Category: quotes


The Middle

Filed under: life, questions, quotes — Leave a comment
July 19, 2010

In a slight follow up to the previous post, I read “Exit the Middle” just now (and the sequel post).  And it sounds so familiar.  I like the beginnings.  I like the challenge.  I don’t mind not knowing what I’m doing, because it’s the beginning, no one does in the beginning.
The middle is where I get bored.  And often quit.

Unfinished art projects, past obsessions gathering dust, the artifacts are all around. I enjoy coming back to them at times, or entertaining the thought that I will.

I don’t regret not becoming advanced, because once I conquer the beginning, I know that I COULD become advanced, with time and patience.  Or – I could go learn something else shiny and new and enjoy the beginning again.

It’s the middle you want to watch out for. When you need other people to create challenges for you.

Is it good that I don’t fluster in the middle, asking for external solutions to being there?  Is it bad that I am obsessed with the new beginnings?

I like to think it means I adapt to change better (HA. I crave and resist it at the same time!)

Or have I already adopted her advice on getting out of the middle?

You just decide. You say it:

Here I am. I’m ready and willing to consciously engage with everything in my life. With the ecology of my life.

I’m open to finding challenges in the places where challenge is needed, and challenging myself to find ease when ease is needed.

That’s it. You’re out of the middle.

I’ve felt that strong desire for solutions to come from other people to get me out of ruts, to challenge me.  It’s been the ennui, the longing in my past for answers to come to my doorstep.  They didn’t come, and I ended up going out there and finding them for myself.  And that’s so much more fulfilling!

Musings for a Monday.  I suppose it’s sometimes a good thing that I’m like this, and sometimes not so good.  But whichever way, I think it beats the hell out of being stuck somewhere I don’t want to be and not doing anything about it.  (Which is right where I am with some aspects of life in particular…. ah. After the wedding though, after the wedding.)

(and now I have “Stuck in the middle with you” as an earworm in my brain…. )

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I contain multitudes

Filed under: life, photos, quotes, random stuff, unravelling — Leave a comment
July 16, 2010

Do I contradict myself?
Very well, then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

– Walt Whitman



I feel a million possibilities within me.

I feel the urge to chase them all, do them all, but the ole limits of space and time get in the way.

One day, I know I’ll have time to putter in my garden.  Spend hours taking photos.  Energy and money to travel to places near and far.  Cook sumptuous meals for friends and family.  Escape the cubicle.  Create art.  Do things I never imagined doing.  Run my own business.  Collect eggs from my chickens.  Create a new legacy.  Design costumes.  Decorate interiors.  Paint.  Write.

When it appears that I don’t care about what I do, it’s just that I want to do it ALL – so go ahead, pick something you’d like to do.  Even if I never thought of trying it, I may enjoy it. I’ll let you know if I don’t.

I thought that I needed to find my one true passion.  Something that would be my career and define my life.  I’ve slowly come to realize that my gift is having passion for so many things, so many options… As long as I don’t stop short out of fear of making the wrong choice.

I keep forgetting that the major cause of all my stress is trying to live according to how other people think or say I should live.  When I think of how it fits into my personal rules of life, things are so much clearer.

Occasionally I am sad that I don’t have the time/money/energy/space to devote to one singular passion.  I rationalize it that there will be times in the future that will be more suited for that task.  There’s part of me that knows “What if?” that day doesn’t come.  But you know what?  It just means I spent my time on something else, something just as important.

The only thing I do know is that he is my constant.  There are a million possibilities within me, and a million paths we could travel in life.  Some are not meant for us, for this lifetime.  But some are.  All I know is I want my hand in his as we discover our adventures together.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

ETA: In discussing this with an online class, people referenced two books I already own and read a while ago!  Refuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love by Barbara Sher (she also has a forum for “scanners” – her term for our habits!) and The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One by Margaret Lobenstine.  And I stumbled on this site too.

Since this may help others who can relate to the “scanner” or polymath lifestyle, I had to come back and share it!

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On Creativity and Compassion

Filed under: art, flow, life, quotes — Leave a comment
August 3, 2009

Inspiration of the day – my friend blogged about artist Merce Cunningham who passed away, and it highlights several artists who helped re-define what art is.  My favorite part is the last sentence, but had to quote the entire section –

It was their relationship of the creative life to all life that has drawn me into their work.  They would focus on bringing the creative process into what are often times considered “non art” activities….they would have festivities in a moment’s notice, carry with them a feeling of always creating something, of everyday adventures.  They believed in living out loud in front of others so the world would wake up and see that the smallest things in life can be a celebration.

