For my mother

I am fond of our conversations on Monday nights when I call you on the way back from work.  Many an enlightened outlook I've been able to enjoy because of your sound advice and subtle diction.  You usher in a sense of composure, of peace, focus and renewed strength.

I tend to doubt, you tend to believe.  My vision becomes blurred and astray, you keep me centered.  I fret, you continue to remain calm.

Regardless of association: I appreciate you as a human being in my life.

Man, Woman; Heart.

Sustainable Fulfillment.

Fulfillment.

At one point in a person’s life, regardless of consciousness, they ask of themselves, “What is fulfilling, to me?” 

Working for the weekends.

Being the best husband/wife/family member I can be.

Adventure.

Blacking out on Friday.

“Hooking up.”

Finding love.

I’m working on a theory that highlights short bursts of fulfillment, as opposed to deep and resounding fulfillment.  I believe most people don’t ask the question highlighted above, they just generally assume that their agenda for life will fill the bill for the time being.  It may last minutes, days, weeks or even years but that well will dry up.  They’re not asking the tough question: What is sustainably fulfilling in life?

In my own existence I am grinding through activities, relationships and “life” that allow me to seek what is fulfilling.  My answer?  Until Life’s beautifully disastrous pinwheel spins me right round again?  Love and adventure: Two elemental disciples of life that will never default existence, provide happiness and always stay classy.

Of course people change, life changes, goals change, situations change and thus definitions of fulfillment change.  Until then, let everyone be blessed enough to experience some form of sustainable fulfillment.  

Giving Somebody Your Heart

In every interaction you have with another human being—doesn’t matter who—you always have two main choices.

(The keyword is choice.)

One choice usually leads to logical (boring) interaction, politeness, formalities. And, more importantly, a lack of connectivity.

The other usually leads to interesting discussion, love (yes, love), aliveness, friendship, gift giving. And connectivity.

In every interaction you are either giving somebody else your mind—your intellect, your intelligent points, the who/what/where/when/why of your existence.

This is the easy thing to do. The safe thing to do. It doesn’t require much, if any, emotional strength or really expose who you are. In this way, you can hide from others (or from your self, depending on how you look at it) and not risk rejection by not even giving somebody the chance to reject you.

Or, you are giving somebody your heart—the real you, your presence, your true attention.

This is the hard thing to do. The risky thing to do. It involves an enormous amount of emotional strength (until it doesn’t). It entails entering the present moment. And it entails pushing through the challenging and stifling fear of doing so.

Instead of thinking about what to say or do, you let your inwardly felt experience inform your words and actions toward others.

Think about how often you self-censor and hit the mute button. Why? Why not just assume that what you have to say is valuable, even if it comes out not so smooth? Then maybe you say next, “oh, that was lame” and then laugh.

It’s this kind of moment-to-moment truthfulness that is required.

It’s so easy (but frightening) to practice because you always know what to say or do in any interaction with somebody else. The problem is having the courage to act on it.

Isn’t it time to feel less anxious and less alone and less unfulfilled?

--Christopher Lowman

Let go.

"Be crumbled. So wild flowers will come up where you are. You have been stony for too many years. Try something different. Surrender." --Rumi

A Note from Ghandi G.

Full Effort is Full Victory
by Eknath Eswaran

Gandhi wanted so deeply to help the world that he dedicated his life to siphoning every trace of self-interest out of his heart and mind, leaving them pure, radiantly healthy, and free to love. It took him nearly twenty years to gain such control of his thinking process, but with every day of demanding effort he discovered a little more of the deep resources that are within us all: unassuming leadership, eloquence, and an endless capacity for selfless service.

When he was in South Africa, Gandhi sometimes would walk fifty miles a day and sleep only a few hours a night. Even into his seventies he wrote hundreds of letters every week; when his right hand got tired, he learned to write with his left. Once, while he was writing a letter, the lantern failed. Most of us would have quit and gone to bed, but Gandhi, aware of how much his reply meant to those who had written him, went outside and finished his correspondence by moonlight. That kind of drive gives a glimpse of the wellspring of vitality he tapped every day. If we were asked to live like this, we would say, "Impossible!" Gandhi would object, "Oh, no. It is possible, when your mind is flooded with love for all."

 

Late in Gandhi's life a Western journalist asked, "Mr. Gandhi, you've been working fifteen hours a day for fifty years. Don't you ever feel like taking a few weeks off and going for a vacation?" Gandhi laughed and said, "Why? I am always on vacation." Because he had no personal irons in the fire, no selfish concerns involved in his work, there was no conflict in his mind to drain his energy. He had just one overwhelming desire -- an ambition that, like a bonfire, had consumed all his passion. This world-famous figure, who could have been prime minister of India and one of the wealthiest men in Asia, declared he had no interest in becoming rich or famous. He wanted something far greater, he said: to become zero, to place all his talents, resources, time, and energy in a trust for the world.

 

"Full effort is full victory," said Gandhi. You need not be troubled if you have made mistakes, or if your ideal has slipped away. Just continue to give your best. If you fall, pick yourself up and march on. If you cannot run, walk. If you cannot walk, crawl. Nothing in life is more joyful or more thrilling. The effort alone brings a continuing wave of joy in which every personal problem, every suffering and humiliation, is forgotten.

 

--Eknath Eswaran

Never too late

Accept everything about yourself--I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end--no apologies, no regrets. --Clark Moustakas