So did we say a prayer today ?

For who ? For ourselves. Did we do something, some ritual that affirmed our faith today ? In what ? In ourselves. Our ability to connect with our inner selves. For if we do not, who is this person that is working, loving, talking etc. It’s certainly not you.


It’s an everyday search for me. For that something that can put me in touch with myself. My connection to consciousness. My connection to loving nature.
Of course many people have faith. Which is a wonderful ability. I don’t have blind faith. I am more of a searcher. Questioner. Good, bad ? I don’t know. No value judgements on any faith or the question of faith. Or on myself.
Some people do it with meditation first thing in the morning. I have never been able to do that. I have to connect to something, however small, however little, to loose my sense of individuality. That’s the daily struggle. Against my own exaggarated sense of myself. I am so used to it. I have relied on it for so many years. So tough to let go now. Not that I have never questioned it before. But now, it is really important for me to be truly ‘active’ rather than ‘reactive’, which is what I have done most of my life. And how do I know what that ‘true’ action is ? Unless I am constantly in touch with something larger, more immense, more universal than myself ?
Yes I know. By letting go. By allowing yourself not to be addicted to the result of your action. By allowing chaos to invade your life. Yes, I agree. All of that. I do allow chaos to prevade in my life. I am impeteous (spelling). But then the individual in me fights back hard.
It’s an everyday battle. This battle to let go of one’s addiction to one’s sense of individuality.
Yet, the smallest of things can provoke the sensing of my flowing into something much much larger. Something infinite.
This morning it was my 5 year old daughter waking me up with a loud ‘Peekaboo’ and the tinkling of an early morning laugh.
Sometimes it;s just getting up early enough to watch the first shades of dark blue brush across the sky. Something deeply stirring about that.
Sometimes it’s unexpected gestures of affection that were not sought. Or given so instinctually that you were not aware of them.
Sometimes, it’s writing a poem. But only if the words are coming from somewhere else. As if something is flowing through you, a river of emotion you can physically feel that flows through your being.
But it is always so unexpected. So much that I am constantly aware now. My senses hightened. Waiting for that unexpected moment.
When something deeper will reach out and engulf me, and give my life, and all my actions, however small, a deeper and all encompassing context. On a daily basis.
So say a prayer for me. And for yourself.
Shekhar

2,076 thoughts on “So did we say a prayer today ?

  1. “We give thanks for all those who are moved, in their lives, to heal and protect the earth, in small ways and large. Blessings on the composters, the gardeners, the breeders of worms and mushrooms, the soil builders, those who cleanse the waters and purify the air, all those who clean up the messes others have made.

    “Blessings on those who defend trees and who plant trees, who guard the forests and who renew the forests. Blessings on those who heal the grasslands and renew the streams, on those who prevent erosion, who restore the salmon and the fisheries, who guard the healing herbs and who know the lore of the wild plants.

    “Blessings on those who heal the cities and bring them alive again with excitement and creativity and love. Gratitude and blessings to all who stand against greed, who risk themselves, to those who have bled and been wounded, and to those who have given their lives in service of the earth.

    “May all the healers of the earth find their own healing. May they be fueled by passionate love for the earth. May they know their fear but not be stopped by fear. May they feel their anger and yet not be ruled by rage. May they honor their grief but not be paralyzed by sorrow. May they transform fear, rage, and grief into compassion and the inspiration to act in service of what they love.

    “May they find the help, the resources, the courage, the luck, the strength, the love, the health, the joy that they need to do the work. May they all be on the right place, at the right time, in the right way.

    “May they bring alive a great awakening, open a listening ear to hear the earth’s voice, transform imbalance to balance, hate and greed to love. Blessed be the healers of the earth.”

    ~Starhawk from The Earth Path

  2. Dad, I love you,
    Thank you for teaching me
    for taking care of me
    for loving me
    for giving me my first steps on the journey of drumming
    for helping me to understand the wisdom in “outside of the box thinking”
    for just being my dad

    I’m sorry
    Forgive me
    Thank you
    I love you

    10 years ago…your body left us…
    and
    your spirit lives on….

    aum

  3. while we are all busy trying to define, in our own subjective ways what

    freedom of speech

    right to respect

    etc. etc.

    what about accountability for our choices?

    what about…do to others what you would like done to you?

    I don’t know…

  4. …it is Friday, 13…there

    it is Thursday, 12…here

    what does it matter?

    not,

    because when I look to the sky
    the moon
    the sun and the stars…

    it is the same
    for
    you
    and
    me

  5. …try to avoid something, and it will find you somehow, somewhere…sometime

    Well, since I read about the movie, Bandit Queen, on this site, years and years ago,
    I made an effort to avoid watching it and reading more about it because the
    subject of “rape” came up, and there must be an intense sensitivity about “rape”
    and what it symbolizes, for me. So I avoided watching the movie, reading more about
    it, and even skipped seeing the words when it came up on the side scroll, on this website.

