purpose

How I Found the Secret to Happiness While Totally Naked

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Hidden somewhere in a pile of my own bad prose and abandoned bucket lists, in a tattered grocery bag in my storage room, lies the secret to happiness and peace.

It’s scrawled on a fifty-cent note of Canadian Tire Money, in dark purple Jiffy marker. Just four potent words, but they triggered a flood of insights into my life, and started me on the long and winding road to happiness.

The night I wrote those words down, I was in trouble. I was marching down a career path that made me nauseous to think about, I had no friends nearby, no passions, no ambitions, no confidence. I had lost, by that time, any real belief in a bright future.

The optimism I’d carried so easily through grade school was a distant memory, by then as alien as photos from someone else’s life. Small obstacles completely derailed me, I expected to fail at everything, and human beings generally scared me. It was a particularly bad night in a bad year, and I was in mourning for myself.

I was also totally naked. Read More

by David on July 31, 2009
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A Note From David

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note

Even though I always post an article on Mondays, I’m behind the 8-ball timewise this week and I could not bear to publish a half-assed version of the article I’m working on.

There is too much great content out there for me to feel compelled to deliver another article today at the expense of quality.  I could stay up until 2am and crank it out, but I’ve learned not to force these things.

Here are some suggestions, if you are looking for mental stimulation:

ItStartsWith.Us — An excellent new blog championing the role of interpersonal communication in the improvement of society.  Its author, Nate St. Pierre, is nurturing a small but growing network of open and interested people who know that they can change the world by touching other people’s lives in a meaningful way.  This is a very exciting project, I recommend getting in on the ground floor by checking it out and dropping Nate a line.

1000 Awesome Things — If you did not see it in this post, I’ve discovered an awesome blog that describes an inexplicably awesome thing every weekday.  These things aren’t life’s grandiose or expensive rewards, they’re just the tiny little miracles that inject little doses of awesomeness into day-to-day life.  In my humble opinion it is something really special.

My Archives! I know some of you have read every single post I’ve ever written.  Thank you, you people make my world go round.  But most of you have not yet accomplished this glorious feat! Now is your chance, while Raptitude is still young.

I will be away from June 18-21, on a camping trip with no computers or internet access.  I’ll have short posts scheduled normally during this time, and I won’t be able to respond to comments until the 22nd.  But I always love to read them, so don’t be shy.

I hope you are all enjoying your June.  It’s always been one of my favorite months.  Warm, optimistic and abundant.  This particular June has been hectic for me: I’m moving to a new place, taking a badly timed but previously committed 4-day camping trip, planning my big trip and tending to a dozen active projects at work.

You’ve probably seen less of me on Twitter too, and fewer of my comments on other blogs.  This is temporary; once I’m settled in a new place, I’ll be able to resume by regular level of online activity.  This month has been a real squeeze on me time and energy-wise, July should bring a saner schedule.

I can’t wait until things are back to normal, and I can spend more time writing and interacting again.  I’ve got some big plans for the summer.  My work will be featured on some other sites and in several ebook projects, I’ll be sure to let you know as they are released.

I’ve got dozens of topics I’m dying to write about, I just need to claw through this two more weeks of packing, flying, planning and moving furniture.  All in good time.

Experiment No 2, my kettlebell project, is in full swing and I’m very pleased with myself so far.  My stamina has increased substantially, and I’m looking better too.  I’ll be experiencing a scheduling hiccup this week because of my long weekend and my move, but every workout will be accounted for by the end of it.  Check out my Experiment Log, my numbers are climbing.

Experiment No 3 is coming up soon, possibly even concurrently with my current experiment.  It involves my trying on another lifestyle change for a month or so, and addressing a problem that has been going on for a while.  I’m sure some of you can relate.

Have a good Monday, talk to you soon.

Photo by J_O_I_D

by David on June 15, 2009
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And My Destination Is…

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Two weeks ago, I mentioned in my post The Year With Two Summers that I would be leaving sometime in October to spend a year in another country.  This country is in the southern hemisphere, which means I’ll be able to enjoy the North American summer and leave just as summer is beginning down there.

I did not reveal the country because I wanted to make sure I would have the appropriate Visa to be able to stay for twelve months.  If it had been denied for some reason then I would have had to choose a different destination.

Not that I’ve kept this a secret, in my offline life.  I think all of my friends know by now, and I’ve announced my resignation to my boss.

Well, this week I got the great news: my Visa has been approved.

Five months from now, I will be living in Read More

by David on June 8, 2009
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This Will Never Happen Again

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Nothing is permanent.  That’s not really news, but it may mean more than you think, on a day-to-day level.

In each moment, everything around you is constantly changing, and it never changes back. It’s always new.

Some changes are subtle, some dramatic, but all of it is changing.

Life is uncertain by its very nature.  Except for this:

No matter what is happening right now,

It will never happen again.

Not quite like this anyway. Read More

by David on June 4, 2009
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Do Something

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creepy cpr faces

The first thing I heard was the crash.  I spun around on my stool, and she was already crumpled on the floor, head bent against the radiator.

