Real Wealth

 ...is sharing life with those you love.  Happy New Year, 2024!

Clear and Intimate

Since I started the year with a prayer, it seems fitting to end with one, too.

Packed to the gills with the load of our desire, I love this one for that and for the simplicity and clarity it creates as a reflection on where we've been...even it opens us up further to the real presence we could have in another year.

Lord God, we thank you for the gift of the desire to be ever more clear and intimate in our awareness of your intimacy with us that’s sustaining us breath by breath by breath. We thank you for this.… We thank you for the desire not to break the thread of that connectedness with you as we go through the day, facing what we need to face, walking what we need to walk through.… We’re interiorly moved by your grace to reach out and touch the hurting places with love, that the suffering might dissolve in love, and to continue touching the hurting places with love until only love is left, and to be patient with this, and to be childlike, and to be open and faithful to this mysterious process in which we incarnate your healing presence in the midst of our lives. And we ask for this through your Son, Jesus. Amen.

-- James Finley

4 Questions…(instead of 1) — as 2023 Ends

Why do so many claim justification of war in the name of securing peace (how is that approach working out anyway)?

How much IS enough anyway?

What makes time feel so different — at some points, so slow, and at others, so fast?

After all this (your experiences), what have you found (discovered)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Smoked A Cigarette

AXIOS

With Our Attention

The difference between misery and happiness depends on what we do with our attention.

-- Sharon Salzberg

New Birth

Besides the miraculous nature of new birth in general (not to mention the story of Christmas), what is giving birth in you right now?

As a family, pregnancy is on our minds right now, as 2023 brought a new one to it and 2024 is scheduled to do the same.

In some way, we all have a kind of pregnancy going on with us.  Perhaps, it is simply whether we realize it or not.

Do we feel expanded by the lead-up and then experience of Christmas this year?  While not everyone does (some for me haven't felt that way), I do this year.  Some of that has to do with, as expected, all that happened in 2023.  Some has to do with the richness and connection we experienced as a family and friends this last week.  Some of it has to do with what we already know is coming in the new year — both challenges and opportunities.

When we are expanded, there is usually some resulting and new residual space.  Maybe the question we have is something along the lines of what we fill it with.  More of the same?  Something new?  What is it about the emptiness that often trails expansion in lives that feels uncomfortable, but that also is essentially a new opportunity?  One that gives us room to sense the more than we actually do want after all.  

Expansion often creates the unsettling effect that we actually have more to do than we thought we did.  Perhaps, we want to be something different...more of who we really are.  Do we take specific steps towards that, uncertain as we may be about what we're actually discovering, or do we just fill it all back in and slowly collapse back into the predictability we more often prefer.

About this time in our cultural cycles, we either feel inspired or cynical about the annual pep-talks the possibilities a new year brings.  Perhaps, this is because we embrace them mostly in our heads.

But, pregnancy (literal or metaphorical) is not a head-thing, as much as it is an embodied thing...a terrifying and exhilarating encounter with new life in whatever forms we experience it.  It requires a unique kind of attention from us.  It makes us more alive.

Unknowing isn’t ignorance; it’s recognizing a world flush with wonderment and puzzle and mystery.

-- Tom Lutz

World Flush

Unknowing isn’t ignorance; it’s recognizing a world flush with wonderment and puzzle and mystery.

-- Tom Lutz

A holiday wish

Friends,

Many Americans today worry that our nation is losing its national identity.

Some claim loudly that the core of that identity requires better policing of our borders.

Others worry that white Christian America is being replaced by other races, religions, and ethnicities.

But neither our border nor our dominant race, religion, and ethnicity defines America.

We’re defined by the ideals we share, the good we hold in common.

That common good is a set of shared commitments. To the rule of law. To democracy. To tolerance of our differences. To equal rights and equal opportunities for everyone. To upholding the truth.

We cannot have a functioning society without these shared commitments. Absent a common good, there can be no “we” to begin with.

If we’re losing our national identity, it is because we are losing our sense of the common good. This is what must be restored.

Some of you may feel such a quest to be hopeless. Well, I disagree.  Continue here....

-- Robert Reich

BE Light

May your heart BE light.

The New Eve

Mary is the new EVE, and in her trust,

offers a new way of being.

