Tearless eyes

Tearless eyes
Sometimes TV-entertainment can give you the deepest form of inspiration. I was watching the HBO series Deadwood. There was a funeral, and the preacher quoted from somewhere in the bible, I guess (although I haven't found where exactly it came from). It was one of the most beautiful quotes I've ever heard:

Your ways are not our way O Lord. We abide, the just and unjust alike, under your tearless eye. Tearless not because you do not see us, but because you see what we are so well.

How beautiful is that? For the ones allergic to any image or talk regarding god or other heavenly beings, that is not what this is about. It's about our value as humans, our potential. Nobody looking at us from above or from anywhere else, observing what we do here, is crying. Not because they are not looking very well, but because the truth is apparent: we can do much better, and some time we will. That's why there is no cause for tears. I love it.

It's spring today

I’m smelling spring. In the scent of the Japanese cherry trees blossoming nearby. I smell them in the flowers in the grass. And just in the air, when the wind is right and I am looking in the right direction. And I feel it in my body.

If you are a little bit like me (an optimist? A very naïve person? A complete nutcase?) perhaps you also feel another Spring arriving. A bigger Spring. Perhaps you are noticing how, slowly but surely, another time is approaching. A time of more consciousness, more softness, more compassion, more wisdom. A time in which we finally succeed at telling the important from the unimportant. It started recently, with a small group of people . Right now, it’s catching up speed. And soon we are a waterfall that can no longer be stopped.

And yet… spring, today, is no longer obvious. Predicting the weather is more difficult every day. Years ago, Rachel Carson wrote about a “silent spring”, one without birdsong, and perhaps without cherry blossoms. The predictions for the future are dire and nothing is sure.

But of course spring will keep coming! Of course the birds keep singing! Of course the blossoms will keep bringing us joy every year. Of course that big Spring is coming. Because you and I are working for it! Together, we eat our way to another time in a new world. The fork, as Gandhi said, is the mightiest weapon on the world.

So grab your weapon! It’s up to us.

Let’s promise each other a wonderful spring!
Enjoy your meal

Imagination

Everything starts with an image. An idea. A thought. Perhaps we will never be attain what we were never able to imagine.
I am able to imagine a better human being. A human who has rid himself of anger, of fear, of jealousy, of the need for approval. A being who can devote his entire attention to the wellbeing of others, because he himself is happy and knows that he is safe. A person whose center is love. He is not involved in proving himself, securing his future, finding money or food or shelter, because he knows he will never lack anything anymore in his lifetime.

Is this so hard to imagine?
If so, why?

Being vulnerable

We're all afraid. Every single one of us. Even the bravest among us. Sometimes you may have to look closely, but you can spot the fear in everyone.
We're all vulnerable. Especially the ones of us who are vulnerable enough to care.
We will probably die being afraid and we certainly will be vulnerable when we die. We can spend our given lifetime trying to overcome our fears, trying to heal ourselves, trying to get strong.
And so we should. We should spend a lifetime on healing ourselves. But I believe we shouldn't postpone everything else until we are healed. It's so wonderful to see people move even while they know they don't have it all together. People trying to help knowing their own self is still fragmented.
There's so many bad things in world, but how can I not be hopeful when I see so many people doing great things, in spite of the fear, in spite of their uncompleteness, in spite of their not being ready?
And the beauty is, we get ready doing the things we are not ready for.

The important stuff

On the news today: Palestines living on trash. Literally. Adults and kids alike spend hours a day rummaging through garbage belts to find stuff that can still be sold. That is how they make a living. On garbage.

You wonder. How can something like this exist in this world? How is it possible that people have to live like this, that living beings are degraded to this kind of business?

I think it is important that a question like that hits us in the face now and then, again and again, just to avoid us being numbed. Just now and then - and I guess that is the function of a limited amount of bad news - we should be confronted with stuff like that, to realize again that it happens. And we should make sure we understand what is happening and understand the utter unacceptability of it.

And once we have understood what is happening and accepted it, then what? I like to have a good time, to have fun, to sit down and read a book, to enjoy other people's company in my leisure time, to cook and eat a good meal. I like to enjoy life as much as the next person. But so would these people who are living on trash, and as long as they are there, I am not sure if I understand how we cannot, all of us who are enjoying the good, rich, western life, do all that we can to stop such things from happening. That, it seems, is the most important stuff of all. The rest, in comparison, seems, at least to my mind, secondary.

Best of all, I think, is combining enjoying life and helping others. See my post on Patch Adams for a case in point :-)

just happy to be here

I've been away from this blog for some time - not sure if anybody cares :-)

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world or to save it and the wish to delight in and enjoy it". This quote by E.B. White is not a very well constructed or easily read phrase, but at least the content is interesting. Lately, I've been wondering if there is actually any contradiction at all, and whether we can't reconcile these two desires. I think that during the last weeks, I have very much delighted in and enjoyed the world as it is AND have found joy in my own work to improve upon it - in whatever slight way possible.
I have just been very happy to be here, on this planet, recently. I have 'suffered' from an almost constant high level of happiness during four or five weeks now. Hardly any lows. I'm not sure if this has ever happened before. The reason? Not sure, but it coincides with start of the mostly raw food diet I've been doing. Too early to say something definitive, but it sure looks promising. Perhaps the revolution has to start in our stomachs. I feel lighter, better, happier, more energetic. I thought raw food was all hype, but I have to reconsider. To be continued...

Zaadz

Sure, it's possible to meet nice people through Myspace, Facebook, Orkut and other social networking sites. But there's of few of these that stand out when you want to meet really and and really interesing people. People who don't just want to chat about the latest hit of the latest band, but also about changing the world. One of these more "enlightened" social networking sites is zaadz.com. It's home to a wonderful collection of people who are communicating about all kinds of change. You can add your favorite books, heroes, inspirations, movies... and browse through others'. You can join "pods" (interest groups) with names like "the spiritually aware entrepreneur", "kindness", "altered states of consciousness", etc. It's a great place to hang out if you want something deeper and kinder.
Here's my profile over there.