Adventures in Relationship and Community

"[William James] believed, with many another religious thinker, that the sinner is closer to God than the conventionally good man, because life is given us as a passion; it is, as Keats said, a vale of soul-making.  What is characteristic of life is the thing that antedates and denies convention. Convention trims, distorts, and suppresses, for good reasons that we all acknowledge.  But social discipline also weakens and disables, leaving  no merit for the virtuous man who is such only because his spirit is too weak to be tempted.  This is no doubt why saints and apostles more often consort with thieves and prostitutes than with bankers and aldermen”

– Jacques Barzum, from the preface to William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience

January 19th, 2010 | Category: Adventures in Community | Author: Marc| Be the first to comment!

Throw away
Your begging bowls at God’s door

For I have heard the Beloved
Prefers sweet threatening shouts,

Something on the order of:

Hey, Beloved,
My heart is a raging volcano
of love for you!

You better start kissing me –
Or else!"

November 4th, 2009 | Category: Adventures in Community | Author: Marc| Comments (1)

I create opportunities for creative people to meet and engage

I research, review and publish resources that help people live richer, fuller, more loving lives

More than anything in the world, I love to write

I show people how to grow their web business and traffic

I know that the choice to be happy is available to me in every situation

I know that learning how to be happy and learning how to love are the same thing.  “Love bears all things” [Corinthians 13:7]

I know that  there is no difference between the lover and the beloved.  Neither is better or worse since neither would exist without the other.

I believe that 90% of human upset and suffering has one cause: lack of empathy (failure to understand how another person thinks and feels).  Fortunately for me, empathy is a skill that can be learned.

I believe that loneliness is the greatest scourge of Western civilization (and the cause of most other problems).  I try and reduce loneliness, one person at a time.

I take what is offered to me and I give what is pleasurable for me to give, regardless of what other people think I should do (and sometimes even what I myself think)

I never apologize for my truth

I know that my wife Rebekah is the greatest thing that ever happened to me as a human being

I know the past has no power over me

I live a life knowing that everything I want is within me now

I realize that intelligence is not just in the mind

I believe it is possible to be spiritually aligned and wealthy

I strive for the impossible so I can call on a strength greater than myself

I believe I was put on the planet to experience joy and to teach it to others

I am intense and focused

Learning new things is as important to me as eating

Give me this every day and I am happy: a walk, a dance, a song, a visit with a friend, a new idea, and a big plate of steamed greens :)

– With gratitude and inspiration to Brooke Castillo

November 4th, 2009 | Category: Adventures in Community, Love and Sensuality | Author: Marc| Be the first to comment!

I’ve been contemplating lately on the importance of investing, not in a 401K account, but in our pleasurable lives.  Vic Baranco, founder of Lafayette Morehouse, used to say  “you can only coast in one direction, down.”  Having a good and pleasurable life doesn’t just happen.  You have to reach up, all the time.   Recently, our house was feeling down.  Everyone was complaining about everybody else, nobody was having any fun.  In community, you might feel overwhelmed by the amount of work it looks like to shift the energy.  I decided to worry about shifting  my energy and trust that the rest of the house would take care of itself.  And it worked.

How did I shift my energy?  I really focussed on what I needed to feel taken care of and happy.  I started exercising more, saying no when I needed to to requests, and singing along with You Tube voice lessons.  Then when I got a little surplus going, I started to look for how I could contribute to the other people in the house.  Some of it was anonymous, cleaning a person’s room, sneaking cookies into someone’s food cupboard. Other things were obvious, like going lingerie shopping with a housemate prior to her Advanced Sensuality course.  Before I knew it, people were doing nice things for me too, the whole house was having fun again.  Lately, we’ve had house meals almost every day.  Yesterday, Wade and I gardened, and hopefully next spring we will have beautiful tulips in the front yard.  Our charity, Stone Soup Collective, has gotten a new donor, and we are now getting tons of food to give away in the neighborhood.  (Side note – I highly recommending giving away food.  It never fails to raise my spirits and help me feel more deserving of my great life.)

I’m investing in my life and my business  by writing to this blog, which has been sadly neglected since its inception.  No re-frame. . . My blog which has been patiently waiting for me  to show up and radiate out to the world.   Here’s another tip that I was recently reminded of — find things right  how they are now.  There’s always up from here, and it’s a lot easier to go from good to better than trying to fix the bad.

In closing, another Vic quote — “The better it gets, the better it gets.”

October 26th, 2009 | Tags: charity, communal living, community, Morehouse, self-care, victor baranco | Category: Adventures in Community | Author: Rebekah| Be the first to comment!