SLOWING DOWN AND FEELING GRATEFUL

It's another busy day. With the comings and goings of Thanksgiving behind us and the winter holidays looming ahead, it feels like some invisible giant has stepped on a Giant Invisible Accelerator in the sky, making everyone and everything speed up all around me.

 

ONE BREATH AT A TIME

So much is happening so quickly that it feels really important to pause periodically throughout the day; to take a few breaths and slow down long enough to give my body, mind and spirit a brief respite from the suddenly-quickened pace of life. To turn within and embrace the many gifts of this season, this place where I dwell, and do my best to learn from them.

 

SEEING WITH FRESH EYES

I find it especially helpful to go outdoors, ideally the first thing in the morning, plus at least once or twice during the day, even if just for a minute or two. To slow down and take off my self-imposed blinders long enough to experience the many minor miracles of nature in action: watch the migratory birds and butterflies make their mysterious way across the sky; walk on the grass, turned brown and crisp underfoot by the recent freeze. Sit beneath the giant hackberry tree, and watch it steadily losing more leaves twirling downward with each passing breeze. Breathe in the bigness of the world outside my head, and tune into the free flow of Spirit moving gently through and all around me. Feel my feet, standing on this particular patch of soil, knowing that a single handful of this dirt contains more living organisms than there are humans living on planet earth. Reminding me that sometime soon, no matter what I do, my body, too, will return to the soil.

 

RETURNING HERE

It usually doesn't take long to re-experience the vastness and variety of Life; to feel both humbled and renewed. Just a few minutes will generally do the trick. Less time than it takes to emerge from the rabbit hole created by a single click on one of the hyper-links embedded in the many e-mails certain to arrive in my inbox today.

So... just as soon as I finish this paragraph, I'm heading back outside for another glimpse at the sky, another reminder of how time flies, another chance to feel grateful to be alive. Wherever you are, whatever you'd planned to do after reading this page... perhaps you'd care to join me in returning to our roots outside and resting in a state of gratitude inside? If not now, perhaps sometime soon. At least, that's my invitation, and I hope you'll accept it.

With gratitude and blessings,

     Rudi Harst

THANK YOU for holding the Circle in your heart by visualizing a generous flow of financial abundance. Thank you for supporting us as we continue our work of fostering a creative, inclusive approach to spirituality. We are deeply grateful.

A THANKSGIVING DAY GIFT

     Recently, while rummaging through the jam-packed closet located underneath the staircase in our living room, we excavated a large tote box full of photos that had been stuffed in the back of that closet for years, forgotten. A quick peek revealed thousands of photos so we let the box sit in the corner of the dining room, unexamined for a few days longer, because sorting through it seemed like just one more formidable task waiting to be accomplished someday.

 

LIFTING THE LID

     But once the Thanksgiving feast had been eaten and the dishes had all been done, I decided to spend a couple of minutes looking at a few photos. As I settled into my favorite chair and removed the lid, a barrage of memories rose from the top layer of images. Here's Mateo as a toddler, sitting in the garden of our old house in King William; there's young Zet and Rudi, in the first flush of love, both wearing long, dark, curly hair and goofy grins, without a care in the world.  And there's one of our parents, standing together at our wedding, looking bemused, but hopeful. And then those colorful shots of our first trip to Mexico together.

 

RELIVING OLD MEMORIES

     We usually keep our files and papers fairly organized, but for whatever reason, there's absolutely no order among the images stored here. Curiosity aroused, I plunged my hand into the box at random, and grabbed a fistful of photos documenting the six months we lived in Manhattan and our five years in Berkeley. The next fistful contains old promo shots of my days as a rock-'n-roller, along with images of us planting an oak tree at our new house. There are many images of multiple trips to Amsterdam, plus Seattle, Jerusalem and lots of fascinating points in between; but many more of times spent hanging out at home, quietly cooking, gardening, parenting, and playing through the first 25 years of our relationship.

     Time melts, and I ended up spending several hours looking at photos, feeling waves of emotions wash through my heart, bringing questions to mind: what was his name?  Is she still alive?  Where was that restaurant? What made us think THAT was a good idea?

 

RE-THINKING OLD NOTIONS

     I've gotten so used to taking and viewing photos on our smartphones in recent years that I'd all but forgotten what it's like to go through paper prints like this. Just touching them, smelling them, seeing all these images jumbled together like this reminds me how non-linear our lives really are, despite our best attempts to plan and manipulate them into straight lines that will fit our pictures of how they "should" unfold.

     I can't help but smile to think of how much energy I've wasted over the years, fearful about various Big Decisions, thinking they would shape my future. How important it all seemed while trying to decide which job, which house, which spouse to choose, how to get the Big Break that would make my career a success. But seeing these photos reminds me that, in fact, there was no need to stress over the Big Decisions, because my life was actually being shaped by thousands of daily acts and small choices, while the Big Things just sort of happened.

 

RETURNING TO GRATITUDE

    It turned out that my life's work emerged one gig at a time. Zet magically appeared on my first day at a job I hadn't even sought. Years later, we were able to adopt Mateo because Zet's mother's neighbor's sister's lawyer's paralegal assistant happened to know a woman whose daughter was pregnant and hoping to find adoptive parents for a baby she couldn't keep. Then we lucked into finding our current house, at precisely the moment our family had outgrown our previous home. Again and again, it's clear that there was some Force, some Source, something much bigger than me in charge of my life, propelling me forward in ways I couldn't begin to imagine, much less plan. 

