Thanksgiving Day ...
Well, always ones to do our own thing, today we fasted. Thanksgiving in the USA has become (seemingly) about over-indulgence - the expectation is to eat too much, sit around too much, watch too much TV, etc. By fasting, we are reminding ourselves of what to be grateful for - as the sudden absence of something (a partner, a paycheck, a home, a meal ...) is far more likely to encourage gratitude for what you had, and, if you get it back, have again, than gratuitously and greedily over-indulging. Of course, it will therefore comes as no surprise that we also completely avoid the other Thanksgiving 'tradition' of shopping. We celebrate Buy Nothing Day on Friday. We propose an Eat Nothing Day for Thursday. Stay tuned to that idea - it might just catch on. How about giving all the money that we spend on the huge Thanksgiving meal to the poor, to feeding the children in developing countries. Now that might just make us more thankful.....
We were further reminded of this on our drive to Birch Bay this morning when our car suddenly broke down along a country road .... plans for our usual beach side ritual were abandoned and AAA was on its way ... when we got the car started again! And yes, we were grateful. That's exactly what we mean. Grateful for the lessons too.
Our dreams are closer to fruition from today. Our life is changing again. Magic is in the air. Yes, today we are grateful (but hungry!).....
.....
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child, listen to the don'ts - listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts - listen to the never haves, then listen close to me. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be." (Shel Silverstein)
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Burning Fires and Argy-Bargy
This week it was time to sh** or get off the pot. After quite a few weeks of laying low, meditating, and contemplating on the best way to move forward in our passions and dreams, we’ve reached a point where something has to actually be done. Only so much time can be spent on plotting and planning before the impetus for change that has been sparked inside begins to burn so hot you have to do something. This can present itself in many forms: frustration, confusion, big fat argy-bargy arguments, etc. But, we moved through all that business and… we do have a plan for our next step, and we do have a solid start to a vision for the more distant future. You will have to stay tuned, though, because it is top secret at this point in time.
Evan continues to study. Andy continues to volunteer. And we both continue our spiritual work with Caroline Myss’ books. Our presentation this past Thursday went brilliantly. We raised a bit of money for Seeing Hands Nepal, and we gained really valuable experience in presenting. People were more interested than we expected and seemed really appreciative of what we’d done. Thanks so much to those of you who were able to come and support us, and thanks for the good wishes. We hope to do more presentations to raise awareness and funds, so if you’ve any ideas who might like to hear it, let us know.
This Thursday is a special day for those of us in the U.S. It is Thanksgiving. This is a holiday which seems to us to have lost much thankfulness… it seems more about food. So in addition to our traditional ritual and hike on Thursday, we will be fasting and contemplating gratitude. Additionally, as one thing Evan has been studying is his Native heritage, it is important to remind people it isn’t a particularly bright time for all Americans but perhaps can be used in a positive way now.
…..
“In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.” (Aaron Rose)
Evan continues to study. Andy continues to volunteer. And we both continue our spiritual work with Caroline Myss’ books. Our presentation this past Thursday went brilliantly. We raised a bit of money for Seeing Hands Nepal, and we gained really valuable experience in presenting. People were more interested than we expected and seemed really appreciative of what we’d done. Thanks so much to those of you who were able to come and support us, and thanks for the good wishes. We hope to do more presentations to raise awareness and funds, so if you’ve any ideas who might like to hear it, let us know.
This Thursday is a special day for those of us in the U.S. It is Thanksgiving. This is a holiday which seems to us to have lost much thankfulness… it seems more about food. So in addition to our traditional ritual and hike on Thursday, we will be fasting and contemplating gratitude. Additionally, as one thing Evan has been studying is his Native heritage, it is important to remind people it isn’t a particularly bright time for all Americans but perhaps can be used in a positive way now.
…..
“In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.” (Aaron Rose)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Small Things, and Why We Don't Have Cable TV
Another week …. And we’re still working on where we are heading. We have been busy trying to get all the boring, got to be done projects out the way by the end of the year so we can start some serious work in January on some big, long term projects. This has been a bit frustrating at times, as we are used to moving on to the exciting stuff, not raking leaves and fixing leaks… However, clearing our plates of some of these projects will be very helpful.
