Walls, limitless walls

 It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

Henry David Thoreau

The sun shines today regardless of what we humans do to ourselves and each other. We are never separate from energy, from the earth, from the universe. There is no barrier that keeps us isolated from these except those we create in our mind. 

If we look at a wall and think it is the same wall we were stuck looking at yesterday and the day before, and the same wall we will be looking at until this lockdown is over then it is a barrier to our living. But what is this wall? If we look at new houses being built a wall is a dream being constructed for families and people who wish for a safe place of their own. Walls surround space, and are surrounded by space. Walls have a life story of their own. The atoms that bond energetically together to be this wall during this tiny second in the eons of the life of the universe came from somewhere in the earth and in a relative blink they will form something else. There is no permanence to these physical walls. The earth will claim them as long as the sun's energy can sustain life on this planet we call home. 

Walls are a construct of human imagination, experimentation and effort. Walls help us contain heat to stay warm, light to read at night, give us some privacy and a feeling of security. The making of our walls have fed and clothed many people. There are light sides and dark sides to walls. The sourcing of wall composition materials and the construction of our homes and buildings have also come from exploitation of workers, profits of corporations, pollution, mining and resulting complications that upset the balance of nature, contaminate drinking water and contribute to change in the oceans. Infinite seeming random occurrences and coincidences have come together in these walls that contain us. There is so much to ponder in walls, like the shadows that can be beautiful or terrifying, and the emotion walls have been witness to; music and laughter, yelling and crying, sadness and happiness, boredom and excitement, all things are present in walls.  

These are the physical walls. Then there are the walls we create in our minds... when we can choose anything why choose to live contained in our assumptions??

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

Henry David Thoreau

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Henry David Thoreau

Cheers

Jeanne

Finding a path from Nov 19th 2020

 “Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've been doing a little searching for ways to connect with real people and let them know I care. I donate to charities and organizations that are helping people in many ways, but it seems to me that, while necessary, this is very impersonal. I write letters and send messages to the people we have elected for our government and yet while they always say they care the issues seem to take forever to get resolved. Coping through this pandemic is hard for all of us, and yet there are many people who have it much harder than the rest of us. While there are all kinds of untenable reasons, the specific issue I have been thinking about is the fact that many communities in Canada do not have access to clean water for drinking or washing. I try to imagine how difficult it would be to wash my hands 20 times a day if I had to boil water each time. If I had to boil water to bathe my children, to wash clothes, to prepare food.... and then if there were a Covid outbreak how much harder would it be to slow the spread?

It seems crazy to me that in this country of lakes and rivers, with great expanses of inhabited land there are communities with unsafe water. A simple search of "boil water advisories in Canada" led to this site: https://www.watertoday.ca/map-graphic.asp 

And a little reading into the site led to the not unsurprising statement:

"While transparency regarding water conditions in some provinces is poor, First Nations communities are in a worse situation, many of them living with the kind of sewage and water conditions seen in developing countries. Status updates on problem areas were not available until 2014, when Health Canada's website started publishing a more detailed list of advisories in First Nations and Inuit communities across Canada..."

So once again I write to our Prime Minister, to my MPs to the Minister of Indigenous Services urging them to do something now. I try to find charities and organizations to support and donate what I can. But I wonder... how do the people in those communities who are isolated from the rest of the population, and have lost faith in the government ever taking action after so many promises of help have been broken... how do they know that we care? We, and I'm assuming that many of us feel the same as I do, who feel helpless, who feel that if the government can't or won't do anything all we can do is complain.

I've only started my search and I don't know where it will lead me, but I do know if I stay on my narrow path of waiting for the government to take action I will be living small and that is a waste of the privilege and opportunity I have been fortunate enough to have been given. If anyone knows any individuals, organizations or resources that might help me connect or create an opportunity to personally show I care please send them to me.   I cannot promise that I will connect with all of them, but I know that if what I follow is what touches my heart, that will be the best guide marker for me to head off in the direction that I want to travel.

I think the quote above was from an impact statement from this website, and if it wasn't there are stories here that are worth reading and I'll track down the source again sooner or later.

https://reconciliationcanada.ca/resources/impact-stories/

Martin Luther King Jr. said: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Let us find a way to belong to this time and place together. Our future, and the well-being of all our children rests with the kind of relationships we build today.” – Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, O.B.C.


Cheers
Jeanne

A new Dawn From Nov 5th 2020

 "It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”

Neil Armstrong

“To some this may look like a sunset. But it’s a new dawn.”

