“The one constant in our lives is change.” Dan Gilbert
One thing I can say about our lives in the USA for the past 4-5 years: As a nation, we’ve been stuck. The tedious battles between left and right have gotten us nowhere but alternating states of anger and angst.
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“There is no love of life without despair of life.”― Albert Camus
He was an active leader in the French Resistance in World War II when Albert Camus wrote those words. The world had found itself in a time of uncertainly and great despair. Yet Camus discovered a place for the love of life even in those most globally desperate times.
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“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” Martin Luther King Jr.
At of the time of writing this post we are only days into “social distancing” and “self in place,” which means we have been mandated to stay home, only going out for necessities. And in following this State of CA mandate, I have discovered something very important: I actually miss the presence of other people, even bodies with whom I have no relationship, like when I used to go shopping.
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“Not all of us are called to be hermits, but all of us need enough silence and solitude in our lives to enable the deeper voice of our own self to be heard at least occasionally. Thomas Merton
Here we are, stuck inside the house, or even worse… stuck inside ourselves.
As the Coronavirus stakes its deadly presence in the lives of everyone in the entire world, we find ourselves obliged to live, for a time, with the wisdom of some kind of personal quasi quarantine. And the vast majority of us, especially in urban America, know nothing of staying at home for long periods of time. It seems were are more familiar with our places of work, shopping, eating out, sports, and social gatherings than we are with the solitude of our own homes.
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“Love is a process. No soul is ever complete. There is an unfinished quality about human beings that includes both the tragic and glorious dimensions of human experience.” Alan Jones
It is my observation, after 70 years, that the entire human race is Intrinsically Flawed. In their brilliant analysis of our lack of understanding of the power of human emotions the authors of the book, The School of Life and Alain de Button write,
We suffer, feel lost and isolated, are racked with worry, miss our own talents, refuse love, lack empathy, sulk, obsess, and hate. These are not merely personal flaws, but constitute the essence of the human animal.
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You can’t go back and change the past, so look to the future and don’t make the same mistakes twice. Malika E Nura
So your cell phone is not cooperating. What do you do first? Well… maybe not first but eventually you will power it off and back on again. And more often than not, it works just fine.
Suppose you were to do that same thing with your life on a daily basis? Everyday is a restart. A chance to start over and do this day better than yesterday. I’m not a list-maker, but for those who are, what if you were to make a list of how you might make today better than yesterday?
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We become what we think about. Derek Lin
In his translation and commentary of the Tao Te Ching, Derek Lin frequently offers thoughtful insight into the inner world in which I devote much of my time.
For several reasons, I strongly agree, “We become what we think about.” Not only our thoughts but our modes of thinking impact what we believe and how we act. Ludwig Wittgenstein, whom several regard as the most influential philosopher of the 20th Century, claims that our entire world-view is limited by the language we use and the concepts upon which we concentrate. In other words, thinking and language are essential in the development of who we are as human beings.
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That which is not recognized cannot be reconciled. Charlie
Although I have alluded to it for several years of blogging, I have never really divulged many details (don’t expect much today). Until I was nearly 8 years old I was essentially a homeless child, abandoned by a needy mother, and a remote alcoholic father. As a result, I was forced to live with 4 or 5 relatives for varying lengths of time, each of whom seemingly provided me with a home, only to find myself shipped off to another relative after a handful of months. And sometimes back to my mother for very short periods.
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“Unconditional love is not fully possible. We are mortal creatures of living and dying and how we love and what we love is conditional upon where we stand in the drama…” David Whyte, Consolations
If you have read recent posts, it must be obvious that David Whyte’s book, Consolations, is my daily morning inspirational reading. And boy, have I gleaned much from it. I read one chapter per day and then write in my journal. So, for that reason you find so much of my recent writing inspired by Whyte.
I was deeply moved this morning by David’s writings on Unconditional Love. Finally, someone is speaking an obvious truth about the virtually untouchable Christian mantra of Unconditional Love. All one need do is read the Torah to discover that multi-thousands were killed under the direct instruction or intervention of God. And so many of them followers of God—just read the Book of Numbers. And one is forced to at least redefine the idea of Unconditional Love.
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“…the guru’s urge to live only in the now misunderstands the multilayered inheritance of existence, where all epochs live and breathe in parallels.” David Whyte, Consolations
When grand new ideas for living a life of meaning arise, I am frequently impressed by the simple wisdom suggested. Such was the power of mindfulness and living in the now.
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