Spring is springing in the smallest state in the United States – Rhode Island. That means any day now the lawn will be in need of the first mowing of the year.

I hear that confession is good for the soul, so I confess that I’ve never been a fan of mowing the lawn. I’ve done it countless times and have always been left with an empty feeling when the task was completed. When people would ask, “Don’t you have a good feeling about your accomplishment?” the answer was always “No.” People scratched their head in bewilderment and I went on unfulfilled by my completed task.

When I was watching Eckhart Tolle speak the other night, it all came into focus and The Grasshopper gave me this piece of “Green Thumbery”:

“The quality of the steps determines the quality of the journey.”

If the steps of the journey are comprised of low level, negative energy, the outcome is insured to be low level. It may have all the outward appearances of accomplishment, but the energy that permeates the final product determines its perception.

My lawn mowing was accompanied by my miasmic mutterings. I was in a vaporous bog of negativity. More time was spent thinking about how I didn’t want to be doing this rather than paying attention to the doing. That is a prescription for having a cup that can never be filled.

I’m not suggesting that you or I fall in love with pushing a mower around. What I’m requesting is that when we find ourselves doing a task that isn’t at the top of our favorites’ list, that we go about it mindfully. That means to give each step the proper attention it needs without the mindless chit-chat that always delivers the same thing – an empty feeling.

This is not a request to put your heart into cleaning up dog poop from the yard; it’s more about the quality of attention you bring to a situation. This practice has deeper roots than doing unattractive household tasks.

What are you attracting into your life? The answer should be easy. Just look around. Whatever is ever present is what you are attracting. Now the question becomes, “Is this what I want to be surrounded by?” if the answer is “No,” start paying attention to the steps.

Let’s look at the concept of “Obligation.” Suppose that you feel obligated to do something. You are duty bound to complete this objective. Suppose that objective is to work in an unattractive job to feed your family. If you approach the daily steps you take towards your job with animus and loathing, the financial remuneration, no matter how great, will be filled with low level energy, and the goods and services it buys will be tainted by this force field. Reminds me of a story . . .

There were two boyhood friends in the 1950’s – one was Catholic; the other was Jewish. They were out walking around town and the Jewish boy found a dollar on the ground. He decided to share his good fortune with his friend. “Let’s go get some hamburgers” was his invitation. Did I mention it was Friday? The Catholic boy said, “No I can’t have a hamburger because it’s Friday and we don’t eat meat on Friday.” The Jewish boy didn’t understand. He said, “Aren’t you hungry? Come on, I have a dollar and I can already taste those burgers.” The Catholic boy went along and had burgers for lunch. They tasted wonderful, but a half hour later he was having awful feelings about having eaten meat on Friday.

This is not a judgement on anyone’s beliefs just an observation that our beliefs infuse our actions with energy. It’s up to us about the type of energy we bring to the situation. Our beliefs are the stepping stones that provide a walkway for our journey. If our beliefs keep us bumping into reality and causing us pain, we are living in an illusionary, low level existence. It may be time to adopt some new beliefs that generate higher quality energy.

Back to the unattractive job . . . there are choices. You could approach the job with mindfulness about the task you are involved with at the moment. This mindfulness short circuits the constant blabbing inside your head and opens up some space in your thinking. When there is space in your thinking, the opportunity for new ideas to pop in increases. One of those new ideas may be the stepping stone to your new career. This thought will never get the opportunity to present itself if you’re constantly blathering inside your mind that you’re too important to cut the grass.

The energy you bring to something has an effect. Mindfulness is high level energy. Pay attention to the steps and the journey will take care of itself.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

Verbs are the action words of the English language. They often communicate movement. Verbs also have tenses – too many to mention, so let’s focus on the three that are used most – past present and future. Reminds me of a story . . .

Back in 1974 I was offered a radio job in St. Louis by a man I came to like less and less. I was, however, impressed by a piece of information he shared with me on the phone. He told me that my performance would improve by making one slight adjustment – using action verbs. For example, if you are the morning DJ on a station, you may say something like, “WXYZ the home of the hits and you may be having trouble popping out of bed this morning so here is my way of helping you with a song by Stark Naked & the Car Thieves on WXYZ.” His suggestion would be to say, “WXYZ – the home of the hits pops you out of bed and gets you on your way. Here’s Stark Naked & The Car Thieves on WXYZ.” It was more succinct and communicated more action. Little did I know that was the only helpful piece of information he would ever offer.

