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Full moon memories

I’ve always loved the full moon but didn’t fully appreciate it until I moved to Italy. I would read in a novel how the smugglers had to wait for a moonless night or how the heroine was able to make her escape by the light of the full moon…but I couldn’t really comprehend why it would make such a difference.

That’s because having lived virtually all my life up to that point in the San Francisco Bay Area — with all its artificial light — I had never experienced the contrast of a new moon versus a full moon night.

But then I moved to Ananda Assisi, located in the rural Umbria countryside. I still remember the first time I left an evening program on a full moon night. I was enthralled as I walked home, marveling at how the moonlight could be so bright as to create shadows!

No need for a flashlight on those nights, but come the new moon it was another story entirely!

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Getting still

Today’s Inner Renewal Week class was on “The Inward Path to Self-Realization: the Meditative Arts & Discipleship” and we were guided to start out with the perfect song: In the Temple of Isis. Jyotish even referred to the lyrics in connection with the need for stillness in order to meditate.

Isis is the Mother aspect of God in the ancient Egyptian religion; Swami Kriyananda wrote the song after meditating at the Temple of Isis, in Aswan. Below are the lyrics and also a recording of this inspiring song.

Still your mind if you want to pray.
Send all cares faraway.
Sing, then: Love’s ever near:
Isis comes, await the day.
Isis comes: await the day!
Mother comes: await the day!

Still your heart if you want to pray.
Send all cares faraway.
Sing, then: Love’s ever near:
Isis comes, await the day.
Isis comes: await the day!
Mother comes: await the day!

Still your soul if you want to pray.
Isis comes, await the day.
Isis comes: await the day!
Mother comes: await the day!

by Swami Kriyananda
In the Temple of Isis (The Harmony Duo)
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Something astrological?

Maybe it was something astrological. All I know is…today was perhaps the most communication-intensive day I’ve ever had!

I chatted with friends old and new over breakfast; conversed with Village friends at lunch; connected in the mid-afternoon with yet more friends; and spent time with new out-of-town friends during dinner.

Altogether I interacted with twelve different people: at a friend’s house off-property; at Master’s Market; in the Lahiri building kitchen; in the music office; and at The Expanding Light Retreat.

Topics included (among others) how we met our husbands; gardening; the importance of the arts at Ananda; whether or not to play the melody when chanting with harmonium; and strategies for growing the choir at an urban Ananda center.

Connecting with so many different people often feels overwhelming and draining, but today I managed to simply flow with it and had a lot of fun!

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Saturation point

We’re at the midpoint of Inner Renewal Week and I’m already feeling “full up”!

Filled to the brim morning after morning with wisdom and inspiration from Jyotish and Devi. Filled with soul joy from so much singing. Filled with gratitude for opportunities to connect with dear friends — old and new!

So tonight is the moment to take a breather. Aaahhhh… 😎

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The social path

The Assisi branch of the Ananda family!

The topic for today’s Inner Renewal Week class was “The Social Path to Self-Realization: World Brotherhood Colonies”, which ended up being the theme for my entire day!

First of all, I happened upon this recent photo of Ananda Assisi community members and was struck by how deeply connected I still feel to these souls even though it’s been over fifteen years since I lived there. Time and distance don’t matter; they’re family!

Then we ate lunch with Deodan, who just arrived from Assisi last night and will be here for two months learning about managing a community. Our lunch table included devotees from Italy (Deodan), Switzerland (Ramesha ), and Sweden (Anna), showing yet another beautiful aspect of Ananda — people from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, and lifestyles coming together to live, work, and serve in a harmonious unity.

To cap it all off, we led a sing-along tonight in the Temple of Light. Village residents, visitors from other communities, and Expanding Light guests joined together in blissing out to Swamiji’s music; personally, I felt totally uplifted! And I found myself reflecting yet again on how important Swamiji considered music to be in building strong communities. He addresses it in this quote (one of my favorites, no surprise!):

“I can best express through music the feeling of holy upliftment that possessed me. Therefore I tell people, “If you want to know me, listen to my music.” It is through this that people have come to understand what Ananda is truly all about. Without its influence, Ananda would not be what it is today. Books and lectures are only the outer form of the teachings. Music is its coursing blood.“
(from A Place Called Ananda, Chapter 13)

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A Century of Spiritual Awakening

Inner Renewal Week is underway here at Ananda Village, focused on the centennial of Paramhansa Yogananda’s arrival in the West.

As usual Jyotish and Devi got the week underway with deeply inspiring talks that brought home to me just how much courage and commitment Yogananda needed to have in order to make the transition to life in America (not that I’ll ever really understand, of course!).

But boy oh boy am I glad he did!

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Both reward AND motivation

I think this incredibly beautiful sunrise was Divine Mother giving me a combination of reward and motivation as month #2 of early morning wake-ups gets fully underway!

She certainly got my attention with this one!

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Imbolc blessings

Many years ago I was part of a spiritually focused women’s group; we called ourselves WINGS (Women Inspired to Nurture and Grow Spiritually). It was a key factor that catapulted me fully onto the spiritual path.

We were a small group, just the four of us meeting monthly in the San Francisco Bay Area. We bonded deeply and are still close (in spirit, though we live far apart) over thirty years later.

So what made me think of WINGS today? It was seeing the image above and remembering how — thanks to my friend, Hanna — we celebrated the ancient Celtic spring festival of Imbolc.

Imbolc is the time when the first stirrings of spring are felt. It is “the promise of renewal, of hidden potential, of earth awakening and life-force stirring.”

I’ve recently been feeling an awareness of that here in the rural community where I live. I can see the barest hint of buds and of plants just beginning to push up through the ground. And even though it’s still cold and the days are still pretty short, you can sense the pulse of the earth picking up and feel the increasing hope that spring really is on its way.

I think we’re beginning to feel it in our lives as well. I’m beginning to sense that the projects that have sometimes seemed like nothing’s happening…that there’s nothing to show for all the work…that it’s taking too long…that those very projects are beginning to quicken. That the growth is happening, even though it’s not showing yet. There’s a rightness to the process that is as old as time and this reassures me and I feel hopeful again.

You can read more about Imbolc here.

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Congrats to me!

I started 2020 determined to shift some longtime behaviors (as described in my blog post: Off to a great start). But I know better than to attempt a dramatic, sweeping transformation; instead I was aiming for incremental, gradual but consistent change in three key areas of my life.

Well, two out of the three were incremental and gradual; the other not so much. If my goal had been to “earn” one star each for successfully getting up early, meditating, and rebounding every day, I’m pretty sure I would have failed. I would have gotten frustrated when I only had two stars, or — heaven forbid — only one!

Instead I decided that — so long as I was making a good effort in the right direction every day — I earned my star!

So, what was the bottom line? The incremental, gradual changes went pretty darn well. I started with just a few minutes at a time several times a day on the rebounder and it felt great. I never missed a day and I can feel definite changes in my energy, stamina, and strength as a result.

Getting up dramatically earlier allowed me to gradually rebuild a consistent meditation practice, which feels incredible!

But as it turns out, “forcing” myself to get up early no matter what time I went to bed wasn’t sustainable — I was feeling rundown, getting cranky, and it was affecting my ability to function. However–! It did allow me to get off to a good start with my new year routines; in fact, over the course of the month I found myself spontaneously adding in other little healthy habits and improvements. And even though I had to back off the super early waking up, I’m still getting up way earlier than before.

So that’s why I’m saying “Well done, Bhagavati!” and “Congrats to me!”

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Juggling plates

Too much of today felt like this…

….when what I want to feel is this.

Even-minded and cheerful. Such an excellent goal.