Bindu's Birthday Post

Note:  I virtually met Bindu Wiles last fall on my birthday.  I had encountered her website, www.binduwiles.com when she was hosting the 21-5-800 project, a 21 day project where you committed to yoga 5 days a week and writing 800 words every day.   I was a miserable student, but loved the concept and leapt onto her email feed.  On my birthday, I was transferring all of my email feeds over to my Google reader, and as I unsubscribed from her newsletter, I quickly wrote "I love your stuff and am not really unsubscribing, just moving over to RSS."  It must have touched her because she wrote back and we had a quick email exchange that day.  I was delighted!  So delighted that I signed up to join her online writing class, "Diamond Cutters."  The idea for waiting was planted in that class and Bindu and the other Diamond Cutters guided me through many of my own waiting stories and got me writing again.  This entry was from Bindu's Birthday earlier this year.  It is a wonderful glimpse of who she is:  writer, teacher, mystic, Buddhist, searcher, leader, authentic soul.  Enjoy her words! Thanks Bindu for all you do.

by Bindu Wiles on October 27, 2011

Today I’m completing my 46th year and beginning my 47th, and I am reflective.

I’m thinking of my mother, my father, my siblings,

I’m thinking of loss,

I’m thinking of my livelihood,

I’m thinking of my finances,

I’m thinking of the ways I keep backing away from myself, keeping myself away from my greatness.

I’m thinking about how great ideas always flow effortlessly from me,

I’m thinking about how short and quick life really is and the older you get the more you really really begin to understand that and that understanding brings a sense of urgency,

I’m thinking about authenticity,

I’m thinking about how a fresh start is always available to us,

I’m thinking this year will really be the year,

And I’m thinking about this teaching from Pema Chodron:

“At least once a year, I imagine that I am about to die. Looking back as truthfully as I can at my entire life, I give full attention to the things I wish hadn’t occurred. 

Recognizing these mistakes honestly but without self-recrimination, I try to rejoice in the innate wisdom that allows me to see so bravely, and I feel compassion for how I so frequently messed up. 

Then I can go forward. 

The future is wide open, and what I do with it is up to me.”