Moods and the Flow of Tao

” I think it was just a different chord in the melody of our lives together.” – Carol Ludwig

Carol is a mother, an artist, poet, psychiatric nurse, wordsmith, and an empath, she hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The work featured is one of her visual songs. She, has a wonderfully deep shamanistic feel to her process. I’m profoundly moved by her artistic voice, and have learned much from her sharing perspectives. The word “wise” comes up when I think of Carol, a kind of wisdom that’s based on attention and process. For me, her artistic vision sings and there’s always theme’s and stories rising in the stream of thought whenever I experience her art..

Carol’s opening comment really says it all, doesn’t it? The whole position on moods and sensing shifts in our own moods and others. She and I are both sensitive to the currents that flow and often discuss the way of feelings and moods. It’s a way to keep communication clear and open, assessing the mood states, and be willing to identify and share them if necessary. And most important, understanding they are, as all things are, temporary.

I find myself waking up in bitter moods occasionally. (I warn people when I’m aware of them!) There is nothing overtly wrong, but I face the day already in a state of sad resistance and a vague bubbling anger, seeking something to butt up against. (A BAD MOOD!) There are days when I wake up and sense an internal voice that says, literally, “I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to expend the energy to live my life today.” (Who is that? How overwhelmed is that entity? Imagine two people coming together when both are in this mood?)

Moods are like chords in a song supporting the main melody. Moods are often built on an underlying theme, sadness, anger, joy, caring, or not caring at all. And often two people in communion often find that moods, the overall flavor, can often lead to conflicts and misunderstandings. Carol’s perspective is an inclusive perspective, seeing how moods are as an overall temporary content, to be experienced fully, and then allowed to fade as all things do, without clinging and attaching to them.

In response to one of those periods when moods seem to set up a block in our communication she wrote this:

“I think it was just a different chord in the melody of our lives together. We listen closely with all our senses to each others songs and pick up quickly each discordant note. But…..it changes. Tomorrow, something new. But the desire to sing is always there.” – C.L

Exactly so.

This reminds me of Toni Packer, someone I deeply love for her ability to illuminate a direct path to easing suffering moment to moment. Notice that the emphasis is on continuity, the process, as opposed to focusing on temporary content or mood.

“The desire to sing,” to communicate, will always be the key to moving through moods and emotional states, that willingness to move beyond the temporary content and embrace the process of deeper relationship.

Thank you, Carol! ❤️❤️

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