Being Human on a Homestead

If any of these cosmic findings benefit you, I hope at the very least it motivates you to spend more time outdoors. All that is untrue falls away in nature.

The first day I got my hands in the dirt in the 100 degree heat + 77% humidity Tennessee summer, all the chatter in my mind stopped. 

I felt alive in that moment, and aware of its impermanence.

A thought came into my head that I’ve held onto since that day, until now. 

The thought: 

To be human is to live and die simultaneously. 

To be human is to live and die simultaneously, and make your own dance out of that. 

That dance of our attempts to center ourselves in the life/death polarity is what I imagine shows up in wherever we go and whatever we do.

Compassion is easier to touch, for ourselves and others, when we recognize that everyone is trying to find their dance within that polarity, at all times, whether they know it or not.

It can look graceful, or it can look vicious and tragic, or somewhere in between. All I know is that with the challenges of life increasing, it is much more of a survival necessity to cultivate compassion. Although maybe not for the reason you’d think. This is not to “be a good person”, it’s to navigate life without losing sanity and even better — being in a position to help others because you maintain sanity when others lose it.

"Remember, compassion helps you FIRST. So yes, it is necessary to be selfish at times in life, but if you are to be selfish, do it with wisdom. Seek compassion for others, because it will help you first.”

That’s me paraphrasing something Jai Dev said. You can hear him talk during any of his kundalini yoga livestreams at the Life Force Academy.

Another thought came:

WHAT IF…