Perspective | The Direction of Intention

Be Zero

Posted on August 2, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

863. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

For the next few days I’ll be at the gathering of my clan. My papa turns 80 so I’m reposting from the archives. This one was post 401:

I told Scott that I was at zero; all around me was a blank slate. He smiled and said, “That reminds me of a poem by Hafiz I recently heard:

Zero
Is where the Real Fun starts.

There’s too much counting
Everywhere else!”

I laughed and he said, “You’re right where the real fun starts.” How does this always happen: seeking sympathy my pals hit me with a poem and I realize with cartoon stars swirling around my head that I am again standing right where I want to be! Zero is the beginning of the adventure. As choices go, Zero can be utter stillness, the wasteland, lost in the woods, a score on a math test, or the moment before the big bang. It most certainly is a state of mind.

Once, I was represented by a gallery whose owner was also a painter. His home was his studio and in one of the seasonal fires sparked by humans and blown into conflagration by the Santa Ana winds, his house and all of his paintings burned. He was at zero. He said, “There’s nothing but space around me and I’ve never felt more alive.”

Scott watched my thought train and said, “It’s a good one isn’t it.” I said, “Now that I know better, Zero is the only place I want to be.”

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Consider Laughing

Posted on July 31, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

861. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

For every FL!P cartoon I also write a short bit of commentary that will someday blossom into a blog post. I pass the commentary to Skip and magician that he is, he jumps into an incredibly complex process to enter the strip and commentary into the FL!P site for publication. I give him the commentary on a separate document and identify for him which strip goes with which comment by the last line in the strip. Tonight I was preparing the next batch of commentary and saw the list of last lines as a kind of poem or theme map. Here’s an example of 6 last lines in sequence:

Are the edges cutting you?
They forget to use their precious time creating relationships.
Now, no one has enough time and everyone is looking for money.
I think it’s been a while since you made contact with humans.
Wouldn’t it be easier to ask people what they want?
Shoot me an email and I’ll get back to you.

I laughed when I saw it. I’ve known for a while that I am producing micro series of cartoons based on themes that interest me in the moment but I had no idea how clear the themes actually were.

I learned in school that humor is all about other people’s pain. We laugh at the guy slipping on the banana. A pie in the face is funny as long as it happens to someone else. Beneath the mask of humor lives the mask of tragedy. The reverse is also true. Tricksters are in the world to help us not take our selves or our gods too seriously. Every bloody king needs a court jester. Beneath the tragedy runs a river of humor. You’ve heard the phrase, “I laughed, and otherwise I’d have cried.” The mask of humor and the mask of tragedy work together like the vine and the soil. They provide nutrient for each other. They also provide relief from the other. That’s how polarities work. They are dynamic.

Skip and I started FL!P because there are conversations in the world of entrepreneurs that people aren’t having because they are taking themselves too seriously. We thought that if we poked some fun at the whole affair we’d be able to surface some of the deeper conversations. Humor creates movement. Humor creates chaos and chaos moves toward order. I’m of the opinion that most of our world could use a bit of the trickster. Our national jammies are wound too tight and could use some counterclockwise rotation. The issues won’t go away. The tragedy will wait for the laughter to stop. I think it’s time we made some contact with humans.

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Embrace Your Discipline

Posted on July 28, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

858. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

It occurs to me that during this phase of my life I am learning discipline. Not that I’ve ever been undisciplined but a short gander at my current daily activity looks like a masters class in self-direction. I laughed out loud when a few minutes ago I looked up “discipline” in the thesaurus and the word “punishment” topped the list. The other choices are regulation, self-control, and subject (as in field or specialty). I generally resist rules, am not in to punishment, and am a generalist to such a degree that I have no field or specialty. So, discipline must be necessary to help me come to some semblance of balance before I’m too old to balance. All will be lost the day I wear pants with elastic waistbands and Velcro shoes but until then some balance may be possible.

Two years ago I decided to write posts every day. I decided to take on a daily writing commitment because the need for fodder opened my eyes. I had to pay attention to all the colors of life swirling around me if I was going to have something to write about. Little gestures of kindness became visible. The world is much more vibrant than I understood before I began paying attention. I’ve always been a painter so I’ve practiced “seeing” all of my life but a new kind of sight opened when I decided to write. Also, I’ve never considered myself a writer so my sub-intention for writing each day was to learn to write. Double discipline: open my eyes to see and become a better writer.

