Are you Dancing Your Bliss?

When we wake up in the morning, we start moving.

We move to the shower, to the kitchen, to the door.

We arrive at work and we move to meetings, to lunch, to the rush hour slowdown.

We move all the time, we stay busy, but ...

Are you Dancing Your Bliss?

What does that look like?

Dance is a form of movement that requires rhythmic motion.

Moving to the beat, gliding from pose to pose, maybe in time with a group.

When you Dance to Your Bliss, it is easy. You are Here and Now.

In the Moment, in this Space. Nowhere else.

It is Bliss, but....

You have to be Clear in your Heart what your Bliss means.

Is it your marriage, your children, your Calling?

It could be all three.

But you must Know or else you are just jerkin' around

ez

Don't Worry - Take a Break

This is the last week for the 2017 Great State Fair of Texas. I have gone every day for 2 weeks.

I am feeling it, after all.... nearly 60 here.


Watching the people walk and eat and talk as they enjoy the Fair has been fun.

I have discovered three things:

1. Kids have unlimited energy, until they don't

In the morning, kids run back and forth trying to see everything. They have little patience with adults who are strolling and thinking about the next tasty adult beverage. They want to have it all, eat it all, ride it all. 

By evening, they are back in their strollers, wagons, parents arms; tired, full and content with the cheap toy that cost dearly in game tokens. Even parents look happy to be going home.

2. Adults talk about everything except where they are

Eavesdropping is entertainment. I listen for snips of conversation.

They talk about work, about absent family members, about recent events. They are catching up with their friends and family by sharing life stories.

Walking along the Midway is a chance to visit.

3. Taking a break is wonderful

There are an infinite number of things that can fill up your life
For instance, worry about: work, health, finances, family, the price of corny dogs.
From time to time, it is important to take a break; relax and recharge.

How? Do something different, something outside your routine, something novel. 

Like take yourself and your loved ones to the Fair.
Take a week off from your weekly blog.
Part your hair on the other side... just for a change

There is always time to enjoy life.
You have to find it, make it, take it.
It is outside our regular routine, but so important.

Without these moments of rest and recharge, we would quickly burn out and burn up.

ez

Great State Fair of Texas

My lovely bride, Karen and I
have been buying full passes
for the Great State Fair of Texas for the past 3 years.

https://bigtex.com/

At $60 dollars, you only have to go 3 times to create a better value than a one-day ticket.

This year, I have stated an intention of going every single day.

Why?

• Because it is close and easy for me to get to. 
• Because it makes me smile.
• Because I can.

Because people watching is fun, interesting and always different.

People come from all over the state, the country and the world
to experience these 24 days of fabulous fried food and the entertainment
that surrounds it.

In the old days, we worked all year long
to bring in the fall harvest
so that we could survive the winter.

Most cultures celebrated the fall season with some large gathering.

There are contests of strength, skill and cooking.
There are entertainments for the children and adults.
There are strange and marvelous sights undreamed during the day-to-day struggle.

Here and Now, most of us don't have to struggle to bring in the crops.
Tom Thumb, McDonalds and Target provide our needs year round.

It is still important to recognize the cycles of the year.
Take time to reflect on successes and failures.
Take time to smile, laugh, dance and sing.

Have a Great State of Texas day,

Eric

Don't Seek Inner Peace

Many people believe the purpose of Meditation
is to find Inner Peace.

That's not the conclusion that I have discovered.

Meditation has been around for thousands of years, in every culture and tradition.
In my country, Meditation is most often associated with Buddhism.

The Buddha started with 4 simple thoughts (The Noble Truths):

1. Life is full of suffering
2. The cause of suffering is attachment
3. It is possible to live without suffering
4. The Eightfold Path can lead to a life without suffering

It is important to understand that the word he used for suffering (dukkha)
is better translated as : "incapable of satisfying", "stressful", temporary,
conditional, compounded of other things,  or impermanent

When we become attached to things that are impermanent, we suffer.
Meditation leads to us to contemplate attachment to things that do not last
and hopefully release those attachments which do not satisfy

Good plan, but then what?

I believe a higher goal is to find what makes you joyous.
When I am in-joy, I enjoy everything around me.
I radiate this enthusiasm and encourage others to look for their joy.

Don't seek Inner Peace
Seek Inner Joy, Sacred Joy
and spread Joy to all

• like butter

Still too much in one post. Hard to digest. [shrug] So it goes.

Eric (continuous learner)

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reference: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-four-noble-truths-450095

retrieved: 9/27/2017

Making Time Productive

Two ways to achieve goals.

1. Wait until the last minute and slam out whatever comes out of your fingers.

2. Spend significant time over several sessions to hone and improve your writings.



But the problem becomes that doing the work at the last minute makes quality unlikely.

Sometimes the first thing that comes to you is awesome and perfectly composed.

But it is very, very, very, Very rare.

Which is why the best writing happens after editing, thinking, pondering, dreaming about and rewriting over and over and over.

One suggestion I have read is to do a 20 minute session on the same topic every day for 2 weeks. Beat it into the ground, hone it with continuous thought, let it become part of your subconscious.

It would be nice. Wouldn't it? How do I get into that mind set?

I don't know. That is why this post is 2 days late and done off the top of my head.

Peace, Eric

Continuous Learning

I started learning at birth.
I think all of us did.
Lights, colors, shapes moving around us.
It's our first school.

My parents told me that education was a good thing
and I would enjoy teachers.
What did I know?

Everything was new, I was full of spunk and vigor.
I went to school, I learned to read. I immersed myself in universes.

I had opportunities... never really grasped.
I was too smart for my own good.

Like when I dropped a full scholarship
and joined the Navy.

Why? I was lazy and sure of myself.
The Cold War was boring, I was safe.
In service, I was left alone to read and think
and move around the globe.

It was fun, but I snafued the rules and was sent home.

That was a long time ago, but I keep learning.
Everyone names their method, how about Continuous Learning?

Just follow two rules to achieve Continuous Learning:

• I don't know everything (sorta humble 😉 )
• I am eager to learn.

"Learning to be at ease with ourselves as we travel this journey is the most important wisdom of all."

~~ Kelly Epperson

The First Day of my Life

I was not born yesterday.

Funny quip, eh?

Something that people utter when they are being song-and-danced by a bullshitter.

But it has a deeper meaning to me.
One of the Meditation principles is to "live in the moment".

When I focus on being Here and Now, I am just living in the splendor of this world.
Being in the moment means there is no past, no future.

It's not an oddity. Surfers do it all the time.
If you are not living in the moment on top of your board,
you quickly fall off the wave and suck foam.

When I can balance on the Here and Now moment,
I am eager to experience everything around me.

I look at the infinite possibilities and cherish the number of things
I have not seen, heard, felt.

It is not easy. I am usually replaying some moment in the past or rehearsing what happens next.
I think most people find it difficult to live in the moment.

How can I make it true more often in my life?

Let's explore.