6:12 PM – We’re saying our good nights to everyone at Teaism – Chetana’s Savta (Grandmother), Uncle Matt & Aunt Rach, Cousins Sam & Ida, Big Cousins Tracey & Lela. This is family. And, it’s Family by Choice. Usually “Family By Choice” is for folks we think of as family who happened not to be “blood relations.” But, I see that you can also choose your family to be “like family.” I choose you!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Day 21: Friendliness Belongingness, Day 5 – The More We Get Together
6:05 PM Wow! I witness Beloningness in action. We’re with Chetana at the Saturday Night Satsang in the Art of Living Center in DC. She spent the last hour being passed from arms to arms of folks many of whom she’s not met before & smiling and laughing. From one Aunty to the next! (And Uncles, too.)
Now as we’re all smiling and chanting Sanskrit Bhajans (songs) she’s crawling around the room waiting to catch people’s eyes – if they are closed in delightful singing – and smiling and crawling into a lap and across a leg and on and on. The whole world is her family! And, that means we’re all one family, isn’t it!
Friday, August 12, 2011
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Label Me - Free & Clear!
Just saw this in Sri Sri's Q&A session from earlier this week. Right on target with our "Friendliness" conversation.
Question:
Dearest Guruji, I am extremely shy and rigid because of my very strict upbringing. How can I become more expressive and loving?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Okay, you want to really change? You start right away. First of all, you remove this label that you have put on your head, "I am shy and rigid." Who said you are shy and rigid? Come on, you don’t know yourself. Accept it.
If you think you are shy and rigid, your own thought is making it a reality. You are sowing the seeds - "I am shy. I am rigid." So, the seed you have sown will make you become that.
Right now, from today, you admit you don’t know your mind. You don’t know yourself. You were shy and rigid in the past, but no longer, not this moment. You must take this step.
Remove this label that you have put on yourself ‘shy’ and ‘rigid.’
Leave it label-less for some time and see what happens.
From "What Sri Sri Said Today,"August 5, 2011
Question:
Dearest Guruji, I am extremely shy and rigid because of my very strict upbringing. How can I become more expressive and loving?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Okay, you want to really change? You start right away. First of all, you remove this label that you have put on your head, "I am shy and rigid." Who said you are shy and rigid? Come on, you don’t know yourself. Accept it.
If you think you are shy and rigid, your own thought is making it a reality. You are sowing the seeds - "I am shy. I am rigid." So, the seed you have sown will make you become that.
Right now, from today, you admit you don’t know your mind. You don’t know yourself. You were shy and rigid in the past, but no longer, not this moment. You must take this step.
Remove this label that you have put on yourself ‘shy’ and ‘rigid.’
Leave it label-less for some time and see what happens.
From "What Sri Sri Said Today,"August 5, 2011
Day 20: Friendliness, Day 4 – Hugs Are for Arms
10:48AM – I’m speaking with someone I’ve only just met & I just want to giver her a hug! Just a big “I love you!” hug for no reason. Yet, I hesitate and don’t. We finish our pleasantries & she gives me a great big hug! And I love it! Yay for her sense of belongingness!
Which takes us to one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite writers from one of my favorite books:
Hug O’War
I will not play at tug o'war. I'd rather play at hug o'war, Where everyone hugs Instead of tugs, Where everyone giggles And rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses, And everyone grins, And everyone cuddles, And everyone wins. |
By Shel Silverstein |
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Day 19: Friendliness, Day 3 – "I Belong to you!"
Got it! It’s not about what I DO to be Friendly. It’s how I experience myself as connected to the whole wide world. Yes? And, it’s not just Friendliness – which I do really well with (even with my eyes closed). It’s about that feeling of Belonging. “I belong to you!” Get that & you've got the whole game figured out. Boy, oh, boy. To really get that “I belong to you.” What would that look like?
When a car goes by our house, I tell Chatie “There goes our neighbor in a blue car.” Or “There goes our neighbor in a black car.” That way it’s not just relating to the metal box on wheels, but to the person in the car. Can I relate to everyone I see (and don’t see) as Mishpacha? Familia? My people? Not by measuring what I do, but in my heart. Wow, that just makes me smile to think about life from that point of view. Chatie’s world experience is that, isn’t it. Let's be one who fosters that oneness in her that knows the whole world and everyone in it to belong to her. May she foster that spark in me, too.
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