Be gentle with yourself, be gentle with others

"We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness." Charlie Chaplin, from the Great Dictator

Every day I take the subway to get to work, it takes me about 25 minutes to get to work not a bad commute especially since I work in the downtown area of the city, with so much chaos, noise and traffic!

On my way to work every morning I have a routine, once I get on the subway I do a silent tree meditation where I imagine myself as a tree and I ground myself to the earth, my roots going deep beyond the subway car, and further still from the tunnel and railway tracks. I imagine my arms as branches that reach way up to the sky where I receive all the love, happiness, healing and peace that my body deserves. Once I feel grounded I turn my attention outward and I look around and I choose three people to pray for on the subway. I do this silently and reverently, and I try to choose people who seem to be having  a rough start to their morning or those who just seem like they could use a hug, such as the student who appears to be anxiously studying for a test reading their highlighted notes, or the man wearing his construction work gear who seems exhausted with his eyes closed trying to get a few more minutes of sleep before he gets off at his stop and head to work, or the teenage girl who is pregnant holding hands with her partner, and I always pray for the subway conductor that they may have a steady hand to conduct the subway to all the different areas of the city. I say this prayer for them in the silence of my heart, "May you be filled with loving kindness, may you be well, may you be peaceful and at ease, may you be happy."

I started this practice years ago and it's so much a part of my daily meditation practice, but it's also a way in which to look out for others on my journey. I don't know the strangers that I pray for, and I may never cross paths with them, but I like to believe that we are all in this journey together so why not be gentle with others, the way I'm gentle with myself. All of us have the capacity to invoke goodness within ourselves and in others, our ability to exchange in positive interactions with others manifesting peace around us.

How are you gentle with yourself? How do you manifest gentleness in your life? How do you share that spirit of gentleness with others?

You Were Created to Live

"The scars healed over into poems." Meggie Royer

Spending time in silence is a practice that I nurture and cultivate in my life, I have learned that my soul requires it, just like the plants require water to thrive, I also require times of reflection...and I choose to honour this need, I no longer hide it from others or from myself. It is also during these times of silence that I find that writing and drawing are manifested inside of me. I'm also aware that what I write comes from a deep source within me, I like to think that there is a deep well inside of me, where I can draw life giving resources from, my place of resilience....the place where I draw strength and light and embrace my life, tenderly, lovingly and nurturing. We all have it inside of us, that place where all our energy lies, where we store our resources and know that we can go to that place of inner knowing, whenever there is a need...

It is from this place that I write and it is from this place that I choose to live.

I dedicate the following poem to all the women who have ever felt that their voices have been silenced by society, by relationships that haven't been fruitful or life giving. I dedicate it to the women who have felt small in the face of adversity, who have felt ashamed for being a woman in cultures where women are not seen as equals but as subservient. I dedicate it to the women who have experienced abuse of any kind, I want you to know that you are more powerful than what you have experienced. And most important of all, I dedicate it to all of you who are reading this, may you know that you are also being called to be true to yourself and to honour who you are as a human being...

A Resurrection Summons

Woman of love...I call you to get up and walk.
I summon you to your resurrection moment.
Walk the path of love that I have prepared for you, it is your path to take.

Woman of deep wisdom...I call you to get up and dance.
I summon you to sway to the beat of the music in your heart.
Move to the rhythm of Spirit in your life.
You were created to dance with the Divine within you.

Woman of strength...I call you to get up from your sleep, it is time to rise.
Love has awaken you to the possibilities around you, love has risen up inside of you shining light in your soul.

Woman of love, wisdom and strength...
I summon you to resurrection.
You were created to love and to live abundantly.

Written by: Karina

Resilient Earth

"I've seen too many stars to let the darkness overwhelm me" Macrina Wiederkher

I spent a week in silence at a retreat house in Guelph this past week, it is a practice of mine to go on a silent retreat on a yearly basis. Some people don't understand my need for that one week of silence, they don't understand the need to unplug myself and go inward and just be....

I spent some time at a retreat house that has acres and acres of farm land, which at the moment is completely covered in snow. It has walking trails where you could walk and explore the land, which I did, relentlessly every day that I was there. It dawned on me as I was walking on these trails, of how desolate the earth looks in the winter time, it looks absolutely peaceful and yet there is nothing growing on the earth at the moment, at least not on our area of the world.

This frozen and desolate land, which, in a few weeks will be thawed out and the land will begin to thrive again, we'll be able to see the rich fertile earth once more and the trees will grow new leaves, flowers will bloom, fruits and vegetables will be abundant. The darkness and stark of winter will give way into spring....it always does, naturally, effortlessly. There is no effort on our part for the cycle to happen, it just does, just as night gives into day, the ocean gives into the earth, a continuous flow of rhythm and energy always evolving.

