To grow up or to grow down...dare.


I'm going to continue despite it all..... The website is down but it's not the blacklist anymore.  I'm totally powerless with it all. And dependent on my family for help, well one soul person, My Web Ranger Daughter...I call her the Web Ranger because she's really a very intelligent person and has the ability to jump in and fix things like her father. The Curse or the Gift...she's got it.  So as I set with not site up...I'm feeling a bit naked so to say.  I'm not it's just a place that I don't like to being as not being able to take charge and do it myself. We learned a lot of important stuff so not sure where it will all go but I wait patiently for guidance for the Web Ranger...

So I continue with what I can....my stone this morning is "Dare"  Oh and do I dare...
Back to Living Wabi Sabi
Growing up, Growing down, Once you can feel the greatness of little things inside yourself, you will feel the littleness of great things outside yourself.

The Wider message of Wabi Sabi, which is more than just an appreciation of imperfection. Wabi Sabi encompasses the onesness of ourselves and our environment, a deep conviction in the law of cause and effect (karma) a cherishing of our essential selves, and much, much more.

Question: What would you call everything from you skin inward? Obaa-san asks, Probably your 'self', yes?  And what would you call everything from your skin outward?" Probably you 'environment or surroundings.  People generally see the world in this way, divided into two realm-self and surroundings. If you look closely, however, you will see that these two realms are actually one. The whole world is in fact and extension of your body.

No man is an island…Although islands may appear to be separated by vast stretches of water, deep beneath the surface they all connected to the same earth.
Ultimate reality you and your surroundings are completely intertwined.
Why is this concept so powerful Because it explains that, regardless of past experience an current circumstances, you have the ability to create, develop, mold, and improve your situation, your relationships, and anything else in your daily life through your own inner reformation. 

Obaa-san ask Taro to look your room in relationship to yourself.  Is it messy and papers and books and clothes all over?  Whatever case your room is in many ways a reflection of you and vice versa.

In relationship to work, school, family and our natural environment, compose the rooms of our lives. We can allow them to contain us and influence our condition or we can choose to contain them and influence their condition. The difference lies solely in our choice of direction:  Growing up or Growing Down.

Like a mirror reflecting whatever stands before it, the reality of our outer world reflects the condition of our inner world. 

The direction of our actions creates the direction of our lives. The direction of our lives creates the direction of our world.

No matter what age…There are two ways of growing. We either proactively grow up, or we habitually grow down. 

When we feel a strong sense of self, confident of our worth regardless of external circumstances; when we take responsibility for our choices, living a creative life, we continually grow up.”

As we continue to grow, we start to identify with a name that has been given to us. We recognize our image in mirror and can see ourselves as other do, limited by our tine physical appearance, yet we can still experience the infinity of our inner spiritual world.

Maintaining this balance between our outer limited form and our inner limitless self is essential to growing up.

Growing down…when we’ve lost our way, unsure of our innate power and potential, swaying by external circumstances; when we fail to take responsibility for our choices, living a life of habit, we grow down.  

Occasionally as we mature, we lose the balance between our expansive inner self and our limited outer self.  We are no longer whole, We are reduced to only a part of our true self.

More than anyone, people who have grown down need the wisdom of Wabi Sabi, yet they are the least likely to accept it. They can’t hear it. They can’t see it. They’re too busy trying to camouflage their imperfections, battling as best they can each day to rein in their untamed insecurities. They’re fighting a personal civil war, with no hope of a winner.

 Everything in life is connected. 

This interconnectedness gives us a choice. We can allow our environment to influence us, define us, mold us, in its image, and we risk growing down.  Or we can choose to shape our environment by first shaping ourselves, and will grow up. The choice is ours; the power is completely within each of us.

Like a mirror reflection whatever stands before it, the mirror of our surroundings our relationships, our jobs, our home, and so on-reflect the reality of our inner world-our desires, our emotions, our thoughts, and our spirituality. In other words, if what we see in our surroundings isn’t all we want it to be, perhaps we’ve been growing down. When we continually focus on growing up, tapping the power of our limitless inner vision, our environment naturally changes to reflect this view.

Revealing your inner gifts is not only for personal gain, Obaa-san emphasized. The way of Wabi Sabi teaches that as you begin to manifest your full potential, everyone and everything around you will be positively affected as well.  It’s a matter of continually growing and always growing up.

 We are a strand in the web of life. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are connected.-Chief Seattle

 Those who do not grow, grow small- Rabbi Hillel

Mother Earth provides enough to satisfy everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed. –Mahatma Gandihi

 Honoring our well-being of both our personal and our natural environments is a core principle of living Wabi Sabi. We consciously grow up, we naturally change for the better.

When people go to war, it’s like a cancer erupting in the body of Mother Earth, Obaa-san said. And when we choose actions that damage our natural environment we become like a virus eating away at the structure of Mother Earth’s body. In the vast net of life, everything is interwoven. It is for our own good that we should mend our ways.

The direction of our actions creates the direction of our lives. The direction of our lives creates the direction of our world. It’s up to each of us which direction we will grow: up or down.

 What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matter compared to what lies within us. –William Maran

 At this point with all that has been share and from my own knowledge…out of a moment of total powerlessness has come a great sense of inner strength.   I was blacklisted on Google for my website being Hacked…and then I was sent an email from a “so called, Securiti company that would help me get off the blacklist and they would secure my site…I blow it off for a few days and then I was uploading to my website with the new Wabi Sabi piece and with all the flow of people possible see my site I must have been some kind of a catch for Hackers….so after listening to the Blacklist chaser, as the husband calls him instead of the ambulance chaser. There was great information given about what’s happening with hackers and how and what they do it for. 

 

So now about Dare…my stone today and what’s been happening, I have a choice and that choice is to continue on and create and be patience for my Web Ranger daughter to help me when she gets home…I’m supposed to have a University look at my website to see if I would be a good fit for a solo exhibit and also with Seth Apter and the book, Mixed Media Artist” there’s a big connection there…it is what it is and not that big of a deal in the whole big scheme of things…

Comments

  1. "Obaa-san ask Taro to look your room in relationship to yourself. Is it messy and papers and books and clothes all over? Whatever case your room is in many ways a reflection of you and vice versa." - This reached out and grabbed me today. I know this. And I am thinking the messes need some addressing...Do I dare ?
    Hope the techno details fall into place smoothly in the end. Dare to go where that bright light inside guides you, Amazing One. This world needs you too.

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Thank you for support, interest and viewing my inner life with my outer life on this Blog. Wishing you many creative blessings and peace to you and yours,
~v~Laura

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