Seasons of the Soul

How To Get Along In Life

How To Get Along in Life

 
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't
matter and those who matter don't mind."
~Dr. Seuss

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

 

3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret. 

 —From The Four Agreements  by Don Miguel Ruiz

The World Map of Happiness

The happiest countries on earth have certain things in common. Read more and discover what they are and how we can incorporate that into our own lives.

http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=2928

What Do Dale Carnegie, Sidney Poitier, and Cary Grant have in common?

There are several inspirational websites that I truly appreciate. The work of Dick Kazan is one that consistently provides uplifting stories that help us remember what the human being is capable of.

Today's installment is excellent, and I think this should be required reading in ALL classrooms!

www.kazantoday.com

Do You Remember?

  Count how many you can remember...  and then check the bottom.

 

    1. Blackjack chewing gum

    2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water

    3. Candy cigarettes

    4. Soda pop machines that dispensed bottles

    5. Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes

    6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

    7. Party lines

    8. Newsreels before the movie

    9. P.F. Flyers

   10. Butch wax

   11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix

   (Olive - 6933)

   12. Peashooters

   13. Howdy Doody

   14. 45 RPM records

   15. S&H Green Stamps

   16. Hi-fi's

   17. Metal ice trays with levers

   18. Mimeograph paper

   19. Blue flashbulbs

   20. Beanie and Cecil

   21. Roller skate keys

   22. Cork popguns

   23. Drive-ins

   24. Studebakers

   25. Wash tub wringers

 

   If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young

   If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older

   If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age

   If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt

 

 IF YOU ARE LIKE ME AND SCORED "OLDER THAN DIRT"

  Just Remember that  getting old is a privilege denied to many .

A Synagogue Becomes a Mosque During Ramadan

We hear so much about the battles between religions in the Middle East, yet here is a heartwarming story of coming together and sharing a sacred space.

DailyGood: Synagogue a Mosque During Ramadan

How to Escape Perfectionism

Great article and much we can learn from the Icelanders!

DailyGood: How To Escape Perfectionism

The Meaning of Love

                          
                                  
 
　The following is the description of a video by Nikos Pilavios:
 
The scene is in the backyard of an old house. In the middle of the yard is a simple bench. Two men, a father and his son, are sitting together on a bench. They are silent. The son is reading a newspaper, turned slightly away from his dad. His father is sitting in the middle of the bench, looking ahead, hands in lap. The silence continues.
 
A bird lands in a nearby bush. Dad looks at the bird; his son continues reading the paper.
 
"What is that?" asks dad.
 
The son looks up. "A sparrow," he replies, and continues reading the paper.
 
A little later, the bird lands on the lawn in front of dad. Dad sits up, looking at the bird.
 
"What is that?" asks dad.
 
"I just told you, father, a sparrow," replies the son, with a little annoyance.
 
They sit in silence. The dad sees the bird again, and asks, "What is that?"
 
His son becomes very angry, drops his paper and yells, "A SPARROW, A SPARROW, S - P - A - R - R - O - W!! (spelling it). WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? I TOLD YOU SO MANY TIMES, IT’S A SPARROW!!!
 
His dad stand up and turns away. "Where are you going?" asks the son. His dad does not speak, but motions with his hand for his son to stay there. Dad goes into the house.
 
The son remains sitting on the bench, somewhat slumped over, looking glum. Dad returns, sits in the middle of th e bench right beside his son. He has a book. He opens the book, flips through a few pages, and hands the book to his son. He does not say anything, but pulls his son’s hand up, indicating his son should hold the book. Dad taps a place in the book, and says, "Loud."
 
The son reads:
"Today, my youngest son, who a few days ago, turned 3, was sitting with me at the park, when a sparrow sat in front of me. My son asked me 21 times what it was and I answered 21 times that it was a sparrow. I hugged him every single time he asked me the same question, again and again, without getting mad, feeling affection for my innocent little boy."
 
Dad nods. He remembers what happened many years before. There is a pause. Then the son extends his arm around dad, holds him and kisses him on the side of his head, many times. He continues to hold his dad. The words he read have re-awakened the admiration, the appreciation and the love he feels for his dad.
 
