Saturday 20 October 2012

Moments of Mindfulness

Today I went to Spiritual Journeying's 'Moments of Mindfulness' awayday at St John's Parish Centre in Windlesham.  One of the exercises was to choose one or two items from the large eclectic collection and to spend half an hour paying attention to the item you had chosen.  I chose two items - one, this poem by Rumi:
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness - 
some momentary awareness comes 
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all.
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house 
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight ...

My other chosen item was a card, this beautiful image of a lion dozing. (Follow the link if you want to see the image)  Having just read the poem, I turned to the card and, studying the photo, felt inspired to write:
The Lion 
probably not thinking 
about how he looks
with his eyes closed
and his mouth open - 
nor about how his hair is doing its own thing today.
Probably not still brooding 
over something someone said 
some time ago.
Probably not even
concerned
about his next meal.
For the moment it's enough
to doze in the sun
enjoying the sensation
of a full belly.
Enough just to be
a lion king.
I thought some more on Rumi's poem, The Guest House - about the idea
'He may be clearing you out for some new delight'.  I know the joy of clearing out the clutter - of making a worktop empty and clean again - a simple, daily joy.  I know the joy of clearing out a misconception, a wrong belief, from my mind, my heart, my world - of becoming open to a new thought, a new belief.
I know the freedom of a door closing on the past, of handing in the keys - setting me free from a responsibility that would have been an intrusion in the present - I wrote in this blog back in December 2009 of the shed on my allotment having been burned down.  That act of vandalism, unwelcome though it was at the time, made it so much easier to walk away from the allotment - it set me free to move on to full-time work, stable mental health and the delights of my new life.
Proverbs 24:3-4
By wisdom a house is built,
    and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
    with rare and beautiful treasures.
So how's your home today - what new treasures have you encountered in that private inner world?

Saturday 25 August 2012

New Look - Low Maintenance

For the past three years that I've lived here I've had to carry the lawnmower through the house to keep the grass in the front garden tidy, and set up a step ladder each time I've needed to trim the high hedges.  The cracked concrete path was a trip hazard and I was fed up with the neighbourhood cats using the area as a public latrine.  Finally I decided enough was enough and got some quotes for transforming it into a low-maintenance garden.  David Crowder Landscapes took on the task and the work was completed in two days.  Here are the before and after photos.  I'm very pleased with how much difference it's made to the light   coming into the lounge.