January 2010's Weekly Quotes

January 4, 2010
"There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive….We have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have a sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls." – Sam Keen

January 11, 2010
"Joy is not in things; it is in us." – Richard Wagner


January 18, 2010
"…when we remove ourselves from direct and wholehearted participation in life…emptiness and boredom creep in. It is then that we begin our search for something or someone that will alleviate our gnawing dissatisfaction. Yet the search is endless to the extent that we are continually led away from ourselves and our experience in the moment. If we fully appreciate the learning and love that life offers us in each moment, then we feel less desire for material luxuries that contribute little to our well-being and that deprive those in genuine need of scarce resources. When we live with simplicity, we give ourselves and others a gift of life." – Duane Elgin


January 25, 2010
"They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price." – Khalil Gibran

Want to hear a great talk?

I just discovered that the talk I gave a couple years or so ago at Many Rivers Books and Tea in Sebastopol is available at this site: http://www.manyriversbooks.com/Audio/FollowingRavenFindingGround.mp3.

I listened to it again tonight and was wildly pleased. It was a really good talk, based on my book Following Raven, Finding Ground: A Road Trip in Search of Home, that discussed the importance of facing your fears to find the life you want. As an added bonus, I remembered how much fun that night was, sharing my thoughts with that room full of people.

The talk comes in at a little over an hour. If you'd like to hear a shorter version (24 minutes), recorded over the telephone specifically to be available as an mp3 (instead of recorded live and then uploaded to the internet), visit my website (www.clairejosefine.com).

January 2010 Newsletter - Get Organized Month

It's January, a new year, and the perfect time to clear out the old, bring in the new. Take a look around you and ask, "Why do I have all this? Is it still of value to me?" If not, perhaps it's time to pass it along.

If you would like help determining what to keep and what to pass on -- or how to organize the things you're keeping -- please call me. I can be reached at 707-268-8585. (And to help motivate you, I'm offering 20% off all client sessions for the month of January.)

For more ideas on organizing, please visit my website at www.ClaireJosefine.com. And to view a 5-minute snippet of me discussing the spiritual aspects of being organized, check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KKFzZqJK2I


Tip of the Month
Instead of asking how recently you used an item, ask yourself, "Does it make me smile?" If not, and if it’s not fundamentally useful, put it back out into the world so that it can bring joy to another.

Quote of the Month
"The more he gives to others, the more he possesses of his own." – Lao Tzu

Final quotes for 2009

December 21, 2009
“I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats.” - Eckhart Tolle






December 28, 2009
"Our lives are also fed by kind words and gracious behavior. We are nourished by expressions like “excuse me,” and other such simple courtesies. Our spirits are also richly fed on compliments and praise, nourished by consideration as well as whole wheat bread. Rudeness, the absence of the sacrament of consideration, is but another mark that our time-is-money society is lacking in spirituality, if not also in its enjoyment of life." – Ed Hays