Or fear the blurry shadows as the light begins to dim
When the buzzer says it’s over as the ball bangs off the rim
As the waves consume the lifeboat and some aboard can’t swim
You can choose to start believing that all of life is grim
But i say grab your Goblet and fill it to the brim
For Karma flips eternally and often on a whim
And your slice of glee and happiness is really not that slim
Things Change
take a shot from the hip
All the posing just skip
And your sweetness unzip
So what if you slip
Don’t let fear crack the whip
Take a gulp not a sip
From Your Grail called Life’s Trip
Live Now
Here it comes....
So before we go running for the shelter—Rolling Stones lyric to be continued below—
As promised the SPJU will include some insights from books that have seeped through my awareness recently. Let’s start with the non-fiction. 4000 Weeks is by far the finest time management book out there. Of course those terms time and management are completely erroneous. In the seeking peace and joy world we are not concerned with “time” per se—it’s about experience creation and it’s not management it is “use.” You can’t manage time because it happens and you have no way to make it go any direction but “forward” or seemingly forward. Actually it doesn’t go anywhere because when are you living? You aren’t living in the future and while sometimes your thoughts are influenced by what has happened you aren’t breathing air in the past either. so this book helps people focus on the illusions we get caught up in. For example it reminds us that the better we get at doing some things the more we “get” to do —like the more e-mail we respond to the e-mail we are likely to get and the better we use our time the more things we are likely to attempt. The book reminds us that there will always be more experiences that we might choose than there will be “time for so we can best find peace if we accept that instead of feeling overly anxious about it.
Every Minute is a Day... Authors: Robert? Meyer and Dan Koepell.). This is a book about New York emergency room activities and personnel and the initial COVID slam. No matter what your stance on the virus—and the virus doesn’t care what your stance it by the way—this book gives a compelling description of how some real human beings dealt with the real onset of this era in New York City.
Fiction.
Well it’s the “who-done-its” that usually get my attention and we’ll see what Scooby and Shaggy pulls the mask off about these in a second. By far the best fiction so far this year is
Mitch Albom’s.
Man in a Life Boat.
You want social commentary, spirituality, exploding luxury liners with rich people? You want tropical islands romance and more... This is the book for you. It’s a book about the real power. Of believing in something and coming to grips with the meaning of life’s experiences. If there was a Seeking Peace and Joy Universe Library, this would lead the suggested reading in the fiction section and for quite some time.
Jack Reacher and Jessie Stone are the hero’s of record in most the other fiction consumed since the first of the year. Lee Child and Robert Parker (as interpreted. And channeled by Mike Lupica) provide The good guy wins mob, Terri or its, drug cartel villain riddled adventures of quick witted good people who creatively weave justice through intense situations. There’s also Jack.Noble as a hit man (can’t remember the author) in a series of adventures I’ve read. This year. Why these books?
well... unusual circumstances happen and people act fairly decidedly which is an approach to fear that seems pretty effective and in sync with seeking peace and joy. Oh and Now back to the top and The Rolling Stones..
Running for the Shelter of Mother’s Little Helper....
Yesterday the reading pile was topped with a little dessert from the November issue of Good Housekeeping.... and lo and behold the magazine suggested that we all might share instead of getting off of my cloud and look to the promise of organic medicine... yes Good Housekeeping featured the upside of magic mushrooms and other psychedelics which are now being seriously studied for their beneficial properties....
So Betty Crocker is not only baking with stones... we might be seeing our domestic engineering magazines supporting getting stoned and baked as well?
Seriously, alternative medicine is being used with greater effectiveness every day and Good Housekeeping showed real courage in publishing this. Here is another instance where folks the bed their nose at fear and said let’s tell the story.... seeking peace and joy behavior at its finest.
Well it is time to do some domestic engineering of my own (don’t you just love a “good” Housekeeping term?
Stay warm wherever you ar Peace
So in the previous entry we started exploring predictions/risks etc. because we often struggle with fear in seeking peace and joy or making most chosen changes. The reality is we make guesses based upon incomplete, outdated, and very stilted data all the time. This entry will belabor that point with a few more tidbits to chew on.
