25.366 | pitcher picture

25.366 | pitcher picture, originally uploaded by emdot.

Julio Diaz has a brave heart and kind soul. This story on NPR tells what happens when he was mugged last month and how he may have helped a kid out. I loved it.

» Hear the story (or you can just read it at the same link as well)

Currently Rocking My World

113.366 | Get with the program, originally uploaded by emdot.

My hearing about and finally buying this book feels like a stroke of grace, a minor miracle. No, not a minor miracle. A gift from god.

Over the top? Hell yeah. But still the way I feel? You know it.

I kind of wish I'd found this book sooner. But then I wonder... would I have been ready for it? Maybe yes, maybe no. But now? I am this book's fertile freaking ground.

I could quote all kinds of passages, from simple sentences to full on paragraphs.... it is just chalk full of wisdom and insights and immediately helpful tips.

Here is the bit I read today that made me chuckle with identification:

Serenity Prayer: Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. — Reinhold Niebuhr

Stress Prayer: Grant me the stubbornness to struggle against things I cannot change; the inertia to avoid work on my own behaviors and attitudes which I can change, and the foolishness to ignore the differences between external events beyond my control and my own controllable reactions. But most of all, grant me a contempt for my own human imperfection and the limits of human control.

Oh Neil Fiore, there you go again. Nailing me to the cross. :)

This book PLUS the artist's way is like a super-power-house-un-block-a-thon. Talk about the levies breaking...

Or well, I hope so anyway.

Onward and upward people. It's an awesome day. :)

note to self

jonathan livingston as a young gull, originally uploaded by emdot.

For most of us, karma and negative emotions obscure the ability to see our own intrinsic nature, and the nature of reality. As a result we clutch on to happiness and suffering as real, and in our unskillful and ignorant actions go on sowing the seeds....

— Sogyal Rinpoche

So often it is hard to remember this, isn't it?