Two months ago I committed to publishing a daily cartoon strip for an audience entrepreneurs. Although the strip is crude (by design), each panel takes a few hours to complete and in just a few months I’ve drawn over 120 panels. Today, like most days, I spent the afternoon drawing and inking cartoons. I’m trying to get two months ahead because the strip publishes everyday, seven days a week. It is not lost on me that since beginning the cartoon I find that I am listening with a new set of ears. I’m becoming a world-class eavesdropper. Everything is fair game for cartoon material and everything – especially the most serious conversations – sound like a cartoon. People have no idea that they are riotously funny. In cartooning I’ve already learned that few things in this life warrant the weight that we give to it. Our addiction to drama and blaming is a comedy gold mine. I am my own best source for a good yuck. The discipline is to listen and laugh.

Walking home from tai chi this morning made me realize that I also have a daily tai chi practice. I began my study almost 2 years ago and I love it. I start each day with my practice and I am changing in some fundamental ways because of it. The discipline is to root over what Saul calls “the bubbling spring.” Connect to the chi and empty of all forms of pushing. The discipline is to empty and listen.

Listen. Empty. Laugh. See. Balance. Punishment is nowhere in sight. Alan says that the root word of discipline is disciple –and today I take great delight in my chosen path of discipleship.

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Be An Idealist

Posted on July 21, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

851. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

We rolled down the windows even though it was still hot. The sun was almost down and we just began the climb out of the central valley. Skip said, “Do you think it’s cool enough to turn off the air-conditioner?” Neither one of us liked air-conditioning and only used it when absolutely necessary.

“Of course!” I chirped. We rolled down the windows and the hot air blasted us. I put my hands out of the car window and said, “See! Nice and cool!” Skip smirked and called me an idealist. Truer words were never spoken. I am an idealist.

I’m told (often) that the best thing about me is that I tell a good story. I will put a good spin on every experience. I’m also told that the worst thing about me is that I tell a good story. Is it denial or optimism? Am I detaching, dealing, not dealing or dancing? Am I telling myself a lie or loving to live? Maybe it is all of the above.

Like everyone I know I’ve walked a broken road. No ones’ path is pretty. Earlier in my life I invested in the tragedy and wrestled with every angel. I made up lots of demons to fight. My gifts scared me so I pretended they were not there and served the gifts of others. I dialed down my life-force. I lived in resistance. I took on everyone’s pain and made others problems and priorities my own. I created limits and then moaned about my confinement. I did all of those things, made messes and looked to the heavens and asked for a break.

The heavens looked back at me and said, “It’s not happening to you. You are creating it. If you want a break then make a break, break something, or take a break. Either way, stop pretending that it is someone elses job to make it pretty for you.”

What I broke (am breaking) was my idea of myself. Carol recently told me that she was breaking up with her relationship with the world. She wanted a new relationship. She was tired of waiting for the world to change her story so she decided to change her story of the world. I was tired of telling a broken story. I was tired of telling a story of being broken. I was tired of making my focus other peoples’ stuff. So, I broke up with my story. Call me an idealist or tell me that I’m in denial but this life is mine to interpret and I much prefer joy stories to frustration. As someone once said to me, “I’m the only one who feels my anger so getting angry all the time is only hurting me.” That rule works in reverse, too.

An hour after the sun set we were off the valley floor and the air finally cooled. I looked at Skip and said, “See! I told you it was cool!” He laughed and wrinkled his brow. I said, “This is the strategy of an idealist. Claim that it is cool and then wait long enough for reality to match the ideal.” It always does.

Filed under: Perspective, Story, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: broken, idealist, narrative, story | Leave a comment »

Be Very Human

Posted on July 8, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

839. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Being human is messy. We are a mass of contradictions. We say one thing and mean another. We hold others to standards that we do not ourselves hold. We change our minds. We often hear but rarely listen. We misunderstand, miscommunicate, mistake, and simply miss. We judge and run and hide and then pretend that we have courage and conviction. Sometimes we do. Mostly we have courage when we don’t try to have it; courage usually feels like terror. Conviction shows up when there is a distinct absence of dogma.

And we learn. We try again. And again. We gaze at the next hill and wonder what is beyond it. We get back up after being knocked to the ground. We are eternally hopeful even if we do not see it. We reach. We take another step. We desire to get better, be better. We want to know. We read self help books and aspire to create a better world. We want fulfillment and peace.

