December 20, 2022
In Simple Gratitude
By Amba Gale
With gratitude, I begin this posting with a deep “Thank you.”
Thank you for your listening, your receptivity to whatever these postings, over the last three years, have brought to you.
I have delighted in hearing from those of you who have written, to express your inspiration, or your appreciation, or your companionship with me, as we pilgrim together in our journeys.
Just before the Winter Solstice, the dark beckons. It is that time of year.
I find it is both time to stop, to retreat within, and do some inner work…the work of releasing the residual tensions, and incompletions from this year, accessing forgiveness, and cultivating compassion for myself, ourselves, and others. It is time to quiet ourselves.
There, in that quiet, we can listen for the Wisdom, the quality of Wisdom that has come from the many Teachings that have been gifted to us, this year, from both the opportunities and challenges that have come our way.
The Teachings have not been small matters. They have etched themselves into my, and our, heart, and our hearts, so that I, and we, may live them.
In behalf of completion, I find myself asking these questions:
Who have I become? Who am I now? What new muscles for resilience have I developed?
What are the most profound dimensions of my journey this last year?
What have my main Teachings been?
What are the gifts from those Teachings?
What now needs to be shed, (including internal conversations or stories) and what is calling to be called into my life?
What do I love most?
What truly matters? as I look at the year ahead.
Some Blessings came my way for us all. Please take reflective time to be with these Blessings:
“May we adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience” (Emerson)
May we welcome surprises, including what appear to be breakdowns, as gifts, forwarding our Spirit and calling us forward into our evolutionary Journey.
May we share with one another our heartbreaks and our joys.
May we source and embrace the endings that have come our way.
May we have no regrets around the evolution of our paths, our journeys.
My we find compassion for ourselves and others, widening our circle of acceptance, through letting go of resistance, surrendering to the unfolding conversation, and cultivating deep understanding.
May our actions follow what calls to us from our hearts.
May we embrace what is Core and minimize, or eliminate, what is peripheral, allowing Simplicity to guide us through our days.
Again, I have been so grateful for your appreciation of my postings and poetry. In Crossing Thresholds, Island Reflections, I guide people, through poetry, and teaching questions, through some of the inner thresholds that need to be reflected upon to cross those outer thresholds we are all making during these times. During this holiday/renewal season, I invite you to gift Crossing Thresholds to friends, in behalf of forwarding those you love, in taking their inner journey. Access to getting my book is here.
I send this poem to you, with much love and many warm greetings from this season.
Teachings from Simplicity
By Amba Gale
Don’t make things more complex than they are.
Simplify.
I.
The trees are not complex.
The pine boughs simply hang towards the earth
happily swaying in the wind.
II.
I can hear the temple bells behind me
being played with
by the loving wind.
III.
The candle flickers,
flame dancing this way and that,
unsure of where it’s going.
It doesn’t care.
IV.
The sea moves up and down
mirror of the sky
milk cloud melts to dark blue.
V
The Buddha sits in Silence.
Mudra Stilling – try it!
Grounded as he sits.
VI.
All things come and go.
Shadows casting shape shifts.
Only Silence lasts.
Beneath the din, the Silence.
VII.
Enter the day
in a prayerful way.
Be the Prayer that you are.
VIII.
Where is my inspiration?
I am as close as your breath.
Breathe deeply and attend and
you will find me.
IX.
Observe the world around you
with kind and grateful eyes.
Let your heart grow soft
There, you will find peace.
X.
Any time
you can hear the invitation
to love and be loved,
take it.
