The Trust Beneath Trust

When fear swirls through our minds, we look for something to trust. We reach into our backpack of inspirational quotes, phone calls to reassuring friends, the stillness of meditation, faith in the soul, and many other things. All of them are meant to soothe the turmoil of facing the great unknowns—food, shelter, love, disease, death, the survival of the planet. Sometimes it works and sometimes the fear rages on.

While the mind searches for trust amidst a whirlpool of dread, there's another trust that doesn't come and go at the whim of the thought-stream. This trust permeates the cells of the body and the fibers of trees. It rests within rocks and glows through sunlight. It doesn't look for evidence to believe or facts to prove. It doesn't rely on words in a book or a posture on a yoga mat. This trust doesn't depend on your faith in it or the consensus of a community.

So what it this trust beneath trust? It is life being what it is beyond any human preference. It's water tumbling down a mountain to the sea without worrying if its the right thing to do or the right way to go. It's your body swallowing food and digesting it as best it can without fretting over whether or not it is on your diet. This trust runs through every grain of existence. It is the earth breathing incomprehensible totality without scurrying about to make sure everything is in order and everybody is happy about it. It's life sticking with its miraculous process of birth, growth, decay, death and renewal no matter what.

So, when your mind swirls with anxiety, panic, or some vague distress, reach for your favorite Rumi quote or your version of rosary beads and soothe your aching thoughts. Also remember, beneath the thunderstorms of your aching heart, the entire earth is permeated with a trust that does not change and is always firm. It's life being life, existence existing, no matter what.

CARVING YOUR PLACE

This is a photo of one of the Ellora Cave Temples in India. It's an amazing place where the people added a building by carving away from the earth. They created sacred space by losing solid stone. Imagine the vision of looking at a mountainside and seeing a temple within it. Imagine the tenacity to chip away the rock bit by bit to allow light to penetrate matter. Imagine the moment of stepping back and realizing what could be achieved by human hands. 

Imagine the vision you might find within the obstacles looming before your own life. Open to the power in your hands to chip away, bit by bit, at those obstacles to reveal the life waiting there. 

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

When most people design a home or apartment they reach for style books and magazines. A golden opportunity is missed. They could have listened to their deepest desires for living and explored how those longings could shape and be shaped by the specific site of the design. Instead, they employ design ideas that may have perfectly suited other people and times, but don't sync with their personal role in the play of existence. 

If you want to take a fresh approach to design and make your home a place that truly fits you and your place on earth try the following: 

If you're painting your walls, don't start with chips from the paint store. Take a walk and look at the colors of the leaves, flowers, tree bark, and soil you pass. Notice the color or combinations of colors that attract you. Take samples of these colors home and see how you might incorporate them into your living space. Then, go to the store and ask them to match the colors you discovered.

If you're looking for a new sofa, chair, bed or other piece of furniture go to a forest or beach. Find a place where it feels good to sit. What do you like about this place? What shapes attract you? What textures do you want to run your fingers across. What materials such as wood or stone make this place feel like home? Imagine combining the forms, textures and materials you see into a sofa, bed or other piece of furniture.

Take this approach and imagine other ways of incorporating the patterns of nature into the design of your home.

Like a bee following its attraction to flowers and carrying away pollen for making honey, follow your senses and desires to gather the forms, colors and textures  that can make your home a more creative and connected place.