Columba of Iona: Spiritual Pilgrim, Progressive Saint.
Quote of the Day:
Postmodern people possess no stable identity, nothing is inherited from the past, no family ties bind, and all forms of personhood must be chosen, and often, chosen again. Many people live in several states (or countries), marry more than once, change religions one or more times, and switch jobs a dozen times or more. Indeed, instability is so pronounced that some philosophers argue that constant questing for personal meaning is the only sane way to adapt to the contemporary world. Life is an unfinished and unfinishable project. Human beings are, in essence, homeless wanderers, spiritual tourists or religious nomads.
Mystery of Iniquity 
Postmodern vs. Contemporary. I’m just a believer, and that was a little bit hard to get into my head, more into my heart. But after so much research…I found Jesus. I’m not religious (thank God), is just that all the walls of procastination fell off and my heart was free to have real FUN! If is not fun, I do not do anything. Now, That’s a new Life.
~Great post!
~Great love to you,
Mirian from peelingtheorange. “)
Thanks Mirian! Much love to you as well. 🙂
I was thinking yesterday about how important it is not only to embrace the changes that happen around you (or perhaps just accept them somewhat), but also how important it is for us to create change, for ourselves, purposefully.
Life is about experience and if we are only experiencing a limited set of things over and over again, I think our inner watcher gets bored and restless.
Kay,
That’s a very good point. I don’t believe we are as stagnant as we sometimes appear to be to others or even to ourselves. Life IS change. And those who never change: their minds, their environments, their relationships, etc. probably die on the vine, or at least make it harder for others to change as well. Great thought.
Mystery, you wrote:
“I don’t believe we are as stagnant as we sometimes appear
to be to others or even to ourselves.”
And that’s a very good point too. We only need to embrace the kind of change which suits us, not someone else’s prescription.
I’m reminded of my dad, for whom work was just an expression of boring necessity and duty to his traditional view of himself as the principal bread winner in his family. To those who didn’t know him, he would have appeared simply as a stereotypical proletarian, but he filled as much of his leisure time as he could with going to lectures, radio, reading, and making things. That was his pilgrimage, his route out of the low income prison of his daily grind. No cataclysmic change for him, but I think he found fulfilment in exploring a world he felt, socially and financially, he could never inhabit.
As Sheryl Crow says, “we do what we can”.
“We embrace the kind of change that suits us.”
Yes, good thought. I was thinking the other day of all the advice we get on a daily basis about our spiritual lives and how we are supposed to work hard at meditating or we are supposed to read a significant portion of the bible daily, or we are supposed to sit without thoughts in our head, or “mindfully” eat, or take every minute of our waking life to exercise our butt, legs, etc. And I thought WTF? Why not just enjoy our lives when we aren’t working with something we love or even like to do? What’s with all the cramming of every minute physically and mentally? It’s like one long attempt to constantly “improve.” I think it’s a symptom of “affluenza” as some writer called it. Too much money and money-making. Not me. There’s wisdom in slacking. We should do more of that I think.
One of my favourite things to do is sit on the swing out back, barefeet in the grass and behold the hues of our gardens…and all that nature givith and taketh away. 🙂
I like the quote. I’ve observed in life that the collective whole (generally speaking) keeps trying to scurry around and “finish” life before it’s finished. Like we ever could. 🙂
I like that “finished life before it’s finished.” That’s so true. Embracing change as it comes, welcoming new experiences, and trying not to steer toward an outcome has always worked for me. When I try to force life into a mold of unreal expectations; that’s where I get in trouble. Right now sitting on a porch swing sounds real good.
I actually used that line with my massage therapist today. She’s about 15 years my junior. I thought I’d share some sage wisdom. It worked. 🙂
We have to take what consolations we may from aging. Laying wisdom on the young, whether they want it or not, is as gratifying as embarrassing them with our dancing.
Yes, I like imparting my “wisdom” but the eye-rolling gets to me sometimes. 🙂
I hope I didn’t imply with my comment that I was endorsing going going going all the time, in search of new experiences. I was not. I was simply saying that life is change and it is important to embrace that. Trying to keep things stagnant and rock stable in your life isn’t a healthy way to live. I know. I’ve tried to do it for years. I’m learning to let go.
Here is an example that was in my mind when I posted my initial reply:
I encounter people in my workplace every day that get remarkably upset at the little changes that happen around them. You’d think that the world was coming to an end because their vitamin C was in a new place in the department. Seriously. People yell at me and say “If you guys don’t quit moving the items that I buy then I’m going to shop somewhere else!” And I want to say “Good luck with that. Every store has to rearrange their stock to make room for new stock.”
Absolutely not Kay! I was the one adding that we are always trying to be better. That’s different than rolling with the changes and experiences of life. I embrace change wholeheartedly. I find that the forced change of modern society is quite false however. I agree that people don’t get out and experience things differently than they used to and we are definitely creatures of habit. I think society enforces that somehow with its idea that we can perfect ourselves via drugs, exercise regimes, consumerism, etc.