MonkAtWork.com

Wendy Piersall (everyone’s favorite eMom) encouraged me to start a weekly series here, and given my Learning Edge is about exploring the Law of Attraction, I figured I’d take one of LoA’s key principles (which is also one of Sufism’s key principles), and create “Gratitude Fridays.”

Every Friday I’ll post about the things that are inspiring my heart with gratitude, from all areas of my life, including relationships and resources that you may find useful. My intent is that it becomes a way to increase the joy and richness in your life as well as mine.

Ingratitude reveals ignorance,
and the friends of truth are truly thankful.
— Shabistari

With no further ado…

Char P. of Essential Keystrokes is celebrating her “blogging birthday” this week, and giving away a bunch of gifts in the process — including a subscription to my Inner Audio Series, which I’m very grateful for. (Char also joined in Hilda Carrol’s music meme, recently, just like I did; she’s a fellow music lover, so her post is well worth the read).

My good friend Dawud Miracle is joining Wendy Piersall at eMoms at Home — he’ll be a regular voice over there, bringing his perspective as an eDad to the mix. I’m grateful all around for both of them and all of us, and I’m excited to see what will flow from their partnership.

Edward Mills of Evolving Times wrote a great article about the difference between “telling” and “showing” when it comes to the Law of Attraction — very, very meaty and rich. Thanks for the article, Ed.

And, I won a book this week from In Bubble Wrap, called “All The Tea In China” — how cool is that? In Bubble Wrap gives away free business books just about every day, no strings attached, which is something I know a lot of people are grateful for. Check ‘em out. Can you believe it? The day I blog about IBW, they close up shop. I just went over to see what the book of the day is, and I find a notice that he’s packing it in. Good news, though: he says everyone who enters the final drawing (which will be up until July 6, he says) will get a book. Which book, who knows; but a book it will be. Act now, or forever hold your peace.

And to round out the list, one of our good friends, Penelope Melas (wife of Greg Lee, owners of Two Frogs Healing Center, where my wife is going to be teaching a workshop on defeating your sugar cravings in July), had a baby girl early Thursday morning. Congratulations, Lee family!

What are you grateful for this week?

Images by me and Amazon.

And thanks to all those to commented on my previous post so far: Liz Strauss, Jayne

One of the biggest takeaways I had from reading Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch years ago was a saying: “Fear holds close; love holds dear.”

This morning I had a epiphany around that statement, while my wife and I were talking about some of the opportunities opening up around Monk at Work. After sharing a few things with my wife, she said, “that sounds great… I’m just trying not to get attached to it.”

And that was when the Idea Fairy swooped down and bonked the side of my head with its magic wand.

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I’m stubborn, I’ll admit it. I’m so stubborn, not even the modern educational system could drive my love of learning out of me (although to be fair, I was lucky to have a handful of wonderful teachers over the years who fanned that flame, rather than dump water on it).

I’m always learning something — right now, I’ve got a stack of four books from the library on my desk, and two more in the living room, plus all the ChangeThis manifestos I still need to read, and the myriad of blogs in my Google Reader that are patiently awaiting my attention.

In fact, one of the aspects of the blogosphere that makes it really easy for me to spend way too much surfing is the amount of wonderful information and personal perspectives that are out there. New learnings are just a click away.

So, here’s my challenge to you, and my invitation:

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The conversation that’s gotten started from “How Do You Orient To The Divine?” is one that I’m really, really enjoying. It’s the kind of discussion (one of them, at least) that I was hoping would happen when I started Monk at Work.

I’ve been touched by the sentiments shared, because it’s easy to see that people are really looking at their beliefs, and perhaps, questioning them. Personally, I’ve been questioning my beliefs for most of my life, and it has been a very fruitful debate.

One of the things I wrote was, “I’ve been both [a dualist and a monist],” The truth is, I could have easily added, “and, I’ve been neither — for most of my youth, I didn’t believe in anything.”

“- gasp - is it true? the monk was once an atheist?”

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(This is a huge topic, I realize… one that I couldn’t do justice to in a single post (or a single lifetime, perhaps), but that won’t stop me from beginning the conversation, at least.)

It seems to me that there are two primary ways that most people and most paths orient to the concept of God/Divine/Oneness/Spirit. It’s either inside of you, or outside of you.

The “outside of you” folks probably think of you and the Divine, the Divine being ‘out there’, and you trying to reach It. Your quest is to experience proximity to the Divine, and feel what it’s like to merge with the Divine, or, be in service to whatever It asks of you. (Because of the difference seen between man and Spirit, this is called, “dualism.”)

The “inside of you” folks probably think of the Divine in you, as ‘in here’, and you seeking to experience the fullness of It in you and through you. Your quest is to experience no absence of that Presence, to be filled 100% with the seamlessness of the experience of what is. (Because of the lack of difference seen between man and Spirit, this is called, “monism.”)

To the dualists, Divinity is something to be reached.
To the monists, Divinity is something to be realized.

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I know it has been a couple of days since my last post; I had a big flurry of posts last week, and then hunkered down to get ready for the inaugural class of the Create a Business People Love group that kicked off on Tuesday this week (it went great, by the way; thanks for asking ).

I came out of tunnel-vision to find that I was tagged for another meme, and it seemed like great timing, not to mention that it’s about a subject dear to my heart: music.

Joanna Young of Coaching Wizardry tagged me in Hilda Carroll’s meme about “Songs That Make Your Heart Sing.” With a title like that, how could I refuse? (Besides, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Most people go to their graves with their best music inside them.” Not me, friend.)

The challenge is to pick your “number one energy-raising song of choice”. And now you know why I’m calling that a challenge!

How to pick one? My iTunes library has 1863 items in it (that’s 11.81 GB of data) that could play for 14.7 days… and Hilda wants me to pick one. Sheesh, where to begin!?

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Who do you know that’s satisfied with where their business is at? Does that intersection of joy, purpose, success, and richness of experience feel just out of reach?

If so, you’ll want to (re)consider the Create a Business People Love group consulting workshop, which — holy moly! — starts in about 24 hours.

What’s it got that you’d be interested in? More than you might think…

Branding: One of the big hot topics these days, getting clear on your personal brand is the key to standing out in an over-crowded world. And, it’s the surest ticket to fulfillment at work, if you know how to take advantage of it (and that’s something few, if any, branding specialists I’ve seen are talking about).

Spiritual depth: What makes for magnetic charisma? Is it flashy suits and hypey type? God, let’s hope not.

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