NaBloPoMo and Positivity....

I've decided to stay with the positivity theme throughout the month of November and through NaBloPoMo. (Try typing that fast! Dare ya! :)

Elizabeth Gilbert, in her now well-known book Eat Pray and Love, suggests that each day we ask ourselves the following questions and write it down:

1) "What do I really, really, really want?"

2) "This was the happiest moment of my day........ "

3) Change your mantra. (Be careful what you say. Words are things. They have power.)

Ordinarily, I would write this off as New Age claptrap but the truth is that I see the relevance of it. For the past 13 months here, I've done a reasonable job (I think) of being a cultural dissident. I've dissected US culture and western culture on a fairly consistent basis and have explained why I chose the cultue I chose.

'Nuff already!

Any influence I may have had has already been had. Influence I haven't had won't be had.

Time to move on.

So.. at least for now, no US culture, no US politics, no discussion of the very deep flaws I see at the root of both.

It's no longer my business. What happens in the US is no longer my business. The flaws in the culture are no longer my concern.

I've decided to focus on wellness and on the sacred. In most cases, these will be things that may only be sacred to me ~ but I'm willing to take the risk of seeming selfish. Those who know me know that is not true.

I'm just sick of being depressed.

So... I hope you will all continue to come by for a dose of something good, something uplifting, something wholesome.

I will do my best to discontinue kvetching at this site unless I truly have something to kvetch about. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I truly don't.

Today's questions:

1) I really, really, really want meaningful communication, here and in my private life. I really, really, really want to see the gentler part of my life. I want to focus on the good things I have, even here.

2) The happiest moment of today was spent ordering a collapsible treadmill so that I can use it in my small living space. With the weather changing, I don't want to miss out on my walks.

3) The mantra I am changing today: I will never have a warm, caring and supportive community until I move to Thailand.

Replaced with: I will have it here. I will be missed when I move. I am no longer a social pariah or outcast. I will draw people to me who are willing to give and receive friendship.

So... what are your answers? :)
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NaBloPoMo...

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I am currently re-evaluating whether to participate in NoBloPoMo. I spent a few hours yesterday and this morning randomly rambling through the Randomiser. It seems to recycle the same twenty blogs or so.

At the risk of sounding alienating, which is not my intent, the content of those blogs simply didn't speak to me at all. It's the same old thing. I don't live a mainstream life dominated by household concerns. And unfortunately most people like me do not blog.

(Clarification: I am not meaning to imply that everyone should think like me or be like me. What I'm saying is that I'm finding very little diversity in terms of lifestyle or ideology. )

I couldn't bring myself to comment. It wasn't lack of desire. I'm big on commenting. When people write, they want to be heard. I get that. Totally. I feel the same way. I suspect most of us write because we want to connect with others. Otherwise, it becomes little more than m@sturbating in public.

At the same time, my fingers froze over the keyboard. What could I say? Moreover, what could I say that would be honest, authentic and legitimate? How can I say something that won't sound canned?

I can imagine they will have the same response to me. They'll want to say something. That's the spirit of this, after all. NaBloPoMo is all about making new connections.

Yet their fingers will freeze over their keyboards, too.

How do we relate to someone who lives such a radically different life that there is barely a string to connect us beyond the fact that we are both bipedal and presumably eat and eliminate? I'm really feeling defeated by this right now.

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