Posted on

Substance over Status – is it time?

What do you crave?
What tempts you?
How do you know when it’s “too much”?

Okay. I get it. You are sensing that this is going to be a counter-cultural message. You aren’t sure you want to hear it. You have a choice. You can stop reading now. You can return to the mainstream message and settle back into acquiring, needing, wanting, craving, doing more so you have more, never feeling satisfied, never simply enjoying this moment with this person or celebrating this accomplishment. You can continue striving for quantity over quality, status over substance.

OR YOU CAN STOP

Continue reading “Substance over Status – is it time?”

Posted on

How would a year-end review serve you?

As the calendar year draws to a close, I’d like to invite you into a very intentional pause – a pause to reflect, release, soak up the learning, and set intention. Think about this statement:

Today is merely the sum of past choices.

If that is true, then we need to look first at what is and how we got here. Then, we decide if “here” is where we want to stay and, if not, vision where we want to “go”. Finally, we set the course for the journey ahead. Notice that we don’t dwell in the past. We look at it in order to get a clear picture of how we arrived in today so we can make informed choices about tomorrow.

When was the last time you really took a deep dive into your life and set an intention for the direction you’d like to go? Continue reading “How would a year-end review serve you?”

Posted on

Take the High Road

I think you know what I mean. When you are tempted to lash out, get back, do some underhanded dirty work – when you are tempted to react out of anger or resentment, DON’T.

Take the high road.

Rather than “an eye for an eye”, be kind. Treat the other as you would want to be treated.

But, why???

Have you ever noticed that the reaction of the moment, the “low road”, feels really good – in the moment – but Continue reading “Take the High Road”

Posted on

Do you succumb to this violence?

Ease in Abundance

“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”

– Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

“… it destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom …” This points me to an understanding about being and doing. Continue reading “Do you succumb to this violence?”

Posted on

Who, me?

Yes you! Why not you? What if you don’t?

Call to mind all those whose writings, ideas, bold actions have touched you:

  • a special supervisor
  • a spiritual teacher or author
  • your favorite blogger

I bet the ideas that had an impact on you had been shared by many others.  But, you “got it”, it resonated for you when it came from that particular person.

What if they had refused to give it?

Continue reading “Who, me?”