Welcome Friend

 
I stuffed a glass gazing globe with a string of white fairy lights and set it in a ceramic flowerpot beside the front door. The warm light is welcoming. I find i prefer the glow to the brightness of a porch light. Besides, who is coming to visit in the evenings? No one.

No one drops by for a visit after dark. My sweetie and i are seldom out after dark ourselves. We are tucked in to our warm home by sunset.

Still, the welcome mat is out. 

Can we put out the welcome mat in our hearts? Welcome each new person like a friend. Welcome each new event, whether or not it's what we want. Welcome Life as it flows through us. Welcome this moment, this hour, this day. Just as it is.

Light in the Dark

 

The twelfth day of Christmas has come and gone, but i like to keep my outdoor Christmas tree lights up for another month. The season of darkness begins on Halloween and ends on Groundhog Day. Suddenly, there's light.

For now, i have to be content with outdoor Christmas tree lights, which bring happiness when i look at them.

What brings light into your life these days? For me, it's the kindness of neighbors. A loaf of bread appeared in my kitchen this morning when i wasn't looking. Another neighbor gave me scones today.

So many things to be grateful for today. List yours.

Welcome and Unwelcome

 This morning i meditated outdoors on the deck at 6:00 a.m. The temperature was balmy and the breeze light. The sun didn't rise until after meditation ended at 7:00.

Welcome December.

I haven't meditated outdoors for more than a month, but if it's over 50 degrees, i sit on the deck and meditate with the birds and the squirrel. (They are doing eating meditation.)

It's too warm for December, and that's unwelcome, but the day was delightful. So easy to spend it outdoors doing some more last-minute chores. Putting up Christmas lights was fun.

We welcome even the unwelcome.

Glowing Gazing Globe

In lieu of a jack-o-lantern, i've installed a glowing gazing globe on the front step. I stuffed one string of white fairy lights into the ball, and plugged the extension cord into a timer so that the lights go on at sunset and stay on until bedtime.

I live at the end of a dirt road, and our neighborhood trick-or-treaters long ago aged out of wearing costumes. No one rings my doorbell on Halloween.

I much prefer this glowing globe to turning on the front porch light. It's a bit dim, but still, it's enough light to welcome us home or welcome visitors to the front door.

Welcoming is one form of kindness. We extend a welcome to friends and strangers who aren't that strange, after all. The Buddha greeted everyone as "Friend." I wonder if i could do the same.

Glowing Globe

The seasonal decoration for the front step is a big blue ceramic flowerpot filled with greens--yew, fir, pine, and hemlock. I cut a few branches of red-twig dogwood for color. In the past, i've crowned the greenery with a gazing globe, but they keep breaking. So i went gazing globe shopping, even though December is not the prime season to buy a gazing globe. There are about 3 left on the shelf--a high shelf with several other dusty boxes.

This time i selected one that is vintage Coke-bottle green with a few white swishes. Since it's mostly clear, i filled it with a string of fairy lights, which makes the globe glow.

When i practice gratitude, i often times feel a glowing sensation around my heart. When i feel this little flicker of positive emotion, i experiment with spreading it around my body. Sometimes it spreads; sometimes it doesn't. Once in a while i feel like i can spread it all around this globe we all live on. Glowing meditation.