Have you noticed that action can only take place now?

“I raked the leaves last fall” has no impact on the pile sitting on your lawn right now. Action may have taken place in the past but that is only a memory now. Raking is not happening now. It happened then.

“I’m going to begin an exercise program” has no current action attached to it. It’s deferred to the future, yet our mind thinks we have taken action by making this declaration.

How many of your verbs are past and future related? Action can only take place in the present tense.

One of my most unfavorite phrases is, “I tried that.” Forget for a moment that the word “try” connotes no action. When I investigate the person’s use of this phrase with follow-up questions, I usually discover there was a lack of necessary effort on their part to achieve their goal.

Goals require sustained action. The athlete who only turns it on for the big game will have a shorter career than most. When his physical prowess begins to diminish, he has nothing to fall back on. The athlete who takes sustained action elongates his professional window of opportunity.

How much hit and miss is present in your life? It boils down to a noun that needs the moving energy of a verb – Action.

After formulating a goal, here is a suggestion: Ask yourself, “What action can I take right now to move towards this desire?” The answer may be “nothing at this time” but there is action embedded in the question.

Develop the practice of asking yourself, “What action can I take right now?” You will surprise yourself how much more action you take by asking this one simple present moment question.

Go ahead, give it a spin right now and see what happens.

WHAT ACTION CAN I TAKE RIGHT NOW?

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

There is a classic song by Bob Seger called “Still The Same.” Every time I hear it, I am reminded of a boyhood friend who has always lived on the outer fringes of life – a thrill seeker. Many have called him a hopeless drunk but it goes deeper than that.

The alcohol is just a medication. He’s trying to make the “pain of same” go away.

Same for him is perceived as not achieving cultural rewards or positions and being stuck in mediocrity. He has abundant talent but could never get ahead. One step forward, two steps back is his dance. The life he wants is different than the life he has. That goal is shared by many but it’s how you go about the transformation that decides whether you move forward or not. It’s a frame of reference.

Our ego wants us to be different so we can be seen as an individual – separate and apart from others. Same to the ego smacks of communism, uniforms and boredom.

This is not a rant on anti-individualism. I think that being a unique individual is part of the grand plan that adds just the right amount of spice to the dish known as life.

Accepting our shared sameness allows us the freedom to be an individual. The difference with this angle of approach is that you don’t perceive yourself as separate and apart. All of my old friend’s exotic efforts are to set him apart from others because he thinks that’s what he needs to achieve the elusive rewards that never come. Then he buys himself a fake blue ribbon known as a bottle of spirits to hide his shame of being the same.

The self image of someone who suffers from “sameness” is always missing something – depth.

They are stuck on a surface level where the rewards, even when achieved, seem hollow – setting them on another frantic quest for the “Holey Frail.”

The stillness that lives within everything is always the same. It never changes. It fosters change in us but it is always the same. It never evolves but is the source for our evolvement. It’s almost like Bob Seeger’s song title is an ancient Chinese aphorism about this essence of life – Still The Same.

The “out there” is really “in here.”

Stillness is the father of all manifestation and the motherly womb where it is conceived. The ego is but a test tube trying to replicate creation.

Discovering the deep essence of being the same gives life to all of our endeavors and takes us past the superficial wants of the glitz dazzled ego. We find richness in our life that can’t be put there by riches.

I have come to the knowing that earthly desires are fruits born from stillness rather than from chasing the horizon, and that dissatisfaction in life is the offspring of the ego’s seed of separation.

“Trying” to be different is a whole continent away from allowing your difference to evolve. One leaves you wanting and the other keeps you in the natural flow of life which never varies. It’s still the same.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

I remember learning to tie knots that I will probably never use back when I was in Boy Scouts. It was fun. The knots all had a purpose. Two that immediately come to mind are the “Sheepshank” and the “Bowline.”

The Sheepshank was used to shorten a long length of rope without having to cut it. The Bowline was the knot you tied around your waist if you were ever stuck in a deep hole and someone threw you a lifeline.

As a parent of 3 boys, I was always presented with knots in shoelaces, yo-yo’s and in other things that they couldn’t get out. I was the household king of knot untying. Then the fatherly bragging rights surfaced as I frequently announced there was not a knot I couldn’t untie. It may wind up on my tombstone. It’s quite the legacy.

Knots do have a dual purpose – to show you their functionality and to identify the problem location.

