The Heart of the Matter
June 26, 2017
What Have You Accomplished?

100_0674.jpg

As I gear up to enter the next decade of my life, I find myself at a curious crossroads -- the intersection of WHO and WHAT, one of those strange intersections far out of town where the sagebrush rolls and the GPS signal is just out of range. Sitting in the front seat of my leased 2015 Honda, wondering how I gained the last five pounds, I ask myself a question highly unlikely to make me the life of the party: "Have I done anything of significance these past 69 years?

It's an age-old dilemma, methinks, a classic rite-of-passage -- the time when a man takes stock of himself and realizes his so called "portfolio" of accomplishments doesn't necessarily measure up to what he imagined it would one day be. And though I have always felt a breathtaking magnificence inside me, OUTWARDLY much of what I have expressed, in this life, seems to have been lost in translation -- not unlike a child's game of "telephone" where you whisper something to the person next to you and they, in turn, whisper it to the person next to them and so on and so forth around the circle until the last person blurts what they've heard -- a jumble of words not even remotely close to what it was the started the whole game.

A few months shy of 70, focused more, today, on the butterflies in my tummy than the ones that herald spring, I find myself looking in two directions at once. One is forward, trying to make out what I see with the time I have left. The other is backwards, trying to make sense of the forces that have brought me to this precise moment in time.

What I see, behind me, is my father coming home from a long day's work. He's exhausted, unsettled, my mother greeting him with a martini and the officiousness of a 50's housewife, me tentatively approaching, receiving a quick hug and the all-too-familiar question my father routinely greeted me with: "What have you ACCOMPLISHED today?" -- a kind of Zen Cohen that always left me feeling I hadn't done enough. Yes, I played roofball and punchball and kickball and stickball. And yes, I played with my dog and read the backs of my baseball cards. But did I accomplish anything? Did I do anything that really mattered?

The older I got, the more my father's accomplishment mantra embedded its way into my psyche, a kind of microscopic parasite a person might pick up on a quick trip to a third world country. And though I couldn't see it, I could FEEL it -- radiating outwards, driving me to DO, DO, DO -- moving me to create something I considered "significant" -- something meaningful enough I could sign my name to once and for all.

My friends, I think it is time for me (and maybe, you) to answer the question my father used to ask. Ready? IT'S THE WRONG QUESTION. While the intention may be harmless, the act of being ruled by it is not. "The foolish man is always doing," said Lao Tzu, "yet much remains to be done. The wise man does nothing, yet nothing remains undone."

Kapish? In the end, there is nothing to do! Nothing to prove! Zero. Nada. Zilch. Unless we can live fully in this present moment where everything is already perfect, our life will never be more than a programmed/neurotic/obsessive attempt to achieve -- a carrot dangled in front of us by the collective hallucination that we have never really done enough.

Guess what? We have.

Face it. There is absolutely nothing we can do that will ever be enough compared to the outcome we IMAGINE it should be. Maybe that's why Van Gogh cut off his ear. Maybe that's why countless creative souls drink too much and think too much. You see, the obsession with proving our worth is a losing game. First of all, the self does not need to be proven. It is ALREADY complete just the way it is. And second of all, there is no second of all.

THIS is the moment. THIS. NOW. HERE. Just the way it is.

In the end, WHAT we do is way less important than HOW we do it. When that recognition dawns, joy replaces struggle, gratitude replaces complaint, and everything comes to us in its own, sweet time...

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:53 AM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2017
Chantal Piriz Needs Our Support

Hands in middle.jpg

Dear Friends:

Just a brief note to let you know that Chantal Piriz, the extraordinary woman who, along with Roberto Piriz, began the Peace Education Program in Dominquez Prison, in San Antonio, is very much in need of our help. Chantal has some pressing health challenges that will require surgery. It is not an easy time for her. Here is the link to Chantal's GoFundMe campaign. Every little bit helps. Thank you, in advance, for whatever support you can provide.

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2017
25,500 Days

This is a wonderful video -- entertaining, informative, and inspiring -- about change and our own mortality.

TimelessToday
More

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2017
Less Noise, More Space

7482981b-267e-4b4b-9a12-eeec508e77e0.jpg

Illustration: gapingvoid

Less noise, more space

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2017
Marvin Gaye Speaks!

Slide12.jpg

What's Going On
TimelessToday

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:46 PM | Comments (1)

June 08, 2017
Four Loring Baker Poems

1abd95d.jpg


THE JOY OF STILLNESS

Perhaps there's nowhere left to go,
Nothing more to plan,
Time to sit on my own front porch
In the afternoon's blond light,
Listen to the garden sing
And taste the joy of stillness
As a soft summer wind
Moves a smile across my face.


LET IT SIT

Someday, perhaps,
A better battery!
Meanwhile, you must
Let it sit,
Plugged in awhile
To keep it lit.


ADJUST YOU MUST

Moment to moment,
The clay still wet,
The sculpture is formed,
Adjust you must
Before the kiln.


THESE OLD CLOTHES

These old clothes
I've worn for so long
Are getting stiff,
Stained and wrinkled,
Please don't think
They make this man,
Let your wisdom undress me
If you can.

Loring's book of poetry:"Invitations to the Good"

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Seek the One Beyond the Veil

And I have seen him dance.jpg

TimelessToday

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2017
Love People

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:02 AM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2017
The Reading

lines.jpg

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)

Welcome to Mitch Ditkoff's blog about what's really important in this life: Peace, gratitude, love, joy, clarity, and the effort required to wake up and smell the roses. Enjoy!

   Contact me   
© MITCH DITKOFF