I carry a notebook with me wherever I go, to catch any whispers, insights, or images that inspire me throughout the day.  In Piero Ferruci’s book, “Beauty and the Soul,”  He suggests keeping a diary of beauty, and I love what he says: “Journaling in this way activates our aesthetic awareness and creates an aesthetic field, an inner space where beauty is not just a possible encounter but a close friend.”  It’s through the practice of taking notes, and in a way conversing with the day, that I feel a deeper intimacy with the sacred.  Yes, Beauty becomes a close friend, as is my sense of soul.

Every few years I realize that it is “harvest time.”  I come to a moment when I am committed, not just to taking notes, but to bringing a writing project into being. Today is such a day.  I’ve dumped my most recent dozens of journals with the last few years of scribbles and notes into a pile… and must begin to sift through.  It is time to re-read, discover how often I repeat myself on various themes, and circle the passages that speak to me now as a reader.  The more distance, I find, the better.

I’m looking for anything and everything on “Befriending the Soul,” as well as any poems or passages on Joy, both the high, mystical experience of joy as a sense of oneness and belonging, but also the ordinary joy of being… both body and soul joy- both human and holy.

This harvesting is like weeding a garden to uncover the flowers (so many weeds!  so many flowers!)- and so much like a treasure hunt.  I have to get through the grocery lists, notes to self… the “what I would be writing if only I were writing” pages… you’d think that after producing 2 albums of songs and nearly 20 books, I would be over that…

Sometimes,( and this is what I love,)  I find passages that were written as if by someone so much wiser than I am-  as if I were just quickly taking notes- receiving insights through my pen.  I’m grateful for these.  These passages usually happen when I have emptied my mind on a walk somewhere.

Sometimes there are poems, sometimes there are pages that speak to me, though I hardly know what to do with them…

   It’s quite the challenge- deciphering the mysteries,… determining the difference between gibberish nonsense and something a little bit better… searching for what is beautiful, nourishing and true.  I’m still not sure about that page above- it’s amusing… it’s clever…. but is it anything more?

This collection of blessings and gifts has been waiting patiently to be born, ever since I imagined how lovely it would be over a year ago.  There are Seven beautiful tokens/talismans/treasures, and each has a fortune sized blessing.  There is also a  parchment sheet of soul wisdom.  GO HERE TO ORDER.

This is a sweet, delightful celebration of soul – perfect to gift to one person, or to enjoy as a soulful group of friends.  WAY better than crackerjacks!

GO HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

This is a corner of the parchment of Soul Wisdom, from Soul Blessings Gift Bags…

]]> http://ingridgoffmaidoff.com/tendingjoy/index.php/2013/04/03/the-soul-is-like-a-wild-bird/feed/ 0 http://ingridgoffmaidoff.com/tendingjoy/index.php/2013/03/10/first-crocus/ http://ingridgoffmaidoff.com/tendingjoy/index.php/2013/03/10/first-crocus/#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 07:44:48 +0000 ingrid http://ingridgoffmaidoff.com/tendingjoy/?p=2937  

As the day follows night,
every winter is followed by spring.
Flowers bloom again, nectar filled,
to sip for new energy,
peace and well-being.

~Ingrid
from The Honey Sutras

This is also known as “Bodhisattva on the Metro”, and is a delightful story of how we are connected… and how our moods influence each other.  I loved sharing this one with Jonah, when he came home all worn out from a long day at work.  Both our moods were lifted.

Click here to view the embedded video.

 Post- Surgery Haiku

In this bed 
my body rests,
my mind remembers dancing.

~Ing 

     I had surgery a few weeks ago, in which space was opened up in my spine to give more room to the  nerve to my right arm.  This nerve has been impinged by a bone spur and paining me for nearly five years.  Post-surgery time is teaching me quite a bit about patience, and how much benefit it brings, not as a self-improvement virtue – which I once confusedly thought it was – but as a healing, nourishing, heart-centering surrender.

How poor are they that have no patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
Shakespeare

At first, I couldn’t believe the pain… and the departing instructions not to bend, twist, lift, or drive for the next many weeks baffled me. It has taken me several weeks of struggle first, to realize that resistance and worry really weren’t working.  Choosing patience is opening my heart again to a sense of trust, well being, and gratitude.  And I am finally having an inkling of the hidden blessings and gifts in this pocket of time I have been given for self-care, healing, humility, and love.

 Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness,
and the word happy would lose its meaning
if it were not balanced by sadness.
It is far better take things as they come along
with patience and equanimity.
~Carl Jung

  My amazingly talented sister, Heather, visited and did this sketch of us for her series of Daily Sketches.   You can see more of  Heather’s daily sketches on face book, or at her Daily Sketches blog.

I hope, for you, if your patience is ever tried, that it holds you and serves you well!

This turning toward
what you love
saves you.
~Rumi

The above passage from Rumi, and the one below from Hafiz, have brought me a great feeling of belonging and joy today.  Whatever problem or challenge we each face, these poets prescribe Love.

 Your fidelity to love, that is all you need.
No day will then match your strength.
What was once a fear or problem, will see
you coming, and step aside… or run.

~A year with Hafiz, Daniel Ladinsky

I remember when I first learned of the Sufi poet Rumi – a light came on in my life back then. It was over twenty years ago, and we were living in Los Angeles.  I used to walk to the Bodhi Tree Bookstore from our apartment- it was the most exciting place in the world to me.  I purchased books there, and a cassette of Rumi poems read by Coleman Barks and Robert Bly.  They made my heart swoon.  His poems seemed to grant a kind of permission to love- to love life and the world- to love the eternal energies at play in the universe.  They were a triumphant declaration that it was ok to feel this much love.   My husband, Jonah, liked them too. Whenever we had a potluck music jam, we’d end it by playing the cassette for our friends.  The way Coleman Barks translates and reads Rumi’s words- he captures so much Love- Big Love, Eternal Love, Infinite Love.  Here are a few short videos… enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

WHAT WAS SAID TO THE ROSE…

Click here to view the embedded video.

RUMI on LOVE

And here is a Link to some beautiful Rumi Poems

For more details, go HERE.