Hello Jay, Substack has a direct chat thing but it looks like it is a paid subscriber perk. I’ll try to find it over there but dms go to some hard to get at back door mailbox that I have a hard time remembering how to get to. I’ll try though😊
So needed this this morning! My teenage son took his life earlier this year. Every day has been a struggle but I have pressed forward with the support of an army of friends and strangers. Thank you for all of your words that offer support and guidance!
It has been, but we have only worked towards healing by being open and speaking freely about it. Thank you again for your content, It sure helps a lot!
I’m happy to hear that Dan. We are essentially batteries made of meat and if we don’t discharge that terrible current frequently … we explode… and what a mess it is to clean that shit up😉🖤
Right on. This moment is the only place we can create, destroy, preserve or abide, sometimes all at once, for sure. I need to make your transmissions my alarm sound, to remind me to wake up twice each morning.
Thanks for this Shawn, watched your video of this on YouTube (excellent, as all your content is). This approach to hope is something I’ve struggled with in mindfulness teaching. The importance of living in the present seems crucial. But I struggle with the concept in light of some circumstances. While this may be an extreme example, in reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, he noted the critical importance of hope in surviving the death camps like Auschwitz, where he was at. Even an unreasonable, unlikely hope was often the difference between living and dying, to lose it was to lose the will to live. I wonder if, in the presence of a crushing present, does hope still have no place?
I think we wield whatever tools we need at the time. Hope and acceptance are both just stories in our head. The “hope”😉 is that we realize them both for what they are and remain in our original state which lies behind all stories and concepts. Hope can be a canoe across very difficult waters, just don’t drag it around with you through the forest after having successfully crossed them. ❤️ But to achieve acceptance during a situation such as you’ve described? Now that’s something altogether different, that would be extraordinary. We have to decide how we will handle the hardships when they come and there’s no right or wrong, only change and movement.
Great insight, thank you. And you’re right about that canoe, a helpful reminder. FWIW, I’ve read some Joseph Goldstein, Mark Epstein, and I’m a fan of Stephen Batchelor, but you my friend are on another level of reason and relatability in a fucked-up world that desperately needs it. Keep up the good work, we need to hear what you have to say.
This is profound. Hats off to you for such deep work. You have allowed tragedy and heartbreak to lead you home. You remind me of Eckard Tolle (with a few extra f-bombs).
I just found your Substack a few days ago. I’m very sorry about your daughter. Look up The Midwestern Doctor on Substack and read up on DMSO. I’m not saying it will fix things but it might
I had a moment of awareness of you and your family last night just before I closed my eyes. No more words really, just awareness and that ineffable connection of warmth and acknowledgement. Thank you for writing, 🙏🏼
From one of your posts I liked best: "A weaver is best within form to weave only now- because now is the most vibrant tapestry of all if you simply pay attention to it, and only it."
Acceptance and hope are interesting to think about - is one better than the other or are we maybe best off with both. AA calls it acceptance and courage, but I'd have a very hard time mustering courage without hope - as in, why bother. Acceptance seems very Buddhist to me, while hope may be the Christian way forward. I am old and have needed some combination of both in my life, but I,m 100% in favor of whatever gets you through.
I haven’t read your pre-substack writing, but your little Maisie sounds like a warrior to me, a real fighter, far more willful towards a future than passive. Of course I don’t know her, except through you here, but it is the picture I have. Nor is your writing passive in the least - it is angry and fierce.
Both are obtained through our chosen narratives. Perhaps a cocktail of both, or perhaps a shot of acceptance chased by a beer of hope. We do what works for us. The real message though is to realize either construct for what they are, a made up thing comprised of temporary electrical fluctuations in our wrinkly pink meat computer. To realize and observe both is to seat yourself in something that must be separate from them to see. That’s the big secret that’s not really a secret❤️
Some people seem to have always known, and are comfortable with who they are. As if they’ve lived lives before this one. Others work hard, but can never get to a place of acceptance. Others find it after a life changing event.
I suspect a lot of it is the way we happen to be wired. Acceptance isn't an issue for people who don’t know what it means to feel “other." The great leveler is the life-changing event, the cosmic injustice over which we have no control. Acceptance is forced on us because the only other option is suicide. I guess the trick is to accept the present without losing the future.
Wow! Who the fuck are you? You’re like a fucking guru….. favorite line here - “You are a blade of grass that can withstand life’s tempests and wind by your willingness to bend.” Awesome!
Guru is a shitty job, having to pretend you’re all holy and shit all the time to try to trick people into becoming what they already are. Better to be freeee agent my man😉👊🏼
Beautifully written. Someone I follow once said Hope is a Beggar. That is not how I want to live my life.
In my book, this is sheer genius. In such an authentic voice. I know it has been hard won. Thank you for sharing brother.
Thank you Jay❤️
Hey Shawn. I wanted to send a private message, but as far as I can tell, there is no DM on Substack. So I left on on your Instagram page. Thanks.
Hello Jay, Substack has a direct chat thing but it looks like it is a paid subscriber perk. I’ll try to find it over there but dms go to some hard to get at back door mailbox that I have a hard time remembering how to get to. I’ll try though😊
You can send me an email at jaystuff1@gmail.com and I'll connect that way, too. Thanks.
So needed this this morning! My teenage son took his life earlier this year. Every day has been a struggle but I have pressed forward with the support of an army of friends and strangers. Thank you for all of your words that offer support and guidance!
