Writer's Block: Random Acts of Kindness
What is one of the nicest things you've ever done for another person?
i came here to post a post by Maharaji, and then i noticed that they have this thing here on LJ for writer's block, and that question is today's question. and for some reason, both of things - the LJ topic, and Maharaji's post - both have high relevance to me.
Here is the post by Maharaji:
Fear or Trust?
This world is full of people looking for solutions without identifying what the problem is. It is like the analogy of a house with dirt all around it. Every day the wind blows and the dirt ends up in your house. Every time you watch a commercial about a vacuum or you see a new invention to get rid of dust, you listen. This is how most people’s lives progress-waiting, hoping that somebody will come up with a lighter vacuum cleaner with more power. You hear, "Bring in your old one; we’ll give you a discount, and you can take home a new one, a better one." Isn’t everybody waiting for a better mousetrap? A solution to our problems.
And somebody says, "You don’t need a vacuum cleaner; you don’t need a duster. This dirt problem can be taken care of." "But, how can that be?" Some people with a touch of wisdom say, "Okay. Tell me." Solution? Plant some grass. Maybe tile the surface. Your problem is dust, but it is exacerbated by the fact that there is so much dust outside and when you open your windows, the wind blows it in.
Does that make sense? Of course. In your life, take notice. What solutions are you looking for? What are you trying to solve? What do you as a human being-not as a parent, relative, employee, employer-what do you want in your life?
If the one thing you have identified keeps changing, you haven’t discovered your real want. Because the truest want does not change. That is its nature, its beauty. It’s not influenced by what happens around you-who comes and goes in your life. It has nothing to do with that.
You live in a world that constantly changes. You live in a house that changes every day. All the door seals are deteriorating a little bit. No matter how strong your house is, it slowly sags. The earth shifts. All this dust you’ve been trying to get rid of came together, compacted, and created this planet earth, and now it is shifting. Every day that you just go on with your business, this is what’s happening. And here you are.
Imagine that you’re going on a week's vacation, and you know the vacation is going to end from the day you begin. You can say, "Oh, this is terrible. It’s going to end." Is that what you do-lament? "I dare not have a good time because I know it is going to end." No. Quite the contrary. You want to have the best possible time you can in those days. You don’t want to miss a moment, an hour-you want it all. And that is how your life should be lived. Because this vacation called lifetime is going to end. Being afraid is not the point. Too many people are caught up in that. This life cannot be lived in fear or lamenting. This life needs to be lived with a passion-of understanding, of clarity, a feeling of being fulfilled every single day.
We look for solutions to our problems in the concept of utopia. Do this and that, and at the end comes this wonderful time where everything is perfect, I have total realization, all I see is clarity, and I know everything.
There is no such utopia. Your utopia comes every day, because every day that you are alive is perfect. Open your eyes and see how beautiful existence is, what a gift it is. The possibility.
Recently, a hummingbird built a tiny nest outside my office, and laid two little eggs. The mother would come and sit, and then the eggs hatched. I made sure nobody disturbed it. First one came out, sat on a branch, and then flexed his wings. I was able to take some beautiful photos. The mama sat on another branch watching. We got a honey dispenser so she could get food close by, and she was okay with it.
This baby bird had to have total trust. Fear or "it’s okay" were the two choices. No logic, no reasoning. Not, "Anybody with a Canon camera wouldn’t harm me" or "Somebody who has allowed me to exist up till now won’t harm me." No. It could have been total paranoia and panic, but it wasn’t. I would come with my camera, and the bird would look, until he got his flying business straightened out and took off. Then it was the next bird's turn, and he was even smaller. He sat on the branch and wouldn’t go. It took him longer to get his wings flexed. Then one day, he was gone, too. Same thing: Total fear or trust? Both opted for trust.
What do you opt for in your life? Fear or trust? You can reason and find fear. But with understanding, you realize there is so much more beauty than I could ever fathom, so much more clarity than I could ever understand. That this life is the sweetest gift I will ever have, the most precious gift, given most freely. A car or a house can be replaced, but a breath can never be replaced. And all I have to do is accept it.
People create their scenarios. "Oh, I’m so busy. Got to do this; got to do that." What can I do? Learn in my life how to appreciate. And my appreciation needs to begin with one solitary thing-breath-to understand how precious that is. One life. It is critical that you be clear, determined. Like taking that vacation, no moment shall be wasted.
