Month: March 2012

Frequently What Passes As Common Fact

/ James Browning

On occasion I find myself daydreaming about living in a different time; a simpler time as I perceive it to be. It is then my romanticized thoughts often drift to the mental imagery I have of the Victorian era of 120-150 years ago.

Many of my favorite poets and writers lived then.  To a large degree it is through their work my thoughts about that ‘old time’ have been created.  However, I often forget those authors were among the priviledged, if not wealthy.  Their time of the “Victorians” was a grand one of change and invention such as the telephone, radio, toilet, camera, train, vacuum cleaner and sewing machine (but only the very rich could afford them).

There were some curious and odd beliefs then. For example, If a single Victorian man called another single woman by her first name, it implied engagement. When a woman entered a room, it was considered rude for a man to offer his seat to her because the cushion might still be warm. For a lady to show her ankles was considered very risqué!

People thought food digested better in the dark, so a dining room located in the basement was considered the best spot in which to eat during Victorian years. A glance by a visitor into a bedroom was considered improper, so bedrooms were usually located on the second floor. Toilets were always stealthily hidden behind walls and/or curtains and it was considered grossly impolite to ask to use the bathroom when visiting another’s home.

And another little oddity: The Victorians began keeping Hedgehogs in their basements in an effort to control insects. The little things curled up and slept during the daytime, but roamed around dark kitchens at night eating cockroaches and other insects.

To shake me fully out of a fantasy world there are the Victorian health concerns such as Tuberculosis, called “consumption”; the main killer of the time along with rampant pneumonia, influenza and diarrhea. To make matters worse the poor or sick were often sent to harsh institutions called a poorhouse or workhouse.

And to make sure I have returned to reality, the following are all true facts about life in the United States in the early 1900’s just after the Victorian Period:
– The average life expectancy was 47 years.
– 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
– 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. 3 minute call from Denver to NYC cost $11.
– 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved roads. Max speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
– Average wage was 22 cents per hour. Average worker $200-$400 per year.
– 95 percent of all births took place at home. 90% doctors had no college education
– Sugar cost 4 cents a pound, eggs 14 cents a dozen and coffee was 15 cents a pound.
– Most women washed their hair once a month with borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
– 2 of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write. Only 6 percent graduated high school.
– Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local drugstore including Bayer’s heroin, Metcalf coca wine, opium for asthma, cocaine tablets and drops.

All of a sudden everyday simple things mean a lot more. Just a few minutes ago I made a roundtrip to the kitchen where I flipped on the lights to get another cup of coffee from my automatic coffee maker, then moved the hallway furnace thermostat up a couple of degrees and stopped for a bathroom pit stop on my way back to my office. Very quickly Victorian life seems very challenging and difficult as compared to now. Already being eleven years past the average life expectancy of 100 years it is impossible not to stumble across gratitude for the time my life is being lived.

The good old days are never as good as they are reminisced to be…NOT EVER!  Time has a way of hiding away the jagged and sharp edges while keeping mostly the smooth and inviting parts.  Frequently what passes as common fact is actually only myth. Instead of wishing for what is long past, I choose instead to be grateful for the time of my life. One day, many will look back and wish they could have lived in my here and now.

In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful,
but gratefulness that makes us happy.
Brother David Steindl-Rast

Right Outside Your Door

/ James Browning / 3 Comments

Life unfolds in the present. But so often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what’s past. “We’re living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, decoherence,” says Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace. We’re always doing something, and we allow little time to practice stillness and calm.

When we’re at work, we fantasize about being on vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don’t appreciate the living present because our “monkey minds,” as Buddhists call them, vault from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree.

Most of us don’t undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us. “Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall,” writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biomedical scientist who introduced meditation into mainstream medicine. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current, to pause, and, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, to “rest in stillness—to stop doing and focus on just being.”

We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.   From a “Psychology Today” article By Jay Dixit November 01, 2008 link

“True Joy” by M. Jolynn Rawson-Hunt
I’ll be happy once I’ve done this certain thing.
We all say this often not realizing what it brings.
We look only to the future for our happiness.
Letting life slip through our fingers in its fullness.
Will we really feel complete when the task is done,
or look back and see how we missed so much fun?
Self consumed so we can’t see anything else,
hurting those we love as well as ourselves.
So many things around us to be grateful for,
when seeking for an answer willingly open the door.
So often, others see what’s in front of our face,
but we’re too blind to look as we’re snared in the race.
What is this life supposed to be about?
Is it money, fortune, fame, or a big house?
When speaking to a man on his dying bed,
none of these answers are what he said.
Family, love, laughter are what we should seek.
These are the precious things right outside your door.

