Emerson

Growing Pains

My good friend Clayton writes in his blog about the impending move of some of our dear friends to the East Coast. Hira is one of my oldest friends in this city. We went to school together at Evergreen starting in 1995, and for 13 years she’s been my friend. We’ve grown much since those early days of adulthood, and as I reflect on what it means to have dear friends move away, I can’t help but try to hold on the bittersweet joy of witnessing the risks involved with spiritual growth and the pursuit of a life fully lived.

Letting Go Of Labels - Part 1 of 2

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. ~Emerson

Synchronicities abound. I’ve observed over the past few years that the lives, learnings and wins of my closest friends often parallel my own. In his blog, my friend Clayton writes about his recent return to an omnivorous diet. I, too, was vegetarian for many years, up until about 2 months ago, when I allowed the label of ‘vegetarian’ to pass through me. The choice for me was not one made for health reasons. Nor was it made because I felt compelled to consume flesh once again. Instead, my choice was made because I recognized that by identifying myself as ‘vegetarian’, I was closing myself off, energetically and spiritually, to other realms of experience.