A New Earth

A good friend just sent me a notice that Oprah and Eckhard Tolle are doing a webinar on Tolle's book, A New Earth, for ten weeks starting March 3rd at 9 PM EST. There are 225 million people already signed up and it's free. I understand you do have to read the book, however. If you're interested, go to www.Oprah.com to sign up.

Why is this a good idea? This is a good book, and one I recommend. I read it last summer and reread most of it during the fall of 2007. I never reread any book, and rereading this one wasn't because it was hard to understand the first time. It was so practical and nourishing, I just wanted to stay refreshed from the same well.

What do I remember? It's about your life's purpose and it helps to get front and center with what's essential, what's at the heart of what makes you and me truly happy, and how we can find the doorways to that happiness everyday in the simplest of circumstances. The older I get, the more I see how to let go of old superficial goals: another trip to the Riviera, going first class on transatlantic flights, $200 dinners in Manhattan. Yes, those weren't my stated goals, but when they were present for me, I lapped up the luxury and felt deserving. ( And it's OK to feel deserving).

I don't see those luxuries these days, so how can I be happy? Remembering that my higher purpose is to wake up everyday and notice I'm alive, to be available to the chance for other humans to know they're alive, and that we all walk through this journey together. The randomness of our everyday unconscious behaviors doesn't have to rule. All of this is available to all of us when we come together on common ground. Tolle (now collaborating with Oprah) offers a conversation to do just this.

Meanwhile, I'll be picking this book up again soon and writing up more this coming week based on his work.