And so it has happened – finally, the government issued guidance to practise social distancing, work from home if possible and avoid non-essential travel. Virtually all my work is cancelled or postponed. A whole new era begins for us all. I’m so relieved we are responding collectively at last, and taking seriously the devastating reports and warnings coming from Italy, the current epicentre of the coronavirus. I am astounded by the situation we are in: both the health situation and the immense shift in human activity worldwide. Bar the blessed healthcare workers and those affected directly. the planet is coming to rest. Humanity is laying down its tools. It is ceasing its frenzied activity. It’s going to find time to think, to recuperate, to recharge, to become present again. I am staggered by the days we are in.
It is good to watch, to be watchful, to observe, to be present to… what is happening, in you and around you.
I was very emotional and tearful over past days. I felt this country was sleepwalking into a war zone. I feel more at ease now that we have awoken to the seriousness of the situation. My watching is calmer now.
Let’s read…
CONSTANCY: “People who know the state of emptiness will always be able to dissolve their problems by constancy.” The message for us today is “Cultivate your own spirit.” It means not to go seeking for something outside of yourself. Zen Mind p83
Well, that is interesting. So, be a watcher, but seek only from inside yourself.
‘Cultivate your own spirit’ means rest in that which bubbles up naturally within you whenever, and we mean whenever, you take your foot off the brake of resistance. Resistance is the state of blocking the desire of our inner being, which is something we do out of lack of belief that we are worthy of our desires.
‘Cultivate your own spirit’ means dwell in the natural source of joy and goodness within you. Can you find it yet?
Yes! I think I can. It’s the day dreamer in me!
Exactly! Today’s archetype is: the Day Dreamer. She wallows in images that tickle and inspire her. She is off with the fairies, or the castle-builders, or the explorers, or the para-gliders, or the trapeze artists, or the vaccine creators, or the peace keepers, or the party animals, or the dance troupe… She is carried by her imagination, by the good feeling thoughts, by a freedom to follow her mind into her ‘target slides’.
You need to get pretty still to Day Dream, don’t you?
It certainly helps to slow down internally – and get into the parasympathetic state. But walking is fine. Walking is good. Movement is good for day dreaming.
What One Thing? Have a day-dreaming walk today.
Will do.
The message is this: Be the Day Dreamer. Take wisps of good feeling, and stir them up into candy floss clouds of happy imagination. Paint pictures in your mind, and on your paper around you. Pick up the smallest nuggets of happy thinking, and spin them into happy scenes. Your imagination is a creative force – use it, in this day of days, to see scenes of love, of unity, of pleasure, of evolution, of fulfilment, of joy and of peace.
Amen.
Be the Day Dreamer