365 Inspirations—335: ELEVEN straight months of blogging...

Blogging 365 Lessons in 2010 at my father's house in Florida

“Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.”—Robert McKee

I've made it to December 1st. I cannot believe it. I've blogged inspirations for ELEVEN straight months. One month more to go!

I will say that doing this has helped me to see the positive. Blogging every day has helped me realize that even on days when I feel like giving up, running away, throwing in the towel, calling it quits, or hiding, there's a glimmer of hope.

Somehow I find something to write about.

Can I be my own inspiration this time?

I didn't give up, but somedays it was hard to get here.

I blogged right over Machu Picchu, found a way to blog when the internet crashed, blogged when I had jet-lag, blogged through final exams, blogged at airports, in hotels, on busses, blogged when there was nothing to blog about (but I still found something).

Writing everyday this year has taught me that I am in fact a WRITER. I can say it. I am proud of it.

And this is not my first year of blogging for 365 days. In 2010, I wrote 365 blog posts in the form of lessons!

I've taken most of those off my blog as they may become a book.

So that's almost TWO YEARS of blogging everyday.

That's 730 blog posts!

Will I do it again?

Probably not for awhile, if ever.

I think I'm ready to move on. I have BIG PLANS for the coming year.

I will let you know more about those soon.

Have you ever done anything for 365 Days? (Besides the obvious)

365 Inspirations—318: Waking Up at Kalani

“How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!”—Arthur Conan Doyle

I woke up early, not because I like waking up early, but because the entire bedroom was cast in a fiery glow. It seemed like the land outside must be burning. Maybe Pele, volcano goddess, was paying a visit.

In a half-asleep dream-like state, I wandered outside in my nightgown and slippers to the edge of the grass and looked out at the ocean. It was the SKY that was on fire—a brilliant sunset. How could one sleep with this glow?

Birds were chirping and fluttering about, the smell of sweet tropical plants filled the air. As if this place wasn't alive enough, now things were really getting started.

We are way out here on Ocean Vista point. A bit of a hike to the dining hall, but we decided to hike it this morning.

We walked slowly on the dirt path that was wet from an early morning rain. The air was humid and the combination of wet and the rising sun caused a fragrant, tropical steam to rise from the ground.

Palm trees rustled in the breeze, greeting us as we walked along.

On the way up toward Guest Services, an island cat came running down the street toward us meowing. He rubbed his body up against our legs as if to say, "Good Morning, so nice of you to come this way!"

We passed the pool, the reclining Buddha statue in the bamboo and a statue of a feminine-looking Buddha who may well have been Pele, with many offerings of shells and crystals.

 Finally we reached the dining hall.

A tiny woman blew into an enormous conch shell signaling the start of breakfast. The sound can be heard all the way to Ocean Vista.

Breakfast was fresh Kona Coffee, fresh squeezed juice, egg frittata, french toast, oatmeal with homemade granola and an abundance of fruit—papaya, pineapple, berries, mango, watermelon, grapes and some other tropical fruit that I couldn't identify. I topped my fruit with fresh whole yogurt.

After breakfast, I walked slowly back to the room feeling full of all the abundance and beauty of this morning. I could get used to waking up here....

Have you ever woken up to amazing beauty? Where were you?

365 Inspirations—157: My Husband, Seong Yoon Lee

"Don't be afraid of the different winds that come to your life—even the unpleasant winds. If things aren't working the way you want them to work, maybe the universe wants to offer you something better, but you can't see that right now."—Seong Yoon Lee

This post was written by my husband and edited by me. It was part of my 31 Writers, 31 Lessons series in 2012. Yoon has a way of inspiring people, including me, to do the things they've always wanted to do in life and not be afraid of the challenges. Here's his story:

I clearly remember the day when I heard the sound of a gong while I was in an evening chanting ceremony in a remote temple in Korea. It was not just the sound of a bell, it was the sound of awakening for me.

I thought that if I became a monk someday, I'd come back to this temple. Two years later, I came back and became a monk. Through many years of sincere practice and everyday life in the monastery, I have learned so much. Of course, it had its own challenges, joys, frustrations—the same as mundane life. I know things are always changing, but I never thought I'd come back to mundane life.

But the winds carried me in a different direction. Sometimes we need a different direction for our growth. I faced many struggles, emotions and fear about this change, but I learned something that I want to share with you here.

My master in the temple told me that I had to finish my degree in Buddhism, so I decided to come back to my college and study there. In my free time, I also studied English and Japanese at a foreign language institute nearby.

That's where I met my wife.

I never expected this would happen, but as we got to know each other, I found that we had a deep connection to one another. It was not easy for me and it was also not easy for her to come all the way here—to this point where we are now. I was a Buddhist monk and she was an English teacher. But also, I am just a human who feels different emotions in me. I don't want to tell all the stories here. You can read all about those in her wonderful book, coming soon, called Lessons from the Monk I Married.

Ultimately, I decided I wanted to be with my wife because of the deep connection and love I felt for her. I had to leave the monastery and start all over again. I also had to face my fears in that process:

How can I make money?

How can I pay bills?

What will other people think of me?

I struggled with all of these questions and had to face each one of them.

Shortly after I decided to leave the monastery, I moved in to Kathy's apartment. However, she had plans to meet her family in New York. These plans had been set months before. After she was gone, I was all alone in her apartment. There was nothing but miso and cabbage in the refrigerator, so that's what I ate. Perhaps this was her test for me. Could I survive on my own without the temple and without her help?

Somehow I needed to make money. But what kind of work can an ex-monk do? I didn't know what I had to do. I looked in the local newspaper and found a position posted for a sushi waiter. I had an interview and got the job. They needed people, also I needed money. But I didn't survive very long there. I moved too slowly and messed up on many orders which resulted in yelling sessions from the manager. I had become his servant. In his eyes, I was just a stupid server who was good for nothing but fetching cigarettes for him.

