October 2012
26 posts
Day 365: The Soul Play Family East Coast Adventure
This is it: Day 365 of our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment! We spent a long but enriching day here in New Bedford, MA at Connecting for Change for our celebration, exactly one year after MyCrownShift. We are immensely grateful for this year of experience and it has been a truly transformational time in our lives. We have gained precious clarity on who we are truly meant to be both as individuals...
Day 364: Our Ending is Our Beginning
Tomorrow will be the final day of our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment, but it certainly won’t be the last day of our “experimental and experiential living” [E2L]. We’ve discovered that having spent a year in E2L we are hooked and we never want to go back to living by default on autopilot. That said, we want to mark the end of this year and so tomorrow we are going to be attending a local...
Day 363: Patience Haiku
We try many times Before we reach our summit. Patience is the path.
Day 362: Knowing What We Want
One of the gifts we have gained from our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment is the gift of knowing what we want. We used to spend hours wondering and agonizing over what we wanted out of life and how we should be spending our lives. By going through the process of “getting REAL”, we developed our internal compasses. We’ve also become less afraid of experimenting and trusting our intuition to let us...
Day 361: Fruits of Success
Yesterday we received a heart-warming letter from the new owners of our old house in Washington. They thanked us for leaving the house in good condition, but more important to us, they told us that their young daughter loved running around in the house. When we first contemplated selling our house, we envisioned selling it to a young family — a family like ours was when we first moved in....
Day 360: Being Clear on What Defines Success
When we were looking into moving to the MetroWest region, one thing we wanted to know was how vibrant the arts were there. After a little searching we found many arts centers and organizations, and at one of them, The Center for Arts in Natick, we saw a familiar name on the calendar: Beethoven’s Wig.
Beethoven’s Wig is a project by the lyricist and musician, Richard Perlmutter, who has written...
Day 359: Gratitude for Proximity to Family
When we lived on the West coast, people were often surprised to learn that we had no family close by. Although we did our best to stay in touch with our family out East, it wasn’t easy. Travel was expensive and even phone calls were trickier than we expected because of the time difference. We were often eating dinner when our family was available to talk, and they were asleep by the time we could...
Day 358: Boxes Haiku
End of a long week; The boxes still wait for us. Maybe tomorrow.
Day 357: What is School For?
We read Seth Godin’s book, Stop Stealing Dreams, back at the end of February and into early March. As I wrote at the time, we had been struggling with many of the educational questions which Seth addresses in his book and it was empowering for us to read that a parent and a businessman like Seth had similar concerns. Our inquiry that Spring, which included reading and discussing Stop Stealing...
Day 356: We’re Official!
Today, along with the adventure of going through the process of transferring our car registrations and licenses from Washington to Massachusetts (which included driving from one Massachusetts RMV branch to another), we also registered to vote — just in time to be able to vote in this November’s election. It felt significant, like we were finally “official” residence of Massachusetts, and...
Day 355: Reclaim Your Birthright!
Imagine a world where past, present and future are all melded into one — a world where you are one with the World, and every day when the sun rises, your renewal begins. Because you are one with the World, as the World turns, you also turn with the flow of that universal energy. As the World engages in becoming, you also engage in the process of becoming. No more struggle or strife or...
Day 354: Joining Authentic Creativity with...
Today Jung had a meeting near my old stomping grounds when I was a graduate student at New England Conservatory. Her meeting was to be short and the weather was lovely today, so I drove in with her so we could talk on the way in and out and have lunch together. Seeing all the students walking around the various schools in the area reminded me of my student days. I was a “good student” in school...
Day 353: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Jung discovered a wonderful film which we watched, just the two of us, last night and then watched again with our daughters this morning. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is the fictional tale of a group of British retirees who become the first residents of a hotel in India whose business plan involves “outsourcing” the care of retirees. It is a wonderful story of taking chances, starting fresh,...
Day 352: Nature Nurtures Us
During our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment we’ve often written about how nature’s visitors inspire us. When we were planning to move from our mountain home in Washington back to Massachusetts, one thing we were worried about was losing that connection. We expected to miss our encounters with wildlife in our backyard and on local walks.
As it turned out, in the short time we’ve been in our new...
Day 351: Gratitude for Connection
Years ago, a friend of Jung’s in Seattle introduced us to a woman in Massachusetts who she thought we might connect well with. The woman, Cheryl, studied music like Charles, as well as law like Jung, and was spiritually awakened like both of us. Jung talked with Cheryl on the phone at the time, but it wasn’t until today that we were able to meet Cheryl in person.
We had so much fun sitting in...
Day 350: Here in the Year 02012
Elves preserve the land ‘Cause they live hundreds of years. It’s all perspective.
Our daughter S told me today that she recently read that the reason that elves don’t cut down trees is because elves live hundreds of years. Whatever short-term benefit they might gain from cutting down the tree cannot match the hundreds of years of enjoyment they would gain from the living tree.
We humans,...
Day 349: We Got REAL!
