Archive for the ‘Consciousness’ Category
Are YOU Living Your Dream?
Sunday, April 19th, 2009 |
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Dreams come in many shapes and sizes, don’t they? We all have them but do we really do enough to live into our dreams?
Life is tricky. It requires negotiation and fearless navigation. The bills are due, the house needs work, and the kids need your attention. We seem to do all this at the expense of our dreams. I believe the SECRET is BALANCE.
Stephen Covey talks about this in his great book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. How Dr. Covey sums this up is by breaking our life down into 4 quadrants:
- Urgent & Important
- Not Urgent & Important
- Urgent & Not Important
- Not Urgent & Not Important
Quadrant 1 is basically about putting out fires… this causes stress, burnout and did I mention stress?
Quadrant 2 – We’ll come back to that…
Quadrant 3 – The urgent and unimportant is all about interruptions like phone calls and email. We get stuck here and it makes Q1′s stuff more urgent and more stressful…
Quadrant 4 – is where we go hide when we are feeling overwhelmed… Ultimately causing more stress (from Q1) and setting us up for failure.
Back to Q2
Quadrant 2 is where we want to spend the majority of time. This is where balance happens. We get our work done, make great connections and relationships and do the things that nurture us (and our soul).
Quadrant 1 is the killer. When we spend all of our time fighting fires… we have no time for much else. Then we burnout – go hide in Q4. This results in more fires to put out – leading to more stress… the cycle begins again.
There will always be Q1 things that come up but if we spend the time focusing on the long term and balancing our life – making sure to include time for the good things our quality of life skyrockets!
This is where dreams come true… By removing ourselves from the stranglehold of the urgent and important – fireproofing instead of fighting fires… we suddenly gain time and perspective.
When we slow down – moving away from the urgent we have time to go out for a hike, take singing or piano lessons, travel, be truly in love…
Sounds like a good idea for me.
Slow down and breathe…
A Touch of Class
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 |
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Class… now isn’t that a topic? Class kind of goes along with grace. We can choose to walk through life gracefully or like the proverbial bull in the china shop. The choice is up to us.
That’s really what it is isn’t it? A matter of choice?
That leads me to a story I read bout 2 high school rival basketball teams. You see, on a Saturday night (this month) the DeKalb, Illinois High School basketball team had ridden a bus two and a half hours to get to Milwaukee to play a non-conference game on the road against Milwaukee Madison. It was the third meeting between the two schools, who were developing a friendly rivalry that spanned two states.
Earlier that day, the mother of Milwaukee Madison’s team captain died from complications of cervical cancer. The coach wanted to cancel the game but Johntel Franklin, who had just lost his mother, wanted his team to play.
The game started an hour late and during the 2nd quarter Johntel Franklin showed up at the game to hugs and sympathy from his teammates and fans. Now even though he was late and broken-hearted, Johntel didn’t want to just watch the game, he wanted to play. But here’s the problem: since he was not on the pregame roster, DeKalb High was awarded 2 free throws on a technical foul. Their coach didn’t want the free throws but after a heated 7 minute conversation, the ref’s ruled that they needed to take the free throws.
So the coach asked for a volunteer to shoot the 2 technical free throws. DeKalb High senior and team captain, Darius McNeal, was the first to raise his hand. He went to the line, eyed the rim, and shot the ball. It went about 2 feet and bounced its way under the basket. It took a second, but soon the Milwaukee Madison squad realized what was happening… They stood and applauded their rivals. Soon the whole arena stood and applauded the out-of -town rivals. The second shot barely left Darius’ hand.
DeKalb went on to lose the game but it seems to me that they won something far bigger. A glimpse at what it’s like to do something for a greater good. To do something so unselfish, so graceful, so classy. None of the players’ lives will ever be the same.
And since we’re talking about inspiring stories taking place on the court, how about this:
Magnificence Manifest
Friday, January 16th, 2009 |
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As we cruise through our lives, busy as bees, maybe we sometimes forget to notice the beauty that surrounds us every moment of our lives. The beauty can exist as the people we meet, the people we love but for my purpose here, the beauty of the natural world.
