Category Archives: success

Whole and in union. > Fragmented and divided.

Have you ever met a whole person? If you have, they stick with you. Their words, their insights, their expressions, their actions, and their responses all echo from a place of wholeness, unity, reconciliation, and compassion. Everything about them is like a song. A song that heals. A song that illuminates. They know that they don’t know and somehow this has mysteriously connected their dots of life, meaning, and purpose.

Have you ever spent time with a fragmented or divided person? Every moment offers them an opportunity to earn another Masters of Victim Administration. They’ll hand out mirrors as often as they can but they’ll never look in one themselves. The problem is always “over there” and it could never be “in here”. They define everything, including themselves and others, through the lens of competition, criticism, ranking, fragmentation, and division. For some reason they would rather chop and retweet wood with the media to fuel the fires of noise than be an unnoticed vessel for redemption. This is consciousness at the lowest, reptilian level.

The etymology of the word and the idea of a person, comes from the latin verb personare. Per = through….sonar = sound. A sounding through. The original meaning of what it meant to be human was to be a sounding through. How beautiful is that?

Lesson(s) of the day:

  • The message of hope and the music of Love cannot travel through something that is fragmented and divided.
  • We have to start sharing the good and healing moments and movements that are happening and not the loud and clanging symbols of quid pro quo.
  • Most noise makers, unfortunately, haven’t been shown a better way. That’s where you come in.

 

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Podcast 44: Chasing Slow with Erin Loechner

Before age 30, Erin Loechner built a fan base of one million women worldwide and earned the title “The Nicest Girl Online” as she was praised for her authentic voice and effortless style. Though she received applause from The New York Times, friends and family, she was still left wanting more.

In her upcoming book Chasing Slow: Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path (Zondervan, January 10, 2017), Erin shares her journey away from fast, fame and frenzy to a new-fashioned lifestyle of less. Less want, more contentment. Less busy, more rest. Less pressure, more happiness. Less striving, more acceptance. Less fast, more slow.

Erin joins us in this episode at Let The Music Play Podcast as we talk about surrender, abundance, grace, and letting go of the scorecards we tend carry in our lives.

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Be sure to share this episode with those you love and those you lead!

As always you can stream or download every episode in iTunes or at AshtonGustafson.com.

 

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DisCOVERy…

…won’t happen unless we pull back the curtains…

…we won’t pull back the curtains as long as we’re content with the status quo…

…and we’ll be content with the status quo as long as we boast more in the certitude of our answers than we do with the mystery of our questions.

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Normal

Today we return to our original tempo and tone as humans. Gratitude was always meant to be our song.

We our wired to be awe-struck and wonder-eyed by the infinite givenness of universe. 

Today we celebrate this givenness…the seen and the unseen…the known and the unknown…the certainty and the Mystery. 

We must return to this as our normal state of being.

When the human spirit is rooted in gratitude, it becomes a channel and, subsequently, a river for love, grace, and peace. In other words, our posture today is the great predecessor to what will heal us and our world.

Take note of how little you try to judge, critique, change, or fix what is today. You simply just enjoy it for what it is and you reflect on the enjoyment.

May we repeat today all of our days.

We can do better than 1 out of 365.

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Small, quiet, & unseen.

Reflect on the words that have shaped you. Those small words spoken to your soul, over your life, and into your bones.

Your small words matter. They enlarge those you’ve been entrusted with.

Think of your heroes. Not the ones in sports or on tv. Think of the ones that, truly, made your path possible and opened the doors that you could have never opened yourself. I would imagine these people were tender, tasteful, and sublimely human. And probably quiet.

Love tends to be tender, human, and quiet. A billion @ mentions pales in comparison to your quiet role in someone breathing a little easier because of your quiet involvement. 

Now, can you recall some moments that are forever stuck in your head and burned into your memory? The unseen things that only you can claim were for you. A hug. A wink. A tear. A smile. A pair of hands raised in a crowd for you. The hands that caught your fall. The world didn’t see this. But you did.

99.9% of why you are here will be unseen for the rest of the world…but  .0000001% couldn’t do it without you.

Alas, you’re a really big deal. In your own small, quiet, and unseen way.

Namaste.

 

 

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