April 5, 2025

Last week, I had an early morning wake-up 'ding' from my phone. A local friend, out for her early morning run before tackling a grueling Los Angeles commute, was struck with a startling realization. It was so shockingly wonderful, she had to immediately announce it to someone else. Her text, seemed to shout it out: "The mountains are turning green again!" Fumbling with my phone in the early morning, I couldn't quite absorb what it meant. A picture appeared, showing a sunrise over houses perched on the tiered mountainous road, but I couldn't orient the view. Was it possible? I could feel something lifting me, as I re-read the text. You may think, "What's the big deal? April brings new grass." But for those of us plagued with the L.A. County wind-whipped fires in January, consuming trees, vegetation, houses, wildlife, infrastructure and people, followed by rain, mudslides, and evacuations after evacuations, the earth can feel scorched beyond nature's repair.

Now awake, I faced a day full of commitments, but first, I decided to drive up the hill and take a look. I drove my main route, taking quick side glances, as houses and open cross streets let in glimpses of the mountains. I saw fleeting flashes of purple in the dark spaces, but in the sunlight, I only caught barren gray rocks and straw colored earth with patches of burnt brown and black wood. Then, a few blocks further, with a long, empty space between houses (most likely where a house had burned to the ground), I saw a flash of green! Encouraged, I slowed down as I reached the open view of the next street. There, above where the mountain driveway met the city street, shone a entire field of green! Nearer the ridge, even more green spread across a field! I cannot put other words to the gratitude and wonder of it--just simply what my friend had written, what felt to us like a miracle: "The mountains are turning green again!"

Nature does repair. We too are planted in nature; we are an aspect, a species of the natural world. We recover. We adapt. And we sprout. There are many ways of defining the "green" aspect of humans and society: fads and trends, associations with our 21st century obsession with money, green as a free run...the "green light" and the power of go, green as genuine concern about a changing climate, with its pull to enter and protect nature, the pull to integrate by bringing the 'green world' into our concrete urban life. In a way, all of these are green sprouts. But a green sprout can be fragile while it spreads it's roots unseen. And we label someone who is learning and growing into a skill, a field of work, study, or responsibility as "still green", but with the assumption that in time, they will gain mastery. The green limb bends; it doesn't break; it grows.

So today, or through the week, consider your own green nature, not as vulnerability, but as a unique expression of Life that is growing. Not just renewal, but new and different Life. Even in the face of turmoil and uncertainty, in the metaphoric winds, fires, and mud all around, You are sprouting as new life, The mountain named You is turning green again! (Susan Nettleton)

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.”

― Basho

For poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57500/the-poem-that-took-the-place-of-a-mountain. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47107/of-history-and-hope http://poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/T/ThomasRS/Moor/index.html

March 30, 2025

As I reflected on this final weekend of March 2025, a phrase from one of Larry Morris' poems kept floating through my mind: "Heart, you belong here, woven of this Peace." The irony of this, is every day seems hit with one form of chaos or another. Devastating earth quakes in South East Asia, U.S. upheaval and sparing around the globe, severe weather warnings across the country, do not bring a sense of well-being. While Peace can unexpectedly descend on anyone, it seems to me rare that it descends collectively--at least not in a tangible way that we can name it as collective Peace. Group Peace seems to gravitate to excitement, joy and movement, as pent-up pressure is released. Yet, the inner prompt I am 'hearing' for this Sunday message remains, "Heart, you belong here, woven of this Peace." Enclosed deep within, there is a Peace beyond storms and turmoil. This is a good day, whatever may be going on, to touch it.

I did take a little time to search my computer and books shelves for that poem to the Heart, but it stayed hidden. Instead, I came across another brief Larry poem and that was all I needed:

"Unexpected

happenings

freeing

the

mind

from

fixed

positions."

(Apples from the Tree)

As wondrous living beings, we are not fixed objects, neither is all of nature, and actually neither

is the most rigid mind you know. Unexpected events crack the facade of self certainty and push our mental structures, allowing us to rearrange our ideas. Sometimes it is a subtle unconscious shift, that stretches the framework of our minds. But other times, the mind resists, and instead rearranges a happening, or its meaning, to conform to our belief structures. Belief structures are essential to who we are and how we function as unique individuals; they have their purpose. But we are living beings that belong to the Allness of Life; we grow, we learn, we ingest and digest changes. Our "world" expands through the unexpected.

