Do not Die with your Song still in You
Tell your story as the unique and diverse once-told tale of YOU!
“Only by exploring and sharing my autobiography can I witness my discoveries of the sacred. My story is not normative. I am under no illusions that I am a saint, a hero, or a model for anyone. I do not write in order to say: Here is the map for you to follow. I only share some of the twists and turns of my journey in order to encourage you to take your own story seriously. Examine the sacred text of your own experience, reconstruct the events and relationships that went into the creation of your being, re-collect memories, and form them into a narrative that makes your life a once-told tale.” (Sam Keen)
Living with Open Hands…
an expression of
an open heart,
an open mind,
and an open will.
Table of Contents
Preface: (overview of Living with Open Hands)
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
The Open Hand
Adrift in an Endless Sea
Journaling the Journey
The Space Between
Why I Write
SECTION ONE: A HEART BROKEN
Chapter 1: THROUGH THE FACADE
Who Am I?
Consume… Consume… Consume…
Real Love
Outrage
More… There Must Be More
Living with clenched fists
The Essence of Life — Who? Why? What?
Chapter 2: INTO THE DARKNESS
The Healthiness of Depression
The Pain of Depression
Tears in the Night
Total Devastation
Devastation — Meaning in Suffering… in Pain?
A Dark Mystery
DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
Chapter 3: A HEART BROKEN OPEN
No Longer Immune
The Unraveling
Tears of a Man
Ground of Being
What If?
The Way of the Brokenhearted
Chapter 4: UNCLENCHING THE FISTS
Permanency
The Plunge
On Complacency
Death as an Ally
Buckets
Fighting the Rain
Gripping… Groping… Griping
If I Loose my Grip… Will I Take Flight?
SECTION TWO: A HEART AWAKENING
Chapter 5: SEEING WITH THE HEART
Seeing
On Seeing
Incidental Graces
Through Alien Eyes
Light and Dark
Can You Hear Me? Can You See Me?
Connect to Wonder
Seeing Beauty
Chapter 6: OUT OF THE SILENCE
The Shadows
With Open Hands
Silence — a Spiritual Discipline
Openness
The Waiting Room
Silence . . . a Powerful Force: If I Already Know . . .
Chapter 7: EMBRACING MYSTERY AND PARADOX
Through a Glass Darkly
Ocean Wind
Inconsolable Longing
Paradox — Living the Contradictions
Living the Questions
The Sacred and the Profane
The Sacred and the Boundless
Chapter 8: FACING OUR GODS
In God We Trust
The god of comfort
The god of certainty
Opinionation
Words
Cultural Christianity
The Structural Inequality
Chapter 9: MEANING AND PURPOSE
The Search for Meaning
The Invitation
Consumer or Contributor — Leadership in an Age of Consumption
Community and Communion
Christmas — Unwrapping Meaning
What is Meaning?
Chapter 10: THE JOURNEY
Presence
Honoring the Soul
Through It
Exactly Where I Am Meant To Be
The Touch of Eternity
SECTION THREE: A HEART AFIRE
Chapter 11: LIVING WITH OPEN HANDS OF COMPASSION
View from the Porch
On the Turning Away
The Pain of Others
Hope
Fragile
Soft
The Way of Compassion
Chapter 12: LIVING WITH OPEN HANDS OF PEACE
Violence
Gentleness
The Way of Peace
Violence at the Heart of Things
Living in Peace
A Fearless Gentleness
The Power of Non-violence
Chapter 13: LIVING WITH OPEN HANDS OF EQUALITY
The Necessity of Diversity
Being Right, Making Wrong
Finding My Place
Crumbs From Your Table
Where You Stand . . . Depends On Where You Sit
Bullet Holes and Poverty
Absolute Equality
The Unseen Forces of Inequality
Boundary Spanning
Marginalized
Oppression, Power, & Privilege
Familiarity & Exclusion; Freedom & Oppression
Chapter 14: LIVING WITH OPEN HANDS OF INTEGRITY
The Cost
The Search for Wisdom
Discerning Truth
Integrity
The Moth and the Flame
Chapter 15: LIVING WITH OPEN HANDS OF SIMPLICITY
A True Friend
The Wonder of Babies
In Praise of Trees
Simplicity
Letting Go of Non-Essentials
Chapter 16: LIVING WITH OPEN HANDS OF COMMUNITY
Community — a Matter of Life and Death
Malignancy
Place
Finding My Place
Finding My Home
Redefining and Recreating Home
Crashing Through the Woods
Raising Kids Alone
Change
Soul Friends
Alone in the Crowd
Communities of Isolation — the biology of loneliness and community
SECTION FOUR: FOUNDATIONAL UNDERSTANDINGS
Chapter 17: GIFTS
A Gifts-Based Approach to Life
Chapter 18: THE POWER OF THE MARGINS
The Outliers and their Gifts
Think Different
The Misfits
The Power of Poetry
Listening for Unheard Voices
Chapter 19: DIALOGUE
Living in a Spirit of Dialogue
Chapter 20: COMFORT & CONDITIONING
The Bubble of Indifference
The Cocoon
Thoughts on Thought
Downloaded Thinking / Cultural Conditioning
Community and Comfort, Conformity and Certainty
The River
Open
Penetrating Illusions
Integral Spirituality
Chapter 21: MY SOURCE
Presence — Living From the Source
Core Values
Guiding Principles
LIVING WITH OPEN HANDS: A CONCLUSION FOR NOW…
