FERNWEH
Who am I that I ache for places I have never seen? Who yearns for destinations I have never known. That wanderlust plagues me and carries part of my spirit in its outstretched hand. She who dreams of places yet unseen, of moments not yet occurring, of feelings long since felt. She who feels homesickness for distant adventures. A far-sickness that gnaws on the core of who she is. She has a need to find the place, the time, the where that she is meant to be. Fernweh is stamped upon her soul. -M.M.
The Road
Here is the road: the light comes and goes and then returns again.
whirling with you yet every one alone.
The road waits.
Do not ask questions but when it invites you to dance at daybreak, say yes.
Each step is the journey; a single note the song
Be gentle with your fellow travelers as they move through the world of stone and stars
Arlene Gay Levine
Excerpted from :Bless the Day: Prayers & Poems to Nurture Your Soul
Excerpted from :Bless the Day: Prayers & Poems to Nurture Your Soul
by June Cotner
Cowboy Prayer
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In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
-Abraham Lincoln
Eighty years is currently the average life span in the
West. Here’s how to make them happy and
fulfilling:
1. Travel often.
Do yourself this favor before it’s too late. Without thinking too much about it, pack a
pillow and a blanket at least once a year and go see a part of the world you’ve
never seen before. You will not regret
it.
Traveling has less to do with seeing things, as it does with
experiencing them. It has less to do
with discovering something, as it does with discovering yourself. In your travels you won’t find all the
answers, you will find lots of questions you would otherwise have never thought
to ask.
The thing about traveling to new places is that you run into
your insecurities and fears around every twist and turn. You run into all the good things and bad
things about yourself on a daily basis, and are provided the opportunity to grow
far beyond your years.
2. Work on something
every day that moves you.
When you strike that fine balance between the challenge of
an activity and your skill at performing it, when the rhythm of your work feels
in sync with your purpose, when you know that what you’re doing makes a difference,
you become absorbed in the task at hand to the point where time ceases to
exist. This is what true passion and
happiness feels like.
So is there anything you do on a regular basis that makes
you forget what time it is?
That forgetting, or optimal experience of pure absorption,
is what the psychologist Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi calls “flow.” He describes the phenomenon as “being
completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies.
Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous
one, like playing jazz. Your whole being
is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
On your average day,
flow experiences are those flashes of intense living when you’re engrossed in a
meaningful task that makes you feel more alive.
These optimal experiences can happen when you’re engaged in work, paid
or unpaid, that move you. Work like this
is something you should be pursuing on a daily basis.
3. Spend time with
friends who improve you.
You can go through
life and make new friends every year – every month practically – but there is
no substitute for the few who truly improve you.
These aren’t the
people who are simply nice to you; they’re the ones who help you uncover the
things that are holding you back. In
subtle ways, they bring ideas to your attention that change your life. These friends don’t just sit beside you
unknowingly; they shake your world up, reveal your obstacles and weaknesses,
and remain beside you because they care.
Friends like this are
the most important people you will ever meet because they tear down the
invisible walls you have built in your mind.
In other words, they come into your life and reveal new, valuable layers
of yourself that you would never have discovered without them.
4. Accept the risks
that feel right.
Security is mostly an
illusion. There are no sure things in
this world. The nature of the world is
constantly evolving. Reserving yourself
with numerous safety measures is usually no safer in the long-run than
indulging in constant exposure.
It is far more
fulfilling to dare yourself to the mighty experiences life has to offer –
enjoying great successes and enduring occasional failures – than to hide
forever in safety, only to leave the majority of your life unlived.
5. Work hard and
conquer great challenges.
The road to greatness
is far from smooth. You can be
absolutely certain that when you feel you are growing weak from struggle, you
are in fact growing stronger than you ever have been before.
The more difficulties
you encounter and overcome on your lifelong journey, internal or peripheral,
the more significant and inspiring your life story will be.
6. Make the very best
of every situation.
One of the great secrets of happiness is freedom, and the
secret of freedom is doing the best you can with what is done to you. It’s all about how you choose to respond to
the sometimes unpredictable deliveries life ships. This simple choice makes a world of
difference.
You are honestly free
now and always, no matter what circumstances surround you. If you find your circumstances tolerable, by
all means tolerate them; if you find them too confining, break through them –
stretch yourself. Ultimately you are
free because you alone are responsible for your thoughts and how you use them
to empower your growth.
7. Provide great
value to the world.
The best way to get
ahead in this world is not to compete with others, but to serve them. If you want to score a raise at work, be of
service to your boss. If you want to
build a profitable business, be of service to your potential customers. Provide unmistakable value.
Value is what makes
relationships, businesses, and personal endeavors thrive. When your strategy is to grab all you can as
quickly as you can, you will grab far less than you are capable of holding. It is foolish to think that you can fool the
world in any way. Success and happiness
come when you choose to work for the world diligently.
At any age, in any
situation, for every possible life path, there is value you can provide. Look closely and you will see opportunities
everywhere.
8. Spread your light.
As the Buddha once
said, “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of
the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Spread your light through love and kindness
to the people around you, and let the ‘giving spirit’ you initiate spread like
a virus, infinitely touching the lives of people you may never meet, across
boundaries you may never cross, in ways you may never have thought possible.
That is the power of
your love and kindness, and it’s your ticket to making the world a happier
place.
Beautiful thoughts, and words!
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