Announcing – Drawing the Sacred

Today’s Oracle

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius. 

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:

Anytime you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know he had some help. – Alex Haley

Get the Wizard's Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles.  

Announcing – Drawing the Sacred

When my girls were young, we hung their art.  Many parents hang their kids’ art on the fridge to honor them.  It’s good.

I mounted a favorite painting in the entryway to our office that Sasha did when she was four.  I love it.  I hope she still feels acknowledged in some way. 

I just published the print version of Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing - An Illustrated Journey.  It honors my inner child in the same way hanging things on the fridge does.  It’s a big deal for me.  And I’m delighted by the way the book turned out.

Zoe, my oldest daughter, picked the book up and started leafing through it and said, “Where are the pictures?” 

“There in the back.”

You’ll find lots of images in the book (39) –I like all of them.  You don’t have to.  Some hang on my own walls.  Some hang in people’s homes.  None hang in museums. 

Although I colored outside the lines in some of them, I included them anyhow.  Why?

Because drawings these profoundly connected me to the Sacred.  You may be able to see that when you look at them.

Also, I included them to help my perfectionist self recognize that he’s good enough even when he colors outside the lines.

Communing with the Sacred through Drawing

The first part of the book tells you how you can use drawing to commune with the Sacred.  You can even use some of the techniques to commune with the Sacred without ever picking up a pen or pencil.  You’ll like these methods.

Everything in the book points to living in the present.  It’s a good place to live.  It can heal your life, this place.

The Full Description –

You can read the full description HERE.  And you can buy the book there too.

Sometime about September 12^th, you can get the book from Amazon too.  You pay the same price, but I get a bigger royalty from CreateSpace here.

Right now you can get the Kindle version here and, for a bit, it will only be 99 cents.  Why?  Because I want to encourage you to write me a lovely review.  Please and thank you.

Finally, you can always find all my books on my Amazon Authors Page.

Walk in beauty, draw the Sacred,

William

P.S. Let your friends and allies know about this, please.

Here’s the link => https://www.createspace.com/4243026

: )

P.P.S. If you’re in the office, you can thumb through a copy, and then you can get them online after viewing the goods.

P.P.P.S. Get Notified: Have you filled in your email at the top right corner yet?  Do it now while you’re here.  Obviously, you can unsubscribe anytime if it doesn’t serve you.

 

Today’s Oracle

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:

139)    List three beliefs you find that humans have that seem completely alien to you and that they consider normal.

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius. 

Get the Wizard's Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles.  

Pilgrimage to Stillness

While Sasha and I were hiking at Sunrise on Mt. Rainier, she talked about the deep stillness we could find there.  This conversation reminded me of the importance of stillness.  Eckhart Tolle thinks of it as a primary doorway into Presence.   So do I.

Silence can lead to stillness, but they’re different.  You can always find stillness underneath the sounds.  You have to listen deeply.  Or perhaps feel into it.

So, on this most recent pilgrimage to Eastern Washington, I went looking for stillness.  The video shows you what I found.  The Columbia river runs deep and powerfully.  It flows deep stillness.  You can feel when you watch the video.  The canyon and the wheat fields flow into the Columbia.  They too are still.

Tip: Watch the video twice.  Once with the volume on and once in silence. 

http://youtu.be/W8IE-h5jzZo

Did you notice a Bald Eagle perched on the bridge over the Columbia.  At the other end of the bridge perched an Osprey.  In the middle, one of them had a nest – my guess – the eagle.

The bear half way through is for Sasha, ‘cause she likes bears.  The haze comes from the nearby wildfires.  Climate impacts continue.  

Walk in beauty,

William

P.S. My newest book Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing - An Illustrated Journey echoes all these ideas.  Go read the description and consider getting it.

P.P.S. Please let your friends know about this.

P.P.P.S. Get Notified: Have you filled in your email at the top right corner yet?  Do it now while you’re here.  Obviously, you can unsubscribe anytime if it doesn’t serve you.

