Do Unto Others

SATURDAY

We walk along the ridge above Newton St Cyres  - a village outside Exeter. The earth is cracked dry in this recently cut wheat field.

Blackthorn berries ( I think) in the hedgerows..

This giant grass cutting machine claws the sky..... the smell of new cut grass follows us along the ridge.

It's beginning to feel like Autumn but  I'm told it's not official till the swallows have flown ....left for Africa....and today they sweep the sky....quivers of shooting arrows beyond the clouds...

I want to lie back in the prickly field after our picnic and try and count them - imagine I'm one of them getting ready to leave on a long relentless journey across oceans and continents... but my husband wants to go in search of coffee and cake....

SUNDAY

 We visit a wonderful art exhibition  - portraits of older people hung on white walls at A La Ronde House - so real you are sure you've met them somewhere before.... Later we dodge speeding cyclists on the path that meanders beside the railway, beside the Exe Estuary at Lympstone and stretch up and out to the brambles rambling over the banks. We are trying to reach the blackberries that are left in the wake of the pickers who have been before us and slowly fill our plastic box with small squashy bullets.

All day I feel I'm wading through treacle....I was never a parent but I think I know what it's like now....trying to find ways to get through the day with a toddler who isn't very well...keeping him going till supper time....

BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY

Wet wet wet...I dive deep into series six of Mad Men....leave my small, weary world behind for a while and take root in the sofa with crisps and chocolate while my husband sleeps/drives/plays solitaire....

When it stops raining I walk alone to the University Parks.... on the way I pass this tree in someone's garden laden with a thousand gold plums....they are falling on the ground, rotting on the pavement - no one picking them...I want to knock on their door and say Don't you want this bounty? 

Eucalyptus elbow...

It starts to rain again .....

I take shelter under a maple tree...

and the sun comes out ....

but it's still raining so we have a Monkey's Wedding....

TODAY

If I could remember to do this even once in a day I think I'd feel like a better person.....thank you Tara for reminding me....

a code for living Posted: 18 Aug 2014 04:44 PM PDT Last week, I read these words from Marianne Williamson One theory of death is that, upon our passing, we experience our lives again backwards. Whatever I gave or did not give to others, I will experience what they experienced — times ten. That would mean that for every laugh — either a small chuckle or outright guffaw — every smile that Robin Williams caused to occur in others, he is now experiencing tenfold. That would amount to bliss unending. May it be so. I was so struck by the beauty of this idea. Whether it’s true or not, it’s a potent code for living. What if you lived knowing every experience you gave to another person would be experienced by you – times ten – at the end of your life? I have been asking myself that as regularly as I can remember to this week and it changes every interaction I bring it into. The first day after I read these words, an acquaintance was coming home from a friend’s funeral out of town, and mentioned her trip to me. Because of Marianne’s words, I was thinking not my usual thoughts (“What is the right thing to say to her? How can a person ever say something good enough in these moments? How much should I ask about it or not ask about it?) Instead of all that mental chatter, I was highly attuned to the fact during our conversation, she was going to experience something – a feeling. Was I giving her an experience that I would want returned to me, times ten? I quietly turned inward and tried to sense what would provide a feeling a comfort and love in that moment. The answer I sensed clearly within myself was to listen, with great attention. And so I mostly listened, but in a more inviting, spacious, focused way than I otherwise would have. Instead of the five minute conversation we could have had, she talked about her experience a lot. She unfolded it before a present witness. I could tell that because I’d paused to try to to intuit my way to the most loving response – though we can never know for sure what that will be for another human being – I’d done something more helpful than if I’d spoken from my shoulds, or from my patterns of how to respond. The news these past weeks has been so horrible. This morning I couldn’t stop thinking how we’ve been given the instructions. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. May we begin to practice that simple task. A life’s worth of emotional growth, of spiritual development comes down to this. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Do not give anyone an experience that you are not eager to receive, tenfold, at the end of your journey. Love, Tara Tara Sophia Mohr | Playing Big