Tag Archives: blogging

Paid Gig

by Kozo Hattori

egg faceI’m still on semi-blogging break, but I wanted to let you in on a few announcements.

First, I got a job writing a weekly column for The Good Men Project! The column is on raising compassionate boys. My first article goes up on Wednesday 7/16 at 9:30 am EST. Come on by and say hello.

Second, I’m curating Stories That Must Not Die for the next two weeks. If you have a story that needs to be told, even if you need to tell it anonymously, please email me at everydaygurus@gmail.com and you can guest-blog at STMND. By the time you read this, I will have a post up there. Come on by and say hello.

Lastly, thank you for coming by here and saying hello during the blog break. May you know peace and joy.

{{{Hugs}}} Kozo

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Blogging Break

by Kozo Hattori

Jett and Fox

The boys are out of school, so we are doing something that many kids don’t get to do nowadays–playing. For the first three weeks of summer, we are going to swim, bike, watch movies, and eat Popsicles, so I won’t be blogging too much.

In addition, after the shootings in Isla Vista, SPU, and Vegas, I’ve also dedicated a large part of my life to spreading compassion for boys. I’m completing an audio series called Raising Compassionate Boys. I believe that compassion is the missing piece that no one is talking about. Everyone is talking about gun control, but we forget that Elliot Rodger killed half of his victims with a knife. If we instill compassion in our boys, there would be less shootings, rapes, bullying, viral humiliation, suicide, and suffering.

I’m also starting a Compassion for Men’s Group. We meet every second Monday in Cupertino, CA. If anyone is interested, email me at everydaygurus@gmail.com

Lastly, I’ve been writing for The Good Men Project. It is a great website that is redefining what it means to be a man in the 21st century. Here are a few of the articles I’ve written lately:

Hope everyone has a peaceful and joyful summer. See you after the July 4th weekend. {{{Hugs}}} Kozo

 

Monthly Peace Challenge: Peace Child

by Kozo Hattori

banner

To help inspire the Bloggers for Peace (B4Peace), we will have a Monthly Peace Challenge. To participate, tag your post with B4Peace and make sure you copy your URL to the Linkz collection. Anyone who completes all twelve Monthly Peace Challenges in 2014 will receive a Free B4Peace T-shirt. Yes, I’ve decided to offer the second annual Bloggers for Peace T-shirt as a prize. I envision a day when we will all gather for a Bloggers for Peace Conference donning our various Bloggers for Peace T-shirts.

Sorry this post is a bit late, but we had some daycare issues this month, which serendipitously gave me the idea for this month’s challenge. Let’s focus on children. How can we teach children to prioritize peace? How did you experience peace as a child? What in your upbringing made you a Blogger for Peace?

20140101-083049.jpgHere are a few suggestions:

  • Post a song, poem, photo, video, or story that will lead children towards peace. Remember the anti-littering campaign featuring the crying Native American? I swear that that commercial is the reason I never litter to this day. Can we create something as powerful for peace?
  • Tell a story about when you were a child and you found/experienced/learned peace. What are your first memories of peace? What images, music, events, people introduced you to peace?
  • Post a practice, activity, tip, or suggestion for parents to raise peaceful children. (You don’t have to be a parent to do this. The Dalai Lama, to my knowledge, has no children, yet he offers advice to parents everyday.)
  • Post photos, images, artwork, poems, songs, or stories by/of/for children that bring you peace.
  • Tell a story about how you would re-parent yourself to make your life more peaceful. What would you tell your 3 year old self to help her find peace in the face of the experiences that are ahead of her?
  • Describe the resources you would give a child to live a peaceful life or make the world a more peaceful place.

Don’t forget to link to at least one other B4Peace post and add your post to the Linkz collection. Here is how:

  • Copy your URL to the Linkz collection. You’ll find the link below. It’s the drunk blue frog smiling for peace. Click on it and follow directions.
  • Go visit this site to read and comment on other posts related to this Monthly Peace Challenge.

 

2013 Bloggers for Peace T-shirt Update:

I have the final count and have rectified overseas mailing problems. Rarasaur and I are finalizing the Peace Cat image, so I hope to order the t-shirts this month and mail them the first week of April. This way, if I don’t get them out in time, I can say, “April Fools!” Sorry, for the delay. Thank you for your patience.

