Happy Genealogy Day, happy International Fanny Pack Day, Happy Anniversary - Girl Scouts, Birthday - Jack Kerouac (writer/poet), Happy Fiesta de las Fallas (Spain), Happy Independence Day (Mauritius), Happy Moshoeshoe's Day (Lesotho) and Happy National Day (Gabon) and happy we – we day. In making everyday a holiday, I acknowledge today’s holidays around the world.
To me the most important holiday is “We We.” Martin Buber talks about the “I – thou” relationship, but today is about “We- We.” If I am you and your are me, then when we are together can we still be we? Of course we are we.But we forget the we-ness of life. We place people in the “they “category. Just experiment for today and put everyone in the “we “category. See how your attitude changes when the world is made up of “we” ones not “they” ones.Happy “We-We” day.
Happy “You are Never Old to be Young” day. Today we celebrate the nature of youth that lives as us, in us. We are not our bodies and we are not our attitudes, but our attitudes are the filters through with we view reality. It’s easy to experience the ageless nature of consciousness, but sometimes we become so identified with the body, thinking we are that body, that we fix our beliefs, activities and opinions into a stone like mindset and resign ourselves to a narrow limited life.
Zoe Lewis is a great entertainer. Her enthusiasm calls our assumptions about age into question. No one can hear her perform without opening to the zest of being alive. I heard her perform last night at Millbend Coffeehouse. I hosted her in my home last night I was honored to have a few minutes of her life. People rub off on us. Zoe certainly rubbed off on me. Her mother was 51 when she was born. She died at 95. Zoe said her mother was the inspiration for this song. Thank you Zoe for reminding me that I’m never too old to be young.
Happy Stretch Day. One of the amazing things about humans is that they do not always act in their best interests. If we did all the things we knew would produce a healthy body – there would be fewer hospitalizations, fewer drug sales and healthier bodies. Bodies need to stretch, but few bodies take the time for even minimal stretching. That’s why I’m declaring this national stretch day.
Have you noticed how your dog or cat always stretch when they get up? Remember stretching when your were a kid?
According to the Mayo Clinic, the top five benefits of stretching include:
Increased flexibility and joint range of motion: Flexible muscles can improve your daily performance. Tasks such as lifting packages, bending to tie your shoes or hurrying to catch a bus become easier and less tiring. Flexibility tends to diminish as you get older, but you can regain and maintain it.
Improved circulation: Stretching increases blood flow to your muscles. Blood flowing to your muscles brings nourishment and gets rid of waste byproducts in the muscle tissue. Improved circulation can help shorten your recovery time if you've had any muscle injuries.
Better posture: Frequent stretching can help keep your muscles from getting tight, allowing you to maintain proper posture. Good posture can minimize discomfort and keep aches and pains at a minimum.
Stress relief: Stretching relaxes tight, tense muscles that often accompany stress.
Enhanced coordination: Maintaining the full range-of-motion through your joints keeps you in better balance. Coordination and balance will help keep you mobile and less prone to injury from falls, especially as you get older.
Today try a few unusual stretches. Say “wow” ten times really stretching your mouth. Next pull your ears from the tops, sides and bottom three times. Next raise your right arm above your head and stretch your body to the left three times. Now switch sides and repeat. This will take only about a minute to do. Do you feel your face waking up? Can you feel that aliveness rising in your torso. Try 3 minutes of stretching in the morning or whenever you can get to it. Again I wish you a happy stretch day and remember to make everyday a holiday.
Happy Doodle Day – JFK’s Doodled Too Wait to You See What He Doodled.
Every day is a holiday, at least in my book. I declare today “Doodle Day.” Doodling is fun. It’s a great past time. I doddle when I’m in conferences, while I talk on the phone and in bed before I go to sleep. I doodle with pen and ink and I doddle in color with felt tip markers. I have a movement in my life designed towards intentional play. Paper and colored markers rest beside my bed. I doodle at night before I go to sleep or in the morning when I wake up.I even doodle on my computer in Paint and on my I Touch.
Doodling is fun, but the unintended consequences are terrific. When I doodle on a regular basis, my creativity heightens. I’m still working on the bedside doodle you see here. It’s an 8 by 11 doodle.
Psychologists tell us that doodling taps into our subconscious minds and can give us insights to our inner most impulses. Doodles are like dreams – links to subconscious message mysteries.
