Donna Pierce

Nov252013 by Donna PierceNo Comments

Mindful Monday: We become what we think

Spirituality

We are shaped by our thoughts. We become what we think. -- Buddha Cheri Huber, the guiding teacher at Zen Monastery Peace Center in Murphys, CA, adds, "What you practice is what you have. The quality of your life is determined by the focus of your attention. [...] Repeating 'I’ll never be good at this' while learning a new skill does not lead to 'Yes, I’m good at this.' Worrying about the future won’t help you have a better future. Worrying about the future will help you have a future of worrying about the future. The only thing you will ever get from life is what you are doing in the moment. What you do is what you get. "Our lives are the result of what we give our attention to. If you practice 'overwhelmed with work' or 'I should be different,' [...] that's the life experience you wil...

Mindful Monday: Stealing your own vegetables

Spirituality

I must have been simple or drunk or insane to sneak into my own house and steal money, to climb over the fence and take my own vegetables. But no more. I've gotten free of that ignorant fist That was pinching and twisting my secret self. --Rumi Unclenching the "ignorant fist" that is the running commentary in our minds is a most worthwhile aspiration. When we let the habitually negative judgments of ourselves, others, situations, and events degrade the quality of our lives, we pinch and twist our inner self. We can spend our entire lifetime lost in delusions of our own creation. Talk about masochistic! Come into the present moment. When we notice that we're beating ourselves up with yet another variation of the same old story of our inadequacy, we can use that noticing to wake up. If we...

Mindful Monday: Breathe

Photography, spiritual practice, Spirituality

Please welcome Donna Pierce to the team! She is offering us Mindful Mondays. Today, each day each minute let us begin again. Wake up from the strange jury of voices in the head sentencing us each second to a dungeon life. Fetid air there. So rise from the bottom of the empty well with each breath, noticed, followed, cherished. We can breathe. A miracle, over and over. In spired. We are breathed. Relish the chill in the nose then the heat the rush in the ears like waves the rise and fall of the ribs the shoulders, the belly, then back down. Loyal companion and sustainer, thank you. You free me to fly from cruel verdicts. “The Jewish name for God – Yahweh - was not spoken, but breathed. Its correct pronunciation is an attempt to imitate the sound of inhalation and exhalation. We do that ever...