“LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE IN LOVE, GRACE and BLESSINGS” How we used this week’s challenges and problems to create our highest good

THE NEWS FROM STILL MOUNTAIN—This week’s journey of love, graceful blessings and answered prayer in our daily life in our rural Dharma Center in the mountains of Northern California

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This is SUNDAY EDITION of THE DAWNING LIGHT Magazine #1374

Premium Version of Our Daily Journal Of Positive and Inspiring Writing

Today we are featuring our…

STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES SECTION # 194

Stories by Chinmayan about our life in pursuit of simple living, our own spiritual path and our service to the world in a small meditation center in the mountains of Northern California

White apple blossoms cover our trees in a sure sign of Spring in one corner of our meditation garden…

THE NEWS FROM STILL MOUNTAIN

Every day and every week here on Still Mountain is a journey and an adventure that we are grateful for as we seek to live ever more simply, consciously and lovingly.

I’d like to share with you some of the highlights (I love this word!) of the stories of our experiences this week.

So much has happened during the hard winter that is now gradually fading into Spring that I want to tell you about… stories of how we met our challenges and difficulties and managed to learn important lessons and turn it all around through grit, determination and love.

I will be telling those stories over the next few months, but for now here are some glimpses.

WE ARE GRATEFUL THAT SPRING IS GRADUALLY RETURNING

The bees and hummingbirds are back in our meditation garden, going from flower to flower for their nectar as Spring gradually comes to Still Mountain.

We love sitting on our front porch in the early morning surrounded by the beauty and buzzing busyness of the garden celebrating renewal and new life.

I love the song of the wind as it passes through the dancing branches of the pine trees…while we sit together in silence during our meditations before the start of the work of the day.

GETTING A LOAD OF COMPOST IN OUR LITTLE TRUCK…this week we were blessed with getting free top quality compost for our garden

Ani and I filled our little truck in less than hour with rich premium compost

And took it back to Still Mountain….

OUR FRUSTRATED QUEST TO GET OUR “REAL ID” Driver’s License…And how we turned the experience to our highest good.

We have been working on gathering all the documentation that the website for our state’s DMV says we need to have to apply for the new “Real ID” driver’s license over the last two weeks.

It turned out to be more complicated than we expected as our local DMV office has been closed, leaving the closest place where we can apply over an hour and a half away in a neighboring county.

After uploading all our documents, the DMV requires us to get an in person interview and show the physical paperwork to them for approval.

It is important to get this new driver’s license in case we ever want to fly anywhere in the USA.

The deadline is soon, so after getting our documents together, we decided to go over this week to complete the process.

Fortunately, our area is rural so the DMV office is never crowded and we were called to an interview within minutes.

Everything was in order until we presented my original birth certificate from the hospital in Alabama where I came into this world 74 years ago.

The lady interviewing us said…”We can’t take this old birth certificate…you have to have a certified and notarized certificate from the county of your birth…and we can’t process you until you have it.”

Since then, Ani has invested more days on this effort. Getting that certified copy turned out to be a demanding process in itself, which is taking yet more time and patience to complete…but “perseverance furthers” as Lao Tzu says so we certainly will get it… and then return to this faraway DMV for another appointment to get the new license.

As we left the DMV, we were cheerful and did not waste any energy on being frustrated.

Since the DMV is in a tiny town on the shore of our favorite lake where we have had many inspiring spiritual experiences, we looked at each other and said “Let’s go,” which immediately turned our trip into an adventure.

Our life on Still Mountain has taught us the importance of choosing to do and enjoy the simple things which “restores our souls” .

Ani in meditation

We have learned to recognize and appreciate the sacred places of great natural beauty around us such as this vast lake.

We regard going there as a kind of pilgrimage that brings us closer to each other…and the Divine.

Clear Lake is one of the largest and oldest natural lakes in the country.

It is like an ocean in itself with an ancient volcanic mountain, Mount Konocti, dominating one side that is 2.1 million years old.

We walked the promenade of a special lake shore park, went out on floating docks over deep water, and had an uplifting meditation session which left us feeling peaceful, centered and grateful.

Then we took our favorite back road winding through a verdant valley on our way home.

We turned the trip into a meaningful journey and a positive turning point.

Chinmayan and Ani in meditation on a floating dock

Clear Lake with the floating docks and Mount Konocti in the distance

WE LIVE BY FAITH IN A FIELD OF BLESSINGS AND GRACE…

One of the principles we live by is to live by faith instead of worry and fear…faith that is activated and grown through our ongoing spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation and chanting.

It us our experience that the more we pray, and meditate and invoke the presence, power and guidance of the Divine every day, the more we are able to open our hearts, minds and spirits to a flow of blessings and grace.

We are grateful for even the smallest blessing, and this attitude of gratitude gives us peace of mind and trust that our highest good is being worked out, including in our finances.

We live very simply on a tiny budget that we stretch to almost miraculously cover the needs of Still Mountain and ourselves each month.

We both received the inner guidance to look for things we have that we no longer need and to offer these surplus things for sale…and trust that God will bring the perfect new owners for these things who pay us a fair price for them.

We decided to offer some tractor implements and a top quality Stihl Pole Saw we haven’t used in years for sale.

The Box Scraper and Grading Blade on display next to the country road…

First, we lovingly pulled the implements from the bramble covered storage areas and thoroughly cleaned them.

We spent two days grinding off dirt and rust, restoring and painting them. Then, using our tractor we lifted our Box Scraper and a Grading Blade onto a raised platform facing the country road that borders our property with a big For Sale on them.

First a man called about the High Reach Pole Saw—which is a very special small chainsaw on a stainless steel pole that can be extended from 7 feet to over 12 feet to reach and cut branches high in a tree.

We always pray that the right person shows up when we are selling things and that we are led to the best person when we need to buy something because we want any deals we make to be win-wins for all concerned.

Our prayers were definitely answered.

The young man came by with his children to see the Pole Saw who absolutely loved it, appreciated it and was very happy to pay us our asking price. It was obvious he was the perfect new owner.

A few days later, another man called about the Grading Blade, which he needed so he could improve and maintain the gravel road back in the mountains that he shares with seven other homesteads.

He showed up with his work truck and trailer, very pleased that he could make a good deal with us.

A big smile lit his face when he saw me bringing the Blade out, suspended by chain on our tractor’s bucket, and loaded it onto his trailer.

These two deals were suffused with good loving energy and a definite blessing for us and the folks who got these tools.

The cash we received was the perfect amount to cover some emerging expenses beyond our budget. We give thanks for them and we feel that the Divine is now and will always be actively helping provide for our needs.

I can honestly say that everyday may have challenges and emerging difficulties that motivate us to pray ever more fervently.

The beautiful thing is that the more real faith we have, the more the grace and blessings flow.

Faith does not mean taking God’s presence and help for granted, but having an ever deepening trust in the Divine’s loving care for us.

We have learned to humbly ask for help for everything we need…and this reliance upon the Divine is a true win-win for God and us!

STILL MOUNTAIN DHARMA CENTER/INNER RESOURCE INSTITUTE

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