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Set Your Intention
"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving." –Albert Einstein
Tomorrow, when you wake up, ask to be of use as you go through your day. It needs to be in your own words, from your heart. Here are some examples:
"May I make a difference in the world today."
"May I be of service to one person."
"May I notice myself and others."
"May I give the gift that only I can give."
Notice how that reverberates throughout the day.
If you prefer, you can say this beautiful Buddhist verse:
May I become at all times, both now and forever
A protector for those without protection
A guide for those who have lost their way
A ship for those with oceans to cross
A sanctuary for those in danger
A lamp for those without light
A place of refuge for those who lack shelter
And a servant to all in need
Encouragement to be of benefit.
The Good Heart
Jacques (Brian Cox) is the cynical, angry, and lonely owner of bar in a slummy part of New York City. He has no patience and can blow up at any time sending his blood pressure zooming. While recuperating in the hospital after his fifth heart attack, he still refuses to stop smoking and drinking. The staff can't wait for him to go home since he gives them such a hard time.
After meeting Lucas (Paul Dano), a quiet young homeless man who slit his wrists in an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Jacques comes up with a plan that will be of benefit to both of them. Meanwhile Lucas, grateful for a second chance to make something positive out of his life, signs the papers to donate his organs after his death; it seems to be a fitting way to help others. The staff is sad to see him leave, and they give him some money for the start of his new life. Lucas gives it all away to other homeless people.
Jacques and his German shepherd dog track him down and make him an offer he can't refuse. The bar owner want him to take over the business when he dies and so he volunteers to teach him the tricks of the trade. He also gives Lucas his own room. It really does seem like this lucky young man has found a new lease on life. However, it is not easy being around Jacques when gets angry or treats a customer like dirt. The rules of the establishment are: Don't try to be friendly with the regulars, no new customers, and no women allowed. But when April (Isild Le Besco) shows up one night drenched and with nowhere to spend the night, Lucas decides to help her out. She takes his bed, and he sleeps on the floor. With a new person in their lives, what will become of Jacques' plan to pass the bar on to Lucas?
The Good Heart is an oddly affecting drama that presents us with two lead characters we would stay clear of if we saw them on the street: Lucas, the homeless young man who sleeps in a box, and Jacques, the misanthropic and jaded man who doesn't like or trust anyone. But thanks to the sensitivity and empathy of Icelandic writer and director Dagur Kari, we are able to build bridges to the lives of these two as they interact and respond to the changes that keep them moving from one challenge to another.
Quiet yourself down during the closing credits. Close out the world. Drop down into your heart. Feel the glow and the power there. Let go of separation and fear. Put your hand over your heart. Leave the theatre with the intention of warming others with the light you carry within.
Special features on the DVD include behind the scenes of the Good Heart; and "HDNet: A look at the Good Heart."
An emotionally affecting film about a young man whose good heart transforms the life of angry bar owner.
Personal Velocity
Rebecca Miller has brought three short stories from her book Personal Velocity to the screen with John Ventimiglia serving as narrator. This gives the mini-dramas a distinctively literary feel with the words having equal weight as the images set before us. Miller does have a way with words, such as the following finale to the second vignette about a married woman: "She was going to dump her beautiful husband like a redundant paragraph." The character is a book editor known for her ability to cut fat from overly verbose works. She and the other two women are all trying to move on in their lives from one thing to another. The transition period for them is a fallow time, pregnant with possibilities. They must decide what they really want.
Kyra Sedgwick is Delia, a working-class woman who has graduated from being the class slut in high school to being a battered woman in a nightmarish marriage. In the middle of the night after a savage beating, she decides to flee for her life with her three children. She spends some time in a shelter healing her wounds. Delia has a nasty disposition which flares out in a verbal attack on a cheerful woman who is trying to help her at the center. Realizing that it is time to move on, she remembers another class outcast from high school and calls her for help. Fay (Mara Hobel) gives Delia and her children a place to stay in her garage. Old feelings of resentment between the two women come to the surface. Delia lands a job as a waitress. In the end, she decides to reclaim her power by sexually dominating a young man who is infatuated with her.
