Yearly Archives: 2013

Daily Life, Falls Between the Cracks, Housekeeping, Teachings

Accumulation and Cleaning

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Clean fridge - Ah! that's better.
Ah! that’s better.

Each time I enter the local corner shop I breath in a now familiar smell. In the back of my mind I wonder what it is and where does it come from. Now I know! This morning opening the fridge where I’m house sitting the same smell wafted out. Fridge mold can insinuate itself slowly until I guess it gets to critical mass. Neither afraid or ashamed I had at it and cleaned the fridge thoroughly. Too bad I didn’t consult the internet before doing so as using the right cleaning agents insure the mold never returns. Here’s one persons step by step guide to fridge cleaning and mold elimination.

Mold and dirt and dust accumulate over time, as does the accumulation of clothes, books, shoes, tools, fixings, paperwork – the list goes on and on. These past weeks I’ve been helping somebody to resolve things, that’s to recycle and move on the accumulation of a life time. My pleasure. Each time a substantial amount leaves the house somehow breathing becomes easier.

As I carefully and enthusiastically tackled the fridge I was mentally moving towards what else needed cleaning. What could I clean next? Indeed some people can spend a good part of their day cleaning and tidying, whether it’s needed or not! One persons OK for the moment is another persons life work. We are all built differently, have unique mental/emotional capacities and the standards we attempt to uphold can be self evidently RIGHT.

Anybody who has been on a retreat in our tradition will know the first scheduled activity after meditation and scripture singing is….cleaning! It’s not as if the place is dirty it’s just that grunge and cobwebs and the like accumulate imperceptibility over time and need to be kept up with. It took me awhile to realize the everyday life teaching embedded within these early morning, cold and hungry, work periods. And the appreciation deepens and is still deepening.

From the Heart Sutra: No accumulation, no annihilation. – And still we live our days attentively noticing and dealing with that which comes to us. Ultimately there isn’t a measuring stick one can apply to our efforts, or to the efforts of others. One thing is for sure though, condemnation of oneself, and of others, is an accumulation that’s best kept up with.

Daily Life, Out and About, Overcome Difficulties, This and That

Personal Reflection

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Materials from the monks cells were recycled....
Materials from the monks cells were recycled….
Here is an extract from a recent post I wrote for Field of Merit. The post gives an idea of what I have been up to this past week, as well as offering some personal reflections on busyness.

In daily life I’m accustomed to stepping on it, merging with the traffic and keeping going through my day – weeks, months and years if I care to reflect. Keeping one’s foot on the accelerator when it is wise, and necessary, to slow down and stop can be a habit which is hard to acknowledge. Let alone do something about addressing. Few of us can go from 60 mph to zero with grace. There has to be a measured slowing down which may be as nerve-wracking as our driving adventures of the past few days.
Field of Merit – from Fast Moving Traffic.

It has been a full week with more travel in the next two weeks.

Films/Books

Encouragement – Recognition

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I will be away from an internet connection for the next few days so posts may be few, if at all. A break may well do me good in terms of bringing some energy to writing. Talking to a regular reader this lunch time at the end of a retreat at Throssel I was reminded, gently, that it doesn’t always pay to be too available. I think she spoke from experience. Part of continuing writing IS about being available, of being a place which invites people in to connect with themselves. And that’s more or less what the other regular reader I met this lunch time said. Good to see you both. Thanks for your encouragement, much appreciated too.

I watched Beasts of the Southern Wild this evening. The child lead is a nominee for the Academy Awards Best Actress. Over in America the awards glitz and prance must be getting going about now. It was her first acting job. Good job! and wonderful ability to scream very loudly.

But what would be the effect on that girl should she win the award? Would it be good to get recognition so early in her career. Now 9 years old she would have reached a level of professional recognition many don’t get until they are seasoned. Recognition is a double edged sword isn’t it. Bringing on the one hand confidence (it has that effect on me when, as today, I meet readers) and on the other hand it is easy to get swollen headed and out of balance. Nobody is immune to the lure of fame and fortune. No worries about that for me though!

Overcome Difficulties

Taken Care Of

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This morning while cooking breakfast I had one of those insight moments. Nothing particularly profound or even new, not new to me anyway. But somehow I saw the whole thing in the round. From birth unto death we are dependent to a greater or lesser extent on being taken care of. We expect to take care of the young, to protect and nurture them. To take care they have their every need met, but probably not all of their demands!

Yesterday at the supermarket a young girl with her doll in a buggy were waiting for mother to check through the groceries. A chocolate egg checked through last. Oh!, I said brightly, I wondered if that egg was for dolly as she bent and tucked the egg under the dolls pillow. Mother said, I don’t think that doll’s going to get a look in!

There it is, the tension and the early learning around getting what one wants and giving away what you’d rather have yourself! The tension around the reward of taking care of oneself and the reward of taking care of others. This goes on all through life doesn’t it. Almost the story of our lives. Taking care of oneself too often takes a back seat in the face of the seemingly endless needs presenting each day. Gender roles switch and turn about and yes less tightly packaged, thank goodness.

It is at the other end of life when things get complicated. So often these days we hear of the elderly wanting to remain living in their own homes, and rightly. Wanting to remain independent for as long as possible. I talk to couples worrying about not wanting to be a burden on their partner but seeing and knowing they will be, eventually. Who will go first? How will she cope when I can no longer take care of myself. Becoming a burden to ones relatives, friends, lover – the state can haunt people from quite early times.

I am wondering at what stage in life we take on the mantle of being a burden. For some this comes early, whether or not the need to be taken care of is an actual reality. If I should become dependent on others I hope I’ll accept with good grace.

Taking a break from writing this I watched a documentary on Chanel 4, Giles Duley’s Walking Wounded, Return to the Front Line. This film eclipses anything I might say tonight.

See also this post on Giles Duley posted here back in September last year.

Daily Life, Teachings

Merton – ALL in ALL

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A quote from Thomas Merton. Left by Walter in the comments section and placed here for contemplation.

One thing has suddenly hit me – that nothing counts except love and that a solitude that is not simply the wide-openness of love and freedom is nothing. Love and solitude are the one ground of true maturity and freedom. Solitude that is just solitude and nothing else (i.e. excludes everything else but solitude) is worthless. True solitude embraces everything, for it is the fullness of love that rejects nothing and no-one, is open to All in All.
From the journals of Thomas Merton on Easter Thursday, April 14th 1966,

(The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Six 1966-1967, Harper Collins).

In the next paragraph Merton writes, After several days of rain the sky is clearing. Afternoons at the hermitge become once again possible. I walked a bit in the woods….

There is space enough on a chair, a bench or cushion for one solitary person. In generosity. And then we get up and walk out into the sunshine, or rain.

Thank you Walter, bows to you for typing out the quote and offering it here.