Category: Essay

Today I had the whole day to do as I pleased. I had the kids for part of the day, but still, I could do whatever I wanted with the day ¹. I have a list of things to do about a mile long, but instead I chose to work outside on my latest loom restoration project for a friend. I was in my bliss.

Previously I had given the loom a once over, and figured out all the problems and either fixed or figured out a fix for most of them. All I had left was to completely break it down, clean it, lubricate all the moving parts and put it back together. That’s what I worked on today and it felt so good. I was simply taking my time in working to transform something from a dilapidated state to something beautiful again. I’ve still got a little ways to go and look forward to finishing up the job soon.

I think the thing I liked most was how I felt as I was working on it. I lost all track of time and was completely absorbed in what I was doing. It didn’t feel like work. It felt like me just being me. I want more of that in my life.

1. Isn’t it true that we can always chose how we spend our day? Granted we will always have responsibilities, but we do have a choice in the big picture of what we do with our lives and the direction we decide to send it. I think this is the topic of an upcoming post… ↩

Sometimes life sneaks up on you and your carefully laid plans and the time and space you’ve set aside for yourself gets bumped or interrupted. What do you do in that case? Easy, you roll with it and make the best of the situation.

For the past 7 days (!) I’ve written and published something to this blog. I have started at least 5 or 6 blogs over the years with the intention of writing regularly, and I’ve never once had a running streak this long. One thing that has helped me stay on track this time around is dedicating my lunch hour solely to writing for the blog. Well, today my lunch time needed to be taken at an earlier time for something of far greater importance. But what to do about my writing time and this 7 day streak I have going? It would be easy to let this one day slip and just get back on track tomorrow. But unfortunately for me, building up momentum on any project can be so hard and breaking it, even for one day, could be disastrous. I’ve loved this time to write out my thoughts and share them here and I want this to continue. So, to stay on track I’m just going to take the 15 minutes I’ve got right now today to pound this little post out. It will be unedited and raw as I type it here. And i’m ok with that and I hope you are too. So the lesson to myself, and hopefully to you, is don’t let life’s inevitable hiccups interfere with a good thing going. When those bumps come, be ok with doing your best in the time you’ve been given to keep up that momentum. Your future self will thank you for the effort.

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed with too much to do, in not enough time, with little to know motivation to do it? Yea, that’s what I thought. Me too.

Well, I have some good news. In the last couple of weeks I’ve actually managed to tick a few things off my list that had been hanging over my head for months. I’d spent countless hours fretting and worrying in my head about how I was going to get them done or when. I kept putting them off and putting them off, until they were at priority ‘hair on fire’ and I had to get them done. And I did it! In hindsight I think it was two key things that allowed me to get them done and with embarrassingly little effort compared to what I had anticipated it would take.

1. Just start. Just pick the smallest possible step that will bring you even just a fraction closer to being done – then do it. And I do mean tiny. It could be as simple as opening your email client or word processor with the intention of getting started. It could be looking up the phone number of the person you need to call. Or looking up an answer to a question you aren’t sure about. The key is to just get started. Then let the momentum of that first step carry you onward. Even if you can’t get it all done in one go, just having started can quickly give you a clear picture of the road to completion. Now with those next steps clearly in front of you it will be easier to pick those guys off and you will be done in no time.
2. The other was being ok with doing a good enough job, instead of waiting for things to come together so that I could achieve some unnecessary example of perfection that even my unborn grandchildren would be proud of. There is absolutely an acceptable and obtainable bar below perfection we can all strive for.

Sadly, these weren’t new lessons for me. I’ve learned both of these first hand many times before. This time around I think because it happened in such quick succession and on multiple projects the pattern became clearer.

If there is something you need or want to get done and you just can’t manage to get any traction on it, give one or both of the above a try. I think you will find it is just the trick to get you on your way.

Lunch update

Well, I successfully packed my lunch in a little Tupperware box this morning, and brought along the chopsticks as well. LOVE – IT. I think I have the beginnings of a winner on my hands here. As it turns out I’m not as terrible with chopsticks as I thought, but it was still enough to slow me down and eat my meal one slow bite at a time. Also, not dropping each thing in its own individual bag actually made my lunch packing faster, as well as being nicer on the eyes when it was time to eat.

I had a quasi bento ¹ style lunch today. Considering what I often each for lunch, I’m pretty pleased with the food I had. Some sliced turkey and cheese, a few chips, and some grapes and tomatoes. I had intended to bring along some sliced cucumber and carrots too, and also the fixings for a quick miso soup but forgot to grab them on my mad dash out the door. I’ll plan a little better next time. The disappointing part of the meal though was two fold. When it was time to eat I dumped a pile of food in individual plastic bags from my lunch sack, and then proceeded to devour all of it in under 10 minutes. I can do better.

I have two thoughts on this.

