Eckhart Tolle - So I’m not responsible? Cmon!

I just finished up the Pain-Body chapter in the book.

Let me give a quick disclaimer that while we all have pain bodies as Eckhart describes it, I think mine is pretty small.  I truly had a happy childhood and live a blessed life.   So maybe I’m not coming from a place of authority on this comment.  But in the book Eckart ventures to say that sometimes when you’re acting out, it’s not you that’s  acting out, but your pain-body.

I whole-heartedly and emphatically disagree with that statement.  

One thing I’ve always believed is that we are responsible for ourselves and what happens to us.  Even if you’ve had a crappy childhood, or you have emotional issues.  We are adults, not children.  We do have a say in our actions and reactions.  You are responsible for the words that come out of your mouth, always, no exceptions.  None.  We’ve all made mistakes and said things we regret, but you learn to deal with consequences and take actions to prevent it from happening again.  You can’t go around blaming your pain-body.

Eckhart, you had me up to this point.  You’ve given people a get-out-of-jail-free card.  Now I’ve got to spend some time recovering from that one comment.

11 miles in - why I feel sorry for all the tourists at Breckenridge last weekend

From 2008-3 Skinne…

We’ve done this trek before - the 11 mile uphill ski into the Skinner Hut, one of Colorado’s 10th Mountain Division Huts. Skinner is just outside of Leadville, CO, a small mountain town that sits at 10,200 ft elevation. This town is so cute in the winter, with its old victorian architecture, brick buildings, and snow packed up to the windows of most of the homes. (Yet we were reminded that this town is ONLY cute in the winter, as the snow covers the “sanford and son” yards full of old tires, engines, trash, and other disposables. Hey, Salvation Army - it’s a goldmine up there!

11 miles really isn’t that bad on skis. The first 7 miles or so are pretty rolling, along a road that cuddles between Turquoise Lake and the forest. After that, the trail heads straight up. For an elevation gain of close to 2000 ft in about 3 or 4 miles. There are some spots, although short lived, that are so steep they challenge the skins on the bottom of your skis. But the steepness makes it possible to wear only a long sleeve shirt even though it’s only 20 degrees outside. And the alternating snow, sun, snow, sun surrounded by the pines and huge mountains, I remember why I love this state.

Skinner Hut itself is well equipped with a raging wood burning stove to heat the hut, a second wood burning stove to cook on, and well if that isn’t enough, four propane burners. There is also a cistern pump to wash your dishes, pots, and pans (also provided by the hut). And the mattress that I slept on was actually more comfortable than the hotel’s in Leadville (or maybe I was just so exhausted that I fell asleep as I was laying down).

From 2008-3 Skinne…

The downsides of the weekend were few:
1 - Both my big toes are black and blue and swollen. Pretty sure I won’t be keeping those toenails!
2 - Constantine - a Russian guy that was up with his friend Matt. His sense of humor was, shall we say, caustic? Hey Constantine - we changed your name to ConstantJERK.
3 - My own head! Our one ski day was very epic, extremely stable, but deep, creamy, untracked snow under blue skies. Yet I was very unnecessarily freaked out by avalanches that I just couldn’t relax enough to enjoy myself. Factor that in with my toes, and crappy, hindering skins, and I was a head case. Damn head!

But the snow and the conditions were truly epic. It was one of those weekends, great weather, fabulous company, unbelievable skiing, one of those weekends where you just have to say thanks.  See for yourself…

From 2008-3 Skinne…

From 2008-3 Skinne…

From 2008-3 Skinne…

Eckart Tolle - A New Earth & Oprah’s webcast

Ever since I left CTEK (my last job) back in Jan 07, I’ve been trying to figure out what I should be doing with myself.  It’s been a quest, thusfar unfruitful.  I’m working, but most, if not all, leaves something to be desired.  My mother, in an effort to help me obtain focus, bought be a book and made me promise to read it, and participate in the corresponding online class.

About the class & book - Eckart Tolle has written a book called A New Earth, Awaken to Your Life’s Purpose.  In partnership with Eckart, Oprah Winfrey has put together a live, online webcast where you can watch and actually participate.  It’s a 10 week long course, or rather a book discussion, with Eckart.  Last week was week 1 and I couldn’t attend, but watched it with Mark (my husband) last night.  I watched Week 2 tonight, live.  Regardless of what you think about the book and the class, it truly is a technological feat what they’ve pulled off.  About 700,000 people watched the show last week, live.  An additional 1.5 million people watched it during the week.  Even if you don’t want ’spiritual awakening’, you have to appreciate there are a ton of people out there that do, and if this brings people closer to goodness, then Oprah has truly achieved something great.