Think of knots as the intellectual approach to solving a dilemma. It has its uses. Based on experience, you can call on a way you’ve successfully used that knot in the past and apply it to the current situation. But suppose that doesn’t pull you out of the ditch this time around. Are you going to keep tying the same knot? Most people do.

Additionally, on several occasions, you will run into a knot that you can’t consciously untie. It’s past the scope of your expertise – even if you’re the reigning champ. The conditioned thing we do at that time is to damage a wall with our head.

The 4^th verse of the Tao Te Ching, the ancient Chinese book of wisdom provides a solution. Lao-tzu, the writer of these 81 incredible verses offers a way when he writes of the mystical force of the Tao:

It blunts all sharp edges,

It unties all tangles

It harmonizes all lights,

It unites the world into one whole.

I wonder if you have ever noticed that the words, “unties” and “unites” have the exact same letters?

When we untie ourselves from the concept that we are separate from our source of life, we begin the process of allowing that force to unite with our human mind and allow solutions to flow in.

Our life force that Lao-tzu named the Tao can show us how to tie every known and unknown useful knot. It can also loosen anything that’s entangled.

If you’re all tied up with your thinking to the point that you cause knots in your stomach, may I suggest that you find that untying and uniting force within.

Side Note: You won’t find the solution with alcohol. It only helps you “tie one on.” It just adds to your collection of seemingly untie-able knots.

Find the time each day for quiet contemplation and visit with the animating life force that is who you really are. Allow this ever present source of life to permeate every cell of your mind and body and find out first hand that there’s not a knot it can’t untie.

All the best,

John

P.S. Thank you to all who participated in our FREE Hypnosis Session via conference call last night. There was a welcoming energy on the call that was conducive to allowing our critical consciousness to take a vacation and make room for solutions to bubble up. I look forward to doing many more in the future.

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

Hype is a shortened form of the word, “Hyperbole.” The dictionary defines hyperbole as “obvious and intentional exaggeration.”

It’s a wonderful poetic way to compare things and bring more attention to a statement. The hyperbolic statement, “The crime of the century” implies that the writer has compared this crime to all the other ones of this century and this one is the crime of all crimes. Hyperbole gets your attention.

You would have a “brain the size of a pea” if you paid attention to all the hype that comes your way.

Hype is a way of life. It’s imbedded in our culture and it is omnipresent. Advertising is the poster child for hype. It’s not enough to present your product or service to see if there is an interest. Advertisers add exaggeration (translation: lies) to their ad copy to bust through the clutter in your head and claim a piece of real estate in your mind. This is not a condemnation of persuasive writing and advertising; it’s more of an attempt to get you to quickly spot hype and dismiss it.

Envision yourself coming back from the mailbox and standing over a trash can in your kitchen and spotting the hype in the mail you receive and tossing it in the receptacle “faster than the speed of light.”

My guess is you are pretty adept at spotting hype and here is a way to insure that a well crafted, slippery piece of hyperbole doesn’t sneak in on you and lead you down a barren trail.

Fine tune your “Hype Filter.” I’ve mention in the past that famed defense attorney, Jerry Spence says that we all have a BS filter. The difficulty is that it may be clogged. We clog our hype filter when we make all of our discernments in our head. The hype filter lives in your body – your sensing self – not in your mind.

The body is always sending the alert signal to the mind, but our thinking is so jammed that the impression our body is sending cannot translate into words and deeds.

Start paying attention to your body more often and you will not be victimized by the sea of hyperbole that surrounds you.

Here’s an exercise that will begin to clear out your hype filter so you can use it more often. Think of a time that someone said something that you wanted to believe but you had an “odd feeling” about it. You ignored the sensation and later on paid a price. We all have many experiences that we can point to like that. What I’m asking you to do is to notice the feeling you had at that time. Go back in your imagination to that time and envision what was being communicated to you and notice the specific feeling in your body that you had. Notice where it shows up – throat, chest, stomach, bowels, etc – and notice the intensity of the sensation. Then find another time that you had an “odd feeling” about and notice the location and intensity. This sensation is your hype filter. Practice this visualization exercise over and over again until you can automatically detect that sensation whenever it arises.

Paying attention to your hype filter will not only save you money it can save you from unnecessary heartache.

Your hype filter is a piece of software that is always running in the background. In order to maximize its potential, you would be well served by paying attention to your body more often.

I would tell you that my CD, RELAX IN 2 MINUTES will help anyone get more in touch with their bodily sensations, but that may be a lot of hype. Always check with your body first.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

There is a two sided coin that has learning on one side and revelation on the other. They meet somewhere at the sides of the coin. That means they are always attached yet seem to be opposites.