Personal development continues – we are both working in different books by Caroline Myss, and Andy has been studying more ideas on simplifying our lives. Less spending = need less money = work less (or save more). His current books du jour are “Radical Simplicity” by Jim Merkel and “Getting A Grip” by Frances Moore Lappe. People often ask how we can afford all these round the world trips that we take, and seem skeptical when we tell them how, and also how they could just as easily be doing it. We don’t spend much money the rest of the time! For example, we don’t have TV. (Well, in truth there is an old Walmart TV from the mid 90’s unplugged in a cupboard ….) – so what we should say is we don’t have cable TV and we don’t watch TV (except for the occasional Project Runway at a friend’s house). Not only is that a huge savings, but more importantly we are not exposed to all the advertisements that convince us to shop and buy more stuff. The average American watches 5 hours of TV a day and is exposed to around 40,000 commercials a year (Merkel). We don’t watch TV – that’s 40,000 things we have not been persuaded to think about buying …. The cost of basic cable for a year is a return ticket to Europe. It’s an easy choice for us.
A chunk of time this week has also been devoted to the presentation on Thursday, so that we can do a good job to let others know about the good work Seeing Hands Nepal is doing, and also our work with the orphanages, especially Rainbow Children’s Home.
Andy has committed to return to running races again … but no more marathons as the knees may not take it! So a ½ marathon instead … in Florida in February. He’s started training this week. Wish him luck!!
……….
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. Life is too short to be small.” (Benjamin Disrali)
Personal development continues – we are both working in different books by Caroline Myss, and Andy has been studying more ideas on simplifying our lives. Less spending = need less money = work less (or save more). His current books du jour are “Radical Simplicity” by Jim Merkel and “Getting A Grip” by Frances Moore Lappe. People often ask how we can afford all these round the world trips that we take, and seem skeptical when we tell them how, and also how they could just as easily be doing it. We don’t spend much money the rest of the time! For example, we don’t have TV. (Well, in truth there is an old Walmart TV from the mid 90’s unplugged in a cupboard ….) – so what we should say is we don’t have cable TV and we don’t watch TV (except for the occasional Project Runway at a friend’s house). Not only is that a huge savings, but more importantly we are not exposed to all the advertisements that convince us to shop and buy more stuff. The average American watches 5 hours of TV a day and is exposed to around 40,000 commercials a year (Merkel). We don’t watch TV – that’s 40,000 things we have not been persuaded to think about buying …. The cost of basic cable for a year is a return ticket to Europe. It’s an easy choice for us.
A chunk of time this week has also been devoted to the presentation on Thursday, so that we can do a good job to let others know about the good work Seeing Hands Nepal is doing, and also our work with the orphanages, especially Rainbow Children’s Home.
Andy has committed to return to running races again … but no more marathons as the knees may not take it! So a ½ marathon instead … in Florida in February. He’s started training this week. Wish him luck!!
……….
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. Life is too short to be small.” (Benjamin Disrali)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Surviving vs. Thriving
Before we forget:
From The Himalayas to Blind Massage : A Nepal Volunteering Adventure
A slide show presentation by Evan Meyers, LMP & Andy Griffiths, OTR/L
Thursday, November 19, 2009; 7 – 9 pm; Bellingham Public Library Meeting Room
(Parks and Recreation Travelogue Series; requested $2 donation)
We had some great news this week from Seeing Hands Nepal – all the students we worked with have now passed their final practical and academic exams, and are qualified massage therapists. This has occurred just at the right time as the clinic is now recommended in the latest Lonely Planet guide book, and clients are soaring. We were also pleased to hear of the unexpected increase in the number of local (Nepali and long term volunteers/ex-pats) who are also visiting the clinic – something that we had worked hard to try and establish when we were there.
