Our Future Shattered by Grief...

No Failures, Only Feedback...

Escape Less, Engage More

Living Your Life Takes Courage

How Shall We Live?

Earth is our mother. We are her children. By "we" I mean all of us who came from, depend on, and will return to Earth.

Blazing Sun penetrated Earth with his phallic beams and she conceived. From her moist womb she birthed and brought us forth.

Our bodies are our mother's earth and water. Her breath, the wind, is our breath. By her life in us we live.

We humans are the babies among our mother's children. We came last. Everyone else was already here. The other animals were here. The plants were here. So were the rocks. They were the first-born.

All our elder siblings did just fine before we came into the family. If the day of our extinction comes, they will do just fine without us again. On us they do not depend. We depend on all of them for our very lives: Earth, her water and wind. Sun. The plants and animals. All.

Wonder of wonders!

Mystery of mysteries!

We are alive.

Here.

Together.

Now, what kind of children and siblings will we be?

Since you are so very much alive...

Since you are so very much alive, what story are you co-creating with the others you're alive with?

What's your story up to this point of your life?

Is it boring?

There is still time. Make it interesting.

Yes, it will require leaving your comfort zone...and it will be worth it.

Emotions: Up-stirrings of Our Spirit

Etymology of Emotion

To understand our emotions it can be helpful to explore the etymology of the word:

Our word "emotion" comes from Old French emouvoir "stir up" which comes from Latin emovere "move out, remove, agitate." Emovere is the sum of ex- "out" + movere "to move." 

The image of emotion is of something being stirred up and moving outward rather than inward, upward, downward or any other direction. 

The first recorded use of "emotion" to refer to a strong inner feeling was in the 1650s. It was used to refer to any inner feeling by 1808..

In other words, "emotion" originally referred  to external movements and stirrings and was applied metaphorically to the inner up stirrings we now call our emotions. Its metaphorical use is relatively recent and modern.

What is Stirred Up and Moves Outward?

So, what exactly is moved and stirred up when we feel emotions?

Is it our mind that is stirred up? I don't think so. What gets stirred up in our mind is our thoughts. 

Is it our body that is stirred up? I don't think so because we can experience the up stirring we call emotions and remain motionless. 

I think it's our spirit, that which makes us alive. Our spirit is stirred up, moved, or agitated and moves from within us outward to be expressed in our words and physical movements.    

Stimuli of Our Spirit

What stirs up our spirit? I suggest that our spirit responds to stimuli that either affirm or deny it. 

Stimuli that affirm our spirit support and sustain our spirit, our aliveness. We welcome such stimuli and call such stirrings joy, happiness, gratitude, excitement, fear, guilt, and sorrow. When we feel such stirrings we feel more alive, more spirited.

Stimuli that deny our spirit suppress and threaten our spirit, our aliveness. We resist such stimuli and call such stirrings fear, anger, sadness, guilt, loneliness, and despair. When we feel such stirrings we feel less alive, less spirited.

So, in my view our emotions are less about our minds and psychology and more about our spirits and thumology.

I Value Doing Over Being

In the doing vs. being debate, I pick doing.

Doing is active. Being is passive.

Doing engages in life. Being withdraws from life.

Doing is fertile and productive. Being is impotent and barren.

Doing creates. Being does nothing.

Doing contributes to others. Being withholds and receives from others.

While I choose doing over being, I do not make an absolute of doing. 

Time for being is important to me. 

Being serves my doing.

In other words, my way of being actually does something.

I believe that what I do in life matters more than being, thinking, feeling, or talking.

I Believe in Survival Training

The fundamental desire of the spirit in every healthy living being is to live. Fundamental to living is surviving. 

Consider the trees and all other plants. They're about surviving so that they can become what they're meant to become. The same is true of animals, including us humans. We spend most of our life doing what we need to do to survive. We work to eat, drink, and protect ourselves from what might harm us so that we can become what we're meant to become.

It is easy for some of us humans to lull ourselves into a false sense of security and believe falsely that we're somehow immune to earth quakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, epidemics, power outages, drinking water contamination or shortage, chemical spills, breaks in food supplies being delivered to our local grocery, public mass shootings, robberies, and other kinds of events that could expose, injure, infect, or kill us.

We do well to acquire basic survival skills. We do well to know how to protect and provide for ourselves and to teach our children to do the same. 

Why?

Because our lives matter. 

We're spirited, alive. The fundamental desire of the spirit within us is to remain alive. We owe it to the spirit that makes us alive to do all we can to keep living. 

When we do not believe in surviving and living so that we can become what we're meant to become, something is wrong. When we live in soci-economic system that nurtures a false sense of security and weakens our survival skills, something is wrong. Something spirit-related is wrong. Our spirit is not healthy.

I believe in spirit. I believe in living. I believe in having the basic skills of survival that enable us to remain spirited and become who we are meant to become. I rejoice when I meet others who feel the same way.   

Contra Descartes

That I am a spirit means that I am spirited, alive. Spirit is that which makes me alive. Without spirit I would not be a living body. Without spirit I would not be a living mind. 

Spirit precedes body and mind because spirit is the life of both body and mind. By my spirit my body functions. By my spirit my mind produces thoughts and images. By spirit I am alive. 

Descartes declared, " I think, therefore I am."

Contra Descartes: I am spirited, therefore I live.

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 2

Death: The Crust of Earth

Former rocks, plants, and animals, including humans, make the crust of this global grave yard on which we live. It's a crust of death.

Death supports life. All of the dead feed all of the living.

Life supports death. All of the living feed the crust of death.

What does it mean to die? Is dying the act of giving life?

The living kill. We share in the violence of death. We force deposits into the crust of this global grave yard.

Why? Why do we kill each other? Why all the death? Is it to feed life?

"Spirituality of Transcendence or Transformation of Spirit? Part 2

This is a continuation of yesterday's post.

On the other hand, life-affirming spiritualities tend to speak the language of transformation.  If life-denying spiritualities are vertical, life-affirming spiritualities are horizontal. They are about the spirit-driven organic growth, change, and development of all living beings. They are about nurturing and promoting the ongoing circle of life of all living beings. Life-affirming spiritualities of transformation are about boldly living our ever-changing lives in this world rather than trying to escape into a higher, non-physical realm. 

For those of us living life-affirming spiritualities of transformation, this planet, this world, this universe with all of its seen and unseen changing realms is our home. We are both in and of this world rather than in but not of it.

Since this is our home we tend to take better care of it than those who are just visiting to learn a lesson before they ascend back to their true home.