The Year of No Excuses

Every year I declare a year for myself… Usually quietly just in case I can’t own up to it at the end of the year, but since the last few years have gone exceedingly well, I guess it’s time to man up and step up to the plate. Okay, so last year I didn’t have a goal and I didn’t really have any last year either.

Now the year before that (Or maybe it was the year before that?) I had the Year of Facing my Fears. It was amazing. I pushed myself and did more than I ever could imagine. I learned so much that year: what it takes to do things, how much could be considered fearful, how I’ve been much better for it, and that I really can do whatever I put my mind on. And no, I’m not telling you what happened that year. It was was also the Year of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

This year is a little different since I recruited John to join in on this round of making life better. Together we’re facing The Year of No Excuses. That’s right, we’re going to do what need to be done despite anything that might get in the way.  That means “play time” is no excuse, “no room” is  no excuse, “family” is no excuse, etc. What we want to accomplish will come first, our responsibilities will come first.

Below I'm posting a poem that will be one of my main inspirations this year. I'll also post other bits of our inspiration that we come across throughout our  Year of No Excuses.

(This picture of the poem is from a Flickr poster called "W.K.")

You can also see it in this wonderful comic format which I'm hoping to get a print of from Zen Pencils: 

air and light and time and space Written by Charles Bukowski, Illustrated by Gavin Aung Than
 
 On that note, children, I need to get back to work making my dreams come true!

We'll see each other again soon during this Year of No Excuses!

Meditation: Labyrinths

We’ve got a society full of stereotypes and labyrinths are part of them. We continuously use maze and labyrinth are interchangeable words which while may have been true at one period of time, now is not so true. Who better to describe the main difference, but Wikipedia:

    “In colloquial English, labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze, but many     contemporary scholars observe a distinction between the two: maze refers to a     complex branching (multicursal) puzzle with choices of path and direction; while     a single-path (unicursal) labyrinth has only a single, non-branching path, which     leads to the     center.” (Labryrinth- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

   
This is the basic difference: the different designs. But why the different designs? John and I found out when visiting the Grand Hotel back in August.

What the sign basically says is that a labyrinth is a meditative/spiritual tool (sometimes therapeutic which is why there are so many at hospitals and healthcare facilities) and really, it is. When we walked it quietly, I could see how following the simple path was calming and easy which left plenty of space for deep thought and mindless peace… Or I could, if it wasn’t so small (sadly, the photo will not download or I would share it with you). 

If standard meditation is not your thing or walking/hiking is your thing (or you enjoy exploring spiritual rituals), then I would definitely recommend finding a decent sized labyrinth and give it a try!

Labyrinths
World-Wide Labyrinth Locator
Labyrinths- A Waymarking.com
Labyrinth Coalition
The Labyrinth Society
The Labyrinth Society: Events Calendar

Mazes
Maze- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Debuck’s Corn Maze (Loved it when I went there for my birthday last year. Spent all day going through their 3 mazes)