That is how I choose to honor Merce, to continue to live my own life with that kind of imagination and authenticity, and to encourage others to do the same.  We are ALL artists, constantly creating.  No matter what our medium..even if we don’t have a definable medium…it’s the way in which we author our lives that is so important.  Art is not to dazzle others as M.C. Richards, a contemporary and friend of Merce, once said. “It is to reveal the secrets of our hearts so that others seeing that witness, will have the courage to reveal the secrets of their own hearts.”

This is the path I’ve been on as well – while I’ve always loved doing creative things, this way of looking at art, how we live, and how we express who we are really started at Burning Man for me.  I was always drawn to it, but never found it in such abundance until then.  And I’m still struggling to do this, as lately it seems not much that I do is very creative.  Lately I’ve been absorbing inspiration, but it’s just kinda sitting there building up.  But to figure out exactly how to put this inspiration and energy to best use is challenging, and I feel like there’s never enough time in the day.

However her post reinforced in me that it’s a 24-7 thing, even if I’m not creating a tangible piece of art.  I just need to remember that.   And when we are tapped into that realization, and live with intention, I think that’s being in the flow.

ETA:  Excellent timing, universe… a friend just linked to this on facebook.  Great video, but stay for the end credits and story!!

The past week has also had an emotional journey.  A man went missing, and I followed the story on facebook as I know someone who is a close friend of his.  As I reposted messages from friends and family, asking for prayers or help with the search party in California, I learned a little about him and his life.  But the message that touched me was one that was related to his mother through a psychic.

If you do not generally believe in such things, I dare you to just suspend those thoughts and listen to the message.  Just for a moment think about what it would mean to embrace it and make it part of our lives.

Elias says repeatedly that what happened was like an unfortunate accident. It shouldn’t have happened. The person involved needs compassion.

Elias is adamant that he wants everyone to react with love and compassion. He wants a circle of people, whoever is capable, to hold space at the same time every day for compassion meditation and to let him know what time that will be so that he can join us.

He does not want so much energy put on what happened. Put energy into love and compassion. People are digging, he says, seeking with too much frustration to find out what happened. Surrender and allow it to be revealed. Taking action is good, but don’t focus too much on seeking.

He says that this whole event is a lesson. He wants us to learn the lesson! If we focus on the wrong things we may not learn the lesson.

He is grateful that I am open to allowing this lesson to be learned. He wants us to show love for all – not just him. And to have no vindictiveness. He wants there to be complete forgiveness.

Elias wants us to proceed with compassion every step of the way.

Emotions need to be released, to be honored and allow them to flow through like a stream, but don’t let them constrict you. So the key is to honor your emotions without holding them inside.

He wants to raise the vibration. Use less intellect. Keep returning to the love or we will miss the lesson. The lesson is about love.

(excerpts – for full text see here)

At a time where you can imagine his friends and family are frantically searching for him, hoping he is still alive, full of fear…  His main message is of love and compassion, not for him but for those who did this to him.

I know most of us hold grudges for far less serious offenses.

I don’t know if I can have love for those who did this, but looking at the faces of three men arrested in association with this case, I tried to hold compassion.  I wondered what happened in their life that led them to where they are today.  Was it an accident?  Or, had they been hurt so badly that they only know how to hurt others? Were they even the ones who did it?

Lyrics from a song by Kristin Hoffmann called “No Love” run through my head – she ponders what hell someone went through to get to the point where they abuse (or do worse) to someone else.  “there`s no right or wrong to decide just the cause and effect of life”.

The mystery of Elias’ disappearance is still unsolved.  Police are treating it as a homicide although his body has not been found.  While I hope anyone found guilty in the investigation is charged and serves an appropriate sentence, the message of being open to all possibilities has stuck with me.

Elias (through the transmission) asked his mother to choose a Sufi poem, and she shared the following.

A poem of Hafiz

When
The violin
Can forgive the past

It starts singing.

When the violin can stop worrying
About the future

You will become
Such a drunk laughing nuisance

That God
Will then lean down
And start combing you into
His Hair.

When the violin can forgive
Every wound caused by
Others

The heart starts
Singing.

