On The Road in San Francisco

I have resumed my journey as the winds of change have carried me back across the country. I escaped the snowy winter of Boston only to discover the partly cloudy winter of San Francisco.

Having arrived with a week before my flight to Thailand, I have had plenty of time to scour the streets of San Francisco in search of answers to all of life's questions. I was hoping to continue exploring the consciousness that I had cultivated in Boston over the past few months. But from the first day I arrived, I felt lethargic and exhausted. My mind was in a cloud and I was unable to capture the awareness that I had discovered before I left.

And, then it hit me. All of the emotion of leaving my darling Shelly had finally caught up with me. We had said our goodbyes on Monday knowing that I would be gone for two months, but processing emotions takes time. I had mentally come to grips with it, or so I thought, but physically my body was just letting it in. Fortunately, we have been in close contact since I left and I know that her smiling supportive presence will be with me wherever I go!

Despite feeling somewhat lethargic, I began to explore the city of San Francisco. I made my way to the top of Coit Tower, down Market Street, and over towards North Beach. Dim Sum in Chinatown is a must! And for those of you who like Kerouac or Strip Clubs, Chinatown is right next to North Beach. You can have lunch, pick up a book at City Lights Bookstore, and grab a late afternoon lap dance!

After a few days in the city, I decided to leave the city this morning. I headed South to see Stanford and Palo Alto. Truly a magnificent campus and an amazing college town. No surprise their academics and athletics flourish. Good thing I am not ready to go to Grad School yet, I still have time to get my act together. Let's hope the sun shines this brightly on my application.

After lunch in Palo Alto at the University Cafe, I headed over to the coast via La Honda Blvd. My plan was to wind my way up the Pacific Coast on Route 1 over the course of the afternoon. It was a little chilly to be surfing, but that didn't stop most from hanging ten.
I prefer to look at the cliffs, thankful that I am not being "gently" tossed up on the rocks. What's amazing is that there is a view like this around every single corner!

Even though I will be abroad for the Christmas (and I am Jewish), I still hope you've already finished all your shopping because it looks like Santa has a cold! All Santa wanted for Christmas was a Kleenex. "Thanks, Mom!"

Actually, this guy is hoping to find his wife some loose change for the holidays. "Look honey, I found a few nickels!" Little did he know that he'd discovered the Pacific Ocean.

Well, I am sure you've finished your shopping and are excited to see your family for the holidays. I can't wait to pick up my Dad and Sister in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon for a short layover before we head to Thailand. It'll be a long flight on December 23rd, but a fantastic voyage!

Some say that visiting Thailand opens up a window to the soul. If you look closely, you can see why so many Alcatraz inmates didn't want to leave. It looks like Alcatraz also opened a window to the soul...

Seeds of Change

Over the course of your lifetime, you will receive millions of seeds of wisdom. You must plant each one in your heart to see if it grows. Each seed possesses the potential to grow. When it grows naturally, it feels right, and you know that this is the right seed for you. But you can’t force it to grow. It will grow or it won’t grow. With the right intention, the right seed will blossom when it is ready; when the time is right each seed will come to fruition. Be mindful that you encourage your seeds to grow by watering them and feeding them, but hold no expectation of the height of the stalks—they will grow to the proper height. And where will these seeds come from, you might ask? The winds of change will bring these seeds to you!

I have discovered that when I live my vision consciously, mindfully, and purposefully, a natural awareness of the aliveness of being becomes present both inside and out. The seeds of wisdom are blossoming and even the heavy snowfall cannot cover up the beauty of my garden!

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I recently finished reading A New Earth: Awakening of Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle. I recommend that if you find the following discussion thought provoking or inspiring that you read it as well. Tolle pledges in the very beginning of the book that it will help change your life. I knew when I read that line that the changes had already begun, and that he was simply acknowledging something that I already held in my consciousness. Not surprisingly, my mother had bought me a copy for Chanukah and I stumbled across others reading A New Earth as well.

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The purpose of A New Earth is to unlock the consciousness inside us all in an effort to shift the collective consciousness of the world to create a new Earth. Not a new physical planet, in any respects, but a new way of being, a shifted consciousness, and a new understanding of humanity’s purpose on this planet. By embracing the interconnectedness that we all share to the totality of life, the planet and the cosmos, we can begin to live our life’s purpose and in effect transform ourselves, our communities, and the world.

Sounds pretty good, right? What I found most interesting is that I have been reading a lot of literature and having a lot of conversations that have led me to the same fundamental understanding of life. The main premise of all of the information flowing serendipitously into my life is that we need to truly live purposefully, live consciously, and live mindfully, in order to live fully. There are no monumental transformations that need to take place, but rather simply, a shifting of the consciousness that exists now. In essence, each step along the way is the answer, and the sum of all of those steps is life’s journey. It is the extraordinary and the mundane, the micro and the macro, the parts and the whole. In order to live life fully, you need to truly be aware of the quality of your life, how you live your life, and why you live your life in every single moment!

And why is that so exciting as to warrant an exclamation point? Because I am living that dream! I am in the process of creating my own reality by evaluating the attitudes, judgments, and beliefs that make up my own box of possibilities. I have been living at the edge of my box of possibilities to really figure out what it means to live life fully and not just for myself, but for others. I want to help others become conscious of their life’s purpose in order to live life fully. And the more that I set out on this quest, the easier it is to create this reality. Every single day that I live my vision to bring more compassion into the world and to generate more compassionate relationships, I am able to make the world a better place.

And I tell you all this from a place of excitement and enthusiasm. I am not bragging or boasting, and I am not gloating in arrogance at what I have achieved. I am just stating the fact that living your vision will help you live life fully. Take a step back and ask yourself the simple questions: What does it take to live life fully? What is limiting me from living the life I want to lead? What are the barriers in my life to living the dream everyday?

And when you are ready to begin to answer these questions, I would love to have that conversation with you. I can tell you, very basically, that the answer is simply living the quality of life that you want to live. Even the mundane, boring, frustrating, and awful are absorbed into this quality of life when you accept that you are just living life. The bathroom needs to be cleaned, the dishes need to be done, the dog needs to be walked, the trash needs to be emptied, the test needs to be taken, the proposal needs to be written, the conversation needs to be had, and this list goes on and on. But what is it that ties all of these actions or needs together? That they BE completed! As long as you are BEing while they are taking place, then you can at the very least accept them. And as you accept them, you are able to enjoy them. And as you enjoy them you are able to get past the mundane-ness, boring-ness, frustrating-ness, and awful-ness of them to realize that they are simply things to DO and that you will always BE who you are. Get enjoyment out of the things that you DO in the present moment. There won’t BE time later because the time is now!

I am smiling as I reread that last paragraph because it seems so simple. Things are the way that they are. Go ahead, try to change that statement! The only way that things cannot be the way that they are is through your perceptions of the way things are. And once you are able to embrace that as a mental concept, you can slowly begin to understand the things in your life that work and don’t work, that function and don’t function, that make sense and don’t make sense. And once you begin to understand the things that work and don’t work, you can begin to transform those things that are not helping you live life fully and transform them into things that are helping you to live life fully. And as you begin this transformation you will realize that you are still BEing who you are, you are just DOing different things…and who knows you may find that you are DOing the same things, you were just not BEing who you are!

Just something to think about for now. When you’re ready to live it, you’ll know. And if you want to talk about it, I am here for you now, and will always be here now for you!