Busyness and The American Dream ?

I loved this. It really went straight to my heart. I've grown up in this community and now as a 28 year old young adult have watched this community grow and change. Some good some bad. It makes my heart ache to see people who have more wealth, education and opportunity to help spend so much time and money on themselves. People seem to be having some kind of out of body experience on the mission to perfect themselves and their inner children. I have observed many a whine session at certain coffee venues that go on day after day on who is to blame and how messed up it all is the the conspiracey and lies and then they go get in their cars drive away go to their jobs and come back to whine again the next day. What I really wonder is when the whining stops and the work begins. Maybe just one day a week we could give up our whine session and spend that time picking up groceries for a shut in or giving a single mom an hour to herself. Believe it or not just and hour of helping out real people in your community makes a huge diffference. When you see a mother shopping at the store and her child is giving her tough time or crying. Don't glare at her or the child and push past them because you have to get somewhere NOW! Make a silly face and encourage the Momma. She is raising your future. We need to really support eachother. It is way to easy to "Blame Bush" for everything . I don't know you realfire but I have great respect for putting this out there in such a kind and insightful way. .Better than I could. Love and light to you. Let's keep up the work.

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Posted in reply to the post by realfire:

It appears that the way we are living is anesthetizing us. Our society has defined itself by our excessive lifestyles and unnecessary spending. When I choose to be vulnerable to human suffering, it is not limited to the experience of poverty, but includes the more disguised suffering, that of self importance and material addiction

Question: Is life defined by a racing from event to event (even if these activities are deemed familial/spiritual)?

We medicate, meditate, massage and retreat to ease our suffering?

Suffering is the stream that motivates us to know each other and ourselves.

Question: Maybe busyness is fear’s mask?

Symptoms of Busyness

Question: Could busyness keep us from true intimacy?

*Missed birthdays other holidays

*Minimal time and energy for a real phone conversation with a friend

*Sex is when your partner is asleep ( cyber……….. too tired to make love to your mate

*One armed hugs

*Rushed lunches with loved ones

* Endless lunches with business associates

*Being better at multi-tasking than being kind or present

*Gratitude…thank you cards don’t sell as much as ten years ago

*Taking moments to be truly grateful for all that you have, thanks for my life…

*Complaining about how exhausting " doing Christmas " is

Add three of your own symptoms here:

Question: Maybe to know who you are time is imperative?

Materialism Run Amok

Our lives are filled with ornaments of distraction. Is it possible that the more expensive the toy the greater the distraction? Are we truly prospering if stress is the #1 killer. Monday 9 AM (highest incidence of heart attacks), According to Larry Dossey MD there were no other risk factors present for these heart attacks other than WORK (that word).

Americans make up 5% of the overall population and yet we use 1/3 of its resources and half its hazardous waste. You might wonder where do we find the time to do all this damage, but we do.

Question: How are you living to contribute to this, even with your recycling practice?

Our consumerism puts luxuries out of reach for many families’ and children in America; never mind what we do to children in other countries. How do we aid and abed the discrimination of the poor? Love is free, we cannot continue to rape the world.

Be rest assured that we, the spoiled ones, will either choose true compassion through sharing and vulnerability to world suffering OR nature will seek its inherent balance and the suffering will come closer and closer until we know each other’s pain intimately. Your causes won’t change this planet ………….YOU WILL.

The State of the Nation and Hippie Politics

If our individual actions are oblivious or apathetic to the daily suffering of others, what can we expect our political representation to mirror? We vacation in third world countries and pamper ourselves amidst human suffering. Why not make ¼ of your trip giving to the human race instead of just getting?

The war that exists on the macrocosm exists in the microcosm. The war is in our consciousness and reflected back in our government. We all have our own shields and weapons to keep ourselves from feeling one another.

Many people in Sonoma County (where I reside) profess to be hippies. However many of the original hippies didn’t shower and did not work. They had sex with each other, Loved and moved the energy for change with intent. Contemporary hippies wear 100-dollar tie-dye shirts and buy 50 yoga mats and go on thousand dollar retreats. I call this spiritual materialism. Hypocrisy at its best. Our lifestyles speak louder than our causes and organizations. If you want to be truly enlightened Feed People.

Change comes form personal sacrifice. People have been starved and tortured for your freedom. What personal comforts would you be willing to sacrifice for the sake of a total stranger? America needs a time out , then a nap, and some lessons in how to share and play nice .

YOUTH

For the sake of all children let us slow down and feel each other. From birth children are enrolled in classes and have schedules. Our teenagers have 2 jobs before they even turn 18. What are we modeling?

This generation suffers from an array of disorders / diseases associated with self-hatred or self-denial. Why? Children who act differently are medicated and diagnosed as somthing undesirable to our society. Question: Maybe normal is sick?

The typical high school student looks like a carbon copy of another kid. Same hair, same values, same clothes, same drugs, same music, same sexual activity.

" A child without courage is like a night without stars " Where is the courage in being like everyone else?

Question: If we, as adults, had one wish, would it not be for more time?

More time to love and play. Why burden our youth with the disease of busyness?
Is the purpose so that they too will experience material gain and material expression?

Antidote for the Busyness Coma

(In no particular order)

Skip a manicure and buy one for a homeless /struggling woman

Have one less beer and buy lunch for homeless man

Don’t leave your hair on the walls of public showers in our fancy gyms

Say hello and ask people how they are and mean it (all people, not just the ones you judge to be worthy)

Make eye contact in your local supermarket, make it everywhere and mean to send something kind to the other person

Question needing VS wanting

Really listen, not because you have to, to everyone

Instruct and explain to your child that they must choose one luxury and give it away to someone on a weekly basis. Teach that giving is far better than getting

Take a look at the police log in your local paper and Wake –UP to the things you can make better

Choose a local cause that you do not have to be right about

Sell an item of great value and change someone’s life with its worth

Offer your services for free at lest 10% of the time

Introspect on ALLL marketing and realize it is intrinsically deceptive

Question why you NEED name brand items (maybe there is something lacking in your perception of the truth of which you are?)

Ask, who would I be if all materialism disappeared from my reality?

Reverse Consumerism. Can you say Balance?

If nothing else was ever manufactured from this day forward, we already have enough for the next few generations. Spending as much as we do invites the astronomical prices we pay. (I.e. gas)

We have the power to determine what we spend and how we spend it, this is great power .It seems that we just passively pay or we bitch and blame the government. Ultimately we choose our lives?

What are you opting for?

" We can be casualties of an individualist culture always striving on the myth of independence and self-making. We can choose to step out of the ghetto self making and re-create a world we are proud to call our own "