The Forgotten Prayer

Paulo Coelho

The Forgotten Prayer

The last time I walked the streets of Sao Paulo, I received a pamphlet from a friend, Edinho,with the title, “A Moment of Holiness.” A four-color print, nice quality paper, but  the only thing that kept me reading further was a prayer.

Much to my amazement, I saw that I was the one who wrote it. The text had been published in the early 8os in a collection of poetry. I never thought that the words would stand the test of time or that they would ever show up in such a mysterious manner back in my hands. As I reread it, I was not ashamed of what I had written so many years ago. Because the prayer was in the pamphlet, I now take it as an omen and feel it is only proper to present it again here.

I hope, dear readers, to inspire you to write down your own prayer, in which you ask for things that you find important. In this way, we create a positive vibration in our heart that is contagious and affects everything around us.

Here is the prayer:

Lord, protect our doubts, for doubt is a form of prayer.It makes us grow by forcing us fearlessly to the many answers we seek that are there for one and the same question.

Lord, protect our decisions, for decision is a form of prayer. Give us courage, after the necessary doubt, to choose between the one way or the other. That our YES be a YES and our NO always a NO. That when we have made a choice that we never again look back nor allow our hearts to churn with remorse.

Lord, protect our dreams,for our dreams are a form of prayer. Make us, independent of our age or our circumstances, able to keep the holy flame, which burns with hope and perseverance, in our hearts.

Lord, give us enthusiasm, for enthusiasm is a form of prayer. This is what binds us to heaven and  earth and to people old and young and that shows that our desire is important and worth the effort. It is that which confirms that all things are possible.

Lord, protect us for life is the only form we have to display your miracles. May the earth continue to change seeds into corn and may we continue to change corn into bread. This is only possible through love, therefore, let us never live in loneliness. Grant us your continuous fellowship and the fellowship of others so that doubts, discourse, dreams and enthusiasm can exist and that we live with the attitude that everyday is devoted to your glory. Amen

Translated from Dutch. Number of new vocabulary words: 27

Playbook for Super-Health or Recovery from Illness~Adapted from Dr. Terry Wahls

Consume the following foods everyday:

• 3 cups of green leafy vegetables
• 3 cups of colored fruits & vegetables
• 3 cups of sulfur containing vegetables
• Seaweed
• No glutinous grains

Use only organic foods and personal products

Move your body

Meditate

Scale? We don’t need to Stinkin’ Scale

I know that scaling is the way to make something big out of a small operation. But, who says scaling is the only way to go? I just heard about Ugmonk through 99u.com and I love Jeff’s desire to grow slowly and sustainably.

I am still very surprised that  "how will you scale?" is the first question asked of any type of start up crew, even though I shouldn’t be, since I focus on the stock market where scaling up to IPO is the only growth model.

In the old days, a baker or a butcher was not concerned with scaling, he was concerned with making a living and thus, providing a quality product to ensure the security of his income. These days with the reemergence of artisanal makers, where small and hands on is the new model, why are we still so focussed on scaling up?

Clean Mind Policy

For sometime now, I have been practicing a strict clean desk policy. At the end of each work day, I tidy up what normally looks like the Tasmanian Devil’s workshop. All papers off the desk, hopefully in binders, but sometimes in piles in drawers, but out of sight. Pens & pencils in their purple leather container, coffee cup in the dishwasher, discards to the recycle bin, shared items to the cabinet.

The only paper allowed on the desk surface is tomorrow’s To Do list. This makes for a nice closing ritual for the day and for a fresh start of the next day, which is particularly nice on Mondays or the first day back from vacation.

This morning I woke up thinking about adopting a Clean Mind Policy.

I don’t mean cleaning up my dirty mind. I live in Holland, any type of censorship is bad and what fun would that be anyway?

What I am thinking about is creating a habit of regularly and actively removing the daily mind clutter that comes with working and that stands in the way of my happiness pursuit. As, Taylor Swift puts it, to shake, shake, shake it off. Get rid of it before it becomes hoard fodder for my brain or worse, my heart.

Like most things I do, I need tips and Jedi Mind tricks to use on myself. Maybe, the best way to start this is to do it at the same time that I am cleaning off my desk; a mindfulness exercise to make sure no unnecessary annoyances, grudges or petty peeves go out the door with me. Maybe I can even put it on the end of tomorrow’s To Do list as a reminder.

