Why you, do or do not, watch the news...

 I have never been a big TV fan or a fan of reading the newspaper, even when I was a child and I haven't watched the news since before Princess Diana died. Her event always stands out in my mind because it was such a monumental headline and I didn't know about it until someone told me. Nothing has really changed since then. My life has always been ( since I was a child) full of drama, death and and dysfunction and watching and listening to the worlds issues has always been to much for me. I am aware of many things around me in my town/state/country but I can't be fully engaged with it. I try every once an awhile to watch the news and it sends me into a downward spiral of sadness and depression. I have always felt that if I choose to focus on the good in my life, the lives of those around me and always reading "good news" stories ( http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ ) that will do more good for the world then I could ever do drowning in and contributing to the other side.


This is a cooperative blog that my friend and I started to give us deeper things to thing about and ponder. If you would like to see what her opinion is on...  "Why or Why not" head on over to her blog: http://gentlegull.blogspot.com/2015/11/why-you-do-or-do-not-watch-news.html

Book...

This book " Women Who Run With the Wolves" had come in to my life many many times over the years through conversations, offers of the book and others that had read it and mentioned it to me. So once again this book has presented itself to me... so I'm listening and starting to read...  it is time!

Alive...

 

 " Always find time for the things that make you feel happy to be alive."

I would like to say "in the new year-I will..." but my thought is when your ready to do something why wait. My intention for the last week has been to allow myself to find time to do the things that make me feel happy and alive, no matter how small that is. I've spent a lifetime "wanting" to do so many creative projects but not allowing myself until all the "have to... should do" gets done. There is a saying that defines insanity as, "doing the same thing over and and expecting different results." And my mind wants to say "not so kind" things about myself, like how I got to be this age and haven't really done this, or don't even bother because you know things will happen and you won't keep doing it, and on and on my negative self talk goes. But from what I wrote in my last post I am trying to refrain from listening to that and just be kinder.

Years...

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer."

Zora Neale Hurston

I feel like for most of my life have been about the question, and have I been listening? I've always been in a hurry to find out the answer and that not listening close enough, has lead to choices that didn't feed my soul. My intention as the New Year approaches is to listen deeper and follow the answers that leave me feeling full.

Listen...

As I was watching Super Soul Sunday today and with all the beautiful and thought provoking things Marianne Williamson said, the one that stuck me was when asked "what she would have done differently in her campaign when running for governor." Her response was, " something she already knew, which was to just listen to what she knew inside." But because she asked other people what she should do as a person running for political office, she did things not knowing she could choose not to do them and follow what felt right for her. I found this a good reminder for myself, when asking others advice on subjects I'm not sure or when struggling with what to do, to still listen to my own "knowing" and decide if what is being said resonates for me or if what I'm feeling fits comfortable. It's a habit that I have to continually pick up and be aware of, and even with many years gone around this earth, I am forever learning and remembering to listen.

Define...

I realized yesterday how much I have been defining the "space" I am in right now in my life as being a failure, or a life of nothingness, but after talking to someone and listening to my own words as they were shared with another, I see this "space" that I'm in, as a transition. A time of discovery and learning, of seeing and thinking in new ways. Nothing has changed but my definition of that I see ~ which changes everything!

Answer...

"I am the answer someone has been looking for."

As I was going through "stuff" today, trying to decide what to keep and what to get rid of, I came across this quote a friend shared with me one time. I'm not sure if it is her original quote or not, but it was just what I needed. I have found myself stuck in a message I don't even know I'm listening to, until something triggers it, like teaching a class about all the things I'm passionate about, and that old tape says, " nobody wants to hear what you have to say." With awareness comes change, and even though I've been aware of this tape before I'm hoping to now replace it with, " I am the answer someone has been looking for!"

Deep Listening

"We can always begin by allowing ourselves to sink into the depth of whatever moment we are in. For depth is ever-present. We don't have to travel to find depth. We simply have to relax our minds onto the ground of where we are, the way roots unravel in the earth after a long, soaking rain."

Deep listening is something I've been working on for a while now. But I had it backwards... I've been trying to deeply listen to others, and not to myself. Somehow it seemed easier to listen to another. There isn't the wondering if what I'm hearing is something I have the courage to do, because it's your story not mine. But since committing to love and honor myself, this is something I must do ~ for me! To love, honor and deeply listen to all parts of myself, even when what I hear, seems frightening. 

Listening...

Today I listened to a feeling ~ and contacted someone I'd been thinking about. I don't the reason they had been on my mind but I just wanted to not question the feeling and do it. Can't say after I talked with them that I know anymore about "why", but it doesn't really matter. It felt good to just "go with the feeling"! Somethings in life "just are"~No great cosmic, deep meaning to them and if it does I will be open to hear what it's saying to me. It's a relief not to over analyze things and allow it to flow in and out like the river, where ever it needs to go.