Recently I watched an irate woman frost a birthday cake. I thought the cake looked fine but she was fuming with herself, thinking she should have done better. When I asked why she was so upset she cried, “Because it matters!” It is the little things that matter. It is the small stuff that rings our humanity.

Another day and I wade through the muck. In the mire I had a conversation that upset me. She saw me retreat and said, “Come back out again.”

I said, “No!” and pouted like a five year old refusing to eat broccoli. I shook my head to emphasize my resolve.

She said, “Please. Please come out.” I looked up and realized that she was not trying to hurt me and that I was being silly. I stepped out from behind my steely resolve. No one wants to be in a shell. We reach toward each other even when it looks like refusal.

We humans are optimistic. We tip toward love even in the midst of the murkiest moments. Lurking beneath the phrase, “I don’t know how I am going to get through it,” is the faith that transformation is not only possible but it is imminent. We get through it every time and we never know how. We understand how only after we have done it. The stuff of life is in forging the path through it. And then we are changed; we are better for the slog.

“Step into the love. Move toward it.” I said. She was hurting. When she scowled I added, “It is all that I know how to do.”

She said, “That sounds like a phrase from Saint Michael! It’s not very human.”

In fact, it is the very thing that makes us human. To step the other way is a path to nowhere. And I know in her despair that she said one thing and meant another. We are both humans. We are messy. Transformation is imminent.

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Where Are You Going?

Posted on July 4, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

835. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

1) Pastor Tom’s father died quite suddenly during a family gathering. He was sitting in a room filled with family and play and laughter. When death came for him he was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. The last thing he saw on this earth was the people in this life that he most loved.

2) Late night at the train station in Chicago the ticket master asked, “Did you have a good time?”

“Yes. We had a great time.”

He said, “You have to take advantage of every moment in this life!”

“Yes,” we said. “Every moment.”

“Life is short!” he smiled. “You can’t let a moment slip by unnoticed.”

We smiled. No you can’t.

“It’s all about spreading the love. Keep on spreading the love!” he called after us as we walked toward the train.

3) It’s late at night in the Seattle airport. I have a very early morning flight and decided not to sleep. I’ve come to the airport to spend the night writing. The Starbucks is open 24 hours in the main atrium and as I approach the counter I say, “It must be hard to work here all night.” The barista responds, “I love the night.” I tell her that I do, too. She continues, “We’re all on our way from here to somewhere and just don’t know it. Working here at night I see it. Life is a journey,” she says, aware of her cliché. I smile at her. She adds, “This life is all one big continuous trip. I love it!” I do, too. Then she asks, “So where are you going?” I’m going to the same place as Pastor Tom’s father. But I don’t say that. I tell her that I’m going on an adventure. She smiles and says, “Me, too!”

Filed under: Love, Perspective, Truly Powerful People | 2 Comments »

Step Down

Posted on June 27, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

830. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Megan-the-brilliant sent me a link to a very concise blog post that she wrote a long time ago. She and I recently had a conversation about grounding and centering and in sharing the link she asked what I would add or say differently. Her post was sparked by some event or experience that she cannot recall so the post lives as a universal statement of truth. Here is her post:

To be authentic is to live according to your truth
To be brave is to speak your truth
To be centered is to know your truth
To be grounded is to believe in your truth
To be free is to release the illusion of control over the truths of others.

It is an especially interesting question to me because lately I doubt my truth. To be more specific, the intuition, impulse, and knowing that I have always identified as truth and followed without question (often to my ruin) I now distrust. I wonder if I have inverted the inner guide with the inner used car salesman. I may have the only guide in the history of inner guides that wears a plaid polyester sports coat and sells truth in the guise of a jalopy. I’ve ignored this voice and listened to the very sincere, baritone inner opinion-giver who never panics, never gets excited and tells me it’s okay to sell the farm for a song. It turns out that I am an easy mark!

So, given my doubt of anything that sounds like truth, here are my additions to Megan’s post (for today. These may change according to the jalopy I purchase tomorrow):

To be authentic is to question your truth and live according to the question.
To be brave is to stand solidly in “I don’t know” and refuse to pretend that there is an answer.
To be centered is to step off the pedestal and stand without shame in the muck of life.
To be grounded is recognize that you are ordinary and cease any attempts to be separate from or better than the herd or the animals or the plants or the sky or the stars.
To be free is to realize that the sacred is in the ordinary, the muck, the not-knowing, and the questions. To stand above anything or anyone is an illusion and can only distance you from the sacred because the sacred is always in the direction of unity and never in the direction of distinction.

