I’ve been lightly looking into Vedic astrology these days, and I have come to see that both Venus and the Moon have a strong influence on my life. Venus is the mother of creativity, she is the force that sends sparks of inspiration to me. That’s how inspiration feels to me – little sparkles that I try to capture and write down into a long list of ideas that I want to bring to life one day. Some days these sparks seldom come, other days it feels like I am on fire. I’ve noticed a true and deep connection between my inspiration and my spiritual practice. The more consistently I maintain my spiritual practice, the more my day is filled with fireworks. I write in my blog much more when I am connected to my practices, when I am living my truest, most authentic life.
I have really been indulging in my blog for the last few weeks, but today I have a short and sweet post for you.
Every day I try to nourish myself so that I may grow into a happier person and live a beautiful and blessed life. It is a daily practice because a life well lived, a charmed life, is created one day at a time.
Writing this post has reminded me how simple it is to nourish and nurture yourself every day.
I think it’s important to always know why you are doing something, because why you do something influences how you do something, and how you do something is how you live.
Spirituality is a very trendy topic these days, and everyone is doing it for different reasons. So, ask yourself, why do you crave it? What is the inspiration for you to sit, close your eyes, and meditate?
Do you do it because it will bring you peace and a stress free life?
Do you do it because it will make you a happier person?
Today I wanted to write about the joy of nothing. I wanted to write a post the way I usually do, to explain this concept, but a poem came through instead.
Some of the most beautiful things that have happened to me are best expressed as poetry. This is a semi-formed poem. It didn’t become the poem I intended it to be, it became something else.
It was born out of a meditation and a certain knowingness I have come to understand in my life that, maybe there is nothing standing in the way of me and my soul. Maybe it takes absolutely nothing to be joyful.
I really needed to take a break from studying for my exam on Thursday. My brain feels like a ball of fuzz.
The other evening, I was in the living room with Sean, my roommate. And in my sleepy-brain-fuzzy-haze, I put the lights out in the room and then casually sat down to eat dinner (in the dark). Sean got up and put the light back on. I felt like something weird had just happened, I asked “Did I just….put the lights off?!” It was so funny! We laughed about that for a while. The strangest thing is that I did it AGAIN later that night! Haha.
So, given my history of doing weird things when tired, I think it is best I do take a break from studying.
Instead, I want to share with you some of my most loved quotes and poems by the Sufi poet/mystic Rumi.
This collection moves me and speaks to parts of me that are unspoken. That is poetry. It is interesting to me that while I love to write and document my life through prose and journalling, some of the most beautiful or haunting things that have happened to me are best expressed as poetry. I wonder why that is.
Lately, I felt an inner ache for a more peaceful and contemplative life. Over the last year, something has shifted inside me and my focuses have changed. Expanded, maybe. I want to be wholesome, not exclusive. After thinking a lot about how “small is wonderful” I began to cherish life in the smallest ways, to the biggest ways – in all the ways that life comes.
I have been contemplating how to live a bright, vibrant life and what this means to me. For me, this means to live with consciousness and presence.
To open up each moment and live in the essence of it. To pursue the quiet pastimes of reading, writing, thinking. I used to do a lot of that a few years ago, but as I started getting busy with other things (and sometimes busy with the wrong things), my practices of contemplation and solitude fell away. There’s nothing wrong with “busy”. But I want to be conscious of my “busy”. And I want to be happy during my “busy”.
If you want to change how your life feels there is a process to it. You first have to make the commitment to creating what you truly care about. In this way, your mind becomes organized and focused. Once your mind is focused, your emotions and feelings begin to re-arrange and organize themselves. Then comes your body and your vital life energies. They re-orient themselves to what you have focused on. Once these elements are pointing in the direction that you have committed to, your ability to create and manifest is awakened. And life will being to feel the way you want it to.
I would like to share with you some notes I written on what it is to live a quiet, contemplative life.
