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Light at night

February 22, 2012 by bobleckridge

snowdrops by starlight

snowdrops by starlight

Posted in from the dark room, photography | 1 Comment »

The Great Turning

February 20, 2012 by bobleckridge

Excellent post on the School of Life site about the three stories circulating at present – the first one is “business as usual” ie no need to change what we do or how we live; the second one is “the great unraveling” – it’s all falling to pieces. And the third?

The third story is held and embodied by those who know the first story is leading us to catastrophe and who refuse to let the second story have the last word. Involving the emergence of new and creative human responses, it is about the epochal transition from an industrial society committed to economic growth to a life-sustaining society committed to the healing and recovery of our world. We call this story the Great Turning. There is no point in arguing about which of these stories is “right.” All three are happening. The question is which one we want to put our energy behind.

I’m putting my energy behind The Great Turning – how about you?

Posted in from the living room, life | 2 Comments »

Snowdrops by starlight

February 20, 2012 by bobleckridge

On the Cambo Estate, at Kingsbarns in Fife, there’s a magical forest walk you can take at night time just now. Cambo is famous for its snowdrops at this time of year and they’ve lit up the forest and placed a number of art installations amongst the trees. Here’s a flavour of it.

snowdrops by starlight cambo house

snowdrops by starlight

snowdrops by starlight

snowdrops by starlight

snowdrops by starlight

snowdrops by starlight

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Friendship based money sharing

February 19, 2012 by bobleckridge

Here’s an interesting idea from Okinawa. Apparently the people who live in Okinawa don’t trust banks (are you surprised?). However, in Okinawa, they have an interesting way of sharing money. It’s called a “tasukeai moai”.

Here’s an example. A group of 10 friends form one of these groups and they agree the following –

  1. To meet once a month for ten months.
  2. To each commit to put 50,000 yen (that’s around £400; or 500 dollars/euros) into the pot every month.
  3. Each month one person can opt to take the whole pot.
  4. Once 500,000 is taken, that person has to pay 2000 yen in “interest” each of the remaining months in addition to their monthly 50,000 contribution.
  5. The pot therefore rises by the amount of the addition payments each month (the 2000 yen from each “borrower” in addition to everyone’s monthly contribution), so the later you opt for the pot, the greater the amount you receive, and the earlier you take it, the greater the amount of interest you pay.
  6. If two or more people want the pot in any particular month, they draw lots.
  7. After the tenth month the club closes and a new club can commence. (you’ll have figured out that the group lasts for as many months as it has members….)

The group therefore support each other’s needs in a kind of informal savings and loan club. In addition to this support they are friends and increase their friendship through their commitment and sharing. These groups work on trust, friendship and everyone in the club knowing each other.

Different, huh?

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Never unconnected

February 16, 2012 by bobleckridge

ripples

We live with a view of ourselves as separate entities, made up of tiny, distinct, independent parts. This idea, this kind of atomism, has been around for centuries.

Now, however, we’re coming to understand that reality isn’t like that.

Lynne McTaggart writes in “The Bond”

The universe contains an indeterminate number of vibrating packets of energy that constantly pass energy back and forth as if in an endless game of basketball with a quantum sea of light. Indeed they aren’t even there all the time, but are constantly popping in and out of existence, making a brief appearance before disappearing back into the underlying energy field.

This is our emerging model of reality, one where there are no “things”, there is no “material” or “substance” distinct from energy. One where everything is constantly changing and nothing is separate.

Thomas Berry writes

We live immersed in a sea of energy beyond all comprehension. But this energy, in an ultimate sense, is ours not by domination but by invocation.

What a lovely phrase. This atomism has led us to believe that we are not only separate from each other but from Nature itself, and that has led to an unhealthy relationship with the Earth – one where we’ve been believing we can dominate and control. But we can’t. There is no separateness.

Posted in from the reading room, philosophy, science, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

The Fourfold Wisdom

February 15, 2012 by bobleckridge

Thomas Berry, in “The Great Work” writes that we can draw on what he calls “the fourfold wisdom” as we face the future together in the world. These are “the wisdom of indigenous peoples; the wisdom of women; the wisdom of the classical traditions; and the wisdom of science”.