Oh Dan, the fucking worst🖤 My heart is with you Brother
It has been, but we have only worked towards healing by being open and speaking freely about it. Thank you again for your content, It sure helps a lot!
I’m happy to hear that Dan. We are essentially batteries made of meat and if we don’t discharge that terrible current frequently … we explode… and what a mess it is to clean that shit up😉🖤
Right on. This moment is the only place we can create, destroy, preserve or abide, sometimes all at once, for sure. I need to make your transmissions my alarm sound, to remind me to wake up twice each morning.
Needed this right at this
Moment. Thanks 😊
🙌🏻
Thanks for this Shawn, watched your video of this on YouTube (excellent, as all your content is). This approach to hope is something I’ve struggled with in mindfulness teaching. The importance of living in the present seems crucial. But I struggle with the concept in light of some circumstances. While this may be an extreme example, in reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, he noted the critical importance of hope in surviving the death camps like Auschwitz, where he was at. Even an unreasonable, unlikely hope was often the difference between living and dying, to lose it was to lose the will to live. I wonder if, in the presence of a crushing present, does hope still have no place?
I think we wield whatever tools we need at the time. Hope and acceptance are both just stories in our head. The “hope”😉 is that we realize them both for what they are and remain in our original state which lies behind all stories and concepts. Hope can be a canoe across very difficult waters, just don’t drag it around with you through the forest after having successfully crossed them. ❤️ But to achieve acceptance during a situation such as you’ve described? Now that’s something altogether different, that would be extraordinary. We have to decide how we will handle the hardships when they come and there’s no right or wrong, only change and movement.
Great insight, thank you. And you’re right about that canoe, a helpful reminder. FWIW, I’ve read some Joseph Goldstein, Mark Epstein, and I’m a fan of Stephen Batchelor, but you my friend are on another level of reason and relatability in a fucked-up world that desperately needs it. Keep up the good work, we need to hear what you have to say.
Thank you Jon👊🏼
Beautifully and artfully woven verbal approach to the one consciousness. You put into words what cannot be put into words...
Your text is a delight. Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼
Thank you Melanie!❤️
This is profound. Hats off to you for such deep work. You have allowed tragedy and heartbreak to lead you home. You remind me of Eckard Tolle (with a few extra f-bombs).
High f-ing praise that! 😉 Thanks Jane❤️
I just found your Substack a few days ago. I’m very sorry about your daughter. Look up The Midwestern Doctor on Substack and read up on DMSO. I’m not saying it will fix things but it might
Thanks Rick❤️
BTW - we live about 250 miles apart. We are a town called Squaw Valley. Not Tahoe. East of Fresno on the mountain with King’s Canyon NP
Yes indeedy!
Born in and raised until I was 17 in FresNO
We are just up Hwy 180 as I’m sure you know
I love this so much. Thank you for sharing this with us. ☺️
Thanks for watching it!❤️
It was quite inspiring and something I definitely needed to hear. I will be digesting this message for a while now because it rings very true to me.
Layers upon layers, we just keep peeling...
This whole article lands in the Hell Yes side of my Venn diagram.
💥🙏 Thanks Laurie!
Me and you are on the same frequency and I’m here for it.
I had a moment of awareness of you and your family last night just before I closed my eyes. No more words really, just awareness and that ineffable connection of warmth and acknowledgement. Thank you for writing, 🙏🏼
From one of your posts I liked best: "A weaver is best within form to weave only now- because now is the most vibrant tapestry of all if you simply pay attention to it, and only it."
Acceptance and hope are interesting to think about - is one better than the other or are we maybe best off with both. AA calls it acceptance and courage, but I'd have a very hard time mustering courage without hope - as in, why bother. Acceptance seems very Buddhist to me, while hope may be the Christian way forward. I am old and have needed some combination of both in my life, but I,m 100% in favor of whatever gets you through.
I haven’t read your pre-substack writing, but your little Maisie sounds like a warrior to me, a real fighter, far more willful towards a future than passive. Of course I don’t know her, except through you here, but it is the picture I have. Nor is your writing passive in the least - it is angry and fierce.
Both are obtained through our chosen narratives. Perhaps a cocktail of both, or perhaps a shot of acceptance chased by a beer of hope. We do what works for us. The real message though is to realize either construct for what they are, a made up thing comprised of temporary electrical fluctuations in our wrinkly pink meat computer. To realize and observe both is to seat yourself in something that must be separate from them to see. That’s the big secret that’s not really a secret❤️
Some people seem to have always known, and are comfortable with who they are. As if they’ve lived lives before this one. Others work hard, but can never get to a place of acceptance. Others find it after a life changing event.
I suspect a lot of it is the way we happen to be wired. Acceptance isn't an issue for people who don’t know what it means to feel “other." The great leveler is the life-changing event, the cosmic injustice over which we have no control. Acceptance is forced on us because the only other option is suicide. I guess the trick is to accept the present without losing the future.
I think all good writers are observers.
Wow! Who the fuck are you? You’re like a fucking guru….. favorite line here - “You are a blade of grass that can withstand life’s tempests and wind by your willingness to bend.” Awesome!
Guru is a shitty job, having to pretend you’re all holy and shit all the time to try to trick people into becoming what they already are. Better to be freeee agent my man😉👊🏼
Love to you