letting go

Living In The Interstices

Posted on by rita kowats 


Living In The Interstices


Gap
Crevice
Space

All words we could have chosen,
But this was Berkeley, after all.
How much better to lift one’s eyes to the universe
(While onlookers rolled theirs)
And espouse a Spirituality of Interstices.

How often I have lived in the space 
between this home and that home
Like a trapeze artist clinging to this bar 
while watching the next one swing

Closer
and
Closer.

Major shifts of reality foreshadow 
New growth incubating in the interstices-
That space in between departure and arrival,
Between letting go and letting be,
Space fertile yet fearful
Teeming with possibility.

On the final leg of my journey
I again wait in the space between 
Living here and living there,
Living and not living…
A multiversal journey toward 
New spiritual consciousness.


RHK 6/10/21

Soul Sloth

Posted on by rita kowats

Soul lethargy is not Letting go.

It is soul sloth.

Soul lethargy is not 
Letting go.
It is soul sloth.

Like Sherlock asleep
on his exercise wheel,
I emerge from this pandemic
afraid to get back on the wheel,
curled up instead around my COVID fat
feeling sorry for myself.
Feeling pseudo-safe in a cocoon
of my own making.

A cocoon leading not to new life
but to one doomed to die by soul sloth.

Up! 

My soul opens like a morning glory 
starved for sunlight, waiting
for grace to pull me up.
Divine Spirit ever folding and unfolding, 
Show me the way out.

In the asking, soul sloth becomes
Letting-go.

c. Rita H Kowats 5-30-21

* Apologies to my feline sleuth for so cavalierly exposing his soul and fat belly for all to see.

Releasing Anxiety: A Spiritual Practice

Posted on by rita kowats

If you obsess over whether you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming that the universe will reward you for one thing and punish you for another. The universe has no fixed agenda. Once you make any decision, it works around that decision. There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling, and action that you experience.

Deepak Chopra

Spiritual Practice

Calling forth divine energy I open myself to it’s movements within me, around me, and through me.

May spirit guides protect me.

Breathing in,   I am safe.
Breathing out, I release fear.

Breathing in,   I welcome possibilities
Breathing out, I release judgment.

Breathing in,   I am safe.
Breathing out, I release fear.

Breathing in,   I welcome possibilities
Breathing out, I release judgment.


May it be so.

PHOTO Credit: c. 2014 Shelly “First Day of School” licensed CC-BY sketchport.com

Inebriated With Light

Posted on by rita kowats

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This morning when my friend asked for prayers in dealing with negativity I recognized my own need immediately.  I offer a practice and a prayer.

Practice To Release Negative Energy 

 

Once settled in a comfortable position (lying on my back works well for me), ground yourself with breathing.

When focused, begin the ritual of releasing negative energy embedded in your aura, your brain, anywhere in your energy field where it tends to get stuck. Imagine using your hands to unravel and pull out the pieces of negative energy, sending each one down your spine, and into the ground where it can be reconstituted… recycled for the good, if you will. Accompany the release with the words, “Releasing this unwanted negative energy….sending it down to the earth.”

When finished, take the time you need to let welcome, positive energy to settle in.  Follow the ritual with a physical cleansing with water, sage, or incense.

 

A Prayer For These

Times

 

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Photo Credit: Cathedral of light | vivid sydney 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breathe

Posted on by rita kowats

water-softening

 

Blessing

When the well goes dry, listen.
Sit by it, your ear pressed to its rim.
Hear the empty and the hollow of it.
Let be. Let be.
When finally you hear your breath
echo back to you,
let this sound be your first prayer.
Where there is breath,
there is water somewhere.
Breathe.

Jan Richardson
In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection & Prayer

 

Photo Credit: http://www.zdrillerteam.com/is-your-water-well-going-dry-5-common-warning-signs/

Unclenched Hearts

Posted on by rita kowats

This first week of Lent in my Mennonite faith community Mark 10:17-21 takes center stage  in our human drama.

begging bowl give away

21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

The rich young man who thinks he has done everything right is disappointed in Jesus’ response.  I would be too except that Jesus looks at me and loves me.

Imagine this sacred bowl as the womb of the divine.  Toss in all those grasping ego trips we hoard.  Keep digging down until you get them all, and then you will be poor of grasping and rich of spirit.