 

Today’s Oracle

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:

8)    If not now, then when?  If not here, then where?  - Rabbi Hillel

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius. 

Get the Wizard's Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles. 

 

Those Little Things

 

Those little things that you alone see, dear One, aren't by chance.

The sign, the squirrel, the dragonfly; the whisper, the song, the lily.

It's me. I'm always with you. I'll do anything to reach you -- to give you hope, keep you on track, answer your questions.

Look even closer,
    The Universe

Yes.  This is the gift of being present.  You get to walk around in Heaven.  Many of my books tell you how to do this.  Many of these blog posts do that too.

So, yes, look even closer.

You can get these little Notes from the Universe sent straight to your inbox here.

Walk in beauty,

William

P.S. My newest book Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing - An Illustrated Journey echoes all these ideas.  Go read the description and consider getting it.

P.P.S. Please let your friends know about this.

P.P.P.S. Get Notified: Have you filled in your email at the top right corner yet?  Do it now while you’re here.  Obviously, you can unsubscribe anytime if it doesn’t serve you.

 

Metalsmith – Story of a Maker

Today’s Oracle

You can use my Potent Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help.  Hold a question in your heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down.  It will be a response to your question.  Play with it.

Quotations act as little doorways into new worlds and new perceptions. They consist of distilled genius. 

My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:

185) Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father. --Roger von Oech

Get the Wizard's Handbook on Oracle Creation and have fun with oracles.  

Metalsmith – Story of a Maker

This lovely film models many things for you. 

First, Lisa and Dan carefully crafted this three and a half minute film – modeling doing what you love.  Second it’s about a master maker who overcomes scary stuff with his retina to continue his work.  It models the joy of creation.  It models presence. 

 

This film models everything I want for you and for me as we endeavor to live a life we love.

Walk in beauty,

William

P.S. My newest book Drawing the Sacred: Communing with the Sacred through Drawing - An Illustrated Journey echoes all these ideas.  Go read the description and consider getting it.

P.P.S. Please let your friends know about this.

P.P.P.S. Get Notified: Have you filled in your email at the top right corner yet?  Do it now while you’re here.  Obviously, you can unsubscribe anytime if it doesn’t serve you.

 

Oh, I See Your Problem

“Oh, I see your problem,” Zen Master says, “The trouble you have is that you think you have time.”

Woof!

Who’s the “you” Zen Master addresses? To which “you” does the master refer? It’s not your Buddha mind, now, is it? It’s not the wise inner sage. It’s your personality, your ego identity, your ego mind.

Your ego has a couple of jobs, at least.

One: Always be right. Justify if you need. Be delusional if you need. Be right by being wrong if you need. Just be right.

Two: Keep the knowledge of your certain mortality at bay.

I have written before about using the phrase – today is a good day to die. Today’s quote is another take on this wake up call.

How can you use it to wake up? How can you use it to be joyful in this very moment? Instead of waiting for some event in the future, as when I win the lottery, when I marry/divorce, when I get the promotion, when my parents, spouse, boss, best friend apologizes or they approve of me.

It might be instructive for you to look inside and discover the circumstance for which you’re waiting. What needs to improve before you get to be wholeheartedly happy in this very moment?


And What Pray Tell Would Be The Best Use Of Your Limited Time?

Obviously, I recommend you use any strategy you have to become present, to become conscious of this present moment. Right here. Right now.

· Meditate
· Practice taiji
· Be still
· Watch your breathing

You can find wonderful suggestions in my books
SIMPLY SERRENE (http://tinyurl.com/mbd4x) and LOOKING DEEPLY INTO PRESENCE (http://tinyurl.com/os966) including the guaranteed Owl Eyes method.

FOOLPROOF RELAXATION (http://tinyurl.com/6zotq9) offers another way. (Note: SIMPLY SERENE contains an early version of FOOLPROOF RELAXATION.)

