Buddha Board: Live each moment to the fullest

The past is over.
The future may never be.
The present is all that exists.
Live each moment to the fullest.

Those words came with my Mother’s Day present from my daughter: a Buddha Board.

Based on the age-old Zen “Be Here Now” or “Power of Now” principle, the board’s surface holds the water you paint on it, for a short time, and then it dissipates. The user lives in the present, values it, and then lets it go.

I love that it allows me to be creative. I love that if I make a mistake, I watch it disappear into the ether. I love that when I paint something beautiful, I cherish it even more while it’s there, because I know it won’t last.

I put it on my family room end table beside Ganesh. (We are an ecumenical household.) Perhaps using it, or just the sight of it, will help me to live each moment to the fullest.

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Visit the Buddha Board site at http://www.buddhaboard.com/

Don’t skip the intro. It’s beautiful, and the background sound soothes. I had the site open while writing this post, and the audio makes me want to leave it open all day . . .

How to respect other (sport) religions

I received this image on one of my social media feeds.

I like what the Salt Project has to say about religious respect. After the hockey events of the past week here in Canada’s capital, I thought that the same principles could apply to our sports religions.

I wrote earlier about the stewpot of hockey rivalry in our area. That was my way of trying to come to peace with residents of my town who support opposing teams. Playoff action creates even more tension. Above all else, people, we need to get along and respect each other. I invite you to adopt the Salt Project’s suggestions:

1. Educate yourself: Find out the history of your own organization and others. If you disagree with an action of someone on an opposing sports team, chances are your research will expose a similar transgression by someone on the team you support.

2. Be amazed or even converted into a better version of yourself: Allow room for awe, no matter the source, or the team. Try appreciating quality plays by either team. I think you will find you feel calmer and happier.

3. Be patient – Don’t form opinions too soon: Let time, or replays, mellow those knee-jerk reactions.

4. Build relationships: Nothing  breaks down barriers like getting to know someone who holds an opposing viewpoint and discovering that they really aren’t so bad. Get to know someone who supports another team and look for something to admire.

5. Keep your sense of humour handy: This is good advice every day, but especially when it comes to sports. Sports are supposed to be fun, for the players and the fans. If animosity ruins the fun, there’s something wrong.

6. Ask questions – Listen: This is part two of Educate Yourself. As you build relationships with other people, suss out the roots of their dedication to their team. Ask them about their past experiences as a fan. Find out what fires their passion. Listen without injecting your own opinions into the mix.

7. Say “I don’t understand – yet”: If you feel strongly about your team, you likely won’t change your allegiances after a few conversations. That’s OK. Some day you might. Leave room for that possibility.

8. Experience how others worship: Step into the milieu of the fans of the opposition. Try on one of their jerseys. Maybe a little of the mojo will seep into you.

9. Honour Convictions – Don’t try to remake people into your own image: The people with whom you build relationships aren’t likely to change your mind after a few conversations, right? You’re not going to change theirs either. Honour their convictions and accept.

10. Eat together, play together, and hold each other’s babies: A game of pick-up road hockey followed by a pizza feast, perhaps? Let your kids play together. Build relationships through food and fun.

11. Embrace mystery: Anything can happen in sports. Open yourself to the mysterious possibilities and embrace whatever comes.

12. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: Ah, the Golden Rule. Always good to keep in mind.

Above all else, we need to get along and respect each other.

Easter Saturday: overlooked but, oh, so important

One of the most memorable Easter sermons I ever heard preached had nothing with Good Friday and the complexities of who killed Jesus and why. It didn’t mention the empty tomb or celebrate the renewed presence of Jesus on Easter morning. It didn’t really have much to do with Jesus at all. It was about Easter Saturday and what the people did in the time in between.

Really, it was about us, and what we do with the overlooked but, oh, so important time in between tragedy and triumph.

Easter Saturday: the metaphorical day after loss. The day when the pain is raw and fresh, and we don’t know yet about the joy to come. During the time in between we can’t see joy. We can’t see how it will take form in our lives. We look to the future and see more of the same.

The preacher of this sermon urged us to remember the Easter story during difficult times. When we survive the initial shock and turmoil and find ourselves in the desert of grief that follows, we can keep the flicker of hope alive.

Be watchful. Look for it. Joy will come with the dawn some Easter morning.

