Excursions

  Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called 'the love of your fate.' Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, 'This is what I need.' It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment--not discouragement--you will find the strength is there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are requ

From The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo AUGUST 19  The Necessary Privilege  Not to feel is to stop the heart from breathing.  So often, we war against sadness as if it were an unwanted germ, and pine after happiness as if it were some promised Eden, whose gate is keyed to the one secret flaw we need to rectify in order to be worthy. Even our Constitution attempts to rescue us from the hard full journey of individuation, ensuring what no government can ensure, the soul's contentment; suggesting that happiness is our inalienable right, while implying that to experience sadness leaves us somehow deprived.  Yet it is no mistake that to suffer means to feel keenly. For to feel deeply and precisely with full awareness is what opens us to both joy and sorrow. It is the capacity to feel keenly that reveals the meaning in our experiences. If you are thirsty, you can't dip your face to the stream and say, “I'll only drink the hydrogen and not the oxygen.” If you remove one from the o

In my experience, with practice, these really work. Try them out for 6 weeks, taking 3+ minutes in the morning to read them, then practice during the day when activated by something or someone. Once they become habit, you'll find that life is more expansive, full, and fun.  From  The 4 A's: Awareness. Acceptance. Action. Adherence. — Balanced Life Coaching Accept yourself more fully, learn gracefully, and overall, enjoy more confidence. Keep from reacting to what someone else has said or done, experiencing anger or confusion before you even realize what’s happening. Summary of the 4: Awareness Become curious about one's behavior. I learned to do a simple breathing practice to help me be more receptive. I sit quietly and take five breaths, making them as deep and long as I possibly can. Acceptance “Opening the heart in kindness to self and others, Acceptance is giving ourselves a positive way to work with our own reactivity especially to one’s own reactivity and upset.” It’s

The paradox is that in true interior ways, the only path to deep safety, that sea of inner peace, is through the shifting sands of risk. Risk opens safety. It doesn't shut it down. Only through the risk to open can we inhabit and receive the strength and fullness of what is whole.  This raises the very profound question of how to define self-protection. Is it hiding who you are or is it being who you are? Is it guarding yourself with all that you see or is it clearing yourself to let light in? Is it preparing yourself against all that can hurt you or is it opening yourself to all that can heal you? Nepo, Mark. The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have (20th Anniversary Edition) (p. 250). Red Wheel Weiser. Kindle Edition. 

Deer on Ride the Hurricane Hello!  Some time ago, I emailed you my very brief account of my crash on the 2022 Ride the Hurricane. Someone replied asking pertinent questions, but I lost the email.  Here it is again, in a little more detail.  About 11:50, riding back down from Hurricane Ridge, pretty much alone on this stretch of the road as my buddy K-Love was already down the hill. I saw a deer about 50 feet ahead of me, coming from the left crossing the road. She was a beautiful full-sized doe. She was walking at a decent pace. I intuited she would cross the road just before me. I pressed the brakes with medium force. She must have heard the whir of my bike tires for, as deer do when they hear sound, she stopped. Unfortunately for me, she stopped directly in my lane, about 5 to 10 feet in front of me. I squeezed the brakes hard, stopping the bike but not the rider. I flipped over the handlebars, bike still clipped on. The bike went up wheels to the sky and came crashing down on the pa

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