All three carry satisfaction guarantees. Go for it–

Simply Serene => http://tinyurl.com/mbd4x
Looking Deeply into Presence => http://tinyurl.com/os966
Foolproof Relaxation => http://tinyurl.com/6zotq9

Byron Katie’s book, LOVING WHAT IS can be very useful. More later.

Blessings,

William

How Do You Mix Ho’oponopono with Tolle?

Emily, a reader of Amazingly Content (http://tinyurl.com/6ybefp), asks this great question. I thought I’d share it with you.

***
Dear William,

I am reading your ebook Amazingly Content. I already knew about ho’oponopono from Joe Vitale and Dr Len but it's great to hear the inspiring stories in your ebook and more information about how to apply it.

I have some questions on using ho'oponopono.

Recently I have been looking into the material of Eckhart Tolle and others who teach being in the present, in the now. I would like to continue to do ho'oponopono but am unsure how to do that whilst tuning into space and silence. Perhaps it's not necessary to be saying the phrases all the time?

I also find it difficult to clean at the same time as talking to someone or doing something that requires concentration. I would be very grateful if you could answer these questions for me.

Thank you.

Best wishes,

Emily from the UK

***

Good question, yes?

The truth is that all of these methods are art forms, like jazz. You have a theme, and then you improvise.

It is not necessary to use the four phrases of ho’oponopono all the time. It just helps. Presence is your big goal. Here’s why.

When you are present, you love. When you are present, you are reconciled with all that is. That’s the way presence works. You get Presence and you get love, gratitude, reconciliation. And aren’t these the goals of Ho’oponopono – to love God and be reconciled with everyone and everything?

So being present, in any way you can manage it, is one’s primary task. Tolle says that explicitly in A New Earth. Be conscious, be present then do any work in the world you want from that place. The Tao Te Ching said the same thing 2500 years ago, right?

Having said that, when I am angry, resentful, jealous, spiteful, complaining or obsessively needing to be right, ho’oponopono is the best I can manage. It brings me back to sanity. Remember one of the primary virtues of ho’oponopono is you don’t need to know what to do, you don’t have to believe anything, you just humbly invoke the process, say the phrases, and it does the work.

You may notice that sooner or later ho’oponopono returns you to the present.

Having said that, being present before you use ho’oponopono, makes ho’oponopono work better. One could use the methods in Foolproof Relaxation (http://tinyurl.com/6zotq9) or any other presencing technique to cool down and get present, then slide into some ho’oponopono.


RULES OF THUMB:

If you can be present, then that’s what you do first. If when you are present, your entire disharmony fades, then you’re done.

If you can’t be present easily, use ho’oponopono.

If you have fear, use presencing techniques.

When you want to pray for someone, use ho’oponopono

I can repeat -- I love you – all the time.


CLEANING WHILE DOING

Saying the phrases of ho’oponopono while being with someone can be difficult. Practice.

Saying the phrases of ho’oponopono while performing a task can be difficult. Practice. I use it while doing complicated cranialsacral therapy all the time. You can learn to use the phrases while working, too.


When it gets in the way of you’re being present to someone or something, just be present and listen to them, see them. Presence trumps everything.

Ho’oponopono is an attitude as well as a process. Just listen with love and respect and you will be doing ho’oponopono even if you’re not uttering the phrases.

You can mix your tools to get the job done. Experiment and you will gradually learn what works best for you and in which situations.

Thanks Emily.

Blessings,

William

P.S. LAST CHANCE. The special offer of a month’s membership to Body & Soul Mentor without cost when you get either Foolproof Relaxation or Amazingly Content, ends Midnight July 9, 2008.

You can get them here.

Go for it –

FOOLPROOF RELAXATION => http://tinyurl.com/6zotq9

AMAZINGLY CONTENT => http://tinyurl.com/6ybefp

Which Is Sacred? (A 50-Word Mini Saga)

Which is sacred – The fast-food box floating at the lake edge or the swallows zooming over the surface hunting? Practicing Taiji, my bliss in the present moment deepens while I dance with the darting swallows. The Styrofoam interrupts. How to find the sacred even there? Bobbing beautifully, dazzling light – Ah.