There are sixteen days left in our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment and in recognition of that, I decided to go back and look at what Jung and I wrote back on Day 16. I found special meaning in Jung’s Day 16 post where she encouraged all of us to “Get REAL,” by which she meant:
REMEMBER who we truly are…to RECLAIM our birthright. EMBRACE who we truly are…to EMBODY our values. ALIGN with who we...
Day 348: Truths Lived via Experiential Learning
We are free when we love ourselves exactly the way we are, and honor all parts of ourselves: good, bad and ugly. We are most powerful when we live true to ourselves and practice authenticity faithfully. We are most joyful when we allow ourselves to satisfy our soul’s yearnings first and foremost. We are most wanted and valued when we make our unique gifts and singular genius visible to the world....
Day 347: Everything is Perfect
One of many practices that we have picked up along our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment is accepting, and even welcoming, whatever comes our way as “perfect.” It has a peculiar way of shifting our perspective instantly, which in turn helps us redirect our energy from hemorrhaging on useless worries, complaints or regrets. When we resist unpleasant process, outcome, or task with, “Why do I have to...
Day 346: Sitting with our Child
Being a parent Sometimes means you do nothing But sit with your child.
J was sick last night and couldn’t get to sleep. She became very frustrated and maybe a little scared. There truly wasn’t anything we could do but sit with her and tell her that this was temporary. It’s frustrating for us, too, not being able to our child to physically feel better. All we could do was to share the experience...
Day 345: Vine to Vine
Today S and J had their first playdate with a friend from their new school. They’ve been attending their new school for four weeks, we’ve been living in our new home for two weeks, and Jung has already been reconnecting with old friends in the area. Life is really starting to take off for us here. At the same time, we still have many, many boxes yet to unpack, more furniture to purchase, and a lot...
Day 344: The Gift of Resistance
A friend of Jung’s told her about her brother, Rob Kapilow, and thought I might be interested in what he was doing. Jung’s friend mentioned that if I was interested she might be able to arrange a phone conversation between us. However, as Jung told me about Rob’s “What Makes It Great?” programs in particular, I decided then and there that it didn’t make sense for me to connect with him. He sounded...
Day 343: Dance Practice
We often hear the cliche, “The only thing that is constant is change,” yet how many of us like, let alone embrace, the change occurring in our lives? How many of us even acknowledge or recognize the constant internal and external changes happening in our lives?
I like to think of our changing environs as currents. Whether invisible as air currents, frustrating as traffic currents, or as vital as...
Day 342: Awakened Dreamer
I believe in action following inspiration. Inspiration alone cannot change the world, let alone change one’s self. As Gandhi said, “Without action you aren’t going anywhere.” Similarly, I believe that I need to change myself first in order to see the change I want to see in the world. How can we change the world without changing ourselves first?
So, when I attended a truly inspiring workshop...
Day 341: Enough is Delightful
We once heard Vicki Robin, author of the book, Your Money or Your Life, expressing her burning desire to shift consumers’ mindsets from thinking “the more the better” to “enough is enough.” When she said that she wanted to find ways to associate the notion of enough with something alluring, for instance “enough is sexy” (somehow), we both laughed — a kind of laughter that arises from a...
Day 340: The Art and Practice of Faith
We can hardly believe that it is already October! In less than a month — precisely twenty-five days — it will be a year from the day we launched our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment in 2011.
As we look around and notice the leaves turning colors almost abruptly in some places in the neighborhood, we can feel it in our bodies that our completion of a full circle is imminent. This New England fall...
Day 339: Chuseok Haiku
Bright, grand Harvest Moon
Greets us walking from dinner.
A joyful Chuseok.
Today we celebrated Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, with Jung’s parents. We left with full stomachs and hearts having eaten food lovingly prepared and enjoyed hours of lively conversation. We are grateful for multi-generational gatherings where we can all share each other’s wisdom as well as many belly laughs!
Bless...
September 2012
31 posts
Day 338: Gratitude for Work Haiku
Tired but grateful
We have energy for work.
We’ll sleep well tonight!
Day 337: Whole Nation Health
Here in the United States, as the November elections draw near, discussions around the role of government in health care are becoming more-and-more heated. Charles’ brother sent us an email this morning about a recent documentary which will be screening in our area. The documentary, titled The Waiting Room, is described as follows:
“The Waiting Room is a character-driven documentary film that...
Day 335: Going with the Slow
Today we lined a few more shelves and we now have more room to unpack into.
Today we emptied a few more boxes and we now have a little more space in our kitchen.
Today we unpacked a few more dishes and we can now dine more comfortably.
Today we unpacked our water filter and our rice cooker and we can now drink and eat better at home.
It’s easy to feel impatient and want to push the...
Day 334: Garden in the Woods
This is our first Fall in New England since 2003 and we had forgotten just how beautiful the season is here. The leaves are only just starting to turn in places as is the air. There is a mix of warm and cool breezes that keep the temperature just right throughout the day. Today, after picking S and J up from school, we went for a walk in the Garden in the Woods, a beautiful garden consisting...
