#ordinarylife — Public Fediverse posts

APPARENTLY, I APPEAR
TO HAVE STOPPED TRYING 💎

Isn't there something slightly absurd about discovering a little peace and immediately wanting to explain it to everybody?

The mind says: Tell them. Teach it. Turn it into something useful.

But the present moment seems completely uninterested in becoming a philosophy.

It is already here.

Coffee. Fire. Bright but cold outside. A dog moving across the room. A conversation with Pete. A body breathing.

Nothing particularly spiritual about any of it.

Perhaps that is the difficulty.

Striving is often regarded as serious, while presence can look like laziness. Planning looks responsible. Regret looks thoughtful. Simply being present can look suspiciously like doing nothing.

And yet everything that actually happens happens here and now.

The past can be remembered. The future can be imagined. Neither can be lived.

So perhaps there is nothing to teach. Nothing to defend. And nothing to broadcast.

Just this.

And then this.

And then this...
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@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works

#presence #now #stillness #ACIM #mindfulness #ordinarylife #peace #philosophy #future #broadcast #Regret #mind #person #man #woman

DEATH, GOD, &
A VERY SMALL SPIDER 💎

I am increasingly aware that I will leave this world. I don’t know when. I don’t know how. Perhaps within the next decade. Perhaps sooner. Who knows.

And strangely, there is less fear in that now. Most of the fear seems to belong to what I imagine is unknown.

If death is simply the end of Robin and the end of this consciousness, then there will be nobody there to be bothered by it. It will simply be over. And if there is something beyond this life, another realm, another dimension, another form of consciousness, then I suppose I will recognise it when I get there.

I don’t know. And I am quite happy not knowing.

Human beings have created manifold books, religions and pictures of God, spirit, heaven, continuation and eternity. Perhaps some of them point towards something true. Perhaps some are simply beautiful ways of comforting ourselves in the face of death.

But every picture I can make of what comes next is still a picture being made here.

I don’t want to manufacture comfort. I want clarity. I want to meet whatever happens without having already decided what it is supposed to look like.

Maybe there is something. Maybe there is nothing. Either way, reality does not require my opinion.

And while I am sitting here contemplating this enormous mystery, a tiny spider appears beside me. He is absurdly small. I stop, look at him, laugh, and decide he can stay.

And suddenly, there it all is. Death. Consciousness. God. Eternity. And a tiny spider wandering across my morning.

The fire is on. The coffee is good. People are interacting with things I have written. The spider is minding his own business.

Life has not stopped being ordinary just because I know it ends. I rather like that.

None of it means anything until I give it meaning. And this morning, the meaning I choose is very simple.

Gratitude.

@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works
@startrek

#death #mortality #afterlife #consciousness #spirituality #ACIM #clarity #gratitude #presence #ordinarylife #mystery #life #openweb #human #person #spider #Economics #Housing #CostOfLiving
#Meditation #Breathwork #Fediverse #OpenWeb #BigTech

I can't recreate the Himalayas, but I carry something.

Once a week I practice silence mornings, harder in the city, but that's the practice.

How do you find stillness in your ordinary life, not waiting for perfect conditions?

#dailypractice #mindfulness #ordinarylife
#meditation #silence #presence
#spiritualpractice #contemplativelife #yogaphilosophy

MAN DISCOVERS HOUSEWORK 💎

This morning was cleaning day, and Pete and I cleaned the house.

We didn't just “give it a bit of a tidy.”

We actually cleaned it.

And once again, I discovered something deeply irritating.

It wasn’t hard.

For years, the mind has treated housework like a major civil engineering project.

You notice some dust, and immediately there’s planning, resistance, postponement, perhaps a small committee meeting.

Then eventually you just pick something up, wipe something down, put something away.

And twenty minutes later, half the house looks civilized again.

Being old has apparently taught me that many things are only difficult while I’m thinking about doing them.

The actual doing is often surprisingly easy.

Anyway, the house is clean.

We’re dressed.

We’re going out for bacon and egg hamburgers at Grill'd.

Civilization survives another day.

#OldPeople #Housework #GettingOlder #OrdinaryLife #Humour #Grilld #morning #tidy #mind #engineering #actual #project

In my quarter in #Lisbon, the coffee shop and restaurant owners recognize me, and it's always nice to have a chat with them. Today, How About Coffee was closed for some construction works. They let me in anyway and made me a flat white with oat milk to go for free. This made my day ;)

#OrdinaryLife #Gratitude

My spiritual path isn't about ascending anymore.

It's about descending into ordinary life. Drinking coffee slowly. Sitting with difficult emotions. Being kind to the checkout clerk when I'm tired.

What's one ordinary moment you showed up for today?

#dailypractice #mindfulness
#ordinarylife #presence #simplicity
#authenticliving #embodiedpractice #consciousliving

I can't recreate the Himalayas, but I carry something.

Once a week I practice silence mornings, harder in the city, but that's the practice.

How do you find stillness in your ordinary life, not waiting for perfect conditions?

#dailypractice #mindfulness #ordinarylife
#meditation #silence #presence
#spiritualpractice #contemplativelife #yogaphilosophy

I can't recreate the Himalayas, but I carry something.

Once a week I practice silence mornings, harder in the city, but that's the practice.

How do you find stillness in your ordinary life, not waiting for perfect conditions?

#dailypractice #mindfulness #ordinarylife
#meditation #silence #presence
#spiritualpractice #contemplativelife #yogaphilosophy

My spiritual path isn't about ascending anymore.

It's about descending into ordinary life. Drinking coffee slowly. Sitting with difficult emotions. Being kind to the checkout clerk when I'm tired.

What's one ordinary moment you showed up for today?

#dailypractice #mindfulness
#ordinarylife #presence #simplicity
#authenticliving #embodiedpractice #consciousliving

Public art in #lisbon, in Colombo shopping mall. #OrdinaryLife, #VanessaBarragão, #crochet.

Sometimes, we should pay attention to what our cats might be seeing when they look up. #photography #art #ordinarylife

EMOTIONAL WELLBEING: An Honest Conversation With #AlainDeBotton (2020)

In this episode of Honestly, Clemmie Telford is joined by psychologist and founder of #TheSchoolOfLife

He touches on the need for both realism and stoicism; specifically how hardship, struggle and indeed mental unwellness are all part of human existence.

#OrdinaryLife #Parenting

https://bit.ly/47npDAt