"…things that are standing still tend to stand still unless you push on them hard." –The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

    Something in me considers inactivity to be immoral. Unless I am "doing" something, I feel worthless.

   Of course, this flies in the face of my own philosophy that our worth is not dependent upon what we do.

   Sometimes, when I listen for inspiration to write a Journal essay I hear nothing. It's then that I feel have to push – sometimes hard. 

   Today Richard Feynman provided the help with his terrific book, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. Ironically, in my state of inertia, the first page I turned to addressed exactly that condition.

   The static bicycle spokes in the photograph seem to move. Why do some things appear in motion and others inert? Why do some people accept what appears to be a near-static life and others are constantly moving and sometimes innovating.

   Activity, of course, can be mindless rather than mindful. Many of us find it so hard to change a pattern that we stay in the same one every day.

   Indeed, doctors sometimes advise that staying "regular" helps our health. Supposedly, our bodies, like machines, prefer steady patterns.  

   Caregivers must follow protocols. This is good. But, it can also be stultifying.

   The heart does not listen to protocols. Healers must often break rules to find new solutions to complex problems. Artists who follow the status quo rarely create great art.

   We need protocols – patterns that keep us in a steady state. We also need to listen for and sometimes nudge ourselves along so we may find new answers when old ones don't work.

   In other words we need balance.    

   Balance lives in Love's song. Fear cannot birth Love. Balance comes from letting Love's energy move through us.

   One way to understand Love is to ask: How many of my actions are motivated by fear? How much of my life is guided by anxiety?

   How much of my life is guided by a genuine desire to help others through hearing their need?

   What if, right now, you listened for how you can be a pathway for Love's light?

 -Erie Chapman

photograph: Bike Spokes 2 – copyright erie chapman 2012