History Lessons

Lately, days after Saint Patrick's Day, I've been finding Shamrocks.  I wondered if my message from the Universe was that I needed some extra luck, but that didn't feel right.  Instead, what came to me was a subject that has always interested me;  we use our history to predict our future. 
After all, the Shamrock is a cheerful reminder of a charming celebration. Finding some several days afterwards keeps me thinking of those good times.
So often the tendancy is for us to remember traumas from our past and allow those to guide our lives.  That urges us live defensively.
For example, let's say we go the baseball game.  We're having a wonderful time.  Our team is winning, we're with people we really like, the hot dogs and beer taste really good, and the weather is perfect.  Then, out of the blue, a pop fly hits us in the head.  OUCH.  The pleasant day is gone in an instant. 
We may choose to leave the game, and we might even decide, from that one incident, that we'll never go to a baseball game again.  Too dangerous.
In one fell swoop we've discarded all the good things that happened and just looked at that one bad event.  We then make a decision about baseball that colors the rest of our life: We'll never go to another game again.
This seems extreme, I know, but people make choices like that everyday.  They drag out their unpleasant history and use it as an excuse to eliminate certain  activities, actions, even types of people from their lives, as if  life events can be exactly reproduced from past to future. 
People, even mass-produced fast food hamburgers from the same venue don't all taste exactly alike. Far from it.
An old saying holds true here: "You can't step in the same river twice."
Life is flow.  It keeps moving, evolving, and changing, just as we do. 
Sure, we can keep creating misery if we go to the ball game again and EXPECT something bad to happen.  We might not get hit on the head again, but we'll spill our beer or it'll rain. When we push against what we don't want, we're sure to make more of it. 
Why not, if we feel we must use our history to define our future, take out of our memory banks examples of the great things that happened and focus on them.  Concentrate on the fun time we had the last time we went, the happy conversations with our friends, the taste of the dogs and beer, the loveliness of the weather.  Use that history.  Try to recreate that.  Sure, we won't get the exact same day again.  That day is gone.  But we'll get a shiny new one, a day that makes us glad to be alive because we'll be using that magical mind of ours to look for fun instead danger. Seek and ye shall find!  Ignore the weeds, find the shamrock!
Now that's the way to live.
Love, Kristine

Harmony

The other day I ran into Starfire, a wonderful Tai Chi teacher.  We hadn't practiced together for a long time, so I asked him what he was working on.  He said he was focusing on "yielding" as he practiced the form. 
Tai chi is all about balance, black and white, yin and yang, yielding and resisting; so I wondered why the emphasis on yielding.  I decided to try it in my own practice and discovered, much to my delight, the lack of balance I had in my own practice.  (Oh boy, something new to notice and work on).  Unconsiously, I had been emphasising resisting much more than yielding when I did the form.
This stands to reason since I started practicing martial arts in order to "defend" myself more ably and become stronger and more powerful.  Even though both Tai Chi and Aikido stress gentleness and flow, throwing people more effortlessly and with less muscle was how I enterpreted those ideas.  Many of my teachers also stressed harmony, but their ideas sort of bounced off me without taking root. I couldn't figure out what they meant.  Harmony with what?  The attacker?  The form itself?  How could I use the idea of harmony to be stronger and more powerful?  And throw people better.
Practicing yielding, I began to understand the idea of harmony.  I realized that my body felt softer, more opened, and more available to what was around me.  I enjoyed the feeling of peace and depth the practice gave me. Suddenly I was struck by the realization of a simple truth:  yielding to what is means totally accepting what is, and when you accept completely what is, you are in harmony with it. 
There is no more powerful place to be then in a harmonic relationship with the universe.
When I made my practice about resistence, I was anticipating conflict and preparing myself for it.  When I practiced yielding, I noticed that I anticipated nothing and was therefore more able and available to flow with life. As I practiced I also noticed that I felt more and more like an integral part of the natural world.
That's what we all are, of course, but in our attempts to control our environment and those around us we lose touch with those subtle forces that help us feel our connection to it all.
Yielding demands that we trust: ourselves, each other, the world around us, and life itself.
Today's message from the Universe?  Yield. 
This is a fascinating practice. Try it and see what harmonizes with you, and what you harmonize with. 
What beautiful music you will make.
Love, Kristine

Temperance

For some reason, I am reluctant to analize this card.  It feels like too much to me, so that is a sure sign that this is a card I need to look at.

An angel with red wings pours water from one goblet into another.  She stands with one foot on the land and one in the water.  In the background a path over the foohills and into the mountains leads to a shinning crown.  Three yellow lillies grow on her left, one bud and two in full flower.

The red wings are interesting.  Red is the color of passion, and passion and angels just don't seem to go together.  Passion and temperance don't seem to go together either, so perhaps the red wings indicate that passion is what lifts and motivates us out of our everyday cares and woes and into more inspirational and inspiring activities.  That idea feels pretty good.
 
The feet placed both on land and in the water indicate  the willingness to be rooted in "reality" (i.e. accept what is) and at the same time the willingness to accept change and flow in one's life and to be guided by one's emotional nature.
 
The water being poured from one cup to another tell us that despite our perspective on any subject, there is no duality, no good or bad, victim or vicimizer; all is truly one if we have the wisdom to let go of our ridgid constructs and let life flow.

Lillies symbolize purity, chastity, and innocence. Yellow lilies represent the pure joy of the spirit that show us our own beauty and creative importance in this world of ours. The flowers are our current blessings, and the bud indicates the growth of more in our lives if we cultivate our ability to appreciate what we have.

The path shows us the way towards enlightenment (the crown representing the crown chakra).  Sometimes the path is gentle, sometimes hard and rocky, but, as O Sensei said , "There are many roads to the top of Mt. Fuji, but the summit is always love."

Temperance, the title of the card, reminds me of the old Greek adage, "Everything in moderation".  It reminds us to take things slow, be patient, and allow life to show us the way.  Don't try to force anything, even spiritual growth.  Trust yourself, trust life, and all will be well with you.

Well, that wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I guess the lesson is to trust what's in front of me, begin the enquiry, be patient, and new understandings will emerge easily and naturally.  This is just the message from the universe that I need.  I hope you benefit from it too.
Love, Kristine

Too Many Choices

The 9 of wands is the card I've been contemplating today. A man holds a staff, eight others form a fence behind him, and he looks like he's eying them warily. There's a bandage on his head indicating an injury. The green world spreads out far behind him. For me, this is a card about choosing one's path.



I'm lucky to have an abundance of choice. I can do, think, feel, be what I want.



This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The plus side is obvious, but on the other hand, I often question my choices, or feel like I'm stuck in an old choice made long ago that no longer seems to fit the new me. The implications around choosing rightly or wrongly seem very weighty indeed, especially in an uncertain time. I could get hurt, or hurt my loved ones, if I make the wrong choice.



If I take my life less seriously, then my choices don't seem so impactful. I can then choose with a lighter heart. Looking closely at the card, I notice that there are no paths in the hills beyond the fence of wands. Perhaps I could keep all my options open and wander around my life more freely. I can make a choice, and if that doesn't fit, choose again. I can also choose not to choose.



There is a part of me that finds security in making a choice, but a larger part knows that any choice I make is temporary. Change is the only certainty. I can learn to be flexible, and choose depending on circumstance, and only make a choice when it feels "right".



I'm learning that a big part of making choices is being able to let them go if they don't work out. Stubborn consistency doesn't make for enough flexibility. It's like a cement river. It doesn't flow all that well.



I will go with the flow.