The Key To Understanding
There are many matters that I cannot and do not need to understand, such as Love, and God, and why I became fascinated with an intersection in downtown Fargo, North Dakota.
I was in Fargo last week to lead an Open Space session and a Genius Workshop for Jodee Bock and the wonderful people that she always gathers for her annual Bigger Small Talk Summit.
Attentive And At Peace
A friend lays claim to the title, Ultimate Introvert, and offers as proof he deserves that appellation, “I even like to watch other people fish.”
As introverted as I am, that beats any claim I might have made on the title. I have never had an urge to watch other people fish. I do, however, like taking pictures of other people fishing.
I took the photo above many years ago in Cascais, Portugal, and the one below last year when capelin were roiling the surface of the sea in one of Newfoundland’s many coves.
The Gifts Of Age: Part 2
[This is the second part of a two-part post co-authored at my invitation with Deb Call and Dan Oestreich. Read Part 1]
Whatever we believe to be our gifts of age, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that they derive from experience. This is true not only for the gifts mentioned in Part I — freedom from making judgments, inner confidence, acceptance, and fruition — but for so many others unmentioned so far, such as wisdom, peace of mind, continued commitment to a purpose, or enjoying the fruits of former accomplishments. It also seems impossible to conclude that these gifts are given to all. There are many who have them in great measure, and who revel in them and use them wisely, but there are also many cranky and unhappy old men and women who seem not to have them at all. If the gifts are truly gifts of age, then it is probably more accurate to say, rather than that the gifts are not given to all, that all are not able to receive them.
The Gifts Of Age: Part 1
[This is the first part of a two-part post co-authored at my invitation with Dan Oestreich and Deb Call. You will find the same post at their blog sites.]
Life has a way of stripping away the nonessentials one year at a time, until we’re left with our real selves, unashamed before the world, refined by experience, shaped by the things we’ve learned and the passions we’ve pursued… — Author Unknown
Meaning-Making Is Both Blessing And Curse
…my mind often buzzes with questions about mundane events…
Red Mountain is in close-up view from a picnic area on the southern bank of the Salt River a few miles north of Mesa, Arizona, where the Bush Highway enters the south-west corner of the nearly three million acre Tonto National Forest. I sat there alone at a weathered and rickety picnic bench one day last week, my attention divided between the mountain and a narrow strip of river where a breeze rippled the surface and trout leaped. I had a notebook in front of me to record what I saw, thought and felt.
My Place In The Grand Scheme Of Things
Two recent experiences showed me just how insignificant I am when measured on a scale more grand than my own immediate concerns (which can loom as monumental if I let them).
Grains Of Sand
The first experience was stimulated by an exhibit in the underground Johnson Geo Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The exhibit consisted of four clear acrylic towers, standing in a line, each of them containing a quantity of sand, each grain of sand representing one year.
Words That Flame From “The Unstruck Bell”
Here are a few lines that I highlighted in Eknath Easwaren’s book, The Unstruck Bell, because they speak to me:
You are not upset because of your children or your partner; you are upset because you are upsettable.
Great figures on the spiritual path, such as Jesus the Christ, Moses, the Compassionate Buddha, or Mohammed, have all given us the same message: “Live only for yourself and you will never grow; live for the welfare of all around you and you will grow to your full stature.”
This is what stilling the mind means: laying to rest permanently every negative and selfish force in consciousness.
A Space In the Universe
More and more I see myself as a space in the universe in which thoughts and feelings occur. My job is deciding what to do about them.
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