Chris Hadfield

 

These times will be history in the blink of an eye, or less.  I have lived through more than 22,630 sunsets and dawn so far in my life and potentially I may live another 10,950 ...  looking at it this way  each day is a very small part of my life.  There are many things I've cared passionately about over these days, and the further back I look at these the smaller they are. We know that life goes on and that nothing stays the same and that human's are irrevocably changing the earth and making poor choices for their future. Still we need to carry on each day. Covid will not last forever. Politicians will come and go. Resources we have now will get consumed and wasted. Yet, it is inevitable that change will come . And for this we can live each day the best we can. 

Be Kind! To yourself and others ... 

if we could all take a break from judging and analyzing and blaming for an instant and breathe  kindness into our lives imagine what a sigh of relief would be felt round the world

Here's a list of Ted Talks that, if we substitute for 20 minutes a day of listening to news or scrolling through social media, 

or to replace  20 minutes of the time we spend complaining, feeling impotent and helpless, and blaming the government, corporations, other people for our perceived problems:  

https://www.thepositivemom.com/ted-talks

This is an infinitesimally small amount of time in the Earth's existence and not even a speck in the Universe.

Cheers

Jeanne

Think about the Future from Nov 12th 2020

 “The indigenous people around the world before they made a major decision used to ask themselves: how does this decision affect our people seven generations ahead?”

Jane Goodall

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Jane Goodall

Imagine seven generations from now... 

I'm not a science fiction reader but I read that there is not much science fiction written these days that takes place on Earth in 2100 and beyond. That is a lot less than seven generations. A massive shift is happening in the environment, now fast enough that we are seeing impacts and we will see the pace of change and devastation to our planet accelerating.

If we think about impact on future generations with every choice we make, if we slow our decision making down and not accept that the way we think is the way things are, the change that happens might make the future for the next generation and our grandchildren's children a little more possible. 

We could challenge ourselves to slow down and think of the unconscious things we use that we take for granted that use resources unnecessarily ... resources that will not be available for generations to come if we don't slow down now.

Cheers

Jeanne

Paradoxical Commandments again from Nov 26th 2020

 "I thought 2020 was going to be the year I got everything I want, now I know 2020 is the year I appreciate everything I have" 

This came across on an Instagram feed and stuck with me but I haven't been able to attribute it to a particular source.

At least a couple times a week I hear my mother's voice saying "who ever told you life was going to be fair?" And, although the first time I heard her say it I was probably 5 and did not find it a satisfactory answer to whatever I was complaining about at the time... NOW ... it is such a relief to let go of the expectation that life is supposed to be fair. It gives me so much more freedom to let things go and do my best and be kind because I want to... for my pleasure and growth and not to make someone else feel grateful to me or to get some reward, payment, gift in return; whatsoever.

The Paradoxical Commandments

by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

Cheers

Jeanne

Common Theme: When in doubt try Kindness from Dec 7th 2020

 “It is very interesting how the human mind works. We have the need to justify everything, to explain and understand everything, in order to feel safe. We have millions of questions that need answers because there are so many things that the reasoning mind cannot explain. It is not important if the answer is correct; just the answer itself makes us feel safe. This is why we make assumptions…We make all sorts of assumptions because we don’t have the courage to ask questions…We have agreed that it is not safe to ask questions; we have agreed that if people love us, they should know what we want or how we feel. When we believe something, we assume we are right about it to the point that we will destroy relationships in order to defend our position.”

Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

It is such an effort to make sense of everything when we are bombarded with differing information from every direction. I think Don Miguel Ruiz is saying that we don't have to make sense of everything. We can let go of trying to know everything, and of being right and having to justify ourselves.

We can just let go of all the assumptions, expectations and explanations. Our world will not fall apart! 

And what then you ask? 

Try a little kindness, it can't hurt

Take a look around, spend a little of that energy we use defending our beliefs and use it to help someone ... without expectation of being thanked or acknowledged. Just because it is in little actions outside the walls of beliefs we've caged ourselves in that help us heal and grow.

I started this morning with thinking about conspiracy theories, and here are some of the bits I was reading that got me thinking about how and why we create these stories. 

I love this illustration from: thescottishproject.com

And from my daily stoic message:

Escape This Indelible Stain (dailystoic.com)

In Meditations, Marcus speaks passionately about escaping the “indelible stain” of power....

But let’s talk about a different indelible stain that is spoiling and ruining many people today: radicalization rather than imperialization. In the the early 2000s, after the heinous attacks of September 11th, the radicalization of young men (and women) by their exposure to extremist Islamic views, became a major topic of discussion at Senate subcommittee hearings and on cable news roundtables. It’s both sad and ironic that for all this focus, the same officials and pundits missed the rising threat of homegrown right wing radicals—young men (also women, but mostly men) who were being turned into extremists by their exposure to misleading and inflammatory materials online. Indeed, these numbers have been rising to the point that “of 263 incidents of domestic terrorism between 2010 and the end of 2017, a third — 92 — were committed by right-wing attackers,” according to the Washington Post.

