experiencing

Today I wanted to share not just my words but those of a friend who sent a message to me (letters somehow don't seem to be written as much in this new technological world we live in). Many of us are searching for... something. What do we want to do? I'm not just talking about a job, but in life.

We take out time or rush into it. We talk to others about it... endlessly. Or we don't say anything at all and keep it stirring and rattling away inside of us for many years. Some of us decide to go for it.

(photos taken by me of wild pigs Red and Twinkie at home on the farm.)

This is how my friend Remco put it to me today:

" When talking about ME, I mean I really, REALLY need to find out what makes ME happy. Not find out what I think or have been thinking I 'should' do, or what other people would want me to. But simply what makes me happy. Amsterdam e.g. is huge, and provides you with all possible and thinkable possibilities. So I should go there and prosper. Right? Wrong. Rem (saying to myself), you are no semi-Jesus, you stupid a**ewipe. You are just a guy. You need things. You want things to connect with you, not the other way around all the time. Amsterdam makes you numb. Makes you feel little. Realize that and realize that's just fine. Your home place is not there. You don't want the tram and the bike. You don't want the 179 neighborhoods. You don't wanna give it 5 years starting a completely new life and living. You wanna make your lonely mom see you more often than once every 2 months. You wanna cherish your 100 friends and 1000 acquaintances rather than throw 90% away to start all over.So live that life! Not a life you have sketched out. Just the life that you ARE."

The life that we are. I could't have put it better then he did (and his words are residing on this page with his permission). So many things would go so much better... if they were done from the heart. Wouldn't they? 

(Picture below is of my husband Nico holding a very much alive wild piglet called Twinkie short for TwinkleToes.)

More from Rem: "So, what I am doing, is finding ME. I have no idea about ME, when it comes to simple things.  NOT helping when trying to put down my desired career on a sheet. What helps is listening to my gut feeling. Or starting to learn to listen to my gut feelings actively. I might just go do any job to find myself pursuing a life more than pursuing the 'right career' (the one I 'should' find and pursue). 

I have already realized many things. About the friends and other peeps I don't wanna miss. Not because they are the most perfect, but because they're mine. They are MY friends, and I am theirs. Furthermore, I think I really like grey, blue'ish grey, and some shades of brown. I am willing to pick up litter from any street and should NOT feel being laughed at when I do. I DO have the right to be a pain in the ass once a week. It IS possible for someone to not like me.. I wanna live NOT in a big city and that is nothing to be embarrassed about. 

I can dream and have high morals and standards and left-wing utopian dreams... but it is okay to be human and normal in daily life. It is ok that I hate extremes, and love the middle, the reasonable, the social, the average.. And, it is okay to live the life you want to live. Even when others, from their capitalist and materialist views, express they feel sorry for me not getting all out of life. They are NOT talking about the same concept. At all. And that is ... OKAY. It might be me +wine speaking. Speaking, opening-up, not-organized-story-building, and doubtful-sentence-building anyway. But hey, I know you won't mind. Cause we're okay. We don't demand, we experience." 

I like it. How do you feel about your life at the moment?

Photos: taken by me and copyrighted: please do not copy for any reason.

peace

There is a lot of "oneness" currently going on, on many different levels. There is less thought about "countries" and "boundaries" as there is about the expressions of "people". People online connect in all sorts of ways and discuss all sorts of topics. Also offline we run around like chickens. News items come out in the open faster and more is shared then ever before. 

Have you felt any changes in your body recently? Thing are literally humming and it seems we are cramming experiences together like an overstuffed burger that is dripping with cheese. Many people experience a feeling of condensed time. We are either running out of steam or feel we can't keep up anymore. We try to do too many things or want to get too many things done. Then again why do we choose to? We are a funny bunch aren't we.

“Whether a human heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications” ~Pema Chodron~


I consider this time to be one about the business of the heart. Some people say: where is the logic? Where is your reality? Yeah what about that reality huh. What, don't tell me: you like the way your job is going? This modern slavery we are caught in? What could you be doing instead if you didn't have to earn a living to provide food and pay your mortgage? Hard work can be useful and sensible, if you're working towards something you really believe in. If it means you are doing something worthwhile. If it provides you joy and sustenance and all the things you were hoping to experience. Ultimately what we all want is to experience peace apparently. To do what we like to do and not burden anyone else with it but rather: share it around. I'm thinking goat cheese myself. I would be quite happy to have the time to start milking my goaties and crack out some sublime goat cheeses. For now I'm still an interior designer working 9-5s and Mooodling of course.


So what is it with this heart business?
This is where we reside. Not in our head. A Dr. stated that our brain is a physical vessel that contains many things but our actual thinking is not done there. Did you know that? It's a wonderful thing to wake up to. Where does our consciousness go when we sleep? Where does it go when we are dead? Read more about Dr Pim van Lommel and his work here. Did you also know that what we think can actually change the shape of water on a molecular level? Research came up with that. Yeppers. See the video of that here: (an excerpt of the movie: What the Bleep Do We Know.)


