Who in my life dances to the beat of my drum? Nobody but me! Get your own drum and dance to that!

I know this is a metaphor for connectedness, but it’s not one I would relate to really as it sounds a little controlling to me!

The beating of our individual drums together may make a beautiful sound that we can dance to but I’d rather dance to Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars/Mark Ronson! As well as the original video on YouTube (almost 4 billion views) there is a fantastically edited version called “Old Movie Stars Dance to Uptown Funk” with over 53 million views. A good few of those are mine as I dance to it several times a week! Let’s dance!
PS. If you click CC on the screen of the latter version, the name of the film that the clip comes from will show.

Who can I hold in my heart today?
I can hold in my heart the man I wrote about here several weeks ago who I was breaking up with after 4 ½ years. I just read what I had written then in the Daily Reflection – that I would let him go with love and hoped that we would continue to be friends. There have been more than a few tears of sadness from both of us over the break-up because I had fallen out of love with him as there was no possibility of a future together while, in the last few months he had fallen in love with me. But I can’t stay to make him happy. I am not responsible for his life and he understands that. We are still loving friends.

In the same Daily Reflection I wrote – somewhat tongue in cheek – that “I will throw open the window and yell “Next!” and see how the Universe responds!”

Today I can reflect that I must have a hot-line to the Universe (or rather I had the courage to defy my prejudices and joined a dating site!) as I have met a wonderful man who seems to be looking for what I am looking for – a committed relationship with someone to stay young and vital with. We met for some socially-distanced walks and I visited his home 3 times last weekend in another town which is close to where I was spending time with friends. He is delightful and whatever happens, I hold him in my heart today for the joy I have experienced in his company.

There is still a vestige of scepticism in me that says these situations don’t happen so quickly and that may prove to be true, but at our time of life (66 and 71) we don’t have time to be dilly-dallying! I am going to him again this coming weekend and we’ll see what transpires!

I also hold in my heart all of the wonderful people on this site whose Reflections have given me the inspiration and courage over the last few months to share some of my thoughts and life circumstances with. By nature I have always been somewhat reticent in sharing details of my personal life, but the acceptance I have found here has changed me forever. Thank you to all the staff and contributors at gratefulness.org for being in my life.

To forget the pain of the past and recommit to loving unconditionally.

I’m thinking today of the lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

I am so grateful for today’s blog on this site and the inspirational quotes therein, especially Brené Brown’s “Only when we’re brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”

The Word for the Day with Malala Yousafzai’s quote also references the power of light: “At night our fear is strong. . . but in the morning, in the light, we find our courage again.”

My painting education was based on Goethe’s Theory of Colors, and our first experiment of looking through a prism at the border of dark and light demonstrated how both are needed for the visible spectrum of light to appear. If I want a life of vibrancy – which I do – I must embrace my darkness with courage and remember that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. The light will always prevail.

The final verse of the poem (To a Louse) quoted in today’s Word for the Day that gave rise to this question, was written in 1786 by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. As a child at school in Scotland I learned to recite it in the original Scots language and until now, had never read a translation of it. Thanks to the Google Oracle I discovered that the full verse in this translation reads:

Oh, would some Power give us the gift
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!

Burns wrote the poem after seeing a louse crawling over the hat of a fine lady in church and, not being of high birth himself, he was reflecting on how her (perceived by him) pretensions would be challenged if she had known about the louse that should have been more appropriately crawling on “some ragged boy’s pale undervest”.

I believe that the sentiment of the final verse gave rise to the constant refrain of my childhood; “What will people think of you?” I didn’t care then and I don’t care now! I know I am kind and thoughtful and forgiving, but if someone doesn’t see me as I am, I bless them and move on – as I did from Scotland and the endless caring about how one wants to appear to others.

But I do care about how I appear to myself, and a daily inventory of my positive and negative thoughts, feelings and actions shows me what corrections I need to make. I am still a work in progress!

Thank you for this, Verena.

At this time of my life I would most like to learn what is contained in the first verse:

1. By thinking of all sentient beings
As more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel
For accomplishing the highest aim,
I will always hold them dear.

While I do try to catch and release sentient spiders if they are in my house and they haven’t caught me unawares (in which case I have squashed them) I haven’t ever thought of them as being “more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel”! Ditto other creepy crawlies, mice and rats should they ever enter my home.

The plague of locusts that is currently destroying food supplies in parts of Africa, Asia and South America also don’t rate in my mind at the moment as sentient beings to be cherished. However if these plagues highlight and reverse the local environmental degradation, overgrazing, deforestation and the expansion of deserts that are creating ideal conditions for more and more locusts to breed, then I guess they are “accomplishing the highest aim”.

Unfortunately it is difficult for me to “always hold dear” those human sentient beings who, through ignorance perhaps, but mostly through greed, have caused the conditions that will result in calamity for the inhabitants of these areas.

But I now recognise that just writing this has helped me to be mindful that I have to be satisfied with progress while I can strive for perfection. So I now can say at this moment the words “Bless them all” with sincerity, although I’m sure I will have to renew this blessing many times in my own sentient life. And I can include myself, with all my own imperfections, in the “all” to be blessed .

How wonderful this vehicle for reflections is! xx

Fantastic Ed. Thank you so much for the information.

Although a Scot by birth, I am also a Canadian citizen having lived in and around Toronto for 30+ years before moving to Ireland in 2006. The use of colour v color conundrum presented itself soon after I arrived in Canada, but as I worked for American companies, I adopted their spelling, which, IMHO, makes more sense, eh! (I added ‘eh’ because many Americans think we Canadians use that all the time, but I can honestly say I never did, nor did I ever meet anyone who did!).
Blessings.

Thank you so much for the information on the inner color exercises. More investigating to do! I found some information online, but any direction you can give would be appreciated.

I have devised some of my own that I teach along with painting combined with exercises from Michael Chekhov’s Acting Technique. Incidentally, I encourage my students to wear only the color (and its compliment) that we are working with for the week. It’s powerful to learn how our expression of ourselves in the world and its response to us varies according to which color we are consciously clothing ourselves in.

Kandinsky is one of my most revered artists also!

And thank you also for the information that Daskalos’ grandfather was a fellow Scot. I didn’t see that in any of the biographical notes. Blessings.

What a wonderful site this is!

Today I learned about HH 16th Karmapal from Verena and from you about Daskalos (Teacher) and the Researchers for Truth. I have seen your references to these in the past, but In my ignorance I assumed the former was an ancient Greek philosopher and the latter a generic name for all spiritual seekers.

But today I was inspired to consult the Google Oracle and discovered how wrong I was! How wonderful it is to be wrong and consequently to discover the wealth of material to read and view from this wonderful teacher. Blessings and thank you.

Thanks for this Ed and your comment on my reflection below.

When I was looking up a translation of the poem today, I found one in which the first line of the verse was given as “O would some Power with vision teach us”. Although it is taking some liberties with Burns’ words, (O wad some Power the giftie gie us) it is a better match for scansion of the original. And it does describe the power of introspection combined with visualization that you and I both use. Thought you might like to know!

In case you change your mind about memorising the poem, there are some good renditions of the original in the Scots language on YouTube.
I think I would probably “Louse it up” too if I tried to recite it now because I have largely forgotten it – and life is too short to relearn it!