Observations from the far side of the glass...

Observations from the Far Side Of the Glass...

Social Media...as we know it today, is a reflection of our societies and its needs, or it is a new reflection of the self emerging...either way, it is worth observing and making some distinctions.

We are here in it. Why not observe and see the beliefs, thoughts and longings from the world of common humanity. Humanity is crying... you know?

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy...

I know this transformation is painfull, but you are not falling apart.
you are just falling into something different...

From The Road...

From The Road Series...

The Ole Man With The Red Cane

This was my third encounter with the ole man with a red cane. My first he left me understanding that life has no special meaning but it exist, so by its mere existence it is meaning. Then on the second sighting I watched him from a distance and recalled a poem by Yeats, Old Men Admiring Themselves By The Sea and the chilling line, all things beautiful must fade away...

This is a cool morning for May, but bright with hues of sunrise peering from the horizon.  There he was...sitting on the shore by the sea on the small inlet of Matanzas Bay. I approached him quietly and found my space not far from his and sat in silence as we both felt the sun on our face. The silence between us was like an old friend. I felt his brief glance and in his familiar voice, he asked, "Are you the pilgrim that disturbed my peace?"

He remembered me and our first awkward encounter as I apologized for my intrusion of invading his quiet moment of grace. "I am that pilgrim, kind sir," I replied. "Seems another apology is in order."

"Found your peace pilgrim?", he questioned.

"At times, I am honored by its presence, but always looking for its return. I would even go and visit if I knew where It resides." I was not pleased with my response and felt my response may have put him off a bit, but he quickly responded. "Seems it resides in thin places for us all, like where the visible and the invisible comes to their closest proximity...where the sky meets the ocean. To seek such places is the vocation of the wise and the good and for those that find them, well...the clearest communication between the temporal and eternal."

"And sir," I asked, "do thin places reside in other than the temporal, for I sense the beauty of peace in this sunrise and even where the river meets the mountains?"

Resting his arm on that red cane, he turned and in the gleam  of his kind eyes he replied, "But perhaps the ultimate of these thin places in the human condition are the experiences we are likely to have as we encounter suffering, joy and mystery? Maybe pilgrim, just maybe."

He gave me a glance and a smile, silence between us as we watched the sun break the horizon, felt the gentle breeze as the tide changed its course, the sound of the sea birds as they made their morning search for mooring and the distant sound of the bells at St Mary's. Without a word he stood and made his slow walk down the beach and I heard him say, " find your peace with it all pilgrim." I watched until his frail figure disappeared around the bend from my sight.

There was a thin place between us this morning. Where the sky touched the ocean with its color of blue. The kiss on my face as the sun cast its warm glow, and yes, the the thin space of our conversation as his words transformed my visible peace to the experience of invisible peace we all share in our human condition.

Find your Peace with it all...
Thank you my friend with the red cane.
Ego, my friends call me Doc

From The Study...A conversation of possibilities. Discovering ourselves

What's right with humans...
It would appear, that anger is caused by harm, and fear is caused by
the prospect of harm. Actually, the causes of anger and fear are identical.
Only in the case pf anger, usually these things have occurred, where as
fear, there is usually merely the prospect that they will occur.
From this consideration we arrive at a familiar fact, namely,
that fear and anger go hand in hand, are caused by the same thing
In different stages so to speak. One travels on the heals of the other
or, better said, "one transformed into the other."
Another qualifying point...a person's sense of adequacy also influences the situation.
If a person feels adequate to cope with the given stimulus, they will become angry...if not
They tend to become afraid!

From The Study...a conversation on possibilities

What are the stimuli which arouse the impulse to escape in human beings?
The word which first presents itself in answer to the question is danger.
Fear is aroused by danger. This in turn leads to the question...danger to what?
The concept becomes enlarged if we say that a man will become
afraid if he detects danger physically, emotionally, and especially beliefs.
The concept can be enlarged still further if again the biological purpose
of fear is to ensure survival.

This makes sense particularly if survival is thought of not merely in terms of physical
existence, but survival of the ego, survival of personality, survival as somebody rather than
NOBODY?

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy...

Change happens when the pain of remaining  the same
becomes greater than the pain of change...

The Human Soul Speaks...

I go down to the ocean in the morning and depending on the hour
the waves are moving in or moving out and I say,
"I'm am miserable today, what shall, what should I do?"
And the sea says in her persistent quiet voice,
"Hush now, for I have much work to do."

Front Porch Psychology

Our lives are governed by nothing more than a string of glorified best guesses,
a constant  process of trial and error.
So what's the problem?

Lessons From The Sane Asylum...being human

The Human Soul Speaks...

William Saroyan wrote a great play on this theme, that purity of heart is the one success worth having. “In the time of your life – live!” says Saroyan. That time is short, and it doesn’t return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition. Linda Leinen

Beach Chair Therapy

Well, it was warm enough for the umbrella today...so that means a little beach chair therapy time.

"Your thoughts will kill you...want they?"

You don’t actually have to believe your thoughts. It’s as simple as that. Sort of. No, it is, but let me explain.

Your mind would like you to believe that all of your thoughts are correct. One of the ways it does this is by having you think that you and it are one. The truth is your mind is just one part of you; it isn’t you.

Being able to separate your thoughts from your sense of self is one of the most useful things you can do. 

From The Study...a conversation of possibilities

We call the kind of conversation in which you declare a possibility Conversations for Possibilities. In this type, you declare a domain in which you will invent and fulfill a possibility inside of a “Conversation For Action”.

We are not describing how to go about planning your actions here. Instead, we are referring to the act of making possible something by declaration. Planning becomes simpler when you are clear about the possibilities that you will pursue. Today, some would call these types of conversations “ideation”, but the term ideation does not reveal the phenomenon of honing in on certain possibilities or opportunities through a declaration. Franando Flores

Example: Each person is worthy of love and respect and we share the responsibility to safeguard personal dignity. Just a possibility...Doc

Lessons From Inside The Sane Asylum

"Fear is your brains way of gently reminding you that there is something you need to overcome."

Stopped to Ponder...

As you integrate ignorance and failure into your knowledge and success, do the same with all the alien parts of yourself. Take everything that’s bright and beautiful in you and introduce it to the shadow side of yourself. Let your altruism meet your egotism, let your generosity meet your greed, let your joy meet your grief. Everyone has a shadow… But when you are able to say, “I am all of the above, my shadow as well as my light,” the shadow’s power is put in service of the good. Wholeness is the goal, but wholeness does not mean perfection, it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of your life...

As you welcome whatever you find alien within yourself, extend that same welcome to whatever you find alien in the outer world. I don’t know any virtue more important these days than hospitality to the stranger, to those we perceive as “other” than us...Parker Palmer