Carla spoke recently about 2012 being an important year in so many ways ... and offered us the opportunity to explore Good Will 'together'. What a marvellous thing.
As I write I feel excited about the great potential awaiting us on this new journey. The adventure of unearthing ideas/concepts to help build our individual and collective capacity - so we're more 'able' to approach each moment
with sensitivity & mindfulness.
I'm really curious to know - do others also have this experience of time speeding up too? And moments - or even longer periods - of that scattered and unfocused experience? I sure do!
Roberto suggests 'The more conflict there is, the
more energy is wasted'. The idea of wasted energy really rings true for me, in my life. I'm going on record here when I say I'm committed to re-channeling my own energies more effectively, more skillfully in 2012 - for the good of one and all.
There's a wonderful phrase Roberto offers us, "Make haste slowly". Those words keep making an appearance in my mind as I sit with all this. As I explore the concept I want to acknowledge our earlier book study on the 'Act of Will', which has given/reminded me, of many skills which I've been able to utilise in this process! Tied up in this experience there's also a gradual, and ongoing, letting go and a 'grieving' for the time wasted as I've gotten caught up in the busy-ness of life and also for the reality that as one person there are limits to what I can do in any given moment.
Hedi recently spoke about Good Will as 'Love in Action'. What a truly marvellous concept. I think to myself in response 'Yes, there ARE ways I can contribute - now how can I share love with others practically?!'.
So in the spirit of love I will take up your invitation Carla and share my earlier meditations in my next post. This feels a very public place to share for a shy person like me - and I do this in the spirit of love even in the face of vulnerability...
As promised: am including below my earlier meditations/prelimimary thoughts about this concept of 'How to manifest Good Will'...
ReplyDelete"...Had a most fascinating time both reflecting and 'recepting'. I had to giggle about some things that happened that I must share with you as I thought it was quite apt given our topic.
So I did my meditating in a number of spots and also in part walking along a small stream contemplating the theme. I hadn't brought the wording with me on my journey so I ended up just going with what came to me at the time that felt present, which was the words "How can we
actively develop and encourage the manifestation of Good Will in ourselves and others and the world?"
I moved several times and camped up in a couple of places.
At one point I decided I'd pick a particular gravely nook that formed something of a natural seat with a back (after some big stones were moved). I leaned back into the gravel and popped my t-shirt over my head to cover my face and neck as the sun was quite warm. My dog had been bounding in and out of the undergrowth happily throughout the afternoons events and I'd just included her sounds into the experience.
Suddenly after a long period of quietness, with just birds singing and the gentle trickle of water, I heard her crash out of the undergrowth - she must have seen me half sitting/lying there with my bright pink top covering my face. Her goodwill instantly came to the fore and she poked her head into the top trying to see if I was ‘okay’. So there I was 'mid reverie' so-to-speak and this cold snout pokes in and her wet hair from the river intruded upon my contemplation.
All quite funny and also a lesson for me that sometimes when we seek to bring our Good Will to others they might not really need it right then. So the value of 'checking things out' to see what was needed came to my mind. And on another level a delight to have her gentle caring self eruputing forth!
Then I moved to a lovely little forest part we call 'Sherwood Forest' and I have an old recycled banana deck chair there. After brushing off the leaves and checking for spiders I sat down and was blessed with a visit from a happy fantail who came really close to my face (a fantail is a bird who is sometimes also called the ‘Bushmans Friend’ as when one is near the story goes that one will not come to harm - how's that for Good Will!!) . I was struck by the Good Will inherent in nature.
So, anyway I have had some initial ideas from all of these musings and so on.
In reflection this gets me thinking about how Good Will can appear all kinds of times and places if we have the eyes to see it and welcome it. Also about how we can mirror nature in our human-ness. I might call Good Will GW or GW below to save typing.
Some random thoughts:
* maybe we could invite contributions from people on Good Will (or the specific question) with a certain word limit - they could form some of the readings.
* if we use pre-written text - since we are holding Good Will perhaps it would be a nice demonstration and manifestation to gain their written permission to use said text - as a way of manifesting that sense of respect and care that I see inherent in Good Will
* we could look at what gets in the way of GW
* we could look at the elements that support it
* we could seek examples of GW manifested and perhaps also explore our responses to the stories of this being done
* we could include GW quotes for contemplation
Okay so that's a start.
Arohanui Natasha..."