A Life of Wonder

Pretty wordless tonight. I suppose sometimes you have to surrender to the knowledge that you don’t have power to affect an outcome. Sometimes hope replaces willpower, and that the relationships you’ve built, the flowers you planted along the way will provide the shade you need. And that community will care you forward, carry you far. Thank you for the flowers.

Elephants followed her everywhere she went.

When she danced, they danced.

When she lay on the earth, they lay next to her.

At night she disappeared into still lake and in the morning surfaced again, laughing at me.

“I’m no a goddess,” she assured me, “I’m just your ordinary Lotus girl—flowering on the outside and mud in my veins.”

I had no charm then. We both knew it.

I dreamed of dazzling her, so I bought tickets to the circus and invited her along.

“Do you think I want to watch animals cooing for our pleasure?”

She was angry, furious, and forbid me from watching her dance with the elephants.

“If you want to impress me,” she said emerging from the lake one morning, don’t follow me.

I haven’t see her since that night. 

The incredible power of three words.

Select three words for how you describe yourself and find 3 more of how others describe you.

Then, ask them.

Notice the differences between self perception and group perception. This sounds like such a simple exercise, and yet its implications are profound.

You may have heard of the company What3Words, which maps the earth using words as coordinates, enabling hard to find places to be easily discoverable. 

The same concept, three words, both used to help you find yourself. 

Tonight I spoke with a truly wise man, a man with a keen sense of humor who believes that the soul wears many bodies and when we die, we shed our body like a change of clothing.

This man introduced me to new ways of mediating and the power of doing so for 20 minutes daily.

The beauty of his words were magnified by the fact that he lives in the world: the world of business, of Zoom, of hustle, and yet integrates his mindful practices into daily life. I shared my passion for community with him, and he reminded me that community lives inside me.

“The earth laughs in flowers.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Laughter cuts through the dark fog, the heaviness, the forest with no light.

It diminishes problems, changes perspectives, and gives fruit to fruitless, undulating trees. 

Comfort is taking

a part the betamax with my father watching 

and picking blackberries in the Seattle summer

it’s walking while listening to podcasts–somewhere near water 

It’s plants after the rain, hot tea, and slow time

friends who get the joke and remember when

and sleeping in, and driving anywhere with music aimlessly 

it’s the times we’ve shared, the life we’ve shared

how it grows between us, protecting, loving, inviting

It’s the softness of shared sleep, your predictable laugh

caused my a favorite show 

I’m wired to take immediate action. It’s also what I value. I often respond to emails within minutes. If something requires attention, urgency, I’m on it. There’s a rush I feel, a clarity, from the emergent. However, it’s no way to live. There are decisions where immediate reactions undermine the clarity of thought and perspective.

When major changes happen, or events which are dramatic and transformative in nature, immediacy is the enemy of clear thinking. I’m learning, albeit very slowly, that for many of the most important decisions the best course of action is to toss them to the back of the mind where space and time provide depth and clarity, where the sharp edges of shocking news and big change can be smoothed like rocks in a tumbler.

“Perhaps the most “spiritual” thing any of us can do is simply to look through our own eyes, see with eyes of wholeness, and act with integrity and kindness.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

“Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are

As simple as it sounds, slowing down is one of the best ways to destress. That which seem emergent, often isn’t, and there’s a great difference between highly important and time critical.

I want to resolve to bring slowness, as a tool, into decision making, to remind myself, through my actions, of the spacious choices that are in front of me, if I can let them unfold without forcing them to.

Of course, there’s a place for swiftness, boldness, and urgent action, but if it’s not needed, best to use calm.

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

― Howard Zinn