I live in Easy World

I have had a thought ripening in my head for a week, and I believe it is now time to let it burst forth.

Even as there have been times during the last month, as my wife and I have done all we know how to do in order to make the launch of her book Choosing Easy World as successful as our little Earth-bound selves could make it, that we have stressed out during the process, there have been long stretches of time when I have been flowing along without a care or concern, going about my chores in Easy World.

I do the family grocery shopping, usually with the largest amount of it done early on Saturday morning. A week ago, I drove to the grocery store where I start the odyssey--I shop at three stores on the average Saturday--because it is the one which opens at 6 a.m. and is virtually deserted at that hour. Plus, they are not stocking shelves as they are at my main destination store so it is less of an obstacle course.

What was unique about that drive to the store was that I did not stop all the way there. It's about four miles, and the route includes ten or more traffic lights. One, in particular, is always red if I make the three lights just prior to arriving at that intersection (hey, a computer guy has to do something with all that spare brain power when he is out of work! I track traffic signals and remember the patterns). A week ago, it was green. Heck, all of them were green either in time for me to breeze through or in time for me to slow a bit but not stop and wait.

It's exactly the kind of thing many people would miss! I noticed it because of my, uh, unique passion for such things, and because when you are in Easy World, you are much more aware of RIGHT NOW. You are not trapped in your past or wasting energy worrying about stuff which probably won't erupt into your life at all.

[Editor's note: Rick gets carried away by stuff most people find excruciatingly meh. Skip ahead if you are not fascinated by parking-lot pull-thru's]

Last week, in addition to my "make all the lights" experience, I noticed at my first stop as I drove into the parking lot that the parking place I chose was a pull-thru, which is an opportunity to pull into a spot and keep going so that you are in the spot which would have been occupied by a car facing toward you...only, there is no car there.

I like pull-thru spots because you are heading out, therefore no backing up is necessary when it is time to leave. I really don't like backing out of parking spaces in grocery-store parking lots. It's just scary, as I have thousands of pounds of metal under my control, and the pedestrian I might not see is vulnerable to significant injury if they don't see me coming and I don't know they are there.

At the first store today, I had parked in a spot, a regular spot, and expected to need to back out of it when I came out of the store. In other words, there was a car in the spot opposite me, meaning I could not pull on forward.

Lo and behold, when I come out of the store, the car which had been blocking me was gone. I had a clear path to pull forward, and then head on out of the lot without any backing needed.

Look out! The Hammer is in Easy World!!

Next stop, I see the same situation, in that the parking spot I chose has an occupied opposite spot. No problem! I'll get my stuff in the store, come back out, and the person will have left. I'm understanding all of this now. I have this figured out!

When I finish shopping, I come out to discover that the car blocking me is still there.

Oh, the agony! The car blocking me is still there.

I have fallen out of Easy World!!

Thank goodness I was able to let go of that initial impression easily. I had fallen for a Difficult World Dictator trick, which is to lure us into thinking that we are able to control/drive/predict exactly how Easy World will deliver the goods for us. Of course, we are not. If we fall for the trick and think we are in control, our first conflict with reality will sell us that the DWD was right. Life is not easy! It is hard, hard, really hard.

Wrongo, moosebreath!

Easy World is totally autonomous when it comes to playing out how something happens when we are there to witness it. Think about it! If the way to Easy World is paved with ALLOWING tarmac, you gotta know that allowing is a required action in order to stay put in easy, breezy, lemon-squeezy, twice-as-nonsneezy world.

That's where I had booted myself to the curb. I had decided that my first experience of the day, where the opposite car was gone when I came out, would be replicated at store # 2.

When my expectation wasn't met, when the car opposite was still in the way and I had to back out, I doubted at first. Practice in this tricky "allowing" thing made it possible for me to get over myself and continue on my route. Before I had traveled even six blocks, I was rewarded with another light sequence made which normally is red, and I noticed a traffic policeman on the side of the road awaiting speeders in time to make sure I was at a legal speed (not that good, law-abiding Rick would *ever* exceed the posted limit!).

Every single item on the grocery list my lovely wife had made was found with ease and acquired without the slightest difficulty. This is not always the case! Do you think it is easy to find free-range, organic spring mix? Most of it is grown in captivity, not allowed to roam. [grin]

Bottom line: Easy World thrives on residents which allow it to do its work, to provide exactly what is needed at exactly the proper moment with exactly no drama at all.

We are the source of all of our drama! When we allow our lives to unfold while, at the same time, holding to our passions and seeking their expression, we are in a sweet spot, a divinely designated place, a matrix I like to call Easy World.

Our Baby!

Sometimes, a baby is born who simply demands that you get out of the way before said baby steps on some part of you and makes you cry.

Then, after the baby has tromped through the house and gone outside by making a baby-shaped hole in the wall, you cry.

Julia and I celebrated our baby's first walk outside, admiring the hole in the wall, at about 9:30 last night.

Here is our first baby picture.

Julia Rogers Hamrick interviewed by Káren Wallace

Check this out!

My good friend Káren Wallace, she of http://thecalmspace.com and my buddy from Joyful Jubilant Learning, sat with Julia in a virtual space filled with joy and laughter.

This is the resulting chat.

Enjoy!

Gotta have GAS

One of the more-intriguing aspects of life: the always-present issue of balance. If you think of any area of our lives, somewhere inside it is a need for, or a resistance against, balance.

My wife, the amazing Julia Rogers Hamrick, is big on the concept of allowing, of surrendering control to the aspect of ourselves which is always connected to the All That Is, or Great Mind. We usually refer to our connection as our Higher Self.

It struck me this morning that one of the balancing aspects to that idea of going with the flow and letting life be easy requires of us more than ease and relaxation. Of course, that's the nature of the yin/yang, give and take, push and pull. Life is all about the contrasts and contradictions.

When we are able, though, to allow the seemingly contradictory feelings to coexist, we can end up in a really cool place.

While allowing our daily lives to flow and move with a rhythm of their own, we also can be passionate about what happens and care a great deal about outcomes.

In fact, it is the very passion we feel welling up in us which helps the river decide its direction and speed. It is our GAS (Give A Shit) factor.

If you don't GAS, you don't enjoy the ride of the leaf on the water nearly as much.

We trip up when we care so much that we demand total control and take the wheel. It's a challenge being easy and free, yet caring a whole lot at the same time. When you are in that sweet spot, though, there is nothing finer.