The Longer It Takes

Morning Brew

Enough

Ultimately, you come to recognize that you have enough.  

Sometimes (when I slow down long enough), I notice how much of what is in my closet I haven’t really worn in a while.  Or, I’ll notice how much stuff is accumulating in my basement (most of which is there because I don’t use it regularly).  And, then, I look around my house and my garage and my yard…’stuff’ everywhere.  I don’t need much more of anything (where would I put it anyway?).

This recognition happens, in part, when you can’t really do very much more by having much more. In our American context, that recognition seems more rare (and counter-intuitive) than not. Pretty obviously, this is a function of the consumer orientation we’ve developed about our existence as a culture.  Our economic engine actively promotes making more stuff so that we buy it (whether we need it or not).  We actually get bored with our lives if we can’t spend our money on more things.

Accordingly, we don’t really like the notion of enough. Because enough is, actually, not very much. The problem is, though, that the appetite we create for more, more, more only becomes more ravenous…it even feeds on itself (often without us even realizing it). But, there is a point at which you can’t do anything, at least substantively, by simply getting more. 

More actually takes us in the opposite direction, primarily because it takes us away from our need (both our sense of it and what that actually is). Perhaps this is, essentially, what is behind the trope 'less is more'. Because more buries us. It hides us from ourselves. It fills, what needs to be filled, with things that make us less of what we are.  

We don't need more because more keeps us from knowing what we really need. 

And, how we discover what we need is also rather conspicuous, isn’t it? We should take note of that and let it lead us in a deeper recognition of, and to the better questions about, what is truly enough.  

Ultimately, this happens to us anyway as we are naturally reduced over time by our capacity to handle more (or, even the same amount).

…unless we simply choose to ignore it.

It Takes Time

It takes time to live.  Like the work of art, life needs to be thought about.

-- Albert Camus

LT: How Long It Takes

In most things, success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

-- Montesquieu

What We Own

I'm wondering...about what (we think) we own.

This one was sparked by one of Saturday's observations.

Our sense of being is tied to ownership more than we realize. We often value something about ourselves based on what we own (or don't).

But, whatever we own, isn’t there a significant omission — for how long? Nobody really owns anything for more than a brief period of time (especially, against the spanse of time involved in human existence). So, how does acknowledging that change something...in us?

For one thing, what if our identities weren't tied to who owns what (or, how much)? What would (could) our identities then be tied to? How different would the shapes be of so many things involved in who (we think) we are?

Alternative Wisdom

Worth your time:

We admitted we were powerless over our algorithms

Jesus taught an alternative wisdom that shakes the social order instead of upholding the conventional wisdom that maintains it. 

He is leading us to the new self on a new path, which is the total transformation of consciousness, worldview, motivation, goals, and rewards that characterize one who loves and is loved by God. 

-- Richard Rohr

3 Observations & A Question

Praise effort, rather than success… especially in children.  

Organize your life with practices that help prevent you from starting each day at a deficit. 

The magic happens in relationship  — relationships certainly aren’t all magic, but it rarely happens without them. 

Aren’t we all really just the latest renters, on planet earth?

 

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

On The Lighter Side: Nearly Fell For This One...

 On the Lighter Side:

Shared Suffering

It is our suffering that connects us to humanity — unfortunately, it seems to be our shared suffering that makes us human (or keeps us human). 

Too often, when we acquire wealth, our primary utilization of it is to avoid suffering. But, even though it is just an illusion, we don’t realize that it is this avoidance that too often separates us, not only from humanity, but from our own humanity.

Even Jesus knew this…

and came to show us how solidarity works.

Infinitesimal

In the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal. We are intimately related.

-- Fred Rogers

Who We Are

Our passion lies deep in who we are, not what we do.

-- Simon Sinek

Fix My Mind

I’ve noticed…that to fix my mind, I have to engage my body.

Harvest of the Heart

This is the season of gathering in, the season of the harvest in nature. Many things that were started in the spring and early summer have grown to fruition and are now ready for reaping. Great and significant as is the harvest in nature, the most pertinent kind of in-gathering for the human spirit is what I call “the harvest of the heart.” 

Long ago, Jesus said that [people] should not lay up for themselves treasure on earth, where moths corrupt and thieves break in and steal, but that [people] should lay up for themselves treasures in heaven [Matthew 6:19–20]. This insight suggests that life consists of planting and harvesting, of sowing and reaping. We are always in the midst of the harvest and always in the midst of the planting…. 

Living is a shared process. Even as I am conscious of things growing in me planted by others, which things are always ripening, so others are conscious of things growing in them planted by me, which are always ripening. Inasmuch as I do not live or die unto myself, it is of the essence of wisdom for me conscientiously to live and die in the profound awareness of other people. 

The statement, “Know thyself,” has been take mystically from the statement, “Thou has seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God.” 

-- Howard Thurman

4 Observations (from Others)

Saints always have a past and sinners always have a future.

-- Oscar Wilde

The more you are focused on time — past and future — the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is. 

-- Eckhart Tolle

For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing. 

-- Aristotle

What if scarcity is just a cultural construct, a fiction that fences us off from a better way of life? 

--- Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

9 ‘National Emergencies’ & the Longest Gov’t Shutdown in History

Morning Brew

We elect officials to govern by serving the needs of 'the people’.

If they won’t do that (or even meet to try), they should give up their own paychecks; not force workers to keep things going without pay. 

And, then, there’s SNAP.  I’d be surprised how many people, who’ve never had to use the system, really even know what it is (outside the narratives that have been attached to it for political purposes).  Read a history of the program…here.

While most things government were started with good intention to address a public concern (that wasn’t being addressed otherwise), many are imperfect.  This is why we elect officials…to perfect them — make them better where they fail.

But, if these elected officials won’t do the work, then they need to get out of the way…so the public can be served.

The only reason they won’t (not to mention the even more nefarious things they’re allowing, like this) is they don’t think the public is paying attention — are they right? Are we?