Hi all,
I just wanted to say a Big Happy New Year! to all my beloved readers and subscribers, many of you new as of late-2024. Thank you for subscribing!
I’ve been away from the writing page for a while but as of January 2025 I’m aiming to focus more on daily writing and more frequent posting.
Re: Substack as my main platform, there are are a couple of things here I want to mention. The first is that my longer written pieces will be sent out as posts to subscribers but they can also be viewed on my Substack homepage by anyone.
But I also invite you to keep an eye on my Substack 'notes'. Here I'll be posting shorter thoughts and insights that won't (necessarily) be mailed out to subscribers. So do check-in, it's a cool feature and I welcome your replies and comments. Conversation is good!
Also, I'll keep you informed of any online or in-person events I'm planning.
Anyway, while I’m getting in the mood for the year ahead below are some untitled thoughts to be getting on with.
Love and blessings to one and all!
Martyn
Include it all.
Not just reluctantly or by placing some things in a vaguely separate category by continuing to judge them as either good or bad. "Include it all" means to value it all. There are no second-class experiences. Every moment is valuable and sacred.
We are experiencing the spontaneous unfoldment of the wholeness of being. Every stitch of the tapestry is essential and inevitable, every tiny piece has its critical and necessary place to tell the Divine Story of Life Itself (to itself).
The lotus can’t exist without the mud. If you exclude the mud, you deny the flower.
I love Michael Caine’s "use the difficulty" here. It’s a fine rule to live by. It’s related to miles Davis's "no wrong notes" approach to jazz improvisation. It’s the inclusion and use of those things that we might judge to be problems by reframing and welcoming them into our lived experience.
Our blocks and limitations are conceptual. We bump into our own minds. Flow is constant and ubiquitous. There are no blockages to it, only to our expectations and demands. True surrender is eternal in nature.
The ego's limits are its own creation.