01
Goes the saying, "Discretion is the better part of valor." And another saying, "Look before you leap." Which is to say, "Know what you are doing." All of which are wasted upon those who are all into "Making hay while the sun is shining," and, "Seizing the moment," and, "Striking while the iron is hot," and, Not letting opportunity pass them by... Which gets us back to the relationship between discretion and valor. Courage is required from the start. Courage is the ground floor of discretion. We have to have what it takes to look, to see, to know, and to do what needs to be done, which may be saying, "I'm not going there." Courage is the foundation. Without the courage to draw the lines that need to be drawn from the start, we are left with having to draw them when it is too late "to save the day." "A stitch in time saves nine." Which leaves us wondering where courage comes from, and how to find it when we need it. "The silence," of course, is my answer to everything. Sit quietly contemplating courage and see what arises in the silence. What occurs to you. What comes to mind. What appears. What emerges... It takes courage to sit with the silence. Just like it takes courage to draw the first line. We don't have to manufacture it. It is already there. Waiting. For us to know that we need it and invite it into our life. Where do you need to be courageous? Get out of the way, and let yourself surprise yourself. Surprising ourselves is what we can do best. But it takes getting out of the way.
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02
Regaining our sense of our place in the moment resets us in our position of a wheel turning out of its own center, like a gyroscope moving through each here and now with balance and harmony, seeing what's what and what needs to be done in response out of its own inner sense of what is most appropriate for the occasion. Each of us is a gyroscope balancing the needs of body and soul in harmony with the needs of here and now. Integrating opposites, honoring all perspectives, listening to all views, resolving all conflicts that can be resolved, exploring contradictions, respecting the importance of polarities, and maintaining the creative tension of life and being on all levels, in all ways. This is essential consciousness, crucial to the movement and flow of every moment. It is the work of healing, restoring, revitalizing, reimagining, and revolutionizing the world, one moment at a time, in a "Here we are, now what?" kind of way. And it depends upon us being fully present as mindfully aware human beings, open to who we are and what we are about in the time and place of our living. We cannot do that and be looking for how we can exploit the moment for our gain, our good, our pleasure and glory. Our choice in every moment is the choice of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the choice of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here we are, now what?
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03
The Silence is good for the right answers to the right questions. It doesn't care who is governor of North Dakota, or how to spell Minneapolis, but it comes alive to who are we and what we are about, what's happening and what needs to be done about it, when and how. The Silence is well-suited for helping us find our life and live it, to know what our shtick is and ride it like a witch's broom through all of the contexts, conditions and circumstances of our life, in being true to ourselves and perfectly appropriate in our response to what the moment is calling for in each situation as it arises. Waiting in The Silence "for the mud to settle and the water to clear," is, itself, a centering, grounding, experience. We breathe ourselves back to life, just sitting, just watching, just listening, for whatever The Silence has to offer. The Silence is home for our soul. It is our origin and our goal. Living in right relationship with The Silence positions us to be what is needed through all of the noise of the 10,000 things. And The Silence is always with us, present for our good and the good of the time and place of our living. It only takes being quiet in the right kind of way to know that it is so.
