wake-up to the mid-point of summer." Yet, that too is complex; climate shifts are also creating change, in what is now called "season fragmentation", adding another piece of change to awaken to and absorb. Admittedly, the title "Wake Up", actually came to me as a need to break the spell of the political pressure of these times--the unrelenting news flashes of policies, court rulings, outrage, fear, sadness, pain, helplessness and loss--and recover a larger sense of life. Wake UP! Wake up to Nature, to healing, and to new ideas and new understanding, new and renewed goals, creativity, discovery. Wake Up as a living, spiritual being, contributing to this unfolding, wondrous life. Wake up the Good.

Waking has a range of definitions in our current culture. We can talk about Waking Up from physical sleep, the sleep/wake cycle. We can talk about being awake and alert and recognize we go through midmorning or mid-afternoon slumps, We have various factors in that--tea or coffee, food, our ability to move around, health regimens, cortisol levels...there is a rhythm of alertness, and sensory awareness. Be aware of yours. Waking up can apply to deepening awareness of physical reality and the natural world. It can also apply to society, including the idea of being "Woke". Waking up also refers to experiencing something that supersedes physical, mental-emotional, and societal self-awareness to spiritual awareness. Spiritual awareness is a recognition of a connection to that beyond this physical, defined planet, felt in various ways as something transcendent, intangible-and often, a sacred source. Awakening can bring a sense of personal or collective potential to grow into more than what we seem to be, or recognition that we are already far more than we realize. Various philosophers offer humankind's creative principle, with a vision of latent human potential that has yet to express, or is currently coming into expression, that we can nurture and expand.

Spiritual awakening in Christianity is a profound shift in one's awareness of transformation in relationship to God and the mission of Christ. I love the description of 20th century Rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel used in the description of awakening in Judaism as "radical amazement". Heschel noted that as "civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines". We can consider our sense of wonder and amazement with the "advancements" and struggles of the 21st century. In Islam, awakening is a path of inner transformation and deepening of a personal connection and devotion to Allah. Ancient Hindu Upanishads' texts instruct us of 4 states: waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and turiya. "Waking Up", in essence, applies to all of those divisions. We commonly understand waking up from a dream or from deep-sleep, but here, spiritual awakening implies also waking up from our usual state of waking. Actually, waking and dreaming are like 2 poles of the same activity: waking is perceiving the external world, dreaming is perceiving the internal world, and dreamless sleep is closest to pure consciousness, i.e., without awareness or sensory perception--no thought, no ego or individuality. We know Turiya, the 4th state, is bliss. Turiya is the Self. Turiya is ultimate Reality. May this week bring some new awakening. (Susan Nettleton)

https://sacredpoetryproject.com/to-learn-the-scriptures-is-easy/ https://mywordinyourear.com/2019/02/07/why-i-wake-early-mary-oliver-a-tribute/ https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RumiMevlanaJ/InnerWakeful/

Unplug

Today, and/or in the week ahead, I invite you to consciously, purposefully "unplug". It is ironic, of course, because to read what I am writing you need to use some electronic device! But I am suggesting experimentation in our collective dependency on electronic media. I confess that this post came to the forefront for me, when my computer refused to turn on one day. I had had a specific time-window to tackle my "online tasks", including sending out email reminders of my Zoom talk for next Sunday (August 3), several online projects, a meeting, and research scheduled for the following day. I charged the computer the night before so all would be up and ready to go in the morning. But that morning--nothing. I went through the checklist--wifi was ok, so I tried the charger--nothing. My first sense was urgency! Time pressure! Then, I realized I still had my phone for a quick search of options, but first--meditation. Meditation erased urgency. Meditation reminded me, that I would have to make some decisions, take some action, probably face delays, but this was not a crisis. Emmet Fox* popped into my head reminding me, "The only thing you have to heal is the present thought...Get the present moment right." There was nothing urgent about the present moment.

Mind clear, I decided the most likely problem was a broken charger. Using the phone, I found and bought a compatible one, to be delivered the next day. In the meantime, I rummaged through shelves and found a notebook that still had blank paper. I thought about the skill of the pivot, and the power of computer-tech skills that include an essential capacity to unplug. Just before my scheduled online meeting, the charging cord arrived. I was still not certain it would work and had put my backup plan in place (download Zoom on my phone), but sure enough, in a matter of minutes I was set to go!

Why the skill of the pivot? I know 'pivoting' is now used in various business and motivational techniques, but to me, it's still associated with basketball. Basketball is a fast moving game, requiring endurance, focus, and dexterity. When you pivot with the ball, you are quickly shifting direction; your mind and body coordinate to maintain balance while you turn. It is related to my previous post on a focal point. Here, you are quickly shifting direction, again and again, as the spontaneous game unfolds. I couldn't use the computer; I had to pivot to meditation, then to my phone, then to paper and pen, sprinkle more meditation in there, and then pivot back to a computer.

