Living in a culture of “more” conditions us to consume beyond “enough.” - this sentence resonates with me so much! My life philosophy (The Art of Lite Living) is exactly about that enough that is also abundant, pleasurable and bursting with light and life. I have just done my taxes and was just amazed to learn how little I manage to live on, and raise my daughters on, and still, somehow (I honestly don't know how!) I manage to have a quality life. There are so many challenges, but also, so many, many things to be grateful for and cherish. Life is a miracle. Every day that we are alive is a gift!
Looking forward to this intensive. I obtained adrienne maree brown’s book this afternoon. I am already fascinated, enchanted, and curious, and am only on the introduction.
Buddha spoke of the Eight Worldly Winds: praise and blame; gain and loss; success and failure; and, pleasure and pain. These winds ceaselessly change as we navigate our way through life. The heart of a wise person remains steady during this endless changing. Easier said than done.
I think this upcoming intensive may reveal some lessons for us to navigate pleasure and pain with more equanimity than we begin with.
I started thinking about the paradox between grief and joy, and pleasure and pain, immediately after our daughter Sarah was born. It's because I am prone to sadness. I have a melancholic disposition, so grief was easy for me to identify after about two weeks of relentless diagnostic exams and appointments. But joy? Ha! That was something elusive, distant, and impossible.
One day I sat in an armchair in front of an east-facing window in our old house. The house was quiet. Ben must have been at work, and my two girls were napping. But the sun streaked through that window as I wept and wept--the way I did all the time back then, because I was living in a cave of despair. It was a fleeting moment, what I call a micro-moment, of silence and solitude.
And then I heard a robin outside my window, which disrupted my wallowing. For some reason, when I noticed her fluffing the feathers in her nest and adjusting herself to feed her tiny fledglings, I stopped sobbing. I observed this mama and realized she and I were more alike than I knew before: we both lived our lives centered around care and nurture. But the way she did it seemed so natural, and it delighted me. Only for a flash, though.
But that flash was enough for me. It sustained me. I realized that I could still hold grief, still carry it, while also experiencing momentary flutters of elation. And that sorrow and joy often hold hands. There's a relationship between the two, and seldom since then have I experienced one without the other.
So pleasure in the midst of pain...yes, I can do that. I have been working through and with that for many years--twelve, to be exact, because Sarah turned twelve on Sunday. I can sit with both my pleasure and my pain.
In fact, I believe embodiment means asking my body what stories it wants to tell through me. Then I listen. Then I pay attention to where I'm feeling the reaction, and I allow that story to emerge.
Looking forward to the next intensive on pleasure!
Living in a culture of “more” conditions us to consume beyond “enough.” - this sentence resonates with me so much! My life philosophy (The Art of Lite Living) is exactly about that enough that is also abundant, pleasurable and bursting with light and life. I have just done my taxes and was just amazed to learn how little I manage to live on, and raise my daughters on, and still, somehow (I honestly don't know how!) I manage to have a quality life. There are so many challenges, but also, so many, many things to be grateful for and cherish. Life is a miracle. Every day that we are alive is a gift!
Looking forward to this intensive. I obtained adrienne maree brown’s book this afternoon. I am already fascinated, enchanted, and curious, and am only on the introduction.
Buddha spoke of the Eight Worldly Winds: praise and blame; gain and loss; success and failure; and, pleasure and pain. These winds ceaselessly change as we navigate our way through life. The heart of a wise person remains steady during this endless changing. Easier said than done.
I think this upcoming intensive may reveal some lessons for us to navigate pleasure and pain with more equanimity than we begin with.
And now you quote adrienne maree brown and Pleasure Activism and all I can say is yes! Yes! Yes!
Jeannine,
I started thinking about the paradox between grief and joy, and pleasure and pain, immediately after our daughter Sarah was born. It's because I am prone to sadness. I have a melancholic disposition, so grief was easy for me to identify after about two weeks of relentless diagnostic exams and appointments. But joy? Ha! That was something elusive, distant, and impossible.
One day I sat in an armchair in front of an east-facing window in our old house. The house was quiet. Ben must have been at work, and my two girls were napping. But the sun streaked through that window as I wept and wept--the way I did all the time back then, because I was living in a cave of despair. It was a fleeting moment, what I call a micro-moment, of silence and solitude.
And then I heard a robin outside my window, which disrupted my wallowing. For some reason, when I noticed her fluffing the feathers in her nest and adjusting herself to feed her tiny fledglings, I stopped sobbing. I observed this mama and realized she and I were more alike than I knew before: we both lived our lives centered around care and nurture. But the way she did it seemed so natural, and it delighted me. Only for a flash, though.
But that flash was enough for me. It sustained me. I realized that I could still hold grief, still carry it, while also experiencing momentary flutters of elation. And that sorrow and joy often hold hands. There's a relationship between the two, and seldom since then have I experienced one without the other.
So pleasure in the midst of pain...yes, I can do that. I have been working through and with that for many years--twelve, to be exact, because Sarah turned twelve on Sunday. I can sit with both my pleasure and my pain.
In fact, I believe embodiment means asking my body what stories it wants to tell through me. Then I listen. Then I pay attention to where I'm feeling the reaction, and I allow that story to emerge.
Looking forward to the next intensive on pleasure!
Love this explanation, Jeannie. It seems that flip sides of the coin go with emotions as much as anything
Life-death
Joy-sorrow
Pleasure-pain
Happy-sad
etc....
I see it as a balancing act, the universe delivers: I just need to be awake!
💝
Isn’t that the truth, @Dust the Diamonds-Eileen Susan ? The paradoxes in life go hand in hand. Almost always.
Or Why I love Jeannine and WITD reason #8,567,999,432. Yes ! Yes! Yes! ❤️