-Prem Rawat
MySpace.com/FeelPeace
extracted from: www.inspired.contactinfo.net
so i had two therapy appointments yesterday. i have two today, another tomorrow, and another next monday. it's a bit of therapy overload, really. but i'm interviewing new therapists, so, that's the rub. i hate the fact that i have to pay a $15 co-pay each time - but i guess that's just the price i have to pay to find (hopefully) someone who i am most comfortable with. i might cancel the one that i set up for tomorrow, mostly because the woman's office is on the east side. and i just can't foresee myself wanting to put up with that commute every week.
of course, this man that i have a crush on lives in the *lower* east side ... and i would probably make the exception for him.
anyhoo, here i am, checking myspace, when i see this bulletin by Maharaji about "fear or trust" ... it couldn't have been more appropriate - and he always has a knack for doing that - for delivering the message to me, in one form or another, that speaks to my exact problem. that is what i love about Maharaji. his advice is timeless - it's always perfect.
the other question - what is one of the nicest things you've done for another person? my knee-jerk reaction is to say that i'm never doing nice things for other people. i don't think of myself as that kind of person, although i certainly consider it "ideal" to be that giving.
...
i'm going to interrupt this program to state that there is a car alarm going off in the neighborhood outside of my apartment right now and it is ridiculously annoying. i have to go put on some music before i lose my mind. (hurray for my favorite road trip cd)
...
so - yeah - giving. doing nice things. i used to help my abuela clean her house. i was in my 20's and i decided that i didn't want my abuela to live among so much filth, so i launched this huge campaign to help her clean up - and i spent many many weekends over there, encouraging her to throw away her junk mail, going through her bookshelves and tossing out all kinds of crap, discovering really lovely mementos and keepsakes. i wish she had the gumption to do more of that kind of thing on her own - to sort through her things, and make nice binders and scrapbooks and such. she has tons of albums of old photographs, and none of them have any notes written in them, which means that the memory of those people - who they were - their names, their stories - all of that will get lost if she passes without first documenting it all.
so, that was always something that i was proud of. nowadays, her house is still messy, so i didn't make a huge dent. my house is messy at the moment too, and instead, here i am, scribbling away at livejournal.
i suppose trying to help my dying father was pretty nice of me. i can't think of any other time that i gave so much of myself to [try to] save another person's life.
but, i just don't feel like writing about that, right now.
in fact, i'm suddenly aware, again, of the mess of papers and stuff that i need to organize cluttering up my living room.
yeah. and madeleine peyroux rocks.
i came here to post a post by Maharaji, and then i noticed that they have this thing here on LJ for writer's block, and that question is today's question. and for some reason, both of things - the LJ topic, and Maharaji's post - both have high relevance to me.
Here is the post by Maharaji:
Fear or Trust?
This world is full of people looking for solutions without identifying what the problem is. It is like the analogy of a house with dirt all around it. Every day the wind blows and the dirt ends up in your house. Every time you watch a commercial about a vacuum or you see a new invention to get rid of dust, you listen. This is how most people’s lives progress-waiting, hoping that somebody will come up with a lighter vacuum cleaner with more power. You hear, "Bring in your old one; we’ll give you a discount, and you can take home a new one, a better one." Isn’t everybody waiting for a better mousetrap? A solution to our problems.
And somebody says, "You don’t need a vacuum cleaner; you don’t need a duster. This dirt problem can be taken care of." "But, how can that be?" Some people with a touch of wisdom say, "Okay. Tell me." Solution? Plant some grass. Maybe tile the surface. Your problem is dust, but it is exacerbated by the fact that there is so much dust outside and when you open your windows, the wind blows it in.
Does that make sense? Of course. In your life, take notice. What solutions are you looking for? What are you trying to solve? What do you as a human being-not as a parent, relative, employee, employer-what do you want in your life?
If the one thing you have identified keeps changing, you haven’t discovered your real want. Because the truest want does not change. That is its nature, its beauty. It’s not influenced by what happens around you-who comes and goes in your life. It has nothing to do with that.
You live in a world that constantly changes. You live in a house that changes every day. All the door seals are deteriorating a little bit. No matter how strong your house is, it slowly sags. The earth shifts. All this dust you’ve been trying to get rid of came together, compacted, and created this planet earth, and now it is shifting. Every day that you just go on with your business, this is what’s happening. And here you are.
Imagine that you’re going on a week's vacation, and you know the vacation is going to end from the day you begin. You can say, "Oh, this is terrible. It’s going to end." Is that what you do-lament? "I dare not have a good time because I know it is going to end." No. Quite the contrary. You want to have the best possible time you can in those days. You don’t want to miss a moment, an hour-you want it all. And that is how your life should be lived. Because this vacation called lifetime is going to end. Being afraid is not the point. Too many people are caught up in that. This life cannot be lived in fear or lamenting. This life needs to be lived with a passion-of understanding, of clarity, a feeling of being fulfilled every single day.
