The Wisdom List

The other night, while I was watching the Olympics, I had a revelation.  I had kind of spaced out while some Russian girl was on the uneven parallel bars, and all of a sudden, it came to me.  I figured out something about myself that had bothered me for years!  There must have been something in the air that night because the Russian girl ended up winning the gold too, so there was good stuff all around.

Anyway, having learned something about myself, I got to thinking about learning in general.  I thought that it would be pretty neat-o for us to share all of our wisdom with each other here on this blog.  And so the idea for The Wisdom List was born.

I invite you to share your favorite, hardest-earned, pithiest, most magical bits of sagacity and enlightenment on this post.  I will collect them all and post them in an upcoming post.  AND I will award a prize for the most edifying.  You can post funny things, truly enlightening things, even a quote or bit of wisdom from someone else.  It should just be something that rings true, even if for only one teeny little moment in time.

I’ll get the ball rolling with some of my favorite bits of wisdom:

1.  Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know (Pema Chodron).

2.  Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.

3.  Pants first, then shoes.

4.  Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.

OK, now your turn!  Remember, the best entrant will win an original “aim4wisdom” prize!

Lughnasadh

In case you missed it, the Celtic holiday of Lughnasadh arrived on August 1st.  This ancient harvest festival celebrated the bounty of the summer and acknowledged that the hot, sunny days would soon be over.  (The Christian religion would later adopt this celebration and re-name it Lammas.)

The Celtic traditions appeal to me because I like the idea of life as a circle or wheel.  What comes around, goes around.  What you sow is what you reap.  Don’t get me wrong; there certainly are times when I wish that life was a straight line, and I could put some stuff behind me forever.  But all in all, it’s kind of nice that we get second chances.  And third, and fourth, and . . . .

At any rate, Lughnasadh got me thinking on sowing and reaping, and on what bounties I am able to enjoy now because of it.  I know that sometimes I get so focused on just the hard work part that I forget that it’s okay to have some fun too.

So, maybe consider taking a moment to reflect on all your hard work and see how far you’ve come.  Celebrate your bounties!  And relish and appreciate the next turn of the wheel that will ask you to do it all over again.

Olympic Friday Fun!

In honor of the Olympics, today’s writing prompt calls for you to use the words gold, silver, and bronze in a sentence.  There are two rules for today’s writing:  (1) there is no word limit, but it must be only one sentence, and (2) the sentence should be the opener to a romance novel.  Feel free to make it a real bodice-ripping, potboiler of a story!  You may also change any of the three words into a verb (i.e. bronzed) or an adjective (i.e. silvery) or whatever suits you.

Ready? Set? Write!

Blue Moon

This month, we will experience the astronomical phenomenon known as a Blue Moon.  A Blue Moon occurs when there are two full moons in the same month; the second full moon is known as the Blue Moon.  It happens only once every three years, so its rarity marks it as a symbolic event of note.

The first full moon appears today, August 1st, and is a Moon in Aquarius (specifically at 11 degrees).  One of the symbolic interpretations of this particular degree of Aquarius is “a man receives new inspiration which may change his life.”  Since Full Moons in general symbolize completion and “coming to fruition,” we can say that this particular Full Moon is asking us to realize that our spiritual inspirations can impact our lives more fully when we translate them into practical manifestations.

The second full moon, or the Blue Moon, is a Moon in Pisces on the 31st (specifically at 9 degrees).  Sometimes, this particular degree of Pisces is represented by a jockey or an aviator.  In other words, we can be a guide.  In this instance, we can be a guide who carefully develops our gifts to share with the world if we make the most of our opportunities.

So what do we make of this Blue Moon energy?  You could say that a lot of our hard, inner work of the past couple of weeks/months/years could be coming to fruition now, and we need to be ready to undertake our upcoming missions with integrity and power.  Are you ready to make the most of your opportunities this month?