Spiritual Challenges (aka "Other People")

Wow, You Guys.

It's so amazing to write stuff, put it out there, and then have people WRITE BACK.

So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Got some great questions/comments coming in from you folks. I will do my best to reply.

Jen from Colorado writes:


"Dear Ellen,

I believe it's important to love everyone, and I'm working hard on approaching people and interacting with them with love (rather than judgment, or sarcasm, say, like I usually do). But what about when the person is a dick? Or a soul-sucker? Or passive-aggressive? Or just boring? What is my spiritual and moral obligation there?"


Dear Jen,

Ohhhhh, good question. I am dying to find out what I'm going to come up with, cause frankly, my initial answer is "Jen, hell if I know."

This is one that trips me up quite a bit. When I'm by myself, I can often get into a pretty good Ninja Zen Master Zone. . . an emotional energy field of love, acceptance, and curious, pleasure appreciation and anticipation.

Left alone to stew in my own meditational juices, I occasionally hit a plateau where it feels like nothing anybody says or does will ever bother me again.

I can feel how funny it is that I ever thought it mattered.

And this blissful state will last forever, because it is the truth, and I am ringing with it, gently, like a deep and happy bell. It will last into all realms of eternity, all reaches of time and space. . .

Except for the convergence of time and space where my boyfriend calls me up to tell me about the latest computer software he's coveting at Best Buy. . . but he really can't afford it. But he really wants it. But he can't really afford it. But what if he were to budget for it? Do I know how amazing this new technology is? Do I realize what he could do if he just went ahead and bought it anyway? Should he buy it anyway? Maybe he'll buy it and try it and then maybe take it back later.

I love him, but I am also longing to kick him to death.

What is my moral/spiritual obligation here?

What is the appropriate spiritual response to my neighbor, Carl, who's always coming over to chat in the middle of the day? He's a nice man, actually, basically a good guy.

But he also drinks with admirable dedication. He's got a beer in his hand pretty much every second he's conscious. And he's got a gift for long, surprisingly detailed (yet curiously vague) stories that take a lot of plot and character exposition. About things that happened thirty years ago, back when he was a hell-raisin' high-school youth. These kids today, it seems, don't know shit from shine-ola. I haven't told him yet that I would be hard-pressed to identify shine-ola myself. But, in any event, the important point is that things were different back then, back when people knew their ass from their elbow.

I get in this weird cycle of listening because I feel tuned in to his essential goodness, and also to his profound loneliness, but underneath my apparent empathy I'm starting to become quietly, deeply insane with boredom. I would rather be doing something else.

I wish I could say that that "something else" is my work, or meditating on the Divine, or actively engaging my creativity, but honestly, listening to Carl talk makes me long violently to be reading Us Weekly, or to be experimenting with parting my hair on the left side instead of the right.

I mean, spiritually speaking, how does this scenario fit in with offering love at all times?

And these are people I basically like.

What about people I don't like at all?

Reading Emmet Fox's The Sermon on the Mount, and came across this bit:

"People. . . have been under the erroneous impression that to forgive a person means you have to compel yourself to like him. Happily, this is by no means the case--we are not called to like anyone whom we do not find ourselves liking spontaneously, and, indeed it is quite impossible to like people to order. You can more like to order than you can hold the winds in your fist, and if you endeavor to coerce yourself into doing so, you will finish by disliking or hating the offender more than ever."

Thus speaketh Emmet, and I think he has a good point here. But is it truly possible to "love" someone that you don't really like? What does that feel like?

If anyone out there has direct experience of this phenomenon, please, please post a comment or email me at moreellen888@gmail.com.

Jen, I gotta think about this one some more. I'll check back with you guys next week.

Namaste. Or, as my friend Toby says, "Narcisste." Which means, "The narcissist in me judges and rejects the narcissist in you." Give it a try!

Conversation with My Passion, Part Deux

Greetings, My Interweb Brethren.

Got a lot of interesting comments from you guys about the conversation between me and My Passion.

For those of you who have not the pleasure of knowing of what I'm speaking, in an earlier post I wrote about initiating a conversation with my Creative Passion, based on a recommendation from metaphysical guru Wayne Dyer.

Dr. Dyer advises that we think of our passion as the Source of Creative Energy within us, that we visualize talking to It, asking It questions, taking It for walks while we hold hands. I followed this advice and found my Passion extremely (almost maniacally) enthusiastic and chatty.