Making Choices…
This set of blog entries is about making choices. Anybody that tells you they don’t worry a few times. Now and again about the choices they make are certifiable or just liars. Some, maybe most of us wonder if the choices we make will lead to heaven/nirvana / the place of 72 virgins…whatever. Well let’s say that saints pretty much have a golden ticket to that show. The odds of someone becoming a saint (once submitted for sainthood by the clerics) is approximately 1 in 20 million. Since the chance that any of my former nuns would suggest such a thing is about the same as the chance of my not listening to music on any given day (0%) I’ll assume some of my choices will end up on the “he’s not getting into the pearly gates” scoreboard. The question is…. Does that make me fear making some choices? Well no… Seeking peace and joy requires living with uncertainty and if that is translated int insecurity that’s unfortunate….however why not ponder on being completely secure in the knowledge that uncertainty will not only visit it will bring it’s pet skunk from time to time. You’re no saint, I’m no saint but we can try to. To good. To and for each other and our chances are better than one in 20,000,000 of understanding a shared experience when we do.
Moving Forward…
Well our new year’s predictions often assume things will move forward, yet why do we make that assumption? As adults we don’t always move forward and sometimes we do things that might make the universe shake her head. We are spending a lot of energy worrying about. Our mode of transportation be it electric or gas powered. One thing we can be proud of is that adults in general have dismissed less fruitful options. What options? Well kids have for generations learned to ride and bounce around on pogo sticks. One in 115,000 adults who use a pogo stick wind up in the emergency room. regardless of the zero emissions and renewable fuel of a pogo stick there is no great call for adopting any pogo quotient by the year 2040. So what’s the point. We often make good choices and then forget that we do…. So we get more anxious and less able to conquer fear with other more valuable emotions. So next time you wonder if you are making the right choice remember you didn’t go to prom on a pogo stick. Seeking peace and joy is sometimes an exercise in believing inn what we have done enough to do the next thing.
Finally Fitting in…
Sometimes we wonder and are afraid because. We don’t think we will fit in. Well truth be told sometime we wont. In fact 4.4 million left handed people die. While using things designed for right handed people every year. However, of all the left-handed people who die or don’t die using these things that bnumber isn’t very big and there is little datat on people who only do some things left-handed. I drink left-handed and given the graphics on the cup I think it might be a right-handed design. Will that keep me from raising a glass to my friends and others willing to care for their fellow man? No way … Salute.
to sum up so far … don’t be afraid of not being perfect….your odds of first ballot salvation hall of fame are slim and you like everyone are going to make mistakes. Every now and then remind yourself that you have made some really good guesses. And predictions and although you may fall down you can generally count on the fact that seeking peace and joy will be a vehicle for a joyful meaningful life. By the way my personal pogo stick bouncing up record achieved at the age of 9 was 1209 bounces without falling off or stopping…but then it was time for the Lone Ranger or Batman…priorities are priorities.
finally connecting is powerful, and yet worrying about fitting in doesn’t always have to dominate your choices…. You are sometime going to fit in when you least expect it and sometimes not….
Well one more entry on this and some “real” 2022 predictions in the next blog…. I hope odds are good you’ll read it.
Well I…yes I’m writing. In first person today. Why? This entry is about prayer and meditation and yes celebration and these are very personal matters so if I’m asking the reader to take things personally…well maybe I owe it to you all.
At least this once anyway…
for me this time of year is a time of prayer and meditation for a ton of reasons only a few having to do with Christmas, however, that day plus the start of the new year definitely contribute to my state of being/mind.
So let’s talk meditation. For me seeking peace and joy means finding ways to bring the things I actually experience in line with spiritual meanings that make sense in answering the question “why do I exist?” Peace and Joy are the products of finding insights related to that question. Meditation helps me actually experience what is going on without attaching the ghosts of what happened before and the fears of the future things I can’t possibly control… (why do i fear things? Lack of faith mostly…plusit’s good to feel like you control a lot…. Egotism is easier than humility.
Meditation places me in a grounded place where my actions have immediate meaning and where I don’t need to worry about any other place or time…. That’s a powerful feeling. ‘
Also meditation is a place where it feels like I “hear the universal sound” of the great spirit/the force/God. I can quiet my thoughts, feelings, etc… long enough to be and to learn.
Prayer…
Now I’ve mentioned this before, yet since it’s still true I’m repeating it today as something for us all to think about. We often make resolutions about what we want for the new year… we promise ourselves and others changes big and small. Well… my favorite prayer serves as a reminder about making plans and moving forward in collecting experiences and meanings.
“Give us today our daily bread”.
My daily bread is what I am able to experience and enjoy right now and what i can use to understand my spiritual existence. I don’t need to know how it all ends or who comes out on top. I don’t need to know if I’ll be successful in the eyes of my friends, family, or the world. It doesn’t say give me just a little more bread than the next guy or just a bit more than yesterday.
