Spread Love

Today is Holi, the festival of colors and the welcoming of spring in the Hindu Tradition.  It is a day that we have fun with our families and friends by throwing colors and water balloons filled with colored water  on each other. It is a day of fun and frolic - it is a day of pure joy and love.  This holiday is about forgiveness, love, and friendship with one another.  There is alot of dance and music.    The splashing of the color - symbolizes that you are providing your friends and family a promise of being truthful towards them always, maintaining a life of long brotherhood and sisterhood with them and showers them with all the possible love.  How beautiful is that?  Something that is much needed in this world where we have seen in the last couple of weeks of  horrible shootings and anti-asian hate attacks.  We desperately need to bring back love to our society.  And it starts with each one of us.  The Pandemic did something to us as a society - it awakened in us a source of compassion for our neighbors, for strangers, for the whole world because we were all suffering together.   Yet when things to slightly go back to normal, or things start to open up, we go back to our old ways and begin to create drama and instill feelings of hate, anger, jealousy, hurt, etc in us.  This festival pushes us to go beyond that - it pushes us to reach out to all people regardless of race/religion/caste/creed.  We are different but within us is the same light and love inside all of us that needs to come out.   We need to work together as a society to recognize our differences and be more accepting of each other.  More tolerance, less discrimination.   Even though I am not out there throwing colors because of the pandemic, I can still practice the values that this festival teaches us.   Love - Love - Love-There is a phrase - "Dye me with the color of Thy Love."  When we sprinkle each other with love- it only grows - it doesn't shrink.  And this is the beauty of this festival.  So on this day, I wish each of you a Happy Holi!

Journal Prompt:  How can I add more color to my life?  Make a list!  

 

Lockdown

Lockdown 

A year ago today schools shut, offices shut, governments shut.

We all in a blink of an eye were forced to lock ourselves in our homes 

We were doing this for a reason

To keep ourselves safe 

To keep our neighbors safe

To keep our families safe

The streets were empty

We entered a virtual world not knowing how long this would last

The whole world was in this together

We counted the weeks, but weeks soon became months

Spring came 

Summer came

Fall came

Holidays, Birthdays, Festivals were all being celebrated virtually

We had learned to be resilient 

Birthday Drive by’s

Get Togethers with friends over zoom

Family Reunions 

Vacations were limited to day trips

Watching  Sunsets and Sunrises gave great joy

Spending time outdoors was the new normal

Restaurants shut

Shops shut

Lines were never ending at the supermarkets

A shortage of toilet paper and lysol wipes

Then came this thing called a mask

I couldn't breathe with it

I felt suffocated 

When was this going to end?

It felt surreal

The numbers kept increasing

People were dying 

Our essential workers became our heroes 

A new sort of humanity was coming about

Humans helping each other out 

Their pain became our pain

Yet we found a way to share and care

Cheering our heroes 

Sharing uplifting stories with one another was a way to cope

We were confined to the walls of our homes 

Life has not been the same since

Nor will it ever be 

We are not who we were when this first started

Our days are flying and the months keep getting shorter

Wondering how is time flying?

Yet I have found a routine in this new world

I hold onto the things that ground me and kept me through this pandemic - nature walks, yoga, meditation, prayer, family, food, and Netflix 

The simple things in life is what really matters

A year ago today there was fear and shock and grief

Today we grieve for those that have left us, we grieve for the lives we used to have, we grieve for a sense of normalcy.

And yet we are strangely beginning to feel a sense of hope

Hope that this too shall pass 

Hope because we have survived this

Hope because there is a vaccine

Hope because we won’t give up

A Year ago today there was no sign of light

Today we are the light! 

Today we give thanks for being alive and working our way through this pandemic

Today we pat ourselves on our back for surviving this 

Today we remember and remind ourselves of the importance of safety precautions

Today we breathe a little easier hoping for a better tomorrow

Journal Prompt:  A year ago today......

The Sum of what I am

 My Centering Thought this morning on International Women's Day......

I am all of it and much more

I contain within me the vastness of this universe

I contain the full sum of it

I am my grandmother's voices, my aunts and my sisters

I am all of it and so much more

I am compassion, fierceness and justice all in one

I am ruthless, fearless and kindness too

I am Divine principle, energy and movement

I am solitude, grounded and serene

I go where my heart leads

I voice what my heart speaks

I am intuition, grace and freedom 

I am peace! 

I am my own true healer

I am Woman, all of it and much more! 

Journal Prompt:  Today is International Women's Day.  Use this day to celebrate yourself.   Begin with the line,  " I am, or I  Will or I can....and see what comes up.