by Geoffery Moore | Jul 31, 2023 | Blog |
Guest post by J. M. Hawkins
Dear Soul,
I have to admit that the question, “What will people think?” is a major factor in my decision making. I feel I have to consider all the ramifications of my decisions in terms of their popular-approval rating.
Dear Life,
Ramifications? Sounds more like “sheepifications”. You’ve just admitted you let other people do your thinking for you.
Not much chance of your butting heads with a conformist world that way. No, your story sounds more like this:
The “many” had a little lamb;
It’s brain was blank as snow.
And everywhere the “many” went,
The lamb was sure to go.
It followed them off a cliff one night.
They said: “Follow or be a fool!”
Become yourself, avoid this plight.
Don’t be the masses’ tool.
Today, I won’t be a slave to the influence of others. I’ll think for myself in order to be myself. Today, I’m declaring myself a free agent
*The Dear Soul/Dear Life dialogs by J.M. Hawkins are adapted and used by permission. They are excerpted from his collection, Word From Soul City and were used in discussion groups that met in cities across America in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to the Life That Loves to Happen seminars with Landon Saunders.
by Geoffery Moore | Jul 24, 2023 | Blog |
Guest post by J. M. Hawkins
Dear Soul,
I read somewhere, “Our chief want in life is someone who can make us do what we can.” Oh, if only I could find that someone!
Dear Life,
It won’t take long. Look in the mirror.
Then commit this poem to heart:
Only you, and you alone,
Can make you do what you can.
But you must be the coach,
The player and the fan.
You’ll have to dig deeply
And find the gumption;
All heart, all soul, all might—
Your only assumption.
Today, I’ll begin with myself; I’ll be my best self; I’ll rely on myself for the courage to be happy—to be what I can be.
*The Dear Soul/Dear Life dialogs by J.M. Hawkins are adapted and used by permission. They are excerpted from his collection, Word From Soul City and were used in discussion groups that met in cities across America in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to the Life That Loves to Happen seminars with Landon Saunders.
by Geoffery Moore | Jul 17, 2023 | Blog |
J. M. Hawkins and Geoffery Moore
Dear Soul,
If only I get the next promotion, then I will get my life more in balance.
Dear Life,
“If only” is a lonely way to live—it doesn’t even come close to life lived by this one commandment: Only L.I.V.E.(Love Intensely Value Everything)
Dear Soul,
But look at my appointment calendar. It’s packed! I’m too stressed out to think about living more intensely.
Dear Life,
That’s a really scary calendar you’ve got there. Seems to me, you’ve made a lot of appointments with disappointment. Look at all the “maybe-gonna-happens” that you’ve hung so much happiness on. You’ve got a calendar full of expectations—each one of them an engraved invitation to unhappiness.
I recommend that you lose the expectations—even if you keep the appointments. Then, at the top of your calendar write: “No matter what each day brings, I’ve really only got one appointment: To L.I.V.E.”
Today, I’ll disappoint disappointment by making all my appointments with a life that loves intensely whatever happens—no matter what happens—a life that distills whatever happens into joy.
*The Dear Soul/Dear Life dialogs by J.M. Hawkins are adapted and used by permission. They are excerpted from his collection, Word From Soul City and were used in discussion groups that met in cities across America in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to the Life That Loves to Happen seminars with Landon Saunders.
by Geoffery Moore | Jul 10, 2023 | Blog |
Guest post by J. M. Hawkins
Dear Soul,
I’m still not sure I have a plan for my life. I think I’m just going with the flow.
Dear Life,
Only dead fish go downstream. Wake up and hear the waterfall! You’re going with the wrong flow. There is the flow out of the great mind of the universe. But you are circling in the eddy of lesser minds on your way down the drain. You’re caught in the undertow of the underflow.
The flow you need to get to know is the overflow—the great exuberance of a life that never asks “Is it half-empty or half-full?” because it overflows with generosity and, of course, jest. The overflow is the flow to go with.
So here’s what I hope to be able to say about you: that you didn’t hesitate, that you didn’t wait, that you went ahead and really lived even though you didn’t have a plan, until one day—in a quiet, intense moment—you realized that this is the plan: to live!
Today, I’ll plunge into life—and realize its abundance. And I’ll find a way to share it. I’ll go with the overflow.
*The Dear Soul/Dear Life dialogs by J.M. Hawkins are adapted and used by permission. They are excerpted from his collection, Word From Soul City and were used in discussion groups that met in cities across America in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to the Life That Loves to Happen seminars with Landon Saunders.
by Geoffery Moore | Jul 3, 2023 | Blog |
Dear Soul,
I just want to get to the place where I can run free, but I keep hitting walls.
Dear Life,
In every situation, in every circumstance, in every moment, no matter how tall or prison-like the wall, there is always a gate. Awareness is about finding the gate.
Every here, every now, every this is a gateway to bliss. You need only go through it And when you do, you make the moment your throne.
As a poet says: “In an ocean of grass, the monarch butterfly finds the one yellow flower and takes it for his throne of the moment.”
Dear Soul,
Ah, how I wish I were free enough to make this moment my throne—to feel on top of things instead of having everything on top of me. Maybe someday…
Dear Life,
Don’t wait! The thrones of the moment do flutter by, and some are low and some are high. You seem to be working and waiting for some distant, future, high throne. But let me warn you that no matter how high the throne—even if it’s so high you have to wear an oxygen mask—you are still sitting on your own rump!
The trick is to take any situation, any seat and make it a throne of bliss. Today, be that butterfly. Land on joy.
Today, I will “kiss the joy as it flies”—
And live each moment in “Eternity’s sunrise.”
I’ll look closely and deeply and not miss
The secret gateway to a throne of bliss.
*The Dear Soul/Dear Life dialogs by J.M. Hawkins are adapted and used by permission. They are excerpted from his collection, Word From Soul City and were used in discussion groups that met in cities across America in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to the Life That Loves to Happen seminars with Landon Saunders.
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