Been thinking about aging. Partly, I suppose, because I’m developing a course on the true potential and promise of aging, and partly because, well, I’ll be 79 soon (and JoAnn will be 80, though she tries not to think about it, and hates it when I remind her).

Aging is a strange thing. Our bodies get old, of course. But the unconquerable spirit that is in us all – the truth of you and the truth of me — doesn’t get old, does it?

I’m sure you were as touched as I was by the courage of Kirk Douglas as he came on stage at the Oscars and showed how nothing can take away that unconquerable spirit that is in him. It’s unborn, and undying, the truth of who we all are.

The remarkable story of Frank Buckles

Consider the remarkable story of Frank Buckles, who died of natural causes at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia, on Sunday at the age of 110. Mr. Buckles enlisted for World War I at the age of 16 , after being less than truthful about his age.

A man with a truly unconquerable spirit, wouldn’t you say?

How can we connect more deeply with this unconquerable spirit we saw in Kirk Douglas and that Mr. Buckles surely revealed in his life?

Here are some thoughts.

How to be true to our own unconquerable spirit:

1. Be true to your integrity

It doesn’t matter what situation we find ourselves in – or whether it’s large or small — there is always the right thing. We only have to listen to our heart, and the right thing, whatever it may be, makes itself apparent to us.

Whenever I think of integrity, or the unconquerable spirit, I think of my Dad, who lived until he was 95, and liked to say you could put his medical history on the back of a postage stamp.

Dad was a reporter all his life on big British newspapers, and on one famous occasion, was ordered by a government spy tribunal to disclose the sources he had used in a story.

As he told the court, he would be untrue to himself and to his journalistic ethics to comply with the court’s request. Dad was sent to prison for six months – but it was a small price to pay for being true to his own integrity – his own unconquerable spirit.

2. Learn to walk the middle way

The unconquerable spirit loves balance. Sometimes, of course, finding the right balance in our lives can be quite a trick.

I love my blog, for example. I love writing a new post, and sharing the truth of my life as best I can. I love the opportunity to meet new friends that blogging provides.

But as much as I love my blog, and would like to see it succeed — and make a little extra money for JoAnn and me to supplement our fixed income — I can’t be hostage to my blog.

I know that quite a few bloggers deal with this issue. But ultimately our own integrity and balance is more important than any external activity or goal.

3. Find a compass in life

Finding a compass in life is essential to knowing our own unconquerable spirit and essence.

For me, that compass comes down to stillness. Because it’s when I am still — perhaps right now, or maybe this afternoon for a few precious moments in a coffee shop — that I sense the presence of what is eternal in myself. What is untouched — amazingly — by any of the turmoil of the world or the aches and pains of my body.

Love and blessings. May peace be with you.

It’s Boot Camp Time at the A-list blogger club

By the way, the A-list blogger club, to which I belong, and which is such a tremendous resource and help in my blogging life, will be running a new boot camp from March 6 to April 2.

The boot camp is entitled: the Art of Blog Seduction: How to Attract Subscribers to Your Awesome Blog. Mary Jaksch, co-founder of the Club with Leo Babauta, tells me participants will learn such things as:

• The crucial must-know design elements of an attractive blog;
• How to create supreme usability on your blog;
• The art of creating an irresistible brand;
• How to use videos and podcasts to attract readers; and much more…

I took part in on of the A-List Blogging Bootcampa not too long ago and it was terrific. The value that Mary and Leo offered in the boot camp was truly exceptional, as is their follow-through. As I mentioned last week, Mary is one of the most genuinely helpful people I have ever met.

Click HERE to check out The Art of Blog Seduction

Picture credit:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4394271933_1c48404d4e.jpg
Note: I’m an enthusiastic affiliate of A-List Blogging Bootcamps

Aging is a strange thing is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age

A writer is a strange creature. We put some words down on a piece of paper, or into the computer, and send them into the world – but then they vanish. It’s a bit like dropping a penny down a well. What is going to happen then?

Will anyone read your precious words that you’ve labored over, tried to make beautiful, or useful in some way to your fellow human beings, tried to infuse with your own unique spirit? Will anyone even care? The words disappear into the ether and you carry on.

Then one day you get an answer from out of that invisible ether — and it puts a glow in your heart, a light begins to shine.

You get, for example – from out of the blue – a response like this:

“Thanks, Christopher! Love your article as always. It is like a fresh breeze in the morning, uplifting my spirit and reminding me of the beauty of being alive. Thanks again, and I will always wait anxiously for your new articles.”