Forgive us our trespasses…
It doesn’t say… “if I mess up”. IUt pretty much says… look you are human and sometimes you will f**k up royally. So… please take into acccount that I will admit. My failures and get over it when the failures others have create potholes in my fast lane.
As I forgive those who trespass against me. It doesn’t say if you are right hold a grudge until the whole world decrees you were smarter, faster, wiser, and altogether better than someone else. It also doesn’t say a human’s forgiveness has to be infinite it says be reasonable people… It says take a shot at being fair and don’t whine.
It seems if I can hold on tight to these simple things it doesn’t matter what day the calendar says…
Now thank you all for reading all year or listening to the podcast… I’mhumbledby thenumbers so it is fitting. I toast you all as the ball gets ready to drop’
The road ahead may not be clear
But we’ll fly ahead with love not fear
We’ll hold each other’s spirits. High
And last year can kiss our ass good-bye
Love You All
Well we just went out to take a quick run to the store, however, the Jeep battery was dead. Fortunately we have a charger that we plugged in and it seems like it will get us up and running... Now the charger of course has alligator clips and they are a special connector for a specialized charger. That sparked a stream a trickle really of thoughts about the number of chargers we have here. We have two 18 volt drills and they each have a different charger and battery set up. We have an 18 volt weed-` Eater —again differentbattery, different charger.
Now we have all types of gadgets and gizmos that have rechargeable and replaceable batteries and because they all do different things in different devices it is nearly impossible. To know how long or how well they will work. As far as flashlights go... I hope. They work long enough to see the light so to speak.
Well this thinking about batteries got my gray matter popping and then this morning when my phone was on “low battery” I popped on my wireless mostly charge headphones so that I could listen to a podcast that was discussing the ideas of making a point and making a difference. Well it seems a lot of folks today are shining a lot of light (using a lot of batteries) on what is different about people and what is wrong with “them” or what “they” do. I*n short we are getting particularly skilled in using our media in all forms to point out what is our preferred view of things or put more simply we are getting very good about making a point. However, in seeking peace and joy I’m wondering if making a point isn’t an exercise in comparing two states of being or two historical viewpoints and further I’m wondering if we are really stressing these difference to make a point. It’s one approach for sure.
On the other hand is it enough to make a point? DIf we point out that we have black shoes and we need brown does that make the shoes we have any more brown. How much battery power do we ne3ed to use showing everyone. We have black shoes? Maybe we should use some of the battery power. To search for brown shoes or places. That sell brown shoes, or people that can lend us some brown shoes etc. It seems in seeking peace and joy we should use our energy to make a difference instead of being the experts at marking a point.
Let’s look at it this way....
Joe and Jane have to make it through the forest and in the forest there are many paths that lead to the exit, however some of them lead to a river that must be crossed in able to get out. Now joe points to the fastest way. Out of the forest, yet Jane says she thinks the river is that way. Now of course Jane can spend the rest of the walk telling Joe this is the wrong way and that they’re doomed...OR.... Jane can spend time on the path reading about how to build a land bridge using common outdoor supplies. If Jane sulks and moans until they come to the river blocking the way she certainly can make her point. If she. Has spent time learning to builds a bridge...she can make a difference....
Well time to go see if the good old Jeep” fairies are smiling. Upon us...
Peace.
So while opening a new checking account a week or so ago the people at the bank said they were in fact experiencing a change shortage. Now aside from the obvious question—“isn’t money your main product?”—I started imagining why this shortage was real. The best explanations I could come up with were:
seriously... maybe it’s time to move to the question—why does it take so long for change to happen when it does?
Well some folks are just fine with the way things are and. Believe the future will be pretty much the same as long as they don’t push for change. well... a lot of these folks really. Hate 2020.
Uncertainty is often sold as failurr and if there is little risk of failure than. There is little hope for change. So in a world of uncertainty and uncertainty being viewed as something to. Fear... there is little doubt that. A lot of people can’t bring themselves to embrace change due to the notion that people want to feel like they have control outcomes when they experience self-directed. Or coincidental universal shifts. In short, uncertainty is not calling for curiosity it is calling for fear and a lot of people are listening. even when we see alight at the end of the tunnel people are shouting “it’s a train.”
Now here’s the magic...
