Mindfulness

Christmas can be a joyous or lonely day. This year, we’re likely experiencing it in an unfamiliar way, connected by screens, wondering about vaccines. My gift to you is this six-minute video by my friends, Louie Schwartzberg and Brother David.

This poem was offered to me by my friend and MEA alum Matt Clark for my birthday. Given the name of the poem and its message, I asked him if I could share with you.

MEA mastery faculty member Lynne Twist wrote a bestselling book nearly two decades ago called “The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of our Inner Resources.” Given the financial challenges of COVID, it felt like an appropriate choice for this week’s Book Club.

Addison wrote this poem on Monday while participating in a Sabbatical Session “awe walk” at MEA in Baja. The ocean has a thousand moods and yet, we still trust and sit with it. The sky is not controllable and yet, we still honor it.

Richard Rohr is an unconventional modern Christian mystic who has been influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism, Gandhi, Carl Jung, Spiral Dynamics, and Integral Theory. He’s written and spoken about the ancient personality typing tool, the Enneagram, and he has a following that may be more full of non-Christians than Christians.

Keep compassionate. Keep compatible. Keep comradery.

Thank you to Alan Watts who wrote this (excerpted) as a reminder that a momentous life is full of moments. It’s not all about the destination or exit. A good reminder on my 60th birthday when I was originally supposed to be at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, a place Watts called his “om away from home” for many years.

“A psychologically-induced, trance-like state, where a person may regress from a stressful situation.” Born less than five miles from Disneyland, I’m preternaturally drawn to happy places. During my troubled teen years, the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street Electrical Parade was my first taste of “collective effervescence,” the sublime experience of feeling less separated and more connected to others while witnessing awe and wonder.

“Freed from the yolk of ambition and responsibility, released from the hunger of destiny, the elderly have time for themselves….old age is the embryonic phase of the afterlife.”

“This has not been a happy year. This is not a happy country.” I wrote those words in 2008. Of course, they’re even more relevant today. A dozen years ago, I decided to venture to Bhutan to study their Gross National Happiness index.