Asking for a Third Option

"Hey, Grace, can you help me out here?"

About four months ago a friend of mine was telling me about a situation in her life that she was looking for some resolve in. She had come up with two scenarios that she felt were her only two options. Neither one of them was optimal but she could not find another option in the library of her brain that would accommodate everyone involved. As I listened to her I heard, "What about asking for a third option?" in my head... I let the words spill from my mouth and as they did some more came with them, I love it when that happens. I just sit back and listen because the information is inevitably useful for me as well.

So... long story short, asking for the third option is asking Grace to give us a solution that we could not think of with our own limited view. I have recently started calling divinity, consciousness, the Universe, God, Shiva, Allah etc... Grace. For me that is the simplest and most useful word to describe that which is indescribable ;-) The one most important thing to remember when you do ask for a third option, or anything else that we ask Grace for, is to let whatever it is go once you have asked... find a way to allow your mind to accept whatever happens to be perfect, even if it is not what you asked for. And then distract the mind from dwelling on the subject, find something else to focus on, preferably something joyful. Once it has truly been let go of, in my experience anyway, you can be most certain that the third option is coming to you at light speed. Try it out sometime... you might just be surprised by the results.

Yikes! Just Say No To Embarrassment.

I was conversing with a younger woman at a dinner party recently and she was telling me about an embarrassing incident that she'd had. I waited for her to finish her story and then I told her something that perhaps comes with age or perhaps it only comes with certain guidance. Embarrassment is mostly useless and it can be greatly overcome. I practice by simply choosing to continue to do silly things that make me happy even while people are passing by. Like, I walk my dog with my ipod on and I sing along to the music, granted I do this on a country road where only my neighbours are subjected to my crooning but... you get the point. It started with me doing yoga in the backyard. I love doing yoga in the grass but I was feeling a little embarrassed about people watching me. At first I tried to block the view and then it occured to me that it really doesn't matter. I also realized that if I saw someone doing yoga in their backyard that I would think they were pretty darn cool. I don't know that I'll ever be immune to embarrassment but the more confidence I give to myself the less embarrassed I feel. Try it out, it's quite liberating.

A Box, A Catalog, A Gluestick & Scissors...

I needed a gift box to put my best friend Pam's birthday present in. Pam is a very creative and spiritual person and I love her dearly so I wanted the box to be special. I was also under a time crunch because I wanted to send off her gift immediately. I looked through my papers, bags etc. to no avail. As I pondered what to do my eye fell upon a catalog of meditation items. The photo on the front was stunning. So I grabbed a glue stick, scissors and a box and went to work! I not only saved time, money and gas, I also I recycled a catalog and a box! I used a few more photos from the catalog and an old card to make a new card. And on top of it all Pam will really love the personal touch. Give it a try, it's fun and incredibly satisfying.

Transcendental Ornamentation!

The other day I went to the Harvest Festival at Bethel Woods (at the site of the Woodstock Concert) and there was a lovely woman with a very cool tent giving henna tattoos. Michelle Dawson is the artist of this beautiful tattoo'd hand, her card reads Henna Body Art by Michelle. She offers private appointments as well as parties and special events. In India women get henna tattoos for their wedding and it's soooooooo beautiful! If I get married again I think I will give Michelle a call! Check her out, she's a very cool woman!

Early in my teens, as well as off and on in later years, I worked in a record/paraphanalia /punk clothing and accessories store in Montpelier, Vermont. The store, Buch Spieler, is still there. The owner, Fred Wilbur, remains to this day my absolute favorite boss of all time. I could write several posts about my times at Buch Spieler. So, anyway, most of my friends at the time were either 'punks' or 'hippies' and I was probably somewhere in between but I was always a little too fashionable to be considered either. (I've always loved fashion.) Many of my friends got tattoos and piercings but I never had the desire to do either, beyond the three holes in each of my ears which I'd already had for several years. I've always loved body art but it just was not something I wanted for myself as a teen.

Then suddenly in my mid twenties I had the desire to get an Om tattoo. I was living in an ashram at the time and the idea would just not leave my head. I sat on the desire for about six months to make sure that it wasn't simply a passing fancy. When I was certain that I would not change my mind I asked an artist friend of mine to design my tattoo for me. He searched in books for inspiration but nothing was jumping out at him. Finally, one evening we were talking on the phone and for no particular reason I casually picked a book up off of my bookshelf. It was an old chanting book that I had not used in years. As I picked it up a small gift card fell out. It was a card from a gift that my spiritual teacher had given me when I was about twelve years old. My spiritual name, Nitya, was hand written on the front and at the end of the 'a' an Om was drawn with great flourish. I had never noticed the om before! I could think of no better inspiration, so I rushed over to my friend's apartment and showed him the card. I got my tattoo shortly after in Woodstock, NY at Pat's Tats.

I have never regretted getting my tattoo and I have been ruminating on another for several years now. I have a design that I actually created for TempleGreen.com that came from a tattoo I had wanted to get. I had given up on the idea because I couldn't find the right design. Until, one day, I stepped back from the design I had done and realized I'd drawn it myself! I hadn't thought before that I could draw something so detailed... Eventually I will get my Phoenix/Feng Huang! (You can see the design in the August post "Aaah! The Power of Wisdom and Intention".)