If you apply a bit of curiosity and make a change you eliminate all the uncertain associated with all the choices that you put aside to act in a particular. Way and as uncertainty dwindles the more opportunities to explore without fear materialize. So when you are uncertain —change—it’s a win-win
So in the realm of the completely obvious—today starts a couple days on the relationship between curiosity, fear, and control...
and one thing I can control is my worcount—so this is it for today
EVERYBODY NEEDS A BRIGHT SPOT NOW AND THENOver to the left sunlight spills through a window and casts a glare. Over every one of the electronic screens in the room. At other times in my life I’d have been somewhere. Between annoyed and angry about this. Development, however, I’ve learned a few things about the sun and the lessons it holds for my journey of seeking peace and joy... here are three of these lessons
Things Change—
the sun that shines on us in terms of relative time has been the same as always for all of recorded history... That is not amazing if you consider that the sun is about. 460 billion years old. It’s really hard to fathom something being that old... although in college I had some cottage cheese in my mini-fridge that may have started out as a cup of milk from the cafeteria and Ikept it there to have with a Dolly Madison snack cake that may have actually been baked by that grand ol’ dame just after the war of 1812.
At. 460 billion years old the sun. Is “middle-aged” as it has about 500 billion years to go. As it burns up it’s hydrogen our sun will look about the same. I wish I was burning hydrogen instead of calories—When the sun uses up all the hydrogen it will start expanding and burn up the helium available for fuel. The sun will. Expand to such a degree. That it will swallow up the earth completely and it will take on a red color. So our sun will go from a yellow dwarf to a red giant and then after a bit it will collapse and become a white dwarf. So the lesson to take from this is...If you think. Certain of your body parts change over time.you’ve got nothing. To worry about in comparison to the sun? Well maybe..however.. perhaps the lesson is Significant change isn’t always. Evident overnight—then again if you can be patient and persistent you might be star struck.
Important things happen under the surface
The sunlight blasting into my office right now takes about 8 minutes traveling at the speed of light of course—to come into my house. That means this light got to the surface. Of the sun and came streaming tow2ard earth. What most folks don’t know is that same sunlight came from the center of the sun and it took several million years to travel from the core. Of the sun to the surface. Lesson: find out what’s inside folks because it could be really powerful stuff and even if you can travel at the speed of light now...don’t forget there are many people who have light to share . light that is still a long way from shining so that the whole world can see it—when seeking peace and joy try not to waste the chance to assist others in. Bringing their light forward.
The Sun is always there...
Our world’s will always turn and there will always be clouds and storms (even hurricane-like ones in Iowa), however the sun doesn’t move away. You can’t be the sun for everyone, and yet, you can be the sun for a few other folks and you can be thankful for those people who have been your sun for extended periods in life. even. When it’s storming you can know that the sun will show up soon, help. The flowers grow, dry up the. Messy puddles, and melt the ice that makes life a little more uncertain than you might like.
So the next time you see the sun while seeking peace and joy think about the realities that things will change—sometimes slowly, understand that there is a lot of strength and power that goes on under the surface in many people and that you can enhance peace and joy by helping them find and show their. Inner light/gifts, and believe in the notion that we not only need a bright spot from time to time, but we can be a bright spot for others too..
So as the song suggests...
this is the dawning ...and it’s time to
Let the Sunshine In
I can’t quite imagine every topic on this earth
Needs the entire world to recognize my humble two cents worth
No pretending play dough pondering need seem like they’re carved in granite.
I needn’t hold opinions ‘bout all folks across the planet
It’s perfectly acceptable to admit “oh no, I haven’t. Seen it.”
You can swear you don’t care especially when you mean it
I am not the Judge my words are just suggestions
So I propose you question answers just as you answer questions
Chorus
You see I am not your judge and I am not your jury
There’s no claiming facts are clear if many still are blurry
If you’ve got no time to listen Oh..what’s your bloody hurry?
When we could all work together or alone mix fear and fury
No No No No No
I am not your judge—-No I am not your jury
Verse 2
There is no harm in smiling as you say I haven’t learned that yet
The things in life that baffle us won’t approach an empty set
You needn’t be a ruler with delusions of defining
Which clouds will only rain and which have a silver lining
Don’t declare your lot is awe full when at least half the time it’s awesome
or be quick to say that thing’s a weed give it a chance to blossom
Chorus
BREATH —A LAZST GASP?
Well...I’m kidding... this WILL NOT BE THE LAST TIME we wander. Down the road of breathing... Unless you wish to stop breathing in which case read fast...
