Learning from Luke…

I read a beautiful poem by Mary Oliver recently called ‘Luke’ about her dog. And she wrote in it:
‘and easily

she adored

every blossom

not in the serious
careful way
that we choose

this blossom or that blossom

the way we praise or don’t praise –
the way we love
or don’t love –

but the way

we long to be –
that happy
in the heaven of earth –

that wild, that loving.’

Don’t you wish we could live this way? Like Luke, embracing, accepting every experience.

For the longest time I thought the point of meditation was so that I would stop feeling things so much. In my emotional world, everything was so dramatic. Pain was unbearable, loneliness was
crushing, discomfort was awful, joy was ecstatic, gratitude was so peaceful. I longed for a magic solution that would help make my inner realm be on a more even keel.

Instead I discovered the opposite – the more I am mindful, the more I feel. And the more everything around me seems connected. I discover that my heart has ways of its own. And that is in fact the
beauty of it.

We don’t have to change how we feel. What matters is that we show up for our experience. That we stay present and accept as a generous gift, everything. For this, we have to change the way we view things. We have to find what works for us, to be with things as they are. Softening our quality of attention so that we stop rejecting what is continually happening in our lives. Honor our feelings, emotions and above all our experience of life. Appreciate its humanness. Knowing that every experience, mood, emotion is transitory. Those small moments of irritation, annoyance, judging, pain – they are all precious pearls that can teach us compassion. Like Luke, we can practice welcoming with open arms, the change that happens in every moment. Without fear. With love and trust.

May we be in peace,
with Love, S.

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