How do we move through a time of unpredictable happenings? Let the happenings spiritually loosen your fixity enough to discover/recover inner Peace. That Peace has Woven your Heart. That Heart is your guidance system, and your healing. Trust THAT. (Susan Nettleton)

https://allpoetry.com/poem/16531910-I-pick-a-path-with-heart-by-Joseph-Moon

https://predmore.blogspot.com/2023/12/poem-immersion-by-denise-levertov.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/T/TheophantheR/Imageshoweve/index.html

Spring has arrived! And with spring, comes an opportunity, an opening, for healing. March carries us into a season traditionally linked to the promise of nature's renewal--the gradual fading of winter harshness and the first hints of life and natures quickening into blossom and new growth. Yet, we are living in times of erratic change on so many levels, including climate and the rhythms of nature.

This month, The Lancet, a leading journal of world wide clinical, public and global health knowledge, published an article on "Climate realignment: the US shift and global implications." (cited below) The author is clear that divisive public perception of Climate change remains a barrier to positive solutions. But, he offers the long term possibilities for recovery and adaptation (already taking place globally), as collective vision shifts from "unpopular, resentful regulations" to opportunities for economic growth, through creative climate technology and global invention. This recognition spotlights a reframing of an approach to climate change by initiating positive, economic opportunities that expand over time. I am using this as an example of shifting a point of view. Spring 2025 offers us an opening to reframe and claim our own renewal and healing, despite upheaval and uncertainty.

Another medical article that landed in my email this month summarized a recent study published in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine, analyzing a vast range of non-surgical and non-interventional treatments for adults used by people with low back pain, and compared to placebo. The study reported that only 10% of those treatments were effective, and provided only small pain relief beyond placebo. Underlying the article, and various medical commentaries, was the idea of further research in the quest for specific a healing treatment, along with pain management. It struck me that there is rarely--if ever--one exclusive path of medical treatment, and certainly when we consider healing in a broader field of healing possibilities, we don't know the limits. Healing is multi-modal. Whether we term it spiritual healing or holistic healing or medical healing, life is interwoven with life. An injury, an illness, a heart-ache, a loss impacts our bodies, mind and emotions, our relationships and activity, our work and "place in life". We often ignore the "periphery"; but multi-layered "wounds" impact our well-being. We learn to compensate, or we focus on healing. We may shift life around us, turn to professionals and friends as treatment and support--conscious or otherwise, we are invoking expanded health practice. The pentacle of this layered healing is prayer.

In my way of seeing spirituality, prayer takes many forms. It is the meeting point, the connection between our everyday selves, and our sense of a vast, larger field of Life that we are enfolded in and that is enfolded within us. Call it anything you want. Because it is a point of connection, and in its own way communication, exchange, we offer the layers of our lives, the places we are stuck, lost, or hurting. Enter prayer from any point or thought within you. Ask and accept, or simply share and receive. Let it lead you in self-care. Your healing this Spring, whatever level, is the world's healing. (Susan Nettleton)

Poetry: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/guest-house/ https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RosenstockGa/SpringWitha/index.html https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47247/in-just

References: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00320-4/fulltext Published March 5, 2025 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)00320-4 Also available on ScienceDirect Copyright: © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

BMJ Evidence Based Medicine https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2025/03/02/bmjebm-2024-112974

March 16, 2025

Last Sunday in this post, in acknowledgement of the spiritual Energy of the current holidays of Lent and Ramadan, and the practice of spiritual fasting in different forms found in all major religions world-wide, I encouraged you to consider your own March fast. That Sunday, I asked in meditation, "How do I personally engage in this time of fasting?" My mind, although trying to quiet, ran through a spontaneous list of possibilities. I decided I needed a deeper receptive silence. What came then was an unexpected awareness of the structure of my own psyche, around which my daily thoughts and habits are built. The question became clearer, "What fast will open beyond the structure; what do I really need to release through a "fast". Understand that I am not referring to fasting in the sense of refraining from food, but fasting in the sense of "giving up" a struggle, a fixed attitude, or rehearsed pattern that is an aspect of this "structure," not helpful, and needs to go. The answer then was clear: my struggle with time pressure. I simply did not have enough time to do all that seemed necessary to do. My fast began.

