A Master in the Art of Living
draws no distinction between his
work and his play, his labor and
his leisure, his mind and his
body, his education and his
recreation, his love and his
religion.
He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of
excellence through whatever he is
doing and leaves others to
determine whether he is working
or playing - -
To himself, he is always doing both.
James Michener
A Master in the Art of Living
draws no distinction between his
work and his play, his labor and
his leisure, his mind and his
body, his education and his
recreation, his love and his
religion.
He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of
excellence through whatever he is
doing and leaves others to
determine whether he is working
or playing - -
To himself, he is always doing both.
James Michener
Last night as I was sleeping
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said; Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!--
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt – marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night as I slept,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.
The young woman who stepped through my door hesitated, then moved forward to an unknown experience with meditation. She was graceful, slender, and visibly nervous.
Beth was a friend of a yoga student from a class I taught at the local college in the mid to late 1970’s. She didn’t know why she decided to look for answers. She just knew that she had to know—something.
In those days, I never talked to folks who came to me about what was going on in their life. I don’t know if she had children, a family, or an illness. I knew she was married since she had diamond wedding rings on her left ring finger. I followed the style of my mentor, Marcia Moore, not asking questions about her life. I explained the technique; breathing, being centered, and visioning.
When she began to see images, I asked her to describe them to me. She did, and I don’t remember anything about that meditative journey except the end. Out of the blue, she said she wanted to find the fourth dimension. I asked her where she could find the fourth dimension and she said, “It’s around the corner to the left.” At the time, I didn’t have a clue about what her experience meant.
Later that year, I discussed the meditation with Marcia and asked her about the “. . . around the corner to the left” response. She thought for a moment and, loosely remembered, said, “Physics has everything in the universe moving to the right. I suppose if we turned to the left we could experience the fourth dimension.”
I don’t know where Beth is today. I don’t know if she gained value from our session. I do know that she opened a door I chose to walk through.
Seeds of Change
Six and 1/2 years ago, a family/personal decision was agreed upon that put me on the most beautiful spot imaginable. And I live in a house that keeps me in touch with nature everyday.
Part of this property is a flat spot along side a seldom-traveled dirt road. Folks could have seen the flat spot as a place to park and look at the light show over the Continental Divide. Instead, they had been using it as a place to dump tree limbs. My neighbor would stop folks from dumping when he saw them but the tree limbs continued to accumulate.
This was convenience vs foresight. Dry tree limbs attract lightening. Moving the tree limbs off their personal property would not necessarily protect them from the natural disaster that sometimes happens in the mountains. Looking at the bigger picture would better protect all of the houses along this road as a fire does not have boundaries except for water or another counteracting fire.
One day, my son was approached to give the fire department an easement to bury a 20,000-gallon water tank on that flat piece of property. He thought about it for a moment and said they could have the easement if they would get rid of the dry tree limbs.
Within days, earthmovers came and buried the limbs in a huge hole. The land was disturbed for a few years but no limbs were dropped off—there wasn’t an example to follow. And I saw folks parking there and eating their lunch, the nose of their vehicle pointing toward the Continental Divide.
Last year, the water tank was dropped into another hole and covered over. All that could be seen, at first, were the pipes necessary for loading water onto the fire trucks. Then boulders appeared around the pipes to give as much of a natural look as possible. Then mesh covered the ground to protect the wildflower seeds from birds and other seed-eating animals.
Today, there are flowers of every color beginning to spring up with little effort. Nature provides afternoon rain showers most days and life replaces what was.
Same land, different function.
MORE OR LESS
It is wonderful to have friends who challenge my thought processes.
Recently, a friend indicated that she is wondering if we actually have choices or are we following a predetermined path. I admire her so much that I decided to question my belief that we all have choices about how to live our life.
I remember making choices around the age of two about whether to pay attention to guidance from my siblings. My oldest brother was given some form of gun for his birthday. As he was putting it in the closet, he said, “Andrea, don’t touch this gun, it can kill you.” The first opportunity I had, I not only touched the gun, I looked down the barrel to see what could “kill me.”
Obviously, nothing happened. Except, for days and nights after that I waited for the gun to kill me. Only time and age dissolved that fear because I chose to keep the secret.
When my youngest brother told me that I needed to learn to read before I started first grade, I chose to believe him and let him teach me to read. I was the youngest child in a one-room school and his effort was and is appreciated. Since I could read, I was often included in the group work of the older students. The teacher let go of rigid rules and I covered four grades in two years.
The other benefit was that this little one-room schoolhouse had three or four shelves of fairy tale books that I devoured. My favorite stories were Billy Goats Gruff and Rumplestiltskin.
So, I still think that I make choices about my own life that are reflected on a scale of more or less conscious rather than good or bad.
The less conscious choices are usually made when I am choosing outside myself.
