a blog by John P. Schuster
The holidays are upon us and many people will physically go to a place we think of as home, or home-like, with family, friends, sibs, parents, cousins. Even with the unresolved issues that get stirred up by arriving in family settings, in the main we keep longing for home. The metaphor of coming home resonates spiritually as well. We yearn to come home to the original version of us, the more innocent version who had[…]
Read moreOh the age thing! I had a bit of a shock last year. A woman we work with said she went to the doctor, got measured for height, and had shrunk an inch. So I measured myself that night. No mistake about it, down an inch from my six-foot-tall days. Now when did that happen? What a rude sign of mortality and aging! Isn’t getting shorter for people in their late 80s, not me, a[…]
Read moreBy now, at certain latitudes in the northern hemisphere, we have gone through our closets for the Autumn ritual of switching out our wardrobes. Depending on how far south you live, this may or may not be true. (Texas,Florida,Arizona: just imagine how others do this so I can carry through with the metaphor, ok?) My southern hemisphere friends are pulling out the spring look. On the literal side of things, I have to get rid[…]
Read moreWe live in a world of acquisition. We measure ourselves by our numbers, like they say in the ING television commercial showing people walking around with their net worth under their arms—clever ad, and surely sad. What if they instead walked around with their happiness, spiritual or emotional bank account numbers, the lasting wealth of life, under their arms? With acquisition being our culture’s mega-measure, is it any wonder that letting go is difficult for[…]
Read moreOur souls require a daily diet of beauty and love. I think you will find this 2-minute video part of today’s hit of beauty. The team at Berrett-Koehler did a great job on the visual and musical poetry. I added the words for retrieving fragments of our soul by working with our yesterdays. There is an offer at the end for a free chapter of The Power of Your Past. Do a promotion favor and[…]
Read moreRemember: we live in time. I gave the mindfulness movement, the fans of the now, credit in my last blog. Now I want to take issue with one of their leaders, Eckhart Tolle, who wrote The Power of Now about 10 years ago and Oprah helped him sell about a jillion copies of his books. He is a good spiritual thinker. I give him credit for much, and you can check him out on YouTube[…]
Read moreHave you done some real thinking lately? Sure you have had thoughts, but more likely than you having them, they have been having you. Thoughts have a life of their own, and sort of stream through our heads of their own accord. I give the mindfulness movement great credit for reminding us how little we really think our thoughts, and how often our thoughts are thinking us. The point of The Power of Your Past[…]
Read moreOur congressmen and women today are locked in idealogical warfare that resembles trench warfare in WWI: endless attacks and no movement. One of the transcendentalists who “hung out” with Emerson and Thoreau (I can picture that with these people) was the chaplain of the US Congress. His words need to be heeded for today: To live content with small means; to see elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion. To be worthy, not[…]
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