Unplugged

Recently I've read several blog posts about unplugging from facebook, email, texting etc., for at least one day a week.  The posts have talked about how this will help us connect more with the people we love and the things we love to do.

I'm on the computer probably more hours a day than any one person ought to be.  It is one of the first things I do in the morning and one of the last things I do before I go to bed. I use it for entertainment, for communication, for reading, for business . . . in fact today I have already been on the computer for about 3 hours (it's 11:30 am right now).  I will most likely spend the majority of my work day using the computer. Checking email, maybe doing some actual work (I'm my own boss . . . most of the time) and probably just passing the time; playing games on Facebook or watching something on Netflix. When I get home from work I'll probably fire up the computer again for more games on Facebook and probably some blog reading (There were a lot of posts written while I was unplugged for a few days).

For the Christmas Holiday this year we spent 4 days away from out home. Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our family in the big city (Seattle, we live in a small beach town on the coast of Washington, pop. 4,000).  Then after that we drove to Canada and spent a couple of days in Vancouver.  I chose not to take my computer. At first I wasn't sure I'd make it without it (one of the first things I do in the morning is fire it up). I didn't cheat once and use my hubby's or any of other family members'.  

It was nice taking a break from it. Not sure if I can choose one day a week to just unplug, but maybe I can spend a little time everyday not watching the computer screen. I made it 4 days I can make it a couple of hours, right?

Can you imagine how much more you could accomplish if you just left the computer off? You'd have some time for exercise, maybe you could learn something new (I've only had the guitar for about 10 years, just never had the time to learn to play it), you could bake something from scratch or play a game of Scrabble to prove once again why you are the Scrabble Queen.

This post is part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am going to really get this blog going. So I decided I'd join the Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to post 31 posts in the month of January and to get more traffic to my blog and to other blogs. This is post number 1. For more info or to join the challenge check the link below.

The Lessons of Love by Melody Beattie

Just finished reading this book.  Wanted to share a part of it with you all. It is a bit long and I hope that you find some wisdom or inspiration in her words.

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Every experience I have had in my life has been about the dame thing.

Each lesson has ultimately and absolutely been about one thing, the only thing that is.

Love.

I had heard it said before. Now I understood.

The struggles to learn I had a soul. Mu struggles to learn about my strengths. Even my grief. I had been talking to a woman seated near me at dinner one night, wailing about my pain, my anguish over losing my son, about how close the three of us had been, about the hole in my heart.  The woman had turned to her husband. Have you ever loved that deeply? she asked. I don't thinks so, he had said. Even these, my blackest and darkest moments, had been a form of love, one of its lessons. A harder one, but still a lesson of love.

I laughed out loud, alone in my room. What did I think love would look like? Feel like? Be? A romantic vision of being carried off to Camelot? And then what?

Forgiveness Compassion. Service. Self-love. Loving myself when I was certain nobody else loved me or ever would. Then opening up,m learning to let others in.

Faith.

Acceptance. Acceptance of myself, my life, others, their lives.

Friendship. Courage. Perseverance.

Hope.

Joy. Learning to deliberately choose joy. The simple sweet process of learning to be present each moment and find and choose joy, a joy not dependent on outer circumstances, but one that comes from the heart.

How did I think I would learn all these lessons, all these subcategories of love?

Trust. Trusting myself. learning to trust others, life, God.

Learning to play and laugh. Learning to walk away, sometimes learning to stay put. Honoring my own needs, even when they differed from what others thought my needs should be. Honoring me, even when I was different from what others thought I should be. Trusting my vision for my life, creating another vision it that one didn't work. Chasing my dreams, catching them, then finding more. Learning about this connection, this absolute and divine connection to all that is, and maybe ever was, in the universe.

And finally, facing and accepting death.

Had I thought all those lessons would be learned easily?

I guess I had.

I saw now that even the struggles, the hard times when I cursed and moaned and whined, had not been punishment. God hadn't been peering down from the heavens saying, Good, let her crawl over broken glass for a bit. That will teach her.

God was saying, Look, she's learning to love.

The struggle of climbing to the top of the mountain was as much my purpose as getting to the top of it.

I felt a lightness that I hadn't felt in years, maybe ever. For a moment I imagined I heard the angels sing, a celestial chorus of joy. I wondered how long, how long really, I had struggled to get this lesson right.

I didn't have to scramble up and down the ladder from despair to euphoria anymore, trying to convince myself that life was either painful and terrible or joyous and wonerful.

The simple truth was that life was both.

I hadn't come here to live happily ever after, although I now sensed I could. I had come here to learn love. That's what the lessons had been about.

Even those events I had written off as coincidence were an expression of divine love. Universal love. Love was an active, living force. I had always been there for me. All I needed to do was open my eyese and see and choos it.

It's not, I realized, that the lessons are about love. The lessons themselves are love.  They are the journey to the heart.

I got up. And I let go of my balloon, watching it rail far up into the sky.

Understanding love didn't make the pain go away. Understanding love freed my heart.

It didn't mean I'd never feel pain again. An open heart feels pain and loss as well as love and joy.  An open heart feels all it needs to feel. Otherwise, it closes again.

Thank you for my life, I whispered into the air.

I was surprised. At last I meant it.

Sankalpa

I learned a new word today. The Sanskrit word sankalpa. It means resolve, intention, will, purpose, and/or determination.

From the Sanskrit Glossary ~ Sankalpa: “Will; purpose; determination.” A solemn vow or declaration of purpose to perform any ritual observance. Most commonly, sankalpa names the mental and verbal preparation made by a temple priest as he begins rites of worship. During the sankalpa, he proclaims to the three worlds what he is about to do. He intones the name of the Deity, the type of ritual he is about to perform and the present time and place according to precise astrological notations. Once the sankalpa is made, he is bound to complete the ceremony.

From the Yoga Journal ~ POSITIVE POWER A Sanskrit word, sankalpa means "will, purpose, or determination." To make a sankalpa is to set an intention—it's like a New Year's resolution with a yogic twist. While a resolution often zeros in on a perceived negative aspect of ourselves (as in, "I want to lose weight, so no more chocolate chip cookies or ice cream or cheese"), a sankalpa explores what's behind the thought or feeling ("I crave chocolate chip cookies or ice cream or cheese when I'm feeling stressed or sad. I will set an intention to become conscious of this craving and allow my feelings to arise and pass, rather than fill up on fats"). ~ check out the link the full post on this topic is great.

This post at 5 Seed was the inspiration for this post.  Check out her other blog A Green Spell.

P.S. When I started this blog my intent was to post at least once a week. Its now been a bit over two since my last post. There is no excuse . . . just a seemingly ongoing quest to find Balance between the things I "have" to do and the things I "want" to do. If you all have any tips on finding Balance I'd love to hear them.