Ingrid Goff-Maidoff
From the category archives:
There is a lotus on our fishpond. In the morning, it opens its petals to drink in the sun. In the evening, it folds its petals in again, like hands in prayer.
This has helped me to consider the naturalness of my own rythms- how I open my petals sometimes, and how I fold them in when it is time to rest.
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I took a few days off last week for a personal retreat. I went to a bed and breakfast on the Cape with a few books, journals and poems, a cooler full of snacks, and the wish to be emptied and filled.
Because it is the quiet season, I had my choice of rooms. It was the bathtub that won me. And so I chose this room.
I spent three nights here in solitude, and asked myself, “why do you retreat?”. I wondered if it was to get away from my cares, and I realized that I love my cares. I love my family and my home- even all of the distractions that they provide me. But I needed a few days to let some contemplations settle in, without the temptation of jumping up to do laundry or sweep the floor before they had really taken root within me.
I went for a few walks, but mostly hunkered down in the room. I wasn’t lonely. Not because I am such fascinating company, but because I do love the world, and find that it is fascinating.
I worked on poems, and I journaled and read…and somehow mostly settled into the realization that I love the Eternal Realm, the spiritual and poetical realm- not in opposition to my earthly experience, but in addition to it. This was a lovely personal epiphany which brought me a lot of excitement and ease, and a great sense of well being.
Last week I remembered that it is in the human heart that heaven and earth meet and mingle and are glorious company to each other. I realize this may sound obvious. But it was something I was in danger of forgetting.
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“Such blessings we receive,
such gifts of grace.
If we have wandered from the path of gladness,
point us back to life!”
~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff
Happy Thanksgiving to all. As is my habit, here are some excerpts from my book, Simple Graces for Every Meal. I penned these graces in hopes that they would be comfortable and inspiring in all kinds of company. Joy to you this holiday season, Ingrid
Let us join together
To all who live on Martha’s Vineyard: The Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven has honored me with a lovely display. I am very grateful to have a year round outlet for my work there. I’ll also be at the Artisan’s Fair on Friday and Saturday this week, so please come! And my work is available at the Holiday Cooperative Shop on Main Street in Vineyard Haven (near Leslie’s).
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It was a moment I can only describe as grace. Yesterday, after I had finished my accounting, glued some House Blessings, and surveyed my long list for the next task to accomplish, I took boxes out onto the lawn to paint gold for 100 Fortunes. Having done that, I looked up. Bees were busily feasting in the lavender, a gentle breeze was moving through the trees, a woodpecker was tapping in the oaks, and I heard my inner voice declare, “enough.”
I stood up to take in all that I have been missing, my mind on other things.
The other day, Ivan Granger included this thought in a Poetry Chaikhana mailing:
What we call the ego
is the individual’s particular way
of not being fully present.
Isn’t that well said?
In my book, The Abundance of Grace, I wrote,
Grace is often found in surrendering our plans,
letting go the need for perfection,
giving up impossible ideals,
and humbling ourselves before the mystery…
~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff.
As I declared, “enough”, I was able to let go my list. I humbled myself before the mystery, wandered the garden, taking photos, and marvelling at the beauty all around me. And I am so glad I did! I will post more excerpts on grace next.
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When exploring Grace for my little book, The Abundance of Grace, I came across many inspiring passages which I interspersed with my own reflections. Here are a few, simply to remind us that every breath is itself a grace.
Grace is the door
to the peace beyond the mind.
~Rumi
Grace is unity,
oneness with ourselves,
oneness with God.
-Thomas Merton
Grace, brothers,
makes no conditions and singles out
none of us in particular;
grace takes us all to its bosom
and proclaims general amnesty.
~Isaak Dineson
Grace waits nearby
to flood the heart with light.
It is up to us to
open the heart’s windows,
unlock the door,
and make an altar there for the spirit…
~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff
For more selections from the book, here is a link to an article of excerpts called Reflections on Grace.
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To wander on Wednesdays;
To sit quietly
by the shoreline of stillness;
To drop my mind down
below the surface chatter -
The radio waves of thought
and their compulsive agitations:
The insult channel; the gossip channel;
the channel of panic and confusion.
To drop down into the
deep quiet from which
all wisdom comes.
