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Daily Question, June 4

What are your greatest hopes and aspirations for how you want to be in this life?

  • Ose

    Like for Christina and Anna, my greatest hopes and aspirations for how I want to be in this life are most beautifully expressed in Christina´s post below and her citing of the prayer of Sufi Inayat Khan. Thank you so much, dear Christina, for your precious contribution.

  • Malag

    To keep growing, exploring new things, until and including my last breath. 

  • Heather
    My husband was telling me about a book called "The Power of Bad". It's about how negative things are more memorable than positive things. I notice that my focus tends towards the negative even in a positive situation. I started playing an updated version of Pollyanna's Glad Game. I was recently on a hike and had gotten lost, ran out of hydration, was getting low on calories to burn, and was getting irritable feelings towards my husband (this hike was his idea anyway). Getting upset wasn't g...

    My husband was telling me about a book called “The Power of Bad”. It’s about how negative things are more memorable than positive things. I notice that my focus tends towards the negative even in a positive situation. I started playing an updated version of Pollyanna’s Glad Game. I was recently on a hike and had gotten lost, ran out of hydration, was getting low on calories to burn, and was getting irritable feelings towards my husband (this hike was his idea anyway). Getting upset wasn’t going to get me anywhere so I started, “I’m glad the weather isn’t warmer. I’m glad it’s not raining. I’m glad I got to see two types of forests today. I’m glad to know that I can function in the current condition. I’m glad I’m not alone.” It really helped to keep me from panicking until we finally made it back to the car. I’m going to try to be more like that.

    Read More
  • Maeve

    On my way to New Hampshire after a hectic week.. I will be hiking in the hills and being in lots of fresh green-ness..

    I want to be alive and living as though I am always having an adventure. Enjoying and delighted with what and who is around me.

  • Dusty Su

    To have lived so well, fully, kindly, self-actualized and yet in service of something greater than myself, so that I may die well.
    I have created a Traveller’s Checklist. My guide for how I wish to live. The final point says, “Rest easy at the end of each day, after having experienced it gratefully, creatively, lovingly, meaningfully, and wholeheartedly. Then the last destination will simply be another such glorious day!”

  • Don Jones

    Transcendence. To go beyond the physical limitation and the limitations of the mind. To experience an explosion of Spirit.

  • SK

    Living with fear of anything. living as if this day was the only day for me. How i want to be in this life is living with the lightness and ease of body, mind and spirit; to not be concerned about what I look like or what I’m wearing; to be a companion to those hurting. I aspire to live the kind of life that my parents did.

  • sb
    I have just read the most inspiring book "The end of your life book club", about books and someone living with terminal cancer. As I read it, two thoughts dominated - the first was that it was as if I was reading about my mum, the second was that both mum and the lady in the book were actually living as I can only aspire to and I fear I can never achieve their heights. How can I sum up their qualities? Truly loving, caring, listening, believing, inclusive, proactive, positive. Actually living th...

    I have just read the most inspiring book “The end of your life book club”, about books and someone living with terminal cancer. As I read it, two thoughts dominated – the first was that it was as if I was reading about my mum, the second was that both mum and the lady in the book were actually living as I can only aspire to and I fear I can never achieve their heights. How can I sum up their qualities? Truly loving, caring, listening, believing, inclusive, proactive, positive. Actually living their beliefs and making a difference to all they meet…
    In my own small way I try every day but I admit to letting life get in the way, not to mention taking the easy path at times. But at least I can strive to follow as closely in their footsteps as I can. We can only do what we can do.

    Read More
  • BasicMarsh

    I want to be grounded and centered.

  • dcdeb

    I wish to be able to be financially stable, to have a wider circle of friends, to be able to move where i want to. To be free again, and lifted from restriction. To see humanity grow into sovereignty.

  • Mags

    I hope that I’ll make an impact. I get to live only once and I want to touch the lives of many using the time that I have.

  • Debra

    I hope to be joyous, kind and loving. Sometimes I am all of that and sometimes I come up short. It is that shortness that I hope to let go of and release to a more genuine awareness of my natural being.

