by Roxanne -

Enjoy Life

Life is meant to give us joy and to be enjoyed. The God, consciousness, love or life force that created us lives around us but also within us. God experiences life, joy and love through our eyes, ears and all of our life experiences.

Joy, like love and happiness, deepens our sense of ourselves, creates personal growth and connects us more deeply to the world around us.

Joy is what God seeks and wants for us. It is our right. When our joy is diminished God is diminished too. When our experiences of joy increase, God expands.

All the poverty (physical, psychological, spiritual, emotional) we create through inadequate distribution of the means to joy (education, safe housing, food, water, clean environment, etc.) demands that we work for change. Joy requires it. Love insists on it.

by Roxanne -

Grand Bassin Deities

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While visiting Mauritius, we spent an afternoon at Grand Bassin. This is a sacred space for Hindus including its beautiful Crater Lake. It is most recognized for its the bigger-than-life statues at the entrance to Grand Bassin, as you can see the picture above. It is a place that is sacred but also deeply spiritual. A peace and calm pervades the setting.

Raj and Mira were our escorts and our guides for our visit there. They are Hindu and explained for us that Hinduism isn’t merely a collection of beliefs, rather it is a value system and a lifestyle. The shrines and statues in Grand Bassin depict the many aspects of God. There are many images or faces of God in Hinduism.

by Roxanne -

New Life

carved_goose_eggshell_25112013___1_by_peregrin71-d6vlqgiThe Passover Seder meal and Easter Triduum ritual — are both celebrations of spring and the end of winter, at least in the northern hemisphere. But more than this, both holidays are also celebrations about moving away from what enslaves and diminishes us – into a new and transformed life.

We remember the stories, the history and the courage of a people who envisioned a better life, for themselves and for their communities. They trusted, they persevered and they were willing to sacrifice for empowerment and autonomy, even if it meant death. No small feat.

New life generally requires dying to the way things were. New life means experiencing a death of some kind, whether you are a slave in exodus from Egypt or a crucified criminal as Jesus was proclaimed to be. But the stories teach us that we can trust that there is more than we know. We can trust that God doesn’t want suffering for us. God will bring something wonderful out of the torment and suffering humans inflict on each other — something more beautiful than we can imagine.

We get hints of what transformation can be like. To see more transformations like this carved goose egg shown above, click here.

Happy spring to all – and a wonderful new life!

You may also like Walk Out of the Tomb, You’re Invited! and What is Your Story?

by Roxanne -

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Lately, because of traveling and other commitments I haven’t been able to post very often. We’ve been enjoying outdoor concerts, grilling farmers’ market vegies and gathering with friends. However, in spite of and in the midst of everyday living our garden is doing surprisingly great. With all the rain we’ve had and some extra help from my friend L, my flower pots are having a banner year. She gave me a formula (“thrill, fill, spill”) for planting the pots and introduced me to some plants I’ve never used before. It was really a fun experience working with her and discovering new textures, sizes and plant colors. They provide amazing color, scent and beauty every day. Take a look – enjoy!

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ZenGardenEven our Zen garden – with its herbs, scented flowers and native grasses is happy and content. Plus the wood is getting a nice weathered patina that I really enjoy.

This quote, also sent to me from my friend L, says something about what flowers and all things beautiful can bring to our lives;

26 Iyar 5773 | May 6, 2013, 41st Day of the Omer

Beauty takes us beyond the visible to the height of consciousness, past the ordinary to the mystical, away from the expedient to the endlessly true. Beauty sustains the human heart in the midst of pain and despair. Whatever the dullness of a world stupefied by the mediocre, in the end beauty is able, by penetrating our own souls, to penetrate the ugliness of a world awash in the cheap, the tawdry, the imitative, the excessive, and the cruel. To have seen a bit of the Beauty out of which beauty comes is a deeply spiritual experience. It shouts to us always, “More. There is yet more.”

Joan Chittister, Illuminated Life

 

by Roxanne -

For Lent I Gave Up . . .

Photo Explore-Flowers.co.uk
Photo Explore-Flowers.co.uk

Yesterday I saw this posted online, “For Lent I gave up . . . period. I just gave up” and I laughed out loud. Lest you think the poster was depressed and that I have a perverse sense of humor, she was quick to note that ending it all was not what she meant.

Part of the task of  adulthood is being able to accept reality as it really is – in all its beauty and messiness. This means giving up other expectations – of changing other people, for one. Expecting the world to be different than it is, for another.

Instead we are called to surrender to reality as it really is and to what the universe is calling us to do, not what our family, culture or ego think we should do – or worse, what we  wish other people would do.

Surrendering is a good practice for Lent. Just give up. Then observe carefully and see what reality is offering to you!