I haven't written here for a long while. A lot has changed. And in some ways, nothing has changed. Just like life. Superficials change. Deep content changes much more slowly, if at all.
Seth Godin wrote in his blog today, "You can't please everyone. We know this. Each of us knows it. From experience. From logic. By doing the math. It can't be done. Okay, fine. So, what are you doing about it? When you're creating something, are the possible reactions of the people you can't please weighing you down? And when you inevitably end up disappointing someone, how do you react or respond? It doesn't do any good at all to know that you can't please everyone but not use that knowledge to be bolder, walk lighter and do better work for those you can please."
I woke up this morning contemplating 'running away from home'. This is nonsense of course, because there's nowhere to run to. John Kabat-Zinn wrote (and he probably wasn't the first), "Wherever you go, there you are."
The last time I remember really having this thought for more than a second, I was trying to decide whether to apply for a job out of the country. It would have been outrageously exciting and new, a challenge for sure since I didn't know the language and it was a huge stretch for my skill-set. I knew I could do it. I wasn't sure I wanted to. It was pretty clear though, since I was pondering it, that there was something 'there' for me to look at.
That night I had a dream. In that dream, I was riding the biggest, baddest wave I have ever imagined on a short stubby surfboard. And I was doing it successfully. Mind you, I can barely swim, so the notion of riding a wave like this is really beyond my tolerances. Then the dream shifted, as dreams do, and I was looking at myself in a scene that was ... well, simply dull, boring and utterly normal. The thought that rose up in me was that I could do whatever I desired to do, be and become, regardless of where I was. Place didn't matter. Circumstances didn't matter. Situations didn't matter. The bulk of 'my work' is internal, my primary work on me and how I chose to engage with my world, no matter how it appeared.
I'm giving a talk tomorrow. It's called 'Freedom's Price'. I think I'm going to be talking about the perceptions of ourselves we have to give up in order to live as full expressions of ourselves as divine beings, or children of the divine (if that is an easier concept to wrap your mind around). We live and move and have our being in, of, as and through (our experience and expression of) the divine, as us.
In order for me to be free, I have to give up my stories that say otherwise. I have to give up my story of being helpless, small and insignificant and somehow victimized by my life. I have to give up the story that the stuff has happened to me, has happened tome, and I've had nothing to do with its creation. I also have to give up blame of others, blame of myself, any sense of shame and any belief in guilt. These are very tall orders. That's the price of personal (and collective) freedom.
In Spiritual Economics, Butterworth wrote, "You are an unborn possibility of limitless life, limitless intelligence, limitless substance, and yours is the privilege and responsibility of giving birth to it."
In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz wrote, Be impeccable with your word, Don't take anything personally, Don't make assumptions, and Always Do your Best. Many of us have studied this text more than once. These four 'simple' agreements seem to be impossible to consistently achieve, and yet the primary benefit is in their practice. In The Companion Book to the Four Agreements,Ruiz wrote, "The Four Agreements are a tool of transformation, leading you to stop judging, mainly yourself, and to start practicing another way of life. They lead you to stop to guilt, the shame, and the self-rejection; they help you break the agreements that limit the expression of your creativity, and replace them with new agreements that facilitate the expression of your love."
I'm game. Are you?
