by June | Aug 1, 2017 | Blogposts
Embracing spiritual concepts and peaceful ways, the Toltec people of southern Mexico around 900 A.D. considered all of life to be part of the Great Mystery. Science and spirit were seen to be part of the same entity. Even though the Toltec culture left no written records about their beliefs,
it was believed that a shaman was the repository of Toltec culture
and had the ability to guide people in their lives.
When a near-fatal car accident changed the life of a surgeon born in rural Mexico, he apprenticed himself to a shaman to learn about the Toltec culture. A move to the United States found him exploring the human mind from both an indigenous (Toltec culture) as well as a scientific perspective (his medical training) resulting in a unique combination of traditional wisdom and modern insight in a very short book. The man was Don Miguel Ruiz. The name of the book, a New York Times bestseller for more than seven years, was The Four Agreements, offered four simple guidelines to life.
AGREEMENT 1 Be impeccable with your word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
AGREEMENT 2 Don’t take anything personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
AGREEMENT 3 Don’t make assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.
Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
AGREEMENT 4 Always do your best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
Such wisdom, Dom Miguel Ruiz.
Thank you.
Photo & Text © June Maffin
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by June | Jul 27, 2017 | Blogposts
“Throwback Thursday” and telephones: When I was a child living in Montreal, I remember we would call my mother’s parents in Florida once a month and use an egg timer. Yes, literally an egg timer – to make certain the phone call didn’t go over our family’s three minute limit. Long distance phone calls were expensive! I remember my brother Gerry and I staring at the tiny grains of sand drip, drip, drip through the teeny hole, and my mother talking more quickly to her mother and father as the grains became fewer and fewer and then Gerry and I would quickly say “Hi Grannie. Hi Grandad” (and not much more) and the phone call would be over.
Decades later, a phone call from an island on the west coast of Canada to the Netherlands can go on and on and on for hours as laughter bursts forth with the stories that are shared … like this photo I took of my dear husband Hans in our Studio talking on the phone to his siblings in Zeist. The invention of the phone and the under-four-dollars for several hours of conversation cost allowed us to stay well-connected with our Dutch family without concern that we would be going over our phone budget.
Thank you Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson for being the earliest developers of the telephone and thank you to all who have played a part over the years in creating portable phones, lower long distance phone rates, free 911 calls, etc. You have brought countless people a sense of security that practical help can easily be contacted in case of emergency, and brought much joy as the voices of loved ones are heard and conversations are shared. And while I know that phones can be frustrating these days (what with the increasing prevalence of scammers), I’m very grateful they exist. “Throwback Thursday” … I love it!
photo & text © june maffin
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by June | Jul 24, 2017 | Blogposts
People ache at the escalation of political deception and lies, racial inequity, economic consequences, bullying, religious persecution, sexism, cultural confusion, injustice, hatred and more.
Spirits grieve and minds shut down, holding on to beliefs without openness
to scientific research, reason, wisdom, history, knowledge, fact. Sometimes it seems as if there is more that separates than unites.
May the focus be more on the Good that unites than that which divides. May Love be felt and awe experienced in the midst of pain and distress and desolation. May logic and reason and fact educate, inform, guide. May there be hope for tomorrow … and the tomorrows which follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Text adapted from my poem published in “RACE AND PRAYER: COLLECTED VOICES, MANY DREAMS Malcolm Boyd and Chester Talton, editors
Morehouse Publishing 2003 ISBN 0-8192-1909-6)
Photo & text © June Maffin
by June | Jul 17, 2017 | Blogposts
There she was … strutting her stuff across the street … looking oh-so-certain of her destination. Then she stopped. She didn’t move … at all. Camera in hand, I watched her … watching me.
Ms. Black Cat and a quote (“A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.” <Groucho Marx>), were gentle reminders that life offers moments of reflection in the most commonplace situations.
Today will bring unique opportunities for each of us to ‘go somewhere’ and appreciate the precious gift of life in new ways. Will we stop, as did Ms. Black Cat, and look? Will we make time to reflect? Thank you, Ms. Black Cat for capturing my attention, for inviting me to take your photo and for offering yet another opportunity to reflect on the gift of life, the wonder of creation, and the hope that tomorrow … I will be “going somewhere.”
Whether that “somewhere” is simply … getting out bed and into a chair … brushing my teeth … getting groceries … going to work … having a play day
… enjoying a visit with a friend. Whatever the “somewhere” is, I will go … with curiosity … with gratitude … and with hope … that many tomorrows will follow tomorrow.
Photo & Text © June Maffin
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by June | Jul 12, 2017 | Blogposts
When chaos pervades
may
breaths be deep
fears be released
peace enfold
hope sustain
wisdom surface
courage be given
and boldness
to face
to confront
to challenge
replenish souls.
Photo & Text © June Maffin
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by June | Jul 9, 2017 | Blogposts
I almost missed them, but then I saw them. “Hello there,” I said ever so quietly.
As I moved closer and looked at the baby swallows perched inside a rolled-up carpet in a friend’s carport, they came closer and closer to the edge and looked back at me. “Hello there,” they cooed or whatever swallows do.
We didn’t speak one another’s language. but we had made a connection. Not a human connection, but a connection – one living creature to another.
I dream of the time when human beings can make a connection with other human beings and say “Hello there” – without fear.
photos & text © june maffin
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