Category: Writings

Writings: Rainbow in the clouds, with Maya Angelou…be a blessing to somebody

Upon learning of Dr. Maya Angelou’s passing on May 28, Oprah Winfrey released a statement that referred to the poet, author and legend as “the rainbow in my clouds.” The touching sentiment is one that Dr. Angelou herself had discussed during her 2011 appearance on “Oprah’s Master Class.”

During that interview, Dr. Angelou explained where she first heard the “rainbow in the clouds” metaphor, which comes from a 19th-century African-American song popularly known as “God Put A Rainbow in the Clouds.” In the above video from the episode, Dr. Angelou sang the powerful lyric that resonated so strongly with her.

When it looks like the sun wasn’t going to shine anymore, God put a rainbow in the clouds.

“Imagine!” Dr. Angelou marveled. “I’ve had so many rainbows in my clouds. I had a lot of clouds, but I had so many rainbows.”

Dr. Angelou said she always carried these “rainbows” with her to her speaking and teaching engagements, whether in a large venue or intimate classroom. “I bring everyone who has ever been kind to me with me,” she said. “Black, white, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American, gay, straight, everybody. I said, ‘Come on with me. I’m going on the stage. Come with me. I need you now.'”

Whether her “rainbows” were living or had long since passed, Dr. Angelou said she always felt and drew strength from their support. “I don’t ever feel I have no help,” she said. “I had rainbows in my clouds.”

She also encouraged people to apply the “rainbow in the clouds” philosophy to their own lives.

“The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God — if they call God at all,” she chuckled. “I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.”

from The Huffington Post

Writings: The Three Sieves Test

It is my greatest dream that no news story get published until it’s passed this test, in this anecdotal fable attributed to Socrates:

Once upon a time in ancient Greece, one of the acquaintances of the great philosopher Socrates came up to him and said: “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?”

“Hold on a moment,” Socrates replied. “Before you tell me, I would like to perform a simple test. It is called the ‘Three Sieves Test.’ ”

Writings: Put down the notes….he didn’t say, “I have a speech,” he said, “I have a dream!”

Lots of folks have lots of different angles about this week’s 50th anniversary celebration of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, but one of the perspectives is provided as a reminder that sometimes we need to

* get off script
• challenge our inner wiring, and
• say what’s in our heart & mind, before we talk ourselves (or think ourselves) out of it.

Sojourners’ Jim Wallis was fourteen in 1963, but he heard this story:

I have been personally moved by the reminders of that providential moment in the final speech at the March, when King’s favorite Gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, told the preacher from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, “Martin, tell them about the dream!”

King set aside his prepared remarks and did just that, reminding us all to put down our prepared notes and cautious plans and speak from the depths of our own souls and the soul of our faith to the soul of our nations.

Writings: Filling the picture, with Emily Carr

This is a little bit from Canadian artist Emily Carr, one of my favourite folk:

“Remember, the picture is to be one concerted movement in a definite direction for a definite purpose, the expression of a definite thought. All its building is for that thought, the bringing into expression and the clothing of it.

“Therefore if you have no thought that picture is going to be an empty void, or worse still, a confusion of cross purposes without a goal. So old girl, be still and let your soul herself find the thought and work upon it. She alone understands and can communicate with her sister out in nature.

“Let her do the work and, restless workers, running hither and thither with your smelling, looking, feeling, tasting, hearing, sit still till your Queen directs but do not fall asleep while you wait – watch.”

Emily Carr

Writings: Read this one out loud … …. The Waking

The Waking
by Thoedore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke, “The Waking”
from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke.
Copyright 1953 by Theodore Roethke.

Writings: Walking in the dharma, with Ram Dass

When I start to get angry, I see my predicament and how I’m getting caught in expectations and righteousness. Learning to give up anger has been a continuous process. When Maharaj-ji told me to love everyone and tell the truth, he also said, “Give up anger, and I’ll help you with it.” Maharaj-ji offered me a bargain: “You must polish the mirror free of anger to see God. If you give up a little anger each day, I will help you.” This seemed to be a deal that was more than fair. I readily accepted. And he’s been true to his end of the bargain. I found that his love helped to free me from my righteousness.

Ultimately I would rather be free and in love than be right.