Trying to be fully present in the “now” is a battle regularly fought and I am grateful for any reminder that brings me more fully to “this moment”.  Frequently I drift into the “stinkin’ thinkin'” about the past or present, but find more quickly than ever I can snap back into the now.  All I have to do is be mindful of what I am doing and reset myself.  I am grateful for the path I have walked and am still on, that moves me ever so slowly to being more and more fully present in the “now”.

Waste not fresh tears over old grief’s.
Euripides

To Go Somewhere Without Moving

/ James Browning

Pressed for time with the hour or so unavailable I usually spend on “Good Morning Gratitude” included here today are two favorite love letters. One by a man who was President written to a woman almost as well-known (President Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan); another by a woman known only by a single name (Maribella) to someone completely unknown. Open your heart and feel the love.

Letter #1

Dear First Lady,

I know tradition has it that on this morning I place cards Happy Anniversary cards on your breakfast tray. But things are somewhat mixed up. I substituted a gift & delivered it a few weeks ago.

Still this is the day; the day that marks 31 years of such happiness as comes to few men. I told you once that it was like an adolescent’s dream of what marriage should be like. That hasn’t changed.

You know I love the ranch but these last two days made it plain I only love it when you are there. Come to think of it that’s true of every place & every time. When you aren’t there I’m no place, just lost in time & space.

I more than love you; I’m not whole without you. You are life itself to me. When you are gone I’m waiting for you to return so I can start living again.

Happy Anniversary & thank you for 31 wonderful years. I love you.

Your Grateful Husband

Letter #2

Darling,

We have gone through many hard times together. We have been through the difficulties of our relationship and we even came to a point of almost losing each other because we got tired of each other’s weaknesses and shortcomings.

I thank God; we were able to make things right between the two of us. We learned how to deal our differences in a proper way. We learned to listen to each other and we became sensitive to each other’s needs.

Now look at the two of us, we are still here and getting stronger as time goes by. We are enjoying each other’s company and making each day special by showing our love and care in a very special way.

Sometimes, when I come to think of what we have been through before and how we have dealt our problems. I cannot help myself but to laugh at it because we were like children fighting over petty things and made it such a very big deal until it blown out of proportion.

However, I am very thankful ’cause we have grown so much. We have become more mature in handling our faults and our shortcomings. It would have been my greatest mistake if I did let you go and let go of our love.

I promise to continue to love you more each day.

Maribella

I am grateful for a mind that can conceive words together to express loving sentiment and the ability to write them down. I am thankful for the love letters of others who touch my heart, inspire my mind and remind me of the multifaceted angles of loving another.

To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere
without moving anything but your heart.
Phyllis Theroux

Beauty Seen Is Never Lost

/ James Browning

Last year near sundown the day after Christmas I witnessed an incredible sunset. This morning something I wrote about that stunning spectacle just hours after witnessing it was discovered.  Through one good photograph taken with my phone while driving and the four paragraphs below, he beautiful memory is fully awake within this morning. 

It is late afternoon and near the end of a 750 miles road trip.  My friend and I are heading to visit my son in Boulder and are about 50 miles outside Denver, Colorado.  The mountains are due west directly in front of us.
 
Near the horizon in front and on both sides of my car, a spectacular display of wind shaped clouds is underway.  Strips of shredded yellow torn from clouds fill the sky almost to the horizon.  Above, the depth of the reds is so striking it appears surreal. The light of the ending day strongly accents the long furrows in the clouds enriching the reds and yellows as the clouds evolve and change in the wind. 
 
The wind is strong and the clouds are changing quickly.  To the south, long thin strips of red have been blown and tangled together.  A large oblong cloud without noticeable texture lies just above.  To the north there is less light from the fading sun and darkness is reaching there first. 
 
Within only a few minutes the sun has become a large half-circle directly in front view.  The big red ball is fast disappearing; turning the sky a deeper and deeper burgundy as the sun’s departure nears completion.

Sunsets happen every day and probably because they are so common people hardly notice the beauty of them most of the time.  On-line I found a short piece written by Kimbaline Navas of Ft.Collins, Colorado. The feeling she writes about of a sundown over water describes near perfectly how the memory of my late December sunset touches me. 

I close my eyes and I can vision my sunset laid across the water with clouds gently placed on top. 