We think in opposites – dichotomies. We think that everything has an opposite – good/bad, right/wrong, Mother Theresa/Greedy CEO.

If we can set the concept of duality aside for a moment, I believe we can see the common ground that all dichotomies share. This vision of commonality will assist us in melding differences and reaping deeper connections between seeming opposites.

Let’s look at learning and revelation. They are different and the same. They both put us in touch with something we didn’t know. Learning seems to be technical in nature – meaning there are formulas to follow. Revelation seems to be instant learning where the steps aren’t always visible. The learning (collection of successive pieces) isn’t always conscious. Reminds me of a story . . .

I’ve had a driver’s license since I’ve been 16. Before that I was a passenger in many cars. I was exposed to all sorts of highway information getting into my consciousness – much of which I was unaware of. The conscious focus we have does not get to see all the data that we are exposed to on the periphery, yet we process that information other than consciously. When I was 44, I had a highway revelation. I was traveling to a seminar in Massachusetts and I saw a highway sign that I had seen literally thousands of times. I never questioned the sign and really never knew its meaning. It was just there. Then all of a sudden, I got the gift of awareness that the sign meant I was either on a bridge or going under an overpass. It was learning and revelation rolled into one.

The collection of data had been ongoing. The assembly of that data into a revelation showed me how one side of the coin meshes with the other.

We can, however, have learning without revelation. That’s usually the case when we act as if we know it all or think that we need more facts to get an answer. The focus remains on deliberate learning which crams our limited consciousness and doesn’t allow revelation in. Revelation is always knocking at the door. We just have the music up too loud to hear it, or the blinds closed so we can’t see it.

There is impatience with people in “getting it.” We all want it yesterday. It’s the cultural conditioning of our world that has us think this way. Most schools teach nose to the grindstone and repetition as the formula for success. I submit more learning and revelations would take place in the typical 50 minute class if the last 5 minutes were dedicated to integration. That means a period of quiet contemplation that allows the mind to still and gives revelation an opportunity to enter.

Trying to get to the other side of the coin gets in the way of getting there. Maybe we can put the same thing on both sides of the coin and label it as “Levelation.” This way we show how adding the two together makes them partners instead of apart.

I trust this blogpost will be a learning experience that leads to a revelation for all of us.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

Chris the carpet cleaning guy is coming today. It’s a bi-annual event that justifies me not having to buy new carpeting. It got me wondering if there was a lesson brewing here for me. If you think I’ve gone Martha Stewart on you, please notice that thought and make space for another one to pop in.

When you witness the rug cleaning process, you first see the amount of dirt that comes up with a high powered vacuum. Then you see a cleaning agent being applied to the tough spots and then heated water sprayed into the carpeting. Finally, you watch the applied moisture being sucked back out. If you look at the water tank on his truck that contains the removed water, you can see that it looks darker than over-brewed coffee.

The carpets take a few hours to dry and they look much nicer than before they were cleaned.

It’s a surface cleaning that lasts until the next time.

If you ever do spring for new carpeting, you will notice that no matter how clean the old carpets look on the surface, when you pull them up, there is abundant dirt sitting underneath on the floorboards. It’s eye-opening to see the amount of yucky stuff that sits where you can’t see it.

You’ve got to notice the dirt before you know it’s there. You can deny that it’s there because you don’t own the experience that I’ve just described, but that does nothing to change the reality of the hidden piles of muck.

How much superficial cleaning do we all do to get us to the next time? That’s called consciously working it out. We come up with a temporary solution to a difficulty that has deeper causes. That means we keep dealing with the same issues over and over.

What issue keeps popping up for you? It’s a sign that there is plenty of crud beneath the surface – just waiting for the opportunity to rear its grimy head. It may be time for new carpeting.

Awareness is the doorway to the new carpet store. Become aware that you have a recurring pattern. Give it attention when you notice that you are running it. This unbiased, unemotional noticing provides the means and action necessary to open the door to new décor.

The cultural answers to your carpet grime are all superficial. “You need a vacation, a separation, a change of scenery, a different job, an avant-garde hairdo, a miracle solvent” are the temporary answers that our surface culture provides. Remember this when exclusively considering cultural answers: It takes a village to raise an idiot.

Take a deep breath, exhale slowly and notice that staying on the surface only gets you to the next time. If there is a difficulty that you are ready to deal with, the first step is to stop sweeping it under the rug.

