What is it about the presence of spring that turns neighbors into worker bee beavers glued to a mission of recreating a better looking yard than last year? They put in over forty long a** hours of work M-F only to spend 48 more hours on Saturday and Sunday bending over, chopping, digging, replacing and whatever else is required to match the picture on the cover of Home and Garden.
The more I drove down our quiet city street the larger the guilt bubble expanded in the core of my gut; I’m not a Home Depot/Lowes lovin shape shifter with gifted powers to unmask the hidden art in a hillside more ancient than Native American’s arriving BC. The perfect yard isn’t long slivers of grass blades that tickle the areas between your toes in ways no human can excite the heart’s invisible passion.
I love it when the six pack of white tail deer wander into the rose garden and spend twenty minutes devouring the leaves. I laugh a child’s giggle when momma flops down near a gnome and acts as if she’s talking to something made of ceramic. I crave the true to life beaver that spends its afternoons gnawing away on sticks stuck in mud then hauls it away to the assumed secret hiding place.
Therefore I keep my circle 110% Carolina.
Maybe I’m wrong but the lack of sidewalks shouldn’t be stacks of perfectly cut twigs for the trash people to easily pick up. As bad as I feel about being stuck behind a Sunday driver in the rat race, I’m not afraid to respect everybody’s journey toward locating inner peace outside each of their separations between church and state.
My biggest weakness is a true love for the bald tree. A single white twenty five foot sky scratcher that’s given up on sprouting lime colored leaves in spring. Every year I’m scolded by the passerby’s to let the tree go, “Cut it up into itty bitty pieces and give it back to nature!”
What gives? Bald isn’t just a human trait! The bald eagle is unforgettable! South Carolina peaches aren’t hairy they’re fuzzy which according to some rule books is bald. The Chinese Crested dog is bald. Bald Head Island is for tourists and what about how Mt St Helens suddenly becoming bald in the 80’s?
I can’t imagine walking up to a bald headed man and saying, “You’re numbers up.”
Buddhist Monk Thick Nhat Hahn calls each experience shared in our front yards a flash of insight. Every family with their yards of plentiful flowers, brick design, paths of stone and little water fountains of peace has good intention, the main being an unexposed strength to preoccupy what your job or career has taken away. Your front yard is the best medicine for stress.
No matter what you choose to bring color to this spring and summer Thick Nhat Hahn explains that each creation separates you from the dictator that prevents you from enjoying the wonders of life. Your first step is mindfulness. Putting yourself in the present.
Research shows that what we put into our front yards is the exact opposite of what we’ve been trained to do in a world of business. Corporate America expects you to do several things at one time. Every new shape of technology may promise an easier way to perform our duties but in the end it leaves the door open for you to do even more work.
Front yards don’t demand multitasking. Mindfulness teaches us the correct way to succeed in happiness; one vision or project at a time. Front yards give us focus which serves as an invitation to other living things such as deer that eat my flowers, beavers that take down innocent seedlings and crows that bark louder than a dog six blocks from a blaring radio another state away.
You can’t buy the ability to bring joy to suffering. I don’t give a rats butt if you’re a CEO or a billionaire with a television show, without mindfulness and the presence of the present you are in essence giving permission to the dictator to continue controlling your deepest wish to be nothing more than happy.
At work there is fear, pain, sickness and weakness from the strongest sales team, doubt, pouting in corners, shame, hatred and jealousy. Your front yard tells a different tale. I have a bald tree with no leaves that happens to share the funniest stories! When I’m not listening being bald makes him so different that no matter how clouded the mind and imagination is it’s got the power to reach out and say, “I need your belief in the now to be in the now.”
End the suffering…befriend your front yard while allowing others to do the same in their own way. Learn to walk in true peace by helping to creating it.
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
Showing posts with label thick naht hahn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thick naht hahn. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
A brighter day requires more than just great music...
I’m not the first to write about the roles we play and the conditions presented by decisions to downsize the roles of the hardest working nation on earth. As individuals we try to survive through hourly challenges only to learn the endeavored feeds nothing into a conclusion.
We’ve evolved into a settled people; we settle for whatever is offered then feel uncomfortable with each decision—we could’ve, we should’ve and I meant to be but only end up doing.
Billionaire Donald Trump holds back no shame when he explains, “It’s a sad place to be this modern America.”
As this day begins, confidence teaches us to trust the legs that carry the weight while the heart races to take cover from a society not so willing to offer care to its fellow creators. Each of us…we are all writers, producers, builders, a nation gifted with vision and a warm palm to open while holding seeds that fall from the sky then dropped onto a worn out path.
Most of us fail to encourage warmth, compassion and growth. We choose to walk over, around or on top of the seeds eliminating its reasons to believe in today and tomorrow.
A mind filled with too much to think is a journey that doesn’t reach the tip of one’s fingers.
Learning to take a seed and give it a reason paints for the person holding it a sense of togetherness set in warm new beginnings therefore unveiling a movement called creativity.
