“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein
“An expert is someone who is humble and disciplined enough to explore deeply for a long time. An expert is someone who cares more.” -@ValaAfshar, Twitter
Saturdays are perfect days to hone in on our creativity. Many of us are experts at our jobs, by the time we reach middle age, but what else are you an expert in? Do you allow yourself to create some expertise in your favorite hobbies? Some of my friends and acquaintances are experts at quilting, and butterfly releasing, and gardening, and biking, and working out, and meditation, and running, and dancing, and fantasy football, and water colors, and photography. What is something that feeds your soul enough that you have inadvertently become somewhat of an “expert” in it? Being an expert at something, doesn’t even mean that you have to be particularly great at your favored hobby or vocation or interest. Being an expert just means that you happen to know a great deal about your activity, and how to do it, because the process of exploring the said project/pursuit, and the actual doing of it, feeds your soul, and stops time for you, like so few other activities in your life are capable of doing. Being an expert at something, means that you have taken the time to fuel your passions. That’s called living life! Add to your creative expertise today. You won’t regret it.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
We have this little spot in our neighborhood that is remote, and off of the beaten path. We can let our three dogs off lead and throw them tennis balls ad nauseum, to work off their seemingly endless energy. It’s a little buggy there, but that’s okay. It’s what keeps the patch of land from becoming overrun with people. When we are done playing fetch, our Labrador retriever, Ralphie, and our Boykin spaniel, Trip, tend to carry their tennis balls, in their mouths, all of the way home. The balls are gross and slimy, but the tennis balls almost act as pacifiers to our worn-out, sporty dogs.
Ralphie, our Labrador, also loves our pool and swimming in our pool, even more than he loves his tennis balls. We always joke that we have our pool for Ralphie. Islands of his fur tend to float around like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, when our pool pump isn’t on. I often make the off-the-cuff remark that I wish I loved anything as much as Ralphie loves to swim.
But that’s not a nice remark, nor is it true. There are so many people and places and things in my life that I love every bit as ferociously and exuberantly as Ralphie loves to swim. It’s just that Ralphie doesn’t let any fear in, when he loves. Ralphie doesn’t swim around in the pool saying, “Damn, I love this pool so much, I hope that we never move, nor that I get too arthritic to swim, nor that a hurricane destroys my little chlorine haven.” Ralphie doesn’t allow distraction in, when he is doing what he loves. He doesn’t swim around the pool thinking about the state of the world and all of the horrors of the headlines. When Ralphie does what he loves, that’s just what he does. He embodies love. He soaks in love. He embraces love right in the moment. Sometimes when I watch other creatures in nature, I wonder if our human being’s thinking and reasoning abilities are truly a blessing or a curse? I need to use my own thinking and reasoning abilities to develop an “OFF button” for my brain, so that when I am with the people whom I love more than Ralphie loves to swim, and I am in the places which I love more than Ralphie loves to swim, and I am doing the things that I love to do, even more than Ralphie loves to swim, I can switch the Brain Button to OFF and I can just embody love. I can soak in the love. I can embrace love right in the moment. When I find that OFF button and keep it duct taped to OFF for some moments, I can get a little taste of peaceful, loving, eternity right in my own little patch of Earth. Isn’t that what we are always saying that we want anyway?
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Isn’t this a wonderful time in the world to be a curious person? Thank you, Google. National Geographic used to be a stack of weirdly thick, yellow framed magazines on my grandfather’s coffee table. Today, National Geographic is not only a magazine, but also a website and a streaming channel. Never has information been so vividly and easily accessible to us, in our lives. We all can be Einsteins if we want to be. It turns out that Einstein and Curious George had a lot in common.
Einstein also said this:
“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.”
I love this phenomenon, don’t you? It is thought that some of our greatest insights and answers come to us in our dreams, when we are at our most relaxed and not desperately turning the wheels in our minds. That’s why it is always suggested to have a tablet right by our bedsides, to jot down the wisdoms from our dreams when we wake up.
When we were in San Francisco a few years ago, my husband purchased me a jade bangle from the Chinatown district. Chinese people have prized jade for over 7000 years. They consider jade to be a living force which protects the wearer and they even believe that jade has some healing properties. It is a wonderful souvenir from that particular trip. The jade bangles do not have clasps, and you want the bangle to just be slightly bigger than your wrist, or otherwise it is annoying to have the bracelet slide up and down on your arm too much, and bang on everything in sight. Therefore, due to their tight fit, the jade bangles will not slide on to your wrist when you are too rigid and uptight, and trying to force them over your hand. “Relax, relax, relax” is all that the shopkeeper kept repeating to me as I was desperately trying to try on my bangle, like one of Cinderella’s sisters trying to stuff her foot into the glass slipper. So, finally, taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes, I let my thoughts float away, and then, I slowly opened my eyes, only to see and to feel the jade bangle sitting nicely on my wrist. (and then I started panicking about getting it off of my wrist, but that is another story for a different blogpost.)