So yeah.  The dance continues.  Love and compassion.  Creativity and authenticity.  Intention and celebration.  Heavy thoughts for a Monday, but then Mondays when you are stuck somewhere that is the opposite of many of those things need this sometimes.

I may have posted this quote before, but want to post it again…  and upon doing so I realize that “art” (the kind of art discussed up top) could replace the word “faith”.  I’m trying to embrace this fully – as well as exploit it as a reference that nowhere does “clean house” or “laundry” appear on the list…   😛

This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs:
to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek.
To seek: to embrace the questions, be wary of answers.
~Terry Tempest Williams


And so I leave you with this tribute to the lives of those who affect us, and may we remember that how we live each day is the message we’ll leave behind us as well.

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A Nonconformist Life

Filed under: life, photos, questions, quotes, random stuff — 4 Comments
April 2, 2009
Stormy Sky, just before hail, Clark Park, Philadelphia

Stormy Sky, just before hail, Clark Park, Philadelphia

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to
experience the world in the way they have been told to.”
-Alan Keightley

Read:

A Brief Guide to World Domination at the Art of Nonconformity. (There’s a PDF document that you can view or download on that page.)

Answer:

#1: What do you really want to get out of life?

#2: What can you offer the world that no one else can?

Feel free to share here.

I am still refining my answers.  I read other people’s answers at the link above not to cheat but to help put it into words.  (I seem to “know” things and have difficulty finding the words to express it, clearly and simply sometimes.)

#1:

Above all else, I want to be happy.  This doesn’t mean I’ll never be mad or sad, but I want the general emotion/feeling of my life to be happiness.

I think that getting/maintaining this happiness (I think this past year has definitely been one of my happiest!) involves a balance of simple times at home (and quality time with friends/family) and adventurous travels.

I think that my ideal life would be similar to this person’s comment –

My dream is to enjoy useful, engaging, and lucrative work with the flexibility to live comfortably, give generously, travel regularly, sleep in, hang out, get fit, and cook (and eat) luxuriously until the end of my days.

Being any more concrete than this is difficult – I have many dreams, some of which are the kind that you always have as dreams, and some I do hope to actually do.  I don’t have any career goals except one that I find fulfilling and supports me/my family and the things that bring us the most joy.

#2:

This is the hard one.  Yeah I can wimp out and just say no one else has the same views/thoughts/whatever that I have, because yeah we are all special flowers.  Whoop-de-do.

I don’t know what I am good at or what makes me unique.  Because I’ve only ever been me, and can’t really judge without bias.

Some people think I’m brave/adventurous, for traveling abroad alone, for going to Burning Man, for spinning fire, things like that.  But I know so many people that are way more adventurous than I am.

I know I have some talents/skills, but I feel like I’m more a jack-of-all-trades rather than excelling in any area.

The things that truly feel the most “me” – the most unique and self identifying traits… I don’t see those as things that I can offer the world, they are just my characteristics – not much different than the color of my hair or eyes.

I don’t know of anything I can offer that no one else can.

I know I care too much, do too little, can be way too selfish, battle with myself, usually am inspired more than inspiring others.  I know I (sometimes) don’t let fear get in the way of new adventures, but the fear and the voices of the “shoulds” (parents/society/whatever) haunt me and sometimes win, and I’m not proud of that.

I know I don’t know all the answers, and can be gullible at times, but tend to stay neutral in arguments between friends because I can see valid points on each side.  I try to be a peacemaker and avoid drama, but often at the cost of my own peace.

Maybe I’m hung up on the “uniqueness” of what I think this answer should be.

It may also be tied into some personal changes in thought that have morphed over the past year, and specifically around the election, on how I feel we can impact the world the most.  And I’m not sure I’m ready to put that out in a public blog yet because it’s just too raw still and different from anything I really envisioned for my life.  But you never know what the future holds, and whether that path will be mine or not….

Anyway.  I invite you to think of your own answers, whether or not you share them here.

And – this is kind of a scary request (but let’s be adventurous)…  What do YOU feel I have to offer the world that no one else can?

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Bring it!

Filed under: Burning Man, quotes, volunteer/charity, world injustices — 1 Comment
March 20, 2009

It’s hard sometimes to explain why Burning Man and regionals are a community, and not just festivals or scenes.  I think this pledge challenge by Burners Without Borders goes a long way in explaining it.

