The point is, this is a learning process, this is life evolution.  The thing which makes me saddest (besides humans hurting other humans, creatures, and the planet) is life and opportunities squandered.  It’s OK to lose your balance, even to fall down.  Quicksand is rare and less dangerous than it sounds.  Sometimes taking a load off your feet and just being, right there on the side of the road, is what’s needed.  Other times, a walking partner provides needed companionship; someone to share the road for awhile.  You can learn a lot from what other people are experiencing.  Sometimes the steps are heavy, the weather is stormy, and the path is rough.  Other days are sunny and you are running or skipping down easy street.  Remember to stop and smell the flowers, or marvel at the power of storm clouds and rain.  Don’t let fear (of failure, of the unknown) stop you in your tracks.  And don’t get caught longing for the end of the rainbow or you miss the beauty and illumination it is offering Right Now.

Baron Baptiste says, “we are either now here, or we are no where.”  That has been an important teaching for me for several years now, but only recently did I slow down enough to realise that “now here” and “no where” are two variations of the same reality.  What a perfect illustration of The Power of Choice.

Yes, money equals power, unfortunately, at this current blip on the path of human consciousness and it takes mind boggling amounts to get elected.  But, what really mattered in this election was our personal experiences.  Concerns about survival (good work, food, shelter, safety, and hope for the future) are affecting a majority of people on this planet, not just the poor and marginalized.  The fundamentals of human, and therefore planetary, life are in need of fresh approaches.

Jeph and I watched a recorded teaching by the Dalai Lama last night.  Much of the session focused on the history of Buddhism (names of places it was taught, teachers, and documents/sections of documents) and I didn’t absorb a lot of that.  What I took away is fairly basic: discourage anger and ignorance (not just the absence of knowledge but also the belief that your knowledge is right) and encourage emptiness (an awareness of the finiteness of material reality and the infinity of the soul.)

As I harness my new found hope for the future (yay!) and do my part to lead us in a positive direction, I will follow that guidance.

This is my reaction to the election results, which I shared with family and friends who I thought would relate.  There are other family and friends who I think would have preferred a different outcome and I hope we can work towards increased understanding and collaboration on all the goals and dreams we do share.

What a great gift we have been given, and it came when we Really Really need it!

Let’s all pick ourselves up off the floor where we’ve been crouching, dust off the fallout of 8 loooooooooooooong years, envision a country we can be proud of (and the world can respect) again, and DO SOME GOOD for each other, our communities, and the people and creatures across the globe who need and deserve to be raised up.

No politician/no human is perfect, and Obama is not a god, but he offers commitment to positive change and hope for a brighter future.  A class act, and what a classy first family!  How wonderful to be inspired by words that are spoken with eloquence and true passion.  I look forward to not turning off the tv or radio every time our administration speaks, but rather listening with interest.

“Two wars, a planet in peril, and the worst financial crisis in a century.”  Things are a mess all over.  It will probably get worse before it gets better.  The good stuff in life is rarely easy, though, and inspiring leadership along with actively engaged citizens will go along way towards guiding us on the journey.

I just jumped up and down and did some jumping jacks and it felt great.

Let’s cultivate kindness.  Let’s question reality.  Let’s write a good chapter.

I’m happy to be alive at this moment,

Dorothy

I wrote this back in February ‘07, several months after the concept of e-volvedliving emerged.

***

Starting in my teens I’ve written about my life in a blank book of one form or another which I carry around with me whenever I’m out and about. Over the years, though, the responsibilities of life have grown and the time for sitting down and thinking/writing has shrunk. As that time has decreased it has become more valuable to me. What is most beneficial for me to write about with the time I have? And beyond just the issue of time, what purpose does the act of writing serve?

Along the way I’ve started thinking about the output of these sessions – the words on the page. There is a box I carry around each time we move, keeping it close to my desk, full of those books of words about my life. I don’t venture into it often, but what a treasurehouse; those words describe my evolution during it’s most rapid phases – the teens and twenties – where each day and my purpose on this planet were huge mysteries. Existence will always be mysterious, that is the challenge and joy of life, but snugly into my thirties now, I am interested more in what is succeeding and failing in the world, my impact upon it, and taking actions to improve it and design a life in harmony with it. The purpose for my writing is to research, explore, and document these themes. But it doesn’t feel worthy of my time anymore if the words just collect in another blank book which will end up in the box by my desk.

As I’ve grown I’ve become more and more aware of the challenges facing planet earth, the critical choices/opportunities given human beings, and my limited time to make wise choices/take wise action and learn from the unwise ones. These themes are universal and it behooves me, as a creature of the universe, to share what I learn, and engage others in the exploration. That is what I have arrived at after all these years of words on a page.

This is not a selfless pursuit, though. I’m not sure I believe anything is. If we don’t understand, center, and take care of ourselves, how can we really embrace life, and be of service to others? In that regard the biggest challenge and necessity for me has always been to have my work – my livelihood – and my life be intimately connected and on the same path. That requires, and also affords, the freedom and independence to focus on what really matters. (It’s like the chicken and the egg – you can’t have one without the other.)

So, I am taking the words to my laptop because from there they can move to the web and be shared with others. The web is also a great vehicle for conducting research and connecting with global communities; not a substitution for seeing/experiencing/interacting, just a complementary method.