If you feel a sense of social responsibility, first of all keep working on yourself. Being peaceful yourself is the first step if you want to live in a peaceful universe.

Have you ever noticed how many angry people there are at peace rallies? Social action arouses righteousness. Righteousness ultimately starves you to death. If you want to be free more than you want to be right, you have to let go of righteousness, of being right.

That reminds me of a story. There’s this Chinese boatman, and he hits another boat in the fog. He starts swearing at the other boatman. “You SOB! Why didn’t you look where you were going?” Then the fog lifts for a moment, and he sees there is nobody in the other boat. And he feels like a fool.

Righteousness is roughly the same thing. Say, for instance, you hold a grudge against your father, and you talk to him in your mind as if he’s there inside you. But he isn’t there. Psychologically you think he is there, because you’re identified with who you think you are, but once you begin to see this is all just a bunch of thoughts, your psychological father is just another set of empty phenomena. You are busy saying, “I forgive you, I forgive you,” to that psychological father, but it’s like saying “I forgive you” to a clock. There’s nothing there. You’re the same as the boatman.

There’s no rush. Go on being right just as long as you can. You’ll see that being right is actually a tight little box that is very constraining and not much fun to live in. Righteousness cuts you off from the flow of things. When I’m locked in a situation in a relationship with someone, it isn’t that they have done something to me. They’re just doing what they’re doing. If I get caught up in judging, the responsibility lies with me, not with them. It becomes my work on myself. I often say, “I really apologize for whatever suffering I’ve caused you in this situation.” We start to work from there. And after a while they will come forward and will examine themselves and say, “Well, maybe I was . . .”

Our predicament is that our ego wants to be right in a world of people who don’t understand how right we are.

There is a way of representing what is right, the dharma of the moment. But if you get emotionally attached to a model of how the world ought to be that excludes how human beings are, there’s something wrong with where you’re standing. You should be standing somewhere else. Getting lost in your emotional reactivity isn’t where you want to be. Just allowing your humanity and that of others to be as it is, is the beginning of compassion. We are in a human incarnation. We can’t walk away. To walk in the dharma is also to hear other human beings.

– Excerpt from Ram Dass’ new book Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from your Spiritual Heart. (Purchase here.)

This dharma talk is from ramdass.org: Here. Now. (And reposted here, with permission. Thanks.)
For more of Ram Dass’ teachings visit his website.

Writings: Waiting for something better…

A man was trapped in his house during a flood. He began praying to God to rescue him. He had a vision in his head of God’s hand reaching down from heaven and lifting him to safety. The water started to rise in his house. His neighbour urged him to leave and offered him a ride to safety. The man yelled back, “I am waiting for God to save me.” The neighbour drove off in his pick-up truck.

The man continued to pray and hold on to his vision. As the water began rising in his house, he had to climb up to the roof. A boat came by with some people heading for safe ground. They yelled at the man to grab a rope they were ready to throw and take him to safety. He told them that he was waiting for God to save him. They shook their heads and moved on.

The man continued to pray, believing with all his heart that he would be saved by God. The flood waters continued to rise. A helicopter flew by and a voice came over a loudspeaker offering to lower a ladder and take him off the roof. The man waved the helicopter away, shouting back that he was waiting for God to save him. The helicopter left.

The flooding water came over the roof and caught him up and swept him away. He drowned.

When he reached heaven and asked, “God, why did you not save me? I believed in you with all my heart. Why did you let me drown?” God replied, “I sent you a pick-up truck, a boat and a helicopter and you refused all of them. What else could I possibly do for you?”

Writings: Patterns, and the chance to change…

Time to change, isn’t it?

If you don’t have something you need to work on to change, it’s possible you’re not really alive…

Look around and there’s always something to make better. To make prettier. To make smooth. To make different. To colour, to shape, to whittle or to add to.

And usually the only thing getting in the way is habit. Doing it the old way.

And that’s why we don’t quit smoking so easily. Because of the patterns. The habits.

Or changing the way we think, or work, or play. Stuck in a web of patterns, the comfortable old place we go when change rears its head.

The key here, I think, isn’t to hide from change, but to recognize that things aren’t usually gonna be different, all on their own.

So it’s up to you to lay a new rail, cut a new trail, find a new road. And take it.