My bowl is ready.  My Lenten practice will be to root out the unhealthy ego manifestations that hold me in a death grip, write them down and toss them into my bowl.  At Easter they will become my whole burnt offering.

Peace to you friends,

Rita

A Tribute To Tina

Posted on by rita kowats

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Tina strolls leisurely along the lake boardwalk with her happy little dog whose pink satin bow bounces with attitude as she leads Tina. Someone has to lead because Tina is intensely focused on the book she is reading.

When I saw Tina in the elevator yesterday I felt a burst of radiant well-being emanate from her. Light showcased clear brown eyes highlighted by tastefully applied makeup. Her long auburn hair fell loosely around shoulders pulled straight by some unseen string from above. Tears of joy waited for release as the realization emerged- Tina was well.

Focusing on a book was something Tina couldn’t do very well when she first moved into my apartment building. I would see her strolling around the grounds with her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, sometimes twice in one day. She walked bent over, studying the ground as if expecting it to swallow her up at any minute. Her face was contorted and conversation resembled a rapid staccato frenzie of unrelated words.

Standing upright a year later, Tina has become for me an icon of what the human spirit can do. Witnessing her noble struggle has been a spiritual practice which reminds me how to reach down and pull out the strength to go on, the strength to survive and then to thrive. She is a monument to the art of letting go.

I am grateful to Tina, to my brave niece and to thousands of others, for showing me how to let go.

A Spiritual Practice For Aging

Posted on by rita kowats

THE ABANDONED VALLEY

Can you understand
being alone so long
you would go out in the middle of the night
and put a bucket into the
well so you could feel something
down there
tug at the other end of
the rope?

Jack Gilbert in Refusing Heaven

RESPONSE
(for a loved one who wandered too far)

Old age is like
an abandoned valley
where you have to
venture out in the middle of the night
to find a well to sink your bucket
in search of someone to send it back.
Don’t wander far.
The well is closer
than you imagine.

© Rita H Kowats

In Search Of Abundance III

Posted on by rita kowats

 

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The leaf photo evokes the image of a crab’s pinchers poised to strike as it sidles sideways across the sand. As we know, the astrological sign of cancer is named for the crab. Those who are born under this sign are said to struggle letting go and they often communicate indirectly. Outer appearances serve as an armor of sorts, hiding the depths of their feelings, a universally human tendency.

In the process of growing up, crabs have to molt their hard shells many times to make way for each new, larger shell. As it molts, the old shell has to soften while the beginnings of the new shell grow under it. The crab must pull its whole self from the old shell; if it gets stuck, it dies.

 

Lenten Meditation Three

Thinking sideways slanders truth.
Speaking sideways swindles youth.

Legacy leaving requires
unceasing releasing.
Brittle, whittled half-truths
must soften and slip
to make room for new strata
soon sloughed off to shine
brilliant on sparks of pure
godlight.

© Rita H Kowats. 3-22-19

Sway With the Wind

Posted on by rita kowats

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The black wrought iron bench was toasty-warm today where I sat watching lakeside trees sway against the gentle autumn wind. Against the wind. I hear Bob Seeger singing in my ear,”…we were running against the wind.” The wind today was coming from the Fraser River Valley in Canada. Normally wind comes from the south around here in the Puget Sound area and our trees know that. They are genetically disposed to sway with the southern winds. When those winds howl down from Canada in winter accompanied by cold temperatures, we can be in trouble. It happened one winter when I lived in a rural wood. I woke up to eighteen trees uprooted on the road behind me. They can’t handle seventy-mile-an-hour sustained northern winds.

I saw the lesson in the trees gently swaying today. I’ve been feeling a bit off lately, an underlying dis-ease in response to an impending hip replacement. The surgery itself doesn’t make me uneasy…I’m a pro, having already had both knees replaced! It’s all the preparations and doctors’ appointments and constant questions and questionnaires that unnerve me. The trees reminded me to be flexible, to sway with the wind rather than against it. Much easier. Much healthier spirituality and physically. Of course, sometimes justice demands that we run against the prevailing wind hanging on tightly, but not this time.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

 

 

 

photo credit: KarinKarin2 <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/123747563@N07/32265204954″>Sylt</a&gt; via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>(license)</a&gt;