wu weiying or rolling with the punches

We wu weyed our way through this past week in quite amazing ways.  Wu wei, one of  the central concepts of Taoism, basically means going with the flow instead of resisting what comes your way.

For many years we had set our minds on finally building that perfect house on a beautiful piece of property we recently paid off.  Then we came to the shocking realization, much money and a few months of schematics later, that our architect was doing his own thing instead of steering the project towards meeting all our needs in the best possible way.  That’s where wu wei came in.  We rolled with the punches so fast it was dizzying.  Only a week later we have put a binder on a house with the most gorgeous property.  And while it is not a Passiv Haus in terms of energy efficiency, it meets all our other needs in more ways than we could have ever imagined.    Wu weying takes a flexible mind and trust that the universe brings you what you need - if you are able to visualize clearly what you need (not what it looks like, nor how it will materialize).  Without that inner resistance it is effortless to let the universe do the work for you, rather than striving hard towards a specific outcome.  Try it next time and let the universe come up with an opportunity beyond your wildest dreams.

sthira and sukha

A few days ago my yoga teacher spoke about the yogic concepts of sthira and sukha.  The Sanskrit word sthira means grounded or relaxed alertness, while sukha is a certain ease.  When I  think of a professional violinist, a Japanese calligrapher, a martial arts practitioner, or anyone else accomplished in their discipline, I see those qualities in them.  That combination of in-the-momentness and effortlessness arises out of years of dedicated practice and results in profound perfection.   When I see a classical ballerina dancing on stage what she does looks easy, but oh boy is it impossible to do what she does without years and years of hard work.  We can extend the goal of striving for sthira and sukha in yoga to striving for it in life.  Moreover, the gradual development and achievement of these two qualities in any one area or discipline will inevitably spread into and begin to permeate all other areas of our life.

mindful chopping

I love cooking and all the prep work that goes with it.  Sometimes I even like the prep work more than the rest of the cooking process.  It is meditative to me, the peeling, cutting, dicing, and slicing.  At the end of the day I spend quiet time with myself in the kitchen, pour myself a glass of wine, and begin preparing dinner.  Because my life is sooo busy these days my dinner making process is usually somewhat unplanned and spontaneous.   I plant myself in front of the fridge, contemplate all the vegetables, fruits, meat or fish (if I thawed something) and staples, and figure out what kind of a meal I can conjure up. Then comes the mindful part, the part where I could almost forget that I am supposed to make a meal for my family, when chopping becomes an activity in its own right.  Peeling, chopping, dicing, sipping, whoosh into the pot, and all over again, peeling, chopping, dicing….very relaxing and grounding at the end of a busy day.

buzzing bees

Our new bees arrived this past week-end.  The day they arrived one of them got caught in my hair when it explored the garden.  I panicked and tried to whip it out of my hair – wrong thing to do.  Bees don’t like sudden movements.  So the poor thing stung me (and lost its life, which I felt really bad about).  But that’s not what this post is about.  What it is about is this: yesterday I was in and out of the garden many times, hanging up laundry.  Each time I came outside two or three bees soon enough buzzed around me.  Maybe they wanted to warn me not to come too close to their home, maybe they only wanted to check me out (my bee language skills are not that good yet).  This time I moved very slowly in awareness of the bees.  I talked to them (I told them that I wasn’t going to harm them) and let them “sniff me out” without any sudden movements. And I passed the test without getting stung.

Don’t think I am crazy when I am trying to convey that I attempted to communicate with the bees. I am currently reading Martha Beck’s new book “Finding Your Way in a Wild New World,” about consciousness and how to operate within that nonmaterial plane.  Check it out.  That is the plane from which we can communicate with animals, that is what I was trying to do with the bees – the second time around.

it's over so fast

My daughter remarked last night that it was over so fast.So much anticipation and preparation goes into the weeks before Easter. About three weeks ago we brought Magnolia branches in from the garden, from which we hung blown-out painted eggs. Two weeks before Easter I always buy a hyacinth. Its wonderful scent, which we all associate with Easter, spreads through the entire house. Then we plan the menu. Lamb is traditional, as are asparagus and herbs, and anything green, tender, small and new, since Easter is about spring and renewal. We hide large decorated cardboard eggs for the children, which my parents send from Germany. The eggs pop open and get filled with smaller items, such as foil covered dark chocolate eggs or small chocolate bunnies. This year the weather was so pleasant that we hid the eggs outside in the garden (we wrote a list of the hiding places so we wouldn’t leave unfound eggs to the raccoons). And then a few hours later it was all over. So is the journey towards the day more important than the day itself?

not in the moment...

Just messed up my mayonnaise because I was not in the moment. While I was making macaroni & cheese I also attempted to make mayonnaise. So much for multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is way overrated and does not work (I have actually been preaching that for years now, just need to remember it myself sometimes). In order to finish with the mayonnaise at the same time as the macaroni were going to be finished cooking I rushed streaming the oil in - and it collapsed and became runny. Waste of eggs and oil, waste of time. I always wonder about multi-tasking when I watch women in the supermarket on their cellphones. They don't actually shop and phone at the same time, they usually stop in the middle of the aisle, or slow their movements to slow motion, then they resume shopping when they are done with the conversation.

Being in the moment and concentrating on one single thing at a time accomplishes so many things: we do whatever we do deeply, we do it well, and we do it wholeheartedly, something like meditation in motion. I'll remember that when I redo my mayonnaise this afternoon.

deep in the moment

You don’t have to meditate to be deeply immersed in the moment. Today a friend and I cooked deep dish breakfast pizza in our daughters’ classroom as part of their social studies curriculum. As we discussed Midwestern cooking and the history of pizza with the children we existed truly and only in the moment. There were simply no other thoughts, no other distractions. We existed as a unit with the children. The children in turn really enjoyed the non-standard classroom routine of chopping bacon and ham (and tasting some), scallions, mushrooms and peppers, then mixing eggs and ricotta cheese, and spreading it on the premade pizza crust. Transforming a few ingredients into a delicious dish is so creative and rewarding. Best of all for me is watching the smiles on teacher and parent volunteer faces as the cooking smells begin to waft across the classroom and out the door into the hallway. Simple things can become incredibly rewarding when done deeply, and they are as meaningful as meditating, and just as in-the-moment.