Today marks ten years since the darkest day of my adult life. I was unemployed with no prospects, deeply in debt, and freshly out of a relationship that toyed with my psychology in truly horrible ways. In one of the darkest moments of that day, there came an unexpected invitation from an unlikely friend. Today was the pivot point, the terminator between dark and light, the distinction between wishing and hoping. That friend and I agreed not to talk about the heavy things on our minds but to celebrate what we knew in those moments, and we saw “The Life of Pi” together. The end of the movie poses the question, “In both stories, the ship sinks, my family dies, and I suffer.”… More...
Weather
At 3:53pm yesterday, January 21st, the moon was New. Look at me being all timely this cycle!
My last post focused on Action – and the differentiation between the Action to pursue a desire and the Action to understand the motivation behind it. What the intention taught me though was that Action happens – we can affect some control, we might be able to break a little inertia – but the Universe is going to Act regardless of whether it suits our plans.
This was echoed in a conversation with a trusted soul around the idea that “the future is unwritten” – and I posited that we have it within ourselves to pick up the pen. It was pointed out that while that’s true to a degree, every future is not ours to write.… More...
Action
At 2:17am on December 23rd the moon was new. Earlier this evening, at 6:08pm, She became full. I’m not sure there’s ever been a half-cycle gap between a New Moon and my professed intention before, but here we are.
I find that I’m still digging into the feelings around Wanting from September’s focus. In that post, I wrote “Receiving is contingent on generosity, reciprocity, consent, and a whole variety of other conditions – but the Wanting is solely on us. We’re allowed, and even encouraged, to Want – regardless of the outcome.”
But what happens when we’re not truly certain what “we” actually want?
Following this thread of thinking, I happened upon something called mimetic theory, proposed by 20th century French philosophical anthropologist René Girard.… More...
Surrender
At 5:57pm on Wednesday, November 23rd the Moon was New again. I have known about this theme since then and had wanted to post this – but holidays, band gigs, birthdays, and the like happened first. If we are going to reflect on life, it’s important to remember to live it as well!
Last cycle’s theme of Reciprocity was in reaction to the prior cycle’s focus on Wanting. In thinking about Reciprocity, I thought about the acts of Wanting and Receiving, and how being open to Getting what we Give, and Giving what we might wish to Receive, are all gathered in a similar construct. This reminded me of Betty Martin’s “Wheel of Consent” – where the acts of Giving/Taking/Allowing/Receiving are all quadrants in a wheel.… More...
Reciprocity
Wishing a Blessed Samhain to all who celebrate!! At 6:49am last Tuesday the moon was new again, so before morning She will be one quarter full.
The theme last month was Wanting, and in the closing for the post I’d said that “Receiving is contingent on generosity, reciprocity, consent, and a whole variety of other conditions – but the Wanting is solely on us.”
Years ago, after attending a conference, I had thought that I wanted to ‘Make Compassion Contagious’ – so I started an online presence called “Catch Compassion”. It still exists on Facebook and Twitter (for the time being). The philosophy behind it was simple – “Be grateful. Want without expectation. Accept with humility. Love without agenda. Make Compassion Contagious”.… More...
Wanting
At 5:55pm on Sunday evening the moon was New again.
The theme for this past cycle was Integration. After years in programming, I can tell you that one of the trickiest phases in the software development lifecycle was Integration – blending myriad patches with existing code in preparation for release. I don’t think I realized how many different changes were going to be manifest in this integration.
This past cycle saw my first participation in Improv Camp. I’d been using voices and characters to either entertain others or mask myself for years – but this was one of the first times using them intentionally and while being directed. Overall it was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to do it again – but one class in particular moved me.… More...