Moms + My Top 3 Greatest Hits

First a tribute…

To all the fierce Moms out there who nurture, guide, support, and show us what it means to love, and how to embody that love. As a teacher, I spend a lot of time with children. I look into their eyes and see how much they need to feel real connection with the adults in their lives. Moms are at the center of that connection. From infants, to curious, imaginative, wanderers and explorers, to occasionally or often apathetic, defiant tweens and teens, to young adults, with relationships, professions and so on, we all need a “rock” in our lives to help us navigate the waters. A Mom’s ability to raise a child to thrive in today’s world, with all its uncertainties and complexities is a tall order indeed. I can only imagine that it takes monumental courage, strength, compassion, and wisdom, and probably a very good sense of humor to make it happen!

My own Mom embodies all of those qualities. Early on, I can recall several times in my youth looking up to her with amazement for all she did, working 9 to 5, keeping our house in order, good food on the table, and all done with grace, lots of laughs, family gatherings, neighborhood block parties, special holidays, tennis matches, camping, gardening, and on and on. As a child, I was given trust and freedom which gave me wings to fly and do many of the things I’ve chosen to do throughout my life.

As an adult, I see how deeply she cares about people. She really wants everyone to find joy and happiness, and she does her part to help make it happen. She inspires me. We talk at least a couple of times every week, and often for an hour or more. I love these chats we have and am grateful for every chance we have to share together.

To all those Moms out there, thank you for making the world a better, brighter place. And to my own Mom, thank you for being the best Mom I could ever ask for.

Onward to the original topic for this post… Mindfulness, Service & Adventure!

Honestly, I'm not sure where this blog is heading. I guess that’s the beauty of writing, we get to see where it takes us, maybe with some surprises along the way. For example, I had no idea I was going to write about Mom’s this morning, but felt inspired. I love this blogging, I get to go where the whims of the moment take me.

I’ve been thinking…

Our lives are like musical instruments that have so many strings. We get to choose how to blend our strings to create our own individual music. It’s beautiful when you think about it. Sometimes there's Springteen's "Born to Run", other times it's John Denver's "Country Roads", or maybe it's Beethoven's Symphony #9.

As I look closely at my three “greatest hits”, mindfulness, service and adventure keep hitting the top of the charts. They seem to always be on my favorite playlist. I love blending them together to create new kinds of music that intertwine and permeate much of what I find to be meaningful in life. I believe there’s a reason for that.

Let’s break this down…

Mindfulness

Mindfulness or Awareness to me is synonymous with being open-minded, curious, non-judgmental, and present with our experiences, relationships, our minds and bodies. One definition of mindfulness is:

I was reading a blog post this morning by Maria Shriver (I read her weekly newsletter and find it inspiring. She’s amazing!), where she talked about how she met the late Thich Nat Han who would explain how washing the dishes can be a holy experience. Thich Nat Han questioned, are we just trying to get them done? Or are we, “washing the dishes to wash the dishes”. It’s amazing how something so simple and mundane can, by slowing down and being present for it, become something holy and awakening. How often are we actually present with the experience that’s happening in front of us? Can we slow down and become more present? If so, how? Mindfulness holds one valuable key to doing this.

Sometimes our experiences are unpleasant. A teacher friend once called these experiences the, “dark places and shadows of our mind”. While mindfulness is not a silver bullet that’s instantly going to solve all of our difficulties and struggles, it’s a tool, like a “bright light” that can be used to shine on the darkness, helping us become more aware of and cut through negative thought patterns that lead us into these dark places.

So, Mindfulness is one of the three because I've seen for myself the power that awareness brings to any life situation. More to come about this in future posts.

Service

Service to me is the bridge of “action” that mindfulness guides us across. It goes without saying that when we open our eyes to our inner world, it can also open up our hearts with Compassion for others’ inner worlds. Simply stated, when we see the range of ups and downs openly and honestly that we go through, we can be fairly certain that we are not alone.

My heart, like many of yours, is focused on the situations in both Ukraine and Myanmar. Talk about betrayal, suffering, and a “dark quality”. What must be going on in the hearts and minds of the Moms and Dads, the children, grandparents, the soldiers and leaders of both of these countries. Reflection on the inner world of our fellow humans sparks a wish to help wherever and whenever we can. It becomes something really quite natural. We all want these atrocities to end, injustices to be made right, and for life to return to some semblance of “normalcy” for these people.

It's situations like what's happening in Ukraine & Myanmar that ignite our flames of compassion and motivate us to want to help in some way. Service is born out of empathy and compassion. There is great work happening in the field of service on so many levels these days. It's a unique time we are living in. People are waking up and becoming a part of the solution to global issues we're all facing.

When each of us discovers for ourselves that we can make a positive difference in others' lives, animals' lives, the environment, wherever, and we consistently act on that discovery, we will begin to know and understand the true power and joy of doing service.

Service is the 2nd of my top three, and again, ways of approaching service will be given more depth on future posts.

Adventure

Adventure, I believe my wife and I had the word “adventure” embedded somewhere in our wedding vows. It’s the spice of life, which I believe, brings out the best in us. I don’t know how to describe what a sense of adventure does for the human spirit. It’s some kind of fear yoga where we lean into and gently stretch our limits and abilities.

Personally, I carry a broad view of adventure. To me, adventure can definitely include heart pounding, adrenaline rushes of jumping off of high things, climbing up, diving in, riding across, shredding down, paddling over... you fill in the blanks. This all came with the territory of growing up on Francis Drive, it's a part of me, and pretty much continues in some form or another to this day.

Although the above level of risk taking is included in my definition, my widening perspective of adventure includes going to a social event that you wouldn’t normally go to, talking with strangers, public speaking, taking on a creative endeavor (like writing a blog), learning a new instrument, trying a new sport, even using a loom to knit a rug for the first time. You get the point, it's anything that turns the words "I can't" into "I can", which launches us out of our comfort zone and into something that stretches us in ways that expand our lives.

One begins to see how mindfulness, service, and adventure are three different sides of the same prism. These three in some way or another seem to combine and support one another and have made their way to my top three greatest hits. Future posts will be tagged with one or more of these three, and likely other tags will be included as they come clear.

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