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But What Is The Question

I find myself asking a lot of How? question. Or I make how statements like I don’t know how to do something. So I pulled what I describe as one of my favorite books off the shelf. I think I call it my favorite because I love the title: The Answer To How Is Yes, by Peter Block. As I re-read it I realized why it stands out.

The introduction convicts me:

There is depth in the question “How do I do this?” that is worth exploring. The question is a defense against action. It is a leap past the question of purpose, past the queston of intentions, and past the drama of responsibility. The question “How?”–more than any other question–looks for the answer outside of us. It is an indirect expression of our doubts…

Pg, 1, The Answer to How is Yes, Peter Block

My notes on the book and long and deep. I say yes when I read how questions overvalue practical and doable skipping over purpose, and to truly act on our values we must accept that we are free to choose our own message regardless of what society says (Pg 41).

The most profound section of the book for me this time is one that I don’t remember reading last time, in spite of the yellow highlights I see. It asks us to be social architects. It explains that architects are concerned with beauty and practicality. And to be a social architect means that we are able to design social spaces where we thrive.

The social architect’s task is to create the space for people to act on what matters to them. It requires faith in common values and interest in the common good…What is required is simply the will to act as if we know enough right now to put the dream into action. And the belief that this is possible.

Pg 174, Peter Block

I want to live into this role and I will have to practice. I keep coming back to the question: How do I become a social architect? The answer is yes.

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Time To Come Alive

After reading The Tools by Barry Michels & Phil Stutz, I decided that I liked the idea of having tools to access in your mental tool shed that helped me move through the day. I am still practicing Bring It On, Active Love and Jeopardy. And I looked for more tools, which I found in their newer book, Coming Alive.

What makes these tools great, like the last ones, is the ease of implementation. Instantaneously, you can change your state by following simple steps. As the saying goes, it is simple and not easy. The hardest part of using these tools is remembering to use them. Each requires you to pause before responding or taking action. And that takes practice.

The tools in this book focus on becoming the best version of ourselves by tapping into our innate wisdom:

The belief that an invisible animating energy underlies our existence is
thousands of years old. Unlike our modern, mechanical notion of energy, which we understand via mathematics, this is a living energy that we feel inside us. In Eastern religions, this energy, or Life Force, is known variously as prana (in Indian philosophy and medicine), lung (in
Tibetan Buddhism), and chi (in Chinese philosophy and medicine). In the Old Testament, it was called ruach, the breath of God, which gave mankind not only life, but the spirit to evolve. (pg 11, Coming Alive)

By experiencing this energy deeply, we can come to see the Life Force around us expressed in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. They are the true forces that make life meaningful:

To put it simply, Truth reveals your path, Beauty inspires you to walk it, and Goodness enables you to spread virtue along the way. It is on this path that you gain the greatest reward: you know who you are and why you are here. Your soul finds its true place in the universe. (pg 230, Coming Alive)

Come Alive!

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Make Your Home Where You Are

While listening to the Canada Reads discussions this spring, I knew I wanted to read the winner, By Chance Alone and the runner-up, Homes. By Chance Alone was a poignant reflection on living through a traumatic part of our history as a prisoner in Auschwitz. Homes by Abu Bakr Al Rabeeah with Winnie Yeung is also a reflection. It is impacting the world as we speak. The narrator is Abu Bakr Al Rabeeah as he lives through a move from Iraq to Syria to finding a home in Edmonton, Alberta. What he experiences is expressed beautifully through the eyes of an adolescent. Living in Canada, I have no experience of what it would be like to live day-to-day in a war zone. I am amazed by how life goes on with resilience, as it does for Abu Bakr.

was a poignant reflection on living through a traumatic part of our history as a prisoner in Auschwitz. Homes by Abu Bakr Al Rabeeah with Winnie Yeung is also a reflection. It is impacting the world as we speak. The narrator is Abu Bakr Al Rabeeah as he lives through a move from Iraq to Syria to finding a home in Edmonton, Alberta. What he experiences is expressed beautifully through the eyes of an adolescent. Living in Canada, I have no experience of what it would be like to live day-to-day in a war zone. I am amazed how life goes on with resilience, as it does for Abu Bakr.

The theme that is going to stick with me the longest will be his fear. The story works through his day and we see vignettes of family life in Homs while government and rebel forces lob bombs at each other. Fear becomes a steady state with explosive episodes only occasionally. Even as his family picks up all the worldly possessions that they can carry to fly across the planet to Edmonton, fear continues to be present. It is a different kind of fear. It is a fear that silence brings:

As I went through the old, familiar prayers, something felt off. I paused and listened. What could it be> No bullets nor shattering glass. That was it: the stillness. No voices joined in prayer around me, no cousins having a fit of giggles. An old wooden desk to my right, a stack of plastic chairs to my left: that’s all there was. (page 202, Homes)

This beautiful story reminds me of our common humanity. We all live our lives the best we can, wherever we are.

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A New You

I am searching for a new body. I am like many on that journey. My impetus for this search is the chronic pain that my husband feels.

My husband has been experiencing chronic pain for more than fifteen years. After experimenting with almost all treatment modalities from traditional Western medicine to unusual non-traditional practices, he has almost given up. With a vacation coming up that would be so much more enjoyable if we could, at least, reduced the level of pain that he feels every day. Enter the Hippocratic thought, “Let food be your medicine, and the medicine be your food.”

Navigating the nutritional forest to find a credible anti-inflammatory plan can feel like walking through the trees without a compass or a map.

After deciding on the path–let food be your medicine–for healing, I discovered some ground rules. They are, from Michael Pollan’s Food Rules: 1. Eat food; 2. Not too much; 3. Mainly plants.

Alberto Villoldo‘s book, Grow A New Body, found it’s way to my reading pile. Dr. Villoldo takes a holistic, grounded approach to use the body’s natural ability to heal through eating the right foods and being connected to your spirit.

And we started, we are working through the pre-work to set the body up to win. If nothing else, if the pain is not reduced, the program has improved our energy, elevated our mood, and reduced our brain fog. It is a win for us. We are finding that this eating practice is something that we want to continue.

Is this the only program we could have tried. No. I have three other cookbooks and, at least, two other lifestyle books that speak to the same philosophy and actions.