Family

"If you think you're enlightened go spend a week with your family."

Ram Dass

I recently spent 2 days with mine and had a fine time (minus a couple of awkward moments). No Stress, no muss or fuss. Just people hanging out. Everyone has their issues, of course.

But I could have done a week with no prob...not something that I've really been able to say for a long time, if ever. Stone cold sober, too.

Many paths were tried over the decades to avoid the reality of dealing with family and past. That seems to have faded.

As I said to one of my kin, who seeks a way out... There is no way out. There is simply no where to go.

And no, I don't take Ram Dass literally. Spending a week with them doesn't prove I'm enlightened (whatever that means) but being unable to do so sure could point in that direction...

Enlightenment and Capcaity Planning

This was a quote I saw in, of all places, a book on IT capacity planning:

Busy work does not accrue enlightenment.

Western culture too often glorifies hours clocked as productive work. If you don't take time off to come up for air and reflect on what you're doing, how are you going to know when you're wrong?

Work and Career (pt. 1)

Work and Career issues have been (some of ) the largest "unresolved' issues in my life - certainly in the last few years.
Trying to find the right job...the right work...the right people...and not settle or do what is easiest.

Found this today:

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever -- because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.
And that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking -- and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking -- don't settle.

Steve Jobs
Commencement Address at Stanford University
delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

Light Shines Through

Recently on my morning walk I took these pics.
The first two are interesting: you can see the sun rays in the second (from the position of being 'ahead' of the rays) and the first shows the dark rays (from being 'behind') the rays.

I think it interesting because from where I stand the appearance is different (light rays vs. dark rays) but the sun shines through just as brightly in both cases.