He captures the essence of the these wisdoms as follows –

Indigenous wisdom is distinguished by its intimacy with and participation in the functioning of the natural world.

The wisdom of women is to join the knowing of the body to that of the mind, to join soul to spirit, intuition to reasoning, feeling consciousness to intellectual analysis, intimacy to detachment, subjective presence to objective distance.

The wisdom of the classical traditions is based on revelatory experiences of a spiritual realm both transcendent to and imminent in the visible world about us and in the capacity of humans to participate in that world to achieve the fullness of their own mode of being.

The wisdom of science, as this exists in the Western world at the beginning of the twenty-first century, lies in its discovery that the universe has come into being by a sequence of evolutionary transformations over an immense period of time. Through these transformation episodes the universe has passed from a lesser to a greater complexity in structure and from a lesser to a greater mode of consciousness. We might say that the universe, in the phenomenal order, is self-emergent, self-sustaining, and self-fulfilling.

This is a beautiful model. We understand and experience the world through particular lenses. We experience life through the maps of reality which we create.

This idea of the four wisdoms gives us a fascinating map. Go explore.

Posted in books, from the reading room | 1 Comment »

Tell someone you love them

February 14, 2012 by bobleckridge

cafe love

Yes, its Valentine’s Day, so a day for telling a romantic partner that you love them, but why not take today as an inspiration?
February is the month of love – not just romantic love – who do you feel love for? When did you last tell them?
Tell them today.

Oh, before I go……here’s a rose for YOU

passionate red

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Mysteries of the heart

February 13, 2012 by bobleckridge

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You are a celebration

February 13, 2012 by bobleckridge

Have you ever thought of yourself as a celebration?

Thomas Berry, in his “The Great Work”, writes

While the universe celebrates itself in every mode of being, the human might be identified as that being in whom the universe celebrates itself and its numinous origins in a special mode of conscious self-awareness.

The theme of “The Great Work” is the amazing evolutionary story of the universe. Thomas Berry points out that we can discern three core principles, or characteristics, flowing through the evolution of the universe from its origins to the current day where human beings have populated the Earth. These themes are

differentiation, subjectivity, and communion

In other words, ever increasing complexity and diversity, the capacity to have inner experience, to respond spontaneously, and the ability to form connections and bonds.

This is a beautiful story. It’s dynamic, flowing and developing. As we follow through the story from the formation of stars like our sun, of the planets which orbit it, of the emergence of simple life forms, and onwards to the development of ever greater levels of consciousness, we see that in the human being the universe has achieved the ability to reflect on itself, to see itself, to celebrate itself.

You.

You are the universe celebrating itself.

What a lovely idea. See how it feels today to become aware of yourself as a celebration.

Posted in books, from the reading room, science | 1 Comment »

Positive emotions

February 12, 2012 by bobleckridge

I’ve been collecting positive emotions recently. The Heartmath technique involves re-creating the heart felt, positive feelings you experienced in your life. So what are these heart felt, positive emotions? I’ve read a number of authors who write about positive emotions – from the perspectives of positive psychology, Heartmath itself, neurobiologists, mindfulness practitioners and so on.

What’s emerged is a short consensus list. Ten of these twelve feelings are mentioned by all the authors I read, all were mentioned by more than one author.

Contentment – pretty self-explanatory

Gratitude – it’s easy to establish a gratitude practice….worth doing at least once a day. What do I feel grateful for?

Hope – no life worth living without it?

Interest – I am insatiably curious. I’m never far away from interest!

Love – unconditional preferably

Pride – not what comes before a fall, but those moments when you know you’ve done well, when you are pleased with what you’ve achieved

Amusement – laughter is the best medicine

Compassion – it builds bonds

Sexual desire – again, pretty self-explanatory

Joy – just sheer pleasure and delight

Inspiration – those moments when you feel just, well, inspired!

Awe – or, as I prefer in French, émerveillment

What I really recommend is creating your own personal resource book of these feelings. Jot down in a few words, and/or gather photos, which capture your own personal experiences of these emotions. You can then draw on these feelings as you need them.

Posted in from the living room, health, life, personal growth, psychology | 4 Comments »

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