2.3.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Quote
Buddha on presence:
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
Moment of Gratitude
I’m grateful for random acts of kindness.
What are you grateful for today?
Happy Monday,
Val
1.27.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
“When someone is seeking,” said Siddhartha, “it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.”
– Herman Hesse, Siddhartha
Quote
Mark Twain on courage:
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to deepen my relationships through genuine communication today.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
1.20.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
Ideas are like fish.
If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper.
Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.
I look for a certain kind of fish that is important to me, one that can translate to cinema. But there are all kinds of fish swimming down there. There are fish for business, fish for sports. There are fish for everything.
– David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish
Quote
Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to approach myself and others with compassion today.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
1.13.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
When we create goals out of inspiration versus desperation, it is a completely different story. In this state, we are creating because we feel deeply moved, inspired, and expansive. It feels like a calling rather than an obligation. It is like there’s a powerful force of life coming from within us, wanted to be expressed through us to be made manifested into the physical world. This is why painters paint, why dancers dance, why writers write and why singers sing, even if they never get paid or make a living from it. We feel pulled by a force to create something. We gravitate towards it. We feel compelled to do it. When we feel like this, we are creating from a place of abundance instead of lack.
– Joseph Nguyen, Don’t Believe Everything You Think
Quote
Napoleon Hill on limitation:
“There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.”
Intention of the Day
My intention today is to release things that aren’t serving me and to live in the moment.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
1.6.25
Meditation Mondays
Thought
Is the truth depressing? Some may find it so. But I find it liberating, and consoling. When I believed that my existence was such a further fact, I seemed imprisoned in myself. My life seemed like a glass tunnel, through which I was moving faster every year, and at the end of which there was darkness. When I changed my view, the walls of my glass tunnel disappeared. I now live in the open air.
– Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons
Quote
Marianne Williamson on happiness:
“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.”
Moment of Gratitude
I’m grateful for the freedom to make choices for myself everyday.
What are you grateful for today?
Happy Monday,
Val
12.30.24
Meditation Mondays
Thought
The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use. The reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course; it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy.
– Francis Bacon, Book of Aphorisms
Quote
Kristin Armstrong on gratitude:
“When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out, and the tide of love rushes in.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to learn and grow from everything I experience today.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val
12.23.24
Meditation Mondays
Thought
If one does not become the eccentric, unique, one-of-a-kind person he or she was meant to be, then a violation of some large purpose of the cosmos has occurred. Individuation is not self-absorption, narcissism or self-interest. On the contrary, individuation is a humbling task to serve what our deepest nature asks of us. For some it will be a path which brings public recognition, for others suffering and public calumny, for others still, private epiphanies never seen by anyone else.
– James Hollis, Creating a Life: Finding Your Individual Path
Quote
Henry David Thoreau on connectedness:
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
Moment of Gratitude
I’m grateful for opportunities to grow myself, even when such opportunities present as challenges.
What are you grateful for today?
Happy Monday,
Val
12.16.24
Meditation Mondays
Thought
Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you're no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a means to an end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow.
– Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Quote
Alan Watts on presence:
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”
Intention of the Day
My intention is to face today’s challenges with courage and an open heart.
What’s your intention today?
Happy Monday,
Val