Many of you reported that you also have been speaking with Your Creative Passion, and that strangely, Your Creative Passion and My Creative Passion sound a lot alike.

Which, frankly, is making me kinda suspicious. Do you think all of our Creative Passions get together for Motivational Seminars? Maybe they call the Most Persuasive Creative Passions to the stage and give them Inspirational Gift Baskets?

Oh, that would just be so typical of My Creative Passion to get involved in some shit like that. My Passion is probably involved in a Multi Level Marketing pyramid to make money on the energy of other people's Creative Passions.

Which I guess is. . . good, now that I think about it. But on the other hand, I'm the one hosting My Passion. This is my house! And there are rules. Well, okay, I'll admit we're not too organized yet, but I could call in one of those organizational experts, or Supernanny, or somebody, and then--well, I don't know. Yet.

All I'm saying is that if My Creative Passion is racking up the power points in vibrational reality, I just want a cut. And I don't think I should settle for extra cell phone minutes or 10% off a Vegas vacation.

Oh, and by the way: Did you know that Vegas is like a ghost town these days? Apparently President Obama advised Americans to stay away from gambling in these tough times. From what I've heard the mayor of Las Vegas is maaaaaaaad.

But back to the topic at hand: spiritual vs. physical manifestation. You know, if I've learned one thing from all these spiritual self-help books I read, it's that the most important question in life is "Where's my stuff?" (Eckhart Tolle just called and he wants his Power of Now flash cards back).

All right. I'm getting to the bottom of this right now. I'm calling My Passion, that sneaky bugger, and we'll find out what's really up:


ME: Hey. You. Creative Passion. You there?

MY PASSION: Heyyyy! It's you! Are you ready to create? Do you want to go for another walk? Do you want to hold hands again?

ME: Can it, Twinkles. I want to know what's going on over there in Non-Physical Energy World. I've been talking to my friends and I'm starting to think you're cheating on me.

MY PASSION: Oh really?

ME: Yeah. You know, you're all super-sweet when it comes to me being your favorite person and all, but how come all you're telling all my friends the same thing? Your milkshake bring all the boys to the yard? Is that what it's all about for you?

MY PASSION: You really need to get a grip. Seriously. I think it's time to cut back on Tool Academy and Charm School. In fact, you might want to take a little break from all of VH-1 for a while.

ME: Nice deflection, Toots. Fess up. I can take it. Are you out there inspiring other people when I'm not paying attention?

MY PASSION: No way. I am your One and Only PERSONAL Creative Passion. Everybody gets his or her own. No Take-backs, No Sharesies. It is true, however, that we all share a common mission.

ME: Oh yeah? What's that?

MY PASSION: We want you to love yourselves so much that you can't help communicating that love exactly as you are specifically designed to do.

ME: Oh. Well. Okay.

MY PASSION: You, for some reason, were designed occasionally to express your love through an incredibly inappropriate sense of humor. Like how you met Oprah Winfrey and did that riff on how gigantic her head is. Wasn't that fun?

ME: Oh yeah, she loved that.

MY PASSION: And what about that time you wrote your boyfriend that song about his cat getting feline leukemia? Now, that was creative.

ME: And hilarious! But only cause he worries so much.

MY PASSION: See? That's how it is. That's how the Universe expands, because of creations like that.

ME: The Universe expands because of feline leukemia?

MY PASSION: No, because of your unique perspective on each and every event. You chose to concentrate your attention into this physical form, and now here you are, having life experiences. And every life experience you have enriches the Universe, because the Universe expands through you! Which is awesome! And we all appreciate you soooo much! And don't worry because that's exactly what Every Single Person is doing here! And they all have personal Creative Passions to help them! And I'm probably not supposed to tell you but sometimes we DO get together and just brag and brag and brag about you guys. You all are so amazing! All of you, but especially you, Ellen, especially you. Do you remember that time you wanted to create a line of Spiritually Incorrect Affirmation Cards? Now THAT was a hoot. Or what about the time you wanted to--

(Here, again, I had to hang up on My Passion. Because I was afraid it was about to say something really embarrassing. But you get the general idea.)

Me and My Passion: What Would Wayne Dyer Say?

Hey Y'all.

