{"id":3863,"date":"2015-05-20T22:21:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T05:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/?p=3863"},"modified":"2015-05-20T22:21:51","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T05:21:51","slug":"constant-choosing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/?p=3863","title":{"rendered":"Constant Choosing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oXqPjx94YMg?rel=0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I love k.d. lang&#8217;s 1992 Constant Craving.\u00a0 Its sensual spiritual lyrics and longing melody pulls you in and resonates with something deep inside all of us. \u00a0 I often argue the issue of choice when I put on my neo-advida non-author beret and direct the discussion to the interconnectedness of unity consciousness.\u00a0 Because when I think about choice, I think about addiction and I see so many people trapped in the various ways we keep our self bound to our suffering.\u00a0 Moreover when I see the people who have somehow managed to break free of a particular vice &#8230; it seems to stem from so much more than freewill alone.<\/p>\n<p>So when someone says &#8230; you can CHOOSE to be at PEACE &#8230; I would be apt to dig in my heals and argue that there are times when CHOICE is not possible.\u00a0 And we certainly feel like we are somehow limited in our options when we are caught on the court of our racket brawls of the mind.\u00a0 But as a friend reminded me today it is not about Choice .. its about Choosing.\u00a0 Over and over again.<\/p>\n<p>And as thoughts sometimes crystallize in our corpus callosum with such clarity that they seem cutting edge as opposed to common sense &#8230; I could hear k.d. lang in the corners of my mind.\u00a0 Constant Craving.\u00a0 Constant Choosing.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, I can choose this thought &#8230; or that thought.\u00a0 Right now I can choose to step on or step off the treadmill.\u00a0 Right now I can choose to listen to the sound of running water from outside my window or the redneck hollering in his <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Code-switching\">code-switching<\/a>\u00a0 game play lexicon.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/wp-content\/uploads\/choose.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3868\" src=\"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/wp-content\/uploads\/choose.gif\" alt=\"choose\" width=\"455\" height=\"405\" \/><\/a>I can choose peace.\u00a0 Not for the next hour.\u00a0 Perhaps not even for the next minute.\u00a0 But for just this exhale .. when I let go of the idea that anything has to be different in order for me to be utterly happy &#8230; for this tiny micro-moment of NOW &#8230; I can choose Bliss.\u00a0 And then &#8230; I can choose again.<\/p>\n<p>I should add that my ability or inability to choose in the moment isn&#8217;t related to my success or failure, ineptitude or higher-caliber. \u00a0I can suggest or remind myself that choice may be possible, but I can not condemn, criticize or coach anyone else for I do not know the pebble in their shoe. \u00a0And in Truth its not about fixing anything. \u00a0It is simply <em>choosing<\/em> in this moment whatever it is that seems available to us. \u00a0A slight shift in position to be a bit more comfortable (or slightly less pain), a cup of tea, a longer exhale or a soft smile on our lips even when our mind is telling us to grimace. \u00a0We choose something &#8230; anything &#8230; <em><a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/preview\/Tiwrlms2fyes6bzioq7evfmomjq?lyrics=1&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=search&amp;utm_campaign=lyrics&amp;pcampaignid=kp-lyrics\" target=\"_blank\">even through the darkest phase<\/a><\/em> and then we choose again. \u00a0Constant Choosing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love k.d. lang&#8217;s 1992 Constant Craving.\u00a0 Its sensual spiritual lyrics and longing melody pulls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dharma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3863"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3871,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863\/revisions\/3871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}