…sitting with all that is today, this moment.
creating space in my heart this day, for the memories, the families and all so directly affected, and a world still suffering.
in the end, may the Love that is, outlast the fear that can be.
~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏻
#September11th #September11 #911Anniversary
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we don’t have to look too far.
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#Sacred #Ordinary #Life #Love #OpenHeart #Path #Practice #JinpaLhaga #AbrahamMaslowQuotes
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BALANCE.
may we have
the capacity of heart
to hold the entire world
and all of life
and the wisdom of mind
to let go.
may we hold
all of life with love
and with love,
may we let go.
~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏻
#Balance #Love #Wisdom #OpenHeart #Path #Practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart
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i saw a friend post today about their friend who recently ended their life. it brought to mind friends who i have lost to the darkness of suicide along with my own ideations as a closeted teenager.
the lie that such deep depression sows is that we are alone in our pain, alone in our suffering. nothing could be further from the truth.
and while we cannot make anyone see this or save anyone from such demons, we can do our part to shine light on the truth that no one is alone.
we can be a hand to hold, an ear to listen, a presence of love, and a voice to remind those around us:
you are not alone.
you are life itself.
there is help available.
~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏻
Call 988, The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
We can all help prevent suicide. The 988 Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States.
#Suicide #MentalHealth #Depression #Life #Death #NotAlone #Interdependence #Presence #Help #OpenHeart #Path #Practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #Art #Calligraphy
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“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.”
~ Hermann Hesse
hug a tree 🤗🌳
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#trees #nature #life #wisdom #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #photography #BWphotography #HermannHesseQuotes
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we are not our emotions.
emotions are like clouds floating across the sky.
some are slower or faster than others, but they come and go regardless.
allow them to come and go without attachment.
YOU ARE THE SKY.
~j
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#emotions #impermamence #thoughts #nonattachment #OpenHeart #SteadyMind #freedom #path #practice #JinpaLhaga
time.
such a funny, subjective thing. perception plays such an influential role in our experience of it.
my dad passed away, a week ago today. looking at the calendar confirms it to be so, yet it has been simultaneously the quickest and longest week ever.
each morning, i’ve offered lovingkindness practice to him – may you be happy, may you be at ease and have peace, may you know you’re loved, may you be free from all suffering. it’s not just for him. it’s for all of us. it’s for connection.
my heart is filled with loss, with gratitude, with love. there’s so much love. vast, not bound by time or space, life or death.
allowing it all, keeping my heart open, and holding it all in my heart and practice with love.
~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏻
#life #death #time #love #metta #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga
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the resilience of love.
the resilience of light.
the resilience of beauty.
always available.
~j
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#Life #OpenHeart #Path #Practice #JinpaLhaga #IzumiShikibuQuotes
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big picture
ultimate reality
absolute truth
the ground of being
Love
i think we have a role to play in getting there – and seeing, and living it, here.
keeping hearts open and embodying love, may we be instruments of peace and healing, relieving the world of suffering.
~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏻
*Julian of Norwich was a 14th Century Christian Mystic and contemplative. A devout Roman Catholic, Julian was an anchoress, a solitary, who during deep illness almost to the point of death, received visions or as she called them, and later titled her writings, Showings. In these “showings” Christ came to her and she saw no blame in his heart, only pure love and compassion, like that of a mother. She came to understand this love as one absolutely committed to universal restoration or universal salvation, pushing the boundaries of the Church’s more mainstream understanding.
#Bodhisattvas #Love #UniversalRestoration #ThePureLand #KingdomOfGod #JulianOfNorwich #JinpaLhaga
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today, Friday 8/25/23, my dad passed away, at 7:23 am with my sister and i holding his hands, talking to him, reading to him, praying for him, watching the last of his breath as he slept, peacefully, just as he had always wanted.
we were able to make it so for him thanks to Avalon hospice, their training, and medicinal assistance. this was after a past couple of months marked by increased declines, less plateaus between. legs no longer able to walk, then no longer able to stand, to the point that my sister had to begin to co-care with me (we’re a good team btw, i’m so grateful for her). then these past weeks my dad’s speech began leaving and eventually his ability to eat or drink. dad began his transition last Saturday and my sister and i spent these last 6 days sitting vigil as much as we could, while attending to him, caring for him, being Love for him. we barely slept all week, not wanting to miss his needs or his departure. so so hard. BUT important, needed, precious, and sacred.
i’ve tried to come up with the words of what to say, throughout this day, but have struggled to move through the swirling dance of emotions, exhaustion, sadness, unexpected sadness out of nowhere at times.
i’ve been my dad’s full time caregiver for the past three years. days starting at 7am and ending at 9pm. it has been the most challenging thing i’ve ever done. consistently pushing up against what i thought were my limits. life has been teaching hard lessons these past few years. my dad had Parkinson’s Disease along with Lewy Body Dementia and caring for him during his decline became my life. these diseases are cruel and relentless and even though i began saying goodbye a long time ago, it feels no less surreal that this day has arrived. they call it the “long goodbye” which may give the impression that it is perhaps easier? it’s not easier, but it is, perhaps, less traumatic. it’s expected. and in the midst of all of this there is still grace – to have the opportunity to say all that needs to be said, practice letting go. yes, practicing letting go. i told my dad several months ago when we could still have such occasional conversations that i was sorry for how hard these diseases have been, but they also were giving us the opportunity to learn to let go, something not everyone gets, even though everyone of us has to let go in the end. little by little he had to let go, and little by little we had to let go with him, beside him, and eventually of him. but letting go doesn’t mean to stop loving. i think it may call upon us to love even more, to BE Love even more. if we look closely and listen deeply, we see Love pervades all.
my dad’s life was more than the last 6 or 7 years of these diseases. he was born September 2, 1945 and would have been 78 in just 8 days. my dad married, had two children. he has 8 grandchildren. my dad did lighting design and stage management for theatre in high school. he worked in law enforcement, he had a long and varied career in the car business, he even owned and operated a small shoe repair shop when we lived for a short time in McCall, Idaho. my dad loved work. he lost his own father at the age of 5, so providing, being a provider was important to him. he loved fishing and golf. and in these later years, loved watching History Channel, Animal Planet, and Discovery.
all relationships are complicated, as was ours, but there was love, always love. i knew he loved me and he knew i loved him. he loved Oldies Music from the 50’s and 60’s, passing that love on to my sister and me. these last couple of weeks, we had it constantly playing in the background for him.
my tears are such a mix of sadness at his already felt absence, but also of gratitude that he isn’t suffering these diseases anymore and that he had such a peaceful death in his sleep. i’m humbled and feel so privileged to have been present with my sister as he passed, bearing witness, and holding the space with immense love and tenderness, warmth and light. it has ripped my heart open. this is a gift.
i will miss him, i miss him, but i’m so grateful for him and his life. a life brought forth from Love, carried in Love, and now transitioned in Love. i have faith in such Love and i have learned we can be present in such spaces, spaces of sadness, spaces of fear and uncertainty, spaces of loss and grief. we can be more courageous than we feel and our hearts can open wider than we think possible. this is all love also. it is Love that shows us we can love and be love embodied and present.
may all know such love, and may all be such love for others.
~j
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#Life #Death #Love #OneWithTheForce #OpenHeart #LettingGo #Path #Practice
The Metta Garden 