on the creative impulse

             This is one of the many precious observations I found in Deepak Chopra's recent book The Future of God: 

"Nature exists to show us the full range of life

in its most creative and most destructive forms."

            It is horrible, heart-wrenching, terrible when we witness or experience destruction and suffering.  It hurts emotionally when a friend simply gets lambasted for her opinion.  Chopra's phrase provides a lot of food for thought on offering an explanation for all the hatred, violence, disasters, and simply unpleasant experiences we encounter as we navigate life.  

            However, as I explored in a recent post on adversarial experiences, the bad stuff could be a point of inspiration for what we don't want, and in turn can become an incredible source of creative energy and renewal and impulse.  Imagine all the good stuff you want in your life, that the bad stuff helps you to define.  As in the yin-yang symbol, good and bad, disastrous and joyful, destructive and creative, are two aspects of the same whole, and exist through definition of their opposite. 

            If you don't like being out of a job, if you didn't like the result of the recent election, if you don't like your local politics, if you don't like the idea of killing animals for human consumption, if you don't like drab colors - turn that energy around and create what it is you actually want:  imagine the job you are looking for, vote in every and all elections (not only the presidential one), become active in your local community to improve its quality of life, eat more plant-based foods, and surround yourself with lots of joyful colors. 

            Dwelling on the negative makes you depressed, complaining and whining is not effective.  But turning a negative experience into a jumping point for something new and better is creative and wise.  Just imagine!

what a great day

             It's pouring, it's blustery, the wind is driving the rain against the windows, and I'm loving it.  Great day to sit at my computer with a cup of hot tea and get some work done.  I don't have to feel guilty about not going out in the sunshine - none in the forecast.  I can simply plug away in the coziness of my office, and thoroughly enjoy this lousy weather from inside the warm house.  You can complain about the weather, but in the end it's all about attitude and outlook.  Same weather, different perspective.

on experiencing adversity

              Have you noticed that a lesson sticks better when you experience something?  We need to do, we need to feel, we need to experience in order to get it.  With a skill it's more obvious - you can't learn to cook by reading a cookbook, it remains theoretical.  Ultimately you have to get into the kitchen and do it.  You have to get into the water to learn how to swim, watching a movie about swimming is not enough.

            The concept is a bit more abstract when it comes to projections and possible implications.    If you have twenty people over for Thanksgiving some planning ahead is a must so everything is ready when your guests sit down for dinner.  This requires projections you can make based on your own experience.

            When it comes to far reaching ideas, however, when we need to rely on others, experts, scientists, it seems to me that we are not so good at accepting projections, that oftentimes we have to experience first in order to get it, to act, to make a change.  I am thinking about two examples.   One is proactive wellness and the other is climate change.

            In a documentary about his career Chef Dan Barber mused about the early hardships on his path to fame and concluded that adversity teaches us where we don't want to go back to.   Is it wisdom that might prevent us from having to go through an actual experience to avoid hardship?  Is it trust in someone else's scientific truth?  Is it distinguishing fact from fiction?  Not sure.  Sometimes we need to experience illness before concluding we'd rather be healthy and decide to eat a better diet in the future.

            What is it with climate change?  There are still many skeptics out there who don't believe in the scientific compilations and observations by so many reputable organizations.  Maybe we'll need to experience the dire consequences of our inaction, the more frequent droughts, the more pronounced weather instabilities and implications for our agriculture, the global warming and projected migration of millions of people from the global South, the torrential rains and storms, the more massive snowfalls, the melting of the icecaps, the submersion of coastal areas and low lying islands.   All already going on in real time right now.....does it need to get worse?  What are your thoughts?

voting for, not against

            On the day before this historic election I'd like to make the case for the difference between voting for, as opposed to voting against, or not voting at all. 

            When you vote against, as in "I don't like green tomatoes," you have not yet defined what you actually like.  You might like red tomatoes, you might not like tomatoes at all, you might like green beans best, but deciding not to buy green tomatoes still does not put dinner on the table.. 

            When you go to the store and buy battery cage chicken eggs you vote for that type of agriculture and for cheap eggs with your money because you are putting money towards that end.  When you vote for anything you clearly state "This is what I want." 

            When you abstain from voting you avoid making a decision.  Say you need a dress for an event and find several that you like and that are suitable, but can't make up your mind and leave the store empty handed.  On the day of the event you still need to wear something, so you end up wearing something you had in your closet but that you don't really feel good about.

            It is true that in life you can't always get what you want.  In the wintertime there are no strawberries.  Instead of being mad that you can't find good strawberries, find the best pomegranates or tangerines you can and leave it at that.

            It's better to vote for something with full conviction of voting for, than not voting or voting against.  When you don't vote you leave the decision to others.

letting go

             Maybe fall is a good time to let things go, the way trees let go of their leaves before going into hibernation, a period of rest and internal renewal (that pregant pause full of potential), before starting fresh again in the spring.   I saw this beautiful quote by an unknown author the other day:  "Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go."