We look for solutions to our problems in the concept of utopia. Do this and that, and at the end comes this wonderful time where everything is perfect, I have total realization, all I see is clarity, and I know everything.
There is no such utopia. Your utopia comes every day, because every day that you are alive is perfect. Open your eyes and see how beautiful existence is, what a gift it is. The possibility.
Recently, a hummingbird built a tiny nest outside my office, and laid two little eggs. The mother would come and sit, and then the eggs hatched. I made sure nobody disturbed it. First one came out, sat on a branch, and then flexed his wings. I was able to take some beautiful photos. The mama sat on another branch watching. We got a honey dispenser so she could get food close by, and she was okay with it.
This baby bird had to have total trust. Fear or "it’s okay" were the two choices. No logic, no reasoning. Not, "Anybody with a Canon camera wouldn’t harm me" or "Somebody who has allowed me to exist up till now won’t harm me." No. It could have been total paranoia and panic, but it wasn’t. I would come with my camera, and the bird would look, until he got his flying business straightened out and took off. Then it was the next bird's turn, and he was even smaller. He sat on the branch and wouldn’t go. It took him longer to get his wings flexed. Then one day, he was gone, too. Same thing: Total fear or trust? Both opted for trust.
What do you opt for in your life? Fear or trust? You can reason and find fear. But with understanding, you realize there is so much more beauty than I could ever fathom, so much more clarity than I could ever understand. That this life is the sweetest gift I will ever have, the most precious gift, given most freely. A car or a house can be replaced, but a breath can never be replaced. And all I have to do is accept it.
People create their scenarios. "Oh, I’m so busy. Got to do this; got to do that." What can I do? Learn in my life how to appreciate. And my appreciation needs to begin with one solitary thing-breath-to understand how precious that is. One life. It is critical that you be clear, determined. Like taking that vacation, no moment shall be wasted.
-Prem Rawat
MySpace.com/FeelPeace
extracted from: www.inspired.contactinfo.net
so i had two therapy appointments yesterday. i have two today, another tomorrow, and another next monday. it's a bit of therapy overload, really. but i'm interviewing new therapists, so, that's the rub. i hate the fact that i have to pay a $15 co-pay each time - but i guess that's just the price i have to pay to find (hopefully) someone who i am most comfortable with. i might cancel the one that i set up for tomorrow, mostly because the woman's office is on the east side. and i just can't foresee myself wanting to put up with that commute every week.
of course, this man that i have a crush on lives in the *lower* east side ... and i would probably make the exception for him.
anyhoo, here i am, checking myspace, when i see this bulletin by Maharaji about "fear or trust" ... it couldn't have been more appropriate - and he always has a knack for doing that - for delivering the message to me, in one form or another, that speaks to my exact problem. that is what i love about Maharaji. his advice is timeless - it's always perfect.
the other question - what is one of the nicest things you've done for another person? my knee-jerk reaction is to say that i'm never doing nice things for other people. i don't think of myself as that kind of person, although i certainly consider it "ideal" to be that giving.
...
i'm going to interrupt this program to state that there is a car alarm going off in the neighborhood outside of my apartment right now and it is ridiculously annoying. i have to go put on some music before i lose my mind. (hurray for my favorite road trip cd)
...
so - yeah - giving. doing nice things. i used to help my abuela clean her house. i was in my 20's and i decided that i didn't want my abuela to live among so much filth, so i launched this huge campaign to help her clean up - and i spent many many weekends over there, encouraging her to throw away her junk mail, going through her bookshelves and tossing out all kinds of crap, discovering really lovely mementos and keepsakes. i wish she had the gumption to do more of that kind of thing on her own - to sort through her things, and make nice binders and scrapbooks and such. she has tons of albums of old photographs, and none of them have any notes written in them, which means that the memory of those people - who they were - their names, their stories - all of that will get lost if she passes without first documenting it all.
so, that was always something that i was proud of. nowadays, her house is still messy, so i didn't make a huge dent. my house is messy at the moment too, and instead, here i am, scribbling away at livejournal.
i suppose trying to help my dying father was pretty nice of me. i can't think of any other time that i gave so much of myself to [try to] save another person's life.
but, i just don't feel like writing about that, right now.
in fact, i'm suddenly aware, again, of the mess of papers and stuff that i need to organize cluttering up my living room.
yeah. and madeleine peyroux rocks.