Saturday evening under the bright moon I did tai chi with a wonderful sense of peacefulness and a feeling of expansion as I looked out over the city. I was standing in a field above the city lights and it was quiet and meditative. The warm breeze reminding me that Spring was knocking at the seasonal door. I just got up as I am writing this and looked at the calendar and today is the first day of Spring. Yeah I made it through another winter.

Life is so interesting sometimes. As I write this I hear a woodpecker working our metal chimney as if it is a tree. I wonder how many times he will bang his head against the steel to figure out that it is not wood. The bird sounds more like a mini-jackhammer. My wife just yelled, “For God sakes what is wrong with that bird?” When will it figure out it is hammering down the wrong path. I finally had to go outside and toss a tennis ball to see where he was. He came flying out of the metal chimney and it is quiet around here again.

This got me thinking about us humans and how sometimes we keep pushing rather than get off a path that isn’t working. Pushing forward is a great quality when it gets us through rough times. This pushing can also be more like a bad habit when we are heading in the wrong direction but our ego is inflexibly hammering away and unwilling to take a step back and re-evaluate so we can course correct.

Are you good at pushing through difficult times? Do you know when you are pushing up the river of unnecessary hardship? Can you course correct easily or does your ego resist? Does the familiar and the habitual take precedence or can you move easily into change? Are you stubborn or flexible? Where in your life do you need to make some changes so things happen more effortlessly?

Life has a flow to it and if we are open we can step into the stream of universal force and do things effortless and easily. Are you ready to step on the easier path or do you insist on struggle?

Now that Spring has sprung I can start to think about doing some gardening. The sun is shining, it is warming up outside and I am heading out for a longer run. I so much enjoy the experience of running up into the mountains and appreciating in the beauty of nature. Although running can be physically difficult at times there is mental glide that nurtures me deeply.

Here is a podcast that features Joanna Macy at On Being a great teacher about what is important in life.

And here is "Widening Circles" by Rainer Maria Rilke; translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

I live my life in widening circles

that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one

but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.

I've been circling for thousands of years

and I still don't know: am I a falcon,

a storm, or a great song?