This most welcome message came in my mailbox yesterday and of course I called JoAnn to take a look. “Just a few words,” I said to her. “But what a difference it makes. Just to know that someone appreciates what you are doing.”

We need each other in this world. There’s a kind of reciprocity that is required. It’s a paradox, in a way. We have to take responsibility for ourselves and give our best no matter what – yet because we are part of a larger whole, there is an intangible but very real need to be nourished and supported by others.

Sometimes reciprocity comes in remarkable ways and from very unexpected places. I read a story in the local paper this morning about Greg Mortenson, author of the best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea. Mortenson told a meeting of students at Colorado State University how he was kidnapped by the Taliban for eight days in 1996 while working to promote education and literacy in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Ominous hardly begins to describe the fix Mortensen was in. But he saw a potential way out of his situation – to make friends with his captors.

He didn’t see them as the enemy. He didn’t see them as stupid. He showed respect. He asked his captors to teach him about Islam and the Koran. He appealed to their pride in their sons by telling them his wife at home was seven months pregnant with their son.

What happened was that the Taliban let him go. “It’s very basic,” Mortenson told the students. “It’s about respect. It’s about human dignity. It’s about listening.”

The bonds of respect and friendship, trust and humility that bind humanity have become very frayed in this world. But it takes so little to let them be renewed.

It takes so little to affirm our part in a larger tapestry of life and purpose rooted in the one timeless truth at the core of us all. Affirming this connection, making it real — in large ways and small ways — is surely what integrity is.

But integrity has many facets. How do you see integrity?  What does integrity mean to you?

What is integrity? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age

I’d like to focus on persistence in this post. Persistence isn’t one of those big, flashy qualities that gets a lot of attention, but it goes to the very core of what makes life work. The universe surely needs persistence to keep its various galaxies and systems operating as they should. The redwood tree, just starting out on its journey, a little wisp of a thing perhaps 3 feet tall, is obviously going to need persistence to reach its true potential.

And so it is for us.

Calvin Coolidge, the 30th US president, had this to say about persistence. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

My wife, JoAnn, belongs to a quilting group that calls itself the Finishing Club. JoAnn joined this group about two years ago because — one reason at least — she has quite a lot of quilts stashed away in hidden places here and there that never quite made it to the finish line. She thought, correctly, that being in this group would motivate her.

When she left home an hour or so ago to attend this morning’s meeting of this group in the basement of a local church, my wife took with her a quilt that has a rather special significance for her. She actually began this quilt 20 years ago. It was the first quilt she ever made, or perhaps I should say, attempted, and it got her started in quilting — but it remained unfinished and forgotten as new projects and new possibilities came along.

I should mention that JoAnn hit upon the idea of quilting at a time in her life when she was in a transition, wondering what she should do after retiring from Shell. One day she thought to herself, “I like to sew. Perhaps I would like to quilt.” She found she liked to quilt very much, and it quickly became not just a hobby, but a passion — a way of life.

In any case, a week or two ago, JoAnn decided enough is enough, and she set to work in earnest to finish this particular quilt that, as you can imagine, has a very special meaning for her. As she left home to go to the quilters’ meeting an hour or two ago, she was very much looking forward to displaying this finished quilt — to the accompaniment of a drumroll, perhaps, and loud cries of “well done.”

Personally, I love this particular quality we call persistence. In the face of life’s tribulations and setbacks, persistence is the only thing that kept me going at times. I’m sure this has been true for you also.

We may be used to giving thanks for things that we have in an external sense, for the material blessings that come along in our life. Let us take a moment to give sincere and grateful thanks for something that does not have any external form — except perhaps the form we give it in our own lives — but is an immense blessing nonetheless: The truth of persistence.

Persistence is part of your true nature. It is part of our true character.

Think about it. Someone, or something might have made a mistake, you know, and amidst the confusion of creating, forgotten all about the need for persistence. No, I don’t want to think about it. The very idea makes me feel very uncomfortable and ill at ease.

I’m going to let Confucius have the last word on this topic. He said, however many years ago this was, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

Actually, best of all would be if you have the last word. What do you think about this post? Has persistence played an important part in your life? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or share the post with friends. Until next time – keep on keeping on.

In honor of persistence — what can take its place? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age

How can you and I help America at this turbulent, critical time in her history, with the whole world dependent, in many ways, upon the course which this great nation takes?

I’ve been mulling this question over in my mind this morning after reading two very interesting stories in newspapers today. One story reports on a new Pew Research survey which finds that “The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama.”