Sources and Resources
Works Cited (alphabetically)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beyond this blog…
This is only the beginning for me. See below and also see Living with Open Hands 2.0
The Sacred Path of the Warrior
Fearless Gentleness Warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who…
The Path of Peace
There is no path to peace. The path TO peace does not exist out there somewhere. The path OF peace lies within. The path of peace begins with inner peace. Cultivating Contentment and Inner Peace Conquering others takes force. Conquering yourself takes true strength. Knowing what is enough is wealth. There is no greater calamity…
Whose life is it anyway?
Never negotiate your identity or your worth with another. All people have personal boundaries that can be violated if we are not sensitive to how we approach a person and how we talk with them. If you say things that put them on the defensive or takes away their dignity or agency, then ask yourself…
The Trap of Respectability
Respectability is not a step upward toward Success, Rightness or Righteousness. Respectability is a step downward toward Conformity, Sameness, and Blending into the herd. “Following Jesus is not a respectable religion, and I suspect it was never meant to be. It is a call to truth, justice and liberation for those oppressed, excluded, and disempowered.”…
Reframing my Perspective
Reworking my World and Life View From the ground up How do I begin? First, rather than asking to what extent I have been conditioned, I ask myself, do I know that I have been conditioned. Count the many ways… Most of conditioning lies in the subconscious mind tricking us into conformity, making us feel…
Camus at 100: “Live to the point of tears”
“And then came human beings; humans wanted to cling but there was nothing to cling to.” “Live to the point of tears.” ~ Albert Camus
Liberal? What does that even mean???
Liberal definition = freedom and abundance I see this as a very similar approach to life as: Living with Open Hands as an Expression of an Open Mind, Open Heart, and Open Will. Did you know… that historically and politically we live in a liberal democracy organized under classical liberalism? Look it up!!! Did you…
The Essence of Democracy… The Essence of Reality
(Stuff we already know) We Have Forgotten What It Means to be Citizens of Democracy!!! Democracy Requires That We See All Sides of Every Issue. We have forgotten what it means to be human and to understand reality. Being Human Requires an open mind that is seeking to understand; seeing all sides. Remember: none of…
A Christian Nation???
Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? “Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.” (James Madison) 1. What is a Democracy? If America is a Christian Nation governed by its democratic will, then it must be so because of the will of the people rather than the…
Bibliography
Works Cited Alphabetically (182) Living with Open Hands 1.0 & Living with Open Hands 2.0 “209 Seconds That Will Make You Question Your Entire Existence.” BuzzFeed Videos. BuzzFeed, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. Anders, Vesterberg. “Resilience.” Vesterberg.se » Resilience. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. <http://www.vesterberg.se/tag/resilience/>. “Andrew Harvey Biography | Author, Mystic, Spiritual Teacher.” Andrew…
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Living with Open Hands 
duongd
December 4, 2013
Hi Ron,
Thanks for helping me get moving with my blog. 🙂
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Ron Irvine
December 4, 2013
You are welcome
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Julie shale
October 3, 2014
Your work is absolutely amazing Ron I am so proud to be your friend you are a truly and inspirational gentleman thank you
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Ron Irvine
October 3, 2014
Thank you my dear friend.
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Jude
July 8, 2017
I am excited to read your book! Hoping to be notified via this post..
Thanks so much, Jude
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Ron Irvine
July 8, 2017
Yes. I will communicate that here. Thank you!
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Ron Irvine
September 6, 2018
I’m having some issues with getting this published. But I also question whether publishing is necessary since it is already published here. All that matters to me is that it makes a difference to others. Over 63,000 hits is encouraging. I just hope that others will find ways to penetrate the depths of their own hearts and souls in a similar way as me. Go within. Listen to that still small voice of truth.
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