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Life marches on, doesn't it?

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Time passes quickly in the world mankind has created for itself. Deadlines, schedules, a perceived race to fit all we can into the limited hours of a typical day.

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The pursuit not only of a fulfilling career amidst an ever more competitive workforce and marketplace, but also of cramming as much "leisure"  into our leisure time as is humanly possible. Schedules for hobbies, interests, and socializing. Truly, when do we relax?

 

When do we find the stillness for wisdom's whisper to find its way into the cluttered crevices of our minds?

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Unlike some in my immediate circle (you know who you are!), I have never been one to consult a calendar or to make a plan (for much of anything). Life plans me, it would seem. I tend to go with the flow, much like that whisper that finds me in the stillness.

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For the planners, it might seem that I am flighty, perhaps a bit of a flake. I live in the moment, with an intuitive guidance that often prompts me to immediate action, much to the chagrin and perplexity of those around me. And to them I'd say:

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"Not all those who wander are lost." J R Tolkien

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I am a free spirit, as I've often been described. I wouldn't, frankly, know how to live any other way. I live within a plethora of spirit influences - ever present, ever guiding. If there's a vulnerability I can share with you, it's that of staying grounded in an earthly reality. I find that connection in nature, and my inspiration in all forms of life. Oh. hmmn.. chocolate grounds us, this I know.

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My question to you is this.

Do you schedule time for introspection, for stillness?  For whispers of wisdom to inspire you beyond your current agenda or schedule?

 

I did. I haven't always been privileged in the luxury of no schedules to contend with. I've a family and raised a son. School schedules were cumbersome, ha. But, I managed to cram in a few years of homeschooling with my son, where we were free to travel, attend conferences, and learn mythology up close  in Greece. Discipline is essential, yet there's room for flexibility within that discipline.

 

At the end of the day, those days were busy days, much like your own, I'm sure. In the evening, my son would get tucked in for the night, my husband too. Once my husband slept, I'd gingerly crawl out from under the covers so as not to awaken him. And I'd be heading outside to a chaise on the deck to bask in the moonlight under the starry expanse of sky. Here I could ponder the bigger... and the inner... questions. It became a ritual that balanced me daily. Nature brings us back. Restores us. It connects us both to spirit and to ourselves.

 

Stillness, by the way, looks different for each of us. I've never been good at meditation in the way it's traditionally taught. I meditate in movement. Out in nature, tending to a garden, or rowing on the bay. My sister does so through her art. It's different for everyone. Perhaps music is your catalyst?

 

Do you have stillness in your life?            Could you?               Maybe, most importantly...   would you?

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For some, it seems that our flurry of activity is borne of an avoidance of looking deep within, asking the tough questions of ourselves.

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There's comfort in the familiar. If we look in places that we've previously hidden from our own view, what would that consciousness tell us? It may urge us to make changes that we aren't ready to accept.

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And that is spirit - the inner prodding that asks us to expand ourselves, to evolve beyond our own comfort zone.

                                                                                            To listen...  and to act, to run in the direction that makes  us fully ourselves.

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Spontaneity frees us. It allows us to live in the moment and to enjoy all that life intends for us. If only we create the stillness for spirit to come rushing in.

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May spirit find and inspire you in all you do, all you are.

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