Maybe today is a good day to “relax, relax, relax.” Maybe today is a good day not to force anything, but instead let the answers, and the inspirations, and the guidance float over to us, only to set nicely into our hearts. It took me a long time to figure out that I will never be able to outrun any of my dogs, but if I just stay calm, and I stand in place, with a gentle, knowing confidence, my dogs always run right back to me. Perhaps that is the same with “the truth.” If the truth came to Einstein in this fashion, it will work for us in the same way. Maybe the truth never left any of us. Perhaps, we just haven’t been relaxed enough, to let the truth bubble up slowly to the surface.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Happy Earth Day! “Earth Day” and I were born in the same year – 1970, although the Earth, herself, is actually 4.543 billion years old. Damn, it sure took us a while to realize that maybe we should celebrate Earth, and to work on not taking her so much for granted (and we really are just at the beginning baby steps on that quest, aren’t we?). What do you love most about Mother Earth? Is it her endless gifts? Is it her awe-striking beauty? Is it her resilience? Is it her loyalty and steadfastness? Is it her ability to house and to feed a whole plethora of living beings? Is it her healthy, reliable relationship with the sun and the moon and the stars? If there was one utterly, genuine physical example of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, Mother Earth is the ultimate, in the “unconditional giving and loving” regard. On this day, and every day, dearest, most beautiful, most awe-striking, most loving, most nurturing, most hospitable Mother Earth, we humbly say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
“We should honor Mother Earth with gratitude; otherwise our spirituality may become hypocritical.” – Radhanath Swami
“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.” – Native American Proverb
“Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.” – Francis of Assisi
“When we recognize the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
“How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!” – Emily Dickinson
“We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.” – Albert Einstein
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Happy Friday, friends. Happy Favorite Things Friday!! This week beat me up. I honestly haven’t been too focused on my favorites, this week. New readers, on Fridays, I typically list three favorite songs, foods, brands, websites, etc. that make my material world special, but I’m honestly not feeling it right now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s Friday! I LOVE Fridays!! I’m just not in a “gushing” mood and all of my favorites, deserve “gush”. If you want to read some “good gushing”, please see previous Friday posts. And please pick up my slack, and tell us about your favorites in my Comments section. The video below, sadly, turned out to be a game changer for me, an almost 50 year-old woman. I have to say that this is my favorite “Why didn’t I EVER think of this???? tip of the day/week/maybe even year”:
Have a great weekend, friends! The above video is a dramatic example of Einstein’s famous quote:
With a little self awareness, this quote can change your life for the better, every single time. (and in the case of the deodorant topper, it can save you some teeth)
I am in a phew, exhale, big sigh, totally deflate like a balloon, and rest like a puddle on the ground, mindset today. So many “biggies” that we had been anticipating: our eldest son’s big move to a new state, the completion of our renovations, our youngest son’s high school graduation and the celebrations that followed, the safe extraction of his monster-sized wisdom teeth, etc. etc. are mainly finished and completed quite satisfactorily. It’s like my extra-big, neon signed and shined, mambo to-do list has been checked off and completed. Phew. Sigh. Deflate. Rest. . . . . and reflect. It all went well. It’s all over. I am going to rest a little bit before starting a new big load list. Big load lists always happen, especially in big load families. I try my best to stay in the present moment when I am in the midst of the planning, experiencing and executing the big load lists, but there is always that little part of me that repeats, “This will feel so good when it’s over. I can’t wait until the end of all of this.” I know that we are not supposed to anticipate the future. I know that we are not supposed to wish our lives away, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. And guess what? It does feel good to be at a completion point, right now. It does feel good to press “Pause” before loading up the play list and hitting “Play” again. I’m not ready to press “Stop” any time soon and I honestly wouldn’t want to hit “Reverse”, as good as a lot of my life has been, but healthy pauses, well, healthy pauses feel really good sometimes. Phew. Sigh. Deflate. Rest. Reflect.
“Sometimes you need to press pause to let everything sink in.” – Sebastian Vettel
“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” – Albert Einstein
