Curiosity: The Wonder Gene
May 20th, 2012“Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.”
~Bernard Baruch
How many times have you uttered the words, “I wonder why…?” or “I wonder what..? or, “…how, where, when?”
Wondering is curiosity in action. It’s an invitation to engage our minds and bodies in an exchange of information, understanding and expansion.
And then there’s the word, “wonderful.” Full of wonder. A natural by-product of an inquisitive lens.
After a month of pondering curiosity and its effects I have some final thoughts.
read moreCurious, not Furious
May 13th, 2012“An understanding of the natural world and what’s in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.” ~David Attenborough
Last week I wrote about puppies, and how curiosity and resilience go hand-in-hand. I’ve had opportunity to put that theory into action this week while house-sitting a teething puppy.
This week, in honor of Mother’s Day, and as a result of all the media reminders of same I heard on the airwaves and in print, one phrase jumped out at me: Be curious, not furious.
read moreCuriosity Builds Resilience
May 6th, 2012“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.” ~Samuel Johnson
My sister has a big convention this week in Indianapolis. Having just gotten a new Golden Retriever puppy a month ago, she didn’t want to board him at a kennel and asked me if I might be willing to come stay at her house to puppy-sit.
Hmm, let me think about that…duh, yes! Is there anything more delicious than a small ball of golden fur? (Besides chocolate, I mean.)
read moreRest Required for Full Attention
April 29th, 2012“Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.” ~Nadia Boulanger
Speaking with a coaching client recently I asked how her holidays had been. Pretty good, she replied. But she noticed, she said, that it wasn’t until they ended that she realized they’d been quite enjoyable. It was in hindsight that she enjoyed them. That happened a lot, she remarked, that she enjoys things after the fact, not while they’re actually happening
read moreDelays: Time to Do Nothing (or Another Rung on the Wisdom Ladder)
April 22nd, 2012“Delay is hateful, but it gives wisdom.” ~Pubilius Syrus
In search of blog topic, brilliance clouded by steady rain and delays in waking up, walking dog, waiting for coffee.
Conversation with son, Sunday morning, April 22nd:
Salient background:
[Andrew is my youngest son, 27 years old, scratch golfer, captain of Baltimore Country Club, former club champ, playing in Maryland Golf Club Championship partner match play. He also works full-time and is studying for MBA two nights a week; he has a lot on his plate right now
read moreThe Art of Doing Nothing
April 15th, 2012“How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward.” ~Spanish Proverb
Lots of people say they’d like the chance to just do nothing, as in “if I won the lottery I’d do nothing.” The implication being that “nothing-ness” is comprised of doing only things they want to do and their current job/career is something they’d choose to leave behind.
Sounds easy enough. But doing nothing is about more than that and it takes time to grow into…
read moreLet’s Live With Hope
April 8th, 2012“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” ~Christopher Reeve
I was raised in a Christian household and so the resurrection was at the crux of our faith and Easter was a day of celebration. I remember the Easter days of my youth fondly primarily for the egg hunts and jellybeans, but also because the day was the harbinger of spring and declared an end to the death-like Lenten restrictions we practiced. In my little girl’s mind Easter somehow represented hope and freedom and new growth.
It still does in my grown up girl’s heart
read moreSmall Thanks, Big Things
April 1st, 2012“If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” ~Frank A. Clark
Where I left off last week was this: “It’s never ‘work’ if you love it—it’s creation.”
An experience on which I thrive is that of cleaning things up and organizing stuff, straightening up a room, putting things in their place, creating order out of chaos. I lose track of time. And if it is someone else’s place, and I get to add the experience of contribution to the mix, well, it becomes effortless, a thing of joy
read moreEffortless Creation, Part III
March 25th, 2012“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.” ~Buddha
What’s the most important part of creating what you want?
Imagination? Action? Energy?
They’re all necessary, and I suggest they are the offshoots of the most important part of effortless creation: Clarity.
Clarity is the active ingredient in the recipe for effortless creation. Think of it as the yeast in bread that causes the dough to rise
read moreEffortless Creation, Part II
March 18th, 2012“Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
I had a conversation in an airport ten days ago. After trading stories with a fellow traveler, the woman with whom I was speaking remarked, “Boy, you sure are lucky to be able to spend winters in Mexico! Wish I had your life.” I smiled and thought to myself “Luck had nothing to do with it. I worked toward this dream—I created the opportunity.”
I think that some people think luck is something that happens to you. I disagree: I think luck is simply another word for synchronicity…
read moreEffortless Creation, Part I
March 11th, 2012“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” ~Joseph Campbell
During the recently completed Back to Being class I talked about the notion of effortless creation.
Effortless creation does not mean that you make a request, sit back and do nothing. Don’t confuse effortlessness with inaction. Action is always required. And action is easy and fun and energizing (and therefore feels “effortless”) when you’re clear on exactly what you want and are in the process of walking toward it
read moreMake Space for Joy
March 4th, 2012“Joy is the feeling of grinning inside.” ~Melba Colgrove
Joy is a small word with large implications.
