It Only Takes A Smile

It only takes a little to share a lot.

Why wait on your bucket list? Do it now! Check out this guy’s dance journey crossing items off the list…
http://9852-room.dailymegabyte.com/man-performs-same-dance-100-different-places/

A little simple way someone spread kindness in their school

This teen’s anonymous Instagram account will melt your heart

Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.
Hāfiz
Persian Poet

Sometimes It’s easy to get sucked into our pain, sadness, and our story.  I was reminded this week when reading and practicing a yoga pose that it’s possible to find bliss within chaos. We don’t have to wait for the stars to align within our lives to be happy, find joy now regardless of your circumstances.  Happiness seems to be something we are always attempting to strive for. Whenever we meet anyone who is content it seems quite odd, or we assume it isn’t going to last. But being content is a state of mind. It takes work, within pain can you find bliss?

Joy to the World: Lord of the Dance

attached is a great article on shiva natarja, lord of the dance yoga pose.

A recent snl skit…

This past week I had the honor of having a private tour of the us embassy in London. it was happenstance how this occurred potential arrangement was made several months ago. As I was there, one of the people who invited me asked if I wanted to buy a souvenir from the shop… Overpriced coffee mugs, water bottles, tee shirts, and sweatpants. I declined. I then realized I had purchased a us embassy coffee cup when I moved here 1 1/2 months ago, and had been drinking out of it each day at work. Had I set the plan in action to go to the embassy 1 1/2 years prior, per the law of attraction? As one reflects on his/her life, one can’t question if we do this frequently. We set a goal of something we hope to achieve consciously or unconsciously, and then it occurs perhaps without much effort. Stars align, maybe it’s not automatic, but it happens.

It reminds me of when I was in my early 20s and disappointed I never was able to have the dorm experience. I stayed at home for college for a boy, and commuted. Although I completed school in three years and rushed to graduate school, I moved straight into an apartment alone. I accepted that living in the dorms wasn’t in the cards for me. But at 26, an opportunity came up, where I was to work for the university of Hawaii part time, and live in the dorms. I was on call for 25% of the month and now was a world of experience older than my neighbors, but I did get to live in the dorms and Hawaii.

There’s something magical of how the world works. The smallest wishes our hearts make have the potential to become reality, if we can open our eyes and remember.

I just finished watching a beautiful documentary called Samsara. This 2012 feature was filmed on 70mm film and took five years to complete. “Samsara” in The Hindu tradition is defined as the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. This documentary explores this metaphor throughout the entire film, 25 countries, and no dialogue. We explore young Buddhist monks, inmates in the Philippines, destruction of natural disasters, the remarkable wonder of Hawaii’s Pele, and a pilgrimage to Mecca. Being a wanderluster at heart, I couldn’t help but long to visit these places the film took me to. But what an impactful masterpiece. Watching was like staring at a beautiful photography exhibit or sitting for a two hour meditation. All is communicated through our eyes in this film, which soak up the brilliant array of colors displayed in each scene. The documentarians display the vast difference lands and the citizens that reside in them. As I watched, i noticed most of them did not smile. I wondered is anyone here happy? Buddhists note that pain is inevitable and unavoidable, is this what unites us in this human experience? This film leads to further self reflective questions then answers. Take a peak…

Several years ago, I embarked on a 40 day journey during the Lenten season to try to live life through the eyes of a tourist in my own backyard. Being raised Catholic and having attended solely parochial schools, I was brought up with the concept of Lent. For 40 days, I would give up an excessive pleasure, prove my internal strength of the ability to withhold something desirable, and by Easter I was rewarded. I tried to stick to the stringent time limited vows I made. As I progressed to Catholic high school, I realized I didn’t have to just give something up. I could improve how I was living. Instead of avoiding candy bars for 40 days or later eliminating red meat, I transformed my pact to such things as choosing to be vulgar free.
As I grew older and this concept of making a change in my life for a specified number of days remained enticing, even if it was outside the borders of the Lenten season. I could conquer something time limited. Anything is possible with an expiration date looming over it. I had been known to simplify my life by doing the Master Cleanse for 10 days annually, a 30 day bikram challenge, and undoubtedly the annual new years resolution. All of these were common short paths to a more enriched self.

Since the Lenten season approached during this burned out period, I was eager to start a new transformation of my life. Although I was no longer a practicing Catholic, the preparation and Lenten framework were ingrained in my head, and served as the perfect parallel process. For 40 days I would live life as a tourist.

Travelling was generally my solution to needing a break from my overwhelming life, but I didn’t have forty days off. I planned to be a tourist, but the caveat to this is I was not going anywhere. This would be an internal trip.
This concept of viewing life as a tourist made perfect sense to me. When I have travelled, I have had spiritual moments and felt connected to the world as whole. I felt the universe protected me on my expeditions, even more if I travelled alone. As Tennessee Williams stated, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” who have served as my guides and at times saviors. I have had serendipitious conversations with strangers on trains, in coffee shops, or in a crowded hostel room. Sometimes, I am overwhelmed with awe by the history a city holds in it’s cobblestone streets. Or I felt pure peace in a quiet seemingly abandoned church.

It’s ironic that I was now prescribing myself homework. As a therapist, I was generally the one who guided others in ways to live a fuller enriched life. Seeking help from therapists wasn’t helping me this time around, nor was engaging in a multitude of alternative healings. That year I had tried acupuncture, bikram yoga, massages, crystals, self reiki, feng shui, traditional therapy, physical therapy, master cleanse, and wearing ionic bracelets. Nothing helped. I needed an extended self-induced assignment. I turned the therapist chair around and prescribed the remedy: a staycation.

I did this several years ago, and this year decided to replicate it. If you want, choose to go on your own staycation with me for the next 40 days.

Snl celebrated 40 years of comedy. For over the past twenty five  years I have been watching this show religiously.  In grade school , the skits were what we talked about on Monday mornings. Almost all major comedians are launched from this show. And now living in the uk , I still have to watch the show on my I Pad thanks to my VPN. It’s comforting , the jokes of what’s going on in America from up and coming comedians make me smile. Here’s a clip from the cold open yesterday .