“When there is an openness to fear, where can it be found? What a strange creature fear is. It exists only when there is resistance to its existence! When you stop and open to what you have resisted throughout time, you find that fear is not fear. Fear is energy. Fear is space. Fear is the Buddha. It is Christ’s heart knocking at your door.”– Gangaji

In some ways we are immensely strong and enduring. When I think of some of the tribulations — and triumphs — I have experienced in my life I am amazed at what I have come through, the unconquerable spirit that was present.

And yet paradoxically, in some ways each of us inhabits a human self that is also extraordinarily fragile and vulnerable.

For example, in these latter years of my life, though I love the stillness and peace of my own being with ever increasing passion –  and find in my being the meaning and joy for which I longed my whole life — fear still arises.

Perhaps it is because I was a child in the Blitz in London. Perhaps it is because my father was given to sudden bouts of unpredictable rage. Perhaps it’s simply because I was born, like you, into this human condition.

But sometimes something quite trivial – a small health problem perhaps –begins to magnify in me and I begin to worry.

What do we do when fear knocks?

I have learned that what is truly important in life is not that worry or fear come knocking at our door. It is what we do when this happens.

Do I try to ignore my fear? Do I get in a funk because fear or worry has shown up in my life? Do I think to myself, “I can’t be a very spiritual person if I feel fear?”

Or do I realize that fear is actually a door to wholeness and love — an opportunity to experience more fully the gifts of a loving universe?

It is a little bit of ourselves wanting to come home, as Gangaji says in her beautiful quote. It is a piece of frozen energy someone labelled as “evil” that has been wandering the world long enough and yearns to be met with an attitude of acceptance.

What to do with fear? Be willing to accept it. Be willing to feel it and ultimately to forgive it as you stay true to the beautiful Love of your own true character. Fear is transformed when you and I let this mysterious, supposedly hostile entity be blessed and set free in our Love.

Fear has been an outcast long enough

Fear has been an outcast long enough. Of course, I’m not speaking here about “biological” fear, the response to physical danger that is hardwired into our body for its survival. I’m speaking about the psychological fears, big or small, often imaginary, that can sap our creative purpose and spirit.

Ultimately, fear is not a challenge to our true strength or peace or well-being. As I say, it is a call for help – a part of ourselves desperate to come home.

It wants to find peace in me. It wants to find peace in you. And it wants to make us whole, because we are here not only to experience joy and bliss. We are here to grow, and evolve – and transform through our own true presence of Love the fear that has dominated human existence. 

Please write. I’d love to know your thoughts on this topic.

Starting to feel your age? Please click here to know more about how aging is not something to be feared, but is rightly a door to increased meaning and happiness at any age.

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How fear can open a door to wholeness is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age

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:

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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

Trust God – the one true being back of all things — because it is the very base of all true power, happiness and well-being.

I’m reminded of this simple truth each morning when I step outside to admire the magnificent blue spruce tree that grows just outside our front door.

There are at least five ways in which this noble tree teaches me and inspires me. I thought I would outline them for you because I believe they are very relevant to us as we seek to find our place or keep our footing in this rapidly changing world.

1. It does not resist life.

When the weather is kind, and the air is still, the blue spruce tree is also still, and peaceful — unmoving.

But the tree trusts God. It is not attached to peacefulness. When a storm blows up — as can happen very quickly here in the foothills of the Rockies — its branches move effortlessly back and forth, offering no resistance to even the fiercest gusts.

 2. It is content to be where it is.

The close proximity of this beautiful tree was a big plus for me when we first considered buying our new home.

How glad and thankful I am that it trusts God and is content to prosper and grow where it is planted. Because of this I know that the blue spruce tree will still be there this evening when I go outside and sit on my bench again to admire it.

Even so, let us trust God and grow where we are planted – in the fertile soil of our own timeless, untouchable being.

 3. It is persistent.

Because it trusts God, the blue spruce tree — one of my best friends in all the natural world — just keeps growing no matter what.

But we have a responsibility to keep growing too, don’t we?

4. It connects earth and sky.

The blue spruce tree is a bridge between earth and sky. It reminds me that this is my purpose also — to trust God in my living, and be a bridge between the world of spirit and the external world.

 5. Last but not least — the tree inspires by its presence.

What draws me to the blue spruce? Why is it so beautiful? Why does it evoke in me such strong feelings of love and admiration?

This tree is utterly mute insofar as words go. It inspires by its presence –  something sweet, strong, and unconquerable, characterized by love and trust and respect for a larger whole that ultimately is indefinable.

Picture credit:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2757/4400881070_213c73f19c_m.jpg

Trust God: 5 things we can learn from a blue spruce tree is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age

I’ve been putting a toe into the brave new world of Twitter. It’s an exciting place, and offers an exciting opportunity to meet some kindred souls, some kindred spirits.

This morning, I got a message from a new friend on Twitter. It went like this: “Looking forward to hearing what your thoughts are on the soul? Is it an unknown distant aspect of your life or do you have inner guidance? Please share your experiences.”