I will assert myself and apply my myriad talents toward the achievement of radical self-reliance, uncompromising self-expression, immediate participation, and unlimited inclusion. Whether I do this through building community, advancing the arts, aiding disaster relief, gifting alternative energy, greening the planet, or some other means, I will be a badass from now on.

Will you bring it?

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Not the Dalai Lama

Filed under: my love, quotes — Leave a comment
December 16, 2008

But still good advice…

And some of it is damn timely today.  ;o)

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
Respect for self
Respect for others and
Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

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Ripples

Filed under: photos, quotes — 1 Comment
May 3, 2008

Ripple Capacitor in B&W, originally uploaded by macaSTAT.

do not ponder the end.

healing is not an ending…

it is our daily practice.

-tony macasaet

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Universal Truth Project

Filed under: life, quotes — Leave a comment
May 2, 2008

Only when you are open to change are you being true to you.

Jenny Ludders,
Tofo, Mozambique

For some more universal truths and photos as Ida travels the globe, visit her blog daily.

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Choices.

Filed under: life, quotes, VB — Leave a comment
March 26, 2008

I wanted to share some words from a fire friend, JT (who I tend to quote often!) and it reminded me of a post of another friend on a vegetarian message board that I didn’t want disappearing in my poor memory or the ether of the internet, so here ya go. Neither was written by me.  Today, I woke up in a great mood – not by choice, just chance, but I choose to seize it and not let it go!

I try to love everyone – to accept them exactly as they are, as much as I know them in each moment. I strive to speak and act in accordance with my highest self – the choose from a place of fullest love for myself. I seek to love myself, first and foremost, and to make all my choices in accordance with that love: every choice conscious, every choice honoring who I am, every action a celebration of this life.

I strive for all those positive things – note the use of the word “strive”. “Strive: to exert much effort or energy; endeavor.” If it was easy, I woulda done it all, already. 🙂 That’s the challenge about choice – you have to keep making those choices all the time. Every moment, choosing the positive.

And yet, that’s also the incredible beauty of choice. All those choices I made in the past, all those times when I said I couldn’t, all those times I dwelt on the negative, all those times that I didn’t love myself, all those choices… they don’t matter right now. I get another chance, RIGHT NOW, to choose love over fear.

Any answer is okay. I get another chance to choose in just a second.

– JT

 

How I Trained Myself to Wake up Happy Every Morning. (a bit longish)

I didn’t add OT [off topic], because I feel it goes hand in hand with training ourselves to eat healthy, lose weight, become more physically active and to make whatever lifestyle changes we wish.

In the olden days, I think the only times I used to wake up happy was when I was in love with somebody or other. Now I wake up happy because I’m in love with myself. Truly. When the unhappy feelings about myself and the dread of getting out of bed became more than I could bear a few years ago, I decided to do something about it.

My first step was to realize that it was the negative thoughts I held about myself and about my life that were making me unhappy. I focused on what I didn’t like and what I hadn’t accomplished instead of on the positive. To change that I began doing what became one of the most powerful practices I’ve ever done. I kept a little journal next to my bed and every night before I went to sleep, I wrote down on one page 10 WINS I’d had that day. If it had been an especially good or productive day, there might be a page of amazing Wins. If the day had been a really tough one, the Wins might look like this:

* Got out of bed
* washed face
* brushed teeth
* got dressed
* put one foot in front of the other.

You get the idea.

I did that for months and months and I observed my thoughts and feelings improving. Somewhere in there, I saw that I needed more, so my second step was to begin writing 5 and then later, 10 Gratitudes for the day. My happy thoughts went up several more notches.

My third step was to begin using another practice I learned in a Workshop. Knowing that most of my negative habits had came from the way I was raised, I started seeing a second me, the self I was as a child. When, as an adult, I felt afraid or upset over something, I would imagine taking my 5 year old or 10 year old self on my lap, wrapping my arms around her exactly the way I did with my own daughter and telling her that everything was going to be okay, that I was her parent now and that I would always be there for her no matter what. I would tell her that it was okay that she didn’t know what to do. I, the adult, the mother, did know, and that I would hold her hand and guide her to resolved side of whatever problem she had. I do that one when needed, to this day and I cannot begin to tell you how comforted, supported and blessed that made me feel. I was able to move forward more confidently knowing how there I am for myself.