So, I'm reading Wayne Dyer's Excuses Begone! (that Wayne, I'm telling you. I totally want to hook up with that Magic Publishing Water he and Deepak Chopra appear to be swilling. You could build entire structures with just one copy of each of their many books. Probably be a pretty solid structure, too).

In the chapter on "Passion," Wayne says:

"It may be helpful to think of your passion as the presence of the creative Source inside you. Talk to this invisible yet tangible presence within and thank it for never abandoning you. Go for walks with it and imagine holding hands with it. Ask it questions and listen to what it has to say, making mental notes of how it is directing you. Feel enormous gratitude for the reality of this presence, and allow it to guide you in any way it wishes."

Fair 'nuff. I decided to sit down and have a chat with My Passion and see what's on Its mind.


ME: Hey. What's going on?

MY PASSION: Dude, not a whole lot. How come you're not doing any writing? What about your book? What about your blog?

ME: Ahhhhh, I dunno. Don't really feel like it. Gotta lot of stuff to do, you know, the whole work thing.

MY PASSION: I see. So, work. And searching for the perfect skinny jeans. And keeping up with Kim Kardashian and the Brangelina thing is really taking it out of you, I guess.

ME: Okay, now, see, when you put it like that it just seems lame. I'll have you know I lead a very complex and rich and rewarding life, and I do lots of cool stuff. I do lots of stuff for other people, too.

MY PASSION: Yes. Other people are nice, aren't they? I really admire you and all you do for others.

ME: Thank you. Finally. You see, that wasn't too hard, was it? Just a little bit of validation now and then.

MY PASSION: Indeed. But I, for one, have been really missing you. I'm getting kinda restless just hanging out in here all full of wonderful energy, incredible ideas, magnificent blessings, all these delicious, desirable, delirious vibrations! I'm psyched you want to hang out!

ME: Oh, I do, I do. I'd sorta forgotten how inspiring you can be. I like the inspiration a lot. It's really awesome. But could you maybe think about arranging it so I don't have to do any actual work? Writing is a lot of hard work. I mean, maybe not for you. But for me, well, it's cool and all, but it's kinda tiring. Right now I'm already feeling like eating a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and taking a nap.

MY PASSION: Go ahead! I'm just glad you're talking to me! And when you wake up I have so many amazing thoughts for you to write about! I'll help you every step of the way! I am Your Muse, baby, your one and only Personal Muse, and we are going to have so much fun! We came into this particular Life Experience PRECISELY to create these specific things together! It's Our Destiny! The Source Within Us is simply panting with anticipation of Our Magnificence! You are my favorite person in the whole world! Let's go out and--

ME: Wow, you are pretty darn perky, aren't you? Anybody ever tell you that you're a little, you know, a little much? I appreciate your enthusiasm, but could you maybe take it down just a notch?

MY PASSION: (silence)

ME: Yeah, that's what I thought. Listen, don't take it too hard. I do appreciate you. I really do. And we will talk again. Soon.

MY PASSION: Yes! That's going to be so great! And we're going to go for a walk, right? Wayne Dyer said you should take me for a walk! That will be so, so, so fun! We can go look at leaves and dogs and snow and people's houses and the geese at the park! Oooo, can we go look at the geese at the park?

ME: Real soon, buddy. Real soon.

MY PASSION: YEAAAA! Can we go after your nap?

ME: Mos def, my friend. After my nap. Or real soon, maybe tomorrow. And we'll get crackin' on that whole book thing. And write some more blog posts.

MY PASSION: OMG! I just can't wait!!

ME: Talk to you soon, friend. Be good to yourself.

MY PASSION: Oh, I will! And I'll be good to you too! You are going to be so fired up! Just wait til you see what we can do! Remember that one time you wanted to write that book making fun of yourself and all the spiritual Self Help books you read? It's going to be soooooo funny and people are going to laugh sooooo much. But also be inspired, you know, laughing but not in a mean way. And you know that we can start with--

(At this point, I had to hang up on My Passion, because I was afraid It was never going to shut up. But I must admit, Wayne did have a point. I'll let you know how this relationship goes. I guess I'm going to have to, because now that I'm talking to My Passion again, looks like I'm going to blog. But you spiritual bastards better write back so I don't have to talk to It all the time. I'm telling you; I'm flat worn out from that exchange. Until next time, Be Well and Be Easy on yourselves, people. Over and out.)

