Good Morning Thinkers!

Responses to Mid-life Being

A couple of weeks ago, we talked a bit about "mid-life being" asking:

So, if it’s never too late to become what you might have been, what is it that you wanted to be but haven’t yet become?  What did you dream of being as a child?  What other path still calls to you? And, more importantly what are you doing to allow it into your life today?

We got some fun, stimulating responses ... enjoy and best wishes for your mid-life being!

** From De Wet Coetzee

I cannot remember whom it was that said: "Life is what happens while you are making other plans"

** From Pete McVeigh in Northern Ireland:

You have probably seen this, but I thought it would appeal to you.  (Some UK content, but you get the drift).

Us Old Uns ...

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were  kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.  (continued  below)

(JW:  because this has been around, it's included at the end of this post ... it is fun, so check it out.)

** From Anne Naylor:

Such a good question.  About 20+ years ago, I was giving early retirement seminars to Barclays Bank managers and their spouses - I was mid 30's at the time - in London.   I adapted training processes I learnt in California, adapted and transferred them to the UK. They were all about motivation from the inside out - and subsequently led into Inner Motivation, Career and Leadership Development and Personal Success Programmes.

I am incubating a process I am calling:

FUTURE FOCUS AT 50 +  FINDING YOUR PASSION AND MAKING IT WORK.

Too many lose their appetite for life in their 50's and end up losing their life, too soon.  Such a waste!  The opportunity these days is not just in living a long life, but in having quality of life until its conclusion.

Those who are successful in their later years typically have a passion that they pursue.  In my researches, I discovered that many people do not enjoy real fulfilment in their lives until their 70's.  We live in such a thrilling world.

So for me, now 56, I am taking time out to locate my passion, and my route to prosperity.  It is a lovely process!

** From Conrad Zumhagen:

Good thoughts.  Thanks.  Reminds me of the decision to do just that, when I (voluntarily) left my executive position in the corporate world seven years ago to devote full time to being an innovation catalyst.  It certainly was not too late (at age 55), but just right, and I love my work (driving innovation in the  automotive and plastics industries).

By the way, here's another take on the George Eliot quote: "Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur." - Muriel Spark.

** And, last but definitely not least, from the Queen of Creativity herself:

Okay, here it is.  At nearly 92 I have just completed two CD's of children's stories .. am almost finished with my about 4 or 5 CD's about my travel in 35 countries (titled I NEVER MET A COUNTRY I DIDN'T LIKE! .. and am half-way through my book on creative aging.

When I finish those I may write a novel to be titled THE RAFT ... and I plan to learn more Spanish and go back to taking piano ... which I haven't done since I was eight years old.  I  hope I get to finish all these on-going enjoyments.   Always fun to interact with you.  Anne Durrum Robinson

Thoughts for a New Year

May 2005 be filled with love and beauty, joy and freedom, peace and kindness.  And, may these thoughts brighten your path.  JW

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely divinely aware."
        --Henry Miller

"The weak can never forgive. 
Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
  -- Mahatma Gandhi
 
"We are the protagonists and authors of our own drama. 
It is up to us; there is no one left to blame. 
Neither the "system," not our leaders, nor our parents. 
We can't go out and hang the first amoeba."
        -- Rebecca McClen Novick
       
"With love, even the rocks will open."
        --Hazrat Inayat Khan

"My soul can find no staircase to heaven
unless it be through earth's loveliness."
         -- Michelangelo

Seven Spiritual Laws of Success for Parents

" ... since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance.  Instead we
should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned."  -- John Holt, "How Children Fail"

Buy at amazon.com. 

Deepak Chopra's "Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" has been a self-help block buster with several follow-on versions (yoga, relationship, business and so on).  My friend Andrea who is on a continuous search for how to be a better parent was particularly taken with Chopra's "Seven Spiritual Laws of Success for Parents."