Ironically, the week became exceptionally busy. The "To Do" list suddenly expanded. My computer rebelled, obligations multiplied, deadlines loomed, urgent shifts were required, routines were upended, torrential rains--with new evacuation warnings--disrupted things further! With every meditation, I had to re-release my time pressure and lingering resentment with it. I finally let go. One evening I thought, "I'm tired. Forget it all, I want to read a book," a novel I had started, but couldn't find the time to read further. So I did. I didn't check the evening news, or scroll my phone. I meditated. I read. I slept.

The next afternoon, I asked my kindergarten granddaughter about the pile of homework in her backpack and she announced with great clarity and enthusiasm: "This month is National Reading Month! Kids all over the country are reading books this month! I have reading homework and New Words!" It was so serendipitous. It re-ignited my love of reading, and an awareness of how the digital world of news and information steals from my energy and time. My practice now becomes to stay informed, without being inundated. My 'fast' is changing shape.

While literacy remains the foundation of childhood education (with education in America currently fielding upheaval), my focus today is to encourage your personal experiment: set aside the screen, phone, the flashing meme, computer, or TV, and/or the 'voice' of A.I. to hold a book, open it, and read. Digital reading, of course, is still reading, and for some, auditory input is essential. This very post and the hillsidesource.com website are offered through the wonder of technology. But the libraries of the world hold stories and...well, answers...that have yet to find, may never find, their way to digitalization. The broader issue is freedom of choice as books disappear, along with their special kind of private sensory engagement in the turning of the page. How does it feel to you? What kind of reading, allows you to choose, to learn or let go, to relax, laugh, heal. Spiritual insight and answers come in many forms. Try a book this week. (If you simply cannot find the time to read a book this month, consider another holiday in mid-April, D.E.A.R. which stands for Drop Everything and Read! Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://www.poeticous.com/dylan-thomas/notes-on-the-art-of-poetry https://allpoetry.com/Good-Books https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/3/16/readiness

March 9, 2025

Last Wednesday night as I was driving home, I noticed the neighborhood streets were unusually lined with parked cars, and several people making their way to the nearby Catholic church in the early dark. I suddenly realized it was the first day of Lent! Last Sunday, I mentioned the collective power of Ramadan. Lent is a Christian practice of fasting and prayer in spiritual preparation for Easter Sunday. Even though religious doctrines may not ever recognize them as such, Ramadan and Lent have a complementary energy; within each are their own denominational variations of practice--fasting and/or abstinence, prayer and devotion. They are not the same, but there is a power in the depth of each that re-orients human focus to the spiritual. This year, they overlap.

I am writing from the point of view of individual spirituality, your unique path as a one-of-a-kind expression of spirituality. Even if you are deeply connected and devoted to a specific religion, with a specific doctrine, belief system and practice, you remain a unique creation. Your understanding and expression ultimately arises from your personal unity with God, with Life. Those who share in your spiritual life, add support. Ultimately, we share this world, this planet, and a collective construct--usually unconscious--of what life is, as well as an understanding that there is more that we do not, cannot, understand. So in my way of seeing, the reverence and love expressed in Ramadan and the reverence and love expressed in Lent and the Easter story are available to us all. That availability is not limited to Christianity and Islam, it extends to Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Indigenous understanding as well. It may seem too muddled and confusing, but that is because we hold ideas of separation. Yes, we are each unique, and from that uniqueness, combined with primal connectedness, Life is woven.

If your are outside a committed spiritual practice of Ramadan or Lent, consider this week (or month) a practice of your own form of fasting and prayer. We all develop habits or activities that in spite of our insight, weigh us down, or undermine our self-care. One possibility that Hillside has promoted over the years is "fasting from worry"! It may seem impossible, given the current political atmosphere of erratic shifts, mandates, and policies that fly by us daily, but replacing worry with a meditation break and a calmer, clearer mind, brings the necessary insight of what is real, what is meant to de-stabilize, and what is the wise path to take. Worry is not a solution. Or fast from self judgement and self blame, or fast from procrastination, or from mindlessly scrolling your phone. What activity weighs you down? Consider with your fast, Lao Tzu below. (Susan Nettleton)

“Do you have the patience to wait 
Till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
Till the right action arises by itself?” 
 More: https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/3/24/fasting-from-worry https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/20/finding-peace-of-mind https://sacredpoetryproject.com/fasting/

March 1, 2025

Welcome to March, 2025! I find it helpful to orient ourselves with the calendar, in a time of escalating chaotic change. We can stop and take stock of our own well-being, recognize and reinforce stability, find spiritual direction--even in a season of political turbulence. One thing to consider is conquering the mesmerizing pull of repetitive 'sensational' news. Take a meditation break.

