"...YES, IT SURE HAS BEEN A LONG, HARD CLIMB..."

Hanging out...

CLIMBERS

"I know what you want.

Something that speaks to you just where you are.

As if this plateau you are on was the only place you were ever going to be, the proper station for one of your attainments.

Listen, my darling, there are peaks and mountain heights up ahead.

We are all climbing to the next level, using the equipment we have brought with us.

Don't stop. Don't imagine you can now rest, take a nap, or check your messages.

Or hang around on the cliff face, dangling in space, hoping somebody will find you and pull you up while your ropes hold.

This is not a dress rehearsal. It is your own scenario, the one you wrote and are writing even now, even this very day."

Dorothy Walters (shared with gratitude & respect)

Experience is the best teacher; having been here again & again, I learn to recognize when I am away from the steadiness of the present moment and off in a contracted, craving state. While I am not always able to immediately release and come back, I am generally aware that I do not want to (re)act from that state (always unskillful), as my experience of having to then repair damage leaves a strong trail of memory, which helps guide me back to presence. This is the benefit of having tools / practices / program...knowing that I can access breath and/or body movement and/or self-care practice and thus change the way that I am being and feeling, and subsequently thinking, is a powerful support mechanism. Readings and meetings are also a great way to change the focus of my mind...shifting to being available to others as opposed to focused on my self. Mostly, when I get caught, the main thing is to keep moving...take that next breath (consciously), take that next step, get up, get out...move my body and change my perspective. Time to go....

"...faced with mysteries dark and vast...statements just seem vain at last. Some rise, some fall, some climb..." Robert Hunter (shared with gratitude & respect)