Anyway, my formal education is in psychology and science, so many times eastern philosophies leave me with many unanswered questions.  I find most of it hoakey, fluffy, lacking substance.  But I did promise my mother…

So I’m at chapter 3, and I’ve watched 2 of Oprah’s & Eckart Tolle’s classes now.  And while much of the conversation is saying the same thing over and over again, I’m finding it rather fascinating.  My quick summary so far is this:

I am different that the sum of my thoughts, my pasts, my future, and my opinions.  Those are things, concepts in my life.  I am an entity that is separate from them, and the more I recognize this, the more in the present I can live.  The more in the present I can live, the happier I can be b/c I am not affected by my past, by other’s impressions of me, or of my wants of tomorrow.  Interesting.

Instead of asking myself what I want to do with the rest of my life, I need to ask the world what it wants from me and how I can best be of service.  This too is a fascinating concept.  It takes me off the pedestal (what?!?) and turns my life into one of other-service instead of me-service.

Be at one with nature - this is a quick way to shed the “ego”, which is my past, my thoughts, my opinions.  I do this already though so this isn’t a new lesson for me.

So this morning, I sat in complete silence and stillness in my living room.  It gets great morning light and this is where most of my plants reside.  I sat there and tried to quiet my mind as much as possible for as long as possible, and when my mind went active again, I tried to redirect it to ‘asking the world how I can best service it’.  I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to know when the world answers me, but I sure hope it does and I can recognize it for what it is.

This has been my first ’spiritual journey’ and I’m keeping as open of a mind as I can.  If you are interested in discovering your life’s purpose, go buy the book, and sign up for Oprah.  I’ll keep blogging about my experienes on my first spiritual journey.

I want to be born old

I’ve always thought it would be so fabulous to be born old and grow young - then my sister forwarded this to me from Woody Allen…

“In my next life I want to live my life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then you wake up in an old people’s home feeling better every day. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day.  You work for 40 years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born. And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila! You finish off as an orgasm!”

Love it.

Danskin Triathalon - Let the training begin

I have 2 friends that have talked me into doing the Danksin Triathlon coming up in June in Colorado.  I’m in pretty decent shape, I’m in the gym every day, I lift once a week and usually spin or run the other 4 days a week.  If the weather is nice, I hike or run outside on the weekends too.  Its the only thing that keeps me sane.

Well, I’m in decent bike/run shape, but I haven’t swam in YEARS.  I used to swim competitively when I was in high school, but that was about 2 decades ago.  So today, I decided to get wet.  I thought I might jump in the pool at the East Boulder Rec Center and swim with a women’s swim group, but when I arrived I learned that it was for paying members only and the class was full anyway.  So I got in the water and just swam laps.

I think I swam maybe about 40 minutes.  I took lots of breaks, griping the pool edge for dear life.  I learned that I have an old-school freestyle stroke, that I don’t remember how to swim SLOWLY, but I regularly lapped the other people in my lane (so I’m pretty fast still).

Right now, I feel like jello.  I can barely feel my legs and my head is spinning.  So I rewarded myself with about 6 Oreo Cookies, the only thing I could find that had fat content.  I didn’t think the carrots I brought were going to adequately replenish. Only 3.5 months to go to the Danskin.

Just between you and me, I know I’m in good shape, but I’m still nervous about this (which is why I’m doing it).  I don’t even really have a good reason!  Anyway, wish me luck…

Language on a construction site

Warning - this posting is R rated.

As I sit here and drink wine with my husband and his best friend, both home builders on construction sites all day long, it has been brought to my attention why they guys on a construction site talk the way they talk.

Look at the kind of words that they deal with on a minute by minute basis:

stiff
caulk
hammer
pound
screw
drill
nail
wood
Dike (wire cutters)
Upskirt (a long stick with a mirror on the end of it so the guys can see in hard to reach places)
“fill the crack/seam with caulk”
“your caulk is dripping”
“Suck it in” (talking about pulling 2 boards close together)
“Oil the wood, then caulk it” - self explanatory
“Drive it deeper” (referring to nails, screws)
“Do you want the top or bottom?”  (trying to figure out who goes up the ladder and who stays on the ground)
“Blow the tools” (they use compressed air to blow the saw dust off the tools)
So of COURSE men on a construction site hoot and holler at women when the walk by!

I don’t know you but, hey, nice butt…

So many of you know I’ve been running around throwing a business idea I have against a wall to see if it will stick.  Well, Monday I had the pleasure of meeting this fabulous Boulder woman named Kim who listened diligently to my tale, provided me some great insight, and promised an introduction to a person that could be key for what I want to do.

Today, I was at the gym and ran into Kim again.  It always makes me wonder how many times you circle around someone before you actually meet him/her.  Anyway, we had a nice little chat in between bench press sets and wished each other well.  When I was finished with my workout, I headed off to the showers to keep my poor officemate Andy from hating my presence.

So there I am, in the shower, naked save my hot pink flip flops to keep the public-shower-feet-nasties away.  And in she walks.

So what exactly do you say in this situation?  I’ve had 1.2 conversations with Kim.  She seems nice enough, but now she’s seen parts of my body that my mother hasn’t even seen recently.  There must be some clever one-liner to spout out at this opportune moment to ease the tension.  Suggestions?