Remove words from your spiritual world and find peace.

Words are powerful, they take the intangible and make it concrete. Words are the translation of though into an encoded message of meaning. Words are expansive and words are limiting. Words save lives…words kill.

It is challenging, if not impossible, to remove words from our experience. I am sharing this concept through words. Words are crucial and fundamental to us. We train ourselves so well to use words that many thoughts can’t exist apart from words.

Emotions, experiences, feelings, these are all things we struggle to put into words. Often, once we do find a way to put an experience into words, we somehow comfort ourselves that we’ve captured it. This comfort leads to releasing the actual experience in favor of the simpler words. But the experience was the gem and the words are only a single facet of that gem, a glimpse of the moments true beauty.

We have to remember that words are just symbols, shadows of the ideas they represent. Without words there are still ideas. Without words there is still imagination. Without words we can live without limitations, in our minds.

Without a creative medium to export the ideas they remain locked in our heads. There are many mediums through which to share ideas, sculpture, drawing, interpretive dance. However, the most common currency of conceptual conveyance is conversation. Without words many ideas can’t go beyond our own minds. We are social creatures and as such a common means of sharing ideas was developed. We become liberated from our own minds. And shackled to the power of words.

So when it comes to spirituality it is interesting how heavily words are relied upon. When it comes to religion, we find the power of words driven to their fullest power. Wars have begun over disagreements in translation. Fought over perspectives on concepts from the ethereal laid out into words and deemed as different as good and evil. Millions have lost their lives in holy wars over a difference of interpretation regarding out divine spiritual nature.

So I invite you to release the power of words, if only for a few moments each day. Move into the silo of your higher thoughts, apart from words, and see the common threads that bind us all.

Remember next time you’re listening to someone talk, and their words ram into your mental boundaries, try to look past the words to the ideas. Reach into the deeper meaning. Forgive their potential heresy and love their abundant humanity.

Namaste,

Kevin

All progress comes at a cost.

Riding the BART train the other day I saw a young boy hugging his fathers legs, he was probably about 5 years old and barely came up to his fathers waist. He looked around uncertainly as the train moved on, but clearly unafraid. His father was the strength, certainty and wisdom needed to deal with this situation, he needed nothing more.

As our eyes narrow with age and our experience broadens, we lose the ability to trust and accept unconditionally the comfort of that trust. It is both tragic and inevitable. Each lesson over time teaches us, sometimes painfully, how far we can trust others. We establish boundaries and historical references, these frame our future trust relationships and reign us in from granting unconditional trust.

When we are children we have limited capacity see the end from the beginning. We have yet to learn all the ways we can be let down, disappointed, or simply have others fail for us. Over time we learn to trust ourselves and guard against others. Protecting what is ours and keeping out those that would threaten it. Sadly, I believe this is a required skill here.

This doesn’t mean that we need to stop trusting. Life is a balancing act and in our daily lives we are always walking the tightrope between trust and exposure. Learning to both trust others and protect ourselves is a challenge all adults must face and seek their personal balance.

But seeing that moment again between the child and his father. Knowing the energies shared…

It reminded me of what I have lost.

And it made me weep. Partially with joy at the beauty of the moment, and partially at sadness for my loss.

Namaste,

Kevin

Knowing more does not always mean understanding more….

I have always been a knowledge seeker.

Most people begin asking why around the age of two, much to my parents annoyance, I never stopped.

Now that I have my own 3 year old of similar mind set, I at least have some sympathy for them.

“Why? Why? Why?”

I have not come to a point in life where I’ve stopped asking why, nor do I anticipate that occurring. But I have come to a point where I understand the risks and challenges involved.

When you ask a 20 year old that has studied history, “What caused the second world war?’ Like a consummate trivial pursuit expert that will spit back:

“World War Two began in September 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany following Germany’s invasion of Poland.”

If you ask a 40 year old history professor the same question, he may pause and consider his answer. Review his potential responses and your level of interest. And if the conditions are right launch into a 30 minute presentation on facism, social unrest, idealism, expansionism and a plethora of other details that may begin to scratch the surface of the a war that raged for years and killed over 60 million people.

So what is the right answer? What is the appropriate level of knowledge? Where do you find that you are in fact drawing appropriate conclusions about a situation versus getting lost in the details and minutia?

There is a value in information at one level for drawing conclusions about how something works. Going to the next level will only muddy the waters and may completely remove you from the understanding entirely.

A simple example of this can be seen with any modern mobile phone.

Understanding how to make a phone call relies on a simple understanding of how the buttons operate, and on a modern touch phone which app to launch. Taking knowledge to the next  level simply detracts from your understanding. If someone were to ask you to explain to them how to make a phone call and your response began by describing the processor, operating system and advanced touch screen glass, their eyes would glaze over and they would still not know how to make a call.

