August 26 2018 Pranams to Grandmother Lalla

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Grandmother Lalla,
With words to open the heart.
Chasing her – chase God.
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I have been hanging out with a saint.
The life and poetry of Lalla keeps running around and tearing though my life. In spare moments, I will pick up her book and I will read a page or two of her biography. In spare moments I will flip to one of her poems – then the simple clarity and beauty of the words carry me across the bridge.
Last night I woke over and over to find her running through the field of my heart. She would not let me sleep. She keeps pointing the way to the true heart. She keeps pointing the way to be love. Her hair flying wild like a nimbus around her head yet is she motionless. A paradox.
A fourteenth century Kashmiri mystic, a woman who broke all the morays of her society to travel the road of love. Her fortitude and bravery are astounding.
She has been called by many names: Lallesvari or Lalla Yogini by the Hindu, Lalarifa by the Muslim and then Lal Ded the local colloquialism. However, she called herself Lalla and this is how I most often think of her.

With gratitude for the words of Lalla that have come down to us through 700 years, bringing light to dark corners. 

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“I will refer to this mystic-poet by her most celebrated and nonsectarian appellation, ‘Lal ded’. In the colloquial, this means ‘Grandmother Lal’; more literally it means ‘Lal the womb’, a designation that connects her to the mother goddesses whose cults of fecundity and abundance form the deep substratum of Indic religious life. I will also use the name by which she is most popularly and affectionately known, across community line: Lalla.”

Ranjit Hoskote from the Introduction to I, LALLA page x

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Images of Kashmir – home to Lalla

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August 25 2018 NATURAL RHYTHMS of LIFE

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Canyon ‘shift change’ hour:
Many settling for the night -
Others stretch to wake.
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As the sun is setting – a quiet comes to the land. It is time for ‘shift change’ in the canyon. The day critters are settling in for the night. The night critters are just stretching, yawning and readying to come out of their burrows. For myself, I am usually a day critter. Over the years it means I am usually rising between 3:45 am and 5:45 am (really it is not 4 to 6 but 3:45 to 5:45) – so I am one of those preparing to settle down for the night as I watch the sun setting in the west.
There are two times, I especially enjoy being out on the land; sunrise and sunset. It is the colors and the palpable stillness felt during this time of transition. However, even when overcast or stormy and so it is sans the colors – I so enjoy this time – and even if there is a noisy storm, somehow, there continues to be a pervasive stillness. It is a moment in time when life seems to not take inhale or exhale. It feels like the continuous bellow of the earth’s lungs – still – just for a moment. To be ‘there’ - in that moment - feels really really good.
Syncing in to the natural rhythms of life – such a good feeling.
When I worked the night shift (not given a choice – just told by my employer without option) – I never adjusted. Never. During these night shift assignments (sometimes lasting many long and grinding months) I would start my 7 pm shift having already been up since about 4 am that morning – so – by the time I got off work – I had been up more than 24 hours. Then, even with windows covered with foil and a quiet house (interior and exterior) I was lucky if I slept for 3 to 4 hours fitfully. Often, I would force myself to stay reclined for 6 hours, however I rarely slept that long. Then after 4 nights of work, when given a few days off, I would lay down for a couple hours but then wake and sleep off and on (even in public, I would fall asleep on my first day off) until the sunset when I would lay down for sometimes 12 or more hours straight. This was an exhaustive schedule for me. This was survival mode.
Science tells us that as a human you sleep at night, needing deep dark for sound sleep and the assistance in the creation of optimal health. However, with all our artificial lights (even bedside clocks) we interfere with natural rhythms. We diminish melatonin and increase cortisol levels. With gratitude for those who serve working through the night so that most of us can sleep. Your sacrifice is huge. It does not go unnoticed. 

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MELATONIN – Those getting little or poor night sleep time may be benefited by melatonin rich foods such a kiwi fruit, orange bell pepper, walnuts, goji berries and tart cherry juice. When I worked nights, my ‘go to’ was walnuts.
https://nutritionfacts.org/2014/04/03/foods-with-natural-melatonin/

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CORTISOL – Consider Mozart (and other classical composers) to reduce cortisol (stress hormone) – keeping my radio in my car tuned to Classical music station even now. Wouldn’t it be grand to consider playing classical in Police stations and emergency rooms!
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/music-for-anxiety-mozart-vs-metal/

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Photos I took last evening –

 looking to the west – 

across the canyon as the sun was completing his daily journey across the land.

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