After a week of jarring news, I remembered this year March begins Ramadan, a Holy mouth of fasting, spiritual reflection, and devotion for Muslims around the world. I am not Muslim, but the power of almost 2 billion Muslims attuned to their Holy month, brings a deepening spiritual energy to the world, when we welcome it with respect. March holds the promise of the renewal of spring. If you have fallen away from a meditation practice, this is a great month to renew your spiritual life, or extend it in deepening practice.

Also, last Friday, at the end of February, was Rare Disease Day. As a psychiatrist, I remain an advocate for Rare Disease research, because such research opens doors to new ways of understanding variance, genetics, adaptation and healing. Medical conferences on Rare Disease will continue this month and beyond. I flag this as simply one example of the larger activity of life. It's easy to miss a vast field of Good happening in the world, beyond dramatic flashing news.

Friday night, when I put down my news-scrolling phone to sit in meditation, a line from Larry Morris burst into my mind. "When things go wrong, don't go with them". That is really my message for you this week. I thought of last Sunday, when for unexplained reasons, the Zoom link for my talk just didn't work. That had never happened before. My link, the scheduled meeting link, and all the links for those on the email list matched, but Zoom did not recognize it. Luckily I had the expertise of family on hand that took over with positive attitudes, rerouted the meeting, set up a new link and emailed immediately the entire list, while I was still processing "what's wrong!" Several of you managed to connect a 1/2 hr. later and we "went right". My apologies to those who were not able to attend. The glitch, though, has brought new ideas and needed adjustments to Hillside's platform. I'll let you know, as things unfold. Larry continued his thoughts with the idea of "If things are well, let them get better". (link below). Paraphrased from the I Ching, the best way to fight the harmful, is to make energetic progress in the good. (Susan Nettleton)

You can find further inspiration and insight on our website, hillsidesource.com. If you want to be on our mailing list, send your request to either the contact page on the website, or email us at hillsideew@aol.com.

Larry: https://hillsidesource.com/.../if-things-are-well-let... for poetry: https://moniquemartineau.com/.../Do_It_Anyway_by_Mother... https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../for-one-who-is-exhausted.../

February 23, 2025

Today's post in an excerpt from Dr. Susan Nettleton's Zoom talk on "At Home in the House of Life"

In the aftermath of the January Eaton Fire, I was flipping through Stephen Mitchell's poetry book, The Enlightened Heart, and stopped to read the D.H. Lawrence poem "Pax". (link below) I have read the book many times, but never found that poem particularly interesting. This time though, it hit me--that phrase, "at home in the house of life". Although I've never been a house person, I am surrounded by so much loss in these neighborhoods, that the aftermath has altered my perspective. Not that I have moved as often as some, but I have moved often enough to recognize that I am not anchored in a home. I am anchored in, loosely defined, the expression of my spiritual life; spirituality is my anchor. Hillside has always been about supporting people in the expression of their individual spiritual path. Yet, I--We--need shelter.

Shelter is a huge modern issue; just look at our homeless population in America. In 2024, the U.S. homeless population was estimated at around 0.2% of the population. It sounds small til you calculate that's around 771,480. Weather obviously plays a big part here. And now, we have to factor in climate changes, with issues of shelter, housing and migration. Climate migration is bound to become a growing issue in a time of climate change and uncertainty. So when we consider our personal homes and houses against a background of possible catastrophic events, home and house no longer follow the assured expectations of the past.

My focus for this talk is a spiritual state of being at home in the house of Life, in the midst of life's changes. So what does this involve? Home and house have slight different meanings. A house is structural, a concrete image or concept. Home on the other hand is more abstract with overtones of belonging, comfort, connection and emotional attachment--even if we live alone. But what is "feeling at home in the house of Life?" Now we enter the realm of spirituality, which is an inclusive expansion of your belonging, caring and connection--not limited by obligation, blood, friendship, name/fame/need or social order--the ultimate of Life and it's mystery. Is anything outside of Life? For me, Life is another name for God, because it is all we can know of God. Even experiences which seemingly take us beyond Earth life, are still Life, because we cannot get outside of Life.... Ultimately, I am saying that spirituality leads you to a place of surrender where you accept your utter reliance on Life and the Way of things. You surrender to the level of Life as Home, because this is the world you find yourself in now. For now, Life is your Home. You don't leave Home; if you travel, you are still at Home, because you cannot travel outside of Life.... We can feel our home as a specific address, or we can feel our home as the Cosmos. For our purpose this morning, the question is: to what degree can we be 'home', wherever we find ourselves? I am saying that our spiritual adaptability to changing times is linked with a growing capacity to find peace and protection, shelter, wherever we are.