Can you hear the heavenly choir in the lawnmower? Can you hear it sing in the leaf blower? (The big park lawn mower was swooping around me as I practiced my morning Taiji as it does each Monday morning.

Can you find the Sacred Present in litter floating in the pristine lake?

After all, you spend more time with these things than in the so-called Sacred places. Wouldn’t it be useful to learn to find the Sacred anywhere any time?

You can. Just listen to the sounds of the lawnmower. Just be with them. Without judging. Without resisting.

I often tighten up when I hear unpleasant sounds and research shows noise pollution amongst the worst forms of pollution regarding the effects on human and animal health.

When I just listen, relax the cringing, the Holy Angels sing inside the lawn mower and even the leaf blower.

The Styrofoam? As I removed it from my lake, I was mesmerized by the beauty of the light on it and the way the wavelets caressed it and the way the Styrofoam played at the very top surface of the water. My mind was quiet. I was as peaceful and full of light as the most serene meditation.

So, where is the sacred? Find some trash and be with it.

Blessings,

William

P.S. Obviously, Looking Deeply into Presence would supportyou in being present and making your decisions. The bookis designed to help you Solve Problems, Make CriticalDecisions, and Create an Extraordinarily Rich Life.Get some help => http://tinyurl.com/os966

Insightful Awareness Experience

*** Insightful Awareness Experience ***

I have a very insightful, a bit spooky, fun video for you. It will give you some insights into awareness itself. If you have been paying attention, you will have noticed that I think awareness matters.

Enjoy = > http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

Blessings,

William

P.S. To deepen your awareness more, dip into SIMPLY SERENE - Four Amazingly Powerful Ways to Be Instantly Alert and at Peace. It will give you four ways to become more deeply aware. I talk about the famous Owl Eyes in depth in this one.

Go for it = > http://tinyurl.com/mbd4x

Announcing Foolproof Relaxation

Today, I happily announce a Laser Focused Report – Foolproof Relaxation. Taa-ta!

It can show you How to Relax, Become Present, And Be At Ease Anytime and Anywhere You Want. No kidding!

How? Read these stories…


Yikes! Demons and Worries

Three AM and the demons of worry are here. Yikes! Toss and turn. Get up and pee. Get a drink of water. Back in bed, the fears wait for you. Still no sleep. Thoughts racing and repeating… What to do?

Obviously, you use the methods you learn from Foolproof Relaxation.

With Foolproof Relaxation, you will know what to do when you can’t get back to sleep after the 3:00 AM night demons wake you with their obsessive, compulsive mind looping worries.

In short order, you will be able to go back to peaceful sleep in most instances. Just picture how cool that is.

For the other instances, you’ll enjoy a pleasurable deep rest, then sleep. Simply, amazing.

Repeated research proves you will gain more rest from this method than sleep itself would produce. Cool.


How You Can Smooth Your Next Dental Visit

Using Foolproof Relaxation you will learn to be at ease in the dentist’s chair. I even have fun with it. Maybe you can, too.


Other Times you can benefit by using Foolproof Relaxation

You can learn to be alert and at ease in dreadful meetings. Can you imagine the benefit of this?

At some point, you are likely to be in a hospital waiting room, attending a loved one. Using this method, you can remain present and calm your anxieties. When you do that, you will be of immense value to your loved ones – both the person hospitalized and the others who are waiting in fear.

Clearly, this is a grim reality, but take it from me, you’ll want this tool then.

For Adults Only – another powerful time for Foolproof Relaxation

My friend, Joseph, is dying of colon cancer. When he awakens with sensations in his gut, the demons mercilessly jump on him and fan his fears into infernos. The sensations may be nothing at all, or they may be the cancer working its ways. Joseph uses Foolproof Relaxation effectively to calm himself.

If it can work with some truly scary stuff, it will work wonders for you, too.

