Being A Spectator

So interesting to see that it’s been four years since my last post! When I look back to where I was when I first started this blog, I remember that in part, I wanted to write regularly as a means to stop being a spectator and start something. Do something. Do anything! I’ve been following amazing entrepreneurs and makers for years, listening to Seth Godin speak to me each day about how entrepreneurs are the people who actually ship the work. And boy have I ever wanted to be the kind of person who ships the work! Because I also wanted to stop feeling like I wasn’t measuring up.

But I wasn’t ready. It’s evident in the lack of vulnerability in these first posts, and then in the lack of posts all these years. And not being ready has sort of tore me up inside from time to time these last few years. But now here I am 🙂

And I can share that ready doesn’t mean that you’ve studied the pros, done the research, and know all that is needed to be done to succeed. Ready doesn’t feel like you need to do something to be seen, so that people will want to know you and connect with you (or you will sort of feel like you will die). And ready doesn’t feel like you have to do something to be of value to your family, friends or colleagues.

Ready means you are pretty good, right now, as things are. There’s no push, but there are ideas and dreams.

I had the privilege to go on retreat at Gampo Abbey in N.S. a few weeks ago to learn from two wonderful teachers in the Shambhala tradition: Acharya Richard John and his wife Liz Richardson. And one of the short lessons that resonated with me the most was this:

You need to care very deeply about everything,

while not caring at all.

Yes! This immediately sounded exactly true.

Here’s an example I discussed with Luke one night this week. This spring, I wanted my career to change (aka life to be different) and was using my meditation practice each morning to visualize this change. At first this felt expansive, full of gratitude and joy, and effective. But then it didn’t feel right anymore. It didn’t feel right to use my practice to actively pursue my plan, and so I decided to practice with a purer intention–to simplify and go back to focusing on learning the dharma practices my teachers have been teaching me to see what there was to learn. (By the way, these simple dharma practices seem like a much slower process than visualizing your success…sometimes, seemingly, excruciatingly slower.)

And here’s the thing–I think there can be a balance. I can care very deeply about wishing big for a career that benefits myself, my family and my community, so go ahead and manifest as long as I don’t get attached to this pursuit. No grasping and no pushing away. There must be effort and equally trust that it will go the way it needs to go. And I must continue to cultivate space for myself and my family and friends (my framily!) so that I can see and find this balance. (See also PSS below.) May I not forget these lessons.

So what am I ready for? To start sharing some of the stuff I think about and care about with my framily without feeling like a weirdo. I’m also ready to lead some meditations! And I’m ready to learn by experience about being a maker and shipping the work. It’s time world…I’m ready to open, relax and let go…I’m ready to just simply float.

Thank you for your patience, support and encouragement. And also for inspiring me to get off my ass. Sending you lots of love, ❤️

Jen

PS – My happy place I go to in my mind to float most days: Hanalei is my bae.

PSS – I’ve just started reading Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa. He was Pema Chodron’s and Richard John’s teacher. Every single line is pretty much an aha moment. It’s evident how great a teacher he was/is. So my mind is newly blown away by this idea of rationalizing one’s spiritual path and actions: “…making all appear neat, precise and very logical. We attempt to find a self-justifying answer for every question. In order to reassure ourselves, we work to fit into our intellectual scheme every aspect of our lives which might be confusing’…and that “it is difficult to be suspicious of it.” And then next paragraph, p14 “Whenever we begin to evaluate, deciding that we should or should not do this or that, then we have already associated our practice or our knowledge with categories, one pitted against the other, and that is spiritual materialism, the false spirituality of our spiritual advisor.” (aka ego)

So, I don’t understand this very well yet, but I do understand that my life’s work is to let go vs improvement. So let’s finish with that. ✌🏻

 

Go Make Art, Just Like Lewis x 2

I’m on the other side of #The100DayProject and a family vacation. In a nutshell, 100% believe in the power of making for 100 days. You can do wild shit (more below) or change your life.

One of my faves.

It was harder than I thought. Still want to learn to paint the sky and the ocean. And play the piano again. And man, I’ve been daydreaming about the energy of riding through late summer fields. And I will someday. I’ll do another 100 day project too, when it’s time to shake things up.

On travelling, well we know it’s just amazingly good for the soul. (Note to Jen: Don’t forget this.)

Back to art. From Daniel Pink: An artist is someone who brings something new to the world that it didn’t know it needed. Heard this and got me thinking about pop songs. Like, how there are so many rappers banging out music that we’ve already heard, but not so many of them = artists. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are two of my fave exceptions. (Willie’s too.) Still TURN UP LOUD every jam from The Heist, and lovin’ everything about their newest, Downtown.

Then read this point made by Nathan Myhrvold, talking about his friend Bill Gates:

Lewis and Clark were lost most of the time. If your idea of exploration is to always know where you are and to be inside your zone of competence, you don’t do wild new shit. You have to be confused, upset, think you’re stupid. If you’re not willing to do that, you can’t go outside the box.