Expand Into Your Joy, Grasshopper!

As my friend Tammie says, going on a spiritual journey should come with a warning label. Perhaps a Surgeon General of the Universe ought to put a label on our earthly packs of mental cigarettes.

WARNING: THE DIVINE SURGEON GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT SPIRITUAL AWAKENING CAN BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR FRAGILE SENSE OF IDENTITY AND YOUR FIRM CONCEPTION OF REALITY. ALSO, ONCE YOU START ON THIS PATH YOU CANNOT GO BACKWARDS. OH, YOU'LL WANT TO GO BACK, FROM TIME TO TIME. BUT YOU CAN'T. HAVE A NICE DAY!

It's kind of like The Matrix. Once you meet Morpheus and he gives you the blue pill (or is it the red pill?) you start to see the crazy insane huge expansive dynamic energy field that's holding us all together. And once you've seen it, you can't just NOT see it. Oh, I agree, you can try. You can try all you want, but you're going to KNOW differently. And that, my friends, is what waking up to True Reality is all about.

The interesting thing is that it doesn't really seem to matter what handle you grab ahold of. You can awaken within a scientific tradition just as beautifully as within a spiritual tradition. I can run all over the place talkin' smack about Getting Right With Jesus, and you can scamper around babbling about finding your true self with Myers-Briggs, and eventually, if our hearts and minds get cracked open just the tiniest bit, we will both expand into more joyful beings.

Choose whatever concept, whatever label, whatever metaphor makes your heart feel bigger and your mind feel energized. I love what Elizabeth Gilbert says about this in her amazing spiritual-journey memoir Eat, Pray, Love. She's at an ashram, in India, meditating and judging her meditation something fierce. She's trying to find her Authentic Center and simultaneously feeling horribly inadequate that her Assigned Mantra is making her crazy, crazy, crazy. And then all of a sudden the famous line from Jaws pops up in her consciousness, and she can't help cracking a goofy smile. "We're going to need a bigger boat."

So go ahead. Get yourself a bigger boat. There's a big freakin shark out there. Or rather, in here. If your shark is anything like mine, it's hungry, relentless, and pissed. It's the shark of Ego, munching away at your giant, juicy soul. It's the shark of Fear and Judgment, crunching down on your happy little hopes. You can keep feeding it fingers and toes and other non-essentials if you want, but believe me, it's going to keep circling back whenever there's chum in the water.

We are born to be the joyous creators of our own wonderful experience. And we are all creating, all the time. And then, for most of us, we look at our creations and say "Crap! I don't want that! Get that thing away from me!"

Fair enough. Choose something new, something crisp and fresh and tantalizing to chew upon with your own magnificent jaws. There's always this perfect present moment in which you can step into a new boat of consciousness. Oh, the Great White Ego will come swimming after you, its menacing fin piercing through the shining waters of your Being, but it's best not to take it too seriously. Just keep building your boat and let that poor bastard tire itself out.

Overwhelmed by Blog Money Making Info

Holy Freakin Cripes Batman!

How do you people do this? I've just spent the last several hours researching "Blogging for Fun and Money," and I feel like my brain is slowly collapsing in upon itself.

The internet is truly the most prolific, glorious, festering haystack that our species has ever dreamed up--and let's be honest, we've dreamed up a lot of haystacks (also known as "clusterfucks") in our brief time on earth. Meanwhile, my own little needle is feeling lost, lost, lost.

In the past couple of days I have explored the deep recesses of Hubpages, Squidoo, Isnare, Ebay, Ebooks, Ejunkies, Amazon, Paypal, Adsense, Ezinearticles, and once, by accident, Charles Bronson, but that's a whole different story.

My mission is fairly simple: I just want to write and make people laugh. Oh, and force people to be happy. Oh, and get paid for forcing people to be happy.

How hard can it be?

According to my friends Abraham and Buddha and Jesus and Wayne Dyer and Bob Proctor (and also my surrogate mom Carol and next-door neighbor Sharon) it ISN'T that hard. It isn't hard at all for the Universe to shower me with joy, success, and abundant creativity. It's just hard for me to accept, because I don't believe I deserve these things.

I don't think I'm good enough. And until I do, well, I will, in effect, prove myself right. One way or the other.