     It took quite a while, but eventually I learned that the Big Things will unfold by themselves; my job is to stay as awake and as aware as possible while handling the small, daily tasks, one at a time.

 

REMEMBERING WHY

     Sitting there on Thanksgiving Day, I feel deeply grateful for the many, many blessings of my life: an amazing wife, wonderful children, loving friends, satisfying work, excellent health and much, much more. But at the very top of the list is an awareness and abiding trust in the Sacred Source moving through my life and all of Creation - truly knowing that all is well, as it always has been and always will be. What a gift!  At least, that's my Thanksgiving Story, and I'm sticking to it.

With gratitude and joy,

     Rudi Harst

PS:  Also, please consider joining us for our GivingThanks Potluck Feast next Sunday, November 25, immediately following the Morning Circle. 

THANK YOU for holding the Circle in your heart by visualizing a generous flow of financial abundance. Thank you for supporting us as we continue our work of fostering a creative, inclusive approach to spirituality. We are deeply grateful.

FEASTING IN GRATITUDE

As Thanksgiving Day approaches, we find ourselves grateful for the many blessings in our lives, and the gift of your presence and participation in the Celebration Circle community is high on our list. We invite you to join us in consciousness as we imagine gathering around one gigantic table with you and all our other Circle family members, sharing a Thanksgiving Feast at the same time and space, feasting together in the spirit of Oneness. Delicious!

 

SAVOR THE FLAVORS

     As much as we like the idea of that metaphysical feast, we also wanted to  extend that energy onto the physical plane by sharing one of our family's favorite recipes for Three Sisters Stew, a hearty, one-pot meal that lends itself to being enjoyed with loved ones.  May you, too, find yourself feeling well-loved and well-fed. Bon apetít!

 

Three Sisters Stew

Among the First People of the Southwest, squash, corn and beans were dietary staples, known as the Three Sisters

 4 tablespoons oil

1 large onion, cut to a medium dice

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or 1-inch piece of stick cinnamon

1 pinch of ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

1 30 ounce can tomatoes, chopped; with juice

2+ cups broth, can include juice from tomatoes, beans and corn

1 15 ounce can beans (black, pinto, or kidney); juice reserved

1 15 ounce can whole kernel corn or frozen corn; juice reserved

(Watch the amount of salt in canned foods, they can change taste dramatically.) 

3 cups pumpkins or winter squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

1 1/2 teaspoon chipotle or 2 jalapenos, seeded, finely chopped

Cilantro for garnish

 

Heat oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven;  sauté diced onion until it begins to soften and clear.  Add the garlic, spices and salt; let cook for 2-3 minutes.  Add the tomatoes with juice, along with the broth and pumpkin or squash along with broth.  After 20 - 30 minutes, or when the pumpkin is about half cooked--soft but still too firm to eat--add the corn, beans and chili. Cook until the pumpkin is tender.  Check the seasoning, and adjust if necessary. You can also add more broth depending on your choice of stew or soup.  Serve garnished with chopped cilantro. Serves 4 - 6 large bowls of stew, and tastes particularly good with corn bread or tortillas.

 

With Gratitude and Blessings,

Rudi and Zet

PS:  Also, please consider joining us for our GivingThanks Potluck Feast next Sunday, November 25, immediately following the Morning Circle. 

THANK YOU for holding the Circle in your heart by visualizing a generous flow of financial abundance. Thank you for supporting us as we continue our work of fostering a creative, inclusive approach to spirituality. We are deeply grateful.

HERE AND THERE

Zet and I spent a few days in the Rio Grande Valley this week, where I'd scheduled performances on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday night. Both shows were wonderful, but also mentally challenging for me for a number of reasons, as was the disturbing news of yet another mass shooting in California and the swirl of Election Day results virtually guaranteed to exacerbate the ongoing divisiveness in American politics. 

 

BEING PRESENT 

     I found myself feeling deeply perplexed and puzzled by a variety of personal, professional and political questions as we packed our bags and headed home. Fortunately, we had a chance to visit a historic mansion called Quinta Mazatlán, where we were immediately immersed in the magical spell cast by twenty acres of botanical garden, focused on the native flora and fauna indigenous to the Valley.  Although it is located in the heart of the booming metropolis of McAllen, Quinta Mazatlán is not a manicured, showcase garden, but an eyepopping maze of meandering footpaths leading through an overgrown tangle of thorny brush, mesquite trees and cacti. The sheer ruggedness and harshness of the vegetation is breathtaking; it's hard to imagine such a foreboding landscape being home to a rich, complex network of plants, insects, birds and animals that exists nowhere else on the planet except the Rio Grande Valley.

 

FEELING GRATEFUL

     Strolling slowly and stopping often, I could feel my mind soften, heart open, face muscles slack and relaxed. At the deep cellular level, my body was soothed by what poet Wendall Berry has termed, "the peace of wild things."

    All too soon, it's time to leave this magical place. As we exit the thorny brush, I read one last sign, explaining the various kinds of plants and animals, and their interrelationships with each other and the environment. The bottom line reads "All is one... one is all" - and the truth of it ripples through every cell and fiber of my being, as we turn and head back home, grateful for this reminder.

With gratitude and blessings,

     Rudi Harst

THANK YOU for holding the Circle in your heart by visualizing a generous flow of financial abundance. Thank you for supporting us as we continue our work of fostering a creative, inclusive approach to spirituality. We are deeply grateful.