Look to the Mountains

Over the past weeks I have found myself in the same spot each morning: sitting on my deck looking up at the mountains to my east.

Each morning I sit, pondering and preparing for the day ahead. My eyes always find themselves resting upon the mountains that I have climbed so many times. Somehow, by spending time each day looking up at them, it is almost as though I am sitting on the mountain side if not for just a moment every morning.

I have found this to be among the most meaningful of moments each day. Some days I spend just four minutes sitting and observing, other days I spend closer to fifteen. However long it takes to remember

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what the world looks like from where my eyes are resting on the mountain.

This time enables me to keep a "bird's eye" perspective through the day. We so often become so absorbed in the details of the day that we fail to remember what life looks like overhead. We fail to remember how small we truly are. No matter how big a building or a task or a problem stands before us, it is never as big as the mountain I look up at each morning.

This gives me a perspective worth keeping. Indeed, it gives me a life worth living. Some call it meditation, others call it observation. My thought is simply that life is better when we look to the mountains. I invite to take some time and look to the "mountains" in your backyard.

To Work Is Good When You Are Called

Regardless of what you may find yourself doing in life, there seems to be no way around work. The more I have pondered this matter the more I have found it to be paradoxical.
My father was a metal worker his whole life and he was good at it. One of my grandfathers was a salesman and from what I can tell, he was good at it.

It seems that we "get good" at whatever we do for work. This comes as no surprise considering we spend a minimum of 40 hours a week doing whatever it is that we do for work.How does 40 hours stack up through the course of your life? Let's find out.

Daily - 8 hours

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Weekly - 40 hours
Monthly -  about 184 hours
Yearly - 2208 hours (92 days)
Each decade - 22080 (920 days or 2.52 years)
50 years - 110,400 hours (4600 days or 12.6 years)

No wonder why we "get good" at our jobs. We do them all the time! This should cause us to consider why we work. Do we work just to get home? Do we work because we love the challenge? What is it?

I propose that work is good, especially when you are called. When we have a calling in life, it makes life worth living. Whether that be to provide job for breadwinners or teach the youth or be the president; when we choose to work in a way that our work becomes our calling in life, then work becomes "good."

Even better, life does too.

Kind Words

The longer I am on this earth, the more I value the power of kind words. From a simple but sincere hello to an honest compliment, words do so much more than we sometimes care to admit. James teaches in the bible that,

 "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." (1)

I believe these particular words to be true. This idea of "bridling" the body is one that is worth considering. The word "bridle" means "to restrain, check, or control with or as if with a bridle." (2) A bridle is what is often used for "guiding and controlling a horse." (3) This goes around the mouth of the horse and by pulling the rope in particular ways, a rider to guide the horse.

It is no different for each of us. We must place a figurative bridle on ourselves. Just as the bridle around the horse controls the whole horse,  the same is true with our mouths. The words we choose to speak influence our whole actions. Therefore, if we are able to control our words, as if with a bridle, we will be able to control our whole being.

I believe this to be true for numerous reasons; one of them I wish to express now. Words are easy. and words are cheap. What I mean by "easy" and "cheap" is that they are easily formed, with little effort, and if they stand alone, the words don't mean much seemingly. 
Because it is so easy to talk and speak our mind, we can struggle at controlling what we do say.

If we can come to master our mouths we are on our way to mastering our whole selves. Let us begin with choosing kind words. 


(1) James 3:2
(2) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bridle
(3) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bridle

Picture credit - http://inspirationalstorytellers.com

Roots and Branches

With so many opinions and so many perspectives, holding your ground can be a difficult feat. As challenging as this                       “stick-to-it-ness” is, we can learn some valuable lessons from trees. The University of Arizona runs a large, three-acre lot that the university has made into a biosphere. This biosphere is called the Biosphere 2. In it, scientists try to synthesis the biosphere in which we live in. Some of the results were of worth to note.

The University discovered that the trees would grow more quickly in the biosphere than in nature but the trees would not reach full maturity. The trees would collapse regularly before reaching maturity. The university discovered that the trees needed wind to grow in strength. The stress on the trees, created by the wind, resulted in the tree shifting and strengthening the roots both radially and vertically. What can we learn from this? The need for opposition is essential, and that includes opposition in opinions and perspectives of other people. Once we understand this, we begin to embrace the value of these differing opinions and we begin to learn how to grow from them.

In considering a tree in the wind, two things are very apparent: (1) the trunk and the branches sway in the wind, and (2) the roots and base remain steady. Herein lies the principle. As social humans, we must learn to sway and be tolerant in the wind of opposition while remaining planted in our values and our beliefs.

Indeed, there is much to be learned from the roots and the branches.

Sources
http://awesci.com/the-role-of-wind-in-a-trees-life/

Meditation Minded

An expert of meditation, I am not, but a student of its power, I am. As time goes on I am discovering each day that this life moves, and it moves fast. 

I remember as a boy racing my mom across the yard, so amazed with the genes I had inherited. I was amazed with my ability to jump and run and smell and climb. It was a discovery of my physical being and the space around me. Soon, those days spent with my mother turned into days spent at school. 

At school, I remember making friends and socializing with boys and girls of my age. I remember learning to ride a bike. At some point along the way I learned how to Rollerblade although I never got the hang of skateboarding. 

As time passed, I learned to drive jet skis and a dirt bike. Finally, I got my license. 

Fast-forward through the years and now, I am married. We live in a home, we work, we study. Ever-seemingly becoming all the more busier. The longer I live the more I realize that life has no intentions of slowing down. 

This is the very purpose of meditation (for me at least)- to slow down. When so much information, so many opinions, and so many stories are being told at nanosecond speed, we must learn to take time and slow down. We must learn to be silent in a world of great noise. We must learn to be still, to observe, to listen, and to judge not. 

This is the purpose of mediation.