A Moment of Nothing

July Morning Sky

Last week was spent in New Hampshire visiting family, friends, and an inspiring artist mentor whose work I love.  On Father’s Day I began coming down with a cold, most likely due to the fast pace I had been keeping for the several weeks before the trip. By Tuesday afternoon it was clear that I had to slow down and rest and take care of myself, so I cancelled a couple of commitments and cozied down.

We own a condominium in southern New Hampshire, and early Wednesday morning I was up sitting on our small back deck which looks out over a lovely green lawn with tall woods behind it. The humidity hadn’t yet infused the air, and there was a soft breeze blowing through the trees. I sat happily on the wicker rocker in my pajamas, listening to the birds singing and being simply appreciative of this beautiful morning and my warm cup of coffee.

And then I noticed it.

I noticed that I was completely happy doing absolutely nothing, being present to what I was witnessing, a scene that was always there, always steady and reliably the same save for weather and light and sounds, but always there to listen myself into. And I noticed that I don’t allow myself very much to do absolutely nothing. And I noticed how healing it was, how rejuvenating, in the midst of feeling crummy, I felt rejuvenated by allowing myself to do nothing. It was so freeing. This is what I was working so hard to experience but I was always too busy to experience it and it was always available. It was a truly inspired moment.

The biggest awakenings happen with the least fireworks.

“If you can find a moment to sit, wherever you are, stay there and enjoy doing nothing. … Don’t allow yourself to be carried away by your thinking, worries, or projects. Just sit there and enjoy doing nothing: enjoy your breathing and the fact that you are alive and that you have 20 minutes or half an hour to enjoy doing nothing. This is very healing, transforming, and nourishing.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The Character Of Thought: The Choice To Be In Process Or Flow with Laura Basha, Ph.D.

Posted on June 24, 2015 by New Dimensions in Interviews

I invite you all to tune in to an interview with me on my book, The Inward Outlook, with Justine Willis Toms of New Dimensions radio, 

Available for free until July 7th, then available for purchase through the New Dimensions archives. 

Thank you so much if you tune in, and I hope you enjoy!!

http://newdimensions.org/category/interviews/

Memory Lane

Mendocino Coastline 2015

 by 

Laura Basha

MEMORY LANE

It was a three-and-a-half-hour drive – a long drive to be sure, but the last 20 miles were surprisingly full of dense redwood forest, single lane, mottled sunlight, old wizened stunningly beautiful trees. You could feel the quietness as you wound your way through the woods.

I hadn’t been to Mendocino for 36 years. It was the site of my honeymoon with my first husband, Bert, the father of my children. I was driving up for an artist’s four day intensive painting session. Looking forward to the work, the past tugged as bittersweet memories vied for my attention. Bert made his transition almost 15 years ago. I couldn’t remember exactly what we had seen together, what had inspired us, what had made us laugh, or what had moved us to quietude all those years ago. It is interesting to have lived long enough to not remember the details of the occurrences but at the same time re-experience the feelings.

This beauty has been here every one of the days of those 36 years. Whatever has transpired in that time for me and my children and our beloveds, whatever has occurred in the world over those 432 months, this place, that ocean, those cliffs, have all maintained their timeless beauty, kept up their eternal rhythm, tide comes in and goes out 432 times … such beauty that lives outside of the constraints of time.

And it has always been there – three and a half hours away only – still holding the echoes of our young delighted footsteps all those years ago …

Where is such a place for you, your Mendocino, your timeless capsule of savored youth gone by?

I invite you to take the drive.

A GREAT MAN

Werner Erhard

A GREAT MAN

“The problems we have now in communities and societies are going to be resolved only when we are brought together by a common sense that each of us is a visionary. Each of us must come to the realization that we can function and live at the level of vision rather than following some great leader’s vision. Instead of looking for a great leader, we are in an era where each of us needs to find the great leader in ourselves.”

 - Werner Erhard

I had the great fortune of hearing Werner Erhard speak last night. My husband and I took a course with Michael Jensen and Werner two and a half years ago in Canada on Being A Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership. Both my husband and I work in the field of leadership development, and so in order to be ongoingly empowering, we are always interested in our own personal growth and development, for the expansion of our own leadership capacity. I have been a student of many thought systems, and personal and organizational transformation is my profession. For over 35 years I have integrated the revelations awakened within me out of participating in work inspired by true leaders and great thinkers. Regardless of any individual's personal opinion, Werner Erhard is one of humanity’s true leaders and great thinkers.

I share this short video of Werner talking about the leadership work he has been co-developing over the last 13 years, standing on the foundation of the other transformational work he has refined since 1971. In my consulting practice, working with leaders who work with leaders over the last 15 years, the principles Werner speaks of in his new paradigm of leadership are actualized by many of these powerfully effective, empowering, and compassionate clients. However, articulating this paradigm in a way that educates as well as enlightens is one of the gifts of this great man’s work.

Werner’s leadership paradigm is opening up new pathways which will open up new pathways which will open up new pathways … this is one expression of the evolution of human consciousness that is enlightening for us in the present as well as continues its catalytic unfoldment for generations to come. If you are interested in being the leader that you intrinsically are, in whatever walk of life you are in, take five minutes to watch and listen, and if you are inspired, the whole of this leadership model is available online. 

(http://wernererhard.net/links.html)

It is an idea whose time has come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VClLARqFzPo

I Want to Have A Word with A Woman Who Needs No Words ...

Detail, "The Alchemist", 2010 by Laura Basha

“Where Is A Woman Who Needs No Words?

I Want To Have A Word With Her …”

“If you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear, to pierce to the heart of things, and have no need of intellectual knowledge …

To a mind that is still, the entire universe surrenders.”

~ Chuang Tzu

“All healing transmutation takes place in the Silence. Through the practice of quieting the thinking process, we can turn our attention away from the cacophony of incessant thinking that passes through and practice listening to the quietness, listening to and for the Silence; there is a sound to It.

Listen for the profundity of the Silence. It has a resonance; It has a frequency. Listen until you hear It, as It is equally-everywhere-present and always available. We look at each other through It. Cultivate an affinity with the Source, with the Silence. It is the only ballast that we can depend on, and It requires no guru outside of yourself.

The Silence is the Guru, and It lives eternally through each of us, waiting to receive our attention so that It can find expression uniquely as us, every individual. All hopes are possible manifestations through cultivating this affinity with the Silence.”

~ from The Inward Outlook, by Laura Basha

Meet Author Dr. Laura Basha at 

The LA TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS!

She will be signing copies of her book: 

THE INWARD OUTLOOK

Saturday, April 18th, at 10:30am and 1:30PM, 

Booth # 216 

Under the  "AUTHOR SOLUTIONS" Banner!!!

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-festival-books-preview-20150416-story.html