Archive for June, 2008

I was struck the other day when I received this email - starting with a dose of everyday ecstasy and then flowing into a series of intriguing questions:

“I sat outside today and watched the cottonwood seeds flow throughout the sky - backlit by the sun. Amazing. It was like watching a deep ocean current, but up, enhanced by birds flowing though, and sometimes, dive-bombed as well. I could hear the thwack of the wings as they changed flight directions.Balance - in life and in yin and yang…sitting, walking up four flights of stairs, all of  it, balanced. How do you measure balance in your life? If helping others is one of the most important things we do in life, how can we accomplish this if we sit behind a desk all day long? Is it saying thank you? Is it doing the little things that we say we should do, and do them freely and cheerfully, without comment or issue?

How does balance interweave with gratitude? Do we say thank you to life by just being there and being ready to step up when an opportunity occurs, not having judgment, and being in the moment?

And finally community…. I guess this is where it intersects…Ying and yang, it’s where the rubber meets the road. expansion or contraction happens, where do we stand when the change occurs… Happy or sad, judging or accepting. Gratitude for just breathing…. in and out, evenly, balance, that’s seems to be it, balance, the dance of equilibrium.

Gratitude, acceptance, graciousness, love - the bottom line of it all.”

 

I loved the questions most. They seemed to flow out of the cottonwood seeds, a comfortable conversation that took its joy from simply asking, submerging in those currents of air and emerging with arm loads of enigmas to ponder.

How often do we get stuck in the need for conclusion? For an answer? And how much do we miss by searching so hard that the ecstasy of the question is lost? Sometimes, it is much more fulfilling to simply explore the possibilities.

I realize that the writer did come to a “bottom line” - gratitude, acceptance, graciousness, love. But for me, that still felt like the question, held and breathed and pondered and relished. Right there, in that moment. An emailed whirlwind of musings that left me wondering what love and gratitude and acceptance mean to me.

A few days later, she sent me a quote from Rilke:

“i beg you…to  have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is, to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually , without even noticing it, live your way into the answer…”

I thought it was perfect.

Have a delicious day,
Ephraim

I loved this video featured by the Online Communities Examiner. Tom Waits’ brand of philosophy always inspires my imagination. The excerpt details his planning for his latest tour, following the stars across the country and through Europe. I often love to hear the odd ideas of musicians - whether or not I understand them, they ring in mind like the poetry of their music.

Tell me what you think

They’re out there. Hundreds of conversations about the evolution of our planet. The evolution of consciousness really. People confronting the big questions about what it means to be human, to live here. Today. Right now.

People want community, peace, prosperity, to live a good life. They want to find themselves. They want help finding themselves. I’ve noticed a few online communities that really try to embrace that kind of evolution - that want to help people talk about it.

Gaia follows the template of popular favorites like Facebook and MySpace, though with a more enlightened focus. Your homepage can be customized with love quotes, tarot cards, and meditation exercises. Perhaps my favorite aspect are the numerous articles with topics ranging from fitness to spirituality to conscious media (“Snacks for the Healthy Couch Potato”?! Gotta love that). The editors really try to keep the community involved, posing thought-provoking questions that cascade into answers and discussions throughout the site. Being involved really can get you thinking about life as you know it.

Integral Naked is focused entirely on the idea of the evolution of consciousness, based largely on the ideas of philosopher Ken Wilber. His idea for this site is to interview the people who are on riding the edge of modern thinking – philosophers, environmentalists, CEOs, mystics, teachers, poets, musicians. Anyone with big ideas and a concern for humanity could appear on the site or are already lurking in the archives. Ken himself does most of the interviewing, so there is always a healthy dose of his ideas around integral living – a vast and deep topic in itself. Which is ok to the folks at Integral – they’re willing to keep going down the rabbit hole. The stores of audio and video available come at a monthly price ($20), though you get a free initial month to try it out.

New on the scene is Shift in Action, sponsored by the Institute of Noetic Science. It follows a model that combines the two. Your monthly fee ($10) gives you audio access to many of the leading thinkers in consciousness, regular teleseminars, and a forum to talk about them. The focus seems to be on the ability to create a community where the ideas of the teachers they bring to the site can be discussed, dissected, advocated. And, it’s a place to talk about yourself, have a blog, build your own community around your favorite ideas and people.

All of them seem fairly complementary, attracting different people and writers and thinkers that you might love to have in a room together. Apparently, if you become involved with all three, you can.

Just in case you were looking for something to take up a little more of your time. And, if you know of any more consciousness focused online communities, I’d love to hear about it.

Have fun!

I received this email from my client struggling with West Nile on her Flow Stretching practice (used with permission):

As always, feel free to post your comments below. What’s your story of modern love?