The doodles and notes of US president John F Kennedy are released periodically by the John F Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston. One hundred and thirty five pages were released in 2004. Subsequent historical events, long after JFK's assassination in 1963, give one JFK doodle a special significance: On one page a small circle was written with the numbers "9/11" contained within. Just to the lower left on the same page is the word "conspiracy" - and it is underlined. Conspiracy buffs, take note!http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/13/the_odd_body_doodling/
Happy “Be Here Now” day. In the 70’s I was introduced to Ram Dass’s revolutionary book, “Be Here Now.” The book came by way of a beautiful very pregnant young woman. The book provided my first insight into the present. Until then my mind merely flirted with reality. I was usually ruminating on the past or fretting about some future imagined event. My friend was so illuminated by the book that she and her husband changed theirlives to embrace and live their values. Life was short they thought. They decided to do what they wanted and do it now. They sold their home and moved into the country. They started a garden. One night my friend was in a minor traffic accident. She went to the emergency room and was send home with a clean bill of health. Later that night, her lungs filled with fluid, and she and her unborn child died.
The story is sad. Her life and death provided a powerful gift for me. If she had not read the book, she might not have awakened to her life and lived her last few months fully alive and present. I began the journey away from the mental past and future and into the present. Many years later I had the opportunity to tell the story to Ram Dass. I thought my friend would want him to know. In honor of my friend and keeping with the theme of making everyday a holiday, I pronounce this “Be Here Now” Day.
I want to make it very clear’ this is my life and I am here.
Happy Pleasure Day. There’s a saying “no pain, no gain.” Even though we can grow from pain, pleasure can hold it’s own. There was an experiment where people were hooked up to monitors and their responses were measured– it would be complicated to go into all the details but people who received a deep approving look from someone they cared about had the same kind of happy biological responses as someone who received $164,000. Looks like to me that our treasure is in our pleasure (I heard that phrase from Jean Houston).
Have you ever listened to the lyrics in Carley Simon’s “Ain’t Got Time for the Pain?” “Suffering was the only thing made me feel I was alive.” These words are amazing.
I haven’t Got Time for the Pain ...
By Carly Simon and Jacob Brackmen
All those crazy nights when I cried myself to sleep. Now melodrama never makes me weak anymore. ‘Cause I haven’t got time for the pain. I haven’t got room for the pain. I haven’t the need for the pain, not since I’ve known you.
You showed me how, how to leave myself behind, how to turn down the noise in my mind.Now I haven’t got time for the pain. I haven’t got room for the pain. I haven’t the need for the pain, not since I’ve known you.
I haven’t got time for the pain. I haven’t got room for the pain. I haven’t the need for the pain.
Suffering was the only thing made me feel I was alive.Thought that’s just how much it costs to survive in this world, ‘till you showed me how, how to fill my heart with love, how to open up and drink in all that white lightpouring down from the heaven
I haven’t got time for the pain. I haven’t got room for the pain. I haven’t the need for the pain, not since I’ve known you.
I haven’t got time for the pain. I haven’t got room for the need for pain. No I haven’t the need for the pain I haven’t got time no I haven’t got time for the pain I said no, no no more pain no no nono no no more pain.I haven’t got time for the pain.
We must learn from our pain, but lead from our joy.Pain is a word, but it should never be the last word because our treasure is in our pleasure.
I take risks. When I was younger, I jumped off a water fall, stayed alone in the mountains fasting for days and even held snakes - come to think of it as an older person I went into the Amazon jungle at night, climbed a small mountain in the Himalayas (it doesn't seem so small when it takes 6 hours to reach the top) and arrived in Seoul with a guide book and no plans. BUT and it's a big but, the real risks are the inner risks. The big risks are the ones where I let go of my concepts of who I am and free fall into life without evaluating it. I take the risk of being present and resting in the stillness. This is the risk of waking up and it's the only risk that is worthwhile.
This process is the mental renunciation of me as a body, a mind, a past.
This blog is about making your life easier. Even though it may not look cohesive - you may wonder what my post have to do about ease - everything is about ease. When I do what love, love, everything is easier. So I share from the flow of my inspiration and life and for me that is the ease.
A Course in Miracles says "Simplicity is difficult for twisted minds." Make it easy, take it easy and make it an easier day,
Posts
