Tag Archives: Inspiration

Three Truths and One Wish

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1. Truth: You are enough and there is enough for you. Just as you are, you are basically good and wise, you are whole.  Even if you do nothing but breathe, you are worthy of love, space, belonging. You may suffer from poverty mentality, that deep belief that there will never be enough, that you have to cling to and hoard what you have, but it isn’t real.  There is enough, enough to share even.  There is no need to compare or compete.  Let go, give it all away.  Open your heart, give and receive, knowing that you are enough and there is enough.

Photo by Ganesha Balunsat

2. Truth: Gratitude brings joy, and when you are creative, you are happy. Andrea Scher on Superhero Journal posted today on her blog about gratitude, and said “I think practicing gratitude is one of the most powerful things we can do. It gives us power and joy.”  On Tiny Buddha, there’s also a recent post on gratitude’s connection to joy, “There’s More Right Than Wrong.”

I was thinking about this while I was walking the dogs this morning.  The facts of the morning were: I was tired and it was early, dark, and cold.  One way to experience that is to get grumpy, cranky, irritated, and hateful.  Another option is to recognize how utterly amazing it is to see the moon and stars, and then the sunrise, all in a single hour. To be aware of how the cold and movement wake me up, and how nice it is to be out alone in all that quiet and space. To understand how lucky I am that I can get up, that I can move, that I have these two amazing dogs that want to go with me, who will protect me from anything out there that might be scary, (all there was this morning was a fox and an owl, so nothing too bad).

And there’s the happiness that comes from creating, any active process in which you give of yourself, your love or wisdom or kindness.  That act of offering, the action and attention, returns to you as much as you ever give away. It feeds the deepest, hungriest part of you.

Photo by Mara

3. Truth: Right now, in this moment, there is no problem, everything is okay.  Ask yourself, in this moment, right now: is there a problem? I guarantee that anything you can come up with isn’t about this moment, but rather is attached to the past or the future–I have tried this many times, and I can never come up with any problem that is attached to right now that I don’t know exactly how to handle, to render it “no problem.” Everything else is completely workable. In Eckhart Tolle’s book “The Power of Now” he says “To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment.”

Photo by On Being

  • Wish: I wish that we could all internalize and manifest these truths. That we would understand joy and experience happiness in this present moment, now. “Decide today that you are enough, even if you never do anything, accomplish anything or produce anything ever again. You are enough.”

  • Your turn.  Make a wish.

Something Good.

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If you are at all like me, on a Monday you can use all the extra goodness you can get. So, here’s this weeks list.

  • My new favorite drink: I modified the recipe for a Perro Salado (Tequila Salty Dog), and now it is my drink of choice, without the tequila and salt most of the time, and a lot more juice than the original recipe calls for. I am drinking a virgin version right now.  Doesn’t it look refreshing?

Here it is if you want to try it:

  • Ira Glass: as I mentioned yesterday, a friend and I went to see Ira Glass. “Reinventing Radio” was the name of his show, and I had seen it a few years ago in Boulder.  My favorite part of the show, besides when he makes a balloon animal or cracks a joke, is his explanation of how to tell a story: there has to be narrative momentum (this happened, and then this, and this), a pleasing surprise, and a moment in which the universal meaning or message of the story is revealed.  He talked last night about how he thought for a lot of years that he’d invented this structure, worked for eight years to figure it out and understand it, only to realize that it’s the standard structure for a sermon, and was already old when Jesus did it.

Photo by Jeremy M Farmer

Here are a series of videos where Ira talks more about storytelling.

  • This American Life: This is the show that Ira hosts and produces.  It isn’t just something good, it’s one of my favorite things.  You know how safe and happy you felt when your parents read you a story at bedtime? (Okay, maybe that’s just me, and if you don’t have that memory, I am so sorry, because it really can be one of the best things in life.)  That’s exactly how I feel listening to this radio show.  It’s so comforting, safe, interesting, funny, smart, kind, and good.  I listen to old episodes when I am wrapping Christmas presents every year or when I am balancing the checkbook and paying bills, I listen to the new show every Sunday, or as a podcast later in the week if I have missed it. If you have never heard it, you can go to the This American Life website and find archived broadcasts.
  • In a video I mentioned the other day, Brene’ Brown talked with Jennifer Louden and said that if she had known the TED Talk she did in Houston would be selected to be on the front page of the TED site, be a featured video, she never would have talked about her breakdown spiritual awakening or “all that other stuff.”  She was vulnerable because she didn’t realize how important it was going to be, how many people would actually see it, and look at what happened–because she was able to be brave and vulnerable, she’s been able to help so many more people, me being one of them.

  • And finally, just for giggles and since I am not dressing up this Halloween, here’s me a few years ago, and another of me from many years ago.  I have to say, I don’t think I’ve really changed all that much.

  • Your turn: tell me something good.