Category Archives: Inspiration

Always Be Learning

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NaBloPoMo 2021:  Do Good, Kid

There is always something to learn!

Every encounter, every event, every conflict.  Every book, movie, article, conversation.

It doesn’t have to be earth shattering, and we don’t have to brag or talk incessantly about it every time we learn something new.  It’s just good to notice when we find something we’ve never seen/heard/known/expected before.  File it, save it for later, make connections in experience for broader perspective and application.

I think it’s a mindset, really; one that encompasses curiosity, humility, and systems thinking, among other things.  This is the second time my NaBloPoMo life ‘action mantra’ says to ‘be’ something rather than do something.  And it’s okay.  Donna reminded me today of the Being::Doing polarity.  Learning is something we do; we can choose to do it actively—I bet the lessons stick better this way. 

But a Learner is something we are.  We can also choose to see ourselves as such, and I think it makes a difference in our attitudes, behaviors, and relationships—for the better.

It is how and who we are that manifests in what we do.

Give Thanks, Duh

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NaBloPoMo 2021:  Do Good, Kid

Some time ago a high school classmate suggested on Facebook that we all post daily gratitude for the month of November.  Many of us participated, and I liked it.  The first year of this blog, I did “November Gratitude Shorts” for 30 days, my first NaBloPoMo.  In 2019 I wrote a thank you message a day for the whole year, whether by hand, email, or in some other medium.  It was meditative and grounding.

In this month of recording my most heartfelt adulting skills for mindfulness and posterity, how has it taken me this long to write about gratitude?  I noticed the deficit about a week ago.  Maybe it seems trite?  I mean in November, blog about gratitude, meh.  It’s not that I don’t feel it.  I do feel it, deeply, every day.  And it holds me up.

I come down the stairs in the morning, in this house we bought just before Daughter was born.  It’s where the kids have grown up.  It’s messy and wonderful, I love it, and I pinch myself that I get to live here.  I go home to my parents’ house, where I grew up.  That Ma and Ba are healthy and living a happy, connected life fills me with pride and joy.  We all go to the mountains, a place of meaning and memory for all three generations now.  We have roofs over our heads, food in the fridges and pantries, funds to travel, and places to go where people love and welcome us—how could we feel anything but deep gratitude?  *sigh*

Friends.  Extended family.  Education.  Nature.  Technology.  Work.  Science.  Art.  Music.  So much, so much.

Ya.  Much to be grateful for, today and all days… Even—maybe especially—in crisis…

My prayer:  May this feeling, this deep knowing of wholeness and connection in thanks, live at the front of consciousness for us all, holding hands with love, leading us always toward one another.

Marvel

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NaBloPoMo 2021;  Do Good, Kid

Life is full these days, friends.  So much going on, all around and over the emotional sphere (because it is so not a linear spectrum)… Joy, Confusion, Heaviness, Connection, Deep Love, Wonder, Hope, Uncertainty, Fear, Anxiety, Pride, and Peace, among others.

It’s late.  I have enough ideas to finish the month, I think.  But tonight I need to rest.  So I invite us to simply be with our wonder for a little while.  Let us be still and actively marvel at all that leaves our mouths agape and our minds in awe, however we see or experience it. Below is my offhand list of things that consistently cause me to marvel.  What would you add, and why?

Nature.  Seriously, the beauty, the power, the vastness, balance, peace, perfection of it all…  Just Wow.

Technology.  All from serial collective efforts of our puny frontal lobes.  I don’t always love it, but OMG.

Art.  Some expressions really can speak for all of us, rendered only as one person could.  Unity in uniqueness.

Words.  Verbal, visual, representative.  Languages may separate us, and yet in combination, they express everything we need to communicate and come together in shared experience.

Ability.  How far can we push our bodies, minds, and spirits?  Why are we so called to find and exceed our limitations?  How is it that we always find a way?

Evolution.  Nothing stays the same for long, and yet some things never change.

Paradox.  It’s always there, holding everything together.  Maybe this is the origin and foundation of wonder itself?

Science. The penultimate amalgamation of everything above.

Complexity.  Life is just SO much more interesting when we really resist the urge to oversimplify and overgeneralize.

Connection.  I think we live for it.