Gentleness

In nature light rarely arrives in a flash, or all at once like a floodlight.  Some light is breakthrough light, like a messenger through clouds

and tree tops.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

Most light gently arrives at dusk, and departs at dusk. I am NOT, NOT, NOT  a morning person, yet when I great the morning sun, THAT day is always full of light, and wonder, and a whisper in my ear, “stay present, it is always the present moment. Tomorrow never comes, it’s always today. And the past, honor the past, but hold it  LIGHTly.”

My Dutch Indonesian family grew up living on the equator, dawn and dusk ALWAYS occurred 12 hours apart at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.  Not only did the sun always great the day and the night, the timing was always the same. I think many of this family, must have this timing in their “blood.” What’s in your blood, when do you remember to feel gentle light?

I remember to feel gentle light when the dust motes in a room light up, I think, “Oh, God is all around me.”

I remember to feel gentle light when I remember walking hand in hand with Pake (my Frisian-Dutch grandfather) in golden light at the end of a long summer’s day.

“Under the bright sun, many of us are gather … together with different languages,different styles of dress, even different faiths.However, all of us are the same in being humans, and we all uniquely have the  thought of “I,” and we´re all the same in wanting happiness and in wanting to avoid suffering.”

the Dalai Lama

Perhaps you would like to say with me, “Help me to feel gentle,  the gentle light today that tells me I am right where I am supposed to be at this moment, under the same sun as everyone else. Help me to stay in each moment today, and bring light to myself and others.”

What light will you gently let enter your life today? Write just one thing you will do differently.  Maybe….

• set your alarm 15 minutes early and walk outside your home and greet the day
• start the day with a morning meditation, devotional or encouragement
• have no worry about your own or another’s beliefs, just be there for the light that enters their life
• call someone and tell them how special they are
• send a “snail mail” thank you, or encouragement note
• read gentle thoughts of meaning each night before drifting asleep such as Ann Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift of the Sea
• do not worry about what you don’t eat, but focus on the healthy foods you do eat – those 5 servings of veggies and fruit each day
• ……………………………(fill in your own blank)
• read snippets of a sad/hopeful book about your heritage daily, and have it bring meaning to your life today. One of mine is Tromp, Sheri G. (ed.).  Four Years Till Tomorrow: Despair and Hope in Wartime Dutch East Indies Dutch-Canadian survivors, relate their despair and hope in Japanese concentration camps in the 1940s Dutch East Indies.  These survivor stories give readers a deeper understanding of what human beings are capable of, in terms of both cruelty and heroism. 1999

TELL ME YOUR ONE THING…..TELL ME THE LIGHT AND LIGHTS IN YOUR LIFE SO YOU STAY GENTLE

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