Dreaming of the Pool Noodle (post by Kirk Weisler)
I loved this simple quote this morning.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) American First Lady
“believing in the beauty of their dreams” – that’s nice.
You may not be dreaming of pool noodles… but of other things.
Things that may be silly to others.
But may they be beautiful to you and may you believe them until they come true.
Kirk out
Denver the Guilty Dog
Uploaded on Mar 8, 2011
Someone helped themselves to the kitty Cat treats! Let’s see who cracks under pressure?
- Artist
John Carrie and Moor Green, John Carrie and Moor Green - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guiltydog
Melancholy the cat and the dog (post by Kirk Weisler)
When you find yourself overpowered, as it were, by melancholy, the best way is to go out and do something kind for somebody. — John Keble (1792-1866) English Clergyman and Poet
It’s been raining in GA where we live nearly every day for the past 3 weeks… which may be fine if your from Seattle or Portland or England. But if you need a little sunshine… or your kids need to be outside more, then perhaps you need to shake off a bit of melancholy. I think John Keble is right… doing something kind for somebody should do the trick. But if that can’t work for you… then just watch this 60 sec video and be more Dog.
Missing Stuff (post from Kirk Weisler)
The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds. -Thomas Merton
In preparing to sell our home in the Atlanta area Rebecca and I had set a goal to significantly reduce the amount of stuff we have. We want our next home to be less than half the size of our current one…. and we want to move with less 1/3rd of the stuff. Rebecca is already an anti-clutter black belt but I needed some serious time in the dojo. Still over the past 2 months I have been becoming a black belt user on Craigs List and doing a small amount of listing on E-bay as well. (ebay seems to be better for Comic Books, book collections, legos etc) These methods along with some trips to the trusty good will store have emptied out our home which now has several empty rooms. And I can envision loading that moving van in less than 2 hours when the time comes.
We thought we would be moved out by now but our contracted buyer just fell through. So with FOR SALE sign back in the yard we are faced with a reality that we may be here another few weeks or even months. But we have sold couches, dressers, tables, chairs, lawn care equipment, a bed (spare), toys, books, and more. I commented to Rebecca … that perhaps we had been premature on selling many of these things. Her response was this simple question.
“Have you missed anything that we have gotten rid of?” My answer came surprisingly quickly … “No.” not just No….but NO!!
She said, “Me either.”
I can’t help but think the same is true of anything that clutters our lives, including especially our thoughts. What if the following picture wasn’t material stuff…but emotional stuff. What might the labels be if it represented mental clutter? Not just what it is, but why it’s there and where and how would we get rid of it? There is no craigs-listing for crappy thinking? (at least I don’t think there is) Can a person e-bay their resentment over a real or imagined slight by a co-worker? I can see where Good Will donations would help…but what about the rest of it? Where do we drop off our mental clutter ? Can we just let it go?
I believe we can let it go. I am not saying it is easy to do this…but look at the alternative… is it any easier to keep it and carry it around? Is it easier to live with the clutter or to practice and become an expert at letting it go, and staying de-cluttered? To any extent we can be successful in clearing out the clutter we then create space for other more important things like peace, creativity, focus, or even relationships. Who wouldn’t trade an overwhelmed or cluttered mind for some peace of mind?
And when we get some of the clutter, worry, insecurity, stress, resentfulness or whatever might be cluttering our thoughts out… I’m almost certain we won’t miss it!
Kirk out
Stretch Yourself (post by Kirk Weisler)
In work, the greatest satisfaction lies – the satisfaction of stretching yourself, using your abilities and making them expand, and knowing that you have accomplished something that could have been done only by your unique apparatus. This is really the center of life, and those who never orient themselves in this direction are missing more than they ever know. – Kenneth Alsop (1920-1973)
This week is a stretch week!
Kirk
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