Living Spirit in Lily Dale

12/30/2024

"Talk doesn't cook rice."

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12/16/2024

”When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying, ‘You’re too this’ or ‘I’m too this.’ That judging mind comes in. So, I practice turning people into trees—which means appreciating them just the way they are.” — Ram Dass

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12/12/2024

How about an exercise in not doing?
What are you going to stop doing to start doing something else?
Because there is a not so obvious cost involved in doing something new - it's not doing something current.
We talk endlessly about bettering our lives. About unlocking our best version. And as you can imagine, this requires time. But in the age of overabundance, people are rarely finding themselves with free time. They have time, but it's not free. It's always occupied with things to do. And thankfully for those who dread being alone with their own thoughts, there are plenty of distractions that exist to divert their attention.
Or simply put, you never find yourself with nothing to do because there is always something to do.
But... and here it gets interesting... with so many things we already do, there is no room for doing something we want or ought to do.
• What about that book project? No time.
• What about going to the gym? No time.
• What about the startup idea? No time.
We typically blame motivation and discipline for our inability to start and commit to something different from scrolling our life away. But there is something else to blame...
If we don't make space for the new activity, we will never make it a permanent part of our lives.
And here's the kicker...
We need to get something out to get something in.
Yeah, but we don't.
• We are already hooked on watching shows.
• We are already addicted to video games.
• We are already primed to choose sugar over a low-carb salad.
I have friends who love to inform me about how they'll stop drinking. And why they communicate this desire, they have a drink in their hand.
"I am quitting alcohol, you know."
But they don't. Because they are hooked on alcohol.
They say they want this, but for this to happen, other things need to stop happening.
So, instead of stuffing your Christmas tree with more wasteful items that will exhaust your time - like, new video games or streaming subscription - how about removing things.
Instead of solely concentrating on what you'll start doing in the new year, think about what you will stop doing.
The prerequisite for doing something new is to stop doing something current.
Worth reflecting on:
What activity will you stop doing in 2025?
Give yourself the gift of time by considering what current activity is only wasting it.
What can you stop doing - or do less of - in the new year?
It could be something small, like endlessly checking your inbox for emails that don't matter. Or something big, like cutting back on social media altogether.

It's easier to pull than to push someone. We can try and push Spirit to do whatever it is we think needs to be done. Or, we can do nothing and have faith that Spirit will pull us in the right direction.

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12/03/2024

“Conquer yourself rather than the world.”
― René Descartes

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11/27/2024

“The boughs of the oak are roaring inside the acorn.”

—Charles Tomlinson

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11/19/2024

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." — Lao Tzu

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11/01/2024

A monk asks Master Zhaozhou, “When times of great difficulty visit us, how should we greet them?”
The Master answers simply, “Welcome.”
_ Robert Waldinger

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10/27/2024

RG: I’m curious how music—and specifically, your project Kites—intersected with your comics work during the time covered in Distant Ruptures. Peace Trials came out in 2005, and Hallucination Guillotine in 2007.

CF: What these efforts share is a longing for some kind of utopia, or a hard puzzlement between beauty and terror, and the relations there. It was a time of intense creative experimentation and expansion, I felt there were a lot of untested points to prove. I felt like there was a wide-open field that no one seemed to be aware of. I came to making instruments because my father had taught electronics in the Coast Guard, and because I had met Jessica Rylan, a sound artist who makes her own synthesizers. There’s no way I could have begun without her teaching me so many things. With Kites I was trying to express some kind of loss but also the ecstasy and joy of being alive, however brief and confusing life might turn out to be. Some kind of spiritual survival, self-defense, acting on intuition.
Christopher Forgues

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10/25/2024

We have the ability to choose how we respond to any situation that comes before us. We can take a negative path or we can choose a positive path, a path where we understand that the situation is giving us the opportunity to learn, to grow, to adapt, to control the situation instead of letting the situation control us.

Everyone goes through moments of doubt. Moments when the question of "what am I doing with my life?" feels more like a heavy weight than a fleeting

10/14/2024

"If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it." — John Irving

10/12/2024

“Paying attention is the most basic form of love,” writes Tara Brach.

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10/11/2024

from the Conversation-
"Using the word “happiness” can be off-putting. Sometimes, people associate happiness with recommendations to just smile, cheer up and suppress negative emotions – which can lead to toxic positivity.

As mental health professionals, my wife and I reject that definition. Instead, we embrace Aristotle’s concept of “eudaimonic happiness”: the daily pursuit of meaning, mutually supportive relationships and becoming the best possible version of yourself. "

Value the Now by making it Your Now, eh.

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