I think this is such a great question. We all need inner guidance in these days, but what is it? How do we access it?

What I have learned in my own life is that true guidance, or wisdom, does indeed come from within myself IF I am still and open to receive it. But I have to really be open – hungry in a sense — because the nudge that comes from that unknowable source within myself, the impulse, the insight, sometimes appears in a flash and is gone in a flash.

I experienced this process in quite a dramatic way one time when I was a young fellow working on a ranch in the interior of British Columbia. I’d been given a job burning some brush in a meadow. Evidently I wasn’t paying enough attention to what was going on, because I looked up and realized, suddenly, with dismay, that the fire I had started was getting away on me.

It was reaching out in an ever-expanding circle toward some nearby haystacks and the entire BC interior forest.

Of course, my attention re-focused very quickly. I grabbed a shovel and beat furiously at the nearest flames. I put the flames out in one spot in the circle – or so I thought — and moved on to the next spot. But the trouble was I when I looked back at where I thought I had put the fire out, I saw it was starting up again.

Panic began to loom. What was I going to do? I knew I had to be still if I was going to be able to cope with the situation effectively.

“It’s all-right,” I said to myself. “It’s all-right.” I spoke these words to myself continuously, as I slowed down and began taking a much more methodical, painstaking approach.

I didn’t think about what the fire might be doing anywhere else. Instead, I took one little bit of the circle of fire at a time, and made sure the flames were really out in one spot before I moved on to the next. Finally, after an exhausting process, that also became strangely satisfying and fulfilling, I was able to look around me and see peace in the meadow. No fire anywhere.

I’ve found many times in my life that when I am still, I know what to do. A confirmation appears, or a new sense of direction.

The word “soul” can mean different things to different people. It’s like the word God, that means different things to different people. But there is a source of wisdom and courage and inner peace within us that although it can’t be defined, is infinite and unconquerable and very real.

Not only that. Most important of all is this. I find that the more willing I am to pass through that door marked “stillness” – the more I open myself to stillness – the more I realize that Truth, or God, is not separate from me. It is the very nature of my own true character. It is the very core of my being.

I’d love to hear your own thoughts and experiences on the great question that my friend on Twitter put to me. Please join in the conversation, if you will.

In stillness the answer came is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age

The present moment may not always be comfortable. But it is the only door we have to the true magic and beauty life would share with us and bring forth through us in increasing abundance.

This is why waiting — in the sense of waiting for something to change, for example, or waiting for something to get better – is such a fundamentally destructive habit.  We end up betraying ourselves, shutting ourselves off from the fulfillment that is rightly ours.  

Gina Lake has a great post on this subject at her website, www.radicalhappiness.com.’  It’s under the title “Waiting.”

Says Gina: “The ego is always waiting for something – a relationship, news about something it wants, a vacation, a promotion, a meeting, a movie, or some other anticipated change. There’s always something just around the corner that it is looking forward to or hoping to experience that will presumably make life better.”

It’s like when I first met JoAnn, and we started taking going for hikes. JoAnn would as soon be home quilting, really, as going for a long walk. A short walk is okay, but don’t make it too long. For a little while, getting toward the end of a walk on some beautiful Colorado trail, I would say to her, to keep her encouraged, “Nearly home. It’s just around the next corner.” Of course, I didn’t fool her for too long, if at all.

The habit of waiting afflicts spiritually minded people just as much as it afflicts those who are materialistic, of course. The ego doesn’t care where our leanings lie – just so long as it can keep on existing. One of the ways it keeps on existing is by keeping us busy with hopes and fears relating to the future.

An extreme example of this, I suppose, is waiting hopefully for heaven to be known after we are dead. That could be a long wait. But what’s the difference, really, to thinking we will be fulfilled, or happy, or at peace in a few hours time when we get to listen to a spiritual guru? Or when we find a better relationship?  Or when we take a few more steps on the path to self-improvement?

There’s nothing wrong with having goals, and ambitions, and dreams, of course. We are creators. Creating is what we do.

But let us never lose sight of the sacred nature of this moment. For at the end of the day, it is all you or I will ever have. 

When we stop “waiting” for things to change, or for a long-cherished dream to be realized, it may seem at first as if we are sliding into nothingness. It may seem as if we have stumbled into a state of absolute despair and misery. That has been my experience.

But stay with it. Surrender to the moment just as it is. Surrender to the emptiness and the frustration and pain, if that is what is there. And in that surrender, touch a stillness and peace you never knew before, a magic you did not even know existed.

Our dreams do not perish in the presence of Now, in the presence of our own sublime being – no, they glow even more brightly. In a way, we see that our dream is not in the future at all. It is happening right now.  We are fulfilled right now. Nothing more is needed to make us happy than what is already present with us right now.

As Gina puts it later in her post: “Happiness is not dependent on anything. It is our natural state. When we are quiet, still, and receptive, happiness bubbles into our awareness. It was always there, but you have to notice it, and you won’t be able to if you are noticing your thoughts about the future instead.”

Got any stories about “waiting” from your own life you’d like to share?

The top worst thing you can do with your life is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age