This Sunday, as we move deeper into December, we head toward the peak of dark nights for 2024. Saturday is the Winter Solstice 2024. In my theme of the spiritual undercurrent of December, I have been encouraging you to reflect beyond the traditions of society (inevitably involving money and giving) to a deeper spiritual practice and awareness. Consider your inner life first; then find the correlates to that inner life in expression in the outer world. Of course, there are traditions that do draw from our shared sense of spirituality, but here I am inviting you to personal contemplation of, and experimentation with, your own depth, expressed this week in Calmness.
As daylight shrinks and night expands, we can meet with a revelation: we live in wondrous, oscillating balance. The principles of balance and oscillation are aspects of the "Cosmic Dance". When we look up at the moon and stars, or at the rising or setting sun, there is some deep part of us that grasps the balance and movement of the solar system. That balance and movement includes us. We are a part of it All, and that recognition is the source of Calm. The ancient Taoist master Lao Tzu wrote: "All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small." And, "Is not the space between Heaven and Earth like a bellows? It is empty, but lacks nothing. The more it moves, the more comes out of it." Such paradoxes may at first be difficult to understand, but we know we are living in this Vastness that has its own order. The greatness of the Sun's light ebbs and flows with the season and earth's movement in orbit around the sun. The moon has its own orbit around the Earth, "rising and setting" at different points on the horizon in it's own wobbling path as the Earth rotates. Today is the last full moon of 2024. Let it open you to life's balance, and bring a sense of calm.
Calmness is not just a mental state. Calmness is one of those states that synchronizes the body with the mind. Practicing muscle relaxation, loosening both muscle tension (both large and small), slowing and quieting the breath, bring mental calm and clarity. You take your muscles and breath with you wherever you go. Some places are more physically calming and quiet than others--but this season offers so many opportunities to practice calm relaxation-- no matter the challenges of noise, spaces and crowds.
Consider calmness a strength. Sometimes we get caught in anxiety as a kind of motivator for action. We can stir ourselves to a frenzy, mentally rehearsing the worst outcomes as away to mobilize ourselves to act..."if I don't do something...but then again, what can I do, what do I do?". The mind is pushing, trying to fuel us to action. But instead of taking action, we escalate to panic mode. Panic mode disorganizes our reasoning, and freezes our judgement and ability to generate options. Most significantly, we lose sight of the larger spiritual reality and no long sense the still small voice inside that actually can and does guide us. Try calmness instead. This week, give yourself permission to be calm. Calmness is Power. (Susan Nettleton)
for poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../CentralCalm/index.html
https://www.best-poems.net/naomi.../over-the-weather.html...