However...maybe take this three-part entry series as a beginning..like we are just in the delivery room and the doctor is holding us by our feet and. Slapping us on the rump to get us howling and sucking in that. Valuable air. Now... I don’t remember my kids getting slapped when they were born and as Rodney Dangerfield might remark... when. My kids were born the doctor slapped their father...
Okay moving back to a little more serious time and place—
Here and Now—-
Much of my current awareness of breathing comes from two sources. Peter Leidy and John Kabat-Zinn.
So assuming you all know who Peter is... I’ll start with JKZ..Now this person wrote tow books that helped me understand about meditation and breathing as a path to the meditation /mindful state. Not only did he write clear and very readable. Books they have great titles..
Full Catastrophe Living—-
Speaking of 2020 for so many people and my personal favorite title with the possible exception of Green Eggs and Ham—
Where ever You Go There You are.
In both these. Books JKZ illustrates how people can use breathing to help people become “mindful—-Now that’s a much-used trendy self-help word although I’d guess we all could find some people we would claim are mind-empty.
Anyway breathing or being aware of this thing called breathing that we do 20,000 times a day, helps us pay attention to what is happening right here and right now. It helps us focus on our current state—-not on what happened ye3sterday—so we become aware of the fact that our concept of yesterday is a present one and not tomorrow yet. JKZ makes it clear that today’s actions do create tomorrow’s possibilities to some extent. The point is that when we pay attention —full attention to now we don’t ‘mindlessly tumble forward or fall where we stand.
Let me put this another way...
Imagine your life is a walk down a hallway. At the end of the hallway there is a door you can see through and on the other side of that door there appears to be something you believe you want or need...a goal. The realization of a purpose so to speak. Now this hallway has doors Indented on either side... you can see that there are. Doors but can’t see into them.
So sometimes the hallway will appear scary and you won’t. Go down it... that’s a topic for another. Blog...however let’s say for today you have decided to move. On ahead—In reality life will move you down the hallway whether you like it or not....again a topic for a different day..
Okay if we stay focused on where the hallway came from we will likely wander down the.path looking. Back and maybe not see the places where the hallway has tacks on the floor rotten boards or even worse....
As we pass. The first door on the right moving down the hall there may be a key that just might unlock the door at the end of the. Hall...but if we are not paying attention we may miss it—-stop and breathe and notice the key or move forward automatically and miss it...I’d say BREATHE
Breathe again as we pass the second door on the left. Stop and really pay attention and you may smell the. Most delicious cinnamon rolls ever and looking in you may see the most beautiful garden and from the garden you hear sounds emerging like birds and what’s that? Some sweet combination of. Vivaldi, Mozart, and Blue Grass violin (although the bluegrass will come from a fiddle. Suddenly you realize that. This door has. Much more to offer than the one at the end of hall and you noticed it because you were paying real attention to the here and now which is rally all we have full access to.. You see the rest is only what our mind is imagining what was and what will be..... You see in that. First door there was a key....
Well Breathing is the Key to countless doors a if you let it be—I didn’t forget there’s a Beatles” Day coming before the end of September.
Okay... contact me directly if you want to hear more about JKN and his books.
Okay Peter Leidy
Keeping this to the point...he was the first “regular” Joe I knew who said “I’ve been getting into this “mindfulness” stuff. Notice I used the word. Regular instead of normal—Normal is a loaded word and Peter might be offended if I used it in describing him in the here and. Now.
anyway...we all benefit. From knowing people in our network who highlight their. Curiosity right out loud. I’m fortunate to know quite a few folks who have that kind of courage....
Time to Exhale...
I’ve spent about two hours trying to figure out how to finish up this thing on breathing and then it sort of hit me like a ton of featherrs—which weighs just as much as a ton of bricks by the way—
So...since breathing doesn’t stop —well until it’s over and it’s not over till it’s over...I’ll just say we’re going to take a step down our hallway of topics for now.... Instead of closing the topic it may be interesting to toss some info. About meditation (breathing with a purpose of paying attention)..
Now here’s a cautionary note...if you are reading this info to see how much you will be accepted or how much you are like others if you meditate stop reading HERE AND NOW
Otherwise here are some interesting facts...
As of about three years ago it was estimated. That 14% of all Americans claimed to have tried meditation. The. Number of children who currently meditate is nearing 5%. The. Number of adults has tripled in the past two decade as and the number of children has increased nearly tenfold . So maybe kids are not completely losing the capacity to pay attention in this attention economy—
Speaking of paying attention... I have asked for enough of your attention for one post...So thank you...close your eyes ...breathe. In hold think a positive thought. Breathe out—-
