mindfulness

Secret of the Wheelbarrow

/ Darlene Franklin-Campbell / Leave a comment

 

Carrying yesterday’s junk leaves no room for today’s treasures.

DUMP THE JUNK!

About five years ago I bought a new wheelbarrow for the purpose of gardening. However, this spring when I went out to use my wheelbarrow, I found it was useless.

It was useless because of the television, the one that had stopped working a long time ago. I needed to get rid of it; it was useless junk from my past. It was super heavy, too big a burden to carry, so I loaded it onto the wheelbarrow to transport it and then I got sidetracked and left it—for two months!

Recently, I needed to use the wheelbarrow to move dirt as it was time to garden, but when I went out to get it, I realized that I couldn’t put anything in it unless I emptied it.

It wasn’t until I took hold of the handles, guided the wheelbarrow to the barn and unloaded the television that I could use it again for gardening, its original purpose.

IT’S A NEW DAY!

I think our minds are like my wheelbarrow (or any vessel for that matter). So long as we are filled with junk from the past, we are useless in the present.

So often we begin each day with associations to the ones gone before. Each day is a new beginning, but ONLY if we empty the wheelbarrow. There is a passage in the Book of Psalms where David says, “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” He is telling us that he started over, every morning with gratitude.

There is also a passage in the Tao Te Ching that talks about how the usefulness of a vessel is in the emptiness of the vessel. Only when my wheelbarrow was emptied of the past, could I use it in the present.

THERE IS ONLY NOW.

In the Book of Hebrews Paul says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” NOW. Not yesterday, not twenty years ago, not this morning. Right now. Faith works in the present. It is in the present that we call those things into existence that we may not see with our physical eyes, but if we see them with our spirits, they have no choice but to manifest.

In Hebrews 11:3, Paul teaches us, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” The reference to the word of God here comes from an old Greek word, Rhema (hray-mah) and means a literal utterance, especially a narrative or a command. Solomon tells us that life and death are in the power of the tongue. In other words, when we speak of a thing or dwell on a thing, we draw that thing to ourselves.

If we hang onto negative narratives of the past, old junk, regardless of who put it there, we can’t move forward into today, we cannot know true peace and purpose. I know people who still live in their high school mentality, some who are holding thirty-year-old grudges, some who are hanging onto to pain from childhood, some who simply can’t move on because everyday they wake up with their wheelbarrows full of yesterday’s junk.

So long as we are wheeling around yesterday’s junk we can’t enjoy today’s treasures.

The usefulness of a vessel doesn’t lie in its fullness but in its continuously being emptied and refilled.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

The Wisdom Found in the Sound of Silence

/ Darlene Franklin-Campbell / 1 Comment
Taking a break from the noise that surrounds us, even if only for a moment, can help us hear the secrets we can only learn in the sound of silence.

I am happy.

In this moment I hear that strange sound that accompanies silence. It’s a sound that comes from inside my own head and I don’t know how to describe it, except to say that it’s the beautiful sound of silence. I can put my fingers in my ears and still hear it. Oddly enough, the world around me isn’t silent. There is a clock ticking, a fridge humming, a cat outside meowing into the night, bamboo chimes clanging out on the porch, and yet, I hear the sound of silence.

I breathe in and am thankful for my breath, for life. Every second that has come before has brought me here and there has never been another moment exactly like this one, nor shall there ever be another. Some are similar but this one is this one and my particular thoughts in this moment will never be precisely the same again nor have they ever been precisely the same.

Today I pulled up to an ATM and I saw myself in the side mirror of my car. My immediate reaction was, “You’re pretty.” I smiled. My face is not flawless, but my first reaction to my reflection was akin to the reaction of seeing a brilliant blue bird sitting on the fence post, or seeing a dogwood in full bloom, or watching a waterfall tumble over the cliffs. It wasn’t a television, photo-shopped, Instagram kind of beauty that caused my heart to leap with joy upon seeing my own reflection but it was that same kind of elation, joy and appreciation I feel when I look at the wonders of nature. I fully, in that instant (and now as a result of that instant) understood what the Psalmist said in the Bible when he wrote, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Wow. I am. I am a thing of nature, just like a bluebird, or a dogwood or a waterfall. I am wonderfully made, a unique creation and so are you. I don’t need anyone’s temporal validation because I am internally and eternally validated.

