"There is so much abundance wherever we are!"*

Feb22

I feel in life
I’ve been often led
Sometimes even pulled and drawn
Against my will!

What I said never to
Has come to be
What I thought would break me
Has built me up

Somehow I thought I knew best
Somehow I thought I should decide
The unexpected arrived
And inconvenienced me
I complained
I did not know why!

Why were my plans
Turned upside down?
When I expected to go left
Why did I end up going right?

My unhappiness came from the fact
That I did not consider
That I didn’t have the answers all
That I was in fact wrong at times!

Maybe I didn’t have the humility
To accept a different path
A better path
In the long run!

Maybe I looked at the short term challenges
And did not look far enough
Maybe I did not realize that experiencing
Discomfort was part of growing up!

Lida Berghuis
February 21st, 2013

*Mark Nepo

Everything is unknown till we live it*

Feb21

In the journey of life
I used to seek instructions!
Maps!
Guides!
Sign posts!
Even letters from God!
To show me the way
Map the route out for me
Take uncertainty away
and change gray to black or white

I was afraid to take a
step forward
Lest I stepped the wrong way
I used to crave certainty
As if it was something
I would find
If I looked hard enough
Prayed long enough
Or contemplated long enough

But I’ve learned
Certainty does not exist
Cannot exist
That I won’t have all the answers
Before I make a decision
I won’t know what tomorrow brings for sure
And that’s OK!

I now feel that
There is nothing called a
Perfect path or the only right way
Steps can be traced back
Or side roads will appear

I feel that there will always
Be a place to land
Even if I step into the void
And just because
I don’t see the landing place
It doesn’t mean that
It does not exist!

Lida Berghuis
February 15th, 2013

*Mark Nepo

Red

Feb21

Red is a state of mind
It’s fire
It’s creativity
It’s joy

Red is a state of heart
It’s love
It’s friendship
It’s compassion

Red is a state of soul
It’s exaltation
It’s anticipation
It’s flight

Red is a state I like
To be in
Even if it’s From time to time

Lida Berghuis
February 15th, 2013

I thought I could not!

Feb20

I thought I could not
But I did!
I thought I would crumble and fall
but I did not!
I thought joy was gone forever
But it returned!
I thought the night would never end
But morning came!

I thought all hope was lost
And the reason to live
Had become hard to find
I thought this time was different
And I would not survive

I thought I had come to the end of my rope and could not take another step
I thought life was unfair
And I’d suffered enough

I thought I had reached my
Threshold of pain
And continuing would only
Bring more of the same

But despite all that
Hope gradually returned
Suffering eased
And I smiled again!

Lida Berghuis
February 20th, 2013

Connection!

Feb15

Connection!

Connections of the heart
Hard to wrap your head around
What is it that attracts you
To someone and
Compels you to extend a hand in friendship

What is that little voice that Insists on bring heard

These connections do not fade with time or distance
or hardships met on the way

They get stronger
As the years go by
And with each challenge met on the way

Connections of the heart
Other-worldly they are
Not limited to this plane of dust
They transcend space and time

Lida Berghuis
February 15th, 2013

The human condition

Jan14

I learned, but I forgot
I saw, but I forgot
I knew, but I forgot

And so I pass the years
Of my life
Lessons learned are sometimes forgotten
Gems discovered, are covered by dust
What I saw clearly, is now blurred
What I thought I understood, clear as mud!

This I was told is the human condition
We don’t learn right away
We may fall many times
Before we learn to look in front of us
We may burn our hands anyway
Even though we thought we’d never do it again!

Forgetting is human
Erring is human
Learning slowly is human too!

How can I improve my memory
Remember better
Learn faster
I thought

“Slowness remembers, hurry forgets”
“Softness remembers, hardness forgets”
“Surrender remembers, fear forgets”

“It’s beautifully difficult to remember
who we are!”

“But we help each other every time
When we fill the cup of truth, drink it
And hold each other up!”

Lida Berghuis
February 20th, 2011

Quotes from “Mark Nepo”
The book of Awakening

Duduk

Dec17

imageThe melancholy music of the duduk
Reminds me of the crying of the Persian violin
The music I heard in Iran as a child
It reminds me of the lament of the violin
As it sang its melancholy song

The cry of the violin
Would tug at my heartstrings
And overwhelmed by emotion
I did not know if I should stay or run

Now, the sound of duduk takes me there
There is a deep melancholy
It can only express
As if it’s crying for all the injustice
In the world
All the crimes committed in the name
Of nation and tribe

The music takes a happier turn
I can let go of the sadness
Glad that melancholy and joy
Reside side by side

Sadness gives way to joy
And joy to sadness in time
This is the reality of this world
From which there is no escape
No matter how hard we try

The secret is to learn to
Sit with the sadness
Accept pain as part of life
Without sadness , there is no joy
Without night, no daylight

Lida Berghuis
December 16th, 2012

How much, and of what?

Dec6

How much sugar?
How much fat?
And what kind of fat should I eat?
All fats are not created equal
The good ones we must have
The bad ones will kill us slowly

Detoxifying is the rage
Watermelon fast
Juice fast and the rest

Must eat whole-grain wheat
And brown rice
Quinoa is even better
Protein is a must!
But not the fatty protein of red meat
Or chicken or veal
Must go for nuts, eggs, legumes, or tuna
In each meal

Must drink lots of water
Even when we don’t feel like it
Hydration is essential
It helps us think more clearly!

And juice is a no-no
All that sugar is bad
It’s empty calories
And too many calories are bad

We now have the cure-all of the day
It’s quinoa one day
Flax seed the other day
Vitamin D, the third

Too much fat on the belly
Not good for your heart
Exercise a necessity
If optimum health you want

Now don’t get me wrong
I like all that advice
Who doesn’t want to look good
And live healthy and long?
But with all this attention
We give our bodies
I just hope we won’t forget
The rest of us

Our mind, our heart, and our soul
Need attention too
A soul-diet high in generosity and justice
A heart-diet with lots of love and kindness
And a mind-diet of focusing only on the good and positive
That would also help us feel good and feel fit!

Lida Berghuis

November 29th, 2013

Just Ask!

Dec4

Sometimes we are our own greatest
Obstacles to success
They say Ask
And you shall be given
But we don’’t ask!

We think we know the answer will be no
We think it hasn’’t been done before
We think we should wait till things come to us
We don’’t realize that ask we must!

Asking can do no harm
If the answer is no
Let’s hear it from the horse’’s mouth

Asking shows interest
Enthusiasm
Assertiveness
Asking changes the dynamics
Shows self confidence

Sometimes I’’ve asked
Due to naivete
Sometimes I’’ve asked
Because I felt compelled
And amazingly rarely
Was no the answer

So ask we should
Ask we must
Err on the side of the possible!
Take a chance on I can and I must!

Lida Berghuis
December 3rd, 2012

In an imperfect world…

Nov22

We can try as hard as we can
Read as many self-help books as possible
Attend workshops on relationships and communication…
But our world will still be a messy place
Conflict will not go away
Pain will not disappear
Anguish will still come our way

I’m not saying we should not try
All I’m saying is don’t expect perfection if you try
100% effort does not always result in an A+
Our world is imperfect
Even unjust
But we are resilient
We will survive

The image of a happy life being
A problem free life is for me no more
Problems are here to challenge us
Teach us, help us grow

Pain is unavoidable in life
Even those we love
We hurt sometimes
But we are resilient
We will survive

I’ll try to relish the joys in life
Live with the pain
Accept that our world
Is an imperfect place
And we are the imperfect inhabitants
Doing our best!

Lida Berghuis
November 22nd, 2012