1. I think presentation is important! I know its just ‘me’, but darn it … I deserve better! And so does the earth. It seems silly and wasteful to use up 4 or 5 plastic bags every day for a lunch and then throw them away. Its true that I could re-use them and that would be better on the environment, but that still leaves me snatching bites of food from a littering of plastic bags strewn onto the desk. What if instead I packed my food into a reusable container? Like a traditional bento box. (I know many of you are rolling your eyes with a “Duh!” expression on your face, but I can be slow sometimes and this is me being real. Go easy on me.)
2. I ate so fast I hardly even tasted the sweetness of the grapes or felt the texture of the turkey in my mouth. It was over and gone in a flash. What if I tried eating with chopsticks? Hmm. I think that would actually work really well for me, because I’m terrible at eating with chopsticks! I think that would slow me down enough to be both mindful of the food I’m choose to eat next and would also keep me from shoving 5 at a time of anything into my gaping piehole.

Looks like I’m on a quest. Stay tuned for the results.

1. If you are familiar with traditional Japanese Bento you’ll know I’m using the term extremely loosely here. What I really mean when I say ‘bento’ is an interesting variety of foods that could be eaten picnic style with the fingers. ↩︎

I’ve been fascinated for years by the concepts of voluntary simplicity and minimalism. I’ve read so many books and articles, and I’ve gone through multiple phases of reducing the amount of stuff that I own and use every day. It always feels good to pare down my possessions to only what I use and care about most.

On the flip side, I still love the rush of buying things! I’ve never been one to impulse buy, but I am prone to getting an idea in my head of something that I need and then spending hours researching the ‘best’ one and then getting that thing. Does this go against the principles of minimalism? The purchase is most always a conscious and methodical decision. If it replaces something I already own I will usually try to get rid of what it has replaced. But I always wonder, would it be better to make due without, or to buy a good enough version from the thrift store out of whatever happens to be on the shelf?

What is actually at the core of the minimalism movement? Is it based in an effort to reduce our impact on the earth’s limited resources? Is it to rid the individual mind of the worry and anxiety that comes along with owning so much useless crap? Both I suspect, but does the reason even matter? Maybe it is good enough to introduce consciousness into our consumption; to cause us to stop and take inventory and evaluate the real need before making a purchase. I suspect the need we are attempting to satisfy is not physical at all, but rather a desperate grasp at filling a void of control, or social standing amongst our peers.

How would our world change with a societal mindset focused instead on the intangible products of love, generosity and mutual respect?

Where does a change like that begin?

Right here. Right now. With you. And with me.

I recently watched the excellent documentary ‘Living on One Dollar’. The film documents the first hand experience of two young Americans that spend two months in a remote Guatemalan community. The iron grip of poverty takes on new meaning as they experience these trials and struggles first hand. It was deeply moving and I have reflected on it many times since watching.

My initial take away was a deep sense of gratitude for all the advantages and comforts I have in my life, both past and present. It was also sobering to be reminded of just how large and diverse our world is. I live a pretty sheltered life here in my Pacific Northwest home. So much of the worlds diversity, both the beautiful and the distressing, is hidden from my view.

One story in particular pulled at my heart strings. A young woman recounted her desire from an early age to get an education and train to be a nurse. She told with quivering lip of her sadness at having to quit school at 6th grade to work in the fields. Her parents had to choose between paying for her to attend school and putting food on the table. Tragic.

I was also touched by the genuine happiness and the generosity shown by so many in the village. The smiles were never ending and many were so willing to share what little they had both with their American visitors and with others in their community. One mans wife fell ill and was in desperate need of medical care. With no means of his own to pay for this he asked a friend for help. This man of very humble means paid for the medical visits, medication, and transportation with no expectation of repayment.

As I reflected on my own income, and how these people subsist on about 1 dollar a day I was struck by the fact that I earn more money in a day or two of air conditioned typing than they do all year at backbreaking labor. I feel sadness at their lack of basic necessities and healthcare. I wouldn’t even miss the few dollars it would take to literally make all the difference in not just one person’s life but a whole community. Something just feels so wrong about this.

I am left wondering two things; What could I do to help, and what could I learn from these good people. I don’t have the answers yet to either of these questions, but I hope that I soon will.

Let me start by saying that I, like you, am appalled by the 2016 United States Presidential election. Someone will claim the winning ticket in this fiasco, that I know. It doesn’t matter on which side the chips fall, we the American people, and those affected by the actions and policies of the United States (pretty much everyone to some degree) will lose.

It seems the media’s role is constantly bombarding us with eyeball grabbing headlines announcing the latest in human depravity. I’ve seen this going on for as long as I could read, and I expect it to continue for as long as the media as we know it exists. Its just the nature of the beast and it will do little good to fight it.

