Friday 29 March 2013

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Complete

Your wholeness and completeness 
are not dependent 
on external circumstances. 
 – Brian Klemmer

Monday 25 March 2013

Experience

Life will give you whatever experience
 is most helpful for the evolution 
of your consciousness. 
How do you know this is 
the experience you need? 
Because this is the experience 
you are having at this moment.
 – Eckhart Tolle

Friday 22 March 2013

Risk

[Risk]: practice climbing out 
onto a limb until it breaks.   
Then…dust [yourself] off and do it again.
 – Brian Klemmer

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Leaders

Among wolves, the pups with the lowest 
resting heartbeats are the ones 
who initiate play the best 
and these are the wolves who tend 
to be the leaders in the pack.   
Imagine: the relaxed rascal is the one 
identified as “wolf most likely to succeed!” 
 - Carolyn North

Monday 18 March 2013

Balance

The impatient human mind seeks 
order and symmetry, 
and when we don’t see it immediately, 
we are compelled to quickly impose it. 
 It’s when in our impatience 
we fail to look beyond the obvious 
that we rush in with our rigid 
regulations and hierarchies 
in an attempt to control 
what is already in balance; 
in the process, 
we tip things the other way 
and get the exact opposite 
of what we really want. 
 – Matthew May

Friday 15 March 2013

March 15, 2013 Chautauqua


From the Editor's Computer  

Take sips of this pure wine being poured.  Don’t mind that you’ve been given a dirty cup. – Rumi

   I’m sure you’ve heard a version of the story of the college professor who invited some former students to his home.  He placed a tray of various mugs in front of the students.  After everyone had chosen their mug, and the coffee was poured, the professor explained to the students that they were struggling for the wrong thing. 

   He likened the mugs to the externals in their lives: jobs, homes, cars, electronics, what we feel we need to impress other people.  Then he pointed out that they didn’t really want the mug, they wanted the coffee, which can be thought of as the important things in life: relationships, experiences, and the precious moments and memories.

   We get so hung up on the externals, that we almost miss the internals.  We think we need the fanciest or most expensive mug.  Or at least a fancier, more expensive mug than our friends and neighbours.

   Or we worry and fret if there is a blemish, a crack or chip out of our mugs.

   As the above quote by Rumi says...don’t mind if your mug (life) isn’t perfect.  Life isn’t really about the externals anyway. 

   Most of the time, we merely use them to complicate our lives so we don’t have to acknowledge that our mugs are almost empty because we’ve neglected to fill them.

   Then we feel guilty, and instead of taking time to fill our mugs, we put more and more effort into find the perfect mug.

   Or, we let others pick our mugs and interfere with its contents and then we wonder why we’re not happy.

   As it is the contents, and not the vessel that truly is important to us, why do we put so much energy into the vessel? 

   Instead of asking if you see the glass as half empty or half full, perhaps we should start asking each other “What is in your glass?”

   Hopefully that will remind us of what is really important.

Beth

Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-OskApr8uFkid4oChB2OObCjqOZMwECV/view?usp=sharing

To contact The Chautauqua, email: thechautauqua@gmail.com.

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Instincts

Good instincts usually tell you what to do
 long before your head has figured it out.  
 - Michael Burke

Monday 11 March 2013

Possibility

Rather than forcing solutions 
upon the events of our lives, 
we are invited to choose 
which possibility we identify with, 
and live as if it has already occurred. 
 - Gregg Braden

Friday 8 March 2013

Moment

It is not hard to live through a day, 
if you can live through a moment.   
– Andre Dubus

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Seed

If you don’t like the crop you are reaping,
 check the seed you are sowing.  
 – sign in a feed store

Monday 4 March 2013

Whispers

Listen to the whispers 
and you won’t have to hear the screams. 
– Cherokee saying

Friday 1 March 2013

March 1, 2013 Chautauqua


From the Editor's Computer


   Do you realize there is no fighting in nature?  Competition, yes.  I’m sure we’ve all seen pictures, video, or even real deer/moose/rams locking horns. 

   But there is no fighting in nature.

   The seasons come and go without fighting over whose turn it really is to be prominent.

   The sun shines continuously, and doesn’t fight the an clouds that may block it from our sight.

   Water falls as rain wherever it wants and water flows in and around anything in its path with no resistance.

   The wind blows and everything yields to it.  Branches break off, dirt and debris blow hither and yon.

   Grass and other plants just grow.  They don’t fight to grow where they  want, they just grow where conditions are ideal for them to produce.

   Animals, even ones who prey on each other, manage to peacefully co-exist for the most part. 

   Nature does what it does with little effort, and no fighting.

   Yet, humans are different.  We are constantly fighting.

    We fight the weather, we fight the seasons, we fight  nature (if dandelions weren’t supposed to grow there, they wouldn’t!), we fight with each other.

  More than that we fight ourselves.  What if we emulated nature and just let ourselves be the way we are?

Beth

Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/124uAEGV7-86M6uLAHs_WUVCkwPz_P5SS/view?usp=sharing

To contact The Chautauqua, email: thechautauqua@gmail.com.