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Listen And Be Glad

Posted on June 22, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

825. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I woke up this morning in a funk. There was no particular reason that I could attach for the cloud of grey that wrapped itself around my mind –except perhaps the cloud of grey that wrapped itself around the city. It was just one of those days.

I worked all morning to change my energy and lift my spirits but the gloom persisted so I finally stopped resisting it and decided to let it settle in. It was a good day to be in a low mood as I spent much of the afternoon in a darkened room watching investor pitches. I didn’t need to relate to anyone or have bright ideas. I stewed in my grey juices and tried hard to stay focused on the pitches.

Early in the evening I walked back across town. The sun came out while I was in the darkened room so I was moving slowly feeling my body soak up the sun. As I passed the train station I saw a woman sitting on the curb. She was huddled into a tight ball with her forehead resting on her knees, her bag of worldly possessions tucked beneath her legs. Something about her made me stop. The voice in my head shouted, “Ask her if she needs help!” I hesitated. I turned to walk away and the voice shouted louder, “Go back and ask that woman if she needs help!” I stopped. Once again I turned away. I was gloomy and didn’t want to be responsible for another person. This time the voice was adamant, “GO NOW!”

I approached the woman slowly and asked, “Are you alright.” She slowly raised her head from her knees and smiled broadly. She was glowing. She didn’t need my help. She turned her face to the sun and said, “Oh yes! I’m so grateful for the sun and just enjoying being alive. Aren’t you?” I nodded my head. She smiled and thanked me and I walked on, dizzy at the disjoint between what I expected and what I found.

My gloom was gone. It was as if she’d reached in to me and diffused the gloom. Instead of needing my help, she helped me. The voice inside my head smirked, “Now, aren’t you glad that you listened?”

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How Long Has It Been?

Posted on June 16, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

819. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

[continued from 811, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18]

Bali Journal Excerpt #9
The beach at Tulamben is course black lava stone. It is from another world. Lora sat at a distance as I said my prayer and made my offering as Jero had instructed. I invited my soul to come home. I asked it (me) to be happy. I made an offering in my own way – also as Jero had instructed. It felt right. When I was complete, I joined Lora and we watched the sun rise. After a moment she said, “Sometimes you have to slow way down before you can see the clouds move, before you can see the shapes in the clouds. How long has it been since you watched the clouds?” She showed me a mermaid and a spaceship. I saw a swordfish and a lion. The clouds moved into one shape and then another and another still, appearing and disappearing and then reappearing in yet another form. It was just like the message of the Wayan Kulit, the shadow puppets. The forms of this life are transitory, they appear and disappear, ever moving.

The ocean accepted my offering and I sometimes remind myself to slow down and look at the clouds that always remind me of how transitory is this life. I have a habit when I awake each morning of saying to myself, “This is the only day of life I will ever have….”

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Listen To The Symphony

Posted on June 14, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

817. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

[continued from 811, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]

Bali Journal Excerpt #7
Letting go is happening in degrees: a moment of tai chi in the pavilion with Stewart, a comment from Budhi, conversations with people in the market, allowing myself to ‘not know,’ laughter with Lora – this are opening me to be present, opening me to direct experience without judgment. It is allowing me to celebrate the symphony of serendipity playing all the time in my life. Engaging with people who are supportive and not fearful or needing to stake claims is teaching me to relax. It is teaching me to let go of my need to stake claims. When I first entered the temple I was wary of imposing in the people and their right to worship. I didn’t want to trespass. The Balinese people welcome me over and over again (not just me but all of us) with not thought of trespass. I had to allow myself to be welcome. I had to let go of my assumptions of imposition.

There are two phrases I adore in this excerpt: 1) A symphony of serendipity. I am in one of those vibrant phases in which the symphony of serendipity is playing loud and with great mischief. Serendipity is a’poppin’. 2) Allow myself to be welcome. The older I get the more I recognize that the vast majority of my limitations are self-imposed.

Filed under: Awakening, Body, Energy, Perspective, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: Bali | Leave a comment »

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