There is a faith on my part that this will indeed happen...that winter is not forever, darkness in not eternal, I'm hopeful in the earths resilience. I'm hope-filled in my own winter moments, my own reality and my moments of solitude. The stark, desolate spaces within me will give into abundance, and be fertile and thrive....I choose to believe in hope.

Gratitude

"Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know I am breathing out." Thich Nhat Hanh

 
Last year, while I was going through a very dark period in my life I discovered the practice of daily gratitude. I came across an article in a magazine that I picked up at my local health food store in Toronto where a woman described her daily practice of gratitude writing, which consisted of writing down five things that you are grateful for each day, either at the beginning or at the end of your day. Those five things that you write down can be very small and insignificant to others, but they are meaningful to you.
 
During my darkness and my misery and gloom, I tried to muster up the energy from deep within me to start my own gratitude practice. When I look back to what I wrote last year in my gratitude journal, I realize that I was mostly grateful for breathing....yes, the simple and basic breath that sustains me on a second by second basis. For you see, I couldn't find other things to be grateful for during my darkness, but breathing...now there is something to be grateful for. A year later, my gratitude journal looks different...but I'm grateful for experiencing darkness for it reminded me of the simple act of breathing and for being grounded in it.
 
I have learned that from starting this practice, gratitude has extended beyond the pages of my journal and I find myself being grateful and expressing gratitude towards those around me. I have realized that, the gratitude practice, that started in darkness has manifested itself into the light....into my daily existence. For this I'm grateful for.
 
Take a moment right now and breathe....inhale slowly.....exhale slowly....you are alive, you are beautiful, you are powerful, you are whole. Inhale again....and remember this, you are love personified.....exhale and remember this, you are a blessing to those around you, and for this reality be grateful.

Hospitality

"Here in this body are the sacred rivers: here are the sun and moon as well as all the pilgrimage places....I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body." Saraha


Body Hospitality

Come in and sit down for a while,
I welcome you inside myself, my body accommodates your presence.
I welcome you, yes, you the Unknown...

Unknown territory that has come to say hello to chat for a while,
your unfamiliar way of being leaving me breathless.

I listen to you speak and I give you the space to be yourself, knowing that in acknowledging who you are I also give myself permission to be myself....

My body claims and reclaims its primal genuineness, as I hear my soul whisper in the night the faithfulness of my life story. The flow of my unspoken words travel through my veins, creating dreams that reveal the deepest sense of my existence, leaving watercolour paintings imprinted on my soul.

For my body knows the depth of my reality....within its fibres it contains the solitude of my heart and the truth of my existence....

Unknown territory, a guest in my house, you beckon me to listen to the gentle murmuring of my soul.

KG

How is your heart?

I've been asked this question on separate occasions by different individuals over the past few months ....How is your heart?....it has taken me by surprise. I'm taken aback by the question....and by my hesitancy to answer....I remain silent and I listen to my own thoughts in my head, I listen to my heart speak quietly to me and I listen....I listen intently....I let it speak to me and I dare not disturb it from speaking...it has its own voice....its own dance...

How is your heart? You don't have to answer to me...answer that question to yourself, in the quiet of your soul...answer that question honestly, truthfully, without judgement, remorse, or guilt. Speak the words that it wants to speak to yourself...only you can answer to yourself...to your own inner truth.

Stand naked and reveal the truth to yourself, reveal your heart to yourself and stand in the reality of your truth...whatever that reality may be for you.

How is your heart?

Praying the Heart
by Elizabeth Cunningham, from her book of poems Small Bird

You can only pray what's in your heart.

So, if your heart is being ripped from your chest
pray the tearing

if your heart is full of bitterness
pray it to the last dreg

if your heart is a river gone wild
pray the torrent

or a lava flow scorching the mountain
pray the fire

pray the scream in your heart
the fanning bellows

pray the rage,
the murder and the mourning

pray your heart into the great quiet hands that can hold it
like the small bird it is

It's been silent......

"I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling I bear in the tide......"  Maya Angelou



It's been silent here lately....but that's okay...it's part of the Arroyo nature....fullness and emptiness....

I bear the truth of snow covered silence, my voice breaks the icy water.....
Reality seeps into my veins as cold as the night....bearing the truth in my soul......
Resilience wraps her arms around me carrying me in her bosom....sustaining me with strength.....
The truth of my being breathes into the cold air, echoing endurance.