An interview with Dr Masaru Emoto the water doctor below, fascinating!



Back to the heart: we seem to be able to have more effect on our environment through our emotional (guidance) system then we do through conventional thinking. What do you think made the book The Secret such a success? More and more people are finding out how to use their natural abilities. (The book the Secret was based by the way on the works of Esther and Jerry Hicks. More about this insightful and friendly couple here.)

"One simple change - seeking and finding peace within - could, were it undertaken by everyone, end all wars, eliminate conflict, prevent injustice, and bring the world everlasting peace. World peace is a personal thing. What is needed is not a change of circumstance, but a change of consciousness." Neale Donald Walsch (FB post today)

"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures."
- John F. Kennedy

So a long story short: whatever you think, or feel, or decide to do, or not do, has effect. It means you too, can decide to declare World Peace by working on your own peace. I have started with myself as that's the only person I have a say about. So get to it too! Do your thing and have fun with it. Oh and say "I declare World Peace". Just like that. More info on: http://ideclareworldpeace.com/ That will keep you busy for a while...

"In 2010, we hatched an idea to create an art installation unlike anything ever before seen or heard of on this planet, made possible for the first time in history by modern technology and the prevalent existence of social media. Our idea is to create the largest art installation ever, to be installed not in some physical location, or even in cyberspace but rather within the consciousness of every person on the planet, a sort of "Gates of the Mind". Each person will hold a "flag" in his or her mind, which collectively will change the history of the world. The "flag" is I Declare World Peace, expressed in the language of the thinker."


"Come help us create the largest art installation in the history of the world, installed, for the first time ever, on the consciousness of mankind."

finding it?

A lot of people are "looking", so how about "finding"?


Many of us get excited about the idea of looking for "something". Either a new training in spirituality will do the trick, reading this amazing book should have the answers, or buying the new car or securing the new job that will bring it all home. Maybe that or we go on a happy quest to introduce inspiring people in our lives to make us feel better. Whatever distraction works to avoid looking at ourselves. It's easier to focus on "out there".


Perhaps we will get satisfaction or we don't. Then when we do think we might finally get the answer, ironically we discover after a while that our new solution, friend, or newly purchased item wasn't quite what we wanted to have after all. We got the money but not the freedom. We get a sense of direction again from our guru but they don't want to hold our hands. We get the new car but have to pay more money for road user charges and insurance. We get the new friend but keep wanting to find others as to keep ourselves feeling excited and distracted. The new job provides us with more income and experience, but perhaps has new colleagues that are difficult to work with. So what did we ask for... really? Hmm.


The more you look at something out there, the more you miss the point of looking and finding "in here" (corny as heck but there you go). We have the tendency to run away from the "in here" times, including the writer of this post. Why? Because we don't know what we'll find "in here" for sure and whether we'll like it. Isn't it easier to say: there, THAT should fix my nagging feelings. Please let me win lotto and I'll be happy forever.... Uhuh.

The funny thing is that you are already kitted out perfectly.

Let's start here: the letting go of the need to know any outcome will work wonders. Fear will leave you. The controlling urges will subside. You don't need a 100 friends, just a few kick ass ones will be awesome already. How long do you plan to pussy foot about? The distractions you were seeking were just that, some entertainment fluff. Did you really choose it, or was it just to keep you occupied? (I know it sounds meehhh but that's what this post is about.)

The only answer to feeling happy, or happier, is to see that your life, in whatever state that it is, is catering exactly to the need of what you are expecting. As la dee da as it may sound, the less you want, and even less you need, the more satisfied you'll feel. It's the making peace, as well as the seeing all there is and not judging it but appreciating it, that will help greatly in putting a smile back on your face, and a trusting hippety hoppety in your step. Things can only get better. You can always choose differently. Just chill out. 

Life is wondrous. Just expect it to be and go about it accordingly. And for heavens sake have some more fun! All that serious stuff can give you the heebie jeebies. And others too.

the when

I came accross this insightful question today, I just had to share as it resonated with me:

"One person once said it's time to move when the answer is no longer yes to these questions:


1. Am I doing good?

2. Am I challenged?

3. Am I learning? "

(Now maybe I'm the only one excited  about this. Fact is: many things are so frilly simple, but we usually don't see it as such. It's so nice to see it concised don't you think?)
So now you know what to do. Plan your next adventure today.
 
With thanks to Kate Robins the fabulous PR lady on Linkedin.
Her websites: http://turningpointeri.com/
http://mysticballet.org/site/the-company/
http://www.saltmarshopera.org/
.