"Brambling Fires" Mindful right speech and the practice of inner peace during conflict

One of life’s hardest demands is facing challenges when they arise. Giving face time to those people and places and things that only make you want to run the other way screaming, yet there you stand, tall and with a smile. If you are able to look fear and hatred square in the face and feel peace in your self this is all that matters. Two very important pieces to realize when being faced by the lions of life are this. First, whatever you feel inside will not in that moment change what is in front of you. So, let’s take a second to visualize a scenario two ways. Picture yourself in the situation you most fear. Now picture the scene, the people, the lighting, the smells. Now visualize your inner landscape. Surely, it is tight, restricted, mind jumbled or racing, muscles tight, breathing short and shallow. Imagine your thoughts. Are the negative, foreboding, fear based? Now remember that and stop. Try scenario two. Same external situation but the only thing that changes is your inner landscape. Purposely change the breathing to deep. Purposely think a positive thought, genuinely access a place in yourself where you take one moment and freeze whatever is around you, accessing inner peace, truly, just for one moment, one breath, allow yourself to relax. Now see if you can make it two breaths, work your way up eventually to any amount of inner peace, anywhere, any time. NOTHING changes but your own perspective yet everything can change in your experience because now instead of the fear you feel peace. The second thing to know it this, Whatever you feel and do in that moment WILL change what happens next. Negativity is a weed that grows rapidly when fed and shrinks like a violet when given no attention. Your world on the outside reflects who you are internally.  It is never too late to change.

I will not react from the heat of the emotion in my soul, When I feel the fires burning, I will allow them to burn for as long as is needed as it is only nature running its course. But I will not allow those fires to reach up from my heart and take over my mouth. I will not give the anger life. When I am ready, I will respond from the coolness of my mind, when the waters have calmed and when and only when I am able to allow the sacredness that is speech, to be pleasant, fair and truly reflective of character will I cast words into the world.

Fire, fire burning bright, everlasting as starry night

Dark yet sprinkled with beauty, near and far, ever reaching, always seeking

No one can put you out

Not one can put you down

But your may only burn on the ground

Because without trees of thought and branches of reaction there is nowhere you can go

Spread far, spread wide, toss an toil in your glorious might

Mull me over in reflection over many day and night

But do not grow

Because I know

Without permission of the will

Without the winds of action continuing

Without the sins of traction and surrendering what is peaceful and still

You can toss the brambles and dried grasses up and down this hill

Only until

You run out of energy and I will not give any of mine

I’m sorry old friend, I wont lend a hand

We will meet again time after time

My teacher you are, you come from afar yet closer than any could be

You are me

You are a part of me

A part, I allow, as it would be silly to say a part of my very being, my clearly seeing could even

Be something of nothing

But sit still you will after you toil and till through your rambling will

And by you I mean me, and by me I mean we

As we were, peacefully, we will continue, we will be

American Girl

Another message to my daughters and all young girls. There is a notion of an American Girl. She is beautiful, polished and somewhat perfect. On a track through life that will lead to success of all kinds. Starting with ideas of perfect princesses in preschool, good grades and popularity. Later on, successful career while simultaneously perfecting roles of wife and mother. This notion was somewhat derived from positive and revolutionary feminist ideals. Women once fought for other women to have "everything" career and home, children and identity! Concurrently, fashion and beauty industries have projected many ideas of what this new woman would look like. Red lipstick, perfect figure, spotless home. Still today, girls are bombarded with images of clothes, trends and cookie cuttter types from a very young age. 
It can be wonderful and freeing. If the girls and women are taught to take the beauty and essence of this message and embrace it for its best intentions. To be her truest self, whoever that is! To allow her creativity, beauty and intelligence to shine. To nurture as a mother. To nurture her self as a woman as well. There is the danger and reality however, that many young girls and young women get caught up and twisted in the ideas. Sadly, girls try to emulate each image they see and forget who they are. They lose self esteem. The become attached to test scores, magazine covers and peer pressure.Depression and anxiety are higher in adolescent girls than ever before. This a symptom of many imbalances, not solely the one described here. Young women trying to achieve both career and household success burn out. They give their all to everyone around them. They cast their own needs aside and engage in activities that are meant to bring joy to their loved ones. Their daily lives orbit around their children while their jobs, personal accomplishments, partners and household duites are juggled. They are so encapsulated in forging forward to each accomplishment that they forget to practice stopping, breathing, gratitude and self care. Everything they are striving for becomes lost in the muddle. This poem is about enveloping the glory of feminism and being cautious about the shadow side of this very notion. 

She is a train
Strong, shiny and glamorous
She is admired
She is empty
She is fast, dutifully
Swiftly moving forward

She follows tracks, laid out before her, without her
It is not about her
It is about the destination she will reach
She presses on, strong, fast and empty
She carries passengers, along for the ride
It is not about her
Only where she will bring them
Their journey, her map

She is shiny, strong and admired
She is revered, polished and adorned
Simple, ornate
Always moving forward to a new destination
Attempting to fulfill her societies expectations
A feat to be admired yet a slippery slope
Slowly pealing away identity, creativity and hope

Break across the tracks girl
Forge your own destination
Break through the expectations
Make your own Creation
Better than others wishes and visions
You are a vison, yourself, in your own right
This is your personal flight
Surpassing all mirages is the one of your own
The best person you can be is you
Breaking through 
stereotypes and pre fabricated molds
This is not a notion of rebellion
It is a notion of freedom
Your national right
Your birth pledge
What your grandmothers mothers battled for, wished about
You can shout out from the depths of your being
I am me, It is freeing