So I quit. I was back to nothing again. But I started to think about my training and all that I had learned. I had been trained in yoga and meditation in the monastery. I knew I had so much to share about this. So I put up some posters around the apartment building, and before long people were coming to practice—both Korean and foreigners alike were coming. By the time Kathy returned from New York, her apartment was full of people practicing yoga.

So it became my career. I became a yoga teacher. I operated two yoga schools in Korea and am now the owner of Yoon's Yoga Bliss near Seattle. I have met so many wonderful people through this yoga adventure. I found a life where I am able to share all that I am. I learned how we become authentic and at the same time universal. Through creative energy and love, we become the embodiment of who we are, and that authenticity also continues to evolve through our own searching.

So don't be afraid of the different winds that come to your life—even the unpleasant winds. Life is an adventure. Sometimes we find treasures and sometimes things fall completely apart. If things aren't working the way you want them to work, maybe the universe wants to offer you something better, but you can't see that right now.

Be strong. Don't give up searching and you will find those treasures that are beautiful and priceless.

Seong Yoon Lee studied Buddhism at Donguk University in Korea. He was trained as a monk in the Chogye order at Songgwang Temple. He met his wife in 1996 and later they married in 2003. He owned and operated two yoga schools in South Korea, one in Seoul and one in a nearby suburb. He has taught yoga to hundreds of students and his yoga school and unique approach to yoga were featured on a major television network in Korea in a documentary about stress. He currently lives in Seattle with his wife and is the owner of Yoon's Yoga Bliss near Seattle.

365 Inspirations—146: Just Write

“The only good writing is intuitive writing. It would be a big bore if you knew where it was going. It has to be exciting, instantaneous and it has to be a surprise. Then it all comes blurting out and it’s beautiful."—Ray Bradbury


I'm reading a very good book that I can't put down by my Aussie friend Torre DeRoche called Love with a Chance of Drowning, so I decided to dig this post up from my archives. It was actually post 146 of my 365 Lessons I wrote in 2010. I think it's fitting for today. How I felt about writing in 2010 still holds true today. Here's the post:

 I've heard people say that they only write when inspiration comes to them. In a past post I mentioned that inspiration is always there, but our thoughts and emotions block access to this. Instead of waiting for a big wave of inspiration to fall from the sky, I just write.

I write everyday, to be exact. I write just to write. When I let go of trying to control what will come from writing, things come out that I never expected. I never plan what I will say here.

I think life is like that. A lot of thinking gets in the way of doing. We make plans and try to figure out a time schedule for writing, or exercising, or art, or anything really. I think it's good to make a plan and schedule it into your day. But some of my best writing has come spontaneously at any given hour of the day or night. Sometimes it comes to me at 2am or in the middle of the afternoon. I never know exactly. And sometimes I feel I have nothing to say, but I keep writing, just as I keep living even when life isn't "amazing."

Writing has become me. I don't really know who "I" am, but writing moves through me. I don't consider myself a "great" writer, but I have something to say. I think we can lose the essence of writing when we try to be too crafty or make it good. I let words fall out on the page anyway they want to here on this blog.

There were times, while writing my book, that I wanted to hide certain parts of my life. I found myself only wanting to tell the "good" stories. But life is not like that. To arrive at anything worthwhile, we have to go through the "not so good" times. O.K...the "bad" times. So I let it all out, I didn't hold back.

I had a conflict with that when I was editing my book. I thought, "Do I really want to expose this much of my life?" But what is "my life" anyway? If you read my previous post, you will see that whatever is "mine" is really just part of the ego that wants to survive. There's the fear of what others might think of this "me" or how I might be judged by what I write.

So why share my story at all? Because I feel that there is something universal about the human condition; that we all share a similar set of feelings. We all go through certain experiences and reading about others who have gone through certain struggles, challenges and revelations in life often times shed light on our own experiences.

Everyone's journey is unique, but we are all in this together. If we are all in this together, what do we have to fear or hide? There's nothing in life that hasn't been experienced by one human or another. There isn't a single emotion that hasn't been felt by one human or another.

What do I have to protect, actually. I am a mortal being. I will end like everyone else. There's not a single person who does not experience birth and death, so how different are we really?

So I don't hold back anymore. I let it all out. I let it loose...I let "me" free. Through writing I share my experience of this life. I write how it is. I write the truth. I just write.

Do you spend a lot of time thinking about what you want to write, or do you just write?

365 Inspirations—105: And the Winner is........

"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."—Theodore Roosevelt

Okay, I'm a little late in all my promises, I know! It's something I plan to work on this year. I tend to over commit, but I DO usually meet all my commitments, just not always in the timeframe I've allowed myself!

Back in February, I promised a free copy of my book Lessons from the Monk I Married, a personal letter and a gift to a person who followed and left a comment in the comment section of my blog. That person also had to let me know about someone who inspires them. Here's the original post.

Well, I received a number of comments and inspirations! I finally put all the names in a hat and chose KIRSTY, who has a number of blogs on her blogger profile, to be the recipient of my book, letter and gift. Kirsty left this comment:

Hi, 

Thank you for your generous offer. I'm definitley interested to read your book.

Who is my inspiration? My daughter actually. Just a few minutes with her and I've got a huge smile planted on my face. She brings the inner child out in me and is abundant in her love and free with her emotions. She's been the one to open up my heart and help me be fun, loving and free.

Cheers
Kirsty

I will be contacting her directly to find out how to send her these gifts.

And now a question for you:

Have you ever won anything in your life? What was it?