Right!?!!

And then these ideas about art got backed big time in THESE notes about Linchpins. I aspire to chase my dreams by keeping art, artists, new ways of working, Steve Pressfield’s Resistance, the lizard brain, and gifts for the world in mind…Also, I bet Seth meditates.

“Always head directly into the resistance.”

Take what you need from these notes my friends. Then go make art.

The song of the day, yup, you guessed it. (Ha Dave, “You don’t need an Uber”.)

The marvelous Chief Seattle

I’ve been reading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and he includes this letter written by Chief Seattle directed to the US Government in the 1850’s. I believe I have read it before, but Wow….it struck me as marvelous this night. And although there is controversy regarding it’s authenticity, there is no doubt he was a grand spokesman of his time.

Chief Seattle

“The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you sell them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of a pony, and man, all belong to the same family.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The waters murmur in the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the river the kindness you would give any brother.

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow Flowers.

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our Mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.

This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

One thing we know: Our God is your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

When the last red man has vanished with his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?

We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.

As we are a part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know: There is only one God. No man, be he Red Man or White Man, can be apart. We are all brothers.”

Other Different Kinds of Magic

This post inspired by this Seth post.

I’ve recently discovered:

Paolo Soleri and his signature bells. Amazing! I will go see Cosanti some day soon. An innovative student of Frank Lloyd, he also founded the experimental Arcosanti village.

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic. This is where you go to learn about using mindfulness and meditation to deal with stress and chronic pain. Interviewed recently on Super Soul Sunday and on CBS with Anderson Cooper.

And Will Allen, a professional basketball athlete turned urban farmer. Growing Power is feeding and teaching thousands of people around the world. Living life with purpose.

On the #The100DayProject, I’m loving it. Yes, well, sometimes I don’t feel like I have time or energy. Or I’m frustrated because my ideas are not coming through on the page yet. But I’m doing it, learning something about art and myself. A short Omega article on how expressing your creativity is important to your life. Yup, I think so too.

A recent #100SoulNotes above, inspired by a song in doc 180° South. This quote in the movie made me laugh hard! Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, as he talks about the key spiritual aspect of climbing Everest:

“If you compromise the process, you’re an asshole when you start out, and an asshole when you get back.”

180° South introduces Yvon and friends doing something magical with the Conservacion Patagonica. It’s worth checking out.

Here’s to the song of the day. Surf’s up.

#The100DayProject

So I’ve just learned about #The100DayProject and I’m psyched!

It’s about figuring out what you could do with 100 days of making. “It’s a celebration of process that encourages everyone to participate in 100 days of making. The great surrender is the process; showing up day after day is the goal.”

The idea originated as a grad school project at the Yale School of Art, but last year Elle Luna and her friends started sharing on Instagram and a movement was born. The info on the 100Days website is well said on one page in a fun way. To the point, my favourite style.

This whole idea suits me perfectly. For one, I’ve been thinking about making art a lot lately, in part because of Willie’s weekly ArtLab and also because I’ve been recognizing how important creativity is for us all. And two, this project is all about the value of producing in volume, which inspired my first blog post.

So technically #The100DayProject started yesterday, but I just learned about it today. Elle smartly suggests if you find out after the 4/6 start date, just catch up or decide to finish later. I’m going to start tomorrow and catch up.

#LetsDoThis

I came up with two themes tonight: taking pics of dogs I meet in the Beach, and freehand painting a quote each day. I’m going with painting #100DaysofSoulNotes. After a quick conversation with my brother, I’ve figured out what kind of paper, ink and brush I’ll need. So watch out Instagram friends, this all starts tomorrow. And if I can actually paint half-well, then I’ll think about how best to give them all away at the end with a donation to raise a little money for charity. One step at a time…first, buy ink.

I have two requests:

1. PLEASE send me your favourite quote. From a movie (anything from Wes Anderson is 100% rad), book, lyric, something your kid just said…what ever makes you smile inside. It will keep me inspired and just be fun to incorporate your thoughts along with my own faves.

2. Consider joining me in this challenge!! Would love to share this adventure of making. Use my #100DaysofBeachDogs idea if it motivates you. Or paint with me!

It’s time to get making.

Visit thegreatdiscontent.com/100days to learn how to begin and get inspired. Some fresh ideas and video links that shouldn’t be missed. (PS: 100Days not to be confused with #100HappyDays, also a worthwhile endeavour.)

A slight variation to the song of the day – check out these dance moves. I heart how this dude gave it his all, one day, one song at a time.

Give Change

My cousin Sarah sent me a TEDxBoston link, and I’m so glad she did. Clay Christensen is a Harvard Biz School professor that teaches a popular entrepreneur course and coined the term disruptive innovation. Visit his site to learn more about his beliefs (he’s a Latter-day Saint with a largish family) and find a whole wealth of information, including ideas to change the world.