Oh, yes, it works with your garden-variety, everyday stress very well. Use it daily for ten minutes or more and watch what happens to the quality of your life.

You’ll be more peaceful, calm, playful, and smiling. Pretty cool, right?

Let’s move on…


How Do You Know If This Laser Focused Report Will Benefit You When You Get It?


Do you experience discomfort ever? Of course, you do.

Do you experience fear in the hospital? The dentist’s? The doctor’s? Being with your boss or manager?

Do you have trouble getting to sleep because of your obsessive, compulsive mind looping, thinking, or worrying?

Do you ever want to be more relaxed? More peaceful?

Do you wish you could be present in an instant? Have you been listening to Eckhart Tolle and Oprah and learning about presence? Have you read The Power of Now or The New Earth? This is a great way to be more present. Fast!


If you can say, “Yes” to any of these, then, obviously, Foolproof Rexaxation will serve you beautifully. Get Foolproof Relaxation. (Scroll to the bottom to get it now.)


What Does It Mean When I Say This Report Is Laser Focused And Deep As A Well?

I have focused on just one area and carefully avoided all the side roads I usually love to explore. You will find FOOLPROOF RELAXATION’S twelve plus pages to be direct, yet thorough enough that you will know easily how to use the material. You will be able to apply the insights to your daily life in quick order. You’ll get the happy results you want.

I mean you will know how to relax, become present, and be at ease anytime and anywhere you want.

***
You can, read the details, get the Foolproof Relaxation & start to learn how to relax here –

Go for it => http://tinyurl.com/6zotq9

Blessings,

William

P.P.S. You have my permission to share this announcement with no more than three people.

Tolle Trick for Presence in the Office

Here’s another trick from Eckhart Tolle to get present when the phone rings. It’s especially useful if you work in an office setting.

Studies show that a ringing phone bugs people -- too many rings in the day creates a stressful hazard. Here’s the antidote…

When your phone rings, don’t answer it. That is a radical choice right there. I have used this effectively in the past to create vast realms of freedom. Experiment with this one.

But that’s not Tolle, that’s me. Here’s what he suggests:

Let it ring once, twice, or thrice while you listen to it fully. Be present to the sound. Feel your body as you listen. Notice your breath. Listened to with full attention, without resistance, even a leaf blower becomes sacred. A telephone is a piece of cake.

Now answer the phone.

Cool. Don’t be surprised if you’re laughing when you answer it. Play with it you will be amazed at how fun this becomes.

Blessings,

William

P.S. Simply Serene - Four Amazingly Powerful Ways to Be Instantly Alert and at Peace will serve you well if you want some guaranteed ways to become present. I talk about the famous Owl Eyes in depth in this one.

Go for it = > http://tinyurl.com/mbd4x

P.S. S. Pass this post on to anyone who you think would
Prosper & enjoy these wonderful insights.

Magic with Oprah and Eckhart Tolle

I struggle with my own craziness all the time. When I’m crazy, I am living inside of my mind listening to a strident voice harangue over a tinny radio urging me to blame my closest friends and my wife for my troubles.

If I take the time to get present -- and I know lots of ways to do that – I return to a connection with the Present and Presence. I become sane. I am happy and serene.

Eckhart Tolle who penned the best seller The Power of Now wrote a follow up book – A New Earth. He is teaming up with Oprah to bring you live webcasts to talk about this stuff. Watch them or download them as podcasts. Cost = $0.0.

http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webevent_registration.html

I recommend you watch at least one to get a deeper feel for who these folks are. Then you can podcast if you want.

You’ll have to register at Oprah’s and download a special viewer before you can watch these. And there are ads. No sweat, it’s easy.

It will be worth it, I promise.

Blessings,

William

P.S. Simply Serene - Four Amazingly Powerful Ways to Be Instantly Alert and at Peace will serve you well if you want some guaranteed ways to become present. I talk about the famous Owl Eyes in depth in this book.