Millions of dreams come true; I do not deny that each of us are tortured by our own separate way of generating the differences that make up leaders, friends and selves that feel the importance of being good enough to stand where our feet play…so we keep wanting only to leave all things connected in a box titled, “Things I’m willing to trade.”
The paths we push into the surface of the earth remain until a single plant decides to take a chance on sprouting roots. It believes through effort the true source of its purpose is embodied in a decision to accept change.
This courage is without measurement; not an ego to put energy out nor a self driven materialistic reason that requires the hand of others to make way through sacrifice while dining on play. I want, I have to have, I require and oh by the way I'm not coming to work today because golf seems like the better place...just have it done by 5pm.
No man or woman is looked upon as being a master of martial arts unless he or she has bled the blood they require of the students or seeds they carry.
Abuse has become accepted behavior followed by denial.
One seed can reach through a rock breaking the assumed hard way into separate stories. To which I ask what role do you play; the path, the journeyman or the reason to believe or not trust today and tomorrow?
Thick Nhat Hahn teaches, “To walk in peace you must demonstrate with peace. It doesn’t require loud voices, banners and large crowds in the millions. Peace begins with a single seed.”
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
We’ve evolved into a settled people; we settle for whatever is offered then feel uncomfortable with each decision—we could’ve, we should’ve and I meant to be but only end up doing.
Billionaire Donald Trump holds back no shame when he explains, “It’s a sad place to be this modern America.”
As this day begins, confidence teaches us to trust the legs that carry the weight while the heart races to take cover from a society not so willing to offer care to its fellow creators. Each of us…we are all writers, producers, builders, a nation gifted with vision and a warm palm to open while holding seeds that fall from the sky then dropped onto a worn out path.
Most of us fail to encourage warmth, compassion and growth. We choose to walk over, around or on top of the seeds eliminating its reasons to believe in today and tomorrow.
A mind filled with too much to think is a journey that doesn’t reach the tip of one’s fingers.
Learning to take a seed and give it a reason paints for the person holding it a sense of togetherness set in warm new beginnings therefore unveiling a movement called creativity.
Millions of dreams come true; I do not deny that each of us are tortured by our own separate way of generating the differences that make up leaders, friends and selves that feel the importance of being good enough to stand where our feet play…so we keep wanting only to leave all things connected in a box titled, “Things I’m willing to trade.”
The paths we push into the surface of the earth remain until a single plant decides to take a chance on sprouting roots. It believes through effort the true source of its purpose is embodied in a decision to accept change.
This courage is without measurement; not an ego to put energy out nor a self driven materialistic reason that requires the hand of others to make way through sacrifice while dining on play. I want, I have to have, I require and oh by the way I'm not coming to work today because golf seems like the better place...just have it done by 5pm.
No man or woman is looked upon as being a master of martial arts unless he or she has bled the blood they require of the students or seeds they carry.
Abuse has become accepted behavior followed by denial.
One seed can reach through a rock breaking the assumed hard way into separate stories. To which I ask what role do you play; the path, the journeyman or the reason to believe or not trust today and tomorrow?
Thick Nhat Hahn teaches, “To walk in peace you must demonstrate with peace. It doesn’t require loud voices, banners and large crowds in the millions. Peace begins with a single seed.”
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Lose weight while gaining strength without losing your breath...
Something to think about: Everyone knows how to pour tea, everyone knows how to drink tea but not everyone knows how to pour and drink tea mindfully. According to Vietnamese author and Buddhist Monk Thick Nhat Hahn we’ve evolved into a nation of people that find strength in running away from the here and now. Nearly every step taken is driven by habit energy.
Guilty!
Master Harris patiently convinced his students of martial arts that habits require thirty days to generate a reason to stay. This is why you constantly see sharp dressed kickers and punchers doing the same routine over and over again. Through these methods of discipline the outside eye that reaches in for a visit because breaking boards and bricks look ever so cool end up leaving the way of life because the art of mindfulness isn’t invited to the pages they write.
We want to lose weight now. Not next week or a month. Get this stuff off me now! We want to write books now. We want unforgettable Hollywood movies to constantly inspire and influence and every song and conversation on the radio better be good or Lord help me I’ll hit the button.
Three days of winter in the Carolina’s and easily spotted are the go getters that waste more time and energy chasing habits then they do making a difference. I used to think only old people are worthy of embracing change. The young of the world are created to make mistakes and eventually the callus from their hourly falls become thick enough to convince the soon to be old that being so daring is for a different time and age.
An old man isn’t a wise man…a wise person is he or she that isn't afraid to teach from experience.
Be an outsider today and take notes. Look at what you do at work and at home through the eyes of a passerby and see if you can identify your source of habit energy.
Constantly I’m told by visitors how hard they’re trying to revamp their love for life but trip immediately because those around them aren’t willing to let them grow. I get it! Who wants to live in the present? I’m so embarrassed by our performance that I’d pass on the opportunity to give a free tour of this nation to my Grandparents.
So what do we do? Live in fantasy, the past, future and whatever else Disney is willing to sell in 3D.
Habit energy is amazingly strong. It consumes your waking hours, at work give my life away moments and the minutes and seconds you assume you have when finally back home in front of 30 Rock and The Office. Forget trying to lose the weight around your waist and above your elbows and begin the process of heaving out the excess poundage of habit energy.