Monthly Peace Challenge: We Are Family

by Kozo Hattori

bannerTo help inspire the Bloggers for Peace (B4Peace), we will have a Monthly Peace Challenge. To participate, tag your post with B4Peace and make sure you copy your URL to the Linkz collection. Anyone who completes all twelve Monthly Peace Challenges in 2014 will receive a Free B4Peace T-shirt. Yes, I’ve decided to offer the second annual Bloggers for Peace T-shirt as a prize. I envision a day when we will all gather for a Bloggers for Peace Conference donning our various Bloggers for Peace T-shirts.

We’ve been blogging for peace for over a year, so I’m going to push you with this challenge. This month, I want you to focus on your family. Is there anyone you don’t fully embrace in your family? Do you feel resentment, shame, or anger towards someone blood-related?

Yep, I went there. Let’s deal with it. This months challenge is to make peace in yourself with someone close to you. Here are some suggestions:

  • Write a letter to someone that begins “I resent…” Explain exactly how you feel about this resentment in this letter. Let your anger out if you have any. Release all the negative energy surrounding this person. Sending the letter or reading the letter out loud to the person is optional.
  • Write a letter confessing all the secrets you have been withholding from someone close. Check out a book called Radical Honesty for examples. You might also want to listen to some Byron Katie CDs to find the courage to do this “work.”
  • Write a love letter to someone in your family who you can’t seem to connect with. Tell them all the wonderful things that they have brought into your life. What events do you remember that you enjoyed with them?
  • Describe an event from more than one perspective where someone caused you misery.
  • Tell a story about a family event that included “necessary suffering” and healing/forgiveness.

Don’t forget to link to at least one other B4Peace post and add your post to the Linkz collection. Here is how:

  • Copy your URL to the Linkz collection. You’ll find the link below. It’s the drunk blue frog smiling for peace. Click on it and follow directions.
  • Go visit this site to read and comment on other posts related to this Monthly Peace Challenge.

Last Chance for 2013 Bloggers for Peace T-shirt

Everyone who completed all the 2013 Monthly Peace Challenges make sure you email me your shirt size, blog name, and address to everydaygurus@gmail.com by February 15, 2014. I want to place the order for t-shirts. Once I place the order, you cannot receive your free t-shirt if you did not email me. Thank you.

FREE Bloggers for Peace T-shirt

by Kozo Hattori

bannerCONGRATULATIONS! You have completed a year of Blogging for Peace. I hope writing and publishing your peace posts brought you as much peace as it brought me. In gratitude for your heartfelt sincerity, dogged perseverance, and radical honesty, I would like to give you a free Bloggers for Peace T-shirt.

Cat Animation

I’ve decided to use Peace Cat for the 1st Annual Bloggers For Peace T-Shirt. Shout outs to Rarasaur and Grayson Queen for designing and creating Peace Cat.

If you completed all 12 Monthly Peace Challenges, then email me your name, address, blog name, and shirt size (Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, etc.). My email address is everydaygurus@gmail.com

If you did not complete the 12 Challenges, but would like to have a Bloggers For Peace T-shirt, then email me and I will send you an address to send a check or money order. I’m thinking $20/shirt which includes shipping and handling.

I want to thank everyone who participated in Bloggers For Peace this year–even if you just read Peace posts. I feel a shift in the Universe that I hope we can expand upon in 2014.

Thank you for reading, smiling, and/or sharing.

Peace in 2014 (Pi4teen)

Blogging to Self-Actualization

by Kozo Hattori

I’m shifting my perspective on blogging. The reason I started blogging was to build a platform for my writing and counseling services. Yet after blogging for over a year, I’m starting to realize that blogging has more important lessons for me to learn.

Wayne Dyer once interviewed Abraham Maslow about self-actualization. Maslow gave four characteristics of self-actualized people:

  1. Independent of the good opinion of other people
  2. Detached from outcome
  3. No investment in power or control of others
  4. See the unfolding of God in everyone they encounter and treating them that way

I can’t think of more noble characteristics, so I’m going to start blogging for self-actualization.