  • Carol
    I want to be willing and willingness is very challenging. My fear of rejection, my fear of failure, fueled my decisions for so many years. Regretfully, I missed many opportunities to both give and receive the compassion and love I craved. I heard a phrase many years ago which helped me tremendously. "We are not here to be out of control but we are here to lose control to the Spirit." Just remove the “r” from revolution and think of evolution. It’s a helpful practice in decision making. Wil...

    I want to be willing and willingness is very challenging. My fear of rejection, my fear of failure, fueled my decisions for so many years. Regretfully, I missed many opportunities to both give and receive the compassion and love I craved. I heard a phrase many years ago which helped me tremendously. “We are not here to be out of control but we are here to lose control to the Spirit.” Just remove the “r” from revolution and think of evolution. It’s a helpful practice in decision making. Will the decisions I make help me and others evolve or will we just keep going round and round the mountain and ending up in the same place. My pastor many years ago gave a sermon in which he pointed out that revolution does bring change. The problem is that you get a new boss but invariably that boss makes changes that leave someone or something very important out of the equation. On the other hand, evolution is transformative. As a species and individually, I think we are called to embrace the evolutionary “yes” of the Universe. So my greatest hope and aspiration for the rest of my life is to be willing to grow and when the reaper rides to know that I’ve planted the seeds of willingness everywhere and in everyone I’ve been privileged to know.

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  • DeVonna

    As a child I knew two types of old people…sweet and loving or mean and irritable. I always have hoped I would evolve into the first kind. I hope that I have become tolerant and compassionate, brave and kind, peaceful and non-judgmental. I hope to be a blessings and not a trial to those who know me.

    • Linda

      Great post! I too, strive to be an “older” kind and caring person as I age. Good reminder, DeVonna.

  • Mike S

    I want to be a blessing and help to those in need, listen and bring joy to friends, be a loving parent and spouse, laugh more, cry when appropriate, reverence nature and die feeling I have fulfilled all on my plate given by life.

  • Holly in Ohio
    "Just as cultivating a garden requires turning over the ground, pulling weeds, planting, and watering, doing the work of love is all about taking action." BELL HOOKS I'm stuck pondering the quote of the day, because you DON'T have to turn over the ground to garden, and because there are many strategies for reducing weeds so you don't have to pull, and you can even reduce your need for water. And doing those three reductions helps the earth, the plants, and your back. My aspiration in the g...

    “Just as cultivating a garden requires turning over the ground, pulling weeds, planting, and watering, doing the work of love is all about taking action.”

    BELL HOOKS

    I’m stuck pondering the quote of the day, because you DON’T have to turn over the ground to garden, and because there are many strategies for reducing weeds so you don’t have to pull, and you can even reduce your need for water. And doing those three reductions helps the earth, the plants, and your back. My aspiration in the garden has been to do these things better, sort of like Howie’s wonderful description of his boat in the water. There is however, always planting and work. I’m on my way to the garden now to broad fork a large bed – the no till alternative to double-digging or flipping the soil, a method that causes little disruption to the beneficial ecosystem in the soil.

    Today, because of certain challenges, love does feel like a lot of work, but I wonder if, like changing gardening methods to mimic nature, if it has to be like that. I agree, it is action. I agree there is still planting. I just wonder… so I will ponder this today while I broad-fork the soil.

    Read More
  • Katrina

    I want to be a bearer of grace, compassion, joy and kindness in life that inspires others to do the same in their own ways.

  • Sarah

    Just making my way into a “new” stage here …
    Left my long career, and after much therapy, meditation, and listening to my heart know I won’t go back.
    Praying for continued healing and divine guidance as the journey continues.
    My greatest hope is to stay close to my heart’s wisdom.

  • Chester

    Present, engaged and incrementally aligned with what is right and good in both thought and action.

  • devy

    My hopes are that eventually I will be in “Zen” and will learn how to accept things are they are letting the negativity slide off me like water off a duck. I will continue with my daily meditation and practicing love of myself, gratitude and acceptance..

    • Michele

      “letting the negativity slide off me like water off a duck.” love that:)

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