What is love?

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Love is wanting to hug blogger Sasha Dichter for starting a movement. Because I used to be anti-Valentine’s Day. I used to think of it as a contrived, inauthentic excuse to make those of us in a relationship force something we may or may not feel in the moment, and to make those of us not in a relationship extremely uncomfortable and bitter.

Sasha Dichter encourages us to move beyond whatever we conceived of Valentine’s Day to be. Make it a true expression of the love that’s inside us. Make it Generosity Day.

For love is so more than just roses and chocolates. Love is what’s inside of us and just has to get out. When you follow your passion, you’re following love. When you give, you’re expressing love. When your generous with your time, your attention, when you listen, that is love. We are love.

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Passion: hype, annoying, or…it’s complicated?

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There are people who are so sick of the word “passion” that they shudder visibly when they hear or read about it. It’s trite. It’s overused. It’s hype. In my earlier post, The Passionistas vs the Passion Skeptics, I revealed a little of what the Passion Skeptics are writing about. They don’t want you to face “the grand betrayal of the false idols of passion.” Stop being so self-absorbed. It’s not about you. Focus on the world’s needs. You have to suppress yourself to get ahead. Get in line with reality.

RESPOND TO FALSE IDOLS

Passionistas send a not so subtle message.
CC: RESPOND TO FALSE IDOLS by andeecollard, on Flickr

I believe people are unhappy with the word because it’s too simple to explain the complexity behind it. Passion is overused. Passion will break your heart. Passion will lead you down a broken path. We can’t stand to watch people getting played by over-simplistic romanticism and tear-off calendar truths. We get frustrated and blame the language. Continue reading →

The Passionistas vs the Passion Skeptics

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Passion

Passion by neil conway, on Flickr

A year ago, I began exploring the topic of passion. A good friend of mine was frustrated. He was looking for something….more…something not quite nameable. As we explored the topic, we decided he was looking for his passion – that elusive thing that makes you excited to get up in the morning. Work, and by consequence life (since we spend so many waking hours at work) had become dull, unchallenging, gray.

One day, after chewing over the many conversations we had on this topic, I asked him, “How many of your friends are looking for their passion?”

“Almost everyone,” he replied, without hesitation. “Why?”

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How is your inner child?

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When was the last time you consulted your inner child? Yes, I know. You’ve been working like crazy, taking care of everyone but yourself, and your weekends are spent sleeping in, catching up, running errands, catching the game on TV. But when was the last time you turned off the TV and filled in the blank, “When I was a kid, I dreamed of being ________” and then compared that to your adult self?

“The creative adult is the child who has survived.” – Ursula K. LeGuin

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Stop the Acronyms – and P.S. …

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Some of my favorite tools that help me renew my enthusiasm are pissed off today. My social bookmarking service, Pinboard, has a banner protesting SOPA and PIPA. WordPress.org has strayed from its “no politics” policy to write this blog entry, Help Stop SOPA/Pipa.

And when Wikipedia is mad, I’m rightfully concerned. So, I’ll just take Wikipedia’s prompt, I’ll put in my zip code to contact my local representative….hold on just a second while I type that out…. Continue reading →

A word on resistance

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“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”
– Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle

In my previous post, I asked, Are You Resisting? My answer is yes. I am resisting clarifying my vision of my life, of this blog, of my work. So, I did what I do best when I’m resisting: read, research, and reflect. I used to call it procrastination, until I realized that my resistance usually means something. Sometimes it’s full of shit, but this time my pause meant that there was something to be figured out. Thus, a diversion on my path to clarify my vision for 2012: What is resistance all about? Continue reading →

Are you resisting?

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If you’ve endeavored to sit down and figure out your New Year’s adventure, resolution, consecration, theme, grand scheme, take-over-the-world-and-take-no-prisoners plan, and you find – “Squirrel!” – yourself – “Oh, look, a new email.” – distracted – “hahahahaha, I love that video!” – perhaps you might – “this is stupid” – be facing – “I don’t need no stinking resolution” – a little resistance. Continue reading →

New Year’s Day, Renewable Enthusiasm Day

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“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
– Zora Neale Hurston

Speaking of Beautiful Questions, New Year’s Day has to be one of my favorite “beautiful question” kind-of-days. The start of a new year brings the opportunity for a fresh start, a time to regroup, set our intentions for the upcoming year. Since I’m also a procrastinator by nature, I’ll note that it’s perfectly ok to also leverage Chinese New Year, birthdays, anniversaries, or any other milestone to do this. But New Year’s Day is a freebie. The world has slowed down, so why not seize the moment for yourself to do the same? Continue reading →

Beautiful questions

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A new friend of mine wrote a wonderful blog entry about asking beautiful questions. As a researcher and Professor of Sociology, questions are critically important in her field. The beautiful ones, she broke it down for us, will always lead to more questions.

“That is the beauty of such a question, it doesn’t stop. A beautiful question asks everyone who comes into contact with it to respond. Not everyone will respond of course, that’s free will. Beautiful questions don’t rest, but rather are generative. These are the questions that create more than they stay still. Beautiful questions inspire discussion, debate, engagement, inquiry and reflection.

“Beautiful questions are also really HARD.”

Tonight, about a week after being introduced to the concept of beautiful questions, another friend asked a group of us one of the most beautiful questions I’ve ever heard.

Silhouette of a person standing with ther arms behind their head

©: iStockphoto / simonmcconico / confused




What would your life be like if you said to yourself:

“I am enough.
“I do enough.
“I have enough.” ?

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Fighting the Good Fight – Letting Go of Your Ego

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One of the things that I love about rock climbing, is that I can hold all other things constant and fight the good fight.  There are a number of “good fights” in life, but I’m learning that the primary one is the struggle between my True Self and my Ego.  When I’m on the wall – indoors or out, it’s just me trying to interact with an inanimate puzzle.  I can forget about everything else in my life and practice working through my fears, my perceptions, my emotions.  If you win that fight, you set yourself up with a personal power, a resilience, a method of renewing your enthusiasm to help you in any other endeavor you choose. Continue reading →