Since we are in the holiday season, when family is a major focus, I thought it might be good to share Andrea's summary of the Chopra book.  Hope you enjoy and happy holiday season ... Joyce

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success for Parents

1. Everything is possible.

2. If you want to get something, give it.

3. When you make a choice, you change the future.

4. Don't say no--go with the flow.

5. Every time you wish or want, you plant a seed.

6. Enjoy the journey.

7. You are here for a reason.

Then, the laws are broken down into teachings for each day of the week. For example:

Sunday is the day of Pure Potentiality:

1. Lead them in a few minutes of silent meditation.
2. Inspire them to appreciate the beauty and wonder of Nature.
3. Show them hidden possibilities in familiar situations.

Love and Fear

There are only two forces at work in the world--Love and Fear.
One opens, the other closes
One opens, the other grasps
One hopes, the other despairs
One grows, the other shrinks
Love and Fear
We live in both
But we can choose which one we call home.

By Douglas D. Germann, Sr. c Copyright 2004, Learning Works,
Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions:
Doug@FootprintsintheWind.com or 574/291-0022,
or P. O. Box 2796, South Bend, IN 46680-2796.
Archived at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

5 Balls

This gem comes from bblog: the sales, marketing and business weblog

5 Balls | “Each of us is given five balls. One is rubber and four are glass. The rubber ball is work. If you drop it, it will always bounce back. The other four glass balls are family, friends, health and integrity. If you drop them, they are shattered. They won’t bounce back.”

Four Agreements & Work

Last week I was the new kid in a new environment, completely out of my element. I was sitting in a meeting of the local gem and mineral club and was looking through a hand lens at a rock specimen. A woman at the front of the room said, "Put the lens up to your eye and bring the rock up to it." Suddenly a flash of anger shocked through my body and, while I managed to shut my mouth, I'm sure my body language telegraphed my negative reaction.

I was shocked at the intensity of my feeling ... like standing at the blackboard in the second grade with the teacher scolding me for my wrong answer to a math question. As I thought about it later, I heard a little genie sitting on my shoulder asking, "Perhaps it's time to do a little self-examination?" So, when I received the latest issue of the New and Improved newsletter with its article about the Four Agreements, I particularly homed in on "Don't take anything personally." What I had felt was a personal attack, a reminder of my incompetencies, was simply one person trying to help another and my insecurities got in the way of building a relationship.

Mary Bartlett has generously allowed us to reprint her article. You can subscribe to the newsletter at
http://www/newandimproved.com.

The Art of Seeing

Photo by Harvey Lloyd

From Harvey Lloyd's website: I beg your indulgence. Your eye does not see anymore than your computer thinks. Your eye is a marvelous tool for recording and transmitting photons of light to your brain in the form of electrical signals. Beginning at the retina, a series of computer like programs analyze, censor, delete and send certain amounts of information to various parts of the brain. This is not widely understood. Most of us were raised and taught to think that our eyes see. Recent studies of how the eye and brain work together bring to light the uncanny fact that our brains, not our eyes "see" and control our vision. The Art of Seeing reveals how early conditioning and genetic inheritance determines how and what we see. We come to understand that we can learn to truly see the world in all of its miraculous beauty only after hard work and deep insights. We observe the processes of seeing and creating our world vision. We examine the strange phenomenon of artist's works which often do not resemble the way we see the world.

I celebrate the art of true vision. It is the key to becoming one in heart and spirit with the Gaea, the earth. Light, holy light, makes vision possible. Light and its bizarre behavior is another of the mysteries which still baffle physicists and mathematicians. Light gives vision. How that process works is a visit to a strange new land. To truly see is to enhance one's life and make visible the hidden universe of wonders that surround us.

"Genuine art, we say, has “vision,” and good poetry and good seeing quite literally go together almost always. Yet before the more literal seeing can liberate itself into that other vision we speak of, a transfiguration is needed: the eye must learn to abandon its long habit of useful serving and take up instead an active delight in its own ends." —JANE HIRSHFIELD: excerpt from Kingfishers Catching Fire: Seeing with Poetry’s Eyes