Pondering Blog: exploring lessons from life’s teachers
Painting of the ironwood tree by Tracey Harris - a tree I first saw in a dream, 20 years before I met it - and where I was held safe for my vision quest in Kapaau, HI, Big Island - an amazing gift by Karen Smith Good
Writing is how I process and make sense of the life experience. I take time to carefully review, digest and find the poetry in my world. Writing helps me get the lesson - earn the wisdom - find the perfect piece of sea glass in the painful shards of glass. Without writing, the teacher may go by unnoticed and return in another form.
Do you have a writing habit? My pondering workbook offers writing prompts so you can scratch the surface of your life - dig deeper into relationships, past experiences, dreams, habits, animals and hobbies and find beautiful words and imagery to elevate your wisdom, understanding and peace.
Sat nam, for truth, Janet
Love Prayer Song for Earth Mother “By the Ironwood Tree”
Love Prayer Song for Mother Earth
4 Nights Under the Ironwood tree - Kapaau, Big Island, Hawaii
4 nights with the Sacred Ironwood Tree
Portrait of an Earth Keeper
Honoring earth keepers. This is Terry. He is a gardener at the Botanical Garden of Nevis.
What Holds You Steady?
My foundation for self care is a three legged stool - my daily kundalini yoga practice, healthy food and adequate sleep. And each leg relies on the other. When one starts to wobble, the whole structure is at risk.
My stool fell this year - its legs slowly weakened and fell to the ground. I thought it was sturdy so I started paying a little less attention to it. When it wobbled, I thought it was fine.
But it’s okay. I think I needed to embody the understanding - my sat nam - that I can’t take the sturdiness of my stool for granted. Just because it was strong and steady yesterday doesn’t mean it will always be that way. It doesn’t mean I can invest in it less.
And just because it feels like a pile of broken pieces today - doesn’t mean it won’t be sturdy again.
Returning to Innocence
Returning to Innocence
Let me fall. Let me descend
Let me fall. Let me descend. What I need can find me here. Only then will a start my ascent.
Sometimes I ask for help
I make messes. And then I clean them up.
I Can’t. I Am. I Did. - Lessons from uncomfortable positions
Every dawn - I face discomfort head on. One minute each. Every morning. I start the day doing something that I think I can’t. This short, daily kriya is an important component of my spiritual healing practice. It represents life - Tackling what scares me the most. The things I don’t want to do - the parts of my self I don’t want to look at.
Grasshopper Lessons
On my vision quest, I had some quality time with grasshoppers.
Shedding Suits
Spring stayed in hiding this year
no crocus pushed up through the earth
a faucet turned on and only quiet revealed
a dawn with no trill
peep-less ponds
an ocean with no current
mountains collapsed
in a heap
lying still
only love and gratitude
will rouse her from rest
from her wounds
she is cold
dark
and quiet
Field notes on letting go
I stopped looking for bracelets. They are gone now. But I found a big snail, spiderwebs, flowers and stepped on the jaw bone of a hog with horns and teeth. I imagine the artifacts of my childhood, ancestry, career, loves and motherhood shedding as I wend along the path that I can’t see clearly yet. - I’m bushwhacking. I’m crawling under boughs, getting scratches on ankles from prickly flowers and losing my sense of direction. I fall down sometimes, the hedge impenetrable - I concede to nature. I cannot pass right now. There is no clear path yet. Lie down and rest. So I do - reluctantly. I have to laugh. And I like it.
This story starts with fear
After a 30 plus year career in health care sustainability, I have resigned from my current employment, where I have been for 18 years. My last day of work is January 7, 2022. Holding on tight to past events is part of my safety strategy. I am mentally prying things out of my clenches - finger by finger and letting go. I’m cutting energetic cords. I focus on my breath, trying to look forward and not back.
Lessons from Serafina - a Scaredy Kat
Fear is her resting place - her baseline.
Lessons from KitKat - A Needy Cat
KitKat’s depth of need appears bottomless - perhaps that mirrors my own. As I take the time to love and comfort her - I take the time to love and comfort myself.
Clearing a Path to the Heart
With the cleansing of tears streaming and nose running, I was cutting, pulling, ripping, and dragging -- revealing a path that was easier to see, easier to navigate and easier to follow – now that the blocks were removed – a pathway to the heart – to home - to myself.
A Recurring Dream - A Gift with a Pretty Pink Ribbon
I like reoccurring dreams. I welcome them. Important information is delivered, like a present tied with a pretty pink ribbon. And if I don’t fully appreciate the gift, it’s given to me again and again.
Solo at Dawn
What color is the world today?
If You Give a Moose a Mantra Or Early Chanter Gets the Moose*
The sound of splintering trees roused me from my pre-dawn mantra on the front porch. Twigs snapping from across the street– was a tree falling down?
Part Time Warrior
This warrior’s armor is an aura.
With roots coming out of its feet.
Flowers and leaves in its hair.
A song floating from its lips.
Welcome to Rosehip26
I used to feel burdened by my imperfections – my mistakes -- my pain -- my shoulders sore, my brow worried. I was weighted by stones in my pockets. But over time, I’ve dropped those stones one by one. They sit by streams, under a fern and on a window sill. I still have one or two in my pocket and in my palm - for comfort. To hold onto.