Just notice the situation without judgement of any sort. When you have the “presence of mind” (meaning being a witness to your thoughts), you have begun the process of ripping up the old carpets and cleaning out what is beneath them. A little section each day is sufficient. You don’t need to do the whole project at once. This lifting and cleaning process makes room for a new surface to walk on that adds a cozy, comfortable sensation to the quality of your life.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

Inertia is my weakest suit. It’s always the piece that stands in the way of me beginning something I assess as worthwhile.

I could call it lazy and leave it at that but it’s abundantly clear that when I do begin something, I put massive amounts of effort into it that could never be labeled as lazy.

Then I began to wonder about this lifelong trait and discovered that I see things as a whole rather than a collection of their component parts. This makes everything look like a mountain. It takes lots of effort to climb a mountain. Then I got a gift from The Grasshopper. All he said was “Today.”

The meaning wasn’t clear at first, but images of a workshop I attended many years ago popped into my head. It was a management workshop where the group leader said that the objective is never to get to a 10 – 10 being the ideal. His advice was to assess where you were on the continuum of Zero to 10 by assigning your current position as a number. Let’s suppose you deemed yourself to be a 4. The question you want to ask yourself at that point is not how do I get to 10, but how do I get to a 5?

When we view something as a mountain, we miss seeing the foot trails that will lead us to the top. It’s usually at this point that we find a diversion to dwell on. Reminds me of a story . . .

My friend and business partner, John Leslie tells the tale of a guy who moved into his neighborhood. He watched this fellow standing in the driveway of his new home staring at all the boxes the movers had stored in the garage. They were stacked from floor to ceiling. Having moved a number of times himself, John said he could see the wheels turning in the new neighbor’s head and he could almost read his thoughts about what a big job it was going to be to unpack all those boxes and put the items where they belonged. After contemplating this chore, this man picked up a broom and swept the driveway.

I’ve done a lot of driveway sweeping in my time and the way to put down that broom and accomplish your objective is to focus on today. What can I do today that will have me step in the direction I want to go? What piece of the jigsaw puzzle can I put in place today? It doesn’t have to be a big piece. In fact, it’s better that you begin slowly so it doesn’t feel like a monumental task.

I always find that a list is helpful. Most of us have enough hubris that we think we can keep everything in our head all the time. Oftentimes, it’s productive to take that collection of thoughts and commit them to paper and then prioritize them. Then it’s time to ask the question, what can I do today?

You may get caught up in a diversionary internal conversation and say things like, “doing this little thing won’t accomplish anything.” Notice that conversation. Let it have its say and then do the small piece anyway. This is the gift of willpower – to do the little things. Willpower can never accomplish the big things; it only has enough energy to accomplish the small pieces. When enough small pebbles begin to accumulate, the beginning of an avalanche cannot be that far off.

Ask yourself the following question right now and see what happens.

WHAT CAN I DO TODAY?

All the best,

John

P.S. I am offering a FREE Hypnosis session via conference call this Thursday night, April 24^th at 9 PM EDT and you’re invited. Did I mention the session is FREE? The call is limited to 100 people. Here’s how to participate:

1. Call 712-451-6000 (Please call about 20 minutes early to insure your space)

2. Enter the following code when prompted by the operator 642177#

3. Have a pen and paper handy. There will be an important written exercise to do before I conduct the Hypnosis Session.

Recommendation: Please find a quiet place in your home where you will remain undisturbed for an hour.

Note: This is not a toll free call. Most people these days have phone plans that include unlimited long distance. If that’s the case for you, this will not be a concern. If your phone company charges you by the minute, you may want to calculate whether the toll charges they assess make sense for you. We do not charge for the call.

I’m reading a book called, THE ART OF LEARNING by Josh Waitzkin. He’s the young man the movie SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISHER was based on. He was a chess champion and also a martial arts champion. I’m only about a third through it but he wrote about a position that we have all found ourselves in. He calls it:

“The disconcerting chasm between what was and what is.”

What an enlightening phrase. The realization of this consternation becomes a choice point in our lives.

“What was” and “what is” can be worlds apart. The author’s observation is that when chess players entertain this comparison during a match they usually spiral downward and lose. He makes the same observation about life.

If we are present enough to notice this fork in the road, we shorten our suffering and get walking on the path that offers the most promise. Reminds me of a story . . .

