Tree Canada

Today, I have savoured what could be described by all accounts as a very relaxed, lazy sort of day. It has included in part reading gardening magazines with legs outstretched and tea nearby, thinking about what I might plant this year to continue developing a welcoming outdoor space for birds, insects, butterflies, and people alike. Percolating in the background were issues related to work, thankfully about nothing out-and-out negative--but rather with thoughts about the "what's coming nexts" and challenges to find solutions for. While reading an issue of Canadian Gardening magazine, I came across reference to an organization called Tree Canada. From their website: 

"Tree Canada is a not-for-profit, charitable organization established in 1992. Under the direction of a 13-member volunteer Board of Directors, Tree Canada provides education, technical assistance, resources and financial support through working partnerships to encourage Canadians to plant and care for trees in an effort to help reduce the harmful effects of carbon dioxide emissions. Tree Canada is a leader in promoting the value of urban forests in Canada."

The logo above is also from their site. Anyone interested in greening rural or urban spaces through tree planting might enjoy checking out the site. It has resources for children and teachers on it, and I noticed there is an option to make a donation on the site with 85% of the amount going directly to the planting of trees in Canada. 

I also learned that apparently Kingston, Ontario won a Green Streets Canada award from the organization last year for "creating an urban forest". I couldn't find details of the Kingston project on the website but I am very curious. Any Kingston and area readers know details of the project that won the award?

Many Paths

While an undergraduate student, I attended a presentation by a visual artist who was speaking about some of his work. A member of the audience commented to him that he noticed there were a lot of star images in his paintings and he wondered if there was any significance to them. The artist commented that he liked stars including how all the points lead to the same centre when drawn figuratively the way we often do. I have never forgotten that line. Further, it became a metaphor for me of a philosophy I hold about wellness and about people's life journeys (for example, of growth, healing, transformation): there are many paths.

I believe there are  many paths that can support the same centre or movement toward it. Sometimes we alight along one that is just the right one for a particular thing. Often in the bigger sense of our journeys and life, many elements and angles support our growing, rather than one, and these can include seeming contradictions: movement and stillness, opening to and closing from. 

Finding Your Own Rhythm

This morning, I went lane swimming alongside a feisty aqua-fit class. Really, the class was inspiring. There was potentially a wide range of ages in attendance although my quick scan indicated seniors heavily dominated the class and rocked, I might add, with their earnest and energetic participation. Of course, mostly I observed the class from underwater out of the corner of my eyes. I saw a multitude of legs running on the spot, legs jumping forward and back, arms pushing "weights" into the water, building endurance and strength. I was impressed. I was also distracted. 

It was not the jumping legs that had me distracted. It was the music the legs and arms were pumping to. If I were to be exact, the music itself was not really the problem either. The music was lively, fun, and fine. It was that the music's pace and rhythm was not my own (at least not for swimming) and for a while, it was so loud that I couldn't hear myself breathing or my body moving through the water: I couldn't connect to those indicators of my own rhythm and pace. This jarring or "rhythm interference" did not prevent me from swimming but it did make it harder to feel like I was settling into some pace or to even decipher what my pace and rhythm was, to hear it and find it. 

And so the expression, finding your own rhythm, visited me while swimming, turning over in my thoughts as my arms turned over, one following the next in repetitive fashion. I find I encounter the same type of challenge while running: mostly that for me running and music don't really mix. I like to be able to hear the sound of footsteps predictably tapping, the sound of my quiet breath. It is almost as if I need to hear these. Being able to tune in has an orienting function.

The first song this morning was the most exuberant, and then the sounds softened down so that I was able to tune in and relax into the rhythm--my own--that I found there with the interference substantially diminished or gone.

I have written and talked about this sort of thing with people many times before--about learning about your own rhythm, your own pace, your own needs and proclivities and (for the most part) honouring these. Yet I find I might wish to write about this topic in different and similar ways a hundred hundred plus times. That, and questions of what pulls us away from our most authentic selves and rhythms and dreams, and what helps to bring us back. 

Are you experiencing "rhythm interference" these days or are you nicely in step with your own?

Idea-byte No. 4

There is a book I read half of a while ago, likely within the past year or so: The Mindful Way through Depression
by Williams and others (2007). For those who live in Kingston, it is in the public library's collection so you may explore it free of charge. It comes with a cd with short guided mindfulness-type practices, which is another good reason to know about it. On another 5 x 7 cue card from my desk, I found some jots I had made while reading the book including text from page 29:

"If we're convinced we're 'no good' or unworthy, how likely are we to pursue the things that we value in life?".

The invitation (and challenge for some, if not all) is to offer to one's own self compassion, kindness, gentleness, caring--to offer warmth to one's self, the way we offer warmth to another. You matter and so do your dreams.

Idea-byte No. 3

I'll stick to the same cue card as from the last post, which features jots taken from What Is Your Life's Work? by Bill Jensen. Today's idea-byte (in this instance a question to ponder):

"What is the legacy of your choices?"

Building on this, I might add:

"What do you want the legacy of your choices to be?"

Consider your vision for that and do something today that supports that vision--something that makes it lived and real.