Photo: dreamstime.com
“those who prepared for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy.” E.M. Forster
I stood by the graveside of my mind
and peered beyond the edge
into the void of my crowded hour,
and found the door to a
feathered lightness of grief
where I floated on wings of joy,
such that there were no words
possible to speak with any sense
of meaning other than that
I had let go.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under dreams, Free Verse, grief, life, love, mindfulness, poem, quote
Abrupt and welcome. A day of alternating sun and cloud as autumn rolls on, and suddenly, this simple but joyous moment (a day of joys in fact) of light play. I love the subtle tinge of light and colour.
Perhaps a metaphor for life itself. A journey of alternating sun and cloud, the beauty of light and colour counterposed with dark, but also greys. As the cliche goes, life is never black and white. Instead it is a shifting pallette. And the grey? – a reminder of the blend or blur, telling us that perception, imperfection, missing the mark, are actually the rough and tumble of life, but yet there is still the light play. We shine in spite of our own self-view, we shine in spite of the clouds – or rather, because of them, we shine even when others cannot see us. Without the clouds of life we might not shine so well. The dark clouds provide opportunity for depth of colour. In our case, life’s trials are the canvass of courage and purpose, our colour shining through.
Noted photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank said: “The eye should learn to listen before it looks.”
Paul
pvcann.com
Filed under life, mindfulness, nature, quote
Ramana Maharshi (1879 – 1950) was a Hindu sage, in fact a Jivanmukta, a liberated sage. Maharshi once said: “Unless one is happy, one cannot bestow happiness on others.”
Maharshi is saying, obviously, that we can only give what we have within us. So if we carry anger, we share anger, if joy then joy, if hate then we share hate, but if love then love, and so on. We can’t give what we don’t have. Love doesn’t come from hate.
To be proactive, Rumi urges us to: “… bestow your love even on your enemies, if you touch their hearts what do you think will happen?” A purpose Jesus taught with his famous instruction to “Love one another”, including our enemies.
Rumi begs the question, what will happen if we do love our enemies? It’s simply rhetorical, the answer is clear, they will, over time, learn to love. I can see that example in so many people I have had the privilege of meeting and befriending, but also in those who have become known for their acts of selfless love – Martin Luther King Jnr., Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks, Ghandi, Malala, Maximillian Kolbe, Oscar Schindler, Bernadette Devlin, Mandella, Fred Hollows, or this guy:- Doc Hendley, who by his own description is but a humble bartender who had a vision to do something about water.
Hendley isn’t a sports star, or rock star, or movie star, just an ordinary guy bestowing clean water on those in dire need. While in reality he is also bestowing his love and compassion. He got angry hearing about the water crisis in the world, but he translated that anger into positive action (rather than reaction) and fifteen years on there’s a process for helping to provide clean water in the Sudan.
Doc Hendley is a great example to us, that we too, humble as we are, can bestow our love, our happiness, our joy, compassion … on others in meaningful ways. Where I live a local girl, Bella Burgmeister has become an author, motivational speaker, and project initiator, not bad for someone who is eleven. Bella has written on the impact of global warming in her book “Bella’s challenge” and she has iniated a project in our community by convincing city council to invest in thirty lockers for homeless people, a fantastic project. Bella has bestowed her passion and energy and love on our community for the benefit of all.
We can all do something, we can all bestow our love in some way, great or small.
Heartless is my world my wallet is cold, empty warm is my embrace © Paul Cannon
Paul,
pvcann.com
Filed under history, life, meditation, mindfulness, poetry, quote, Spirituality
Lyn and Karen, a lovely photo taken 12 September 2013, on the occasion of Jon and Anna’s wedding. Smiles are both a reflection of joy and happiness in the moment, and also received empathically as joy and a reason to be joyful. I found the smiles infectious.
Paul,
pvcann.com
Two movies I find deeply engaging are Chocolat and Babette’s Feast. They are not the same and yet they have some similarities in that relationships and love win out. In Chocolat Vianne fights the attitude of a whole town in France that is locked into a puritanical observation of the ancient privations of Lent. Vianne wins the people, and eventually her main detractors, by showing interest in the people, by offering hospitality, entertaining them, showing them love, most especially the unloved and rejected. Vianne is a soul friend, a confidant, a counsellor, a change agent.
I particularly love the dinner scene because it shows some of the people joining together and enjoying a sumptuous feast, they love its flavour, texture, its combinations, it is a scene not of lust, but of joy, true unadulterated joy, a setting free. And that is Chocolat, it is a series of people being set free. In the end Vianne herself is set free of her own struggle, dealing with the unresolved grief of her mother’s death. You can access the movie as just a whimsical jaunt, but you can go deeper and access the idea that entertaining the other, attending to the other, actually changes the world, one relationship at a time.
Paul,
pvcann.com
Filed under community, food, life, Spirituality
 | pvcann on And What Now? – a poem b… |
| pvcann on And What Now? – a poem b… |
| pvcann on There Is No Map – a poem… |
 | Lakshmi Bhat on And What Now? – a poem b… |
 | Liz Gauffreau on And What Now? – a poem b… |
Words from Angela.
My original blog got too big. Time to downsize.
Serving The Family Caregiver
Videos and Music with Subliminal Joy affirmation meditation
Everything Organic
Poetry and Flash Fiction
Words from Angela.
My original blog got too big. Time to downsize.
Serving The Family Caregiver
Videos and Music with Subliminal Joy affirmation meditation
Everything Organic
Poetry and Flash Fiction
parallax 