In the second mini-drama, Parker Posey is Greta, a cookbook editor who years ago threw aside a career in law as part of her love/hate relationship with Avram (Ron Leibman), her father who's a famous lawyer. Now she is married to Lee (Tim Guinee), a bland Midwesterner whose most outstanding quality is that Greta knows he'll never leave her. At work, Greta is stunned when her boss (Wallace Shawn) informs her that Thavi Matola (Joel De La Fuente), a popular novelist, wants her to edit his new book. Once their work begins, he lets her know that he has complete confidence in her ability. When the novel is published and is a bestseller, Greta is deliriously happy. She turns to her father for recognition and he draws close to her again. At the same time. Greta feels liberated and that awakens her sexual interest in other men. It is time for a change and she knows just what to do to cut loose and begin anew.
In the final mini-drama, Fairuza Balk is Paula, who ran away from home several years ago and now lives with Vincent (Seth Gilliam), a Haitian. After a fight with him, she goes out to a club and meets a Norwegian man. They leave the place together and while walking down the street, he is hit by a car and killed. Paula flees from the scene and decides to visit her mother (Patti D'Arbanville) whose boyfriend doesn't like her very much. On the way, she picks up Kevin (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hitchhiker who has cuts on his hands. While talking to her mother, she admits that she's pregnant but doesn't want to keep the baby. Then a very distraught Vincent calls, and she's unable to tell him what she is feeling. Back on the road with Kevin, she discovers that he has wounds all over his body. She takes him to a motel where she looks after him. In the morning, she tells Vincent on the phone everything that has happened to her. Her plan is to take Kevin home and give him a place to stay until he gets back on his feet. But her attempt to pay back a debt owed to fate falls flat when Kevin gives his response to her offer to help out.
Personal Velocity points out how difficult it is for people to accept the generosity and kindness of others. False vanity or stubborn independence often turns down-and-out individuals into angry and resentful strangers.
The DVD includes two commentaries and two featurettes, all of which feature writer/filmmaker Rebecca Miller.
Three mini-dramas about women trying to find a way into the future during a transition period.
Joseph: King of Dreams
Joseph is the "miracle child" of his proud parents, Jacob and Rachel. The boy, who has the gift of interpreting dreams, is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. In Egypt, Joseph must be resourceful as he moves from being a slave to a household servant. After he reads a dream that proves important to the country's future, he is promoted to a position of power. Eventually Joseph must learn the importance of forgiveness when he meets his brothers again.
This animated release is from the creators of The Prince of Egypt. It is directed by Robert Ramirez and Rob LaDuca. Joseph: King of Dreams features five songs, including two that convey spiritually charged messages about generosity and resting in the mystery of God's grace.
An animated feature with five songs that reveals this Biblical character's adventures.
It Could Happen to You
It Could Happen To You is an adult fairy tale set in New York City and narrated by Angel, a newspaper photographer who has a keen eye for stories that stir the soul. Charlie, played by Nicolas Cage, is a decent Queens policeman who plays stick ball with the kids in his neighborhood and yearns for a family of his own. But Rosie Perez as his wife Muriel is on a different wavelength. All she wants is a larger place to live, a new wardrobe, and plenty of spending money.
Trying to keep his wife happy, Charlie buys a lottery ticket. After having a cup of coffee in a luncheonette, he realizes that he doesn't have enough money to leave a tip. Yvonne, a hard-luck waitress played by Bridget Fonda, chalks it up to just one more thing gone against her. She's just been forced into bankruptcy by her estranged husband and is not impressed when Charlie promises that he'll split any lottery winnings with her. Imagine her surprise, then, when Charlie wins the big one and, true to his word, gives Yvonne two million out of his four million dollar winnings. To Charlie his word is his badge of honor. Muriel, however, is unable to forgive Charlie for giving their money away to a stranger.