  1. I’m going to publish authentic and radically honest posts that are free from the fear of how others will judge or praise. I’m going to eliminate any fluff or rhetoric that is meant to cater to others wants, desires, or tastes.
  2. I’m going to give up all attachment to outcome. I have no idea of what my blogging will bring me in life. I have no idea if I will ever make any money from blogging. I blog simply because that is what I do.
  3. I’m going to give up any power or control I’m holding onto in relation to others. This comes in the form of judging other bloggers or writers. Comparing myself with others. Being jealous of others success as bloggers, counselors, writers, spiritual leaders, etc.
  4. I’m going to treat everyone who I encounter on the internet and in real life as a manifestation of God. Like Mother Teresa who saw Jesus in everyone she met, I will see the Christ Consciousness and Buddha Nature in everyone and treat them in the same way I would treat Christ and Buddha, with dignity, respect, and gratitude.

I realize that there are a lot of “I”s in the previous paragraphs–certainly some ego to be dealt with. On the other hand, I like the intentions and personal responsibility of these new resolutions–do I dare call them covenants?

Thank you for reading, smiling, and/or sharing.

Do you blog for a higher purpose? Please share.

Beautiful Blogger Quotations: Rarasaur’s Brother

by Kozo Hattori

quotation on paper

I know you must be sick of how much I crush on Rarasaur on this blog, but this is actually a quotation from Rara’s brother in Rara’s Post for Peace last month. I love this idea of opening to love especially on the heels the Love Thy Enemy Monthly Peace Challenge. I’m discovering that Blogger Quotations are just as profound and life changing as anything Eckart Tolle, the Dalai Lama, or Brene Brown says. You guys are amazing.

This post is part of BBQ—Beautiful Blog Quotations.

Feel free to join the fun.

  • Take a quotation from a favorite blogger
  • Create a BBQ post with the quotation
  • Link back to the blogger you quoted
  • Tag your post BBQLUV
  • Link to other BBQLUV posts (optional)

BBQ logo

Related articles

BBQ: Tracy from FEC-This

by Kozo Hattori

Tracy Quote

 

They say that hardship brings wisdom. I couldn’t agree more because Tracy from FEC-THis has had hardship and she is one of the wisest bloggers I know. I’m sure you agree after reading the quotation above. For more wisdom check out Tracy’s blog: http://fecthis.wordpress.com/

This post is part of BBQ—Beautiful Blog Quotations.

Feel free to join the fun.

  • Take a quotation from a favorite blogger
  • Create a BBQ post with the quotation
  • Link back to the blogger you quoted
  • Tag your post BBQLUV
  • Link to other BBQLUV posts (optional)

BBQ logo

The amazing Rarasaur has made a logo for Beautiful Blog Quotations. Feel free to copy, paste, and resize the logo and put it on your blog as a badge or use it in your post.

Thank you for reading, smiling, and/or sharing.

What do you think makes us human? Please share.

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Run Silent, Run Deep

by Kozo Hattori

For the next 10 days, I will be underground, off the grid, into the wild. I am attending a 10 day silent Vipassana meditation retreat. The code of discipline states that we cannot bring cell phones, computers, books, or journals to the retreat, so I guess I won’t see you guys until October 20th. boys meditating

I do, however, have some surprises for you. Two amazing bloggers have offered to guest blog on EverydayGurus. I’m asking you to show them the same appreciation, gratitude, and love you share on this blog every week.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to partake in the discussion, but I will respond to all comments when I return. {{{hugs}}} to all. Kozo

Blogging Break–Summer Vacation

by Kozo Hattori

I’ve taken both my sons out of school/daycare for the whole month of July. After forcing my son to do 21 pages of “optional” homework per week in kindergarten, I decided that my boys need a break. I’m following quantum physicist Amit Goswami’s advice on how to promote a creative mind by alternating doing and being–“do, be, do, be, do.”

Our attitude this summer vacation

Our attitude this summer–Just BE

So we are just going to BE in Nature, BE with family in Hawaii, and BE together.

Due to limited internet access and BEing with my sons 24/7, I will be taking a blogging break. I will still fulfill my responsibilities for Bloggers for Peace–reading and commenting on Peace Posts, creating and posting a Monthly Peace Challenge, and posting for Peace. I will probably be able to post a new article once a week, but I might be absent for days at a time as I teach my sons how to body surf, lay in the grass and wonder where clouds go to when they disappear, or go on bear hunts secretly hoping that a real bear never crosses our path.

I’d like to wish everyone a peaceful summer with lots of BEs and honey.

{{{Hugs}}} Kozo