Injustice?

As the water shapes the riverbed and her stones, external events -
fair, or unfair - have shaped me. Is that justice?

Inertia

 "All That Is" (Creator and Creation) can be described by just three words

    * Stillness

    * and

    * motion

http://www.manyofone.com

food for thought

Here's something for you to chew on . . . 

Daily Compass:  

    * When available, use Inspiration to make choices.

    * Otherwise, use resonance to make choices.

    * Use flow to continue/pause choices. 

http://www.manyofone.com

free flow

It's not so much about doing something different, getting something,
causing something to happen. It's about removing, eliminating, all
that is extraneous, unnecessary and blocking our flow. If we endeavor
to remove the blockages, spirit (grace, god, universal life energy,
light, love, etc.) will flow through us freely. Our egos build little
blockades in the effort to channel the great force that is essential
to our nature.

Einstein Quote of the Day

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is
the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and
true science...

falling in love with myself again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvW4XCrc2SI

Similar mother, similar father, similar dog, cat and fish
And we'll make the same wish
When the birthday candles lit
We'll both be older
We won't get our wish
Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

Chorus:
Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again
Yes, I think I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again

With her hand in my hand and my hand in hers
Don't we look a blur
Me and her and me and her
Hey, kiss her, oh kiss her
Our friends do concur
Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

(Chorus)

I can't see with you in front of the mirror staring, staring
I can't hear myself think with all that music blaring, blaring

Yes, I'm falling
Falling, falling
Yes, I'm falling
Falling, falling
Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again

I bring home the bacon and eat myself
Here's to my health
Hope that I'm feeling well
I'm burning the candle at both ends, oh well
Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

(Chorus)

the flow

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really
love. It will not lead you astray. Rumi

Time Budget

When it comes to making purchases, most people have an idea in their
minds of what they're willing to spend. You probably wouldn't walk
into a shoe store and say, 'I will buy that pair of shoes no matter
how much they cost.' If the salesperson says the shoes cost $400,
most people would not buy them. That's because when it comes to
making purchases, people set a budget in their minds of how much
those shoes are really worth to them.

But what about when it comes to how you spend your time? Do you
sometimes spend more time on certain tasks than they're really worth?
For instance, when it comes to cleaning your home do you spend an
hour a day doing so? Two hours? Three hours? More than three hours?
Is dusting really worth that much of your time? What about your other
projects and appointments? How much is that time worth to you?

We all get the same amount of time each day--24 hours. At least 8 of
those hours are allocated to sleeping. So, we
all have approximately 16 hours when we're awake.

By setting a time budget for certain activities, you will always
ensure your time is being spent on what is most important to you,
your family and your future.

How much time are you willing to invest with a spouse or loved one?
How many hours will you allocate to working, cleaning, exercising,
eating or watching television?

Before doing anything, ask yourself how much time you're willing to
invest. Write those time investments down so you're able to reference
them regularly. Then, stick to your time budget.

Time isn't an unlimited currency, so be sure to spend it wisely.

by Maria Gracia - Get Organized Now! http://www.getorganizednow.com

Giant Boulders

Sometimes there are giant boulders in the river. They create danger
and turbulence. We can spend a lot of our energy attempting to push
the boulders out of the way. This seems to make sense, because it
would be better if they weren't there.

But the boulders are immovable.

Another choice is to practice steering so that we can move around
them without colliding into them. In the end, this consumes less
energy. It also hones our navigational skills.

Einstein Quote of the Day

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

Einstein Quote of the Day

. . . from iGoogle widget

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree...

Making Contact

"I want to love you without clutching,

appreciate you without judging,

join you without invading,

invite you without demanding,

leave you without guilt,

criticize you without blame,

and help you without insulting.

If I can have the same from you

then we can truly meet and enrich each other."

– Virginia Satir, Making Contact

Einstein Quote of the Day

What does a fish know about the water in which it swims all its life?

How deep is your river?

Einstein Quote of the day from iGoogle Widget

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.

after the rapids, a calm stretch

perhaps after we've been riding the rapids for a while;

and the river slows to a calm, clear stretch;
we have to use our oars for momentum
rather than just to steer the course.

the decreased danger resulting from the calm waters
perhaps results in a feeling of let-down;
because of the reduced adrenaline-induced energy
feeding us from seemingly external forces

slapping sharks

What's that thing? I said. O, that's an oar, he said, in case we hit a calm stretch & we decide we need more excitement & also it's good for slapping sharks.

Strawberries have lots of seeds & they are delicious too

"Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds."

- Norman Vincent Peale

Taking it a step further:  if you feed your kids seedless fruit, they can't grow their own solutions. If you don't allow them to harvest their own problems, they will rely on you (or others) for fruit indefinitely.