"To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities."
— Bruce Lee

Hello, Friends!

Welcome back to my thought space.

A while back, I was complaining to a friend that on our vacation to Curacao, I was annoyed by the 18-yr-old daughter of friends who was constantly running around in her bikini.

He asked me, does that make you want to be 18 again? I guess he thought that I was annoyed out of envy for her youthful beauty. I said “Heck, no!” I didn’t even have to think about the question. Later, I started thinking about why I feel this way. I came up with a great number of whys. Being young is hard and you don’t even realize that you are beautiful until you look back. Recently, a friend of mine posted a picture of me at 17. My mouth dropped when I saw it, not at all how I saw myself at that time.

But that is not really the point of this thought module. I watched this video this week What We Tell Ourselves. I found it on Seth Godin’s blog. It’s a call to action for us 35-60 year-olds and it is fantastic. Have a look and tell me what you think.

Bloemen van Piet

One moment, the road

Tender blooms from the rested

Salvation in you   

For Jim

polar opposites
for comfort a gesture kind
a bond for the times

Photograph by Dayna Mason (daynoir on Flickr)

Copy Cat

Trying to copy Mehmet's soup. Not bad, but a little thin :-)

My Handsome Dutch Partner

# 6~Bus 300 affair~Fairy Princess

Winter,s Fairy Princess by digitalwizard

I am a fairy princess and an engineer.
First, I had to work very,very hard to become an engineer, but before that I had to wait and wait.

I had to do a lot of things for other people. Some of those people didn't appreciate the sacrifices I made for the sake of their SUCCESS. It turns out that my idea of success is different from some of those people's.

So, at a certain point in time, I had to go my separate way. I took the road less travelled and it has made all the difference.

Make no mistake, the road to Fairyland is not an easy one. In fact, it is hidden.
Hidden in plain sight. That is why not many of us find it. And once we find it, it is easy to take a wrong turn, get off track and lose the way.

There are many clues along the way and many magical creatures who whisper  "come with me. Don't go that way, it's too hard." If you want to come along, listen and Trust. We know the way.


Note to reader: This is all me ( ok the muse had a part in it :-))

# 7~Bus 300 affair~The Dream and the Dreamer

Help me,
Help me in my journey back
to where it all began.
Help me remember the dream and to wake up from it.
Help me remember not to be seduced by the beauty and not to be perturbed by the ugliness.
Help me to remember everyday's purpose; to forgive the dream and the dreamer
and to remember that we are not WE, but we are ONE in the same place
where it all began
with a tiny "what if?"

Note to reader: I am not really sure if this is original. I usually give credit in my journal for quotes & there is none. So please don't sue me if it is gathered from another source.

Catharsis

I found my old journal from 2007 and 2008 today while I am sorting out my books. Books, too many books. Rob doesn't like me to have so many books.

Back to the story. To make a short story long, this is the most significant book that I have almost completed. It contains thoughts, dreams, mediations and a tarot card reading. This period was the time when I decided to leave my second husband Everett Thomas Swint. I also assisted my sisters to place my demented (frontal lobe injury) father into the Veteran's home, a locked facility, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. These were the best of times and the worst of times.

I would like to share a few of these meditations in the next few days as a way to process my feelings about what is happening on our EARTH today. Thanks for listening.

xS

Social Distortion

I will never forgive you for your deed that day
When the hummus had too much garlic and
We were deafened by Social Distortion
And my lover turned his head away

First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association, New York City, May 9, 1867