            I love the fall for many reasons - the change of seasons and that getting-back-to-cozy feeling (just put on the flannel sheets), the fantastic colors, those delicious fall spice combinations, and the wonderful festivities, but also the blusteriness of the weather, which feels like a giant sweep-up and cleansing.  The song Letting Go, featured in the animated movie Frozen, became a huge hit a few years ago.  Letting go of fears is liberating and makes you feel lighter.  Fears cause us to put up barriers, put on figurative masks, hide our true feelings, and conceal who we really are.  They also cause us to hold on to things that are not useful any longer, like grudges, ill will, and all that pettiness that weighs us down.

            Consider fall's metaphor of the beauty of lettings things go, letting it drain out of you, giving it up if it no longer serves or weights you down with emotional ballast - no need to hold on.  Here also a previous post on forgiveness.

going high

              I am so tired of this election campaign, and being surrounded by all the vitriol that's being spewed by both parties, the media, and perpetuated on social media.  Why not express what you want, instead of what you don't want?  Stick your political sign on the lawn if you wish, but don't remove your neighbor's.  In conversation with others talk about what you are looking for: maybe fair wages, job security, fair and accessible health insurance, whatever the case may be.   But all that screaming, yelling and anger just lacks civility. 

            We are social beings meant to live in groups.  Courtesy, manners, etiquette and niceties were invented to make living together more pleasant and promote positive energy.  But it requires putting the harmony of togetherness ahead of the short-term satisfaction of self-centered vengeful anger for the greater benefit of all.  Anger, profanities and cursing poison the ambiance and propagate negative energy.

            We need more positive energy, and we can't change others, we can only change our own attitude.  A little light chases away a lot of darkness.  You always have a choice between dark and light.

the fox's secret

              You may have heard it said that we need to drop from the head to the heart, or that the mind sometimes gets in the way.  But what does that actually mean?  Antoine de St. Exupéry's The Little Prince is a philosophical chef d'oeuvre full of great quotes.  One of my favorites, the one that hangs on my fridge, is this one:  "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.  What is essential is invisible to the eye." 

            When it comes to decision making our rational-analytical mind sidesteps our feelings and decides strictly with the head, the left side of the brain, the math and science side.  It foregoes checking in with the heart.  Initially, we may believe that that's wise, and when solving a math equation it's essential.  But in many instances our heart, our feelings, provide complementary, and sometimes contradictory information to the mind, that is valuable to consider, and can be really helpful - the "seeing rightly" part of the quote.

            We can't see emotions and feelings, they are "invisible to the eye," yet they are essential to our human condition.   We have all made mind based decisions we have regretted later on because we disregarded the heart, so keep the fox's secret in mind, or rather in your heart.

the importance of rhizobia

          I'm not much of a fiction reader but I just finished Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees and enjoyed it a lot.  The story conveys what I keep saying, that life is all about relationships.  And life is all about relationships because life is about experiencing love in its many forms, as well as through its lack and absence.  The Bean Trees' metaphor for this realization is the wisteria vine, whose root system attracts rhizobia, small bugs that attract nitrogen to the roots and assure the wisteria's survival even in poor soil.  Bug and wisteria live in a mutually beneficial and interdependent relationship.  One cannot survive without the other.

            We may think that we can go it alone, get off the grid and be self-sufficient, but nature is not like that.  Nature is an entirely interdependent and mutually beneficent interrelational web of support that we humans are an integral part of.  The more we care for each other, the more we enjoy love, life and happiness. 

            We go to restaurants every once in a while and enjoy the experience.  But what we enjoy a whole lot more is having people over or going over to friends' homes and sharing good food and good conversation.  It costs a whole lot less and it cultivates relationships.   That's what it's all about.

            Read here a previous post on nature's interdependence, piranhas and the eco-mind.

what's it all about?

         What are some of the things you really enjoy in life?   Do you get enough of those moments?  Are you doing anything to get more of those moments?  What could you do to experience more of those moments?  Do you think you deserve more of those moments?  Would you like to live more of those moments?  What prevents you from having more of them?  Imagine what it would be like to have a life full of beautiful moments.  Go for it.

so much magic

          Your heart beats about four thousand times an hour.  Your digestive system does an amazing job digesting all the food you ingest, and distributing its energy for your use - all by itself, no assistance needed, no strategizing needed.   Your body sweats when you work out, all by itself.  Your lungs breathe, all by themselves.  Yet, we are not machines, not engines, not computers.  And some people want to tell me that there is no spirit behind it?  No purpose?  No absolutely totally amazing life-force?  No higher purpose?  In light of all that magic I simply can't subscribe to a strictly scientific-material world view.