The Original You

I love going to Lion Country Safari in West Palm Beach, FL. One of my favorite things is driving through the different lands. And, the sign that catches my eye is the one telling you to go slow. Now of course they are telling you to slow down to protect the animals. But, I think there is another reason. If you go too fast you are going to miss all the good stuff. So, when I go through I put the car in idle, and drive as slow as possible. I don’t want to miss the bird I’ve never seen before, or the opportunity for an ostrich to come to my window. Slower is always better at Lion Country.  The same is true in life. Slower in many cases is better.  Now let me say that I have loved adrenaline at certain times of my life.  I’m not alone in this. We live in a society that is addicted to excitement and speed. It’s about who wins. Let’s be real. Sometimes it’s good to go fast. When there is an emergency I’m glad the ambulance goes fast. If I was in a race faster wins....

Have you ever had the pleasure of watching a butterfly pollinate a flower? It is truly a miraculous thing to witness. The flower is dependent on that butterfly to come and transfer pollen from that flower to another flower. The flowers themselves cannot get the pollen to the other flowers without the butterfly coming and transferring the pollen.  How does the flower know that the butterfly will come? What if the butterfly never comes? Who gives the cue to the butterfly to go to the flowers that need pollinating? Now consider the ocean. That beautiful expanse of water teeming with life. All of the bigger fish are depending on the smaller fish to show up as a food source. Again, how does all of this work? Who gives the cue for the fish to feed off of other life? Nature is such a beautiful example of this dependence that we have on each other.  Humans are dependent on each other too. To forget this puts us in peril. To forget this we isolate each other. In fact, ...

Have you ever had the thought "Who am I to think that I can do this thing?" And of course, "this thing" could have a lot of different meanings. This feeling of being a fraud, or of not knowing what we are doing, is so much more common than we think. In our world where we are taught to always compare ourselves to others, it is sometimes hard to stand in the truth of our own talents. We may even have heard the expression, "Who do you think you are?" I know in my own life I have often felt like I am a fraud. I sometimes feel like others (others means anyone else) know more than me. It has kept me from taking risks. It has kept me from doing things that I wanted to do. It has prevented me from allowing my true self to come out. Fraud is a strong word. It implies that one is intentionally trying to deceive someone into thinking that we know something when we know we don't. So I believe that the feeling of being a fraud is simply not applicable to what...

Love is... Always assuming another person's intentions are for good. Love is... Treating ourselves well. Love is... Embracing our imperfections. Love is... Seeing ourselves as perfect. Love is... Taking lots of breaks. Love is... Having a sense of humor about ourselves. Love is... Wearing life like a loose garment. Love is... Having friends who will always be there when you need them. Love is... My beautiful wife. Love is... Assuming life will work out for my good, and the good of everyone else. Love is... Releasing my attachment to outcomes. Love is... Protecting our children. Love is... Seeing all races, gender identities, and races as equally important and worthy of respect. Love is... Respecting all religious and non-religious faiths. Love is... Creating peace by being peace. Love is... Honoring Mother Earth, and all living creatures. Love is... Protecting our oceans. Love is... What we came ...

Most of us have had the unpleasant experience of being on an airplane that has been put in a holding pattern as it approaches the airport. As a result of some delay at the airport you are coming into  you are made to circle the airport over and over again until it is safe to land. This experience can be very frustrating, especially if we have another connecting flight to get to. This experience of being put in a holding pattern shows up in our everyday life sometimes. There are delays. The check we were supposed to get didn't come in the mail on time. The car dealer you took your car to for repairs didn't get your car back in time. And, now you have to rent a car. In life there are literally thousands of delays that can frustrate us. This is life. It is a common trait of us humans to want to see things go smoothly. We don't like delays. And, even some of us (me included) will want to take these delays personally. It is also my experience that delays can be an ...

Curiosity. Lack of knowledge. Not knowing the answer. What images do these ideas conjure in our minds when we think about them? How does it feel in our gut to not understand something? Are we ok with that, or does it bring up some anxiety? We live in a society when information of any and every kind is instantly at our fingertips. We want an answer, and immediately it is available to us. We have been conditioned to now be expected to know everything, or be ok with not having to learn anything. If we have instant access to any information why is it that some of us (me included) sometimes have trouble admitting we don’t understand something?  I believe that many of us have a fraud complex. This is not a psychological term, but just a way for to describe a way of thinking that says “If you found out that I don’t know what I’m talking about you would reject me”.  This fraud complex is made more powerful by the thinking that expectations that are placed on some of t...