Stuff-love, materialism, is a large part of our human experience, but it isn’t everything.
Green consumerism and eco-consumerism — a.k.a. “conscious” consumerism or “sustainable” consumerism – continues to gain ground, it says here. It may even be going mainstream as more and more shoppers get into trying to save the planet or save their own souls by making every purchase a “moral act” and by buying “right.”
One of the wisest thoughts I’ve ever encountered about impermanence is this one from English writer W. Somerset Maugham’s novel, THE RAZOR’S EDGE: “Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.” It reminds me of a Hawaiian aesthetic that holds that beauty is made more precious when we understand that it is ephemeral and will not last.
I am reading a book by a man I admire greatly, Edward Espe Brown. He was the first head cook at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center back in the 1960’s and later founded Greens Restaurant in San Francisco. His earliest book, THE TASSAJARA BREAD BOOK is a classic. More than one dear friend remembers their well-thumbed, flour-coated and oil-stained go-to copy of the book and the loveliness that flowed from their hands and the kitchens of their youth.
I’ve been beating my head on the wall I’ve made using the flood of abundance-mindset and positive-thinking books – past and present – that populate my shelves as well as articles and posts and audio tapes and video thingummies and podcasts that lurk in the spaces my computer can reach. It all sounds so good. It’s all warm and fuzzy and smiley-face cool. It’s also cotton-candy unsatisfactory. I’ve got a really bad sugar-high going and the crash is imminent, looming,…
I confess: I am in love with artist Dustin Yellin’s mind. He strongly believes that “if you have amazing people around you, then amazing things will happen” and he’s been proving that truth over and over again.
This YouTube video, “Why You Should Talk to Strangers,” features Robbie Stokes, Jr. giving a TEDxFSU talk at the Florida State University. It was published in 2013. In it, Stokes, a former Washington, DC events coordinator for a congressional delegate to the United States House of Representatives, tells how, the year before, he quit his job, sold all of his stuff and chased his dream about wandering around the world and talking to strangers.
Since 1956 the Compline Choir has filled St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, WA with the uplifting holy sounds of chant. The service happens at 9:30 p.m. every Sunday. It is only 30 minutes long. There are no sermons, no priests – just readings of psalms and some thoughtful musings interspersed between an incredible, soothing, peace-inducing sound.
I don’t know. Maybe I am misunderstanding this new-to-me concept of “pivots,” as applied to making business moves and such. They seem to be telling me: You don’t like the way things are unfolding? Fine. Turn around. Go sideways. Move that booty. Yuh-huh!
Another IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): an understanding that generosity is not a down-payment on love. [Generosity is spill-over when you’re feeling full.] I am reading a book, LOVE LET GO: Radical Generosity for the Real World, by Laura Sumner Truax and Amalya Campbell. It is a story about an amazing church congregation in Chicago, the LaSalle Street Church, who received a totally unexpected windfall: a check for $1,530,116.78.
It’s the new “thing” — Letting Go. Everybody who’s anybody keeps telling you that the only way to move forward is to let go of all that baggage you’re lugging around. “The Simple Life,” hey, ho! Minimalism rules. They tell you, “Gee whiz, guys and girls…you’ve got a wagon train following along behind you with all the accumulated baggage of a lifetime and you’re pulling that thing around with you. No wonder you’re so tired all the time.”
