Beyond being the most uplifting thing I've read in ages, this article absolutely is a gift straight from your heart of unconditional love to mine!
You proved your points (yes, plural) because I learned several things about myself without even trying!
I just needed to read this 'Right Here, Right Now'--or maybe not!
Ever since July, one of my fav friends in existence is living 11K miles and at least that many time zones away in central India, but I am incapable of keeping track of our respective 'clock' times.
So, your reference to time made me laugh at my constant rants:
"It is RIGHT NOW, here, and it's RIGHT NOW, there, too, damnit!"
Many thanks! It's great to know you-- and I will be back!
Tears falling in hearing the truth that you write so beautifully, so simply. This is my prayer too. May each moment be met with grace and love. On my knees, thank you dear One. 🌹
I woke up at 3:00 am, unable to sleep. The brain active with thoughts about feeling alone in my marriage, financial strain, and a house chaotic with boxes to be unpacked in my new home. I too struggle at times with the raw emotions that thought brings, trapped below the surface of them. I see the way to the top where I can break through and breath again, the way is just not clear at times. So, I get up in the darkness and turn on a light. Brew a cup of coffee and top it with frothed milk and read your words. I sit in stillness, savoring my drink letting the tears flow. I am here Now. The emotions have moved through and there is only this and this is enough. Thank you ❤️
Good morning - good morning - good morning as and I sit with your words and feeling gratitude. Thank you for the centering to move ahead toward Thanksgiving and the quiet dark of advent.
Wonderful post, and much needed. I love the way each quoted writer/poet moved through life's "prisons" (actual, somatic, mind-made) to a place of acceptance, peace.
Among my favorite lines, from Anam Thubten: "Love is the ability to see every circumstance and every being as perfect just as they are." My efforts in this are ongoing: as I try to help my aging mom; as I lie awake, wide-eyed, at 3am (again), ruminating on my own failures and shortcomings. But ... as you remind us ... there are no mistakes; just opening, learning, realizing our abiding connection to Source.
Blessings to you, Joan, and all, this Thanksgiving and always.
Thanks for your writings, and i like what you wrote about Damien Echols! I read all his substack posts and always think he is so amazing! What he had suffered and how he worked with it.
I admire you as well, your honesty, your wisdom! I wish you as always all the Best!!!!
Dear Joan, love ‘your prayer’, thank you. i’d like to read it at our Meditation group. I met Anum Thutpen a few years ago when he gave a talk at a Unitarian church in Belfast, Maine. We sat for a while and talked afterwards, and he was happy to hear that I had studied with Toni Packer. he said he had met her recently and thought she was maybe the most awake person he ever met.
Yes, he loved Toni. Told me he kept her books with his sacred books. His group rented Springwater for one of their retreats once, which is how he met her. I was on a retreat with him as Toni was dying in hospice, and there were quite a number of people on that retreat who had been with Toni, and it felt like we were with her, and Anam Thubten knew she was dying. Am enjoying your Substack, and always love the drawings. ❤️🙏
Beyond being the most uplifting thing I've read in ages, this article absolutely is a gift straight from your heart of unconditional love to mine!
You proved your points (yes, plural) because I learned several things about myself without even trying!
I just needed to read this 'Right Here, Right Now'--or maybe not!
Ever since July, one of my fav friends in existence is living 11K miles and at least that many time zones away in central India, but I am incapable of keeping track of our respective 'clock' times.
So, your reference to time made me laugh at my constant rants:
"It is RIGHT NOW, here, and it's RIGHT NOW, there, too, damnit!"
Many thanks! It's great to know you-- and I will be back!
Susan Thomas
Tears falling in hearing the truth that you write so beautifully, so simply. This is my prayer too. May each moment be met with grace and love. On my knees, thank you dear One. 🌹
The Charles Bukowski poem broke me.
I woke up at 3:00 am, unable to sleep. The brain active with thoughts about feeling alone in my marriage, financial strain, and a house chaotic with boxes to be unpacked in my new home. I too struggle at times with the raw emotions that thought brings, trapped below the surface of them. I see the way to the top where I can break through and breath again, the way is just not clear at times. So, I get up in the darkness and turn on a light. Brew a cup of coffee and top it with frothed milk and read your words. I sit in stillness, savoring my drink letting the tears flow. I am here Now. The emotions have moved through and there is only this and this is enough. Thank you ❤️
Good morning - good morning - good morning as and I sit with your words and feeling gratitude. Thank you for the centering to move ahead toward Thanksgiving and the quiet dark of advent.
Smiling with tears in my eyes🩷
there are only three words that suffice...a thousand thanks.
Thank you so much Joan, I loved it. "abandon my masterpiece and sink into the real Masterpiece". Have a good day.
Many hugs,
Yes what a powerful one, we spend so much time and effort, and neuroticism crafting “our”
Masterpiece, and what for exactly???
You’re a gift to me on the regular, Joan! Thank you!
Is Pluribus in your queue? I thought of messaging you after the first episode.
Haven't seen it. But if you recommend it, I'll check it out. ❤️
The Bukowski poem …❤️❤️
🙏❤️🙏 love love love
Wonderful post, and much needed. I love the way each quoted writer/poet moved through life's "prisons" (actual, somatic, mind-made) to a place of acceptance, peace.
Among my favorite lines, from Anam Thubten: "Love is the ability to see every circumstance and every being as perfect just as they are." My efforts in this are ongoing: as I try to help my aging mom; as I lie awake, wide-eyed, at 3am (again), ruminating on my own failures and shortcomings. But ... as you remind us ... there are no mistakes; just opening, learning, realizing our abiding connection to Source.
Blessings to you, Joan, and all, this Thanksgiving and always.
🙏
Dear Joan Tollifson
Thanks for your writings, and i like what you wrote about Damien Echols! I read all his substack posts and always think he is so amazing! What he had suffered and how he worked with it.
I admire you as well, your honesty, your wisdom! I wish you as always all the Best!!!!
Ul
Dear Joan, love ‘your prayer’, thank you. i’d like to read it at our Meditation group. I met Anum Thutpen a few years ago when he gave a talk at a Unitarian church in Belfast, Maine. We sat for a while and talked afterwards, and he was happy to hear that I had studied with Toni Packer. he said he had met her recently and thought she was maybe the most awake person he ever met.
Yes, he loved Toni. Told me he kept her books with his sacred books. His group rented Springwater for one of their retreats once, which is how he met her. I was on a retreat with him as Toni was dying in hospice, and there were quite a number of people on that retreat who had been with Toni, and it felt like we were with her, and Anam Thubten knew she was dying. Am enjoying your Substack, and always love the drawings. ❤️🙏
What a way to start my day…thank you Joan.