Five Invitations

October 2023

I have reconnected with a curriculum that I love from an author named Frank Ostaseski, and the name of the book is “The Five Invitations.”

 I presented on these ideas again this past month and have referred to them many times over the past few years. I am still moved by the Invitations and the poignancy and potential in LIVING and APPLYING them in my life.

1. Don’t Wait (on things that really matter).
2. Welcome Everything, Push Away Nothing (resisting pain causes more pain).
3. Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience (don’t let anything close your heart to the mystery of life and love).
4. Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things (see below).
5. Cultivate "Don’t Know Mind" (accept that we cannot know how or why things happen, ever — there is more to it.

“Rest is an opportunity for conscious contact with creator."

— Martha Creek

These Five Invitations show us how to wake up fully to our lives. They can be understood as best practices for anyone coping with loss or navigating any sort of transition or crisis; they are practical ways to move into everyday situations; they guide us toward appreciating life’s preciousness.

Awareness of the certainty of death can be a valuable companion on the road to treasuring our life, living in integrity to ourselves, living well, forging a rich and meaningful life, letting go of regrets, and not letting anything be so significant that it closes our heart.

The Five Invitations is a powerful and inspiring exploration of the essential wisdom that living mindfully and with presence has to impart to all of us.

The invitation I’d like to focus on here is “Find Rest in the Middle of All Things.”

Although most of us claim that we “need rest,” we may not really be open to it. In truth, many of us fear rest. We fear all the feelings that tend to “arise” when we get still or quiet down some. We may have innocently stored “thorns,” “blockages of energy,” “samskaras” of hurts, unresolved pain, and traumas since our birth.

“Work and rest are essential for the purification of mind, body, and being."

— Martha Creek

Doctors and nurses often speak of how exhaustion is a central part of their training, and how they continue to drive themselves ruthlessly at work, even though they are eventually not required to. They fear that if they were to stop racing around, the enormous suffering that they have witnessed would crash through their defenses.  

Parents speak about their years of being frazzled while raising children and the intense stresses involved. The majority of them believe they are responsible for their children, even though most of all things are out of their control.  

We are afraid that we will be forgotten — that if we stop going all the time, the loneliness and emptiness we fear will surface. The depth of our human fear is the belief that we are alone or will be alone. So, we build a false sense of security, warding off uncertainty by making constant activity our habits and addiction. 

“Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions."

— Mark Twain

We tell ourselves what we should be experiencing and what we shouldn’t. We work hard to define ourselves, hoping that we are doing it in the right way. This constant activity is totally exhausting. Personal development easily becomes endless and effortful. We try — to be better, to be someone special, and, most of all, to avoid failure. There is a certain aggression in all this so-called self-improvement. Better to return to the true intention of sabbath rest, which is to let go of the striving, to embrace things as they are, and with equanimity, to discover freedom and liberation that no longer has to WAIT. 

Rest is found when we are present instead of letting our minds wander aimlessly through the hallways of fear, worry, and anxiousness. Relaxing in acceptance of the ambush of thoughts, feelings, images, and memories can be a beginning. Those thoughts and feelings are all part of our experience and therefore part of our wholeness, evolution, learning, and awakening. They are included. Rest is always more accessible for us when we make conscious contact with our Source, Higher Power, breath, or whatever we call Creator, and allow even a few moments in that heart space.  

“All work is an act of philosophy."

— Ayn Rand

May rest find you this month dear souls. In this time of “harvest,” may it include every part that has been uncared for up to now.  Bountiful blessings as you rest into ALL of it.

Massive love,

Join me for cruises to Antarctica and also to New England and Canada that I’ll be taking in 2024 and 2025: 

https://www.marthacreek.com/martha-cruises-2024-2025/ for more information.

ANTN (Affiliated New Thought Network) is an organization I have supported through leadership for many years. Our annual conference is at Unity Village the first full week each October. Plan for next year. Oct 7 – 11. Visit Antn.org for details and pre-registering. 

WANT A VACATION HOME IN CABO Mexico? Ocean view, pool, jacuzzi? OR a Lake Home rental in my home state Kentucky? BIDDING IS OPEN. Check out https://givebutter.com/c/BksLSq/auction for these items and more. Please share with any charitable friends that want to BUY really really nice things AND benefit great causes.  

“Pause, Pray, Proceed.”

— Martha Creek

(From my inspirational card deck, available here.)