Life On A B-I7

Leaders who are truly great give up some of their own comfort to help others—to contribute to the greater good.

I know that sounds odd, maybe old fashioned, but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. We all should be willing — the richest among us and the poorest — to give up what we can to comfort others. I don’t mean just our time, I mean our resources as well. Hanging on to wealth to the grave and leaving it behind for those who’s only desire is to accumulate more wealth does not benefit the inheritor or society.

I’m fortunate not to be raising children today. I’ve raised three. They are good people. I’m grateful for that and proud. I don’t know if I could successfully raise children today. The challenges and pressures are an order of magnitude more complex than they were 40 years ago. It will be fascinating to see what primary age children today will be like as adults thirty years from now. I’ll leave that analysis up to you, my younger reader. For the time I have left, I will be watching with no small amount of interest.

The clatter in your mind cannot be suppressed as much as transcended. That means getting above the noise. To do that:

1. Lift your attention to the divine.
2. Look outward and serve others.

It’s as simple as that, only of course, that is not simple. That takes concentrated effort.

Along with the teachings of The Buddha, I would like to read Saint Catherine of Sienna’s, The Dialogue. I have added that to my list.

Yesterday’s Ride

32.5 miles, 11.6 mph average, 2 hr 48 min, elevation gain 925 ft

Tux in meditation, or protecting me… I’m not sure which…

On Monday 4/20 I checked in for my first day of kitchen duty at Shepard’s House. Shepard’s House is a homeless shelter in Redmond Oregon. They serve meals daily, provide shelter and other homeless services. These are good people.

I prepped 20L of broccoli, 20L of cauliflower, 20L of zucchini, and 20L of yellow squash. It took about 2-1/2 hours… and I only cut myself once! Don’t worry, no one noticed. I put on a fresh pair of black neoprene gloves after I cut myself to hide my embarrassment. Don’t worry, it’s all cool, I have my State of Oregon Food Handlers License, so no lives were endangered by my incompetence.

I plan to work in the kitchen every Monday. I met some nice people and I’m looking forward to next week.

If something appears new to you, rest assured, someone has seen it before. This moment has come before and will come again. This understanding is not meant to be discouraging, this is meant to inspire us to action.

When we respect destiny and fate, we give ourselves the grace we need to receive acceptance.

These thoughts would make an excellent focus for meditation. Repeat each of these slowly and ask yourself how aligned are you with each of these.

Our job is to make ourselves better, it is not to make others better. Everyone is on their own journey. As much as you may want to someone else make a change, those efforts will never bring about lasting results.

Both hope and fear are nothing more than projections into the future. Both are the enemy of the present.

We only get upset with things when we view their state as permanent.

What you should you trust? Your reputation? Your money? Your position? None of these.

You should trust your judgement. Cultivate solid judgement in all things. What requires sound judgement, the need to conquer the world or conquering the need to conquer the world.

Those that are too proud are eventually brought low. When the gods send evil, no one escapes. Life can change in an instant.

The notion that we reside in the center of the universe and the universe revolves around us is toxic to our souls.

We tend to view change as bad, just as we tend to desire stableness. Neither of these is good or bad in themselves.

What if the fate that we endure was prescribed for us like a doctor prescribes medicine. What then does that say about fate and how we should approach it?

Always display character. It may not serve you in the short term but it will always serve you in the long term.

We need each other. We must be there for each other and allow others to be there for us. This is the natural state of man. To deny this or worse, betray this truth, is a betrayal of our humanity.

Undesirable things will be visited on you at some point, of this you can be assured. As we have heard many times, what goes around comes around. Rest assured that those visiting harm on you are only hurting themselves. You can not be hurt unless you allow it.

Live a good life ruled by reason. Live in the now, not in the future.

Keep in mind your two highest priorities in life. Be a good person. Pursue an occupation that you love.

Ask yourself, “what is the best use of my limited time.” The answer to that will make you better at all things you do, in all your responsibilities.

Goodness can come to you, that is true. It is even better to find it within yourself.

No matter what you perceive your shortcomings to be, you have qualities that are beneficial to you and to others. Find them. Cultivate them.

Yesterday I became a paid subscriber to a Substack feed that I thought was good. In many ways it is a good one. But this morning I realized that it was probably a bit short on fact. (All Substacks are long on opinion.)

Opinion is fine. We all look for voices that agree with us, There is nothing wrong with that as long as we do two things: Listen for alternative voices to keep ourselves well balanced, and insist that what we do read is factual.

I found myself unsubscribing to this feed this morning, not because I didn’t like the opinion, but because it was not factual. Here is my post to the author