Ovid's "Metamorphoses: XV" - Speaking of Death and Time

Time is something we never seem to have enough of and death is something that awaits us all.  Both have been on my mind this morning.  It is Sunday and my weekend is almost over and then it is back to work tomorrow and there was so much more I wanted to accomplish in my "two days off" but here it is, Sunday afternoon, and I'm just getting around to doing some of what should have already been done.  I need more time!

Death is something I've had coming  up in almost every single month of this year.  Friends are passing on.  Family and people I've admired are passing on.  It makes me sit up and take note of my own mortality and wonder how much time I have to accomplish those things I feel I must?  I need more time!

So, I grabbed a book from my library this morning, looking for some inspiration and noticed a page I'd bookmarked on another day that I can't remember.  Wouldn't you know it is about time and death?  (Expect a miracle and don't discount it!)  I opened to Ovid's poem Metamorphoses: XV where he is talking of the teachings of Pythagoras:

"O mortals,
Dumb in cold fear of death, why do you tremble
At Stygian rivers, shadows, empty name,
The lying stock of poets, and the terrors
Of a false world? I tell you that your bodies
Can never suffer evil, whether fire
Consumes them, or the waste of time.  Our souls
Are deathless; always, when they leave our bodies."

 He goes on to say:

"All things are always changing,
But nothing dies. The spirit comes and goes,
...but always it keeps on living."

"Full sail, I voyage
Over the boundless ocean, and I tell you
Nothing is permanent in all the world.
All things are fluent; every image forms,
Wandering through change. Time is itself a river
In constant movement, and the hours flow by
Like water, wave on wave, pursued, pursuing
Forever fugitive, forever new.
That which has been, is not; that which was not,
Begins to be; motion and moment always
In process of renewal."

Did I mention this was written in 6 BC?  It is an amazing poem and the book I picked up was "The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces"  and I have had it since my college days and have referred to it now and again over the years. (English Literature class at San Diego City College)

So, the soul lives on and time is an illusion.  Nothing new under the sun is there?

We had a nice storm blow through last night and today, my landscaper came and we did some cleaning up and everything looks good again.  All the trees shook off their dead limbs and no one was hurt so it's all good!  I sat in my car for a while this morning after taking a ride down Buford Dam Road which is really pretty ride through lots of green trees and I felt refreshed and rejuvenated when I got back so I just sat there, watching the trees dance as the wind blew through them. 

Sunday, the beginning of a new.  The end of the old.  Time flows on and today, I expected a miracle and I was not disappointed.  Today was awesome and the best is yet to come.  And so it is!

Expect a miracle, my friends.  You won't be disappointed.

Fabulous Friday

Creativity Workshops started on Wednesday and will run for the next 6-8 weeks, depending on how far we get and how quickly we get there. It is time for further self-exploration and I am starting anew the journey of a thousand steps.

I've been trying to "push" time the past few weeks and it's not working. No matter how hard I try to pretend there may be 80 seconds in a minute, I am constantly reminded there are only 60. So, yes...I've been "running late." I'm working on it as I want to be punctual as much as the next person but something about me wants to "push" time. Wonder why?

Nothing is coming this morning...am I blocked...seem to be. Does that ever happen to you? Nothing to do but jump in the shower and get on with the day, trying to see the beauty in every moment. I have to remind myself that there is beauty in every moment if I only take the time to look. Simple things are sometimes the hardest to accomplish.

So...CARPE DIEM! Look for the beauty, arrive on time, expect a miracle! Got it! Go get 'em!

Time whizzes by...

I can't believe it has been 10 days since I last wrote. My goal is to write a little every day so I need to "try harder!"

My new job is challenging, fun and has allowed me to have some hopes and dreams again that had been tucked away for "later" and "later" is NOW! I've some new found motivation and started an exercise/diet regiment yesterday. I'm not even thinking about what to eat and what not to eat but I am simply thinking about giving my body what it needs to produce the energy that I need. I have so many things I still want to accomplish and to do it, I need ENERGY and strength. My dream right now goes back to the same dream I had in 2008 when the bottom fell out of my world for a short while. I am dreaming of a rafting trip, down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon. I am thinking "Best of the Grand" and the url is http://www.canyoneers.com so you can check it out and join me! Next August maybe???

It seems the older I get the faster time passes and the more I want to accomplish. Yet when I look back in my journals, I marvel at what I was able to accomplish in a day. Time is an illusion anyhow! So, with that having been said, the reality is that I need to jump in the shower and get to work!

Hope you have a wonderful day today. Expect a miracle and you'll surely get one. Namaste!

Time marches on...January 27, 2011

I started to blog and then was interrupted and now I'm blocked! My best time for writing is in the early morning, just after I finish my morning work. Seems that's the best time for me to connect and find the inspiration and direction for what I need to write.

Now, it's 1:54pm and half the day is gone and so is my creative inspiration because I'm in "doing" mode instead of "thinking" mode. I'm off an running with my list of what needs to be accomplished this day before the sun sets.

I will also do something for ME today, too. I'm beginning to understand how important it is that we treat ourselves as we would others and that means TIME for what brings us joy and happiness.

I'm on Day 9 of my morning pages so I am being consistent and that feels good! Tomorrow I am going to start water aerobics and lots of fun stuff is up for the weekend so I won't blog again until Monday.

I am going to make every effort to get the Spiritual Learning Center on Sunday. I feel very strongly that I need to check it out.

So, as time is marching on and the day is getting by me I will say that it IS a great day to be alive and the best is yet to come! Namaste!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

My new job is stimulating and exciting and I'm still trying to get organized and learn what I'm supposed to be accomplishing. My greatest challenge right now is structuring my time so that I can accomplish all that I want to accomplish in my day, including "MY" time for the things that are important to me (like my blog, e-mail, journalling, working on the books I'm writing, staying in touch with family and friends and taking good care of my Wiz-man!). I don't have it down yet but I'm getting better. As it is, I have 3 more minutes to write and then I have to jump in the shower, walk Wiz and hit to door running. That's the way I like to hit the door...RUNNING. I'm learning to become more consistent and I have to write down my daily goals just to help me remember all that I need and want to do although I haven't yet reached a point where I get to tick off everything (I mean, that takes TIME, too).

Time is a concept but it's also a gift to each of us and something I just never seem to have enough of so I stop, take a few deep breaths, get into the MOMENT (instead of the moments that are to come), remember to smile and feel the air enter and leave my body and just give THANKS for the many, many blessings in my life and for the health and energy to do what I want and need to do. How do YOU structure your day to "maximize" it's potential? I'm always interested in knowing a better way and always looking for the better way. Even though time and minutes may be just a concept...I want to make the most of every SECOND of every DAY so that when it's all said and done...well, let's not talk about all said and done and let's just stay in this MOMENT...SEE, I AM LEARNING AS I GO!

So, to that end, carpe diem! It IS a great day to be alive in America and I am expecting a miracle (actually, more than one) today. I've already had a couple so I'm ahead of the game (is it a game?)...just a figure of speech but perhaps like a game...it's what we make of it!

Loving you all...

Namaste! (and now I AM off and running...and LOVING it!)