To rest in awareness
of all that is here.
I do not long for more projects
or lists,
No more doing
or ideas for doing.
I only want this.
This.
The holy embrace of the day.
~Ingrid
(Special thanks to my dear friend Lori, who helped me take out my schedule and block out this time. Tell me friends, how do you make time and space for stillness, contentment, for belonging and for love?)
~
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Lately I have been asking myself, “to live quietly, and in love - is that enough?” I think, for me, that it may be. The more I settle into living quietly and in love, and determine that indeed it is enough- the more happy, content, peaceful I feel. Living quietly and in love I may be a poet, wife, mother, artist, lover of the spiritual life, gardener, tinkerer, sheet changer, dish washer, errander, generous friend - “Living quietly and in Love” seems to create an envelope of grace around all I do, feel, and am throughout the day. It is like finding permission to breathe, and to give one’s heart to every moment. - less striving, less argument.
This morning I caught the fragrance of the lilacs while taking out the compost to the bin- lilacs we dreamed and planted years ago which are finally blooming now. On Saturday Jonah and I transplanted the strawberries, and I imagined Bella enjoying their sweetness. As we survey our fruit trees, we see that there will be pears and apricots in addition to the apples, raspberries, and peaches.
All that we have planted is growing, stretching down roots into the soil, branches reaching up to the sky, drawing the heavens down…
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Today I am rejoicing in fragrance. In the studio, lilies fill the air with heady sweetness. In the kitchen, the orange tree is in bloom, and the jasmine. Last night, my nose stayed awake to the fragrance of Easter Lilies.
The other day my daughter Rose flitted from Easter Lily to Orange blossoms , expressing giddy intoxication and delight and fullness and joy. She swept up her skirt and did a little dance. “Who needs drugs with natural intoxicants like these?” she asked. I jumped at the chance to mention that God, too, is an intoxicant. Today I am lightheaded, each breath a kind of bliss. This is from the fragrance, I know, but also from a beautiful walk I had this morning.
There were ominous clouds ahead, but I headed out anyway. I have been been savoring these words of Saint Teresa of Avila, “Just these two words He spoke changed my life, ‘Enjoy Me.’” And I have been sensing of late that there is nowhere that God is not. God is in the fragrance of the flowers, in the Stone beneath the Holly Tree that invited me to pause for stillness- to rest in a pocket of eternity. God is in the Cypress tree that stands bold like a flame in the field nearby. God is in the water, the cakes, the young woman I meet at the cafe. I believe that Teresa of Avila also said that prayer was being on terms of friendship with God. I have been feeling this friendship of late- with God, with life, and also with myself. The Buddhist Teacher Pema Chodron teaches that Maitri is being a friend to yourself; being able to relax with yourself, and that it is the basis of compassion, and a seed of happiness and well being. This week I am feeling that.
(If the word ‘God’ is troubling for you, I hope you can find it in your heart to substitute a deeper meaning: Infinite Love, The Divine, Spirit, The Energy of Life. Sometimes I use the words Friend, Beloved, even Home. Try as I may, I always come back to God.)
I hope you, dear friends, are enjoying such friendship as well: with Life, with yourself, with those you meet. And I wish you every Joy in the coming days.
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God spoke today in flowers,
and I, who was waiting on words,
almost missed the conversation.
~Ingrid G0ff-Maidoff
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(I am re-posting this poem, as it is one of the themes of a women’s retreat this weekend
offered by MJ Bindu Delekta at Sacred Circle of Yoga. Click HERE for more information.)
Wherever you are, find a trail.
The sky is not falling for the cedar tree.
The Heron’s infinite blue world has not changed.
The marsh shows no signs
of Wall Street volatility.
Trees and grasses
are golden with the sun.
The ocean and sky still join
like lovers
here, now, and
on the horizon too.
The swan, content,
faces a gentle breeze.
The cormorant dives, resurfaces,
belly once again filled.
Follow that trail.
Find the bench, or stone
that waits for you there.
We must walk away sometimes
from the carnival of the world
to sit still and remember
what it is that holds us;
what, in us, is held.
~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff
(pictures are from the Nauset Marsh Trailin Eastham, MA near Brewster, where I went on retreat this weekend.)
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