Meditation for the day:

I just spent a year living in Portland, Oregon, isolated from my friends, daughter and husband. An entire year, working an exhausting, depreciating job I hate. I kept asking, "What am I doing here?"  I had spent all my savings to move my kids, pets and vast accumulation of possessions up here. I seemed stuck.

I knew I was waiting to learn a lesson and finally I learned two.

First: Lose the ego.

Why do you scorn others?
Can it be that you are that proud?
No matter how accomplished you are,
There are people ahead of you and behind you.
All beings on the path,
All victims of the same existence,
All with body, mind and spirit
No one is better than the next person.
Help others for all the times that you have been ignored.

Be kind to others, for all the times that you have been scorned.
The journey of humanity is the journey form ignorance to enlightenment.
There is injustice in the world, yes. but there is no need to add to it. When you see someone less fortunate, express compassion. When you see someone more advanced, try to learn from them. Any other feelings are superfluous.

 From Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao

Second: Lose the junk.
Shifting importance and priorities from material possessions to relationships, I decided not to worry about my things but to instead "lose all the junk" and as soon as I adopted this approach, the door opened. Next month I am leaving Portland and moving to LA. I get take my dogs and all the stuff I can cram into one small car... I'm very excited.