Intutition and rationality at Easter

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
—Albert Einstein

Is there a time of year when our rational mind battles more with our intuition than at Easter? The Easter stories often make people turn away from faith. Their rational minds can’t accept something they see as supernatural mumbo-jumbo, so they toss out the whole enterprise. They don’t even give sacred intuition a chance.

So many things to puzzle through. An empty grave. Jesus appearing to people after he died. How, on earth, can we rationally deal with it all? We can’t, so I guess we have to float above the earth a little and open the sacred gift of our intuition.

The moderator of the United Church of Canada, Rev. Gary Paterson, addresses this in his Easter message. He refers to people in the Easter story who meet Jesus in some way after he has died, but they don’t recognize him. Mary thinks he’s a gardener, and other men spend an entire afternoon in conversation with him, but they see him as an ordinary Joe.

It’s a recurring theme, this unrecognized Jesus. Only later, when these people share sacred moments with him, do they see things differently.

Rev. Paterson suggests that perhaps we can choose to use “resurrection glasses” to see the ordinary events, and all those ordinary people, in our lives through the lens of sacred intuition gifts. Without them, we see gardeners and ordinary Joes; with them, we see the sacred in everyone.

The resurrection glasses are readily available to us, we just have to choose to put them on.  Just for fun, try putting on those resurrection glasses this Easter, and see what gifts your sacred intuition brings to you.

Sabbath on Monday

Walking on Lake Louise

How do you react to the word “sabbath”?

Does your stomach clench, like it does in response to all words religious? Do you envision thin-lipped matrons in darkened parlours piously whiling away an afternoon with the book of Genesis?

Or do you relax and breathe easily? Do you picture yourself curled up with a good book in front of a fireplace?

I hope it’s the latter.

I want to reclaim the word “sabbath”. Years of  “shoulds,” guilt, judgemental recriminations and self-deprivation crust over this beautiful word with corrosive layers. I want to scrape away the damage and polish the word to a renewed welcoming shine, because sometimes we just need a break. The ancient practice of sabbath has roots in the practical idea that, in order to exhale, we have to inhale sometimes.

I took a sabbath day—a day to inhale—on Monday. These days it doesn’t matter which day you choose.

We are on vacation at beautiful Lake Louise, Alberta enjoying a week of skiing in the Rockies. Perfect sun, perfect snow, breathtaking scenery and Albertan hospitality surround us. I skied happily Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday, while my son and husband skied the black diamond bump runs they love so much, I took a sabbath day. I read. I wrote. I relaxed. I created heaven for myself.

My husband didn’t get it at all. He’s an intense skier, so his sabbath is on the ski hill.

In our modern times, a sabbath day is more important than ever. When was the last time you allowed yourself an entire day of rest? We are connected, always “on,” busy with “stuff” every single day. We are so busy exhaling, we forget to inhale. And there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all sabbath. For me, it’s a quiet day and a good book. For my husband, it’s a sunny ski run. For others it might be a walk in the forest, dinner with family, or a fishing trip.

Play, eat, or meditate, However, sabbath looks to you, I encourage you to reclaim an ancient practice that fulfills the universal need for a mindful indrawn breath.

2013: A year for kindness

Do you ever notice that words seem to appear repeatedly in your life all of a sudden? Do you ever notice your life developing a theme?

For me, that word—that theme—right now is kindness.

It started when I read the book am I being kind by Michael Chase. After that, the word kindness popped up everywhere around me. So, there I was at my optometrist’s office in December. She put those awful drops in my eyes to dilate them, so I had time to kill while I waited for my pupils to grow to an unnatural size. There on top of the pile of waiting room magazines was the January 2013 edition of Chatelaine, and what was on the cover? “The Kindness resolution: Let’s change the world one KIND act at a time.” 

It was enough to convince me that I need to think about kindness right now. Chatelaine suggests things like donating blood, shoveling someone’s walk, or contributing to a food bank. Those are all good actions.

But I think kindness, or lack of it, pops up most often in our words with each other even more than in our actions. Often we thoughtlessly spout out words that hurt feelings, even if we really don’t intend them that way. I have started taking an extra second to reflect on words before I speak them, to ask the question ”Am I being kind?” I am amazed at how often I choose not to speak the words at all, or to rephrase them into a kinder sentence.

Kindness is a good foundation for building a positive new year. May your 2013 bring be a year of kind words and actions, both given and received.