Stoicism is a philosophy that is about taking the longview and seeing the big picture, so the purpose of this email is not to make you anxious about the danger of terrorism at home. Thankfully, America and Europe are still very safe places. Nor is the purpose of this email designed to advocate a particular political viewpoint or solution to this problem. No, the message today is the same theme inherent in all of Stoicism: To look internally, to look at your own habits, and to see where you stand.

If ordinary people living on the same block as you can be radicalized by falling down internet rabbit holes, if the toxic media (and social media) culture we’re in can nurture and feed unfathomably dark and awful views, then what do you think it’s doing to you? Do you think you yourself might be getting radicalized by your own filter bubble? Are you doing a good enough job holding up every impression and opinion to be tested? Or are you, too, in a less dangerous way, being swept up in the passions of the crowd, however fringe or alt or mainstream that crowd may be?

Radicalization is the scourge of our time. Ordinary people who share enormous amounts in common are being turned against each other. People who are polite and friendly and would help a stranger change a tire on a rainy night on the side of the road are being turned into weapons in a war that helps no one but advertisers and trolls and power-hungry populists.

Stoicism is a philosophy that holds up reason and virtue above all things. Marcus Aurelius was an emperor who believed in compromise and forgiveness and mercy. Epictetus was a victim of terrible injustices (first as a slave and later as a banished philosopher). Seneca too was exiled and stripped of much of what he held dear at various points in his life. Yet none of these men gave into bitterness or anger. All resisted the indelible stain of radicalization and instead worked to be kind, to compromise, and to ignore the mentality of the mob.

Each of us needs to do the same…and reach out to anyone we see being pulled in the opposite direction. Or worse, down a rabbit hole of radicalization.

Will the real me please show up! from Dec 10 2020

 “If you change nothing, nothing changes.”

Mel Robbins

“Your doubts create mountains. Your actions move them.”
Mel Robbins

As a motivating speaker Mel Robbins is right up there! Her "Start Here" series gave me a little kick in the pants, which I was kind of surprised at because I thought I had listened to just about every motivational talk going lol. The episode on Boundaries and toxic people was particularly enlightening to me. (The Audible link for this audio series is at the end of this message.)

And here are my thoughts for the morning... 

There is nothing as powerful and nothing as hard as taking the first step. I'm sure everyone of us has had to take a step to make change sometime in our lives, whether to end a relationship, leave a job, start something new, follow a dream ... anything. 

I know I have spent far too much time deliberating about taking an action, sometimes I don't trust myself and let the doubts shout down the dream, or I try to design perfection before I start something. I used to think it was because I was afraid of failing, now I think maybe it is because I'm afraid of success. Success means more responsibility, more unknowns, higher and more challenging mountains. Success means I can't use my old excuses and I'll have to work harder and maybe miss out on some other stuff. Success means change and while I want change do I want it enough? What I do know is taking action and making change, facing my fears and challenging them head on by stepping into them, accepting ultimate responsibility for who I am and what I do is powerfully energizing. 

Showing up is how I want to live this one life I have been given. Staying home is not living to me!!

Lots of introspection because it is my birthday week and I do like to reflect accomplishments and write intentions for how and where I want to show up in the next year of my life.

Cheers

Jeanne

Start Here with Mel Robbins Audiobook | Mel Robbins | Audible.ca

Christmas Eve 2020 The Lions Sleep Tonight

 "In the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight"

The snow and rain have obliterated the view and, 

Who knows what lions are prowling in the dark,

Out there ... 

But tonight they sleep, the song says

What comfort a song that reminds us

Even lions sleep and the village can be peaceful.

Bing Crosby & David Bowie - "The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)" - YouTube

In the jungle,
The mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

In the jungle,
The quiet jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

Imbube...

Near the village,
The peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight

Near the village,
The quiet village
The lion sleeps tonight

ohh... wowoh..

Hush my darling,
Don't fear my darling,
The lion sleeps tonight

Hush my darling,
Don't fear my darling,
The lion sleeps tonight, eh eh!

wowoh...

Cheers

Jeanne

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Bing Crosby & David Bowie - "The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)"

Bing Crosby & David Bowie - "The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)"

Alchemy

“Don't think about what you've left behind" The alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. "If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

The last day of 2020

In Ontario it is day 293 of our personal lives being directly impacted by the pandemic.  But was our former world made of pure matter or was it a moment of light?