Is that the same as creating a new pattern? Maybe. But at least you picked this one, hey…

Let me know where you end up!

Loving you,
Brother Ian

 

Thoughts: The sound of silence

Writings: Full speed ahead…!

You know the old saying by Yogi Berra – “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”

Seems like a number of people I know are facing that, just now. And you know how it is: Choice A looks good, makes sense, and you’ve taken the first step toward it as you check out Choice B, which suddenly looks pretty good (if it’s grass, it looks greener) and compelling, and then gridlock sets in. Just can’t decide.

Then you begin the first level of overthinking it, add on some guilt from somewhere, think about the money you’ll make or lose, overthink it a little more, figure out who will be mad at you, figure out who would “love it if you did,” and then add one more layer of overthinking & maybe overfeeling…boom! Paralysis.

What to do? Beats me.

But I know what I did, one time.

I had just driven to Oregon from New Orleans, ages ago. I was moving there, and had all my worldly possessions and guitar in my little Dodge Colt. In spite of the long drive, I hadn’t yet settled on whether to go to Eugene or Portland…whether to move to the college town or the big city.

So, I stopped in Ontario, Oregon on the Idaho/Oregon border, got a sandwich, and then carried on down the street out of town, where I found a fork in the road. To the left, Eugene. To the right, Portland.

I pulled over and sat on the side of the road for a full fifteen minutes. Each time I thought I was settled and was going left, I’d hesitate and decide to go right. Then back again. I was was stuck, with my two choices. I couldn’t decide.

I don’t remember being scared of making a wrong choice, or concerned that one town was “worse” than the other. I just couldn’t decide.

Then it hit me what I would do. I’d start the car, check behind me that the coast was clear, then put my foot on the gas and head straight at the double-arrowed sign ahead, with the only rule being that I couldn’t stop or hit the brakes. I would just keep going.

So I floored it, ran right up  to the fork, and pulled left, and ended up in Eugene.

Do I recommend this for you? Beats me. Depends on where you want to go.

But do it full speed, after you head down one fork.

Love it that you’re there. Thanks for swapping your stories with me.

Love you,
Brother Ian

Writings: Where we come from…

This is a story that my friend Amanda told me about, from Mother Earth News:

In a mother’s womb were two babies.

One asked the other:
“Do you believe in life after delivery?”

The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

The second insisted, “Well, I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well, I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”

– Útmutató a Léleknek

Writings: Enough, with Derek Sivers

Let me be the 101st parrot.

Regular Brother Ian readers (that would be you, because you’re here, hey) know that the editorial staff and I are huge Derek Sivers fans. I was just telling this little story to a young monk yesterday. It was a nice touch when I told him two other stories, and asked if he would like to hear another and he smiled, “No, that’s enough.”

Here’s Derek’s little essay:

+++++++

You Have Enough, by Derek SIvers

I love my Kindle and E71 but you won’t hear me rave about them. I don’t want you to want them.

Companies spend a fortune begging you to want their stuff. I won’t add to that noise.

Retail therapy is the worst kind.

I’d like to get 100 parrots and teach them to say “It won’t make you happy!” – then let them loose in shopping malls, big electronics stores, and car lots.

Then, when people are considering spending thousands of dollars on a giant TV, or going deeply in debt with a new car, a surprising squawk might shock them back to their senses.

The quickest way to double your income is to halve your expenses. Any study of happiness will tell you it’s best to actively appreciate what you’ve got.

I feel a responsibility with my PA system of blog, Twitter, and Facebook to only put helpful thoughts into the world.

So, no product raves here. You already have more than you need.

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At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut tells his friend, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.

Heller said, “Yes, but I have something he will never have: Enough.”

Writings: De-Clutter & let the light in….

This coming week in Victoria, BC, a class begins that I’m pretty sure you’ll find useful & inspiring. It’s called SIMPLIFY> Spring Cleaning for Home, Heart & Soul.

I hope you sign up soon – the class starts April 2nd – so here’s more about the class.

And I’d also like to introduce you to Sarah, who offers the class – here’s an article she wrote that’s a good place to start.

(I attended a presentation she put on last week & it was fantastic – great, timely…it’s clear she’s a good mentor for folks who are clearing their space & bringing lighter energy in!

