Mustard seeds

The messages are all around me. This morning as I dumped Hazelnut Hemp Heaven granola into some yogurt, I spied a flash of yellow from inside the bag. Stuck on the reverse of the label of the clear packaging was a secret note (left just for me by the Granola King) -- only now becoming visible as the contents are emptied out.

It said, "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." ~ Henry David Thoreau

So much of life is gazing at castles in the sky (your own as well as other people's) and feeling a certain degree of discomfort at their elusive beauty. Sometimes the view is further obscured by the foggy sensation of longing and a certain blind devotion to wanting. And then the "reality" of responsibility kicks in. Positive messages are being whispered all around if you care to quieten down those "realistic" anxieties and pay attention, but it turns out that it is particularly difficult for women to free themselves from these emotions.

"...There's an area of your brain that's assigned the task of negative thinking," says Louann Brizendine, MD, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, and the author of The Female Brain. "It's judgmental. It says 'I'm too fat' or 'I'm too old.' It's a barometer of every social interaction you have. It goes on red alert when the feedback you're getting from other people isn't going well." This worrywart part of the brain is the anterior cingulate cortex. In women, it's actually larger and more influential, as is the brain circuitry for observing emotions in others. "The reason we think females have more emotional sensitivity," says Brizendine, "is that we've been built to be immediately responsive to the needs of a nonverbal infant. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing."

I've practiced daily mindfulness for a number of years, but find that the egoic, material obsessed mind possesses a vortex-like undertow that I am still constantly drifting back towards. I know am not alone, as there are always several bestselling books that give advice on how to manage these kinds of thoughts and feelings. But I have discovered that there are others who are searching for the method to living a fully actualized life and that some are leaving articles of faith in ordinary places for others to find.

This morning the medium is also the message. Someone thought to place this note in the packaging to inspire others. Naturally, there had to have been a series of small-scale decisions involved in making this possible; but this too, began as a delicate, airy castle in the sky that someone chose to allow themselves to bestow a foundation upon. Perhaps he was inspired by a similar icon planted by someone else.

The castle is easy to create. The foundation appears as the result of certain degree of faith and plenty of good 'ol sweat. There is a choice that needs to be made directly after conceiving that castle. Let yourself believe.

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there" and it will move.
~ The Bible, Matthew 17:20