Personally, we have been working on the theme of imprisonment (self-imposed)…. It is quite a surprise to us that we are not only surviving, but thriving (if we let ourselves), under our recent changes. Embracing simple living and frugality principles, we are more than able to pay all our bills (including a mortgage), save money and still go on trips (Florida in January!) while only working 2 – 3 days a week each. While this is very exciting, it also brings to mind two big questions – What have we been doing all this time? and … What do we do now? It is both a luxury and a challenge to feel this free. Yeah … we don’t expect any sympathy!!! But what we mean is that for so long we have been trained to do the usual routine of work-spend-work, that when we are free of that to a greater extent, it is unclear what to do next… The best way to explain it is when you hear about a prisoner who is released after years of being in prison … and how they don’t have any idea what to do once they are free. You hear that many end up reoffending and going back inside – if not freedom, at least there is safety……
Something to think about.
……
“Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.” (Maya Angelou)
From The Himalayas to Blind Massage : A Nepal Volunteering Adventure
A slide show presentation by Evan Meyers, LMP & Andy Griffiths, OTR/L
Thursday, November 19, 2009; 7 – 9 pm; Bellingham Public Library Meeting Room
(Parks and Recreation Travelogue Series; requested $2 donation)
We had some great news this week from Seeing Hands Nepal – all the students we worked with have now passed their final practical and academic exams, and are qualified massage therapists. This has occurred just at the right time as the clinic is now recommended in the latest Lonely Planet guide book, and clients are soaring. We were also pleased to hear of the unexpected increase in the number of local (Nepali and long term volunteers/ex-pats) who are also visiting the clinic – something that we had worked hard to try and establish when we were there.
Personally, we have been working on the theme of imprisonment (self-imposed)…. It is quite a surprise to us that we are not only surviving, but thriving (if we let ourselves), under our recent changes. Embracing simple living and frugality principles, we are more than able to pay all our bills (including a mortgage), save money and still go on trips (Florida in January!) while only working 2 – 3 days a week each. While this is very exciting, it also brings to mind two big questions – What have we been doing all this time? and … What do we do now? It is both a luxury and a challenge to feel this free. Yeah … we don’t expect any sympathy!!! But what we mean is that for so long we have been trained to do the usual routine of work-spend-work, that when we are free of that to a greater extent, it is unclear what to do next… The best way to explain it is when you hear about a prisoner who is released after years of being in prison … and how they don’t have any idea what to do once they are free. You hear that many end up reoffending and going back inside – if not freedom, at least there is safety……
Something to think about.
……
“Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.” (Maya Angelou)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Balance.... it's more difficult than it looks
Well, we are in fact here typing rather than racing around the country in our new Beemer. However, the huge ego counterattack wasn’t totally off the mark. As we delve into the depths of making true changes in the way we live, our brains and egos do indeed get a bit confused and start to panic. According to Caroline Myss, a revered author on matters of the spirit, this sort of crisis is common when trying to move forward in a life that is more grounded in one’s purpose.
Right in line with this, we continue to struggle with finding the balance between time spent relaxing/reading/meditating and time spent working/studying/volunteering. We have had many long discussions this week about the confusing and frustrating feelings we are having and so we have revisited the structure we have given to our lives (we find putting our daily activities in a schedule form is really empowering). We are playing with shifting the balance in different ways between how much of our day is spent on more mundane tasks verses exciting ones. We expect this will be ever changing but hope to get it to a place that is more stable than not.
The talking does help as does reminding each other of the things we are learning/have learned from our favorite authors. So with this in process, we continue to develop and evolve our goals and our dreams, and once they are more solidly understood in our hearts, we’ll share some of them on the blog. Andy continues his volunteering and, while enjoying both projects, feels particularly at peace when walking the dogs at the Humane Society. Evan continues his learning and is fascinated at present with anthropology and sociology- especially how different people relate to the Divine and what themes are present throughout cultures and time. He believes this interest will develop at some point into a service project that fits well with the other dreams and goals we are pursuing. We are presenting at a lecture series on travel on November 19: “From the Himalayas to Blind Massage, a Nepal Volunteering Adventure,” and getting all our slides together on the computer is taking way more work than we thought…. This will be another major activity this week. Hopefully we can drum up some support for Seeing Hands. If anyone is in the Bellingham area and would like to come, it is at the downtown library at 7pm.
Assuming all goes well… no computer meltdowns (or breakage due to being thrown out a window etc.)… no Beemers… or leather pants… or rapture into some transcendental oblivion… we fully intend to have yet another glorious and fantastic update for you next week. Love to all of you!