With this in mind take a moment to consider your life and your knowledge. There is a point where it is possible to draw valuable conclusions and going beyond that point will simply add complexity, but not clarity.

Appreciate what you know and what you can understand from where you are.

Don’t worry about the next level today, if it’s needed, it will come.

Today you know enough and you are enough.

Namaste,

Kevin

My Bookcases are full. Much of my world has become full. My possessions have become my possessors. Instead of using and enjoying your stuff, I have become challenged with organizing my stuff and where to keep it.

If you find yourself spending more time shopping for storage solutions and organizing your world, than actually enjoying your world, it may be time to take inventory and assess your priorities.

This was much of the impetus behind the big move we just went through. Reassessing our priorities and re-evaluating if our life was in line with our beliefs.

It wasn’t, and change was the only solution.

Nothing highlights the breadth of your ‘stuff accumulation’ as trying to move it all. When you have to move every thing you own, you really turn a critical eye to what you have and how you use it. I found many things that I had in my possession that I hadn’t touched in years and that I simply no longer had a need for.

Thank goodness there are good organizations around to donate to, Goodwill, Salvation Army, SPCA, the local library, you name it. If you have a favorite cause, they probably have a donation center where you can find a new home for your stuff and help them in the process.

So should I just give it all away and start fresh? What lesson can I learn from my current situation? How would I change things going forward?

I’m a firm believer in reviewing what you have experienced and finding a way to learn from it. As I’ve gotten rid of many things in this move, I have also held onto the things that have true value to me. I haven’t gotten rid of everything. Also I don’t intend to start on a mission to replace it all with new stuff once I settle again.

I have learned that there is more of a price to pay for owning an item than simply the cost you pay at checkout.

I also do not intend to get rid of everything and enjoy a life devoid of distractions. I know there is a value to that. I sense that the extremity of the path is valid for many, but not my path in this life.

I believe the solution, at least for me, is somewhere in the middle. I choose the middle road to both purge the unneeded and retain the essential.

I’ve heard it said, “If your life is full, where is the space for new things?”

Allow yourself to let go of the things that are holding you back. Embrace the things that align with who you are, who you are becoming, and who you want to be.

Find the space in the middle where your world both has content and has space. Who knows what exciting things will come to you next.

Namaste,

Kevin

I had the opportunity recently to walk over a pedestrian overpass. 3 feet thick and 12 feet wide, concrete and steel suspended over a sea of automobiles traveling 80+ miles per hour. The overpass was suspended about 20 feet over the Eight lane highway as I made my way across. It’s exhilarating and a really neat perspective that you don’t normally get on cars.

I could not stop myself from feeling a little anxious.

As I stood on the overpass trying to identify my angst, I realized that my logical brain and my primitive brain were fighting each other.

Logically I was surrounded in a fenced in cage. You can not jump out. You can not fall out. The concrete is not going to collapse. The walkway had survived many years and even many earthquakes. I was safe.

My primitive brain on the other hand was freaking out.

“There are cars coming right at you!”, my reptile brain stated urgently.

“They look like they are going really fast!”, it insisted.

“Could we just speed up a bit and get to the other side?”, it began to plead.

“Why the hell are you just standing there?”, my reptile brain implored.

It is interesting, that after all these years of evolution our primary instincts are pretty locked in. They haven’t really been able to make the shift into our modern life. As recently as 100 years ago this experience would have been unusual, or even impossible, cars were just starting to become common.

So on one level, it is crucial that I allow for grace when relating to these parts of my brain. I can realize that I’m dealing with outdated software and expired survival mechanisms. Beyond grace, I can even step into gratitude. That part of my brain is simply trying to keep me alive. While it missed the nuance of my surroundings it has clearly identified a potential threat and it is just looking out for me.

This is one of those awareness moments that helps us to process emotions and instinct. It is useful to realize why your body is having a panic reaction when you are simply trying to take a walk in the modern world. We live in a world that is frequently perceived by our primitive minds as threatening. The world has changed too fast to expect these instincts, that are potentially millions of years old, to adapt.

These every day experiences can lead us to stress and anxiety that we are not even aware of on a conscious level. But the subconscious concerns raised by our primitive mind are very real and our body reacts in a very real way. Over time it takes a toll on us mentally and physically.

This is why it has become crucial for us to remember to take down time. This is why we need moments in silence away from the threats of the newly developing world. Your reptile brain has no clue what to do with a pedestrian overpass, or a Facebook news feed, or a glowing display that you hold in front of your eyes for 10 hours a day to keep on top of your email. This is why your body keeps telling you to take a break. So we sit down and pull out our phones and take a break… Not what your body was asking for.

Since our minds won’t be able to evolve and adapt to the world we’ve brought them into, perhaps we need to evolve our patterns and habits to take into account what our primitive brain needs. You’ll be glad you did. After all, you are really just doing yourself a favor. Now turn off your phone and go play in the grass.

Namaste,

Kevin