Here’s more:

5 Reasons We Hold on to Stuff – And How to Let Go
by Sarah Downey

De cluttering takes being a brave and insightful detective of our own inner process.

When the problem is: ” I can’t let go of this thing,” the reason is usually: Material things remind us of emotional things.

We might be having trouble letting go because we actually need to bring some mindfulness in – so that we can integrate, and reflect and move on.

Here are 5 common ways we block ourselves from letting go of stuff – and solutions to help us to let go and move on.

Forgiveness. Sometimes you will have trouble getting rid of an item because it carries an association with a person or situation that you need to forgive.

Solution: Give up any notion that the past could have been different – and take back your energy. Do it for you.

Superstar. Sometimes an item will remind you of who you wanted to be and what you wanted to achieve.

Solution: Ask yourself, “Does the past vision of me resonate with where I want to go? What’s my future vision of me?” Often we simply haven’t made the time to reflect and catch up to who we are today. Let go of that old vision if it doesn’t spark your fire for moving forward.

Usefulness. Oh, yes. You’ve got ‘that thing that might be useful in the future’. Most likely even your not-so-deep-down self knows that it will probably not get used.

Solution: Decide to have faith. What you need will come to you when you need it.

Reminds me of So & So. Okay, you love that thing because dearest So & So gave it to you. They love you and you want to remember that.

Solution: Put the sentiment in your heart and let go of the thing. Honour yourself and your connection with So and So. Take some time to reflect and make it special. Acknowledging your connection with them will allow you to let go of the thing.

I want to be remembered. I’ve got to keep that thing because I want my grandchildren to know how special I was.

Solution: Make a Legacy chest. This could be a shoe box or a small chest. Don’t burden others with stuff! Be real about what’s truly important to pass on. Keep only what fits in the box and leave space. Keep in mind that life could be long!

The lessons aren’t easy, but ever so worth it.

They enrich our life in many ways beyond de-cluttering.

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This little article was reprinted with permission from Sarah’s blog & website, The Magic Well.

From her site: I’m Sarah Downey – intuitive systems and meaningful wealth advisor, here to help you invest powerfully in your purpose, and give your brilliance space to grow. With 20 years of facilitation, spiritual, financial, and organizational experience, I love empowering big dreamers (like you) with the clear guidance they’ve been waiting for.

The goal is simple: to create systems for living and working that tap into your personal magic, and help you tune into your deepest desires and goals. Translation? I’m here to get you focused, well-ordered, and ready to roll, so you can start putting more of your work and genius out in the world.

Writings: Masks off, and real eyes….

In the wake of the German air crash, I thought Jeff Brown’s remarks were targeted not on the blame and the “reasons,” but on the heart. I like his use of “realeyes” for when we realize…here’s Jeff:

A depressed, messed up pilot takes his issues out on a plane load of innocents, and people express surprise that the company he works for didn’t know.

I understand the need to point fingers, but I don’t know what anyone who walks past me on the street is thinking or feeling. It is such a masked world! What surprises me is that it doesn’t happen more often, given the society wide prohibition against owning and admitting our personal issues, our shadow, our emotional pain and confusion.

There is no one answer to the madness of the world, but I am certain that developing a practice of inviting –  rather than shunning – people to share their pain with each other would go a long way to easing the suffering on this planet. There is so much misplaced aggression, much of it because we are conditioned to repress our anger, our grief, our confusion, in the name of social acceptability.

For God’s sake – when are we going to give others permission to take off their masks, disguises and adaptations and share their truths with their fellow humans? When are we going to realeyes that we are all in this together, that we are all hiding something fundamentally human below a needless bushel of shame? When are we going to sit down together and share our shadow freely, like friends on a confusing journey through time?

It’s like this giant avoid-fest that does little more than perpetuate suffering and insane behavior. I assure you – there are no thoughts, feelings or issues that someone else hasn’t experienced.

We are all traveling down similar roads. It’s time for a new paradigm that begins by throwing our masks in the garbage and inviting one another to share our truths, warts and all. Invited Self-Revealing and Lovingly Supported Release would be a wonderful place to begin a truly authentic new earth.

Jeff Brown, author of Soul Shaping
(Here’s his Facebook page, as well)

Writings: Borders are where we come together, sometimes