All That You Dream by Dean Solon

what is residing and abiding in the depth and breadth and breath of you is not a heart of darkness.

residing and abiding in the depth and breadth and breath of you is a heart of compassion, a heart of wisdom.

what is residing and abiding and abounding in the depth and breadth and breath of you is not restlessness and noise.

residing and abiding in the depth and breadth and breath of you is a quiet,
is a silence,
that includes all sounds and all sights
and all that is past and is future
and all that is full and is empty
and all that you know and do not know     
and all that you dream


Thich Nhat Hanh:  "If we live mindfully, we encounter the Buddha and Jesus Christ all the time."

A Song For The New Day by Dean Solon

you are here to change the tune.

you are here to sing a different song, to chant a different mantra.  you are here to bear witness, to go forth with love, to resolve and to redeem, to make waves and to make whole.

you are here to be blessed, and to be bliss.  you are here to sit before the altar, to be altered, and to be one who alters in space and time.  you are here to be awakened, and to be an awakener.

you are here to be the loving cup.  you are here to be a bolt of lightning.  you are here to be a single finger, pointing skyward.

you are here to be what you are.  you are here to be more than who you are.


you are a stranger in a strange land.  you are a perfect fit in this world.

you are a mending of the fabric that is torn.  you are a healing of the wound that has been inflicted.

you are a leaping forward to the remembering of an ancient tale.  you are a falling backward into a seat that has been waiting for you.

you are the reaching for something new.

you are the retrieving of something misplaced.

you are here for completion.  you are here for the co-creating of a new beginning.


you are here to be what you are.  you are here to be more than who you are.

 

Get off the Merry-Go-Round of Life to Rediscover Your Children - by Jeff Katowitz

          The life of a parent can sometimes be described as like being on a merry-go-round that just never stops. Racing around in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. Where are we supposed to be and what is demanded of us? Who needs me and how and what do I need to prioritize? With the mundane tasks, responsibilities that seem to never end we tend to get caught or trapped on the merry-go-round of life and miss out on making sure that we reconnect and nurture important relationships.

      It is important for all of us who have children to consider taking a journey back to them. What this essentially means is that many of us are gradually distancing ourselves from what we covet the most, we’re just not aware that it is happening. This process occurs as we rarely get a chance to evaluate and remind ourselves of what is most meaningful. It’s time for us to pay closer attention and to work towards understanding and appreciating where our children are in their development. Begin to look more closely at how our involvement in their lives on a consistent basis can impact their mood, grades, relationships, physical health, motivation and overall behavior.

     Consider conducting a self-evaluation of how much we really know what is going on our children’s lives. Do we know who their friends are? Did we know that they got an “A” on their last spelling test? When was the last time we read to them, threw a ball, colored, went to the movies? Oh, here’s a good one – how about asking ourselves when was the last time we had a meaningful conversation with our child?

     If you answered “I don’t know” or “no” to some of these questions you may want to take notice and evaluate more closely your relationships with your children. Ask yourself the question “what role am I playing in the life of my children?” Perhaps circumstances make it difficult for you to connect with your children due to a myriad of reasons, but begin to examine if changes need to be made in order to be more accessible to them and identify their needs.

      Here are a few simple suggestions of how to increase your involvement and connection with your children. Start a process of consistent communication with each of them. It can be a simple comment or initiating a dialogue with them that shows that you care and notice them. “You look really cool in that jacket.” “I heard you did well on your quiz yesterday,” “How was your day?” You can also try to tell them how much they mean to you. “You know, you are really important to me and I hope we can begin spending more time together – what do you think?” Remember, it doesn’t require a great deal of effort to embark on that journey back into their lives. You just have to be willing to step off of the merry-go-round for a while and take notice.

Jeff Katowitz, LMFT is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist providing individual, couples, and family counseling. Specialities include adolescent development, separation, divorce, adoption, blended families, grief and loss, and families in transition. 

How Big? by Dean Solon

How big are we supposed to be?

What Is is nearly infinite in its spaciousness, in its openness, in its vastness.  Words are limiting, and What Is stretches nearly infinitely beyond all possible limitations and boundaries.  We are created to be immense, expanding beings big enough to "contain" all that is in its nearly infinite complexity and its nearly infinite simplicity.  We are to be big enough so that All That Is is expressed fully in our words, in our actions,
in the walk that we are walking,
in the silence that is nearly enveloping in its nearly infinite field.

We are intended to manifest the spaciousness that is ever becoming the spaciousness of What Is, to unfold the openness that is ever becoming the openness of What Is, to reveal the vastness that is ever becoming the vastness of What Is.

How big are we supposed to be?

We are to be big enough to create the illusion,
we are to be big enough to maintain the illusion,
we are to be big enough to override
     and set aside the illusion.

We are to be big enough to be a drop of water dripping from the faucet of all time and space, big enough to be the drop infinitely dripping from that which is behind and beyond the faucet of all time and space.

We are unleashed, to be the drop that is One Drop,
to be the trickle become the flood
overflowing.

Michigan Meditation by Dean Solon

living in me
is nothing to acccomplish in this lifetime.
living in me
is there never was anything to be accomplished,
and there may never be.
i was born whole;
that there were holes to be filled
was illusion and ignorance, and
is illusion and ignorance if and when arising.
enlightenment was, is, not needed.

enlightenment was to be, is to be, not sought.
why seek, why search,
for what is, and always is, present moment?
reaching for the sky?  here is the sky.
looking for the ground, looking for the floor?
here is the ground.  here is the floor.
looking for what is real and true?
here is what is real, here is what is true..
looking for what is not-real, not-true?
here is what is not-real, not-true.

here is what you've been looking for,
where what you've been looking for always has been.

living in you
is nothing to accomplish in this lifetime.
living in you
is there never was anything to be accomplished,
and there may never be.
you were born whole;
that there were holes to be filled
was illusion and ignorance, and
is illusion and ignorance if and when arising.
enlightenment was, is, not needed.

Generosity Of Spirit by Dean Solon

gentleness with self opens to and reveals a wonderful "secret" teaching:  you are perfectly all right as you are.

you are perfectly all right as you are.

this gentleness and generosity with yourself unfolds to a feeling and to a sharing of light and warmth, of compassion and loving kindness, with other living beings. 
and so your perception of life and of the world begins to change and to expand...and so the world changes, too.

sitting in this moment...in this present and precious moment.
sitting...in this transitory
                     transparent
                     translucent
                     transcendent
                     transformative moment.
the concoction and connection already residing inside you.
the concoction and connection already and always breathing, already and always living, inside you.

New Life (Easter 2011) by Dean Solon

a meeting and merging of vision with precision and a big sky view.

an experiencing of the whole shebang in its infinite variety and definitive exactitude.

this...
is seeing what is and what is to be without attaching to outcome or addicting to process (and performance).
is living wthout limits, living with restraint (and integrity).
is living with all seeming paradoxes and without confusion.
this...
is a path requiring practice and purpose, and humility.
is a way of walking as shaman-self and as spiritual friend.
is a journey of participating in time and space without adhering to time and space.
is a coming to personal realizatiom and liberation, to awakening and enlightenment, and is a coming to compassion for all living beings, in any and every form and expression.
this...
is offering and receiving gentleness with oneself.
is attaching no importance to any of all of this.
this...
is being here and now, and being anywhen and everywhere.