The exact details are sketchy but my son and my grandson were having a discussion about something that didn’t go as planned. My grandson was hooked on the position that if his father hadn’t done such and such, the situation would have turned out differently. He kept coming back to that logic and continued to make his point over and over again. Later in the day, I caught up with my grandson and engaged him in a football question. He’s a big New England Patriots fan. I said, suppose there were only 30 seconds left in the game, with no time outs and the Patriots were trailing by 4 points and had the ball on the opponent’s 30 yard line. Tom Brady (New England’s Quarterback) hands off the ball to Kevin Faulk (a halfback) who’s supposed to run left where all his blocking is set but chooses to go against the play and run right and gets tackled. The clock can’t be stopped at this point. It continues to run. I then asked, “How productive would it have been at that point for Tom Brady to run to the spot where Kevin was tackled and take time to berate him for running in the wrong direction as the clock was ticking down?” My grandson said, “not very.” I then asked him what he thought the best strategy would be at that point. He said to hurry to the line of scrimmage and throw a pass into the end zone. I told him I agreed with his strategy and left him to process my real message.

We can focus on what was. It’s always a choice – a choice that keeps us stuck. When we focus on what is, then options begin to appear. They will never show their face when we wear the blinders of what was.

Take time to observe how many times you make the comparison between what you have no control over – what was – and the current situation. Only one option has the ability to pull you out of the quicksand. It’s not a guaranteed touchdown, but the odds are much better than the zero odds of focusing on what was.

Think of this as the choice between two champagnes – one flat and one bubbly.

You’re better served to choose the FIZZ of WHAT IS.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

I love Smokey Robinson. I’ve had a man crush on him for over 40 years. I’ve seen him in concert 3 times in different decades. Each time, he reached in and touched my heart strings until the lump in my throat appeared. Like most men of my generation, I was conditioned not to come to tears quickly but Smokey adeptly picked that lock and grabbed my heart and massaged the tears out of it.

One of Smokey’s songs was not a big hit but I loved it. It’s called, “What’s So Good About Goodbye?” I guess I’m not the only one who appreciated it because it was covered by 2 other artists – The Temptations and Quix*O*Tic. Here are some of the lyrics as I remember them:

What’s so good about goodbye

All it does is make you cry

Well if leavin’ causes grievin’

And depart can break your heart

Tell me what’s so good about goodbye

A few years later The Beatles came along and had a song called, “Hello Goodbye” which I wasn’t a big fan of, but the title invited me to explore the old axiom of one door closing and another one opening. All this leads up to personal revelation I received from The Grasshopper. His exact pronouncement was:

“I found life in goodbye.”

These words also brought tears, but of a different kind. These were the tears of revelation whereas Smokey’s words activated an emotion in me allowing the accompanying tears to wash out the thoughts that were stuck in my head.

The revelation was that “Goodbye” allowed me to let go of attachment and say “Hello” to life. It’s the attachment that causes the pain. This in no way should be confused with indifference and not caring, nor is it a recommendation to renounce your possessions. This release of attachment lives on another level and is not subject to a conscious declaration like, “I’m letting go of attachment.” Like forgiveness, letting go of attachment has to visit you, not the other way around. You can open the door to invite it in, but you can’t lead it to water and make it drink.

Attachment is always accompanied by the word “My.” My job, my car, my husband/wife, my children, my social standing, my reputation are some of the phrases that we use all the time. When we open our eyes to the folly of “My,” we see the myopia of attachment.

Possession is always temporary and the more possessive we become, the longer the pain of “Goodbye” lingers when something goes away. This is really an addendum to the blog post I wrote awhile back called MY-ism. Your life situation, by conditioning, is chuck filled with attachment. The life that lives you is on a deeper level where there is no attachment, only connection.

Think of attachment as a puppet on a string. We are puppets with our ego manipulating the attachment strings. Then consider life to be a wireless connection to everything. There is a major difference. Attachment keeps us joined at the hip to suffering, and connection allows us to say hello to the freedom of life.

Start slowly. Begin saying “Goodbye” to attachments in small doses. You can monitor your language for the possessive words that act as glue to the underlying attachment. It could be as simple as saying, “let’s take the Maxima,” rather than saying, “Let’s ride in my car.” This does not mean to stop using the word, “My.” It’s merely an exercise to illustrate how attached we are. Just the noticing of your language causes the strings of attachment to weaken.

Finding the life beneath your life situation causes you to feel the unfettered connection to the common source of everything. All you have to do to get there is cut the strings.

All the best,

John

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