Regret is a negative judgment, always sounding more virtuous than it is. The only value in regret is the wisdom we extract from its fruit. Coming back to balance, we realize it as a postponement of considering what else is possible in the future. Commitment is its antidote.
Fly fishing this afternoon out west. A great lesson in the zen of attention to patterns, details, dynamics, and the art of centering. Obsession with outcomes is a distraction, as with anything. Intention is also not as important as attention. Consciousness as noticing what’s possible becomes key to skillful action. The weather was beautiful, the fish bountiful, the venue bucolic, and the learning amazing.
It has become clear that climate damaging gas emissions from US meat product production now exceeds gas emissions from all forms of transportation combined. One more reason to shift to the more sustainable practices of meatless cuisine.
The options today are far greater today than 27 years ago when I abandoned tribal meat rituals. It is a major transition requiring more planning and learning curves than many are prepared for, but I, like many, enjoyed the greater energy endurance and balance that comes from a meatless lifestyle.
My friend and fabulous healer, Julia, recently suggested that the path from suffering to joy has three phases. In the first phase, we suffer and suffer about our suffering. We hate it, pure and simple. We want liberation from it. If it continues, we begin to feel a certain “rightness” to the suffering. We feel like it’s a correct response to a certain kind of situation. Finally, we lose interest in our own suffering. We get tired of it and move onto joy. It becomes right not to choose suffering and embrace the truth of our joy instead.
Many people publicly disdain weak leaders for their obvious deficiencies of skill and will. The same people like weak leaders because these leaders ask little of them.
Bricolage is a beautiful word from the French, bricoler, meaning to tinker or fiddle with. It refers to something (as of a sculpture or a structure of ideas) achieved by using whatever comes to hand.
This is what we do with the assets and gifts of organizations and communities.
The secret plea of the child to the parent: If you loved me enough, I would have no deficiencies (and neither would you).
My old zen teacher, John, this week summed up his commentary on the motivation behind the ineffective actions and inactions of political “leaders.” He suggests that politicians think citizens are stupid, explaining why they would propose and pass the most insane strategies and why they would see authentic civic engagement as unnecessary.
This leads me to an idea for a policy that would require politicians to publish - yes of course, on their required blog - exactly what they think citizens know and understand about whatever positions they take. As in, congressional policy makers would publish what they think citizens know and understand about a new bill approving new lowering of environmental standards or one rejecting new programs for child health care. It would be interesting in the least.
In his talk in Cincinnati last week, Sadanand Ward Mailliard, suggested that when the educational process evokes the emergence of this question in learners, learning becomes a transformational process because it addresses identity rather than methodology: “What if I’m a gift, not a problem or empty vessel?”
I longed for you,
even though you were not gone,
I listened for you,
even though you still spoke,
I walked this path for you,
even though you accompanied me.
Today, I showed up,
and finally, you appeared.