The beauty of the natural world takes my breath away. The first time I ever saw Yosemite Valley, the tears poured down my cheeks, I was overcome by the overwhelming beauty. For me, this confirmed the existence of GOD.
Yosemite Valley
I find myself venturing out into the natural world when I need to quiet my mind, connect to spirit and simply for renewal.
So interestingly enough, I found myself in the Muir Woods on a misty morning filming an interview with Actor/Activist Peter Coyote.
Actor/Activist Peter Coyote
The interview was about what it means to “Live your best life”. Peter spoke about his love of the Muir Woods. In the 60′s when he “dropped out” and became part of the Hippy Culture in San Francisco, Peter lived in the woods. I mean, really LIVED in the woods. He said a couple of things that really stuck with me. He spoke about the natural world being “magnificence manifest”. That was a WOW moment for me. Because what is the wonder that is our world, ourselves, our love if not a manifestation of magnificence?
Misty Morning in the Muir Woods
Do we take timeout everyday to stand in amazement at our lives? Or do we just exist. Life is what we are here to experience. Take a breath, slow down and gaze in child-like wonder at all that is around us. It will make your life fuller and richer… richer beyond your wildest dreams. Take time to pay attention to what Peter refers to as “Ceremonial Exchange”.
As Peter stood wiith our small crew in the misty woods, he looked at the redwood next to him and said, “This redwood gives off oxygen so we can breathe.” Sure we all know this… we couldn’t live without plants giving off the oxygen that we breathe, but do we think of it as a “ceremonial exchange“. Or the food we eat, nourishing our bodies… Do we view this as a ceremonial exchange? How about the love we give and receive?
These can all be viewed as something magnificently manifested in a spiritual sense… A ceremonial exchange.
Imagine a world where we take notice or these “small” treasures, instead of taking them for granted.
Hope Springs Eternal
Monday, January 12th, 2009 |
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Sometimes you (me) get really lucky. We have magical experiences that, if we pay attention to, will transform us in ways we would never guess.
What started out as another production job turned into something much bigger, more personal than I ever imagined.
Let’s start at the beginning… I get a call for a job with Director Jesse Dylan (yup, Bob’s son, Jakob’s brother). The job is an industrial, kind of in house video for Oprah Winfrey’s O.W.N (her new network). It will be a series of interviews with real people and some “celebrities” in and around the San Francisco area.
Now we all know what Oprah’s about. She is full of Love, compassion, integrity… all she really wants is to do her part to make the world a little better. Cool agenda, if you ask me.
Interviews… cool, I’ve done tons of those (especially with Director Errol Morris). No logistical nightmares that I must figure out, just interviews… Kind of an AD’s dream. Well we did have 4 location moves on day one… with new interviewees reporting to each location.
The logistics, or the equipment ( 1 kinoflow when we had power and the RED Camera) aren’t the interesting part of the story really. It’s what these people kept saying… The common theme.
“It feels like there has been a shift of consciousness…” That’s what I kept hearing. People are hopeful. The economy sucks, people are losing their jobs and homes, yet they are hopeful.
Maybe it’s that we now have an opportunity to move past the fears induced by the last 8 years. Fear of Terrorism. Fear of people who are middle eastern. FEAR, FEAR, FEAR…
Maybe there is truly a shift of consciousness going on. Maybe we as a family, community, country, world want something more. More love, less hate. Less fear, less anger, less greed… More goodness… Why is it that in school the good kids get ridiculed… “Teacher’s Pet”, “Goody 2 shoes”? It should be cool to be good, to do right. Wouldn’t that make our corner of the world just a tad better?
What if we lived everyday with just a bit more grace…
a bit more respect….
a lot more love…
Human connection, making a conscious choice to connect, loving more, being more present. These are all choices. We have choices nearly every moment of our day, I for one, am choosing to to make more conscious choices. Because I choose to be part of this “shift”… See you there.
