Bow seven times each day.

Learning on Ground Level

“The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of life long learning. The experience of spiritual power is basically a joyful one.”

                                             M. Scott Peck

One day this week while I was taking my morning walk, I fell and bruised my hands and knees. I knew I'd be sore, but I was unprepared for the degree to which I would be handicapped. My left hand and knee are a mess of bruises and swelling, making it painful to lift, twist or grip and really hard to walk. I've cursed myself and the heavens for the fall; groused and fumed and whined like a baby. My friend, Ellen, brought me waking sticks that are supposed to help with balance (and make me look like a dork). But the hardest part is sitting on my behind and letting my body heal. I'm not so good at that.

Yesterday, I decided to spend the down time going through files and getting rid of junk that has been piling up for years. I came across my notes from a lecture I attended five years ago entitled, 'How to cultivate a Religious Attitude'. Here is the list:

1. Pay attention to: the largeness of life; the music you hear in your                                               head or find yourself humming; and to your tears, for they are a sure sign that God has visited unbidden.
2. Honor your dreams: more important than understanding or analyzing them, relate to them and allow them to shape you.
3. Feed your imagination: with books, art, movement; the soul is an invisible organ of receptivity to the divine.
4. Establish your creative space: your sacred space; spirit is enticed by creativity; let go of stuff that doesn't have soul
5. Befriend nature and its animals; it is an opening into the Creator and teaches you something of your own nature.
6. Bow seven times a day: pay attention to seven opportunities to bow to spirit everyday; begin your day by asking, 'What are the seven opportunities I will have to honor spirit today?'
7. Consider the pay off: contentment with life on its own terms.

Later in the day, I sat on the floor in my storage room—something I never do. Liza was so delighted to have me on her level that she stopped all efforts to get my attention, laid down beside me and slept while I rummaged through containers of fabric. I found an old journal with a drawing in it that gave me an idea for the Advent banner I'd been struggling to come up with. I also found three buckets of Prisma-Color pens, a big sheet of paper, and sketched out the banner in living color. Then I lay on my back, propped my swollen knee up on the bottom shelf and watched the hickory tree outside dance in the remnants of hurricane Issac. My girl-cousin, Sandy, phoned while I was there. We had a good, long-overdue chat about all sorts of things.

It is surprising how many blessings come your way when you're flat on your back. Who knew? I bow to the spirit of healing.

                                  Namaste,

                                  Jane