If you can consider the larger field of home as Life itself, you may discover you are already home, the moment you stop searching for another place to be. So, Life is a house we never built, but we have built many constructs around and about it. We may want life to stay the same, but it never does. Acknowledging this to yourself can help the emotions that go along with being uprooted; transplanted elsewhere by circumstances you didn't choose. Ownership doesn't come into play here; you don't own the house of Life, we are aspects of Life, expressions of Life; we belong here, this time, this space, we belong here as unique expressions of Life. Property is a social construct; it has meaning in the social order, not in a larger spiritual frame. Society, and the world of ideas, theories, philosophies, politics arise from human thought and reasoning. What a busy business, humans make. (Susan Nettleton)

Sunday's poetry: http://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Dovethatvent/index.html https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51925/floating-island http://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../L/LawrenceDH/Pax/index.html

February 16, 2025

It's been another adventurous week following my last Sunday post on unburdening yourself! This week, here in the Eaton Fire aftermath, the river of life flowed as rivers of mud. Today, public works trucks are on canyon roads clearing village streets of the mud flow, rocks, and debris that erupted from last Thursdays severe rain storm. Earlier this past week, before the storm began, the city and county alert systems sent flood warnings across communities that had endured the recent fires, with necessary reminders for storm preparation. Midweek, those areas that were vulnerable to mud or landslides were alerted of possible--turning into immediate--evacuation. So I left the area with family and followed the protocols.

It is not an easy thing to simply drop it all, grab the packed bags and go--especially when you have just settled back in after fire evacuation. Then again, it is not an easy thing for first responders to rescue flooded communities. I followed the news of the mud online and Friday evening I returned. Thankfully, all was well with home for us, but mudflow in some areas was severe. On the drive back, I was processing all that I had learned about the mountain above us, burn scars, and the section maps that allow predictions of the flow across the slopes. When we re-entered the city, I stared at the mountain that crowns the end of the main boulevard, and the darkening clouds above it. Then I mused to those with me, "I am seeing the mountain very differently now. It used to be so lovely, but it feels different now...It seems...Ominous."

The unsettled image of the mountain hung around though unloading and unpacking. It lingered, until I finally could sit in meditation. In the quiet, I realized that underneath the events of the new year, 2025 is the pressure of climate change. That thought floated around in my psyche a bit with fragments of ideas about adaptation; certainly the adaptation necessary for living near the coast and mountainous terrain. Then a line popped clearly into my mind: "We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains." It's always a bit of a shock, when a clear inner voice speaks! I let go to a larger field past the reasoning, problem solving mind that had been at work with its "analysis". Still, I started to scan my memory briefly to come up with the author, "Lao Tzu?" I questioned, "no, Han Shan? no...but there's more...". I gave up again, and sat with my mountain. The true Life came into focus, and with it Peace, and a certainty of living at the right time, and in the right place, as life goes though its changes. Underneath, I felt only Love.

Later, I looked up the full quote:

The birds have vanished down the sky.

Now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,

until only the mountain remains. Li Po, Tang Dynasty

What is Life whispering to you today, as you go through your changes? (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../ten-thousand-flowers-in.../ https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../the-poem-that-took... https://mypoeticside.com/show-classic-poem-2074

February 9, 2025

This Sunday, after a further round of intense news and general upheaval, it seems to me to be a good time for self-care. Valentine's Day arrives on Friday, but the emphasis on romantic love and friendship is apparently taking a back seat to the political drivers. It may be difficult to find your way to traditions of cards or a special expression of love. Still, in turning our attention to hearts, flowers, and candy, we are reminded that relationships matter, impacting our stability, health, support, and broader perspectives on life's events. First though, before you rush to plan any Valentine expression (or choose to ignore it all together), consider some self-care. Specifically today, I encourage you to unburden yourself.

In "unburdening yourself", I am looking at the process of letting go and letting God. Consider your personal sense of burden in your life right now and, realistically, what you can control and what you cannot control; what you can change, and what is not given to you to change. There is not a "one size fits all" answer to the question of control; rather, it is meant as a call to you, individually, to lay your burdens down.

