Stuck?
Are you writing? Acting? Creating? Working?
What you are producing is coming through you. It’s not of you.
Leave your ego out of it.
Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Let it come through. Have fun with it.
Wednesday Wisdom
presence
Monday Meditation
I practice yoga at home. I don’t practice enough, but when I do, I like Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga video.
My favorite part of the practice is when he says:
“It’s not WHAT you do, but HOW you do what you do.”
He says it slowly and it makes me think every time. Yes, how you do what you do.
Example #1:
Your server at the restaurant carefully places the plate in front of you, smiles and wordlessly refills your glass.
OR…
Your server brusquely sets your plate down and hurries off to the next table.
Example #2:
Your daughter tells you a story and you listen while looking at your cell phone. She feels like an after thought.
OR…
You give your daughter full attention – eyes and ears – as she tells you a story. She feels loved and respected.
We have our “to do” lists. We have jobs that have to be done. We do these action items day after day and they build up to weeks, months and years. This is called “our life.” There is no end to the things that need to be done. But the quality of our life is in the how of what we’ve done on a consistent basis.
Your Fossilized Remains
Fossilized remains show us what living creatures were doing at time of death. We can learn from fossils: climate, diet, relationships, social structures (even of insects).
Chances are, you won’t be an actual fossil. Unless you’re caught up in something really dramatic, sudden and devastating, like the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Pompeii (79 A.D.) However, you will leave a legacy. What will it be? Works of art? Enlightening music, film or novels? Or a career of corruption? Maybe you will leave lives richer for your kindness?
My great, great, grandparents lived in Korea. Everything they did affected their children, which affected their children and so on until you have me. Here. In America. My father made the decision to not be like his father, who basically failed at fatherhood: gambled, left the family in debt, etc. My father chose to do the opposite. Because of his decisions and hard work, my siblings, mother, father and I are able to live in the Land of Opportunity.
Whatever you do, whatever you leave, it’s not permanent, but it does count.
Citations:
*http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2013/09/page/2
**http://tinyurl.com/hrmzu4d
Non-Doing
We run around and cross off tasks from our “To Do” lists because we believe we are not enough just as we are. We must achieve.
The misconception is that if we don’t do, we are lazy.
Non-doing is not being lazy. It’s simply the decision to be unoccupied.
Sometimes, non-doing is just what we need.
Breathe.
Notice what is right in front of you.
From stillness comes magic.
Less is Truly More
I was driving on the freeway and a man next to me cut me off so closely, I thought he was going to hit me.
My adrenaline raced and I had thoughts that no teacher-of-young-children should ever have. I was angry. What a *$#@&! I cursed him and his family. I wished him ill will in every way. He was a jerk, a self-centered @#&$ and…and then I stopped. I was judging him and the situation. As soon as I stopped judging and taking the incident personally, I felt calm. It was a choice: I could be angry or I could be happy. I chose to be happy.
I’ve been trying to secure a grant. It was turned down a few months ago. A great despair and sadness overcame me. I really wanted it. Badly. And then I realized I was too attached. I was suffering and I needed to let it go. Of course, I can re-apply. I can keep re-applying. But if I do, I need to do my best on the application and LET IT GO. No attachment. I’m fine whether I get it or not.This process is really challenging, but definitely possible.
Finally, I find myself in this situation often: I want to get to my writing/workout/GNO, but I have to (fill in the blank = drive my girls to violin lessons or teach summer school). Because I have my mind on what I want to do and because I can’t do it right then, I am resisting reality. And it’s painful. I feel stressed and resentful when I am not doing what I want to do right when I want to do it. This is resisting reality and the only thing that can come of it is unhappiness and suffering. I’m still working on this!
Thus, JAR: Judging, Attaching and Resisting. Eckhart Tolle says that in order to gain complete freedom (and peace of mind) you need to master these mentalities: non-judgment, non-attachment and non-resistance. Do not judge others OR yourself. Do not attach to your desires. And do not resist the present moment. This is really hard to do in our competitive, judgmental world. But, it can be done. Start by paying attention throughout your day. Are you judging? Are you (needlessly) attached to something or someone? Are you resisting the moment? There is great freedom in letting go.
Rituals
This morning, my husband and I woke up, started making coffee and wondered out loud, “Should we make coffee and THEN walk, or walk and come back to coffee?” Since the Arizona weather has cooled, we’ve started a new weekend ritual: while our daughters sleep in, we go for a walk with Opal, our pitbull rescue. We have been going to a new park next to the elementary school in our community. The design includes a winding walkway, a water pump, simple signs describing wild life and cacti and of course, quail, jackrabbits, ground squirrels, roadrunners, gila woodpeckers, mourning doves, cactus wren and various cacti.
We’re out for an hour or so. Yesterday, we went to the new park. This morning, we walked in Usery Park. We walk down several blocks from our home and cross a wash and voila! Usery. It’s protected and the plants there survive without any irrigation, it’s xeriscape at it’s best. Opal darts in and out and inevitably catches cholla on her paws. But she’s in heaven and so are we.
Walking in nature, one feels a sense of peace unmatched in one’s daily life. The open, blue sky above….the vast landscape of untouched nature ahead….the utter joy of one’s dog leaping and chasing jackrabbits and then limping back to us, asking us to remove thorns from her paw. It’s times like these, where you feel you’re really looking at the Big Picture and you realize what is truly important: love and presence.
Kismet 