Your Story

Once upon a time, began the story of you.

Many perilous, wonderful, harrowing, brilliant, delightful, profound things happened.

And yet—the most exciting twists and best turns are yet to come. And it absolutely does not matter how old or young you are.

Like a bright carpet of wonders, enjoy the unrolling of your story.

Patriotism

Patriotism is a thing difficult to put into words. It is neither precisely an emotion nor an opinion, nor a mandate, but a state of mind—a reflection of our own personal sense of worth, and respect for our roots. Love of country plays a part, but it’s not merely love. Neither is it pride, although pride too is one of the ingredients.

Patriotism is a commitment to what is best inside us all. And it’s a recognition of that wondrous common essence in our greater surroundings—our school, team, city, state, our immediate society—often ultimately delineated by our ethnic roots and borders . . . but not always.

Indeed, these border lines are so fluid . . . And we do not pay allegiance as much as we resonate with a shared spirit.

We all feel an undeniable bond with the land where we were born. And yet, if we leave it for another, we grow to feel a similar bond, often of a more complex nature. Both are forms of patriotism—the first, involuntary, by birth, the second by choice.

Neither is less worthy than the other.

But one is earned.

Iced Tea: Meditation Puzzle

Imagine a delicious glass of summer iced tea.

Take a long cool sip. Listen to the ice crackle and clink.

Is the glass part full or part empty?

Take another sip.

And now?

Sun, Moon, and Starry Sky

Early summer evenings, when the first stars come out, the warm glow of sunset still stains the rim of the western sky.

Sometimes, the moon is also visible, a pale white slice, while the sun tarries.

Just think—all the celestial lights are present at the same time!

These are moments of wonder—see them and remember.

June Gloom

What a strange thing it is to wake up to a milk-white overcast June morning! The sun is hidden by a thick cotton blanket of clouds, and the air is vapor-filled and hazy with a concentration of blooming scent.

The world is somnolent and cool, in a temporary reprieve from the normal heat and radiance.

But the sensation of illusion is strong. Because the sun can break through the clouds at any moment . . .

What a soft thoughtful time.

In this illusory gloom, like a night-blooming flower, let your imagination bloom in a riot of color.

May Day!

In the old days, May 1st was considered the coming of spring, and celebrated as a new beginning.

At one point, it even became an official distress call, spoken three times to request help.

In more modern times, it evolved to become the international day of the working people.

Whether the first day of May is Beltane, Samhain, Walpurgis Night, Labor Day, International Workers Day, Lei Day, Loyalty Day, Roodmas, or a bank holiday; whether it involves a carnival, marching in parades, the crowning of the Queen of May and circle dancing round the Maypole, be sure to remember that this day is extraordinary!

What is your May Day like?

The Fern and the Cactus

The cactus thrives in the desert while the fern thrives in the wetland.

The fool will try to plant them in the same flowerbox.

The florist will sigh and add a wall divider and proper soil to both sides.

The grandparent will move the flowerbox halfway out of the sun.

The child will turn it around properly so that the fern is in the shade, and not the cactus.

The moral of the story?

Kids are smart.

A Boomerang

A boomerang returns back to the person who throws it.

But first, while moving in a circle, it hits its target.

So does gossip.

Your True Name

Most of us have nicknames—annoying, endearing, embarrassing.

But what about your true name?

It is not necessarily your given name. But it is the one to which you are most eager to respond when called.

Ever wonder why?

Your true name has the secret power to call you.

Save the World

It does not take a great supernatural heroine or magical hero to save the world.

We all save it every day, and we all destroy it -- in our own small ways -- by every choice we make and every tiniest action resulting from that choice.

The next time you feel useless and impotent, remember what you are in fact doing in this very moment. And then observe your tiny, seemingly meaningless acts and choices coalesce and cascade together into a powerful positive whole.

The world -- if it could -- will thank you for it.

And if it does not... well, a true heroine or hero does not require it.

Life and Story

The difference between real life and a story is that life has significance, while a story must have meaning.

The former is not always apparent, while the latter always has to be, before the end.

Strange Dreams

Strange dreams are better than no dreams at all.

Not So Random

Luck is not as random as you think.

Before that lottery ticket won the jackpot, someone had to buy it.

Wise Marriage

Wisdom is nothing more than the marriage of intelligence and compassion.

And, as with all good unions, it takes much experience and time to reach its widest potential.

Have you introduced your intellect to your compassion yet? Be careful; lately, intellect has taken to eating in front of the TV and compassion has taken in too many cats.

Pleasure: The Wind

Close your eyes and turn your face into the wind.

Feel it sweep along your skin in an invisible ocean of exultation.

Suddenly, you know you are alive.

Woman: Meditation Puzzle

A woman is human.

She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man.

Likewise, she is never less.

Equality is a given.

A woman is human.

Act of Creation

One of the strangest things is the act of creation.

You are faced with a blank slate—a page, a canvas, a block of stone or wood, a silent musical instrument.

You then look inside yourself. You pull and tug and squeeze and fish around for slippery raw shapeless things that swim like fish made of cloud vapor and fill you with living clamor. You latch onto something. And you bring it forth out of your head like Zeus giving birth to Athena.

And as it comes out, it takes shape and tangible form.

It drips on the canvas, and slides through your pen, it springs forth and resonates into the musical strings, and slips along the edge of the sculptor’s tool onto the surface of the wood or marble.

You have given it cohesion. You have brought forth something ordered and beautiful out of nothing.

You have glimpsed the divine.

Quantum Ghost

Today is an ephemeral ghost . . .

A strange amazing day that comes only once every four years. For the rest of the time it does not “exist.”

In mundane terms, it marks a “leap” in time, when the calendar is adjusted to make up for extra seconds accumulated over the preceding three years due to the rotation of the earth. A day of temporal tune up!

But this day holds another secret—it contains one of those truly rare moments of delightful transience and light uncertainty that only exist on the razor edge of things, along a buzzing plane of quantum probability . . .

A day of unlocked potential.

Will you or won’t you? Should you or shouldn’t you?

Use this day to do something daring, extraordinary and unlike yourself. Take a chance and shape a different pattern in your personal cloud of probability!

Magical

Incidentally, the world is magical.

Magic is simply what’s off our human scale . . . at the moment.

Secret Ignorance

It’s a fact—everyone is ignorant in some way or another.

Ignorance is our deepest secret.

And it is one of the scariest things out there, because those of us who are most ignorant are also the ones who often don’t know it or don’t want to admit it.

Here is a quick test:

If you have never changed your mind about some fundamental tenet of your belief, if you have never questioned the basics, and if you have no wish to do so, then you are likely ignorant.

Before it is too late, go out there and find someone who, in your opinion, believes, assumes, or considers certain things very strongly and very differently from you, and just have a basic honest conversation.

It will do both of you good.