Yesterday, as I was driving back from taking my artwork to a show in another town, about an hour and a half away, I watched the sun, settling behind the trees, getting ready to sink below the horizon and I realized that I was completely happy. No person had made me happy. No circumstance had made me happy. I wasn’t thinking of anything that had happened to me before in my life nor was I thinking of anything that might or might not happen in the future. I was thinking only of the moment, of the pleasure of driving on a country road, of the golden sun, of the quietness around me and then I realized that I was filled with joy and overcome with the beautiful sound of silence. I turned off my stereo so that I could better hear the sound of silence and it was musical, refreshing, delightful. My inner being, my spirit, felt like it was flying. I completely appreciated the moment and the world around me and in doing so, I realized that I am completely loved and was completely connected to I Am, Creator.

Once, a long time ago, my little brother accused me of just being “lucky,” exclaiming that every thing just always worked out for me. Well, now, after all these years, I realize that he was right. Everything is always working out for me. It’s like Paul said in the book of Romans, “…all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and who are called according to his purpose.” Well, guess what? All things means all things and work together for the good means that all things are working out for me and called according to his purpose means that it’s Great I Am’s plan and intent for it to be that way. So, yep, all things are working out for me all the time. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am happy. I am loved. I don’t have to strive or work toward perfection or try to earn God’s favor. All I have to do is receive. Every good and perfect gift comes from above. You can’t earn a gift. You can only be in receptive mode and receive it. So, I don’t believe I was born under a lucky star or a perfect astrological sign. I believe that I am fearfully (awe-inspiring) and wonderfully made and that I am an offspring of the Great I Am who loves me and wants to give me an abundant life. I can’t earn it. I can only accept it (receive) or reject it. When we keep trying to earn it, we are not receiving. It’s like trying to climb a ladder to get what’s already been placed on ground level.

 

Guilty or Not-Guilty

/ Darlene Franklin-Campbell / Leave a comment

Guilt is a thief. It will rob you of the present, haunt your past and taint your future, if you let it. Guilty feelings can become shackles in our lives. 

A HYPOTHETICAL STORY:

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Ken’s mom said. “Me, your poorly momma, in here cleaning this kitchen all by myself. One day you’ll understand just how sickly I am. I’ll be gone and you’ll feel bad that you didn’t help me. Mark my word, you’ll regret the way you treated me. But you go ahead, play your game and I’ll work myself into the grave.”

Ten-year-old Ken put his game down and went into the kitchen, now feeling horrible that one day his mom would die and he’d be alone, remembering that he didn’t take out the trash. Sounds dramatic on her part doesn’t it? But I’ve heard it done. Maybe you have, too.

GUILT IS A BEWITCHING CONTROL MECHANISM:

Guilt is effective at getting people to conform, getting them to follow the rules or follow the crowd or please us. It’s so ingrained in us from the time we’re kids like Ken. It would have been a lot kinder of his mother to say, “Ken, get in here and take the trash out. The sooner you do your chores, the sooner you can finish your game.” I’ve heard teachers guilt students into compliance. Eek, I’ve even been guilty of guilting myself. But I know better now.

I’ve seen parents guilt kids into compliance. I’ve known spouses to guilt partners into compliance. I once had a friend who tried to guilt me into things. I’ve had relatives guilt me into doing things that I didn’t really want to do, things that benefited them but caused me stress. I’ve even been guilted into wearing clothes I didn’t really like, or keeping gifts I didn’t really want.

FEELING GUILTY IMOBILIZES US:

Guilt is the immobilization that comes from reliving a feeling of inadequacy, maybe put there before we can even remember. It is rooted in our perceived failures of the past, in the belief that we are “bad” people if we don’t do certain things.

Every time I’ve ever done anything out of guilt, it brought me little happiness or blessings in the long run, but every time I’ve done something because I joyfully wanted to, I’ve been blessed. I think that if we preform an act out of guilt, we get no sense of blessing or pleasure from it, only a sense of duty, obligation and eventually, resentment.

So guilt is basically rooted in the past, remembered or forgotten. It doesn’t matter. It’s like it’s on a cellur level or something. It isn’t rooted in the future. You can’t be guilty over something you haven’t even done yet! Instead of feeling bad about out failures and telling ourselves that we are stupid or evil or jerks, maybe we can be thankful that we now know to do things a different way.

GOING FORWARD, GUILTY NO MORE

We all make mistakes. Beating ourselves up over them won’t take them away. We can’t go back and undo them. We can’t take words we spoke back, or reverse deeds we’ve done but we can change our actions, our motives, our words in the present.