Charlie and Yvonne turn out to be soul mates. She buys the luncheonette and instiutes a "Charlie Lang Table" offering free food for the homeless. After he's shot in the line of duty, he gives away $10,000 to a police charity. The press picks up their good deeds which include giving away free subway tokens and taking the kids in Charlie's neighborhood out to Yankee Stadium for a day of pretending they are major league baseball players. Director Andrew Bergman draws out pleasing performances from Cage and Fonda as these lovers who seem to derive great satisfaction in doing good.
The Jewish thinker and theologian Abraham Heschel noted near the end of his life: "I used to admire intelligent people. As I grow older, I admire kind people." It Could Happen To You goes straight to the heart with its glowing celebration of the virtues of kindness and generosity. This delightful movie will make you feel giddy and glad to be alive!
An adult fairy tale that will make you feel giddy and glad to be alive.
Mama, There's a Man in Your Bed
This light-hearted French comedy is written and directed by Coline Serreau (Three Men and a Cradle). Daniel Auteuil plays Romuald, the head of a dairy products company who has all the accoutrements of success — wealth, power, and a happy family. However, it all falls apart when some devious associates in the boardroom set him up for a fall. And to make matters worse, his wife is having an affair with one of his employees.
Juliette (Firmine Richard) is a heavy set West Indian cleaning lady at the company whose life seems a lesson in hardship. She lives in a low-income apartment with her five children. When she gives her boss insights into what has been going on in the office, he can't believe his ears. Romuald, vowing revenge against those who caused his downfall, moves in with Juliette while he plots his comeback strategy. Then, the most improbable thing of all happens — he falls in love with her.
Mama, There's a Man in Your Bed is a morality play about inward beauty and seeing with the heart. Although much of the film deals with corporate politics and money-grubbing, the real theme here is the love of a man for a woman whose goodness, independence, common sense, and generosity transform his view of what's important in life. Go with the flow of this comedy and you'll walk away with a smile on your face and a lilt in your step.
A French morality play about an unusual love relationship based on inward beauty and seeing with the heart.
Imam al-Bukhari, Moral Teachings of Islam
Generosity and kindness
Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet (Peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) said: "Wealth lies not in abundance of worldly goods but in the richness of soul."
Wealth lies not in abundance of worldly goods
Chogyam Trungpa, The Essential Chogyam Trungpa
Generosity is self-existing openness, complete openness. You are no longer subject to cultivating your own scheme or project. And the best way to open yourself up is to make friends with yourself and with others.
Generosity is complete openness
Johannes A. Gaertner, Words of Gratitude
To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.
To live gratitude is to touch Heaven
The Findhorn Book of Practical Spirituality
Kathy Gottberg is a writer, public speaker, and broadcaster who also teaches and facilitates self-awareness workshops. She is a minister of an independent spiritual community in California. In this paperback in the Findhorn series, Gottberg outlines the ten markers of what she calls "practical spirituality": authenticity, wholeness, awake and aware, harmonious, equivalence, lighthearted and optimistic, always growing and evolving, accountable, generosity and service, fearlessness. Many of these qualities are the cornerstones of New Thought, an American religion that has developed in the last 100 years.
There are chapters here on Monday morning spirituality, money, relationships, the body, mother earth, and community. In the section on spiritual practices, Gottberg shares some perspectives, rituals, and exercises that can give your life more meaning. Among them are pray or meditate regularly. Surround yourself with positive input and eliminate the negative. Get in touch with your inner guidance. Practice kindness. Get comfortable with paradox. And look for the good. This down-to-earth approach to spirituality will appeal to those who have had enough of traditional religion and are looking for something more flexible and oriented to the present moment.
A down-to-earth guide to a miraculous life.