We are not living lives of monastic isolation and rigor; nor is there cause to turn our lives and thinking capacity over to technology, or Artificial intelligence. The political/societal scene is generating one shift after another; the climate and natural world is fluctuating and unsettled. Sometimes technology is the solution; sometimes it is the problem. We nurture and secure both our educated intelligence and our instinctual and intuitive brilliance by periodically pulling the plug on technology and rely on Beingness. Try it this week. (Susan Nettleton)

*Emmet Fox was a 20th century New Thought Minister and writer.

for poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53133/things-56d2322956d0a https://allpoetry.com/poem/18353011-Unplug-by-Steveniskf https://pollycastor.com/2015/10/04/new-poem-unplug-it/ https://letterpile.com/poetry/Addicted-to-Technology-Without-a-Phone

Peaches

"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8)

Maybe it was the undercurrent of contemplation. Maybe it was last week's practice with a spiritual focal point. Or maybe it was just the grace of the day that began with a morning of interruptions and texts, as I tried to get to my morning meditation: Someone sent a reel on Ramana Maharshi, which started a text chain discussion, then my computer became feisty as I checked the calendar, and my phone spilled out news updates not to be ignored, bringing an atmosphere of agitation. When I finally was able to get to my cereal and coffee, I grabbed a peach that had been sitting on the counter for a few days. It smelled lovely, and felt ripe, so I opened it to add to the cereal bowl. I just had to eat the first slice. The taste was summer in it's ripeness--perfection! It was, without a doubt, the best peach of my life. Exquisite. Summer in a peach. Somehow in this mess of July with all the twists, turns and tragedies, summer had never really arrived, until this moment.

The tension of the morning melted as I slowly ate the peach and simply looked out the window at green trees, white clouds, blue skies. And I considered timing. The timing of the peach awakened my senses. I considered patience. The Eaton fire 6 months ago contaminated the local plants and the county advised not eating the produce from nearby gardens for a year, except the oranges and tangerines with thick rind protection. Patience is needed, because healing and repair, take time. And ripening takes time. The bananas bought for school lunches often ripen and over ripen, too quickly. Yet, the avocado on the counter (that I had been checking daily), still won't give way to softness, while the peach was perfection. Ripening also involves variation. It struck me that deepening our understanding of timing and variation are keys to living with climate change. A line from the I Ching popped into my mind, "All that matters is that things happen at the right time."

Yes, the political drama of tariffs, and the overwhelming loss of farm workers through immigration raids continue to create chaos, ultimately affecting food supplies. These are serious challenges, but today, and into this next week of July, I encourage you to savor nature's gift of summer. Within summer fruit is an essential principle of timing, of ripening processes, of abundance through adaptation, generosity, and creativity. Don't wrestle and push understanding; just taste and see. (Susan Nettleton)

https://allpoetry.com/poem/14108093-O-Taste-and-See-by-Denise-Levertov-by-Denise-Levertov https://poets.org/poem/peaches https://yearwithrilke.blogspot.com/2011/11/god-is-ripening.html

Focal Spot

Where is your focus, your focal spot today? Life in 2025 continues to be a dizzying array of change and unexpected events, "trials and tribulation". If the larger field of the nation, world events, or sudden shifting weather patterns are disrupting your plans and overloading your emotions, it's a good day to stop and re-orient, and find a point of spiritual grounding. Consider the parallel of dancers who learn to spin and leap by keeping their eyes, their visual focus, on one fixed spot in the room. As they spin around, they quickly turn their head to find the same visual spot again and again. Amazingly, this focal spot keeps trained muscles sturdy and balance secure. Similarly, in the practice of yoga, a focal point is key to sustaining balance and concentration in holding a pose. In meditation practice, a repetitive mantra, or a visual image, becomes the steadying anchor to the wandering mind. Is there a spiritual focal point in your day? Or are you wobbly, spinning from one feeling state to another, from one wave of worry, or fear, or anger, or sadness, to another. You may have a specific time of spiritual practice like meditation, prayer, or spiritually-based exercise that has a built-in focus, but what about the stretches of daily life and all our interactions in between? Life often offers us a spiritual return-spot to maintain equilibrium, a gentle return of awareness of the spiritual life, embedded in everyday events.

Last night I was cooking a late dinner after a very busy day. It was a simple noodle dish, but it did require boiling the noodles. As I grabbed the pot to rinse them, a cord caught on the edge and the pan flipped, spilling water and noodles everywhere--floor, counter, other ingredients, in a massive mess. I managed to save enough noodles to throw into the meal, but first there was the cleanup. When I finally got the last bit wiped up, I saw that somehow a piece of lettuce had settled on the floor. With a deep sigh of fatigue and resignation, I reached down to pick it up, and suddenly, I remembered a Zen story. There are variations to this gem, but this is the one I recalled: Three Zen Masters were wandering by a river when they saw a perfectly good lettuce leaf floating by. They were quick to critique the wastefulness of the local monastery's cook. Then, they heard movement in the bushes along the shore, and out burst the cook, who exclaimed: "Gotcha!" as he reached into the river and grabbed the leaf. Waving it at the Master monks, he returned to kitchen. The three critics could only bow. And I smiled.

The Zen tale has layered meanings that include the significance of mindfulness, the careful and respectful use of resources, and the inherent value of "This", the true nature and transience of all things. In the mess of my evening, I recovered my 'spot' of larger awareness. Don't let yourself get swept away by the ongoing sensational announcements and heart sinking tragedies of these times. This is not to say we ignore events; we are part of this whole that grapples with shifts, celebrates what we perceive as success, and grieves with losses we cannot fully comprehend. I am saying, though: Don't lose your bearings, stay oriented, shift your focus--in the moment--to that spot of spiritual vision, or that spot of Faith in an over-riding Good, that grounds you. Your focal point, as your find your bearings again and again, nurtures and stabilizes Life around you. Peace is contagious. (Susan Nettleton)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91718/balance-584ad1d11ff6e https://larrygoodell.blogspot.com/2011/08/focal-point-six-directions-poem.html https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2024/2/12/every-day-as-a-wide-field-every-page-by-naomi-shihab-nye