“You are so lucky to have every day.”
-Shoshona Ortalia Aurora Rogers
 
I’ve been reading a romance novel (my not so secret pleasure) set in rural Ireland about a woman whose heart’s desire was to be a writer. She gave up her city life and moved to a small village in Ireland to pursue her dream.  The description of her walks over emerald green hills in the mornings, then the delight she felt as she sat at her table, steaming cup of tea at hand, and wrote in the afternoons, all touched a chord deep within me. The more I brought up that feeling within me, the more I realized that she described my dream, and despite the difference in location I was stunned to realize I am living my dream.

The author of the trilogy writes so poignantly of her character’s life because she writes with love of what she loves. Why is it that we forget to see with the eyes of love in our every day lives? My dream is all around me and yet all I saw was the mundane and the repetition of every day. I guess even the bright shine of a dream dims from daily familiarity. Or perhaps I changed into it so gradually I took it all for granted, writing, woods walks with my dog, a loving marriage, my family who are my friends and my friends who are my family, my spiritual community. I am living my dream, how did I lose track of that?

Living your dream isn’t really about the physical aspects despite what we may think, it is about the feeling, paying attention to and expressing love in your every day life. The physical aspects of whatever it is you dream of may provide a vehicle for moving into that love, but it is the love and the expressing of love that creates happiness.

“A happy life is just a string of happy moments. But most people don’t get the happy moments because they’re so busy trying to get a happy life.”
-Abraham-Hicks
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Appreciating each thing about every day that you can is an expression of love in your life. It creates happiness and it creates the energy for you to attract more of what you want, more of what you love into your daily experience.

You don’t have to wait until you’ve achieved your dream, whatever that may look like on the outside. For dreams change and shift even as we do. You can focus your attention upon appreciating the elements of today that are your dream, those bits and pieces of your day that you love. As you do so you open up to allow more and more of your dream into your every day.

photo by elijah-hiett - unsplash

“Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Meditation is about getting to know that quiet place inside you, and allowing it to expand more and more in your life. It is about fully focusing in this present moment of here and now and resting in that stillness within.

Is meditation difficult to do? It can be, at least for me. I’ve done the twenty minute meditations, the hour-long meditations, the three hour meditations. I admire those who are able to do this on a regular basis, and know there is great benefit to be gained. Yet I find it easier to attain and maintain that quiet, present moment place inside myself in active ways.

Almost anything you do can become a form of meditation if your focus is one-pointed. That means your attention is fully focused upon what you are doing. For example, you are washing the dishes. You focus your attention upon the feel of the warm water and the slipperiness of soap on slick surfaces, but your mind drifts and thoughts of yesterday’s events intrude. You take a deep breath, let those thoughts go on the out-breath and refocus your attention upon the feel of the dish in your hand, the warmth of the water and swishy, soap bubbles. You keep yourself focused in this way throughout the clean-up, always bringing your thoughts back into the here and now when they wander.

My experience has been that it is easier to keep my active mind focused when I am physically engaged in an activity. When my hands, body, eyes, ears, and nose are busy interacting with the present moment it gives me a one-pointed focus for my attention, here and now. It gives me a specific place to return my attention to.

Can washing dishes be spiritual practice? You bet. What we are talking about here is a form of the Buddhist concept of Mindfulness.

​There are numerous resources available on-line if you are interested in pursuing this topic. You can easily find them by searching on Buddhism and Mindfulness. A great place to start is with the website, Lion’s Roar, Buddhist Wisdom for Our Time.


Photo by Catt Liu on Unsplash

"My Love, leave behind all this fruitless thinking and come lay down here in the silence of Being."
​-Mooji Baba

As I sat outside on the back patio, my early morning mug of tea warming my hands, breathing and attempting to listen for God, my thoughts wandered down well-trod pathways.

The usual question came unbidden to my mind, “What is it that I need to get done today?” Images of weeds in the garden, unplanted daffodil bulbs, messy bathrooms, and my young, yellow Labrador needing exercise, wafted through my mind’s eye.

I felt resistance, not yet ready to leap into the tasks I had assigned myself for the day.  

Resting my hands holding the mug on my lap I leaned my head against the back of the mesh outdoor chair, my gaze wandering up into the branches of the oak tree above me. Black and white Chickadees and gray Titmice flitted from branch to branch, calling softly as the sky peaked through blue in the background. A breeze tickled the leaves and they responded with rustling laughter. I sank down inward feeling a sense of contentment.

A new question arose, “What is it that I need to BE today?” 
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Photo by Nick Bolton on Unsplash