Day 333: Internet as Utility
Charles remembers his mother telling him stories of how her family was one of the first to get a television in her area. They would watch variety shows in the evening and the next day his mother would entertain all her friends by re-enacting the jokes and routines she had seen the night before.
We find it somehow ironic that, two generations later, our children have rarely watched broadcast TV,...
Day 332: Gratitude for a New Home
When we were in the midst of selling our home, Jung began looking on the Internet at what was available for rental homes near S and J’s new school. One home in particular appeared to have much of what we were looking for, particularly being in a quiet, family-friendly neighborhood and close to school. It was in the ball-park size-wise and had a bedroom big enough for S and J to share, which was...
Day 329: Waiting for News Haiku
Dinner out again, Waiting to hear of signed lease. Going with the flow.
Day 328: People are Paramount
For the past two weeks, we’ve become quite familiar with the full range of experiences that can be had at the hands of the service industry. From airline to myriad restaurants to four different hotels, we’ve interacted with many different service professionals in various capacities. What we’ve learned is that their attention and competence is far more important to us than product, place or price.
...
Day 327: No Need for Power Plays
We have been homeowners for our entire married life until a few days ago. We’re not entering a new adventure as renters. What’s been interesting to us is seeing how the transactional relationship between Landlord and Tenant differs from the transactional relationships between the Sellers and the Buyers of a home. Between Sellers and Buyers, the mutual benefit is well understood. One has a property...
Day 326: Uncertainty Haiku
It is not easy, This life of uncertainty. And yet we choose it.
Day 325: Flying + Falling = Faith
The process of selling our house involved a lot of waiting for unknowns to become known — expanding our capacity for patience and finding peace even in uncertainty. Our house is now sold, and there are no more unknowns there, but now we are on to searching for our new home and we have a new set of unknowns. There are ways we could try to manipulate and control the situations — ways in...
Day 324: Boston Visit Haiku
Visiting Boston Felt like a new beginning. We’re local again.
Although we’ve been in Massachusetts for over a week, and our children spent a week at school, somehow today felt like the beginning day of our new Massachusetts chapter. Perhaps it is because our Washington home officially sold yesterday or maybe it was because this was our first visit to the Boston Museum of Science as locals and...
Day 323: First Week Haiku
First week is over. School was fun and house is sold. New phase underway.
As we wrote all week, S and J had a cracking good first week at school. They made friends, drawings, sculptures and schemes. What else could we ask for?
Today we also received news that our house sale closed successfully.
Everything is happening perfectly, even if it is not happening as planned. Frankly, we routinely...
Day 322: Place of Belonging
This morning was day four of our daughter J bugging us to hurry up and get her to school. When we pointed out to her that she had never before, in all her years of attending school, pushed us to get her to school faster, J agreed that it was unusual and that it was weird to actually be looking forward to going to school. We think that, much like Jung wrote back on day 34, S and J have found a...
Day 321: Gratitude for the Web of Commerce
Today we are feeling grateful for people helping us with what we need: food, shelter and transportation. These are not people who are giving us their services for free, but rather people who are providing services we need for a fair price — exactly in line with our values. In addition to receiving a service for a fair price, we have enjoyed interacting directly with these people. Unlike the...
Day 320: School for Children’s Gifts
Today we met another new parent at S and J’s school. When she found out that we had moved from Seattle with our desire to send our children to Sudbury Valley School, she mentioned that she and her husband had moved from Texas also to send their son to the school. She told us that she felt that her son was very bright and although there were good schools where they lived in Texas, none of them...
Day 319: Envisioning the End
Today was a bit surreal for all of us. It was a perfect New England Fall day, with a bright, cloudless, blue sky and a cool breeze as we walked S and J to their first day of school. For the kids, J expressed it best when she said it was weird to actually be looking forward to going to school. Although she has tolerated school in the past and there were things that she liked about it, this was the...
Day 318: You Are Who You Are
As Jung wrote back on Day 20 of this Experiment, there are innumerable “experts” who want to help you to “improve” yourself. They would love to tell you (for a fee or even for free) the “21 steps to success” or “5 ways to boost your career” or foolproof programs for “improving” yourself in any domain of your life. Both of us have been through many of those “self-improvement” projects and...
Day 317: Hawks’ Greeting
Today we went to see Herrmann’s Royal Lipizzan Stallions at the beautiful grounds of Cogswell’s Grant in Essex, Massachusetts. We were inspired to see a family business continuing this tradition of performances in small, intimate venues where the audience can see up close the strength and intelligence of these beautiful animals. S and J were especially excited because it had been a...
Day 316: Activate Your Citizenship
President Obama’s nomination acceptance speech last night at the Democratic Convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, inspired us deeply. We arrived at Charles’ mom’s house close to 10:00 pm after flying and driving most of the day, so we were all quite tired and worn out, but we wanted to hear the President. Three generations gathered together — Charles’ Mom, Jung and Charles and S &...
