The Enlightened-ish Friday Buzz
Stuff that is lighting me up this week.. in the hope that you might be inspired too.
Hello, (Sort of) Enlightened Friends,
Welcome to the Friday Buzz, in which I share quotes, books, podcasts, ideas, and other resources that have inspired me and/or brought me joy, hope, gratitude, on my journey toward more health and wholeness. My hope is that you’ll find something useful here to inspire or help you on your own journey to become Enlightened-ish.
But first a quick update about my new-ish book, Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing.
I’ve discovered that the work never stops to get the word out. Good thing I find it fun. I love talking about the issues the book explores: adventure, mental health, trauma, addiction, and the importance of spirituality to emotional and physical healing. In the past two weeks, I’ve recorded four podcast episodes. Two of them are already live on your favorite streaming service: Curiosity Junkie with Cassie Burton and Life Is a Ride with Chris Joseph. Much gratitude to both Cassie and Chris. You can listen to them by clicking on the above links.
Ok, and now to the Enlightened-ish Friday Buzz.
Spiritual/personal-growth quote I’m pondering.
One of my favorite resources for daily inspiration is a book called One Foot in Front of the Other by Tian Dayton. This book is a gem, one of the best I’ve found for addiction recovery. But, really, this book is for anybody who wants daily spiritual/self-growth inspiration. I flip around in this book every morning, and this week I kept coming back to the entry to March 9. It’s about courage. Dayton quotes the Irish poet John O’Donahue. What I like about this quote is the notion that courage can be developed. We can grow courage, just as we can grow faith. Here’s the quote: Usually, it involves accepting life as it is, not as we wish it would be.
“Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.”
Podcast Episdoe I Enjoyed and Learned from: This week I enjoyed Krista Tippett’s interview with record producer Rick Rubin on the On Being Podcast. Rubin famously says that he has no musical skill beyond having good taste and being able to articulate it to the artists he works with. In this episode he talks about the creative process and his new book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. This quote stuck with me because I can often get stuck with the lens of my awareness set on “micro” instead of “macro.”
: “Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose.”
I like that last line: “We get to choose.”
What I’m meditating on:
This week I’ve been doing some “contemplative meditation” on the Prayer of St. Francis. I read the words slowly over and again. I don’t concentrate on anything specific, but rather I let the words sort of wash over me. I begin to notice how the meaning of the words shifts. In some ways, I think that this prayer is the only passage that a spiritual seeker of any tradition or stripe needs to read. These poetic lines pretty much say it all. They teach the paradox of life, the way that wisdom comes from holding two sides of the coin: The both/and-ness of life. By the way, when I say the word “Lord,” I do NOT imagine an old man with a beard sitting on a throne in Heaven. I think of “Lord” or “God” as “the ground of all being.” Maybe that will work for you, if you have trouble, as I do, with the various words that are used for God. OK, here it is, in case you’ve forgotten your Sunday school lessons:
“Lord, make me an instrument of they peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.”
Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.”
New way that I’m connecting with more joy in my life:
This week, I bought a djembe drum. I know! I know nothing about African drumming, and I don’t have very good rhythm either. Yet I was inspired to buy this drum because I’ve longed to join the drum circle that happens every Sunday at the Monkey Tree at Barton Springs, here in Austin. Why do I want to join the drum circle? First, I’ve been looking for ways to get out of my comfort zone and have more joy and fun in my life. I love my life as a writer, memoir coach, and yoga teacher. But I crave living more in the sensory world. In the two years I’ve lived in Austin, I’ve passed by the drum circle and said, I wish I could do that! To which my inner critic has responded: What a silly idea! This week, I stopped listening to my inner critic’s opinion about the drum circle. Wish me luck!
A cool video I stumbled upon on YouTube:
I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, so I didn’t experience Bob Dylan’s rise to success in “real time.” When I first heard “Look Ma, I’m Only Bleeding” and “Positively 4th Street,” Dylan was already a “classic.” That didn’t stop me from becoming a big Bob Dylan fan. And yet, I’ve never had a clue what he might be like as a person. If you’re a Dylan fan, this interview by 60 Minutes’ Ed Bradley, which appeared two decades ago, is as revealing as I’ve seen. I loved the reason he gives for why he kept touring later in life.
That’s all for Enlightened-ish Friday Buzz for today. I’ll end with a reminder that my memoir, Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing, is now available from your favorite bookseller and Amazon.
I’ll be back next week with another installment of The Enlightened-ish Friday Buzz and maybe a new essay, too. Please subscribe, if you enjoy these musings. FYI, I love comments and questions. Your insights are welcome and much appreciated.