Finding a Vast View

It has now been sunny in Portland for several days, with today fogging over just a bit.  Seeing the blue of the sky on a daily basis, what a notion, and how much it seems to matter.  It feels like a perfect amount of beauty and bright to get us ready for the final descent into solstice.

I am attempting to implement a one-long-walk-a-week plan, so yesterday, having a free morning, I took advantage of the sun and the cold to take a nice long walk around my neighborhood.

I decided to walk up the big hill to Council Crest Park, a beautiful grassy knoll that looks out over the city to the East, and the Coast Range to the West.  It is said that this where Native Americans of the area held councils, hence the name.  When you're up there, you can see why. What a wonderful idea, to have important discussions in a place with a view...

So, the walk is no mean feat (yet no real large one either...).  and midway through, huffing my way onto a flat street after a sustained climb, I began to think that perhaps I wouldn't make it up to the top after all, that I could just loop around and head back down.  Why not? Why did I need to go all the way up there anyway?  Who said I had to?

Thankfully, another part of me won out.  The part that just wanted to do what it had set out to do, and knew what awaited after just a bit more work.  I was well rewarded.  Though sunny on top of the hill, fog still clouded the city below.  From the park, I could see the peaks of the cascades, and the city shrouded in mist.

When I reached the top, there were only a few other people there to enjoy the splendor. A man sat on a bench with his dog, talking on a phone. A couple arrived and wandered around a bit, taking in the view and cuddling. I myself sat on a rock wall for quite awhile, feeling the warmth of the sun warm the stones and my face.

I was so happy that I had persevered and done what I had set out to do; what I knew I wanted to do.

What is it they say about choosing the road less traveled by? Oh yes, that it makes all the difference. (But nothing about how hard it is to choose it!)

Golden Work

Listening all day, is that what I do?

I am often asked that question.  Some who ask seem to think that it would be a very easy or simple thing to do; others, the most difficult.  I find that they are both right.

Really, as I sit in my chair and listen, I am first seeking being.  There is not much to do until I find that.  But, I find being by listening to myself, so the work is, in a way, all about listening.  And the work is life itself...

As we enter into Fall, surely as the leaves begin to turn orange and red and yellow, the work in my office changes course.  Summer offers a certain respite from the usual concerns and stresses of life.  Even though one's life may not be truly different, and in some cases even have become a bit more hectic during the summertime, we all somehow seem to give ourselves a break.   To be honest, I'm glad for it, too.

In Summer, sessions are often more conversational, filled with updates and thoughts about what is going to come when the season changes and life gets serious again.  We are often meeting again after a break due to vacations and activities; we catch up, are glad to see each other again, process what has been at work during the break.

Now, as sure as the sky today is gray and the air chilled, I can feel the momentum changing.  New people are entering my practice, ready to work.  People I have worked with for a long time are getting ready for the change that comes with the season.  Last night, I had my first session of the year end after it had become dark.  People are beginning to use that ominous phrase "...and then the holidays are coming..." 

Fall is definitely a time for movement and work.  Is that why so many of us love it so much? Do you?

How do you take hold of it?  This opportunity to take the energy gained over the golden summer and put it into something you want or need, yearn or long for?

What is your work this Fall?  How do you take advantage of the movement of letting go?  How are you taking the bright energy of summer and transforming it into your own personal harvest?

Winng the Lottery

What is work and what is not work are questions that perplex the wisest of men.

    ~The Bhagavad-Gita

We live in difficult times.

Sigh.  Oh yes, we do.

Financial woes, environmental disaster, existential angst.  What's an American to do?

Win the lottery! Yes, that is an excellent solution.  Ha ha.  Shrug, sigh.  Seen any good movies lately?

What?  Is this the best solution we can come up with?  C'mon, we're Americans!  We can do better than that.  I have a solution, and it's good for your mental health, too:

Work.

Yes, work.  Work!

Instead of waiting, wondering, and complaining: let's just get down to work and working and digging into our own lives.  A victory garden for every mind and heart!  Yes.

Ah, but it is so easy, so easy right there to feel overwhelmed.  I don't want to, damnit!  I can't.  I won't.  It won't matter.  If I could just win the lottery.... ha ha.... shrug.  Have you watched any good shows on Hulu lately?

Wait wait wait.  What is it exactly that we need?  How can we be so sure we don't have it?

More.  More resource, more time, just a little more, just enough, just until, just more!

More.  BP wanted more, too. What kinds of sacrifices do we make everyday in the name of needing more?  Are we sure that more is the key?

We assume that with this more will come happiness (we wouldn't want it otherwise).  I need more!

We tire of work.  I'm burned out.  But are we truly working?  What is it to work? What is the American dream?  Is it a folly, a delusion, a pastime?

Or is there something to "pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps" and just getting down to it; to forgetting about why and how and if and when, and just working because it is in that very action, that process, that we find identity, fulfillment, and peace.

The American dream has been defined in many ways: a house, two kids, a car, a picket fence, an iphone, whatever.   But I believe it has to do with the freedom to work, and the inner freedom that comes with that.  With the freedom to be responsible for one's own life, and to live out the fruits or follies of that life--not for wealth necessarily, but for self.  For the experience of being alive.

Someone else said it better:

    You have the right to work, but for the work's sake only.

    You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. Never give way to laziness, either.

     Perform every action with your heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce attachment to the fruits.

    Be even tempered in success and failure; for it is this evenness of temper which is meant by yoga.

   Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm of self-surrender. Seek refuge in the knowledge of Brahman. They who work selfishly for results are miserable.

                                                                       ~Bhagavad-Gita Mahabharata

This isn't about having a job and working nine to five.  Work is whatever is before you in your day.  It is your life--let's live!  Let's work.