The Universe is so agreeable that it will support me either way. If I'm saying, "This is wonderful! There's so much good information here! It's going to be easy for me to start making money with my unique gifts!" The Universe replies, "Rock on, Babe! Here, let me give you some more stuff to confirm that feeling!" If I'm saying, "This is too much for me; I'm overwhelmed; I'm not good enough or smart enough to do this." The Universe says, "Hey, no problem! I can totally provide situations, people, and experiences that will add to that belief!"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what being Cut Off from Divine Reality feels like. Call it God, call it your Higher Power, call it Intuition, call it Fate, call it Ayn Rand--the All Being of Everything doesn't mind. It likes you anyway, and all it asks for is this one little thing in return:

"See yourself as I see you, and be happy."

Oh, and for anyone curious about The Way of Mastery, you can get more information at www.thewayofmastery.org.

The Way of Mastery

Greetings, Spiritual Bunnies of the Cosmos.

Wow. I gotta tell you, weird stuff starts to happen when you open yourself up to the Divine in All Its Forms. I'm pretty open these days. In fact, I'm kind of a Cheap Easy Date when it comes to anything wrapped in a "spiritual" package. This occasionally has its downsides. For example, I really don't want to talk about the multi-level marketing spiritual transformation system I purchased for only $1,595 plus tax. But mostly, it just makes life more and more fascinating.

Granted, I am fairly easily fascinated. I really enjoy restaurants that have large selections of sugar packets and liquid creamers waiting on the table so I can make condiment sculptures. We all have our personal muse, do we not?

I met a new friend through the internet who invited me to a Mastery Group. I accepted the invitation eagerly because I thought it was a Master Mind Group. My vague impression is that Master Mind Groups are where people get together for the purpose of communing with other like-minded, goal-oriented souls who want to achieve stuff. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe they're just groups for like-minded, goal-oriented people to get together and play that game with the little multi-colored pegs where you get ten tries to guess right. Oooo, I love that game! But I digress.

When I arrived, I discovered that this particular gathering is actually a "Way of the Mastery" study group. The Way of Mastery is, among other things, a book, and the group is, among other things, a book group that studies this book. Here's what the book has to say about itself:

"A Guide to Awakening in Christ Mind: This volume contains the extraordinary teachings of Jesua ben Joseph (Jesus) as given over a three-year period through Jon Marc Hammer. These teachings were originally published in 1997 and known only to a small number of people. For the first time, The Way of Mastery is available as one volume, beautifully presented, to be read and cherished for a lifetime as that "way home" taught to Jesua Himself and now offered to the world."

Indeed. Well now. At this point I hadn't started to read the book, and I don't know anything about Jon Marc Hammer, but I am already burning with low-grade envy. Oh, and skepticism, let's not forget that. Really? REALLY?? You're just sitting around, Jon Marc, and JESUS shows up to tell you a thing or to? Of course, Neale Donald Walsh has a whole series called Conversations With God, where he, you know, converses with the Big Kahuna, but somehow that's easier for me to swallow. Even a very brief look at world religions will tell you that there seems to be quite a few different versions of God. In effect, you could say that everybody's got his or her own version. Like God is one of those ceramic lawn geese you see in the American midwest. People dress their lawn goose up in all different kinds of costumes, depending on season and holiday, but underneath, it's pretty much the same goose all the time. Jesus, though, somehow he seems more personal. More specific.

I am amused to observe that my first reaction is vague Puritan outrage. What happened to the good old days when we could just send these jokers to the Dunking Stool? I am even more amused to observe the secondary reaction of envy. I am so positive that IF I am ever chosen to receive the teachings of a non-physical energy, it's not going to be anyone like Jesus. I would probably get someone like. . .like. . . I don't know, what's that Mormon dude's name? I'm not bagging on the Mormons, mind you, but it would suck for me because I am very fond of my fully caffeinated Diet Coke each morning.

Okay. So, this isn't my first time at the Self Awakening Circus. So I know that those two emotions--envy and outrage--are the dubious gifts of Ego. And while my ego-self feels momentarily threatened by this book, this group, my True Self just sits back and crosses its legs in the shade, laughing at me. "Well, what are you going to do now?"

