The Greatest of Teachers

you can live the life you want if you can love the life you find.

many of us celebrated a holiday of gratitude last week (and many of us are still full!)  any excuse to be grateful is ok by me, though not needing an excuse is good too.  we are, after all, breathing and living on this beautiful planet, warmed by an incredible sun, in a tremendous sea of cosmic expansion.

there’s a book i have called The Untethered Soul (Michael A. Singer), which i reference with some frequency.  there’s a chapter about death that is particularly powerful, and what i have taken most from it is that the best way to appreciate what you have is to imagine that you don’t have it.  

we’ve all heard the term “first world problems” before, and my goodness don’t we have a lot of them!  we’re good at finding all sorts of problems, because most of us (that are reading this at a computer) just don’t have that many.  if there are big ones, then we don’t really get around to the trivial things.

we all take things for granted, that’s just perspective.  no one can keep a clear and appreciative mind all the time, but the ones that come close have learned how to recalibrate and they do it often.  it ain’t no one time thing!  sometimes we don’t realize we’re taking things for granted, but just imagine they aren’t there; you’ll realize pretty quickly if you are!

so how about life?  are you taking that for granted?  that could go away at any second, without warning, without a fair trial, without discrimination and without remorse.  it’s hard to feel entitled to life when death is so clearly the keeper of it!  i’m a believer in the circle of life.  i believe they are one in the same.  death is not our enemy but the greatest of teachers.

so live.  live well.

Live Forever or Die Trying

live forever or die trying: not sure what this was advertising, but i saw it on a poster in the denver terminal along with a couple of glamourous and dramatically somber models.  

a lot of us do just that.  i mean, not live forever--never once has that been accomplished--but a whole lot of every generation seems to keep thinking they'll be the first to do it, because they'll do it right.  so much time and energy drained into preparing for future life at the cost of the present.  

we think we can store it up.  we think we can deny life now and then have a huge surplus later that will satisfy our every desire and then some (because if it's all scrunched into a smaller time period then it will be super concentrated super life, right??)  we’re working for more than just retirement; we’re working for the very life we're letting slip by.  

unfortunately there are some things you can’t cash out on.  some things are only there for a split second and then they are gone.  be careful.  

take a deep breath and be grateful.  if you aren’t grateful now, you won’t be then.  if you aren't living now, you won't be then.

A Matter of Life and Death

i think most of us have heard many times in our lives to get our priorities straight.  when we’re young it probably has to do with grades in school and partying or figuring out what we want to do with our lives.  when we get older it probably has more to do with money and jobs and family and friends (and figuring out what we want to do with our lives!).  

the month of august shifted a few priorities for me, and as important as it is to be persistent and persevere through hard times, it’s good to recognize when some things just have to be let go of.  

some people have yet to experience the death of someone close to them.  i’ve dealt with it a lot, and as hard as it is there is nothing quite like it to inspire “getting your priorities straight.”  there is a pureness of emotion, a recognition of fragility that is both terrifying and liberating.  when someone is suddenly gone that was just there a minute ago, the things that aren’t really important just fall away and there’s a strange peace that comes with it.

this last month i watched one of my best friends die.  i wasn’t there the moment it happened but i was in the hospital almost every day, and being on tour, was often rushing straight from there to a gig, or to the studio.  mary was the coolest lady.  she was the kind of old person that would complain (grumpily) about how grumpy other old people can be.  she had a memory to challenge an elephant’s and was an amazing story teller even though she was never trying to be.  she was just recalling her life and one memory would lead to three others and i loved to listen.  she loved the doors and thought leonard cohen was the sexiest man ever (it was definitely the voice :), aside from her husband, to whom she was happily married and remained crazy about for 64 years.  they had the kind of marriage everyone dreams about having.  they had a lifetime of working together and appreciating the hell out of each other, and never lost their sense of humor, right up ‘til the end.  ("what was your name again....?" rod would often ask before kissing her hand.)

it’s been said a million times and a million ways, but when it comes down to it you just never know.  i had a realization on this trip, which shouldn’t really have been a realization at all, that every single person that has ever lived on this earth has also died.  every single one.  

“getting priorities straight” for me is asking the simple yet difficult questions, every day, that if today was the day, if this was the moment, could i die happy?  am i doing the things everyday that are true to myself and my soul and my purpose?  what things would i regret not having done?  who do i need to reach out to and tell them i love them?  

we are so afraid of death, and many of us spend our whole lives trying to avoid it.  it’s so interesting to me though, because actual death is a moment.  just a moment.  one moment you’re alive, and the next one you're not.  and regardless of your beliefs, either you’re finally out of this human mind and body and are on to the next leg of the journey, or the lights are out forever and you’re done.  either way, how can either of those things (or any other outcomes i can think of) be nearly as scary as we make them out to be?  

i am beyond certain that most of us live our whole lives without really knowing what incredible miracles we are capable of, without understanding that living in an infinitely expanding universe means that we are infinitely expanding people.  love and creativity are energies powerful beyond belief, and i believe so much that we need to trust them unconditionally.  we can't only trust when we see exactly how things are going to work out.  i believe they are the key to unlocking our full potential and genuine happiness, yet we are so eager to let everything stand in the way of them.  do we think that if it's not our fault we didn't fulfill our potential and lead joyful and creative lives, if we can blame someone else in the end (the world??), then it will make it all easier?  that it will make death easier?  

i don't need to have all my dreams come true in order to die happy.  i do need to know that i was walking in the right direction.  

what if today was the day?  what if this was the moment? 

mary mason :)