Sojourner Truth, Address to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association, New York City, May 9, 1867 My friends, I am rejoiced that you are glad, but I don't know how you will feel when I get through. I come from another field-the country of the slave. They have got their liberty-so much good luck to have slavery partly destroyed; not entirely. I want it root and branch destroyed. Then we will all be free indeed. I feel that if I have to answer for the deeds done in my body just as much as a man, I have a right to have just as much as a man. There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to got it going again. White women are a great deal smarter, and know more than colored women, while colored women do not know scarcely anything. They go out washing, which is about as high as a colored woman gets, and their men go about idle, strutting up and down; and when the women come home, they ask for their money and take it all, and then scold because there is no food. I want you to consider on that, chil'n I call you chil'n; you are somebody's chil'n and I am old enough to be mother of all that is here. I want women to have their rights. In the courts women have no right, no voice; nobody speaks for them. I wish woman to have her voice there among the pettifoggers. If it is not a fit place for women, it is unfit for men to be there. I am above eighty years old; it is about time for me to be going. I have been forty years a slave and forty years free, and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all. I suppose I am kept here because something remains for me to do, I suppose I am yet to help to break the chain. I have done a great deal of work; as much as a man, but did not get so much pay. I used to work in the field and bind grain, keeping up with the cradler; but men doing no more, got twice as much pay; so with the German women. They work in the field and do as much work, but do not got the pay. We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much. I suppose I am about the only colored woman that goes about to speak for the rights of the colored women. I want to keep the thing stirring, now that the ice is cracked. What we want is a little money. You men know that you get as much again as women when you write, or for what you do. When we get our rights we shall not have to come to you for money, for then we shall have money enough in our own pockets; and may be you will ask us for money. But help us now until we get it. It is a good consolation to know that when we have got this battle once fought we shall not be coming to you any more. You have been having our rights so long, that you think, like a slave-holder, that you own us. I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife. It will feel all the better when it closes up again. I have been in Washington about three years, seeing about these colored people. Now colored men have the right to vote. There ought to be equal rights now more than ever, since colored people have got their freedom. I am going to talk several times while I am here; so now I will do a little singing. I have not heard any singing since I came here. Accordingly, suiting the action to the word, Sojourner sang, "We are going home." "There, children," said she, "in heaven we shall rest from all our labors; first do all we have to do here. There I am determined to go, not to stop short of that beautiful place, and I do not mean to stop till I get there, and meet you there, too."

What I learned from Lumosity

Lumosity is my daily brain game. As with anything requiring effort, there are parts I like and parts I don’t like. There are games that I am good at, I like those. There are some that I suck at, I do not like those. Lately, I have been paying particular attention to my self talk about the various games. I heard myself saying “I hate this game, I am terrible at it.” Or “I love this game, it’s my favorite!”  Then I decided to try an experiment. For the games I hate, I started to say, “Oh I love this game!” What do you think has begun to happen with my brain scores? Yep, you guessed it. I am getting better at the sucky games. Not only that, but, I am also improving on the games that I am already good at. It has a double affect!

And then,  decided to try this trick on myself for other areas of life.  First, I started to listen more closely to the negative chatter rattling around my head and then I began to redirect the conversation towards a more positive internal interaction. For example, when I recently heard myself saying, “you are going to flop, you are not prepared”, which is really a big lie, I reminded myself that I have been preparing for three weeks and even though, I don’t feel ready, I am prepared and I am going to kill it. What do you think has started to happen? Yep, you guessed it. I am starting to see a more awesome self! Try it for yourself.

A poem for a friend

She Shakes the Pillars of Heaven

Entering the sanctuary,
I met the tribunal
Bearded, solemn,
Ignorant to the ways of love
From the vestibule came tea
With sugar cubes and curiosity
Who is she that shakes the pillars of heaven?
It is I, Maryam

Rose

Rilke & Roses

Where is there for this inner an outer?

Upon which hurt does one lay such fine linen?

And which heavens are reflected within them, upon the interior seas of these open roses, these carefree ones; see:

how loose in looseness

they lie, as if a trembling hand

could never tip them over.

They can hardly hold themselves

erect; many allow themselves

be filled all too full and flow

over from inner space

into the days, which, ever

more and more full, close in upon themselves,

until the entire summer becomes

a chamber, a chamber in a dream.

Rainer Maria Rilke, the Inner Rose

Count your blessings

This post is for my lovely colleague, Aileen, who thinks that I might have something interesting to say. Come on Aileen!

My love/hate relationship with Holland is not a well-kept secret. In the early days, after the excitement wore off and there was no backing out, I made lists of things I liked about Holland to psyche myself out of scraping the whole experiment.

Here are a few of those things:

1. Flowers
2. Bikes & biking everywhere
3. Convenient shopping with cheap, high-quality wine!
4. Safe, clean public environment (spittle, dog poop and graffiti not withstanding)
5. Public transportation (four years without a car)
6. Inexpensive health insurance and care ( a double-edged sword)
7. Flex-time
8. Direct/No-nonsense communication (also a double-edged sword)
9. The sacredness of vacation
10. The sharing of domestic duties (A Dutch partner worth his weight in gold)

These things, here in black and white, make a pretty good argument for sticking around.

Thanks, Dear Aileen, for getting me back on track.