Happy All Hallows Eve

Many spiritual traditions acknowledge that the "veil" between the spiritual and the material worlds is thin today, enhancing contact between the two realms. What this means to me is that today, especially, I remember my ancestors who have come before; I pray they are experiencing peace. It also means that I choose to believe they are praying for me, and that I can feel their love and prayers entering my life. It is also a good day to pray for descendants, whether they are in this world already or still to come. Prayers will always find their way.

And tomorrow, being All Saint's Day, is a day when I think about the lives of saints, what makes a saintly life. Recently, I came across this poem, which I love so much, by Hafiz:

"Even after all this time

the sun never says to the earth,

'You owe me.'

Look at what happens

with a love like that--

it lights the entire sky."

This poem epitomizes saintliness to me. Like the sun, those living saintly lives give of themselves selflessly. They give without regard to holding onto the fruits of their labor; indeed, those fruits are specifically intended for others. Yet saints are also like the earth, receiving divine love, blessings, and grace even though they can never earn these things; for these gifts, they feel immense gratitude.

So, my prayer today is this:

May I give like the sun and feel the gratitude of the earth.

May you give like the sun and feel the gratitude of the earth.

May all beings give like the sun and feel the gratitude of the earth.

Words I'm living by...

Recently, I began certifying in Reiki and have been pleased with its wisdom. Take, for example, its advice on living:

1) Just for today, do not anger.

2) Just for today, do not worry.

3) Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.

4) Make your living honestly.

5) Be grateful for everything.

How helpful it is to realize that we can live in the moment, that just for today, I can choose something other than anger and worry. I can think about tomorrow when tomorrow comes, but today I will choose patience and faith and gratitude.

Big Bad Wolf

Remember the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf? Once the pigs nestled themselves into the brick house, they were safe from all of the wolf's huffing and puffing. Well, we three piglets have found that our brick house is not the stuff of fairy tales. Yesterday we learned that the brick is literally sliding off the sides of our house...so much for it having been well and properly renovated when we bought it two years ago.

We found this news after calling in a man who raises houses; yes, one corner of our house had been sinking since the renovator removed a tree that had been growing too close to the house, but he didn't bother to fortify the space where the tree had been. So over these two years, our house has been slowing descending, as has the neighborhood. What we thought would be a neighborhood on the upswing has seen a downward turn since the economic slide; it and our house feel unsafe, and I feel unsettled. 

There is a lesson in this, of course. Part of it must be that I cannot put my faith or security in material things, that everything is subject to change, that L. and I need to listen to our heads and not just our hearts when making such big decisions, that we will be okay. I have to find a way to be grateful for this circumstance, if only for the lessons I apparently needed to learn. 

We need to move. Onward and upward now.