……
“It amazes me how often people use that phrase: ‘find the right life.’ Would you walk into your kitchen hoping to find the right fried egg, the right cup of coffee, the right toast? Such things don’t simply appear before you; they arrive because you rummage around, figure out what’s available, and make what you want.” (Martha Beck)
Right in line with this, we continue to struggle with finding the balance between time spent relaxing/reading/meditating and time spent working/studying/volunteering. We have had many long discussions this week about the confusing and frustrating feelings we are having and so we have revisited the structure we have given to our lives (we find putting our daily activities in a schedule form is really empowering). We are playing with shifting the balance in different ways between how much of our day is spent on more mundane tasks verses exciting ones. We expect this will be ever changing but hope to get it to a place that is more stable than not.
The talking does help as does reminding each other of the things we are learning/have learned from our favorite authors. So with this in process, we continue to develop and evolve our goals and our dreams, and once they are more solidly understood in our hearts, we’ll share some of them on the blog. Andy continues his volunteering and, while enjoying both projects, feels particularly at peace when walking the dogs at the Humane Society. Evan continues his learning and is fascinated at present with anthropology and sociology- especially how different people relate to the Divine and what themes are present throughout cultures and time. He believes this interest will develop at some point into a service project that fits well with the other dreams and goals we are pursuing. We are presenting at a lecture series on travel on November 19: “From the Himalayas to Blind Massage, a Nepal Volunteering Adventure,” and getting all our slides together on the computer is taking way more work than we thought…. This will be another major activity this week. Hopefully we can drum up some support for Seeing Hands. If anyone is in the Bellingham area and would like to come, it is at the downtown library at 7pm.
Assuming all goes well… no computer meltdowns (or breakage due to being thrown out a window etc.)… no Beemers… or leather pants… or rapture into some transcendental oblivion… we fully intend to have yet another glorious and fantastic update for you next week. Love to all of you!
……
“It amazes me how often people use that phrase: ‘find the right life.’ Would you walk into your kitchen hoping to find the right fried egg, the right cup of coffee, the right toast? Such things don’t simply appear before you; they arrive because you rummage around, figure out what’s available, and make what you want.” (Martha Beck)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Why we are saying NO to the BMW and leather pants option
Strangely, (yes, … surprisingly so …) it has taken a little time to get used to not working so much. We have had to stop ourselves getting busy, perhaps just out of habit. This week, we both felt like we were really beginning to relax into this slower paced schedule. However, what we have noticed is that with all this extra time there is a lot of room to think …. Something that can be a bit uncomfortable …. Questions like ‘What are we actually doing? … going to do?’ come up. It brings up some of those hidden fears about life and one’s place in it all. Stuff that, as Westerners, we are trained not to think about.
And so, we are sitting, we are talking, and just trying to get more comfortable with these feelings. It seems to us that our culture trains us to look to go somewhere, buy something, do something to get that neuro-peptide fix to take that feeling away. The key to us seems to be to do the opposite of what we are trained to do. So, sometimes we are just ‘be-ing’, keeping on, and seeing where we end up.
So, with these thoughts in mind, we told our estate agent this week to take our house of the market – we are staying put for now. We had thought that we would not be able to travel as freely with a house (versus a condo) – but for 3+ months of this year we have been overseas with no more hassle than some significant lawn mowing and weeding to do on our return. We do really like the peace around our home and how much nature is all about us. Andy has been volunteering at both the Whatcom Humane Society (walking, training and playing with dogs) and at the Whatcom Literacy Council teaching a class on basic reading and writing skills. Evan has been focusing more on learning and education. We have also been integrating more of the information we learnt from Caroline Myss at the workshop in Seattle and from her books – tricky stuff like trying to stop our egos! And sometimes they don’t want to be stopped ….
More next week, assuming our egos haven’t mounted a huge counterattack and we are too busy to blog because we are racing around the country in our new convertible BMWs, in Donna Karan leather pants, sipping on lattes ……
…….
“He who asks questions is always learning.” (Chinese Proverb)
And so, we are sitting, we are talking, and just trying to get more comfortable with these feelings. It seems to us that our culture trains us to look to go somewhere, buy something, do something to get that neuro-peptide fix to take that feeling away. The key to us seems to be to do the opposite of what we are trained to do. So, sometimes we are just ‘be-ing’, keeping on, and seeing where we end up.