You cannot be happy with a beautiful body. Freeing yourself from habit energy transforms your methods of living into moments worth cherishing.
I am addicted to radio and the performance of it. I will do anything to be here. Elvis Presley once told Wolfman Jack that he hated him because Wolfman had a place to perform every night while Elvis had to hire people to find his stage. There is no high like a radio high and why the government hasn’t made it illegal to sniff, snort and swallow is beyond me.
Then an outsider says to me yesterday, “You radio people have it easy compared to the real world. There’s nothing like an extremely busy in the office rush. There are men and women who crave trucking, baking, fixing bowling equipment and delivering mail. There is no AA for job addiction and the way bosses treat their employees these days the average person barely has insurance to cover the damages leaders have created.”
Habit energy…why do you work? Is it truly to live a better life than those before you? Deep inside this recession created by Wall Street, Housing and Banking greed; are you getting the daily opportunity to do what you want or are you following the bunny trail carefully measuring out each step as if you're doing the Electric Slide or Macarena?
Because we lack mindfulness (living in the present) we allow ourselves to be carried away by a desire to have success. It pushes you everyday to the point of becoming a seriously out of control habit. While sipping on tea do you savor the scent that paints the invisible air? Does the flavor electrify your imagination by way of enticing you to purify your imagination by allowing it to give birth to peace of mind rather than tomorrows work day fears?
Thick Nhat Hahn explains, “Even when the tea is in our mouth we aren’t conscious of it. We’re drinking the project, we’re drinking our problems.”
The past is already gone, the future is not yet here; what if you taught yourself to find focus in the present? You truly are missing an appointment with life.
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
Guilty!
Master Harris patiently convinced his students of martial arts that habits require thirty days to generate a reason to stay. This is why you constantly see sharp dressed kickers and punchers doing the same routine over and over again. Through these methods of discipline the outside eye that reaches in for a visit because breaking boards and bricks look ever so cool end up leaving the way of life because the art of mindfulness isn’t invited to the pages they write.
We want to lose weight now. Not next week or a month. Get this stuff off me now! We want to write books now. We want unforgettable Hollywood movies to constantly inspire and influence and every song and conversation on the radio better be good or Lord help me I’ll hit the button.
Three days of winter in the Carolina’s and easily spotted are the go getters that waste more time and energy chasing habits then they do making a difference. I used to think only old people are worthy of embracing change. The young of the world are created to make mistakes and eventually the callus from their hourly falls become thick enough to convince the soon to be old that being so daring is for a different time and age.
An old man isn’t a wise man…a wise person is he or she that isn't afraid to teach from experience.
Be an outsider today and take notes. Look at what you do at work and at home through the eyes of a passerby and see if you can identify your source of habit energy.
Constantly I’m told by visitors how hard they’re trying to revamp their love for life but trip immediately because those around them aren’t willing to let them grow. I get it! Who wants to live in the present? I’m so embarrassed by our performance that I’d pass on the opportunity to give a free tour of this nation to my Grandparents.
So what do we do? Live in fantasy, the past, future and whatever else Disney is willing to sell in 3D.
Habit energy is amazingly strong. It consumes your waking hours, at work give my life away moments and the minutes and seconds you assume you have when finally back home in front of 30 Rock and The Office. Forget trying to lose the weight around your waist and above your elbows and begin the process of heaving out the excess poundage of habit energy.
You cannot be happy with a beautiful body. Freeing yourself from habit energy transforms your methods of living into moments worth cherishing.
I am addicted to radio and the performance of it. I will do anything to be here. Elvis Presley once told Wolfman Jack that he hated him because Wolfman had a place to perform every night while Elvis had to hire people to find his stage. There is no high like a radio high and why the government hasn’t made it illegal to sniff, snort and swallow is beyond me.
Then an outsider says to me yesterday, “You radio people have it easy compared to the real world. There’s nothing like an extremely busy in the office rush. There are men and women who crave trucking, baking, fixing bowling equipment and delivering mail. There is no AA for job addiction and the way bosses treat their employees these days the average person barely has insurance to cover the damages leaders have created.”
Habit energy…why do you work? Is it truly to live a better life than those before you? Deep inside this recession created by Wall Street, Housing and Banking greed; are you getting the daily opportunity to do what you want or are you following the bunny trail carefully measuring out each step as if you're doing the Electric Slide or Macarena?
Because we lack mindfulness (living in the present) we allow ourselves to be carried away by a desire to have success. It pushes you everyday to the point of becoming a seriously out of control habit. While sipping on tea do you savor the scent that paints the invisible air? Does the flavor electrify your imagination by way of enticing you to purify your imagination by allowing it to give birth to peace of mind rather than tomorrows work day fears?
Thick Nhat Hahn explains, “Even when the tea is in our mouth we aren’t conscious of it. We’re drinking the project, we’re drinking our problems.”
The past is already gone, the future is not yet here; what if you taught yourself to find focus in the present? You truly are missing an appointment with life.
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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