HJ: Imagine your life only better — more peaceful, with greater contentment and flow in everything you do.  Today’s article is all about helping you get there and making the process itself mellow, natural and flowing.  Because you certainly won’t get there with struggle and suffering.  Contentment begets contentment.  Peace begets peace.  Flow begets flow.

- Truth

The Contentment Habit

By Leo Babauta | Zen Habits

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I’ll admit I do it as much as anyone else: see the cool things that others are doing and wish I were doing something cool like that too.

You see great travel photos on Instagram and other social media — people living amazing lives, creating cool things, going on adventures. And instantly, there’s the thought that you should...

By Steve Nobel

Our ego mind prefers safety, routine, and the status quo. It does not want us to step too far out of the front door into anything too new or different. On the other hand, our essential self wants us to stretch, grow, shed what is unnecessary or heavy, and explore this life more fully.

A transition begins with an impulse from the soul to see new terrains and new horizons. We grow, become lighter, and see the world afresh by taking a step into the scary unknown. In a smooth transition, the desire to experience the adventure eventually outweighs the resistance, and thus the adventure begins. We leave behind an old life and move towards something new: we resign from the job to travel the world; we leave a long-standing stuck relationship and let our hair down and explore being on our own again; we move out of the city and experience living somewhere remote and different; we give up the 9 to 5 rat race and start our own business.

It is yours, it has always been yours and it will always be yours.  Unconditional love cannot be taken, only turned away. ~ Creator

Ida Lawrence, Contributor
Waking Times

Peaceful, wholly contained moments: sometimes they come to us while in nature, sometimes when family is in ‘sync’, sometimes within an embrace. It’s as if a blessing descends, we’re in our body, and the body knows that everything is perfect: we feel uplifted and at home in an expanded, balanced center. “I am here, my heart is happy, this is real, love is here, and it’s eternal.”

As you might guess, we’re starting out with the ‘perfect moment’ because I recently enjoyed one. My six-year-old granddaughter was visiting, and for about an hour, daddy and a bunch of uncles were helping her play with some new, funny ‘sticky’ blocks. When the clowning around was over, I left the room for a bit, and returned to see an entirely different picture: she was engrossed in music with one of the uncles. I watched as they listened to the Japanese drums, then the didgeridoo, then the African drums.

An oil pipeline in Montana has burst, spilling more than 50,000 gallons of oil directly into the Yellowstone River, which prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency. In nearby cities, residents were told not to drink the tap water. Some locals said the water smelled like diesel.

The oil spill happened when a 12 inch pipeline ruptured about 5 miles up from the city of Glendive, says Montana’s Department of Environmental quality. The Bridger Pipeline company shut down the pipeline, but not before dumping as much as 50,400 gallons of oil into the river.

Glendive City Council member Gerald Reichert was among the residents who noted the terrible odor coming from the tap water.

Native American activists along with the Oglala Lakota have made a vow to die before they allow the Keystone XL Pipeline through their land, saying they’ll either be dead or in prison before it does.

The Oglala Lakota Nation is scrambling to organize a protest movement to oppose the construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline would be 1,700 miles long and move an incredible 830,000 barrels of crude oil every day from Canada through their land in South Dakota on toward the Texas coast. Pipelines like this one have a long history of terrible leaks and explosions.

The current path for the pipeline has it crossing at two points with a pipeline that is the main water source for the people of Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation as well as Sicangu Rosebud reservation. A spill would place in jeopardy the safety of their drinking water.