Now having said all this, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I think the world at large is heading in the right direction. I don’t believe for one second that the headlines we click and follow are representative of the human condition at large. I think most people are decent and honest with similar values as my own. Many are misguided to be sure, but the majority I think have a good heart and are willing to lend a helping hand when given the opportunity.

I’m honestly not entirely sure were this optimism comes from. It’s just something deep in my gut that tells me its all going to be ok. It’s all going to work out. Eventually, the power of goodness and love will win out. I think humankind is making great progress towards eradicating so many of the blights and ugly parts of our shared history and culture. We still have a long way to go and many social injustices left to conquer but taken on the whole I believe we are moving in the right direction.

If you look at the rate of technological innovation in the last hundred years the exponential increase in human capability and its impact for good on the human condition is staggering. I believe a similar revolution in social and human relations is on the horizon too. We may not see that exponential growth in my life time, but it’s coming. I really believe that.

I was thrilled recently when I ran across a bi-weekly newsletter from Future Crunch. This amazing newsletter delivers a few uplifting paragraphs on what is going well in the world and is then followed by a slew of links to articles and essays proving the point. The links fall into three categories; Good news you probably didn't hear about, Science fiction headlines, and Stuff we loved. All good stuff (!) and exactly the kinds of things that give me hope that this unshakable feeling that the world isn’t so bad after all might be right. I you haven’t subscribed already I encourage you to do so. You won’t regret it.

The majority of my work day is spent sitting on a chair in front of a computer screen pounding out software code. It is mentally taxing work, and work that frankly I’m finding more stressful than rewarding lately. As the day rolls on I feel my body and mind winding tighter and tighter. Though it isn’t physically taxing work I still leave feeling tired and drained and with little energy or motivation left for the things that are most important to me.

My early morning practice of meditation and mantras is helpful, but too often the grounding and clarity I feel then has evaporated by lunch time. Mindfully eating my mid day meal is a great way to detach from the stress of work and return to mental clarity and focus. Choosing to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n and be fully present for the meal results in benefits beyond my initial expectations.

• I enjoy the food I am eating more
• I am more selective in the foods I choose to eat
• I feel genuinely satisfied after only a fraction of what I used to eat for lunch
• My mind has had a rest and is ready for more.

I’ll probably be posting a lot more about this later, but for now, just give it a shot. The real key is just to slow down and think about what you are doing while you are doing it. Keep your focus as close to the food and process of eating it as you can.

I've been going through a lot of changes in the last few years. I generally don’t handle change and uncertainty very well and so I’ve experienced a lot of stress and anxiety in navigating these events.

One way I learned to cope was taking long walks outside, and what I discovered over time was that these walks became even more valuable if I had a dialog with myself about the worry I was having and what was causing me stress. In forcing myself to audibly articulate the ideas and thoughts bouncing around in my head I was given the clarity and presence of mind to sort things out. The act of giving voice to these thoughts made it much easier to identify which were off base and harmful and could thus be discarded, and which were actually deserving of my time, attention, and focus. Unfortunately, I also found that I was too quickly forgetting the insights I had just gained! I then found myself returning again to a long walk and coming to the very same conclusions after another arduous week of worry and stress. There was definitely a recurring theme to these insights, and while on one of my walks I had the thought to develop them into a set of mantras. My intention was that by repeating them regularly I could keep myself on track with what is important to me in the life I wish to live.

The mantras that follow evolved and matured over a number of days while talking with what I refer to as my guides. As mentioned on my about page I believe in forces outside our current understanding that help and guide us through life. The true nature of these forces is not important. It could be any number of things; God, angels, spirits of our departed loved ones, our inner being/source, or simply our own subconscious mind. Whatever label or explanation you choose is fine and not really important to the discussion here. What is important though is that there is power to be found outside the everyday conscious mind. I believe that tapping into that power is what helped me to arrive at such a concise set of mantras that perfectly encompass my core values and embody the grounding principles that help give me focus. Repeating these mantras daily as part of my morning routine has proven invaluable. There are 6 mantras altogether and they are as follows:

• I believe that my guides and the universe can help me reach my full potential for happiness and growth.
• I believe I can have everything I want.
• I believe I can live a life full of meaning, purpose and fulfillment.
• I believe it is within my power to remain loving and kind in all of life's situations.
• I believe it is within my ability to always see a positive path forward and a next step towards the attainment of my hopes and dreams.
• I believe that I can develop my own unique voice, both written and oral, and that I can share my voice with the world and feel good about it.

I hope that you will take these mantras as a suggestion and a prompt for you to create your own. In times of trial or stress repeat your mantras; slowly and with contemplation. As you repeat each one think about how it applies to your life as it is right now. As thoughts come to your mind are these things you want to keep and hold on to? Is it something you want to change, or discard completely? Listen to the answer to these questions, then do your best to act accordingly.

Thanks and appreciation

I’d like to thank Christa Pell for the inspiration to share these mantras. At her prompting I have started this website and hope to share more in the coming weeks and months.