    10 years or so later, a lady acquaintance came to one of my close friends birthday celebration
    at my home, last week. Many of my friends are artists of some kind, and we were playing
    music…jamming, singing. When we were done, this lady came up to me and asked if I would play
    drums at a fundraiser for a documentary. Long story short…yesterday, I asked her to send me the name of the person who the documentary is being made about, so I can research and find out about her.
    Well, today when I checked my email…the name Phoolan Devi came up. I googled her name, only to find that she was known as “Bandit Queen”. My jaw dropped! Was this the same person in the movie by Shekhar, that I have been avoiding all these years? Nah, I said. Well, to my surprise, she turned out to be the one and the same, Poolan Devi, Bandit Queen!!!
    So next month, I will be supporting this fundraiser, Friday, March 13, 2015, here in Toronto, for the completion of the documentary about her.
    The film is being done by
    http://www.fazelifilms.com
    Co-Director, Gillian Greenfeld (gillian@phoolandevimovie.com)

    While I am a small unnoticeable glimpse in all of this, the impact I felt when this came across my path, again…is no small unnoticeable glimpse.

    So today, I read more about it…felt quite uncomfortable reading some of the information and what this Being endured…and now I am learning, again, how to deal with…face and find the lessons I need to learn…about “myself” in all of this. One moment at a time.

    Thank you, Shekhar…for being, expressing and loving life, the way you do.

    Cinda

    aum

  6. this dance…

    as I watch you move across the universe

    invisibly…visible

    there in the shadows of light

    you move with such grace and devotion

    spilling the essence of movements upon a glimmer of faith

    for this is all that is needed to …know

    you ARE Shiva

  7. Welcome to Toronto, Shekhar.
    Hope your stay here is warm and inspiring!
    Bundle up, it’s freezing, indeed!

  8. …I forgot

    I didn’t

    I just misplaced it

    it was never forgotten

    just in a place where I wasn’t thinking about

    I misplaced me

  9. Dear Shekhar,
    My birthday gathering is on March 20, you are invited
    to attend if you are still in Toronto.
    We would be most honoured,
    Cinda

  10. …to the light, to the love…to another dimension, my aunt has gone

    she shown courage beond what i could talk about

    and her spirit soared above the tremendous pain and suffering

    she said…”can’t complain”

    Aum

  11. ((( Nepal ))) in love and prayers all who are affected by this earthquake and other disasters around the world…

    aum shanti shanti shanti aum

  12. I gaze, from out of time
    To see the edge of wonder, your sublime
    and perfect manifestations fall and arise,
    In mirth and sadness, play the part of my disguise
    All while worshiping my ever calm One, Beloved, within.

  13. It is my wish and my blessing that this Kumbha Mela should become a huge step in that direction, to awaken the world to this possibility.

    Sadhguru

    aum

  14. time to …

    do

    nothing

    how do you do that?

    is there such a thing?

    cause even doing nothing is something…

    so there’s not really nothing

    is there?

  15. my Baby Girl is 28 today!

    she is one of my gurus…

    I am probably her worse student…

    but

    I love her as deep as wide as tall as infinite as

    existence is…

    aum Anjalee aum

  16. depression

    keeping the energy pressed inside?

    my son, Aaravinda, was diagnosed with a tumor in his brain.

    i feel to be the cause of it, because he spent most of this 16 years with me,
    his mom, and i didn’t see it coming.
    i know nothing for sure. this experience leaves me feeling ripped and cut up inside
    daily. i will carry this tumor for my son if i could.

    do any of us know anything for sure?

  17. in depression, adjustment and anxiety disorder
    finding out just how unskilled most people are at listening

    goes for me too

    and

    how none of us really knows what we talk about

  18. women take 9 months to deliver…and I took 8 months to make this 112 foot Shiva statue?

    Really?

    I didn’t know it was a competition!!!!

    and

    who in their right mind would compare giving birth to a human being to making a statue, no matter how big and who it is supposed to represent?

  19. aum new used car aum

    welcome to the family

    so long old used car, kept me and my family and friends safe…thank you!
    your reliable stedfast service is remembered, you took us where we needed to be…
    aum namaste aum

  20. deep depression…if there were words to describe this state of being,
    then new words would have to be created.
    The affects of the gravity that pulls being into deep pain
    and (mis) understanding, (non) sense, feeling
    unloved
    uncared for
    unmistakablymisunderstood
    underappreciated
    unattached from others
    unselfesteemed
    unapproachable
    untied from flow
    unwired brain thoughts
    unwanting to be alive
    unpoliteness
    unable to explain anything clearly
    uncouraged
    unconfidient
    unpeopleness
    unsleepable
    uneating healthy
    unafraid of cussing
    uncontrolled high traffic of multiple layers of thoughts
    unable to understand what others mean
    unhappy
    unjoyous
    un un un

    and the list goes on…

    what the un is going on?

  21. what is really happening here?

    what does it matter?

    is conditioning necessary to live?

    who is making the choice?

  22. …there are no stepping stones, i feel

    there is

    just

    this

    if we think about things as stepping stones,

    then

    how do we value the stones we step on?

  23. every stepping stone is a great success,
    if we see it any less than that,
    then
    perhaps
    perhaps
    perhaps,
    we have
    missed
    the boat?

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