TO ANCHOR THE FREQUENCIES OF CLARITY, SIMPLICITY & PURITYI decided that after all of the work that went into organizing my spring tour and the resulting pain and rehabilitation that I went through to heal my back, I could use some simplicity in my life. I also wanted to spend some time to get clear on what my plans are for the fall. As you may have read, I am continually looking for opportunities to speak and market my book, and this requires a focus on the future and identification of potential partners. Even while my back was mending, I confess that I was thinking of ideas and contacting people about potential projects.
Plus, the summer months naturally feel like holidays to me; I don’t have a strong urge to work and my preference is to enjoy the sun, spend time in nature and relax. I am excited to report one development that just happened: I had diligently been contacting a book store on Salt Spring Island since January and finally decided to give up and let it go (the owners never responded to my messages or the book that I sent them). Serendipitously, I received an email from Mike Nickerson, an author from Ottawa who endorsed my book. He is embarking on a major speaking tour and will be stopping on Salt Spring. I looked up the venue where he will be speaking and contacted them. They replied the next day and are interested in having me come over!! It is shaping up to be a great fall, as you will soon discover.
Tuesday July 22, 2008
STANDING IN THE GARDEN OF SUNSHINE
“This is my life”, I declared emphatically to myself. Standing in admiration of a perfect, pink water lily straight from the garden of Buddha himself. Did you know that bees and butterflies abound this summer? Nothing scientific, just my own observation. Perhaps the human race isn't doomed after all.
Whenever I worry that I ‘should be doing something else’, I remind myself that this is the life I have chosen. I have chosen to work part-time, I have chosen to not keep up with the Joneses, and I have chosen to redefine success. Consciously chosen, I might add, with increasing levels of awareness and feelings of empowerment.
I also realized, as I stood in the garden that sunny afternoon, that all over the planet, this is inherently what people want: to stand in safety and admire a deep blue sky, to feel the gentle warmth of the sun on our shoulders, to observe the smaller landscape around us, the ants, the dragon flies, the chickadees and flowers. I began to notice the inherent perfection of everything around me, and it brings me feelings of peace and gratitude. I am also grateful that I can notice and appreciate such a moment, and I remember not so long ago when physically walking into teh backyard was a major accomplishment. I am very aware that I have the luxury, the security and the ability to admire this moment.
I drift over to the raspberry patch. They were overloaded with fruit, at all stages. And the interesting novelty of the raspberry patch is its multiple levels that can only be observed by changing your position and looking at things from a different perspective. I picked and picked and picked. I lost some, and others I hastened to the ground. You need to reach, to stretch, to push into the thick of things and even bend at the waist, get on your knees or lie on the ground in order to spot the best berries.
A lot of athletes, upon ‘retiring’ from their sport, become motivational speakers. In the past, part of me has lamented (internally) that since I hadn’t climbed Mt. Everest or swam across Lake Ontario I would never be able to command the respect or fee of a retired Olympic athlete. But today, as I picked raspberries, I made a note to develop a key note talk based on my experience in the raspberry patch. Who says you have to swim the English Channel to have something worthwhile to say?
