After the poem by Rumi

You suggested we should invite them all in
so we did, and chaos reigned supreme for some years.
But then slowly we saw between the chaos,
between the shadows, there were shafts of light.

Behind the dust there was a spiders web that spun gold
and the diamonds of dew in our hair shone brightly,
bringing joy back into the dusty rooms.
We slowly packed them all up and moved house.

The poem The Guest House by Rumi has been very influential in our life and we have lived by its tenets for many years. Events recently have been challenging and this response to it came to me after all these years. …

Poetry Sunday

I loved you once, without knowing you.
Then love grew, slowly, incrementally,
as each little segment of you was revealed
an unveiling of perfection,
of all that you would prove to be.

What if I listen to your words,
to the sound of your breathing, sleeping,
a faint whimper of darker dreams, the soft gentle rhythm
of peace, the sound of your voice when you sing,
soft and gentle words from tender lips.

What if I know your body through my fingers only,
to touch, tracing the lines of your profile,
the length of your back, your curved spine,
the creases of your smiles and worries,
linking finger tips to finger tips while we walk. …

A UK political and spiritual movement that helped to build America and helped me find my own path.

The Quaker movement called to me gently over many decades, going back to childhood, though I didn’t understand that calling. I have found this to be true often in life, that the thing you are looking for is right there but until you choose to see it, it remains invisible to you.

I first met the notion of Quakerism in various school lessons about prison reformers and other such philanthropic endeavours, via people like Elizabeth Fry who brought regular relief to people, especially women, left to rot in prisons often for nothing more than being too poor.

I also met them on the front of my grand-fathers morning porridge packets of Quaker Oats though they had nothing to do with the Quakers directly. In this case they looked rather dour and unappealing and wearing funny hats. …

Spiritual tools that show you your own inner nature

Tarot is sometimes described as a semi mystical system of divination, and, according to some people, viewed as a dark art. I do NOT agree with this interpretation of the use of tarot at all. I find them to be a helpful tool in my exploration of my own mind, of my own emotional responses to life as it happens. The tarot for me is a way of connecting with my deeper inner wisdom or intuition, my deepest spiritual self and the quest for greater self knowledge and self mastery.

I follow Carl Jung’s approach, that the cards represent an exploration of archetypes. They create a picture of the moment. Everything can also change or be changed. So I am not looking for answers cast in stone but rather exploring my own inner feelings around something, and if there is a likely outcome I know that outcome is utterly dependent on my approach to managing myself throughout the ‘experience’ I am enquiring about. Once I have some insight, I can prepare myself to do the inner work and face the challenges that await me with curiosity. Even if they might be challenging, I know that I have an opportunity to grow from this reading, to use it wisely and to look ever more deeply inside myself. Where is the balance of my darkness / fear and my light / love on this issue? …

Frost cold,
no beauty. No sparkle.
No intricate patterns
to follow with my fingers
across the bottom of bedroom windows.
A finger on the ice,
watching it melt,
feeling the tip
of my child finger
freeze slightly too,
the water running into
small pool
collecting
on the sill below.

No robins or pheasants,
gaudy lights
glass baubles.
no joyful expectations
in seasons of goodwill
of holy births, deaths too.
Placing ornaments
dark green fir trees,
wanting beauty
to touch me inside
wanting gifts
to mean something,
That I was seen and loved.

It was all there,
of course it was,
the show, the pretence
the image of happy families at Christmas
but you were only ever the ice mother.

Tossed all night
on oceans of memory,
deep surges
from ancient history
disrupting the quietude of sleep.

Come dawn though
I sail gently
into safe harbour
guided by your sleepy hand
reaching out to me.

© Sylvia Clare MSc. Psychol 2020

How do you work to achieve your best potential?

I have ADHD and PTSD, and when I had my huge breakdown some years ago, from complex PTSD, I also developed chronic fatigue from it, which left me exhausted after just one small activity. It taught me a lot about how I work best. I use mindfulness as the basis for most of my approaches to life’s problems and this in another one.

Mostly nowadays I am fine, but I have learned a lot of really good ways to manage my energy and life since those changes took place. The main one is how to have the most productive life possible. ADHD gives me super charged energy, so how can I use that most effectively. …

Heavenly intentions

Nirvana is a Buddhist word for heaven, or something akin to it at least. I am not sure they are equitable since they are based on very different paradigms of spirituality. Nirvana represents the final destination or goal of Buddhist practice in Theravaden tradition, and in that sense, heaven is also the same thing- the goal of reaching heaven for Christians amongst others. Nirvana is also linked with Janism, Hinduism and Sikhism, but I know less of these teachings.

According to Wikipedia the literal translation from Pali is ‘blowing out or quenching’, which suggests it is a state of total equilibrium achieved where there is no grasping or goalsetting left because the self has fully merged with the oneness of everything. Our thirst is quenched finally and forever, ‘we have arrived and are home’. Other people suggest it is the point when we are no longer recycled into different lives, when we become deathless. …