So, for 100 days starting December 21st: 
Let's stop chiding ourselves for not getting things done. Let's instead recognize that we're simply highly skilled and drawn to do so many things that we need to get clear, get disciplined.

If I can create the right framework, the true mission statement,  then all my disparate interests and skills will make sense of one another and form the symphony that is my purpose in life waiting to be discovered. 

Creating the framework takes practice, awareness, and unstinting self-honesty. And so join me, if you wish, preparing for the 100-day practice, called the 100-day gong.

I mentioned that I'm gearing up to start another 100-day discipline practice on the Solstice, December 21st, and I'll share much more about that in the next few days. Meanwhile, I've been meditating on the interplay of Yin and Yang a lot--the beautiful symbol, and the many ways it plays out in life and health.

The little white circle in the black, the little circle of black in the white: each extreme contains the seed of its opposite. The utmost expansiveness (yang) is the apex from which contraction starts. The utmost contraction (yin) is the pinch from which expansion opens.

Moving out of gratitude... Right before Thanksgiving I completed a 100-day practice of discipline, about which I'll say more soon. Most crucially, it was a vehicle for me to really privilege my sleep and to establish a sine-qua-non morning routine.

I'm preparing to start another on the Solstice, so I'm reflecting on the experience  in order to decide what to undertake for those 100 days. One hundred days to build something meaningful! Grand, right? Something meaningful. Exploration of life purpose. Something I've been neglecting and would like to do more of is writing book reviews.

Here's one for this week, and maybe a regular stream of them starting on the Solstice. Let's see how it goes.

A happy Thanksgiving to everyone! A happy festive season as we move into the northern hemisphere's still, dark point. Time to reflect, to consume this year's harvest, to huddle and cuddle, enjoy one another. Even here, where the sun shines almost every day of the year, the days are short and cold. A touch of frost a couple nights ago, even one or two overcast days.

Gratitude. Thanksgiving. Gratitude (Latin gratitudo) is a state of mind. Thanksgiving is a direct translation of the Latin gratias actio -- action, specifically a performance, enactment, of thanks.

Latin gratias means "thanks," but also it means "grace," in all the multi-splendored nuances of that word. Old-English thanc instead is cognate with "think" -- thanksgiving is an enaction of your state of thoughts.

Giving thanks and feeling gratitude--are they the same for you? This is a tail that can wag the dog--the action can lead to the feeling.

The bees are vanishing. Your organic produce was grown in China downstream of a coal-powered water mill.  Sea otters are found on Alaska beaches dead of canine distemper, spread from Atlantic seals  because the ice cap has melted. That plastic in your water bottle is making fish infertile and giving little boys boobs.

It's called the finite pool of worry.  Or compassion fatigue. Information overload.  I get it in my schedule too--so many things to do, I don't know where to start and end up doing nothing.

That's one of the reasons I love the Origins film and telesummit: the presentation is solutions-oriented and positive.

But that can be overwhelming too. You get the "someday" syndrome, and btw, "someday" isn't on the calendar! "Oh, great idea! Someday I'll build a solar greenhouse." "Oh, when I finish this project I'm totally going to go salvage building materials and make raised beds and domesticate a bunch of quail..."

Happy Monday; Happy Thanksgiving week.

As I strive to be conscious about what comes into my life, I hope what I put out reflects this discernment. If we're all connected, let me be a signal repeater for light and glory!

So,  last week I shared about the free showing of Origins, Now there's a mini-telesummit adjunct to the movie playing for the next three days, with 36--thirty-six--interviews with experts featured in the movie as well as others, exploring how we can do better as a species in all areas of life.

Almost all the experts are people I already enjoy listening to and feel that I learn from, and there are some that are new to me from whom I'm glad to learn. I'll write sometime about the benefits of benign brainwashing/positive self-hypnosis, although "being conscious about what I allow in" is really the long and short of it.  

Bearing in mind I expose myself to a lot of this stuff, there was one expert I hadn't heard from in a while whose presence I appreciated in the movie, and the "deep dive" interview with him is what spurred me to write another post about this--it's worth far more than the price (free!) of admission.