JW: A Miracle ... the Heron Dances again

by Rod MacIver

Many years ago, I fell into fandom for an artist/poet and maker of a small magazine that just took my breath away with every issue. Then I moved too much or he went a different direction or for some reason the connection was broken.

A couple of years ago, I found out that my friend Barbara and her late husband had a pretty close connection to this same artist but had also lost connection. We tried to find him but I was spelling his name wrong so we couldn't find him. Today, a mail piece showed up at her address and I've reconnected with his his Substack and his website where he has written his manifesto with some pieces that seem appropriate for us ... some of it might even be worthy of being entrance meditations.

I love the synchronicity of this.

Here are two pieces I thought particularly appropriate:

Relations With Oneself

The path of joy is knowing who you are and living it. It requires befriending yourself.

• We create our own reality, and our inner life profoundly affects that reality.

• Adversity helps us understand ourselves.

• It is difficult to be who we are; it is difficult to know who we are.

• Make time for dreams—dreams determine who we become.

• Live your dreams, not the dreams of others.

• A close relationship with yourself requires a time commitment, including a commitment to time spent in solitude.

• Art and poetry evolve out of a close relationship with oneself, including one’s moods.

• A friendship with yourself includes treating your time on this earth as precious.

• Sadness is part of a life well-lived.

Inner Peace, Leisure, Serenity, Silence, Time

A peaceful and serene life requires making time for silence. The rhythm you adopt in your life will affect it, for good or ill, in profound ways.

• An appreciation of beauty requires serenity.

• Leisure and reflection are important parts of a good life; leisure is a subversive idea.

• A close relationship with oneself requires time spent in silence.

• Avoid the news. In essence, it never changes, it is rarely good, and it even more rarely contributes anything really good to your life. It is mostly about politicians and business leaders who lead poisoned lives living out insecurities and the resulting craving for status.

• Pay attention to the silence.

Roderick MacIver, HeronDance.org, https://herondance.substack.com/