Up in the tree above them, the sparrow looks down at the men below and then happily flitters away.
 
                              * * *
There are at least 12 nursing home- assisted living facilities in or around Orange County. When old or disabled people are placed in these homes, their families visit them often at first. But as time goes by, the visits become more and more infrequent. In time, many nursing home residents are abandoned by their family. Many of the visits are perfunctory. Some visitors are ill-at-ease and appear to be anxious to leave.
 
The video above has a strong message to us all. Your parents cared for you when you were a child. When they become old or disabled, it’s your turn to care for them. Everything has a season.
 
When your relatives or friends are put in nursing homes, do not abandon them. Visit them with a feeling of joy. Be grateful that you are physically able to do so. Be grateful that there so many nursing homes, and that the nursing homes have improved over the last 10 years.
 
Sometimes it is unpleasant to go in a nursing home.  It is impossible to keep rooms and hallways clean 100% of the time. It is impossible for staff to attend to every resident’s need all the time. Yet these difficulties make it even more important for you to visit the residents.
 
                                  * * *
The video has a larger message. It suggests that if we do not show compassion, gentleness and patience, we miss the great lessons of our lives. A little patience can prevent us from saying things we will regret. A little compassion can help us to be able to talk to each other without arguing. Most arguments are caused by simple misunderstandings.
 
And we don’t have to be right all the time. In the video, dad taught his son a lesson: the true meaning of love. And then, by his hugs, the son showed his dad that he had learned the lesson.
 
Stanley Peele

Words of Wisdom

Our world today is mostly about getting, not giving. It is a terrible affliction, one that infects every facet of our world.

Giving is like water flowing freely. It nourishes the plants and animals, creates life, flows, goes from the sky to the land to the water and back to the sky again, completing the Great Hoop of Life.

Getting is static, withholding, stagnant. It accelerates decay and dissolution.
We are taught that the more we acquire and hoard, the greater we are, the more we “have.” But having “more” inevitably highlights its opposite, less. One can never have enough; there is always more to be had; so having more means having less by definition. It is a bottomless pit.

We have everything already. Creator gives us just what we need. If we try to take more than we can hold, use, enjoy, we are encumbered, unfree.

The way of free peoples: giveaway. It is the way of life. People who always want more die unfulfilled. Aho.                                                                                                                         ~Jim PathFinder Ewing -

Beyond the Wall

by Charles "Tom" Brown

In coming to prison I’ve learned the hard way how resistance to losses increases the suffering. Instead there has to be a kind of surrender. I’ve found that the degree of suffering is directly related to the degree of holding on. Most of us don’t let go of anything very easily.

A subtle part of this dance with loss is knowing and remembering that although my body is imprisoned, my heart and mind have a different kind of freedom. The most important thing I’ve learned in the last ten years is that even in the midst of a long prison sentence, there can be happiness, even joy.

Now to the tricky part: all of life is a blessing, a gift. For years I couldn’t call the loss of material goods and my freedom a gift. It felt like a curse, actually, something undeserved and unnecessary. It still feels like a curse some days, but there are gifts here, too. Losses remind us that we don’t have forever to take care of what matters most to us. In these years of doing what I could to help other inmates, my life has opened up like a flower and grace has come in a thousand ways like a cloud of butterflies on a summer’s morning.

So loss is a dance, an admonition, a curse, a blessing. I would not wish it on anyone. Nonetheless, here I am. How can I not bow down to it? It has humbled me and stripped me bare; it has given me my true life.

Wabi Sabi

Many wise traditions know the importance of finding a balance between action and stillness. One way of achieving that balance is by a simple yet profound way of living called 'Wabi Sabi'.

It is a way that is natural, drawing close to the real world, and relaxing perpetually into beautiful patterns that exist there. Wabi Sabi is a way of life that appreciates and accepts complexity while at the same time values simplicity. It nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. To accept these realities is to accept contentment as the maturation of happiness, and to acknowledge that clarity and grace can be found in genuine unvarnished existence. Filled with subtlety and depth, this way is a river flowing toward and away from you, and always within you.
--Richard Powell