I sit with the group, and for two hours I participate in one of the best philosophical discussions I have ever experienced. And it's not just the verbal wordplay that's ringing my bells. There's an (Oh God, how I have grown tired of this word, but still!) ENERGY that's whipping round the room like a. . . like a. . . shit, I don't have the right metaphor handy. But it's powerful, this feeling. I'm watching the faces around me in the dusky light, and as these people read aloud and talk and laugh, they are starting to glow.

Someone reads a passage from the book's first chapter, and I feel strange things happening inside my chest. I feel like the plates in my brain are shifting. Until next time, I leave you with this passage. And no matter who you think it's from, I hope it does weird and wonderful things to you, too.

"Take a deep breath into the body and let it go. As the breath leaves the body, hold the thought that there is nothing worth holding onto any longer that keeps your peace and happiness at arm's length. Become committed--fully committed--to the experience of happiness, even as you have been fully committed to unhappiness, limitation, and lack. Give your Creator full permission to sweep the basement clean. There really is not anything down there worth defending or protecting."

Me and Abraham Hicks, Part 2

Hey All You Freaky Seekers Out There, This One's for You!

The phrase above just whisked me back to the television of my childhood, old Budweiser commercials from the late seventies to early eighties. "Here's to you/For all you do/This Bud's for you!" It was a catchy little song, and then you got to see a lot of cowboys and construction workers and other aspirational archetypes working up a sweat and then bonding with beer away from their womenfolk, happy as clams. (By the way, what's up with that expression? Why is the clam reputed to be so happy?)

Boy, I am REALLY tempted right now to go off on some more appropriate images to go with that song for a new Budweiser campaign (Man drunkenly beats Baby Mama, gets DUI, discovers Inner Child through 12 step meetings) but that is not what I promised you for today. No, for today I promised you "Abraham and Your Feelings." And that's what you're going to get, so quit your whining, you tangential little buggers. Remember, there's no crying in baseball, and there's no crying in Spiritual Awakening, either. Wellllll. . . okay, there IS some crying, from time to time, but as long as you're truly ashamed of yourself, God will look the other way.

As I was sharing with you the other day, Abraham is a non-physical collective of vibrational beings who choose to vibrate together for the purpose of communicating with us. Mostly they do this through their self-titled collection of books presented by Esther and Jerry Hicks, which you can find on Amazon or at www.abraham-hicks.com. (No, I am not receiving kickbacks from Abraham or the Hickses--yet--but I am certainly open to any and all offers to sell my soul, so please email if interested) So, apparently, some of us made a deal with Abraham to get together in this lifetime, so they could remind us of stuff that we had forgotten, but they remember. And we knew we might forget, so before we came we made this deal so we'd be reminded about forgetting, something something something, we are all extension of God, reality-creating machines. Something like that.

In their series of books, talks, and seminars on the Law of Attraction, the group of folks who make up Abraham keep harping on two points. The first is the absolute absoluteness of the Law of Attraction, Like can only get together with Like. And the second is the absolute reliability of our perfect guidance system, our emotional GPS. We each come with this Onstar-type GPS system built into our mainframe, and hence we can always tell, moment to moment, what type of reality we are manufacturing. When we feel good, we are attracting good things--and more specifically, good things according to our PERSONAL definition of what is good. So, for example, you might feel good when you are are attracting a solution for putting shoes on Argentinian orphans, and I might feel good when I am attracting a supersale at Designer Shoe Warehouse. That's one thing about the Law of Attraction that I really appreciate. It's not all preachy and judgmental.

According to Abraham, when we feel bad, it's because feeling bad is SUPPOSED to feel bad. We feel bad because we are giving our attention to something that is not the Truth of Our Being. Specifically, we are giving our attention to an aspect of something that does not please us. And we can tell the difference; we can FEEL the difference. "Little kids in Argentina without shoes." That feels bad. "TOM's Shoes gives a free pair to a little kid in Argentina every time I buy a pair of shoes!" This feels good. See? Now you can start practicing for yourself!

And once you do, boy, things get interesting. This whole very weird shift starts to happen. You start to realize that it's ALL you, it's ALL your perspective. And you can't help noticing when you are looking at something or someone, and thinking, "I don't like you. I would like you to be different so that I can enjoy observing you." You start to look for things you do like. You start to look like your life depends on it. Which, in fact, it does.

How ya like them apples?

Awakened Masters Agree: All is Well, So Just Accept Goodness, Damnit!