It's been a while since I have sat down to write. My fingers miss these keys. At the close of another Ramadan, the most profound one spiritually for me so far, I feel compelled to share a bit of my experience this year.
It is my fifth year of this practice now,(where the time goes I'll never know).
This year was different in that it has begun to be less of a physically demanding process, and has started to open my mind and higher processes. My body is more accustomed to the hunger, it adapts very quickly, and the joy in the practice rises to the surface of my skin almost as soon as I begin.
This year went on as every other, with the initial curiosity from co workers, concern and questions, gently softening into acceptance as the days blended into weeks. It stayed that way until the week before I left for Wanderlust.
I was asking myself why ( I actually know why) these things always seem to coincide with Ramadan. I might have even voiced my frustration to the air in my office, which took me into an interesting conversation with my associate, around why Ramadan is practiced in our time zone when it originated in Mecca? "Well", I said, "people move around the globe! They practice wherever the choose to live. The time is kind of irrelevant".
"It's not!" she said. " What if you lived in Yellowknife where the sun doesn't set?" I laughed and replied that a fasting person would never choose to live in a place where the sun never set because they couldn't do their spiritual practice. "But they would have to modify it!" She insisted, "to fit the time zone!'
No, I replied, they would simply choose to live somewhere else! We laughed a lot but left each other unconvinced of our points.
At the end of my day, I walked into my office to find Leah in an somewhat ecstatic state.
"I know why your doing Ramadan pokes me so much! Clair and I talked about it and I get it! " I sat down and laughed as she explained, the words bursting out of her and washing over me, what my process mirrored for her.
It was an interesting realization for me in many different ways. I went home and shared with my partner what had occurred, and my own growing awareness of what my own practice was allowing the people around me to access within their own lives.
Ramadan is a very personal practice for me of "filling my own cup". I can't explain why I chose to continue doing it, when the reason I started was no longer present, except to say that I am supposed to do this. It isn't logical or explainable. It is simply my soul's knowing. My willingness to trust my intuition and walk a path that might not make sense to anyone else. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone else. In my heart I know. This practice makes me a kinder, softer, more compassionate human being. I listen more, I judge less. I am happier, and my soul is quieter. This practice makes me a better person.
I did an evolutionary astrology reading with Lynn Fiset that touched me deeply this month. During the course of the reading, she explained that due to the position of certain aspects in my chart I will have the opportunity to heal old karmic wounds from past lives via the practice of yoga, meditation and fasting. All I felt were the tears on my cheeks as my heart opened and sighed. Yes. That was it. Truth revealed, the unexplained pull simply explained. I felt relief in a funny way. In this process of self discovery, I am learning and I am listening. It was proof for me that I am being guided. That by itself made my heart glad. The realization that I am never alone, has been has in itself, been full of grace.
I like the metaphor of a hurricane glass. Hurricane glass surrounds and protects a flame. Each of us has a bright flame within us, the true core of who we are, our Atma, our soul. As we burn through our karma in our lives, soot gets deposited on that glass through our experiences, as self doubt, hurt, wounding, until sometimes it is so thick we cannot see the flame at all, only a dull glow. Each year that I practice this beautiful discipline, I feel like I remove a layer of that soot. I forgive myself, and others. I burn off all of the things that make it difficult for me to see who I really am. There are many, many practices that lead here. Ramadan is only one. Find a practice that makes your heart sing, and don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't do it or you can't do it. Find instead people like I am so grateful to have in my life, who embrace it because it matters to you, because they love the person you are.
What would the world look like if we chose our practices not based on religion, race or creed, but on which practices fed our souls and allowed us to access our higher selves? What would you choose?
In love and light,
Kathryn
It is my fifth year of this practice now,(where the time goes I'll never know).
This year was different in that it has begun to be less of a physically demanding process, and has started to open my mind and higher processes. My body is more accustomed to the hunger, it adapts very quickly, and the joy in the practice rises to the surface of my skin almost as soon as I begin.
This year went on as every other, with the initial curiosity from co workers, concern and questions, gently softening into acceptance as the days blended into weeks. It stayed that way until the week before I left for Wanderlust.
I was asking myself why ( I actually know why) these things always seem to coincide with Ramadan. I might have even voiced my frustration to the air in my office, which took me into an interesting conversation with my associate, around why Ramadan is practiced in our time zone when it originated in Mecca? "Well", I said, "people move around the globe! They practice wherever the choose to live. The time is kind of irrelevant".
"It's not!" she said. " What if you lived in Yellowknife where the sun doesn't set?" I laughed and replied that a fasting person would never choose to live in a place where the sun never set because they couldn't do their spiritual practice. "But they would have to modify it!" She insisted, "to fit the time zone!'
No, I replied, they would simply choose to live somewhere else! We laughed a lot but left each other unconvinced of our points.
At the end of my day, I walked into my office to find Leah in an somewhat ecstatic state.
"I know why your doing Ramadan pokes me so much! Clair and I talked about it and I get it! " I sat down and laughed as she explained, the words bursting out of her and washing over me, what my process mirrored for her.
It was an interesting realization for me in many different ways. I went home and shared with my partner what had occurred, and my own growing awareness of what my own practice was allowing the people around me to access within their own lives.
Ramadan is a very personal practice for me of "filling my own cup". I can't explain why I chose to continue doing it, when the reason I started was no longer present, except to say that I am supposed to do this. It isn't logical or explainable. It is simply my soul's knowing. My willingness to trust my intuition and walk a path that might not make sense to anyone else. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone else. In my heart I know. This practice makes me a kinder, softer, more compassionate human being. I listen more, I judge less. I am happier, and my soul is quieter. This practice makes me a better person.
I did an evolutionary astrology reading with Lynn Fiset that touched me deeply this month. During the course of the reading, she explained that due to the position of certain aspects in my chart I will have the opportunity to heal old karmic wounds from past lives via the practice of yoga, meditation and fasting. All I felt were the tears on my cheeks as my heart opened and sighed. Yes. That was it. Truth revealed, the unexplained pull simply explained. I felt relief in a funny way. In this process of self discovery, I am learning and I am listening. It was proof for me that I am being guided. That by itself made my heart glad. The realization that I am never alone, has been has in itself, been full of grace.
I like the metaphor of a hurricane glass. Hurricane glass surrounds and protects a flame. Each of us has a bright flame within us, the true core of who we are, our Atma, our soul. As we burn through our karma in our lives, soot gets deposited on that glass through our experiences, as self doubt, hurt, wounding, until sometimes it is so thick we cannot see the flame at all, only a dull glow. Each year that I practice this beautiful discipline, I feel like I remove a layer of that soot. I forgive myself, and others. I burn off all of the things that make it difficult for me to see who I really am. There are many, many practices that lead here. Ramadan is only one. Find a practice that makes your heart sing, and don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't do it or you can't do it. Find instead people like I am so grateful to have in my life, who embrace it because it matters to you, because they love the person you are.
What would the world look like if we chose our practices not based on religion, race or creed, but on which practices fed our souls and allowed us to access our higher selves? What would you choose?
In love and light,
Kathryn
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