The other story that caught my eye was very different in nature. It tells how six months after Obama’s inauguration, “A persistent and noisy legion of doubters won’t let go of an already debunked claim — that he is actually a foreign-born, illegal president.”

The AP story points out how the fears and lies surrounding Obama and his birth are being assisted and fanned by people like right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh and CNN’s Lou Dobbs.

“I’ve stopped laughing,” New York Daily News columnist Errol Louis wrote. “Too many political and media leaders are deliberately fanning the flames of ignorance and fear, and they should be ashamed.”

People like Rush Limbaugh probably should be ashamed of themselves. They speak what is in their heart, and what is in their heart is not pretty. It is a destructive brew of prejudice, anger, and fear. But if I get upset by Rush Limbaugh, how does that help? It simply makes him stronger. He feeds not only on the energy of those who agree with him – he feeds on reaction too.

I am not here to feed Limbaugh’s ego.

The point is what can I do to help America? What can you do to help America?

We can offer the one thing America needs above all else at this time — the one thing our own lives need. And that is a calm, steadfast quality of character that is gentle, and yet strong. That spreads truth, not lies. That invokes compassion, not bigotry and hate. That reveals and propagates courage and wisdom and love, not anger and fear.

True character is trustworthy. It does not try to tear others down.

True character admits an error, a shortcoming, if it is revealed. It does not resist change, but welcomes it. And most importantly, true character is steadfast and calm in the midst of the emotional storms and distractions that break out in the world — or in our own lives.

Expressing the true character of our own timeless presence is our primary mission in this world.

People like Barack Obama, who are out on the front lines welcoming change and handling change the best they know how, obviously have a vital role to play in what is to unfold.

Much depends upon them.

But you and I have a vital role to play also. Much depends upon us, too.

“I am responsible,” says the voice of our own true character speaking from the depths of our own being.

How can you and I help America? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age

It may be the strongest urge that is in us. The urge to be free.

I came across a great post at www.huffingtonpost.com from the American author and teacher, Gangaji, entitled The Call to Freedom. Gangaji, at www.gangaji.org, is author of The Diamond in your Pocket. Her post was about the infamous Berlin Wall, some portions of which still remain, perhaps as a reminder of history.

When the wall was pulled down, said Gangaji, “it became the proof of freedom’s ultimate uncontainability.”

She pointed out that while it is easy to see the forces of repression at work on the world scene — just recently in Iran, for instance – “there is a status quo in our own minds as well as in the governments of the world.

“Freedom’s call is usually initially met by our own mental tendencies of repressive containment. We may be called to freedom in the deepest sense, and yet resist that call by our own mental internal guards and censors. Our fear of the unknown can harness our creative, free impulse to soar. We build imaginary walls of separation to try to control what is allowed in or out, and then we cry out against those walls.”

Gangaji continued, “We can see that freedom of body, mind, and spirit requires vigilance. The force that builds walls of separation, within our own minds or towards others, requires particular types of thoughts — thoughts of control, protection, and punishment. When we allow the cry of freedom to arise within us, it penetrates all thought in its promise and revelation of limitless spaciousness of mind.”

We all have walls of prejudice and conditioning in us, of course. It is a cause for true celebration when we recognize these walls – face them, acknowledge them, and let them dissolve.

There was euphoria in Berlin when the wall between East and West was removed. And there was joy in me the other day when I saw, as if for the first time, how a little habit of mine was putting up a wall between me and JoAnn sometimes.

I would come across something interesting in the paper, or on the internet, and think to myself, JoAnn needs to see this. So far so good. The trouble was, no sooner would she get settled and start to read whatever it was than I felt this urge to add something into the picture – explain something just a bit better — rather than letting whatever it was speak for itself.

It never worked, of course. JoAnn would just get frustrated. “Do you want me to read it or not?” was the response, one way or another, that I got.

The other day I suddenly saw that little quirk for what it was – saw it before it manifested. Instead of opening my mouth and making a mess of things I just kept quiet.  In a nice, quiet atmosphere,  JoAnn quietly read through whatever it was, and then we considered it together.

A little thing? Sure.

But just as the highest wall starts with just a single brick, so the reverse is true too.  

The beautiful thing about freedom is it already exists. We don’t have to make it. It’s already present in each one of us. It’s part of our divine nature — the very core of our being — just waiting to redeem us and bless us as we let it grow and expand in our lives.

It feels so good when walls come down is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age