Shhh…The Soul of Snow

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Brian Johnson, fresh, Optimize, Peace, pristine, stillness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Everything is silent…there are two feet of snow outside blanketing everything. The only sound is the tiny click of my keyboard as I type. The word that comes to me as a definition of “what is” today as I look out my window is pristine. The whiteness is everywhere and (as the dictionary explains) it is “in perfect condition: fresh and clean as or as if new.” I breathe it in wishing to feel a sense of “pristine-ness” in myself. In Brian Johnson’s column, Optimize, this morning there was a quote from William James that seems apropos.

“Buy room for peace and stillness,” he says, “and thus make good work and good thoughts accessible and inevitable.” Today seems a perfect day for that impetus to all good things. May it be so for you!

Determination

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Brian Johnson, challenge, determination, keep going, Optimize, pandemic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

When I was younger (much younger!) I used to be able and willing to run two miles with a colleague after school. When I moved to the country, I delighted in walking two miles down our road to breathe in the good air and watch the changes in the landscape in every season. That lasted a very long time. Lately, I have been disappointed to experience a diminishment that I am blaming at least partially on the pandemic. I find my capacity for foot travel woefully less than I ever expected. My goal is to strengthen my legs by exercising but that is not working very well in this long season of distress…

This morning I read something that may be a solution for me. I plan to try it anyway. It was in Brian Johnson’s daily post, “Optimize” where he wrote the following:

The next time life presents you with a challenge, don’t simply assume everything will work out. Don’t tell yourself you can’t do it. Just evaluate the situation. Figure out what you can accomplish right now. Then draw your line. When you cross that line, draw another one. And keep going.

In this difficult season, it seems important to me to remember that “small is beautiful” or “one step at a time” is the way to go. The determination not to take on too much is key. Wish me luck – or better yet – pray me along and join me!

Waking Up

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adversity, awake, Brian Johnson, COVID19, growth, living in the moment, Optimize, The Practicing Stoic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Ward Farnsworth

I feel as if I have been in this state of “suspended animation” long enough. If you are floating along (as I have been), waiting for the pandemic to be over, you have perhaps reached the same point as I have. Some would call it like the adage “sink or swim.” The shift began yesterday when quotes from what I was reading in the morning—tidbits from the internet—came crashing through my brain one after another. I resisted because of Mother’s Day but hurriedly wrote some of what I read in a little notebook, in hopes that the energy of the words would keep until today. Some of it is still legible and comprehensible. It began with Brian Johnson’s Optimize.com. He was talking about stoicism. Listen: (from The Practicing Stoic by Ward Farnsworth).

Some adversity is NECESSARY for our growth. Indeed, the aim of the Stoic is something more: to accept reversal without shock and to make it grist for the creation of greater things. Nobody wants hardship in any particular case, but it is a necessary element in the formation of worthy people and worthy achievements that, in the long run, we do want. Stoics seek the value in whatever happens.

I have been hearing similar sentiments expressed in many conversations lately and can point to historical and present events that illustrate it. (Consider the rush to find a vaccine—or several—to match and conquer COVID 19.) It seems that necessity is often truly the mother of invention.

I’m going to spend some time today considering this concept and reality. I hope to shape the beginnings of a plan for living in this “moment” regardless of how long it lasts. Whether the plan is ever activated is not important; the planning itself is a worthy enterprise for now, I trust.

Are you already awake? What are you doing today?

Contemplating Hercules

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action, challenges, crisis, heroism, Optimize, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today feels so much like a Saturday I’m tempted to go back to bed! Don’t ask me why. It could be the weather that promises more snow and sleet. It might be the result of so many events already come and gone this week, or the energy it took to achieve their completion. It’s interesting that Brian Johnson’s “Optimize” sounds today the way I feel but he’s such a cheerleader for moving forward that I should have expected his rather colorful post. It made me smile and he does have a point. Entitled “Getting Out of Bed and High-Fiving Hercules – Aka: Moving from Theory to Practice,” he quotes Epictetus (paraphrasing, I presume.)

What would have become of Hercules, do you think, if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar? — and no savage criminals to rid the world of? What would he have done in the absence of those challenges? Obviously he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. So by snoring his life away in luxury and comfort he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules. And even if he had, what good would it have done him? What would have been the use of those arms, that physique, and that noble soul without crises or conditions to stir him into action? (www.optimize.me)

So, Johnson says: “Let’s not roll over and go back to sleep!” and then he asks: “Got any heroic choices you need to make today?”

And your answer is…?

Try This!

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Brian Johnson, mantra, Optimize, success, Teddy Roosevelt, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Sometimes on Fridays I like to take stock of what the week has held of events and accomplishments (or lack thereof). This week I feel as if all I’ve done is answer emails and telephone messages, trying to catch up with myself and hoping each day for more “success.”

This morning I smiled as I read one of the various websites that just appears on my screen each day without any invitation from me. I have just begun to read it occasionally rather than automatically deleting it. It is written by Brian Johnson and is called “Optimize.” Today I didn’t even have to click on his topic to get the message, which he says comes from Teddy Roosevelt, because it appears in big, bold letters – all CAPS and says: DO WHAT YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU HAVE WHERE YOU ARE. 

Sounds like a mantra for the day to me! Thanks, Brian, wherever you are!