The yellow is so bright that it consumes my thoughts I fall deeper into the colors of the sun so that I could touch the orange glow; what a soft feeling; my sunset.

My sunset takes me to another place and time where there will be no problem too tall to overcome. This vision is imbedded in my mind; it is like a river running free; a clear thought on a sunny day and it ends with my sunset and me.

My sunset frees my thoughts from confusion; it leads me to believe that I am on top of the world; setting me free to scourer over the waters of my mind.

My sunset places me in a part of heaven where the day comes to an end with the beauty of my sunset.

From John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1876 poem “Sunset On The Bearcamp”:
…beauty seen is never lost,
God’s colors all are fast;
The glory of this sunset heaven
Into my soul has passed,
A sense of gladness unconfined
To mortal date or clime;
As the soul liveth, it shall live
Beyond the years of time.

…I shall see a summer sun
Still setting broad and low;
The mountain slopes shall blush and bloom,
The golden water flow.
A lover’s claim is mine on all
I see to have and hold,–
The rose-light of perpetual hills,
And sunsets never cold!

Whittier expresses a gratitude that I find to be a near match for the thankfulness felt for the sunsets I remember, especially my cherished Colorado sundown of a few months ago. 

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
Places to play in and pray in,
Where nature may heal
And give strength to body and soul.
John Muir

How Good Can It Get?

/ James Browning

Rejection is protection is a quote I read for the first time yesterday.  Those three words stunned me with their simplicity and truth.  Never has such a thought occurred in my thinking.  Maybe I just wasn’t ready to see the wisdom.

The word ‘reject’ previously always had a negative meaning. I never considered before that being cast off or discarded might have a sliver lining.  The possibility that rejection could be for my own benefit, NEVER occurred to me.  Oh, I played pretend quite a few times saying “things always work out for the best”… yada, yada, yada.  Rarely was such expressed with a belief what I was saying was fully true.

It was yesterday while reading Alan Cohen’s latest release “How Good Can It Get” (originally published in 2004 as “Mr. Everitt’s Secret”) that my previous way of seeing was challenged and expanded.  Still today those simple three words are ringing in my head as I wrap my thoughts around it.  “Rejection is protection” is a game changer for me. 

In “Lesson 10” of Cohen’s book is found:  People think there is one mate, or one house, or one job they must have, and if they don’t get it, they are ruined.  That’s ridiculous!  No one person, place, or company is the source of your good.  Life is the source of your good, and it has ingenious ways to deliver everything you need.  The game board is much bigger than you realize. 

Admittedly there are still sharp feelings about rejections of the not too distant past such as an unwanted divorce and being fired from a long-time job. While well beyond what happened, there is yet to form any idea of precisely what I was being protected from.  In accepting the truth to be found in “rejection is protection” I am hopeful in time the good will become apparent. 

Thinking back there are examples about positives than can come from rejection. I remember twenty plus years ago when I was rejected after eight months from a position I had worked toward for over a decade.  The result was a much better job that allowed me to achieve success beyond anything I could have imagined.  The company that rejected me was sold and went through massive change within months of my departure.  I was protected from all that.

Being rejected when in my 20’s by a girlfriend who was two-timing her fiancé to be with me was a blessing.  Although it hurt like hell at the time within a few months I met a woman who I spent over two decades of my life with.  We married and had a wonderful son together. Looking back it’s easy to see I was protected from an unfaithful woman who probably would have not have been disloyal to me. 

It seems the longer ago being rejected happened; the more apparent the “protection” angle is to grasp.  Seeing “rejection is protection” within happenings of the last five years or so is just darn difficult. 

Another chapter in “How Good Can It Get” threw a further challenge toward another thought etched deeply into my brain.  Since my teen years I have believed struggle and difficulty is how lessons are best learned (NO PAIN, NO GAIN!).  A revealing  light was flashed on my previously accepted narrow truth as I read: Sure, you learn from pain, but you also learn from ease and fun – sometimes even more effectively.  When you are learning to ride a bike, you learn from falling off, but you learn just as much – maybe more – when you stay balanced and enjoy the ride.  Pain has a purpose, but it is highly overrated as a teaching device.  If you pay attention to internal signals and external feedback, life won’t need a two-by-four to get your attention. 

WOW!  That caused a deeply set belief to have an almost instant revision made to it.  With opened eyes it is without doubt I accept that being taught by painful experiences is only one way of learning.  Being in the now, accepting the good coming to me, enjoying experiences as they happen and savoring happiness are highly instructive ways of learning. 

