Something Beautiful

"How are you doing?" A business acquaintance ask on a call. "Beautiful", I
respond . A few days later, finishing a transaction with a clerk, my
purchase in hand and my parting word, there it is again, -- beautiful!
What is going on?

While my experience recently of being graced by this word has very little
to do with anything that I have willfully or intentionally created, I am
nevertheless very grateful. It feels good and by the responses and
reactions it has been a bit of a light for others also. This got me
thinking about the classic Christian virtues of the good, the true, and,
yes, the beautiful! What does beauty have to do with health and wellness?
In these interactions, this flow of spirits gives the example of hope to
each other and therefore affect each others wellness journey. How might
this be? Apparently the health choices, attitudes, moods, and behavior of
the five people one is closest to affect motivation and current and future
state of health and well being more than just about anything!

Give beauty back, as the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote. This internal
movement flows from us with greater ease when we are in the presence of the
beautiful. Maybe more accurately it happens when we allow what is
to wash through us and over us..  And maybe to a certain degree this process is always
happening deep in us and looking for ways to a least seep or peak out,
if not burst out!  We take in beauty in art and in the design of a well
done building which invites this opening of our soul to fill those places
that are so regularly marinating in the lie of anxiety and fear.

And when the anxiety gives way, we notice more easily the desire for health
and our conscious willingness is strengthened and positive behaviors happen.
These behaviors then become habits as the brain in its miraculous neuroplasisity
 rewires and mylinates( perhaps with greater power if we are consuming an
adequate amount of right kind of fats).   And we dance a bit more deeply into the mystery and perhaps in the words
of Meister Eckhart, " Our soul is as young as the day we were born...even
younger!"

Random wellness thoughts from the 2013 Ancesteral Health Symposium

Arriving and wanting to find the new cleverness, the next BIG thing, but instead sensing the essential, the whole --and what a fun discovery! As was noted at last year’s symposium, the attendees were a beautiful bunch of curious, fun folks. And the spirit palpable, flowing and inviting and perhaps most were unaware, and yet it is and was always breaking through. The wonderful farming couple from Floyd, Va., the mother filled with the joy of her new baby. I loved their samples and kept finding an excuse to be near them. Mercy and grace shining in their joyful presence and en-thu-si-asm, meaning with God, I am told. Oh the wonder and depth of it all! All wanting and desiring more and the spirit implanting this and nurturing these desires of the heart for more.

Smart phones keeping us connected to our lives back home, and yet drawing us away from the vulnerability of silence that always births in the meeting of a new, separate soul. Not knowing or perhaps unwilling to allow the spirit to move; unable to move into the intimate challenge of really meeting each other.

Primates mentioned as spending much of their time grooming each other in the talk describing the concerns about social media. What is our equivalent of this behavior? Just hanging out and playing and loving and enjoying? Yes, the joy of being is enough and yet feeling the tinge of loss at not connecting deeper, always wanting to go deeper always wanting more as the good desire of the spirit keeping us feeling the nips of the hound of heaven. There is always more in to the beauty and the goodness and the truth.

The playing/movement coaching from my man from London was wonderful and freeing --the best part of the symposium. Overwhelmed by the sensing of the positive hearts dancing with the Trinity expanding and touching as we do the crab walk and these “pilgrim strangers" holding me up and encouraging me to hold my legs off the ground in a spontaneous, simple human connecting moment. The movement of my heart, echoing the behavior of my child bride, in the tipping of the soul who would be cleaning my room; pushed ever closer to you in spite of my innate frugalness. Thank you!

And the strength and enthusiasm of the farmer and his wife with their forty plus head of water buffalo living the good life and battling the nonsense and leviathan of our Federal government with the good libertarian fight. It is all good and belongs in our stumbling beautiful movement deeper into the wonderful dance of wellness. The caller of the dance calling the steps, as we move to get a little closer to thee.