Go for it = > http://tinyurl.com/mbd4x

Presencing

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
-William Blake

Zen and the poets have been addressing presence for centuries. What’s new is that everyone is paying attention to presence now, not just a handful of monks.

Presence lives outside of language so I find it hard to talk about. Blake’s poem points to it brilliantly.

Let me take a stab at it, too.

You travel into Presence often, but perhaps you don’t fully grasp the importance of this. If you’re like most humans, you don’t even notice it.

When you are fully present, the chatter in your mind goes still. You experience this as the peace which passeth understanding.

When you start to notice you are having these experiences of peace and stillness, you can begin to learn to encourage them.

When your mind quiets, your mind’s obsessive concerns and fears no longer drive you. You may even feel at one with all.

This is good, right?

You can think of your frightened, controlling mind as your ego. Yogis and eastern traditions call it the “monkey” mind, which is short for “a drunken monkey who has just be stung by a scorpion” mind.

Have you been there? Of course, you have.

Another name for this mind is the competitive mind. I like this one because it points to the fear that underlies and drives the competitive mind. Yet other names for this are the survival mind and the lizard brain. (See Related Article below.)


What Do You Get When This Mind Is Silent?

· You get the peace which passeth understanding.

· You get a small tastes of enlightenment that gradually become huge tastes and last for ever longer periods.

· You feel one with all.

· You live in the pleasures of flow. (See Related Article below.)

· You feel safe and supported by the whole. There is no need for faith. You become faith itself.

· You get “heaven in a wild flower”.

· You “hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”


How, Then, Do You Still the Mind?

You still the mind by being present. When you become present, the mind is still. It has no choice.

“But William, I thought that when I was still, I got to in presence? Aren’t you contradicting yourself?”

“Probably… Hmm…

“Let me see, the confusion comes by using the very similar and related words, Presence with a capital P and present with a lower case p.
“Presence is sacred and although you are part of it and it fills you absolutely, you don’t control it. Being present – being right here, right now – is something you have some control over.

“When you become present, you become still and you enter into Presence or more accurately, you experience Presence directly.

“Does that help?”

You can use silence as a doorway to stillness. Hang out in the silence of nature. Even amongst roaring rivers or melodious birdsong, you will experience this silence and the stillness underneath it.

I have written two books that will show you easy methods to explore Presence. Obviously, they will be of immense help to you.

· Simply Serene – Four Amazingly Powerful Ways to Be Instantly Alert and at Peace
· Looking Deeply into Presence


Here’s the Cliff Note Version for Becoming Present

· First, get some silence.

· Go outdoors – somewhere peaceful. It needn’t be a national park. A city park will do – anywhere you have a spot of nature.

· Practice Owl Eyes – Lightly gaze at something in the distance. Keep your eyes resting there while you taken in as much of your peripheral vision to the right and left as you can.

Slowly, deeply breathe in your belly. Now, while maintaining all of this, take in your peripheral vision above and below. Do this for a few minutes. Your mind has quieted. You’ll notice you have moved into stillness. Yes?


What did you notice when you tried this? More peace I hope.

Practice every day.

Invest in Simply Serene and Looking Deeply into Presence for the full versions.

Smile.


Flow

Although Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the guru of flow, doesn’t talk about Presence in his books, his observations imply that you be present to get into the lovely state of flow. All of his strategies for experiencing flow, therefore, would be good for becoming present.

Being in flow may be the most important goal of my personal practices. When I am in flow, everything, well, flows. I live in Heaven.

You love flow, too. You’ve been there often.

I want getting into flow to be high on your list of things you want from your Deliberate Living Program.

(Read my article, The Delightful Magic of Flow, below.)


Resources to Guide Your Way

1. The Scent Of Green Papaya – I saw this film in the theatre when it came out. The first five minutes into it were some of the slowest in my movie watching life.

Then I got it, “Oh, this is about Presence.”

This Vietnamese film takes place in French Saigon.

With almost no dialog, a young servant, by simply cleaning and cooking, models how you can move in your world fully awake. It’s lovely. You will emerge from the experience as after a lovely meditation.