Eve says, let me have it.

Mary says, let it be.

Eve came from Adam,

But the new Adam, came from the new Eve.

-- Rich Villodas

Mary is the model of the faith to which God calls all of us: a total and unreserved yes to God’s request to be present in and to the world through us. 

The question then becomes for us:  How do we also give birth, as Mary did? 

There is no mention of any moral worthiness, achievement, or preparedness in Mary, only humble trust and surrender. She gives us all, therefore, a bottomless hope in our own little place. If we ourselves try to “manage” God or manufacture our own worthiness by any perfection or performance principle whatsoever, we will never give birth to the Christ, but only more of ourselves. Continue here.... 

-- Richard Rohr

More on the flesh-and-blood-ness of Mary here and here...

...which only makes her song (Luke 1) even more profound.

You can’t force holiday cheer—but 3 habits can help you feel happier this season

Do you ever feel like the holiday season comes with an unwritten script you struggle to follow? From buying the perfect gifts to hosting the ideal holiday party to posting that flawless family photo on Instagram, the pressure to conform to societal expectations can be especially overwhelming during the holidays. In its annual holiday mental health poll, the telehealth platform Sesame found that nearly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adult respondents reported an increase in stress levels during the holiday season.

The expanded to-do list is one source of added holiday stress, but perhaps even more pernicious is the unspoken expectation of how we’re supposed to feel during the holidays—happy, grateful, connected...continue here.

-- Jen Zamzow

Resignation: George Washington

I have thought that one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world, was that presented by the conduct of the commander-in-chief, in resigning his power and commission as he did, when the army, perhaps, would have been unanimously with him, and few of the people disposed to resist his retaining the power which he had used with such happy success, and such irreproachable moderation.

-- John Trumbull, regarding George Washington's resignation in 1783

Into the Darkest Hour

'Poem for the week' -- "Into the Darkest Hour":

It was a time like this,

War & tumult of war,

a horror in the air.

Hungry yawned the abyss –

and yet there came the star

and the child most wonderfully there.

It was a time like this

of fear & lust for power,

license & greed and blight –

and yet the Prince of bliss

came into the darkest hour

in quiet & silent light.

And in a time like this

How celebrate his birth

When all things fall apart?

Ah! Wonderful it is

with no room on the earth

the stable is our heart.

-- Madeleine L’Engle

Because They Look For It

Children see magic because they look for it.

-- Christopher Moore

Christmas Spirit or the Spirit of Christmas

I recently read something in a place I wasn't expecting it:

7. Creates a spirit of unity in the company

It was line item from a job description I was reviewing at work.

Unity generally seems like a good thing.  At the very least, not a bad thing (unless it is used as code for 'uniformity'). 

But, the word that really caught my eye was spirit.  

Perhaps because of this time of year, I've noticed the idea more and more lately.  Around Christmas, we often hear about Christmas spirit — especially in terms of whether you have it...or not. 

But, often, Christmas spirit simply refers more to our cultural trappings (enjoyable as some of those may be...lights, decorations, eggnog, Christmas movies — or parodies of them, gift-giving, etc.).  And, it does seem observable that at least some people seem a little nicer this time of year (see below)...perhaps because of the prompts brought to us this season by the likes of Santa or Ebenezer Scrooge.

Cultural themes aside, though, that doesn't seem to really capture a larger sense of spirit about Christmas.  The Spirit of Christmas seems more fully rooted in Christian stories about God and Mankind, about how they uniquely intersected at a certain point in time, about what was latent in their relationship and how the future of that relationship was changed.  Advent's keywords hope, peace, joyjoy, and love take on a depth of timeless meaning that often seems more submerged the rest of the year.

The idea of the incarnation of God, especially in the form of a powerless baby continues to confound those who truly attempt to contemplate it.  Further, the on-going solidarity represented by the Emmanuel-nature of God leads us to an altered understanding (if not experience) of the reality we so often otherwise are caught up in.

The shift from God at the zenith of the great chain of being toward God with us in a great web of belonging is the heart of today’s spiritual revolution.

-- Diana Butler Bass

The miracle of the Spirit of Christmas is the good news that there is no separation of us from God after all and, therefore, the joy of recognizing the unity between God, man, and all of creation both now and forevermore.  That is no small thing and is part of the embedded energy in some of the timeless traditional hymns we often sing together this season of year.

