🖼️ Monday Muse | Getting Over Yourself, Belonging, and an American Stoic
Perennial Newsletter (June 19th, 2023)
Greetings, Readers!
Quick Note: We’ll conclude our Perennial Lives series later this month. Here is the latest Monday Muse (or Perennial newsletter) with a morning meditation, perennial reminder (and question), and recommendations to consider.
Be wise and be well this week!
📿 Morning Meditation
This week’s morning meditation is courtesy of The Wisdom School podcast (Apple or Spotify). These are short selected readings and teachings delivered in a Lectio Divina style from various philosophical and spiritual traditions.
📌 Perennial Reminder(s)
Belonging is our capacity to feel joy, freedom, and love in any moment. As the late Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck said: Joy is exactly what’s happening, minus our opinion of it. She made a distinction between joy and happiness—Happiness has an opposite: unhappiness. Joy is not about happy or unhappy, liking or disliking. Joy is accepting each moment for what it is without contention. We belong to any moment simply by meeting it with joy. This is freedom. Love is the ultimate expression of joy and freedom. Joy, freedom, and love could be considered synonyms for each other, and for belonging.
Source: You Belong by Sebene Selassie (Listen to the conversation)
💡 Perennial Question(s)
Do you believe that you belong? Because you do. You belong. Everywhere. Yes, you—with all your history, anxiety, pain. Yes, everywhere—in every culture, community, circumstance. You belong in this body. You belong in this very moment. You belong in this breath … and this one. You have always belonged.
Source: You Belong by Sebene Selassie (Listen to the conversation)
🔥 Recommendation(s)
This week’s recommendation is a recent episode of the Art of Manliness podcast on Ralph Waldo Emerson. The guest is Mark Matousek, the author of the new book Lessons from an American Stoic: How Emerson Can Change Your Life.
🎧 Latest Podcast Video(s)
Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
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