Infusion of inspiration

With open arms I welcome Spring with the newness, the color and warmth. On these sunny days I need a break from the pandemic and other life challenges. Inspiration lifts my energy and helps change my perception. Inspiration offers an overall dose of good.

I deserve to be inspired. Lifting my energy helps me navigate my challenges with more awareness and wider perception. Inspiration increases my energy.

So, within the last few days I made the decision to find inspiration. I find it in blooming plants and trees, baby animals, music, hugs, poetry, smiles, creativity, a good book, my thriving houseplants, exercise – I know there’s more.

We humans are hard at work managing life and it helps to take a mind break, a body break, an energy break. Daydreaming, energy bathing and nature gazing are part of my prescription. What’s in yours?

I Need to Daydream-I am a circular soul

By Carolyn Riker

If you see me daydreaming

it’s not an escape

but a necessity

I need the honesty

of seeing beyond

what is and what isn’t

if you see me wandering

I’m not being aimless

I am exploring

those inner depths

constellating with

understanding

as I am

and as you are

part of this cosmos

when this happens

I can barely hold

this current reality

this patch of time

of linear

is too straight

for I’m a circle

circumambulating

with my rivered soul

such intricate designs

are constantly dancing

with the energies

so, if you see me

daydreaming

I can’t help myself

I need to walk

in between this world

and explore the others

drifting, dreaming

dillydallying and

daring to be myself.

Participants’ Reflections:

• Thank you. I was thinking of infusion of inspiration. I realize that I go to worship services for that infusion of inspiration. I love singing with other people in the service. It’s like a shot in the arm with that energy. Although I’ve watched services online during Covid, singing by myself is not the same as singing with other people. I’ll be grateful when I can sing with other people again. I’m not sure what energy bathing is.

• Energy bathing is if you find something nice that makes you feel good, it’s bathing your energy. It’s just bathing in it. You’re just in it, you can smell the smells and feel the goodness.

• Thank you so much. I loved this reading. You used the word inspiration. I think of it as nurturing, as a way to fill me up with things that are beautiful and fulfilling. It’s a way to not feel deprived, a way to put myself into a place of serenity where I am appreciating things. Where I’m not using food or other external things negatively, but using external things positively as a way to nurture me. I love the reminder. I am going to be aware of this today, what can I use out there to nourish me that is inspiring and fulfills me.

• I loved the word ‘dillydally.’ Last week, someone told my grandson he was dillydallying. I jumped on the word and we looked it up. He is a master of dillydallying. The meditation brought me to my younger self, the endless summers of wandering and dillydallying and imagining. It was quite pleasant. Yesterday, my grandson had a music lesson and wanted to put on his full armor with shield and sword. I told him to focus on his lesson. In retrospect, he was being creative and excited. Here’s to my grandson and his dillydallying and to my inner child who knows that well. The definition of dillydally was about a stagecoach that was late. Dilly was slang for a stagecoach, from the French carrosse de diligence

• Thank you. Dillydallying was not accepted in my house growing up. It has taken me many years to allow myself to dillydally. It’s been a silver lining of Covid for me, having to be home and not distracted. My pattern was I’m going to do this because it gives me joy, but no, I have to do my work tasks and chores before I can have joy. In this past year, I’ve found myself doing a lot of wandering. It’s been really good. I’m still not great at it and I still hear my mom’s voice saying ‘what are you doing. Get up and do something.’ I never had a great role model for that. So I’m trying to do it on my own. It’s been an interesting process.

• In my childhood, dillydallying or taking time was connected to being lazy. Lazy has a really negative connotation for anything contemplated. It was a barrier for me that I had to work through.

• I’m heading out of state tomorrow. You mentioned traveling and having a feeling of disappearing. I can relate to that. I’m going to make sure I do self-care while I’m there. This group is an inspiration to me, so thank you.

• Yesterday, I was in a zoom meeting while I was driving and I was able to park in a parking lot near a tree. It was a hemlock, big with tiny pine cones and green leaves. There was a beautiful breeze. The whole time I was in the meeting I was looking at the tree watching the branches move. I’ve thought of it several times since then. I call that inspiration for me.

• I was happy to hear your reading today, to take a break from life’s challenges and seek inspiration. We are in this no gas available for a while period. I’m home and was feeling blah. I was tired yesterday afternoon and almost gifted myself with a nap. Instead, I thought I’d go outside. I came back in eight hours later. There is something timeless about going outside for me. I was not on anyone’s schedule. There was time for encounters and surprises. One was with a person who had a use for a huge wheelbarrow I don’t really use. It found a new home. The other person told me that my Mountain Laurel bush is in full bloom which I hadn’t realized. It’s my favorite flower and I couldn’t see it from my house and didn’t realize it had bloomed. So thank you for the reminder of the gift of nature and bathing in energy.

• You talked about gazing and taking time. I find myself looking outside my large window. I put bird seed out and watch the birds. I put a suet thing out and saw a squirrel hanging from it. I shooed him away and I went out and saw the mess he had made on the deck. There was water there too. I let it go. Yesterday, I watched the squirrel jump on it again, eat, and then he peed on the suet. I became furious and insulted, my whole body reacted to it. I sat with my reaction. By the time I went to bed, I was ready to put him in a trap and kill him. But then I realized that I couldn’t do that. Why can’t I give this squirrel suet? Why is the suet not for everybody? I realized we find things out there that touch a place in us. During the meditation, I realized when I see something I like, I want to grab it and make it mine. Energetically, I pee on it. I got it and wondered what it would be like to just break a piece off for the squirrel. When we take the time to look outside or daydream, there is a lot more available that is going on than just daydreaming and doing nothing. This made an impact. All I did was watch a squirrel, and I had a huge revelation. So now, when I’m in scarcity, my new saying is ‘am I peeing on the suet?’

• Thank you everyone for joining us today. I used to deny myself the chance to have inspiration. I denied myself happiness because I had to be serious to deal with my life. Every time I take myself someplace that gives me pleasure, I give myself permission to accept it instead of denying it. I think the squirrel is a great example of peeing on what it wants. It’s a metaphor for life. I hope you all have a gentle day.