Her eyes were open and blank, and she appeared to speak, but it was just part of the seizure.  She wasn’t there at all.  Her movements were so stiff and unnatural that I thought I was watching somebody die.

When she fell, there was nobody in the classroom closer to her than me.  Four or five feet away.   But I couldn’t move.  I didn’t know what to do.  I just stared, heart racing, and hoped somebody would just do something. Read More

by David on May 25, 2009
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Does Your Story Have This Common Weakness?

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I always wanted to be Indiana Jones.  I was the only nine-year-old on the block with a fedora and a genuine bullwhip.  I watched the movies all the time.  I couldn’t get enough ancient tombs and hidden doors and mine-cart chases.  That was the appeal for me, the action.  It wasn’t until I grew up a bit that I started to actually understand the plots of some of the movies I was watching.  It wasn’t just a familiar parade of fascinating scenes, those scenes actually caused each other.  None of them stood alone.

The deeper message in the story always went over my head too.  It was the spectacle I was interested in, the romance and drama, not so much the people.  I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark several times before I even realized that the dorky professor at the beginning was Indiana Jones.

As I grew up, I realized that the real power of story was in the development of the characters, not the exploding jeeps.  Read More

by David on May 22, 2009
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A Definition of Freedom

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Today’s post is a guest post by Josh Hanagarne from World’s Strongest Librarian. Enjoy!  ~ David

My high school government teacher Mr. Weeks remains the best instructor I’ve ever had, and that includes my undergraduate and graduate studies. I still quote him about once a week – more often during crises.

One day he asked us all a question that I’ve never forgotten.

“What is Freedom?”

He didn’t seem surprised when someone raised their hand and avowed, “Freedom is being able to do what you want.”  It was what we were all thinking.  Before we could begin nodding, Mr. Weeks laughed and shouted “Wrong!”  He was tickled that he’d led us into another trap.  He straightened his tie, cleared his throat and said:

“That’s exactly what’s wrong with the world.  People think they want freedom, but what they want is anarchy.  Doing whatever you want isn’t freedom: it’s anarchy.  When anarchy is the norm, that’s when society starts sliding into the ocean, and at that point… good riddance.  Anarchy is for losers and punk bands.”

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by Josh on May 13, 2009
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You Are the Greatest Story Ever Told

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A good scene

I have great news.

You are the star of the most poignant film ever conceived. An unprecedented epic saga, it is filmed in one continuous shot, from the first-person perspective. The sets are rich with detail, the lighting always underlines the mood perfectly, the cinematography always magnificent yet unpretentious.

The supporting cast is top notch, too. There are no histrionics, no miscast actors, no flubbed lines. They all deliver the dialogue impeccably, each line timed and inflected perfectly for its respective scene. The protagonists’ friends and lovers will make you laugh out loud, swoon with desire, and feel a sense of belonging and respect. The villains make you feel afraid, furious, depressed, and alienated.

Often the people in the story will look right at the camera, and reveal the stunning depth and density of their character to you.  Why are they even in this story, and why in this particular chapter? What role are they here to play: the advisor, the fool, the expert, the disciple, the love interest, the diplomat, the instigator, the enemy, the martyr? Read More

by David on May 11, 2009
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Same Purpose, Different Styles

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satin bowerbird

I’ve slowly come to accept that humans are not special.  Or we are, but no more than any other life form.  As much as I like the idea of being a member of a privileged, ‘higher’ species, I just can’t find any clear distinction between us and other animals.

Superficial differences are easy to find: sure we can build cars and write novels and vote in elections, but these are just behaviors we’ve come to engage in; they don’t exactly make us anything different that just a spectacularly intelligent animal.

In school, children are taught in certain terms that animals are a different type of being than people.  There’s Old McDonald, and his animals: the pig, the goat, the rooster.  Even a five-year old playing with farm animal toys knows that the chicken, cow and horse go inside the little white plastic fence, and Mr and Mrs McDonald belong firmly on the outside.

There are cultural and economic reasons for this imaginary line in the sand, and I won’t get into them here, but it seems clear to me now that all organisms on earth are just different approaches mother nature has taken towards the same end.  Life simply insists on living, in whatever way it is able.  In all of its forms, from people to dandelions to mosquitoes, life just stubbornly does its thing, whatever that may be. Read More

by David on May 4, 2009
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The One Ingredient Necessary for Accepting Yourself

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Face

Recently I was surfing an online forum, and I came across something that almost made me cry. Somebody had dug up an old, old post of mine and replied to it. Sometimes new users on a forum don’t look at the date on a old post, and they respond to it as if it were still relevant, so the post goes to the top of the first page in the list, even if it’s years old.

Those of you who read online forums have seen this happen many times, I’m sure, and so had I. But this one gave me an instant lump in the throat.

The post was called, “My Struggle.”

The desperate tone of the post stunned me. I couldn’t believe it was me.

In it, I had spilled my guts to everyone who would listen, over my dissatisfaction with myself and my life. I hated how I never finished anything, never got on a roll, never got good at what I wanted to be good at. I was not able to accept myself, because to accept myself meant that what I was doing (and failing to do) was fine.  Read More

by David on March 23, 2009
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