Showing posts with label quality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quality. Show all posts

Sunday, May 22, 2011

A sense of QUALITY


Perhaps even more than a sense of purpose we NEED A SENSE OF QUALITY, perhaps they go hand in hand. In much of modern America, our lives are filled with busyness, with tasks, goals and endless varieties of detailed accomplishments, sometimes for self, sometimes for others but so frequently devoid of a deeper meaning or bridging a deeper connection to humanity or existence. We are squirming on the edge of our own awareness and consciousness trying to grow. Yet we are pressed against the glass ceiling of our cultural or familial beliefs, and our understanding of the world and reality, squandering our time, energy and attention.

If we are lucky we have guides and mentors that clue us into a deeper sense of well being and coping mechanisms, and the abstract unseen factors of life that provide a framework for the events we see around us, the choices we make and the actions of ourselves and others. If we are not so fortunate, we spend our lives feeling hollow, hungry and never quite understanding that the thing we seek is not outside of ourselves, in lives incidents and experiences, but something we bring to the table ourselves, an intent we carry within ourselves and infuse into our perceptions and expectations for and of ourselves.

Sometimes even when we have learned this lesson, life has a way of testing us and making us prove it, relearn it, demonstrate our understanding, the quality really is up to us, but we don’t often realize or know how to go about claiming and creating it. The purpose of the project and blog has been to explore these ideas in a practical experiential way, that perhaps inspires, dissects, and shines a light onto how to realize our vital participation in quality. We explore quality VS quantity in a number of areas from materialism to relationships, to esoteric functioning.

We discover the importance and process of inventing or reinventing ones self-ness after significant loss or trauma. But perhaps the most significant theme explored is the link between a lack of ritual, rites of passage and the depression and lack of meaning in modern north American society at large; the tiny things in life from which we have extracted, normalized and removed significance, which when that meaning is acknowledged makes tiny rites of passage in the lives of everyone of us, if we choose it.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

FREEDOM



I have begun to be comfortable dwelling in place of question. A place where answers don’t always present themselves in the form of hard, definable facts that fit neatly unto a shelf for easy filing and future reference. Like proof that my assessments are correct, infallible and therefore more valid, like a suit of armor and self-righteousness that I can hold before me. As if being verbally correct or having the ammunition to win an argument makes me better. Instead I am learning to be at peace with the unknown the perpetual question answered by further questions that suggest a more versatile and flexible life.

I realize I don’t have to be a rigid steel beam to be strong or safe, or validated in my thoughts, feeling, beliefs or choices. Rigidity is weak in the end. It is the supple dance of the willow, bending, twisting in the wind and weather, always moving, flowing, changing and responding that holds true strength and grace and beauty. From this lace of generosity and graciousness I have the true opportunity to connect with others and to truly value and receive them, instead of stubbornly shaping them the fit my needs, my agendas. It is here that I am truly self-reliant, all indignation evaporated, all neediness subdued and channeled to more appropriate venues. I am soft, strong, approachable, kind, generous, and quick to be honest. Self-protective without the chains and spikes of irrational, unhealed wounds and fears, because I value myself, and my life and perceptions, therefore I can value others. I can allow others to BE just as they are, with no need to change, or control them to meet my own emotional needs.

I set out on a journey to find the sacred, to find meaning and value in life and celebrations and ritual. Life and the culture I most identified with seemed utterly devoid of this deeper sense of value. The journey has changed the quality of my own life immensely, but it has rippled out beyond my tiny sphere of influence and added an increased quality to many of the lives I touch, creating a wonderful bubble of loving gratitude in nearly every corner of my life and experience. A journey for my own healing, and sanity that has had visible effect and influence on those around me. What a magnificent blessing!