ONE LITTLE CLAY FOOT
A friend told me a story many years ago. She and several other folks were traveling with an educated and dedicated Spiritual Being—not at the top of the pyramid but very close to the top.
An incident happened that damaged some items owned by my friend and being carried by Spiritual Being. The human side stepped in and Spiritual Being chose not to say anything at the time.
Later, after finding the items in smaller pieces, Spiritual Being owned up to being the cause.
When telling the story, she laughed lightheartedly and said, “I found out that Spiritual Being had one little clay foot.”
And she still loves and admires this precious Soul.
This story has been very much on my mind the last two days. Several questions float through my thought process. Do we ever know the truth about human life? What defines the size and number of human clay feet? Do the good deeds we see outweigh the unseen judgments and anger? Or do visible actions mask the loving kindness of the heart—an action unseen?
I do not expect a Universal Answer to this conundrum. I think that humanity is made up of unique individuals whose feet touch the earth in different ways. And we have the choice to walk away from our perceptions or to love, unconditionally, each precious Soul and be grateful they are in our lives.
A series of events led to yet another search for my childhood friend. The first happened while rummaging through my sister’s collection of old family photos; some of which were over 100 years old. All of a sudden this picture surfaced of me, Sandy, and her little sister.
Sandy and I met when we were 10 or 11 years old in a little town called “Electric City, WA.” Her house was visible from my house. From the beginning of time we were practically inseparable—I probably spent more time with her family than I did mine. So finding the picture was intriguing for two reasons. I hadn’t searched for her in a long time and, I was smiling. In most pictures from little to big, I was very serious. But that time with her and her family was definitely a happy time.
We were around 14 when the picture was taken. It was just after my mother had died and Sandy and her family came to Bridgeport, Washington to take me home with them one more time. We are standing close and she has her hand on my left shoulder. That was the last time that we were together.
Yesterday, I was inspired to search for Sandy again but this time the intention to find her worked. The internet coughed up her town. She lives in Moses Lake, WA. I called information and she wasn’t listed. I crossed my fingers and tried her husband’s name. Fortunately, she is one of the rare creatures who is still married to her teenage sweetheart.
I called her this morning. Her husband, Cliff, answered the phone. I explained who I was and he told me that she had been searching for me for years.
What a gift to find a special friend after 53 years of wondering and remembering.
Weaving Dreams
I once was with somebody I liked very much—an older person, when I was considerably younger than I am now. That person said, “Spend at least fifteen minutes a day weaving dreams. And if you weave a hundred, at least two of them will have a life.” So continue with a dream and don’t worry whether it can happen or not, weave it first. Many people have killed their dreams by figuring out whether they could do them or not before they dream them. So, if you’re a first-rate dreamer, dream it out—several of them—and then see what realities can come to make them happen, instead of saying, “Oh, my God. With this reality, what can I dream?”
Virginia Satir Quote from Steve Andreas book
“Virginia Satir: The Patterns of Her Magic”
Choosing Now and Tomorrow
Going back to my roots is standard these days—the answers are all there and I am just beginning to remember them again. As one of my mentors shared about one of the students after a question and answer session--the young woman said, “I’m still confused but at a much higher level.”
My friend, Sara, called me one day in 1981 and said, “You have to take this class!” She shared the gist of the class with great difficulty and much enthusiasm. Today we would call this kind of enrollment “Selling the Invisible.”
I took the class—not because of her description but because I trusted her (and still do) and because my inner sense was fed by the possibility of a solution to a confused state of mind.
DMA was a startup. My first class could be described as chaos leaning toward structure. We talked our demons and expressed our dreams. Due to Robert’s vision of what could be, responsible choice became the next step for me.
I walked out of the class knowing that the responsibility for my then current lifestyle was the result of choices I made in the past. Well, maybe I didn’t get the “choice” information until a few years later but it was available to me. What I did understand is that the future could be created by me. I could create a life that supports health, joy and freedom as long as I consciously developed a healthy life pattern.
After the first class, I had the tools to recognize current reality and could create where I wanted to be. It was, after all, just a matter of “knowing myself.”
The next step came when Robert suggested that the instructors take a “Leadership and Mastery” seminar with Peter Senge. My knowledge base expanded again to include the world of business. What a gift since this is exactly the world I was in the process of creating!
Robert and Peter Senge have collaborated over the years and have individually and cooperatively reached out to third world countries, fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations. I must say that both of them have that mix of brilliance, love and Spirit that the world needs today.
I am full circle and “confused but at a higher level.” This September I am attending the “next step” class with Robert and his wife Rosalind. The class is being held in Vermont and is called “Your Life as Art.” A book by this name exists that offers the technique but not the experience.
If you want to know more, search for “A Glimmer of Light in Africa” on the internet. Then go to www.robertfritz.com if you are looking for a next step that lasts forever.
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