Whenever it comes to me to lighten the load of responsibility, my mind automatically begins to echo the African-American spiritual, "Down By the Riverside". "I'm gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by the riverside"...and the repeating refrain, "ain't gonna study war no more." That powerful phrase links to a Biblical passage, Isaiah 2:4, "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." While the scripture carries a global message, the song is layered with individual meaning. We become students of war as we entangle ourselves in personal struggles, resentments, and arguments, as well as, when we carry the weight of responsibility to "fix" things, fix ourselves and fix others. These struggles are the burden of human life.

The song, though, is actually a joyous affirmation of the freedom that comes with spiritual release. Letting go is giving over to something beyond human effort, giving way to Grace of Life. A river has multiple metaphysical meanings, but essentially, water flowing as a river is the gift of life, packaged in all that is needed to nourish and sustain life. Indeed, our physical body is over 50% water. Water carries us. Water washes us, cleanses us, renews us. Living water can also refer to the Holy Spirit within us. Rumi writes of rain that brings the renewal and nourishment for life around us, and unseen Rain, brings Grace. When we are ready to enter newness of life, we are ready to lay down our sword (the struggle), and shield (the self protection of our ego, our isolated self), and open to Divine Grace and the gift of Love.

What about the world? What about the mess? What about all the uncertainty, threat, change? To unburden yourself is to take a bit of space, a bit of time to drop it all, and rest, restore, listen, trust. Expect unseen Grace. The river of life is flowing. (Susan Nettleton

"We can’t help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water. Milk drinkers draw close to the mother. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, shamans, everyone hears the intelligent sound and moves with a thirst to meet it. " Rumi

When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When action comes from another section, the feeling disappears. Rumi

for more poetry: https://internetpoem.com/william-stafford/a https://dominicalapat.wordpress.com/.../unburdening-myself/ https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../in-blackwater-woods-by.../

February 2, 2025

It's February! A new month! Even though our calendar is a human construction to give order to our collective lives, we have had the good sense to link February to matters of the heart. While January, identified with bringing on the New, is not always traumatic (although the weather can be fierce), January 2025 has carried a harsh, chaotic, disruptive energy. Time to let it go. Personally, February gives me relief, as we turn to the Heart. The history of February as Heart Month has expanded from the one day religious celebration of St. Valentines Day, to a cultural celebration of Romantic Love, then reaching to friendship-and-favorite-people-kind-of Love, and now more recently (1964!), February includes a public health focus on self Love, expressed by cultivating Heart Health. While Love does have a "medical" relationship to the well-being of our hearts, today, I want to begin February with a call to meditation.

Why not approach this February 2, and the month ahead, from a spiritual perspective! Is "Spiritual Love" separate from all the other forms of love that humans experience? It's a good question to contemplate over the next month. When the world around you, or people, or even your own emotions, actions, or thoughts become unmanageable, meditation is a powerful antidote. It isn't always an immediate solution, yet in my experience, it rarely makes you feel worse; meditation has a way of "setting things right" inside. Heart ache of every type is eased, even if just a tiny bit. That little bit is the beginning of healing. That little bit of time that you disengage from the drama of life, to sit in Allness, or perhaps in the Presence, in Stillness, in Letting Go, even in what feels like "giving up", becomes a new awareness of Love.

My many years of meditation, with changing patterns and methods, has come to a point where I see that meditation simply feeds itself. By that I mean, there is not one way to meditate and meditation is not at all about technique. It is about stopping. In that sense, it is a form of disruption. Sometimes, the mind-body-spirit initiates a moment of stopping, but usually, we seemingly make the choice to stop, disengage in the moment, and enter in a space of freedom, or the space that for you, becomes meditation. Even the "being fully in the present moment" form of meditation, is a form of disengagement; we move away from the 10,000 things that demand our attention, to the one thing that is before us right now. Meditation finds us, no matter how briefly, and we can allow it to expand, by simply giving it our time and attention.

If Love is eluding you in this first week of February, concede all your chores as well as your grudges, and enter--even if only for a few moments--stillness, silence, "meditation". It doesn't matter what you call it, or what technique. Stop and breathe; let Love find you. Your heart will thank you. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../DeSpirituSan/index.html https://outofcontextsite.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/light/ https://equallywed.com/wedding-poetry-series-denise.../ https://allpoetry.com/Love-After-Love