In the past I never gave much credence to “the good stuff” being good to learn from.  I am glad to add a widened way of seeing through my kaleidoscope view of life.  This morning I am grateful for the unexpected lessons gained from Alan Cohen’s book and the power beyond me that brought the book into my life.

The only real measure of success is happiness. 
Alan Cohen

Thanks For Your Time

/ James Browning

A message was in my email this morning from a dear friend I have known for 35 years.  Even though we have not lived in the same city for close to 30 years we have used phone calls, emails and occasional visits to keep our friendship intact.  Bob spent decades working in the entertainment industry including some years as road manager for John Mellencamp.  This morning he sent me a story I have seen many times and while I always found it meaningful, this is the first time it had a dinsinctively personal meaning to me. 

James, my friend Bob’s son, has followed in his father’s footsteps and works as a sound technician for a major country act called Lady Antebellum.  Bob sent the story below as thanks to me for spending time with his son.  The tour James works on was in town rehearsing and performing at our big arena.  Like his Father, James is a good man and I am proud to have known him he was born. 

Over the phone, his mother told him, “Mr. Belser died last night. The funeral is Wednesday.” Memories flashed through his mind like an old newsreel as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days.  “Jack, did you hear me?” 

“Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. It’s been so long since I thought of him. I’m sorry, but I honestly thought he died years ago,” Jack said. 

“Well, he didn’t forget you. Every time I saw him he’d ask how you were doing. He’d reminisce about the many days you spent over ‘his side of the fence’ as he put it,” Mom told him.  “I loved that old house he lived in,” Jack said.

“You know, Jack, after your father died, Mr. Belser stepped in to make sure you had a man’s influence in your life,” she said.  “He’s the one who taught me carpentry,” he said. “I wouldn’t be in this business if it weren’t for him. He spent a lot of time teaching me things he thought were important. Mom, I’ll be there for the funeral,” Jack said.

As busy as he was, he kept his word. Jack caught the next flight to his hometown. Mr. Belser’s funeral was small and uneventful. He had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away.

The night before he had to return home, Jack and his Mom stopped to see the old house next door; one more time.  Standing in the doorway, Jack paused for a moment. It was like crossing over into another dimension, a leap through space and time. The house was
exactly as he remembered. Every step held memories; every picture, every piece of furniture. Jack stopped suddenly.  “What’s wrong, Jack?” his Mom asked. 

“The box is gone,” he said

“What box?” Mom asked.

“There was a small gold box that he kept locked on top of his desk. I must have asked him a thousand times what was inside. All he’d ever tell me was ‘the thing I value most” Jack said.  It was gone. Everything about the house was exactly how Jack remembered it,
except for the box. He figured someone from the Belser family had taken it.

“Now I’ll never know what was so valuable to him,” Jack said. “I better get some sleep. I have an early flight home, Mom.”

It had been about two weeks since Mr. Belser died. Returning home from work one day Jack discovered a note in his mailbox. “Signature required on a package. No one at home. Please stop by the main post office within the next three days,” the note read. Early the next day Jack retrieved the package. The small box was old and looked like it had been mailed a hundred years ago. The handwriting was difficult to read, but the sender caught his attention:  Mr. Harold Belser.

Jack took the box out to his car and ripped open the package. There inside was the gold box and an envelope. Jack’s hands shook as he read the note inside. “Upon my death, please forward this box and its contents to Jack Bennett.  It’s the thing I valued most in my life.” A small key was taped to the letter. His heart racing, as tears filling his eyes, Jack carefully unlocked the box. There inside he found a beautiful gold pocket watch.

Running his fingers slowly over the finely etched casing, he unlatched the cover. Inside he found these words engraved: “Jack Thanks for your time! Harold Belser.”

Joe immediately thought “The thing he valued most was… my time!”  He held the watch for a few minutes, then called his office and cleared his appointments for the next two days. “Why?” Janet, his assistant asked. “I need some time to spend with my son,” he said.

There is a story I tell sometimes about a man named Bill who encouraged me to pursue my profession when I was eighteen.  He told me I had real talent for the business and there was a bright future ahead if I would work hard.  When our paths crossed twenty years later he remembered me well, but when I thanked him for his encouragement he had no memory of saying those things to me. 

Each of us never knows when what we do or say will have a big impact on another person.  I am grateful for Bob’s note today that reminds me how each of us affects others.  My awareness is increased to do my best to make the impact I have on people always a positive thing.

Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does.
William James

Light in the Dark

/ James Browning

Back in the 90’s I learned an uncommon method of idea generation called “reverse brainstorming”. This works just like a standard brainstorm, but the object is to come up with items that will put you as far away as possible from achieving an objective. Within this method when a “how not to list” is completed one goes back and reverses all the negative statements into positive and helpful ones.

Anyone can come up with a list of to “do/don’t-do’s” that contribute to “a long, healthful and fulfilling life”. However when the subject is reversed, insight from a different vantage point often comes from brainstorming how NOT to achieve an objective. For example, here’s a list of brainstormed ideas about “how to have a short, unhealthy and unfulfilling life”.

1. Be self-destructive. Do everything in excess. Drink, smoke, do drugs, overeat and always ignore signs of illness and sickness. Get as little sleep as possible.

2. Make life all about money. Get a personal identity through material possessions. Let more never be enough. Possess to impress.

3. Spend lots of time reliving the past. Harbor resentments. Hold onto grudges. Never forget and always try to get even.

4. Have no personal integrity. Be irresponsible and indifferent. Steal, lie, and cheat. Only you matter. Other people are irrelevant.

5. Zone-out as much as possible. Lots of television and/or video games. Spend hours on-line wandering around, gambling and looking at porn.  Be Compulsive.

6. Play it safe. Never take even the smallest chance. Settle far short of one’s dreams. Don’t take risks, even calculated ones. Give up often and easily.
 
7. Dislike life as much as possible. Be unsatisfied, ungrateful. Complain about everything. Whine a lot. Make sure everyone knows your unhappiness.

8. Live in the future. Spend little time on ‘now’ and focus on what will be. Imagine and fantasize how the future will be better in all ways. Think, don’t do.

9. Dislike all people. Be selfish. Be prejudiced. Be a hater. Show contempt to other people. Never be kind. Always rough and crude.

10. Make it near impossible for others to love you. People matter only for what they can give you or do for you. Be obnoxious. Be aloof. Let fear keep people from getting close.

So how’s that for a list. Successfully applying even just a few of them effectively could certainly result in the achievement of “a short, unhealthy and unfulfilling life”.

Here’s the list “reversed” in synopsis form:
1. Don’t be self-destructive. Drink little or none. Don’t smoke. Rest. Good self-care.
2. Life is not about money. Get your personal identity from living and loving.
3. Get out of the past. Let go resentments and grudges. Hold onto mistakes.
4. Have personal integrity. Responsible, caring. Don’t steal, lie and cheat.
5. Be engaged with life. Moderate distraction. Careful of what addicts you. .
6. Don’t always play it safe. Take risks for your dreams. Don’t settle easily.
7. Fall in love with life. Be satisfied and grateful. Try not to complain or whine.
8. Live in “now” and not the future. Focus on living your life well today.
9. See good in others. Openly be kind. Don’t be selfish, prejudiced and never hate.
10.Let people love you. Be thoughtful and gentle. Don’t let fear keep others away.

On a regular basis I end up with absolutely no idea where a concept to write here comes from. Sometimes an idea feels almost divinely delivered. Such was the case this morning in the unorthodox creation of a list for better living using “reverse brainstorming”. I am grateful for the “reversed list” of good living reminders and even more thankful for the unknown source of the idea;  the light in the dark that always seems to come to me when I need it.

I am so much more when I realize I am not all there is.

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. Groucho Marx
 
 

Myself Grandly Related

/ James Browning

This weekend spending time in a cabin off the beaten path surrounded by nature, I have once again been reminded of the positive effects the natural world can have. When something is referred to as “primitive”, thoughts of being unfinished and rough are conjured. In the civilized world we value refinement and luxury and view nature as coarse and harsh.  Yet being in the woods it is clear that nature is exquisitely finished and luxurious, while it is “I” who severely lacks finish and refinement. 

The longer away from nature and the less time spent in the natural world, the greater my distance becomes from reality and from my self.  Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold describes this in “God in the Wilderness” when she writes removed from the distractions of everyday life, of cell phones, emails, and to-do lists, we are able to immerse ourselves fully in the moment, in each step, in each breath. As we leave behind the safety of homes and cars, and we step fully into the wilderness to meet nature, we also meet ourselves. As we look outward to the wilderness, we look inward and reawaken to what is essential in our lives, to the core of our being.”

Nature’s presence lends me a healthy perspective in relation to my place in the world.  Out in the woods the reminder is clear that I am just a part of a never-ending cycle of being and passing.  Among the trees, above the lake the wind yanks my thinking from inside dancing with my ego to an external awareness of my perfect fit in the order of things.  Rabbi Korngold described the cure nature can have:  sometimes it takes the stark wilderness to help us face our truth and become our true selves.

