Surrender to Serenity

“Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”

I seem to be finding life rather calm and peaceful nowadays. Tranquility is not that difficult for me to find me at this time. I am not actually working at a job, but focusing full-time on me. That would seem to help keep stress to a minimum. But I think the key to my serenity is more than just being out of the "rat-race". I am only able to do this because I have made a decision to let go of any attachment or desire for material things at this time, and leave the accumulation of "stuff" to a later date (if ever). This is for me a result of learning gratitude and humility.

Gratefully Accepting Life

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ~Epictetus

I finally escaped the city. For the first three decades of my life, I had never spent the May long-weekend in the city. As a child it was a weekend to go camping with my family. As a teenager it became May two-four, and it was a weekend of unsupervised partying. As an adult that theme continued, but not necessarily with my chosen friends, since I spent all the summers of my twenties planting trees in the spring. For the last decade I have lived in Vancouver, and never left the lower mainland. I was able to get up the coast (to Gibson's Landing) for the long weekend for the 30th NA Spring Clean (the Dirty Thirty). The weather pretty much sucked the whole weekend. I didn't know that many people. The night sky wasn't as awesome as I hoped due to not being far enough away from Van. It could have been easy to be resentful and not all that pleased with it all. But what would be the point of being unhappy with my actions?

Patient Practice

“Practice is everything. This is often misquoted as Practice makes perfect." — Periander

An important part of my day is my daily forms. In the mornings (upon awakening) and in the evening (right before bed), and occasionally somewhere in between, I practice my forms. Empty hand movement sets I learned a couple decades ago. In Wing Chun, the style of Kung Fu that I practice, the entire art is contained in three forms. At this point in my life, I have been practicing them for so long, that doing so has become an ingrained habit that would take more work than it's worth to stop. Besides, I still learn from them so why would I want to?

A Positive Balance

"We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything." — Blaise Pascal

One of the most important priorities for me right now in my recovery is balance. In the sense of feeling calm and centered, and also in the sense of having all the ingredients of my life in the proper proportions. In how I spend my time and energy. I have found that the more clear I am on my priorities and intentions, the easier it is for me to know what to do to work towards a healthier sense of balance. However, it seems that the more clear in my mind these goals appear, the more life throws at my way to challenge me in achieving equilibrium. It's as if the destination becomes both more clear and further away at the same time.

The Magic Word

“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sometimes we find ourselves wishing that magic was real. I think a big reason we don't believe in it is because of an association the word has for many of us with evil and show biz. But magic doesn't have to have anything to do with evil forces or entertainment. I look around me and I see a world full of magic.

Belief in Reality

“When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.” - Lewis Carroll

It is my belief that suffering is the inevitable and unavoidable result of the clash between what we think (or believe) reality is (or should be) and what it actually and truly is. This opens up a huge can of worms that philosophers have been arguing over for millennia. I'm just going to focus on the words, and what others have come to accept as their meanings. I leave most of the philosophizing to the philosophers. I thought it would interesting to start with looking at the meaning of belief, and it's related words (those which define the word itself).