Christmas Eve is sparkling - shine

There's not much of Christmas Eve left in the day.  It's almost Christmas Day.  But Christmas Eve is still sparkling.  Did you make your gifts?  Did you sew, knit, cook, bake, wrap, trim and craft your way into the hearts of your friends and family?  I hope so.  Because this moment, this one, shining, sparkling moment is only here for a moment.  And then it will never, ever be again.

No, there's not much more of Christmas Eve left in the day.  Share it, as my friend David would say, "...with quality people."

hULa did.  She started the day right - sharing and playing and smiling at her good friend Peanut as the sun rose over Saddleback Mountain.  (later in the day, there was snow on Saddleback...a very low mountain to have snow)  She shared of herself, too.  She and Peanut both took turns running for hULa's tennis ball.  There are those friends that share, that greet us at sunrise with a smile and with their hULa tail wagging, and then there are those that when we greet them, growl at us.  Not hULa.  Not Peanut.  They know that the moment only lasts for a moment, and then it's gone.  That friendship is precious.  And tender.  That it's better to be greeted with a smile than a growl.  That every good moment in our life is fleeting at best.  

As my friend David would say, "Spend time with quality people".  (yes, that's twice I have said it)  hULa definitely knows this lesson.  When in doubt, think like your dog.  

I said I would share the story about Hanukkah yoga - but I think I will save that story for another day.  It is a story of the lighting of the first candle.  Of standing with our own two feet rooted to ground and raising our own two hands to become that light - rising out of ourselves, reaching, growing, shining.  It is a story of going deep down into the dark of winter solstice and coming THROUGH that darkness into the light. It is a story of focus and determination and sweat and tears and, as my friend David would say, "spending time with quality people".  (last time)

So, it's almost Christmas Day, technically.  So sparkle a little longer.  Dare to Love.  Love with a little more abandon.  Dance a little more.  Smile a little more.  Wag your hULa tail a little more.  Don't be the person that goes through life growling and criticizing and always finding or looking for disappointment.  Look for the sparkle. Better yet, BE the sparkle. 

As my good friend - (hah, got you) ANDREA told me just the other day, "Go glitter, or go home". 

I think she really meant so much more than...well...you know.

Sparkle and Shine.

be.do.create

2008

Natalie.

  

"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi

"Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin readying.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep."  - Rumi

Okay, the cat is out of the bag.  I am a student.  Of many things.

I am a student of yoga.  I am a student of life.  I am a student of people.

I am a student of dating and appraising quilts, too.  By the way.

So in my yoga class this last Sunday morning, this poem was read - well, just this part of the poem...it goes on.  I found it of interest that when we are 'so into our head' that instead of going into our head again, that we are to use the OTHER side of our brain.  Reach for something CREATIVE not CEREBRAL.  

Good thinking!  

Fabric!

Quilting!

Art!

Music!

Yeah!!!

I like this.  A lot.  And the part about not going back to sleep to.  The door is OPEN.

How many times do we get to a part of a quilt, project, time in our life, whatever, and we want to 'go back to sleep' about it?  Oh, I know for a fACt.  When I'm trying to finish something, and I run out of bobbin, that's where I want to go.  Or I sew the last square together and the bottom fabric has shifted and now it's not square, or well, you get the point.  I want to 'go back to sleep'.  I don't want to sit and figure it out or get up and go for a walk and come back and finish it correctly - fresh.  I just want to 'go back to sleep' forgetting that the door is open still.

So, while today's blog is a small one, it is packed full of good idea.

When you wake up 'empty and frightened', don't get sucked into your head - reach for something creative.  And when you want to get into your head, just don't.  Don't over think it.  As a song writer said, "Darlin' do not fear what you don't understand."  

And when we choose to do something, let it be what we love.

Finally, listen to the secrets whispered only to you.  

And ask for what you really want.

Go through that open door.

Don't go back to sleep.

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

"Don't grieve. Anything you loose..."

"Don't grieve.

Anything you loose

comes round in another form."

Rumi

It is a difficult task to Trust in the Universe.  God.  Faith.  Whatever you like.

It is a difficult task.

Some people do it with more ease than others.  Me, I practice.

Take the creative process of art, as an example

My table is a mess with fabrics, pieces cut, tissue overlays, enlargements, sketches, photographs, scraps of - well, my mind, as the case may be.  I am working on a series of landscapes of Hawaii.  One wonders if it will come together at all, or if it will all be lost.  

Faith.

Take the creative process of shaping one's body, as another example.

I took a yoga class from a great teacher yesterday.  She said something that really hit me - we were all in a new pose, and she instructed us to keep breathing.  

She said if we lost our breath, that PANIC would start to well up in side of us, and our pose would be lost.  Panic. Can you imagine?

Trust.

Take the creative process of Love.  Friendship.  Of lives entwined.  Another quote comes to mind, 

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."  Rumi

Can we loose friendship?  Love?  Lives entwined?  Dogs, are a great example of what we should have the greatest faith in...When we are apart from a dog, we miss them terribly.  Grieve their purehappy presence.  But when they see us again, it is like anew for them.  Brand new sparkling, pure, gleefully joyful tail wagging, giggling all over love.  Sooooo happy to see you again.  They do not forget.  That feeling they have IS forever.  Hold on to that.

And believe that softening, letting something go, breathing into something, does not mean that it is gone. 

You can trust that some things ARE forever.

That they can be.

Today, in this posting, I hope for you the pulse of the Universe, God, Faith, Breathe.

Maybe it is more passive than I believe it to be To Be.  Be.

be.do.create

2008

Thanks for thinking of 

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Natalie.

natalie@beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.com

www.beyondthereefpatterns.blogspot.com