So, with these thoughts in mind, we told our estate agent this week to take our house of the market – we are staying put for now. We had thought that we would not be able to travel as freely with a house (versus a condo) – but for 3+ months of this year we have been overseas with no more hassle than some significant lawn mowing and weeding to do on our return. We do really like the peace around our home and how much nature is all about us. Andy has been volunteering at both the Whatcom Humane Society (walking, training and playing with dogs) and at the Whatcom Literacy Council teaching a class on basic reading and writing skills. Evan has been focusing more on learning and education. We have also been integrating more of the information we learnt from Caroline Myss at the workshop in Seattle and from her books – tricky stuff like trying to stop our egos! And sometimes they don’t want to be stopped ….
More next week, assuming our egos haven’t mounted a huge counterattack and we are too busy to blog because we are racing around the country in our new convertible BMWs, in Donna Karan leather pants, sipping on lattes ……
…….
“He who asks questions is always learning.” (Chinese Proverb)
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Where the road leads ....
This week was a lot of work! In our experience, when you want to make a big change, it can tend to bring up our darker sides, bringing you to a period of growth and development that is not always easy. In some traditions, this is known as a dark night – the period of time where the challenges are in front of you, and it is no longer easy to see the light. It is a time of faith and courage. We both found it hard to connect with our lighter side when confronted with work routines and the troubles that can come with our fast paced culture. It can be easy to take on too much, and to return to the frenetic pace of doing before you have even realized what is going on. By remaining on our path, and keeping the ‘faith’, we have been able to stay true to what we have wanted to do. We have really focused on taking more time, and because of that have been spending more time in our home and in the area we live – finding a fabulous park today we didn’t even know existed after 4 years here – and we found it because of finally following a road that Andy had noticed for years, and wondered where it lead – well today we went to find out and ended up in a beautiful fall walk around a serene and peaceful lake. A road less travelled indeed!
We have been devoting time to really developing our specific goals as a couple. We have both individually been using a model for creating and achieving our own goals, but from our time in Chile it seemed like a good idea to take it to the next level, and start dreaming even bigger and together. The core of the program that we use is presented by life coach Marcia Wieder. So, this week we got down and dirty with our medium and long term goals, and in creating goals to achieve our dreams in different areas, including travel, professional, international, financial and relationship areas. This takes time, as the dreams should be well written to really make us both feel excited and passionate. By the end of the week, we felt we had achieved that, and are ready to move onto the next stage now.
…..
“For the longest time I couldn’t even touch this food because it was such a masterpiece of lunch, a true expression of the art of making something out of nothing. Finally, when I had fully absorbed the prettiness of my meal, I went and sat in a patch of sunbeam on my clean wooden floor and ate every bite of it, with my fingers, while reading my daily newspaper article in Italian. Happiness inhabited my every molecule. … ‘So this is what you gave up everything for?...For a few stalks of asparagus and an Italian newspaper?’ … yes.”
(Elizabeth Gilbert – Eat Pray Love)
We have been devoting time to really developing our specific goals as a couple. We have both individually been using a model for creating and achieving our own goals, but from our time in Chile it seemed like a good idea to take it to the next level, and start dreaming even bigger and together. The core of the program that we use is presented by life coach Marcia Wieder. So, this week we got down and dirty with our medium and long term goals, and in creating goals to achieve our dreams in different areas, including travel, professional, international, financial and relationship areas. This takes time, as the dreams should be well written to really make us both feel excited and passionate. By the end of the week, we felt we had achieved that, and are ready to move onto the next stage now.
…..
“For the longest time I couldn’t even touch this food because it was such a masterpiece of lunch, a true expression of the art of making something out of nothing. Finally, when I had fully absorbed the prettiness of my meal, I went and sat in a patch of sunbeam on my clean wooden floor and ate every bite of it, with my fingers, while reading my daily newspaper article in Italian. Happiness inhabited my every molecule. … ‘So this is what you gave up everything for?...For a few stalks of asparagus and an Italian newspaper?’ … yes.”
(Elizabeth Gilbert – Eat Pray Love)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
