I’ve decided to spend some time, this lovely, sun-dappled morning, during which I have already taken my four mile walk plus watered the back yard and gardens, to begin to contemplate the meaning of the following seven words, and whether or not I have actually begun to practice learning how to embody them during my nearly 83 years on this planet.
I’ll look at the first two words today, and divide up the others for both Wednesday and Thursday posts.
Yutori: etymology: from the Japanese word yutoru, “to loosen, to relax.”
Well, well. I must say: this is the first summer that I have actually lived alone in my house for what is it now, 23 years? Always, I have had at least one housemate, usually two. I began this practice because I was concerned about my energy imprint, not wanting to be selfish: I figured if I invited others in to my three-bedroom home, I would cut my own energy use by nearly two/thirds. This thinking arose because at the time I had been taken in by, and terrified of, the “peak oil” agenda that basically places its trust in scarcity, rather than abundance.
Where I want to put my own focus now IS in cultivating presence, another word for spaciousness. And I must say, living alone makes that practice easier. (Perhaps too easy?)
Meliorism: etymology: from the Latin “melior” (meaning better), plus “ism.” 
“George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) is credited with its formulation and use. She used it to define her own philosophical stance between pure optimism and pessimism, believing that the world’s suffering is healable through collaborative human effort.” A very pragmatic approach.
I’m very much reminded here, of American pragmatist philosophers, whom I have always appreciated.
One might say that the on-the-ground experiment that I have been “practicing” for nearly 20 years, greenacresvillage.org, is a living example of pragmatism:
Over and over again, on a daily basis: Notice when something seems “off,” or “cramped,” or “stuck,” etc. What does the situation call for? Do that. Notice the result, which always includes the unexpected!
“Meliorism” is a practice that I am constantly learning, re-membering (putting myself, and my situation, back together again). Every time I get impatient, which, as a double fire sign (with warlike Mars also in Sagittarius, opposite explosive Uranus), is way too often, I have to internally intone a startling piece of wisdom that flew into my right brain many years ago:
“The moment you are impatient
you recognize the force of time
that places in your way
the obstacles of space,
and starts a new chain of causation.”
