Asking Andre the Giant if he has dwarfism
Sometimes we get asked questions that call for data. How much does that cost? How do I get from here to there? When will the meeting start?
But sometimes data just doesn't fit. Assessing a person's intrinsic being is one of those moments. Specific data can not describe your soul. Attempting to do so can disconnect the conversation, and those in it, from the truth at hand.
Where does your data mind doubt your intrinsic truth?
Is it time to stop running the data on whether or not Andre the Giant has dwarfism, and simply witness the truth at hand?
Timeless moments
If the following are true:
Time flies when you're having fun!
Flow state is an optimal state of human activity, often associated with a loss of sense of time.
Then what's the deal with my ability to zone out into a spreadsheet, my email, or social media? Those activities are not that fun, and they certainly aren't my optimal state of activity.
Is this the behavioral equivalent of sugar as food? The body needs calories to survive, but sugar alone leaves us nutritionally deprived. Perhaps similarly the mind craves engagement to thrive, but false flow leaves us creatively, emotionally, and spiritually deprived.
Where do you find false flow in your life?
PIES
Physical
Intellectual
Emotional
Spiritual
This disaggregation of self helps me to zoom in and out on various aspects of my being.
For many years my tendency was to spend most of my time in intellectual awareness. My physical and emotional dimensions only demanded attention in times of difficulty, and my spiritual dimension was touched lightly every week or so.
Currently I'm seeking to balance all four. It's been difficult and massively valuable.
Where is your awareness and energy most and least present between your Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Spiritual self?
Just > Fair
I recently found myself in a prolonged state of argument with a loved one. It has been difficult and painful.
I've come to realize that my loved one and I have completely different opinions on what a fair outcome would look like. It would appear we are at an impasse.
However, grace and forgiveness can lead past fairness toward just outcome. Such a just outcome may seen unfair to both parties, but in the end it brings peace to all involved.
Where are you prioritizing a sense of what's fair over an opportunity to use grace to create what is just?
“I do the very best I know how — the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”
-Abraham Lincoln
This was said in response to an advisor who suggested that Lincoln respond with argument to newspapers that were attacking him for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln's ability to unapologetically live his truth set millions on the path to freedom.
What remarkable confidence and poise! This was spoken by a man who knew his truth and was willing to stand for it. Faith and clarity kept him out of the weeds and moving ever forward.
Where are you tempted to defend your truth instead of moving forward with resolute confidence?
Ego scio plus ego cogito ergo sum
“I think therefore I am”
-Descartes, 1637
Seems like solid proof that we are thinking beings. But what about the knowing we all carry that has no thoughts? The illogical confidence that we are real and alive, more than the sum of our parts, despite the lack of proof and evidence?
“I know I am more than I think, therefore I am.”
-perhaps a better fit for 2019?
Thinking and knowing
I think many thoughts, including more than I can count about existence, life, and being.
Yet there is a knowing I have that can not be touched by thought. I know I am myself, even though I can't think my way fully into my being. I don't understand everything about me, but I know everything about me is about me.
When does your thinking get in the way of your knowing?
Normal or natural?
When I was young I didn't want to be normal. I defined my worth by my gifts, which made me different, unique, and special.
I hear people speak of wanting to feel, act, or experience normal. Maybe they mean natural?
Normal is mathematically and socially standard. Fitting in. Part of the crowd.
Natural is how you were made. Your essence. The truth that starts inside you and can't be changed.
The irony for me is that being natural helps me see how normal I am.
Would you rather be normal or natural?
Hello sadness.
I'm sorry to see you again, and I'm working past that sorrow so that I might welcome you.
How would you feel if I could love you, sadness? Could you find peace without feeling threatened for your very existence?
A reluctant “yes” prayerfully arrives, and my work to welcome sadness continues.
Counting the mileage
When I was at University I always calculated the cost of gas it took to visit my parents. My little 2 door hatchback got about 40 miles per gallon, gas was about $1 per gallon, and my parents lived almost 20 miles away.
I have spent years of my life calculating fractions of pennies in hopes that finding specifics would bring me peace. It has brought me fast wit and a mathematically accurate map of the world around me. But it has not brought me peace.
Ironically it seems that peace is available in the letting go. The less attached I am to the specifics the more free I feel.
At the same time, if I am attached to escaping the specifics (ie running away) then that becomes a new attachment altogether. Such a mindset of escape keeps me from the peace in my centeredness.
My intention is to find balance between my calculating mind, my active body, and my knowing soul.
I still calculate my fuel economy every time I fill my gas tank. The work continues...