I noticed myself doodling for the New Year. Also, this is a first post from my phone. It works!

11:11

Peace!

In an age of fast development: technology, tv screens, constant-upgrades, new designs, “better,” “more connected,” webbed, and “seamless” living, I am amazed, and I Am inspired by those who commit to their goals. Now, life will throw us off track, time and time again – especially if you have a very strong relationship – for better or worse – with the planet Uranus.

The universe will communicate to us in ways, and sometimes, not very cryptic ways.

So, what is commitment?

I want to be clear that commitment and ambition are not the same thing.

Commitment is not “to a ‘thing'” nor invested in “‘outcome.'” It is not focused on outcome at all. Therefore commitment does not make predictions; it has no inkling of what is beyond now. Commitment uses the ‘now’ to see, and thereby make projections, plans, and situates, but it does so without being fooled into believing that the projections are real. Commitment practices detachment!

Commitment is vision invested in only the truth, the highest good, and even that which transcends perception of what is good and true. Commitment is transcendent – for it defies odds, and overcomes obstacles. Commitment can only exist with love as its vessel.

Commitment as I mean it here, is to a living process. Commitment as I mean it here, is a fluid receptivity, a ‘going along with’ the flow. It’s about sticking to the kernel of truth, as each of us uniquely and internally know it to be.

All of our interpretations of the feedback we receive in life relies on our commitment to our sense of truth, clarity, love. This is our rock (Saturn in Sagittarius: Philosopher’s Stone). As long as we are guided by the vision and the pursuit of clarity, it can take any form. For clarity is, itself, formless.

During these days, there is much going on in the world. We have Mars applying aspect in opposition to Uranus. We have Mars coming into square with Pluto. We are collectively in need of bravery.

Bravery holds firm. Bravery relies on its commitment inwardly, and does not strike out to prove itself – for it knows its strength is borrowed strength ~ borrowed from deep within ~ and beyond.

Dear friends, these days, please see the strength reflected in those around you. Keep your attention on those who show you how it is possible to lift, lift up your eyes, and to walk and see, without fear. Be fearless.

Happy Full Moon in Gemini.

Let our outside connections be as strong as our inward knowing, let our hands be held by each other throughout the holidays, whether we are merely thinking of loved ones sitting around another dinner table ~ they can feel our warmth. May your hearth keep you warm during winter, as the blessings of our spirits are even more bountiful than the food on our tables!

Images from the following website per google image search:

http://womenslifestyle.com/

http://www.theweatheredgate.com/

This morning I awoke to discover that there was a book atop my open book, A Manual of Acupuncture. I asked my husband if he was reading Rumi and left the book there, and he said, “No. Not recently.” Both books have a red cover and they seemed to “go together” even though they were different sizes.

Here’s the page/poem that I opened to, with the same title as this blog post:

The soul within our individual souls
loves the one who runs and falls down
more than the one who sits and watches.

The soul within soul lives in a lover.

Consider this metaphor. How you love is the open sky.
These personal selves are the separate roofs of a town.

Your tongue, the guttering where words flow.
If the roof is not clean, the words get thick and murky.

Some people have elaborate systems that drain water
from other roofs. This is not wise.
There is a false eloquence to it.

A lover is one who waters a garden from a rain barrel
that fills under his own roof.
Roses that grow from that have tears in them.

Sometimes the scale pans may weigh correctly,
but the balancer is off.

A sweet doctor may give bitter medicine.
A foot finds the right shoe in the dark.
Love moves on its way through the pleasure it feels.

Even though the time you live in is violent
and frightening, you are safe in Noah’s boat.

If you want to know who someone is,
hang around with those close by. They know.

The rule that covers everything is,
How you are with others, expect that back.

As usual, I find Rumi’s poems are very beautiful. Perhaps it’s my natal Mars in Libra that the fire always finds its resolution in the embrace of allowing. But it’s probably more-so that regardless of whatever ‘my stars are’ I ought to make the best of this life in the loving of it – finding the tender spirits who would embrace me along with themselves in the lamp-light of our wandering.

Following my typing of Rumi’s poem, and my writing here, I decided I wanted to add an image. I did a google search like this, “image of a lamplight diogenes,” because it was what came to mind. What you see is the first image that resulted from my search query.

A friend of mine died recently. I am mourning her; but mostly, I am inspired to write this message.

Yesterday one of my classes was canceled – it was a relief because I spent some time at my favorite neighborhood Kwan Yin spot: the Mission. I just let it flow. The rain sprinkled on me, and my hot coffee in my hand transported me to my  undergraduate years. I do know that I have to make up for the day that we missed in class [graduate school] – because that’s just how work is. It still needs to get done. Test next week. The routine continues behind the scenes.

I know she is with me.

