How Can You Know Another?

How often has someone told you how you feel or think?  It happens to me all the time. People tell me that I am a healer when typically I think of myself as a Shaman.  

I am reminded of the story I read about an artist.  She said that she always introduced herself as an artist.  One day one of her friends said to her, “You can’t introduce yourself as an artist.  You are an art teacher.  You need to introduce yourself as an art teacher.”  The artist’s response was along the lines of, “what right do you have to tell me who I am or how I should introduce myself.  No one has the right to determine another’s life!”

Again, the Universe working in her mysterious manner, gave me the teaching to go with the story that I read.  I would like to share that story with you because it is so profound.

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Picture of a trout jumping for flies 

 

 

 

 

             

Knowing Fish – A Zen Teaching

One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river. "Look at the fish swimming about," said Chuang Tzu, "They are really enjoying themselves."

"You are not a fish," replied the friend, "So you can't truly know that they are enjoying themselves."

"You are not me," said Chuang Tzu. "So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?"

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Blessings,

Judy 

Octopus

A while ago, I watched the beautiful Oscar winning movie, “My Octopus Teacher”.  It was a documentary but had everything in it - relationships, fear, overcoming obstacles, and sacrifice.

Picture of Octopus from Wikipedia

The Octopus has received a lot of attention over the last several decades.  The Beatles made the Octopus a legendary figure in their song “Octopus’s Garden”.  We often refer to our family as “the octopus that we can never escape”.  A new expression via Drew Barrymore is “I wish I were an octopus so I could hug ten people at a time!”  Octopus is part of our speech and our culture. 

Octopus is given its name, in part from its eight legs or tentacles.  As eight is the number of infinity, Octopus has a connection to the heavens and to Great Spirit, even though Octopus lives at the bottom of the ocean.  Their home is a small cave, or pile of rocks that it can fit into, along the sea floor. Here Octopus hides and waits for prey.  What makes this animal so unusual is that it has no bones in its body, so it is able to squeeze into small spaces.  One can say that Octopus is the ultimate example of flexibility.

When Octopus is spread out, its tentacles are like the spokes in a wheel, or like an eight point star. It represents nothing and everything.  The suction cups on their tentacles allow Octopus to grab on to and to hold tightly.  As Octopus has a short life span of one to five years, it seems that these suction cups may represent getting a hold on life.

What is your relationship to Octopus?

Blessings,

Judy

Happy Mother’s Day

 This is a special day to remind us all of how much Mothers mean to each of us.  The following quotes about Mothers show some of the feeling behind our celebration of Mothers.  

"Mother: the most beautiful word on the lips of mankind." —Kahil Gibran

"To the world you are a mother, but to your family you are the world." —Unknown

"Mothers can look through a child’s eyes and see tomorrow." —Reed Markham

"To a child’s ear, 'mother' is magic in any language." —Arlene Benedict

"My mother is a walking miracle." —Leonardo DiCaprio

"Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever." —Unknown

 "A mother understands what a child does not say." —Jewish Proverb

"There is no influence so powerful as that of the mother." —Sara Josepha Hale

"Mother: the most beautiful word on the lips of mankind." —Kahil Gibran

"The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children." —Elaine Heffner

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Blessings,

Judy