LOVED these two key points in his TED Talk, intertwining business concepts with living mindfully:

1. Reason why successful companies fail is that they invest in things that provide immediate and tangible evidence of achievement vs. the long-term. And we also apply this same method of thinking to our personal lives, investing in tangibles like our careers vs. our families.

2. Our limited minds create measures for success that can be manipulated. For companies, examples are profitability ratios and innovation measurements. And in our own lives, how much money we earn and how far up the ladder we climb. How about we create a more dynamic measurement related to the number of people we have helped/blessed in our lifetime. Yes!

So I’ve been thinking…imagine if a business’ #1 priority was measuring the number of people they helped each year. This can be profitable. Check out what BRAND[TRADE] is doing with Adventure Shopping. Start by watching this short doc. Recently I’ve had the opportunity to do some work with BRAND[TRADE] – inspiring minds reinventing marketing for social change.

If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”

Give Change to yourself. Take a few minutes (maybe while you are making yourself a sandwich?) and listen to what Prof. Christensen has to offer…

Next, Give Change to others. This is the beginning of Do Something which will feature social change advocates, inspired by Sister Joan Chittister. This spitfire knows how to get real about inequality, and on how we all need to Do Something…Do Anything. So I’ll start this segment with her heartened talk about equality, a human issue, not a woman’s issue. This was a well-used hour of my life.

And last but not least, the song of the day. Just perfect. Turn it up loud.

Thank Goodness For Meditation

Last week I finished up an Oprah & Deepak 21-day meditation challenge, just in time because a new one started this week. These last several months I’ve been exploring daily meditation. I look forward to practicing each morning and miss it when I don’t make the time. The actual practice feels good – restful yet invigorating time spent looking after yourself. It is almost always a struggle to quiet my mind. I rarely do it well (if at all). But I truly feel the benefits of trying. I feel lifted and inspired – like my cup is full. And like I’m ready to go into the world more of my true, kind, brave, grateful self.

A meditation last week focused on being at peace. During Oprah’s introduction, she spoke of being at peace as “being in the place of power and knowing,” and “when you manifest peace in your life, you become a beacon of calm and tranquility in the world….your presence is enough to light the way for others and people can see it and they can feel it in you.” Ah YES! This is the gift I would like to share with the world. But why is it that most of us struggle with being at peace then?

Well for one, Sister Joan Chittister speaks of how today’s noise pollution is a social obstacle to the way to peace (starting at 4:33). “Some generations among us have had no experience of silence at all.” I hear you Sister Joan.

So as I look forward to the mindfulness of trying to be silent and at peace each day with this next challenge, I will also include setting the intention of peace for myself and for others to, in O’s words, “attract peace and all that comes with it – grace, harmony, love….This is how you really make a difference in the world.”

YES!! Thank you O&D and Sister Joan. Peace Be With You Brothas and Sistas!

PS – It is not to late to start the newest meditation challenge today. You won’t regret trying.

The song of the day always lifts me.

Skinspired

So Thursday night was fun in part because this happened.

Fans introducing themselves to Skin and then asking to take his picture along with his photo. Skinspired! He also got interviewed. Yup, Skinsiders.

Our friend Matt Forsythe, also lovingly known as Skin, is a talented photographer. We know this. And we know how passionate and dedicated he is about music. Now more Torontonians will be introduced to this guy’s love of art because not only did he have two photos accepted into the 4^th annual Sound Image Exhibition, but this Rich Aucoin shot placed third. Ya dude! Skincredible.

Rich Aucoin

Run The Jewels photo also at the show. Skinvasion.

The show is great. Props to the Analogue Gallery – clearly the owner is chasing her passion. Loved many including the Florence and the Machine (Yes please!), Feist, and Arcade Fire. On until the end of the month. Go see it and catch the Skinfection!

Now Skindulge in the song of the day. In his words “Rich Aucoin, one man band of amazing….But it’s really about experiencing his live show. There’s a parachute involved. Think grade school.”

I’m Afloat!

Well, hello there friends…

I’ve been thinking about starting this blog for almost a year now. I’ve wavered on whether to dedicate the time. Who would be interested in what I have to say? Blah, blah…all the usual unproductive things (crap really) that our ego says to us day after day after…

But then two weeks ago I read a post from Seth Godin about the importance of having an opinion and voicing that opinion. And I knew he was speaking to me.

And then in this last week, twice I’ve heard the message about volume and how repeated effort and failure leads to success. Insert your version of success here. I’m a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert‘s: Anything that brings you more freedom, more space, more time, more love, more wonder, more life.

More about the rewards of doing a huge volume of work.

So here goes. My blog and my first post. The blog look and feel, and this first message itself is not as perfect as my procrastinating self has been day-dreaming about these last several months. But I’m afloat. And I will continue contemplating what I’ve learned and am learning, and share these ideas to lift my friends and encourage their own adventures through this blog or Twitter or FaceBook or Pinterest. “Speak up. Not just tomorrow, but every day. A worthwhile habit.”

Be Your Excellent Self Today.

AND introducing the song of the day. First post is just an all time fave – video is a gem.