I would never have known that she had died in a tragic bike accident, if it weren’t for the fact that she is with me. Sometimes my own faith amazes my doubting mind. I trust that I’ll always know what I need to know *when* I need to know it. So, I don’t do a lot of the normal, conventional “keeping in touch” with people type of stuff. I let life lead me. I’m not really into schedules, for that matter. I follow nudges from my inner cosmic awareness. I don’t cling to people when they need space. (I like space.)

Yet, I look at the “two minds” as equally beneficial. I really don’t see it as a problem.

Susan and I used to discuss the mind, and what is beyond it.

Her name was Susan Hicks:  please continue to light up the path for her. Susan is.

A song from the heart

can only be heard

with the silence of presence.

Silence need not be silent in the English sense of the word.

~Aloha nui loa~

You are remembered for our precious times together.

Susan was my dorm neighbor during undergrad. It was my sophomore year, and her freshman year. I finally got a room all by myself, thanks to the lottery system; and of course, after completion of my freshman year, I got to be in the housing lottery system.

I would see her in the hallway when I came home from work or class. She’d have her books open, and we talk about the 3D geometry she was working on.  There was a cone shape inside a bowling ball. It was challenging stuff. We would talk about lucid dreaming, and discuss lots of things that compose a personal connection and exchange. She was uncertain about her major. I was an anthropology major. I thought it was the greatest substitute for indecision. I thought I was clever, picking a major that wasn’t very focused, ‘in and of itself.’

I really want to honor her family, and their healing process.

I stayed at her parent’s house during one of our holiday breaks.

Susan and I had become roommates off campus, and coordinated our travel with another roommate. Then after I returned from some of my travel, we shared a house with other roommates. We were in touch in 2013, and I was able to congratulate her on her job at Pitt as well as for completing her PhD in Cultural Anthropology. We connected with more depth than that, but that’s no one’s business but ours.

We were pretty much always on good terms – just busy people.

Susan, your light shines. Thank you for touching my life, and for letting mine touch yours.

As we strive to be “something” FOR the world, never forget what really matters. This is my message to people with ambition. Live fully, love fully, and remember there’s no place to go. There’s only the road. Self-compassion means honoring the process. Self-compassion means following the light of the inner spirit, and letting the gentleness of reality just really be love.

A guest post by Maria Ede-Weaving… Samhain is upon us and I have been feeling strongly the energies of release this year. At this festival, we think abou

Source: Let Go and Let Goddess/God

Today I light a candle for you. *You know who you are.

~I’m interrupting my blogging break~ for a moment to thank Susan for writing such a beautiful and touching blog article. Her thought to include me on her journey is beyonds words available to me at this moment.

We all encourage one another to continue along our path to realization. _/1\_

My blogging rest and break currently comes from the divine order of my body 😉 I can’t wait to return to y’all here! ❤

This blog post is written in response to a Time Machine Challenge given from Linda, over at Litebeing Chronicles.

To my surprise, I hopped onto my timeline, and I went parallel!

Also, I didn’t go parallel to just one place, but to many places along my timeline.

#1). Vacation on Molokai

#2). Art making periods along my timeline

#3). My back injury in 2012 that influences my current path.

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tripadvisor.com

#1) For this parallel timeline, I picture myself as vacationing on Molokai, and I’m incredibly healthy. I am meditating all the time on this timeline, so it seeps into the experience of my busy course load and fills me with the sense of always holding my center.

#2) Some of you, my dear readers, may have seen my recent blog posts where I published some of my old art pieces. One of the skills that I value in myself is my ability to live through my art, to express through color, and to step away from words. Though I value language, I do find so much contentment in the silence of visual imagery.

#3). Regaining myself/my life after my back injury.

I had to retrain myself to walk after the disc herniation.

My husband and I got me through the toughest time of my and our lives through this experience. What I know now is something far more valuable than I could ever learn in school about healing, from any person or book, or anything else. When I reach back into my past, I realize that I can overcome anything that weighs me down.

What’s happened is that there’s a level of confidence that I can tap into here, and it will get me through every failure, every false start, every terrifying moment of working with needles, fire, smoke; and if it doesn’t, and I decide: Hey, I’m not really into needles that much after all, that’s okay, too. I got my body back, and it became mine again: not necessarily ready to have it become a human pin cushion. Recently I had an acupuncture treatment that left my arm feeling a little bit numb, and that made me feel uncomfortable – it has made me question and doubt my path.

I’m in this,

and I know I could get hurt again.

After all, I can walk now. I made it through without the surgery that loomed in my mind as a possible next step to walking again.

That’s good enough for me. I value my mobility!

Note: I will be away from blogging for a little while 🙂 Best to you all in the interim.

Much Love, Ka

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Next Time-Machine Post: Julianne