balance - What Is Dialogue?

Our Fear of Slowing Down

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I heard a story yesterday about a senior executive whose boss just fired him. As you can imagine, this manager was quite upset. The way in which he was terminated was distressing – even to me — and I wasn’t the one losing my job.

This gentleman revealed how hurtful the whole experience was for him. In the same breath, he also shared how his 27 year-old-daughter broke down crying when he told her the news about his termination. But she wasn’t crying because she was sad. She was crying because she felt joy and relief. She had been observing for many years how this job was affecting her father and was so grateful for his dismissal that she was brought to tears. Losing the job meant winning his life back.

We’re Comfortably Numb and It’s Robbing Us of Our Creativity

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Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone home?

Lyrics from “Comfortably Numb” in Pink Floyd’s 1979 album, “The Wall”. And a popular song in my life, growing up as a teenager in the early 80’s. Back then, the song was thought to be about drugs. Roger Waters, writer of the lyrics, claims it is not; it’s a song about times when he simply felt detached.

Just Too Busy! Where’s The Exit?

One chilly and long ago February morning before the sun had made its presence known, I settled onto a meditation cushion smack in the middle of the meditation hall. Usually when I sat in the hall most of the fifty cushions were occupied but, this morning my early arrival allowed me to indulge in the quiet before the noise of fifty practitioners breathing swamped my awareness. I figured I had thirty minutes before the gatekeeper started arranging things for the morning sit. I shook my body loosing the early morning knots and let the quiet envelop me in its arms.