The Strength of Introverts

 

We're told that quiet is 'boring' and 'loud' is fun."
— Sena Shimotsuma, "The Strengths of Introverts"

If you're an introvert like me, I highly recommend checking out some of Sena Shimotsuma's videos. He's incredibly insightful and has a unique perspective that I appreciate. Click on the image above for the link to his "The Strength of Introverts" video the above quote is from. Enjoy.

Kensho, Satori, Working Out, and Oneness

Kensho, sometimes interchanged with the concept satori is generally defined as an insight or awakening. A glimpse into deeper understanding. I like to think of it as a flash of epiphany or "oneness". A connection to a deeper cosmic harmony. I was at the gym this morning listening to "A Stream With Bright Fish" from the album "The Pearl". I've been doing what I call "mindful workouts" lately. Totally focused on the rep and the connection between mind and muscle being worked. Slow, deeply focused repetitions. Not sloppy form, but form that really gets deep into the muscle. As I finished one set and that song was playing I looked out the window at the clouds floating by. In that flash of an instant everything was in synch. The floating clouds, the music, my workout, and my presence. It was all a brief nanosecond of profound harmony and sense of belonging with everything.

It was a great and profoundly serene moment. Everything around me fell away and it's just me in tandem with everything I mentioned.

I've had this experience two other times in my life. They were much deeper and profound than this one, which is not to minimize or take away from the one this morning. The one I had as a teenager I was walking off the football practice field. I literally, for a nanosecond, "felt" the Milky Way. I could see it from the outside. I could feel its rhythms and felt as if I was in all places at the same time.

In relating this to my friend Dan thinking it sounded a bit crazy. He commented, "It doesn't sound crazy at all. I have had two, one on a the lawn I have 5, and another in my grandmother's house when I was about 20. I was alone, looking at a fan rotate."

The sensation almost defies words when it happens. Mine have always been just a second or two. But within those few seconds is a vast expanse of time, I sense. My friend Dan says he sustained his for several minutes, and I told him I wished I could learn to sustain mine for that length of time. But I got to thinking, maybe I'm not supposed to sustain it. Maybe it's fleeting for a reason. A taste, so to speak, of the larger harmonies.

Notes From A Mother To A Son

Seven months ago my mother died after suffering with a long-term illness. As I watched her fading I wondered which would be better, to have a parent go suddenly, in essence having the band-aid ripped off abruptly and suffering with the instantaneous pain of separation? Or to have a parent go slowly, watching the slow and painful decline, powerless to do anything to stop it, but having time to emotionally and physically prepare for the end. I came to the conclusion that neither is preferable over the other. The loss of a parent or loved one is just as painful, and it leaves a tremendous, gaping hole (what I have termed the "emotional crater") either way.
What I can say is that the last year of my mother's life gave me the unique opportunity. The opportunity to spend time with her and say the things to each other not everyone gets the chance to express when a separation like this is sudden or unexpected.
Realizing what was to come, my mother had the insight to write me a series of letters with instruction for them to be opened only after her passing. It took me seven months to bring myself to read them today on what would have been her 74th birthday.
Her letters were filled with loving words, memories, and most of all life advice imparted in the unique way only my mother could have expressed. Below are some of the passages from the various letters that touched me deeply. As her illness progressed, the handwriting my mother prided herself on began to deteriorate. I have transcribed a few somewhat illegible ones. The transcriptions are in quotation marks below the image. Based on that and the fact that some letters were dated and some not, I have tried to put them in as correct a chronological order as possible. Regardless of those factors, I hope her words will touch you and help you recognize or remind you of the preciousness of life and our place in it as she always tried so hard to instill in me.

"I will have an eternal smile in my heart because of you. I hope you will be always able to feel my hugs. My life has been very happy because of you & our family."

This is one of the most touching of my mom's four letters to me, addressing my relationship with my partner. I have blurred his name in order to preserve his privacy.

"When you have a sad or lonely time, reach out to others, find ways to reach out,

be determined to control your life. You have always been so determined & you always can be."

The Secrets of Bouncing back from Defeats

Thanks once again to my dear friend Dan Hagen for this article. It contains some very insightful and useful knowledge to help us understand ourselves and learn how to turn defeat into motivation.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201612/how-take-beating