Later, that one switched to a very simple, loving, soft-spoken yet firm, “No, we don’t do that anymore,” when I joined WW and would catch myself saying unkind things about my weight, my food habits and about my body. I said it just the way a dear, dear friend would say it to me. That one has been the most powerful of all and I rarely even have to use it all anymore.

The third step came from a wonderful over-the-phone life coach I had a few years ago. This one REALLY cinched it for me as far as waking up happy goes each day. One of the biggest problems of my life has been feeling overwhelmed with all the things that need doing daily. I would go into this tailspin over where to begin and what was most important. As a result, I’d often end up depressed and get only about a tenth of it all done. It seemed I could never accomplish what I really wanted to do for myself. The practice she gave me, I’ve used for about 4 years now and because I had done all the above exercises, I had laid a good groundwork for this. Here it is:

She suggested that upon waking each day to let Gratitude fill my whole body to overflowing from head to toe, to really let it saturate every cell and molecule. After doing this for awhile, I simply awoke in that state and oh, my gosh, what a splendid feeling it is. I can’t help smiling when I open my eyes. Then, immediately following this, she said to ask myself what are the six things that I must accomplish that day and to see myself looking back at the end of the day, glad to see that they’d all been done easily and smoothly.

And it really helps that I have witnessed how changing my thoughts really have changed my life and my outlook. Like our dear Rebbers, I am happy from the inside out and I am so grateful to have had so much support for the changes both in my 3D life and here on the VB, from all of you.

I hope some of this might be of help to my veggiebuds here. Thanks for asking, dear Reb.

Much Love,

allth’galaxies

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Awakening

Filed under: life, quotes — Leave a comment
February 13, 2008

A time comes in your life when you finally get it…

When, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out…

ENOUGH!

Enough fighting, and crying, and blaming, and struggling to hold on.

Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes.

This is your awakening.

You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety, and security to magically appear over the next horizon.

You realize that in the real world there aren’t always fairy tale endings, and that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with you…and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.

You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate, or approve of who or what you are…and that’s OK. They are entitled to their own views and opinions.

You learn the importance of loving and championing yourself…and in the process a sense of new found confidence is born of self-approval.

You stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you – or didn’t do for you – and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected.

You learn that people don’t always say what they mean or mean what they say, and that not everyone will always be there for you, and that everything isn’t always about you.

So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself…and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance.

You stop judging and pointing fingers, and you begin to accept people as they are and to overlook their shortcomings and human frailties…and in the process a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness.

You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view.

You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for.

You learn the difference between wanting and needing, and you begin to discard the doctrines and values you’ve outgrown or should never have bought into to begin with.

You learn that there is power and glory in creating and contributing, and you stop maneuvering through life merely as a “consumer” looking for your next fix.

You learn that principles such as honesty and integrity are not the outdated ideals of a bygone era, but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build a life.

You learn that you don’t know everything, it’s not your job to save the world, and that you can’t teach a pig to sing.

You learn that the only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry and that martyrs get burned at the stake.

Then you learn about love. You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be.

You learn that alone does not mean lonely.

You stop trying to control people, situations, and outcomes.

You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility, and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say NO.

You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside, smoothing things over, and ignoring your needs.

You learn that your body really is your temple. You begin to care for it and treat it with respect. You begin to eat a balanced diet, drink more water, and take more time to exercise.

You learn that being tired fuels doubt, fear, and uncertainty and so you take more time to rest. And, just as food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul. So you take more time to laugh and to play.

You learn that, for the most part, you get in life what you believe, what you allow, and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for, and that wishing for something to happen is different from working toward making it happen.

More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you need direction, discipline, and perseverance.

You also learn that no one can do it all alone, and that it’s OK to risk asking for help.

You learn the only thing you must truly fear is fear itself. You learn to step right into and through your fears because you know that whatever happens you can handle it, and to give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your own terms.

You learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom.

You learn that life isn’t always fair, you don’t always get what you think you deserve, and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people…and you learn not to always take it personally.

You learn that nobody’s punishing you and everything isn’t always somebody’s fault. It’s just life happening.

You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.

You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy, and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you.

You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about: a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower.

Then, you begin to take responsibility for yourself by yourself, and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself, and to never, ever settle for less than your heart’s desire.

You make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.

You hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind.

Finally, with courage in your heart, you take a stand, you take a deep breath, and you begin to design the life you want to live as best you can.

Author Unknown

(Gratitude to Armadillo for posting it)

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