I think it’s also, like the word “love,” a word often used but less often understood.
Having just completed a seven-day retreat on the nature of joy—and the fact that my brain is pretty wrung out as a result—it seemed a topic worth writing about this week.
Here’s a question for you: What’s the difference between joy and happiness
read moreHard to be Right and Happy
February 26th, 2012“There is no more destructive force in human affairs—not greed, not hatred—than the desire to have been right. Non-attachment to possessions is trivial when compared with non-attachment to opinions.” ~Mark Kleiman
Another part of living a simpler life, I’m discovering, is releasing the need to be right.
It’s hard when you’re right so often, eh?
But after observing a friendship disintegrate as a result—the tendrils of self-righteousness being both insidious and suffocating—I’ve begun to see, in a newer, clearer way, the relationship between the need to be right on the outside and the lack of certainty on the inside
read moreSeeing Simplicity
February 19th, 2012“What you see is what you get. Might as well choose to see what you want, what you like. Just takes a little effort sometimes.”
Part of learning to live more simply is directly connected to learning to let go of the things over which you have no control.
That’s a lot of things.
And while that may also include letting go of some of your physical stuff, I am speaking of emotional stuff here.
When I say, “let go” of what you can’t control, I mean to let go of your internal emotional reactions as well as the situation that appears to be outside your control; the situation itself may be, but your experience of it is yours to create
read moreChocolate, Puppies and Love
February 12th, 2012“Without love, what are we worth? Eighty-nine cents! Eighty-nine cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely.” ~M*A*S*H, Hawkeye
In honor of Valentines Day, let’s tackle the topic of love. All those warm, wonderful mushy feelings…all that chocolate…
On second thought: Too big a topic. Let’s narrow the focus to eliminate the biochemical, physiological ramifications (whether love or chocolate generated) and zoom in on the whole holiday thing itself, the ear-marked day. What’s that about?
read moreSay “Thank you:” It Works
February 6th, 2012“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~Melody Beattie
It’s easy to say “thank you’ when you receive something you like, something that feels good, or makes you smile. It’s a lot more difficult to do so when you get something you don’t like. Like an illness, or the theft of your wallet. Or a tax audit.
Yet, saying “thank you” for the people and situations that irritate or frustrate you is a critical ingredient in the recipe for continuing to learn, grow and evolve.
Why would you want to? Because the alternative sort of sucks. It’s called death, whether physical or emotional.
Which makes feeling grateful kind of important
read moreInto the Mystic
January 29th, 2012“Hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea and feel the sky, let your soul and spirit fly, into the mystic.” Van Morrison
The simple life is definitely enhanced by choosing to live in or at least close to nature. That said, I think you can live in a cement high-rise and create an experience of being in nature simply by walking to a near by park. Or gazing at a picture on a wall.
But it takes paying attention. It takes being present. Not worrying about the past or wondering about the future, just being with the moment while you sit there in the park.
When I was young my family moved into a new home, the downtown rectory of St. Paul’s Parish where my father had been called as Rector. It was (and still is) a huge historic building plopped right in the center of the city, and while it had a front and back yard, it was still surrounded by high-rises and parking lots; the experience of “nature” was in short supply
read moreThe Mortar of Memories
January 22nd, 2012“The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams, and memories.” ~Author Unknown
Christina and I took a daylong holiday from Boca last week and went into the city of Puerto Vallarta (the BIG city by Boca’s standards). We hung out at a new “beach club” where you get to lounge on white cotton covered padded chairs designed solely for that purpose: to hang out and do absolutely nada.
This is how we balance the oft times restrictive limitations of Boca’s sophistication—we leave the pueblo every so often to immerse ourselves in a more highly evolved culture.
read moreMindful Simplicity
January 15th, 2012“Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).” ~ James Baraz
An open letter to a friend:
Mi amiga,
It is so nice to hear from you! I am glad your traveling has proved rewarding this year. You deserve it!
I am quite well, thank you for asking, and am now ensconced in mi casa in Mexico. It’s very quiet, if you don’t count the roosters and dogs, who cackle crow and bark at any and all hours of the day and night, and simple, unless you consider warming a bucket of water on the patio in order to take a sponge bath
read moreSimple Ain’t Always Easy
January 8th, 2012“The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn’t simple.” ~Doris Janzen Longacre
And here we are. 2012. Happy New Year.
And the world hasn’t exploded, stopped turning, or been hit by a meteor. Still, I’m hedging my bets by taking this year as a serious opportunity to live more fully, freely, simply, and lightly.
2012 is my year of Living Large. Large and Lightly. And Simply.
And I intend to write about that. Hopefully, you’ll find my musings interesting, or illuminating, or at the very least, slightly amusing.
read more