Being in nature reminds me that I am not the center of the universe and in fact, am just journeying through in a short finite period of time.  It is a wonderfully humbling experience.  Henry David Thoreau wrote, in the streets and in society I am almost invariably cheap and dissipated, my life is unspeakably mean.  No amount of gold or respectability would in the least redeem it… But alone in the distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day… I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related… 

This weekend nature did not fix me.  Rather, nature brought me back to center so I could hear and feel myself.  For moments, minutes and sometimes more out with the trees and rocks I am able to stand in symphony with myself in a type of harmony that is not possible in the city.  And in that song of myself I am able to just relax and “be”.    

Every life is a book of secrets, ready to be opened. The secret of perfect love is found there, along with the secrets of healing, compassion, faith, and the most elusive one of all: who we really are. We are still mysteries to ourselves, despite the proximity of these answers, and what we most long to know remains lodged deep inside.  We all want to know how to find a soul mate, what career would be most fulfilling, how to live a life with meaning, and how to teach our children well. We are looking for a personal breakthrough, a turning point, a revelation that brings with it new meaning. (The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra) 

There are always little breakthroughs when I spend time with Mother Nature.  I am grateful for the reminder that all my possessions will someday pass to someone else.  Even then decay and time will take their place in returning those things to Nature from which they come.  Even faster I will pass from flesh and blood back to the water and dust I am made of.  In nature one can see what is real and factual more than any other place.

Just a little reminder, a small wakeup call gets my gratitude this morning.  It is as if “Mother Earth” spoke to me in an unheard voice reminding me to be a little more aware of life and of its importance; to notice how fragile and temporary my existence is.  The insight makes me feel alive, awake and aware in a near divine experience this morning.  With humble gratitude all I know to do is to say “thank you”.

Only when the last river has been polluted,
and the last tree been cut down,
and the last fish been caught,
will we realise we cannot eat money.
Native American Cree saying

Finding the Way Home

/ James Browning

Once there was a man completely lost inside
Thought he did not allow himself to know it.
The sensitive child within knew only to hide,
And to go along sadly pretending all was well.

Years passed and life became more hallow,
So many ways he tried to cure what ailed him.
He walked a long, crooked path easy to follow
Of money, success, possessions and distraction.

Travel, hobbies and work were ineffective too.
Relationships came but in time eventually failed.
Peace of mind always elusive; times of peace few.
A slow spiral continued toward an uncertain future.

Weight of years of pain and evasion strongly grew,
The manic search brought unclear delusion and lies
So hard he tried repeatedly with every thing he knew
To open the deep pit within of shadow and darkness.

And then the crash came….

And a discovery
Of emotions lame,
Of misplaced blame,
Of wrongs done,
Of deceit spun,
Of habitual lies
Of unnoticed cries,
Of answers none,
Of delusions spun,
Of self loathing,
Of guilt loading,
Of anger exploding
And in the unavoidable fall
Came a revelation finally exposing.
What was wrong, what could have been, what could never be and what was possible.

Hard lessons learned in the most difficult way,
Learning, accepting ways how not to go astray,
A child inside freed from being kept so far away,
Where once sorrow was real happiness is today.

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the
wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. 
What you’ll discover is yourself. 
Alan Alda

The Chance of a Lifetime

/ James Browning

A picture can truly say a thousand words.
A handful of words accompanied by a ten photos speaks volumes more.

“A New Day” by Walterrean Salley
It’s a new day
Another chance to discover
And rediscover
And make changes
And enjoy life.

 A chance to reach out.
A chance to hold on
To the things that are dear.

It’s a new day
Another opportunity.
A chance to live

And love
And laugh
The chance of a lifetime

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“A New Day” by Dr. Heartsill Wilson

This is the beginning of a new day.
I have been given this day to use as I will.
I can waste it, or use it.

I can make it a day long to be remembered for its joy,
its beauty and its achievements,
or it can be filled with pettiness.

What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

 When tomorrow comes this day will be gone forever,
but I shall hold something which I have traded for it.

It may be no more than a memory,
but if it is a worthy one I shall not regret the price.

 I want it to be gain not loss, good not evil, success not failure.

Before today I have lived 21,390 days.  This morning another is added to that total with greater gratitude within for life than in any previous day.

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.
Cynthia Ozick