Love and appreciate this planet for all it has given us and continues to give us. I believe that all sentinent life can feel the benefit of appreciation.
Enjoy simply being (not necessarily having to do - just being with) the people you like and love. The little day to day rituals - a meal together, watching the children play, etc. Cultivate solitude and quiet within your being - make time every day for it.
Have compassion for those people (or institutions) you don't like or love (but you owe them nothing - including pretense of niceties, "hanging out" with them or "joining," whatever.) It's your right to avoid the assholes and mean people, rather than give them another pot shot at you or "try a little harder" to be acceptable to them. In other words, be anti-social if "society" and its banality and insensitivity are killing your joy and life force and sucking you dry. Be careful of "reformers" and jealous people who will either try to belittle you or nitpick all of your "faults" to death. How do you feel around them? Sucked dry and unhappy? Pay attention to your gut. Suffer no ongoing abuses from people who are unconsciously miserable themselves, and they're going to take that out on you (albeit maybe unconsciously. Still no excuse for bad behavior).
Go outside every day - without your technological devices! You really won't DIE if you don't talk on your cell phone or text. Stop. Look. Listen. Be still. Marvel at Nature. Cherish what moments you can. Be grateful whenever you can manage it - you're alive! Cry. Grieve for the Earth and what we've done to it. Also, celebrate Earth - its beauty, its generosity, it's miraculousness. Its ongoingness and its cycles of birth/life/death/birth. Touch and be touched by it all.
Laugh at life's absurdities - there are so many. Today could be our very last day alive - individually or collectively. Do what you love every moment that you can. Accept whatever you're doing or feeling, every moment that you can. You don't have to always like it, but acceptance makes everything go easier.
Fall for no false gods or self-appointed "gurus" who want to sell you their "secrets" for a lot of dollars. They have nothing you don't - in fact, some of them are power mongers and shysters, with huge narcissistic insecure egos and a lot of greed. Everything you need is within yourself; you don't need them!
Shun hierarchy and the societal models based on it, wherever possible. It's a trap and an enslaver and it wears a lot of disguises. Learn to recognize the snares. Practice not "ranking" anything or anyone above or below anything/anyone else. recognize that we all have some leadership capabilities and that no one is supposed to grab onto that at the expense of everyone and everything else - that is dictatorship.
Ask lots of questions. Don't settle for someone else's answers. Really dig deep. Recognize if there are multiple possible answers or no answers at all and let the mystery be. Let your questions lead to further questions. Be unafraid that you don't know most everything.
Trust your body more, and turn off your mind and thinking. This includes using your body, being outdoors, dancing, singing, touching, tasting, laughing, weeping, embracing, etc. Really experience life and all-that-is through your body whenever possible. Be with every little thing from the warm dish suds on your hands, to feeling your sitting bones on the chair or the knot in your gut at a tree being murdered by a chainsaw. Try to notice when you're out of the moment - you will either be thinking that you want more or want to push something away (grasping/resisting.) try to simply sit and stay with the what-it-is. Watch the thoughts and emotions come and go like clouds.
Listen to the animals - and the children. If you're a guy, stop fearing and hating the feminine. It's within you, just as the masculine is within all women.
Be fair. Communicate - don't
be a coward - if you have something to say to another person, say it. Be
yourself - don't change for anyone - if you're going to change, do it
for you. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Apologize if you
need to and make living amends by changing your behavior.
Respect your elders and really listen to what they have to say. Help them remember who they are when they forget, and value them and their contributions, as they take the long walk toward death.
Open yourself to the youth. Don't shut them down, or their ideas or their idealism; nurture the spark into a flame. Be real with them. Show them you are just a bozo on the bus too, and don't have all the answers in adulthood. Listen for theirs - they still see and embody what got crushed out of a lot of us. Protect their right to continue to nourish those seeds.
Wherever possible, do no harm. Remember thanks and appreciation for all you encounter.
Respect your elders and really listen to what they have to say. Help them remember who they are when they forget, and value them and their contributions, as they take the long walk toward death.
Open yourself to the youth. Don't shut them down, or their ideas or their idealism; nurture the spark into a flame. Be real with them. Show them you are just a bozo on the bus too, and don't have all the answers in adulthood. Listen for theirs - they still see and embody what got crushed out of a lot of us. Protect their right to continue to nourish those seeds.
Wherever possible, do no harm. Remember thanks and appreciation for all you encounter.