Each of us creates our own World

The quote in my previous posting was credited to Talmund. I also found references attributing it to Anais Nin. In any case, in reading more about that quote, I came across another, credited to Anais Nin.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

This is a sentiment that rings true to me. Several weeks ago, while listening to the audiobook version of Eckart Tolle's A New Earth, I was struck by the truth in the following passage from chapter 10:

"Those two movements, the outgoing and the return, are also reflected in each person's life cycles. Out of nowhere, so to speak, "you" suddenly appear in this world. Birth is followed by expansion. There is not only physical growth, but also growth of knowledge, activities, possessions, experiences. Your sphere of influence expands and life becomes increasingly complex. This is a time when you are mainly concerned with finding or pursuing your outer purpose. Usually there is also a corresponding growth of the ego, which is identification with all the above things, and so your form identity becomes more and more defined. This is also the time when outer purpose--growth--tends to become usurped by the ego, which unlike nature does not know when to stop in its pursuit of expansion and has a voracious appetite for more.

And then just when you thought you made it or that you belong here, the return movement begins. Perhaps people close to you begin to die, people who were a part of your world. Then your physical form weakens; your sphere of influence shrinks. Instead of becoming more, you now become less, and the ego reacts to this with increasing anxiety or depression. Your world is beginning to contract, and you may find you are not in control anymore. Instead of acting upon life, life now acts upon you by slowly reducing your world. The consciousness that identified with form is now experiencing the sunset, the dissolution of form. And then one day, you too disappear. Your armchair is still there. But instead of you sitting in it, there is just an empty space. You went back to where you came from just a few years ago.

Each person's life--each life-form, in fact--represents a world, a unique way in which the universe experiences itself. And when your form dissolves, a world comes to an end--one of countless worlds."

Maya is the window

Maya is like a window, we only see our reflection when we are looking through to darkness.

If we look through to the light, we see the truth on the other side.

"We do not see things the way they are, we see things the way WE are." - Talmund

Equinox

"The Sun goes into Aries on the Equinox and the Moon goes into Libra Friday morning. Aries is all about finding our own identity, passion and purpose in life. It's where the spark of life ignites for each of us, where we are willing to take risks, to begin something new.

Like the Fool in the Tarot, we have to trust blindly to our instinct for LIFE. Libra is about what worth our purpose holds for others. How are we received? Who are our partners in this journey through Life?

Libra wants to balance Self and Other, with fairness and justice. How do we take other people into consideration when we have goals to achieve? Desires to manifest? Look at our leaders – Aries is all about leadership – and see how they're doing regarding relationships, fairness, justice and honor. Is their passion and purpose to serve themselves or to serve the people? Don't we need a new vision of leadership?

Not only in our elected officials, but in ourselves? Aries also asks us to consider how we see ourselves. Where do we find our sense of Self? "

teach your child how to use their own rudder

where the river narrows

Walking along the Russian River yesterday afternoon, I observed a spot in the river where the water suddenly seemed to flow faster. The current appeared faster at the surface, and along the edges of the river the water gurgled as it rushed through some plants.

The parallel in life that I notice is that when our "river" is wide, we coast gently down current. As our "river" narrows, or constricts, the current seems to speed up. The same volume is passing through, it just seems more hectic.

A contrast also occurred to me: while at the point where the river narrows, the water increases in speed; the point at which the freeway narrows, traffic inevitably slows.

The degree of love we manifest determines the degree of spaciousness and freedom we can bring to lifes events. Imagine taking a very small glass or water and putting into it a teaspoon of salt. Because of the small size of the container, the teaspoon of salt is going to have a big effect on the water. However, if you approach a much larger body of water, such as a lake, and put into it the same teaspoonful of salt, it will not have the same intensity of impact, because of the vastness and openness of the vessel receiving it. Even when the salt remains the same, the spaciousness of the vessel receiving it changes everything.

We spend a lot of our lives looking for a feeling of safety or protection--we try to alter the amount of salt that comes our way. Ironically, the salt is the very thing that we cannot do anything about, as life changes and offers us repeated ups and downs. Our true work is to create a container so immense that any amount of salt, even a truckload, can come into it without affecting our capacity to receive it.

--Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness
from Everyday Mind

Welcome to my blog

Hi & welcome to my new blog. The River is my metaphor for life. I believe that we are all on a journey through many lessons during our lives.

We have a responsibility to watch where we are going, steer, assist our travel mates and attempt to learn the lessons that are presented to us along the way.

I have created this blog to record my thoughts about the process and share my views with those who may be interested.