“and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Why, when there are sunrises and moon rises and birds singing and trees dancing, puppies and babies and people being kind amid all the tragedy and suffering, injustice and ignorance, consumption and abuse do the latter seem to constrict us like the tentacles of an octopus? We can create the world we live in by choosing the lens we look through.

“But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I wish for all of us for 2021 to empower our alchemy and step into our dreams!!

That's what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

My rereading list (very partial): 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and,  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Persig (which is always a good read, but made this years list because of the following quote) 

“There was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Cheers

Jeanne

Science vs opinion

 “It doesn't make a difference how beautiful your guess is. It doesn't make a difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is. If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.”

― Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics

“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”
― Tony Schwartz

What we are living through will soon be history. I wonder if people in the future will learn anything from this or whether they will be just like us and continue to make the same mistakes over and over. Curiosity and asking questions are important, but I think many of our politicians, corporate leaders and yes, us individuals as well are looking for the answers in the wrong places. If we know the outcome we want for ourselves we do not look objectively for the answer... we are not truly curious, merely trying to prove our point. Why is it so hard to believe that science, nature and history can be worthy guides??? In this information overloaded world why do we listen and argue about things that science and history and experimentation and studying have answers for? Answers we can find by a simple google search, by reading history or by listening to reputable news sources.

Is there an essence of what we can believe in and that we can use as an underlying guide for how to be when we are buffeted every which way by opinions and voices that manipulate emotions and ignore science?

The following message I read on facebook and I reposted and am copying it here because its message is something we all should keep in mind:

Working parents want kids to go back to school because school closures directly impacts them.

Teachers don’t want schools to open because covid spreading round their school directly impacts them.

Hospital staff want a full lockdown because sick covid patients directly impacts them.

Business owners want to carry on as normal because lockdown directly impacts them.

People with physical health problems want everyone to stay socially distant because catching covid could kill them.

People with mental health problems want people to spend time with because isolation could kill them.

Some can’t wait for a vaccine because they believe it will bring back some normality.

Some are terrified of a vaccine because they believe it could harm them.

We are all going through this but none of us are going through the same thing. Some face crippling financial challenges, others face heart break. We don’t all have to agree with what is best because what’s best for us won’t be best for everyone. We don’t have to understand what others are going through. But we do need to stick together and keep loving each other no matter our differences. We need to be mindful when some things go the way we want it to, it could be terrible news to another person. We need to be kind.

-Author unknown-

Bonus Quotes today:

“No one is is sure of his premise as the man who knows too little.”
Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”
Oscar Wilde

Cheers

Jeanne

Muffins vs Icebergs

 “How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless."

"Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them."

"I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.”
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

What to do, what to do when the beast is rattling at the door? 

What to do, what to do when the iceberg looms and our collective learned helplessness blinds us to anything but oncoming disaster

What to do, what to do when we are victims of "freedom", when ranting and raving and waving flags and blaming don't change the ships course

What to do, what to do??

What purpose is there in joining the ranting crowd? In watching the iceberg get bigger and closer and letting its sensationalness consume us

What purpose is there in letting our focus and emotions succumb to the mob growing more strident and violent as it clamours for attention

What to do, what to do???

What choice do we have?? Stay home and eat muffins, taking great care to butter them carefully maybe?

What choice do we have?? Stop and think how do we want to live and die this one life we have...maybe?

What to do? What to do?

What gives our life meaning? We can choose who we are in this chaos

What gives our life meaning? We can choose what we love in spite of disaster; like the musicians on the Titanic who played as the ship sank, or the mothers who read to their children overcoming their fear of the dangers approaching...

What to do? What to do??

What to do? Eat muffins, butter them enjoy them slowly and savour them

What to do? Think around the iceberg

What to do? Be our own hero first ... if we can't change the world we can change where we focus our thoughts

My heroes from yesterday:

The bookclub friend who delivered cookies to each of our bookclub members; this made me feel part of community of caring people

The friend who came for a walk and inspired me when she told me about virtually travelling the Camino trail, Dancing!! Wow, do what you love!

The people I saw at the church when I picked up ingredients to cook meals for their community food program, buttering the muffins for many

The buddies who's ongoing text chatter about the happenings at the US capitol that gave me a lens to see beyond that iceberg

The friend who shared a question from a course she is taking: What colour is your fear? which is giving me much food for thought

And there are many, the list goes well beyond personal interactions, I have only to look and I see heroes everywhere, and they are not just people (and muffins)...

The Oak Trees I look at day in day, majestic in their beauty and alive in all stages. Standing tall, fallen and transitioning and the baby planted in memory of my father who is always my hero and epitomized the following quote:

“People who maintain their calm in times of global or local chaos are the most effective antidote against the poison of the chaos!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan