Black Wednesday?

Ever since our evolution away from a nomadic lifestyle to a life in permanent settlements we have lived out the economic misconception of scarcity, believing that there is not enough to go around, and that only “the fittest survive.”   Among many other apparitions this cultural delusion is responsible for the Black Friday – and now Black Thursday - phenomenon.  Instead of spending meaningful and quality time with family and friends, many now rush out of the house even before Thanksgiving Day is over, to stand in line, fight the crowds, and feed the big box stores some more money, truly believing that there won’t be another deal around, that “it’s now or never.”

We vote with our spending dollars.  How about voting instead for local merchants who add diversity, creativity, and a sense of community to our lives - and enjoying your turkey dinner a little longer, too?  Otherwise we’ll have Black Wednesday soon.

the busy trap

Being busy for the sake of being busy ……Tim Kreider wrote in the NY Times recently how we worship busyness as a virtue and are addicted to it.  Yet, it fills life with meaningless activity, and I have caught myself at it.  Checking Facebook or email five times a day, snacking, driving around shopping, hovering over the children, staying late at the office because of peer pressure (because working hard is a virtue here in America, right?), even when the day’s work is done. Busyness is not only a mechanism of procrastination, but also a shield against delving deeper into life in general, filling emptiness with busyness.  I say “work smart” not “hard,” and fill the rest of your time with meaning.  It’s quality that counts, not quantity.

health is a balancing act

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Culture Blogs.

Healing is much more than “fighting” symptoms with mechanical or chemical means in order to get rid of them.  Health is an ongoing balancing act that requires continual and never ending internal adjustment.

When you are in tune with your body you begin to notice even slight imbalances, such as fatigue, digestive system upsets, aches, or stress.  Such minor imbalances can easily be rebalanced with gentle methods, like rest, better food, lifestyle adjustments, or energy healing methods (EFT, acupuncture, homeopathy and others).

It’s actually all about your needs. When your emotional and physical needs are met your body, mind and spirit all function in harmony and unison and you are healthy as a consequence.  When, on the other hand, you have unmet emotional needs and you keep ignoring them and your body’s nudging messages, more serious physical symptoms are eventually bound to develop from this stress.

“Perfect health” is fleeting and unattainable on a continuous basis, healing is ongoing as long as you live.

Monday, Monday

What would life be without Mondays?  Our house is usually a mess by Sunday and I am glad that Monday comes around.  The beds get made again, the dishes get washed and put away again, the carpets get vacuumed, the clothes get hung up again, and stuff gets picked up and put in its place.  We need Mondays for a fresh start, to clean up and get organized again, get our head out of the week-end cloud, and simply as an opposite to week-ends.  As much as we grumble about climbing out of the warm bed at 6AM on Monday morning, we need our Mondays.  Mondays are good for us.

Sandy and the people factor

A friend of one of our children said after the power came back on “It was actually kind of nice when the power was out because we all sat around the table and talked.  As soon as the power was back on mom went on FB, dad on YouTube, and I on Xbox.”  We were at two hurricane parties and had a third one at our house during the five days without power, much more togetherness than during any regular work week.  That tells you what is really important in life – it’s relationships, people, togetherness, none of that self-sufficiency business.  No man is an island!  If we could only admit how much we need one another, how interwoven we all are, and how precious that interdependency actually is, we will have come a long way.