2. Eckhart Tolle has written several wonderful books on the subject and I recommend them as a starting point on the subject of presence.

1. A New Earth
2. Stillness Speaks
3. The Power of Now

Find them here.

3. Again, I recommend my two books Simply Serene and Looking Deeply into Presence for working with Presence vs. talking about it or explaining it.

4. Obviously, you can read books on Zen to get a feel for it.

See Fun Resource on Spirituality.


5. The poets have visited Presence often and written beautifully about it.

Mary Oliver is my favorite. Invest in her books so you can dip into them when you want. Her books plus The Sound of Water, a book of haiku, reside by my bed. Find some books here.

Google Mary Oliver Poems – read some. Then invest in her books.

Browse the poetry books and poems I have posted in Poetry and Cool Ideas section.

Also here – Poetry of Life for titles.

Is That a SHARK?!

What scares you?

Here’s a 50-word mini-saga for you. Silver members may read more about the amazing Mini-Saga’s here. = > http://tinyurl.com/2ul5z9

Holy poop! It’s a BIG shark! Swimming my way! Through the cavern twenty feet below me. Swim away slowly at a 90 degree angle. Breathe. Don’t look back, yet. Swim away. The fish aren’t worried. Hmm. Breathe. Head for the beach, hang out with the fish.

I ask again – What scares you?

When you’re present, you can see danger early and clearly. I did. If you stay present, breathe, you can notice the fish aren’t scared. Fish are easier food, bite size, and closer, they don’t even appear to notice this monster predator.
Afterward, back at the beach rental, my research tells me, the fish know. This large guy, five feet long, is the white tipped reef shark who feeds on the bottom, right where I saw him. He likes lobsters not third-aged men.

Fear is the enemy, not sharks. What are the sharks in your day-to-day life? Stay present and notice. You’ll be fine.

Need help with staying present? Get Simply Serene. It will tell you how. Really, it’s a great ebook.

Go for it => http://tinyurl.com/mbd4x


Blessings,

William

P.S. Pass this post on to anyone who you think would
Prosper & enjoy these wonderful insights.

Evening

Evening

It’s one o’clock in the morning and my brother, John, and I are sitting on either side of my father’s hospital bed in the quiet, dimly lit care unit in lovely costal southern California.

Our father is dying.

For several hours he has been disappearing into some realm where we could not follow. He stops breathing. Minutes pass. Then with a huge effort he takes another breath and returns.

He talks with us, making sure things are good between us, stays as long as he can, then some wind sweeps him away on his journeys. He repeats his coming and going all night.

John and I peacefully observe this profound mystery unfold.

My brother and I each have 30 year meditation practices. We’re comfortable just sitting. Just breathing. Even while our father dies.

It was intense, and it was sweet.

It was one of the richest times of my life and continues to inform my work and inspire my life.

The film, Evening, parallels John’s and my journey with our father.

I recommend you watch it. Here’s why. You can upgrade your right brain, (one of my four alluring paradigms) with this film.

This film will present you with beautiful design (one of the six skills for upgrading your right brain). It takes place by the sea in Newport, RI in a beautiful mansion.

I mostly want you to see it for its ability to fortify your empathy. Empathy is another of the six right brained skills you need to navigate the 21st C. Strengthening your empathy enhances your ability, as well as everyone else’s, to thrive.

Vanessa Redgrave plays Ann who is dying and drifting into and out of this and other realms like my father who thought he was in France. Claire Danes plays Ann as a young woman in the flashbacks.

The two sisters are played by Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson, who is the real life daughter of Vanessa Redgrave. Their bedside scenes will move you.

Some of the most fun, yes fun, and deepest wisdom come from the interactions between Ann and Ilene Atkins, the night nurse, while she is wearing a ball gown.

Even with all this death, my fathers and Ann’s, you will be richer for the journey.

Rent the DVD Evening. http://tinyurl.com/y6dmfn