Speaking of joy:

LT: Reliability

If you’re unreliable, it doesn’t matter what your virtues are, you’re going to crater immediately.

Reliability is essential for progress in life. While quantum mechanics is unlearnable for a vast majority, reliability can be learned to great advantage by almost anyone. In short: Always do faithfully what you have engaged to do.

-- Charlie Munger

I Want More

I’ve noticed...I have a bit of an addictive personality — in other words, I always seem to want more.

So, there is something appealing about the notion of the need to be content.

I’m often not content — I even know that more is not better and that I actually don’t need it. But, I still do (just want more). So, I have to consciously build things into my life and thinking to counter this tendency.  Like thinking about whether it is really has much to do with more or whether it has to do with want — what is it that I really want?

More is about getting.  Contentment is about receiving.  May I make space to receive what I truly want.

Christianity Hasn't Answered All My Questions

The hope of Christmas is that God did not — and therefore will not — leave us alone. In the midst of our doubts and suffering comes a baby. This child, Christians claim, is God’s embodied response to all of our human aching. In his book “Unapologetic,” Francis Spufford writes that Christians “don’t have an argument that solves the problem of the cruel world, but we have a story.” This story is one of God moving into the neighborhood.

Christianity hasn’t answered all my questions. It has not made me perfectly happy. It has not satisfied my sense of longing. If anything, my (often feeble) attempts to live as a Christian have heightened it. But the Christian story tells me that my deepest longings are not just farce, that they point to something true and therefore should be listened to. This Christmas I long not just for love, but for eternal love. I long for a deeper purity and righteousness than I can muster by good behavior. I long for a justice more profound than Congress can ever deliver. I long for “peace on earth and good will toward men” that is more complete and all-encompassing than we’ve ever known. I long for meaning that is more lasting than I can create. I believe that this baby born in Bethlehem is the mystery our hearts keep chasing, the end of our all quests and the longing we cannot shake.

-- Tish Harrison Warren, NY Times Newsletters

Peace is the only battle worth waging.

-- Albert Camus

3 Observations & A Question

To effectively ponder where you're going, you need to remember where you've been.

Our best move with tension is towards it.

We are never more divine than when we are fully human.

What is the role of companionship in your life?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party

Today is the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, when 30 or more men boarded three trading vessels in Boston Harbor. They broke open 342 chests of tea and dumped about 90,000 pounds of the valuable leaves overboard. 

The pointed destruction of a cargo worth about $1.7 million in today’s dollars escalated the ongoing struggle between the British government and thirteen of its North American colonies. 

 Trouble had been growing since the end in 1763 of what the colonists knew as the French and Indian War. That conflict dramatically expanded British possessions in North America, but at the cost of badly stretching the Treasury. To raise revenue, the king’s ministers and Parliament placed a number of taxes on the colonists...continue here.

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

Fuzzy Feelings

The No. 1 thing parents are ‘completely forgetting’ to teach their kids today, says a parenting expert and mom

We are constantly being bombarded with the message that happiness comes from consumption.

-- Eva Moskowitz

In my experience, people are happiest when their life includes some type of meaningful, productive activity. Unfortunately, we are constantly being bombarded with the message that happiness comes from consumption. 

When advertisers tell us to “treat” ourselves to their products, they are trying to make us believe that buying things is the ultimate reward, that we will be happy only if we buy a fancier car or a bigger house. 

How do you fight back? Don’t make it a habit to take your children to stores where they can go running around saying “I want this” and “I want that.” 

The happiest kids value experiences over material things.  Continue here....

Hope Is Not A Feeling

Hope is not a feeling.  It's an orientation of the spirit.

-- Bryan Stevenson

By The Time...

The cycle and circle of life...is a defyingly amazing thing.  We can direct some of it; but mostly, in the end, we simply learn to cooperate with it.  This is not necessarily as much acquiescence (though some of that is surely needed, too) as it is a recognition of the deep trust we can have in it.  Richard Rohr put it this way:

Life is more participatory than assertive, and there is no need for strong or further self-definition.

We must have faith in inherent goodness, for without it we would cave in on ourselves (if we're at all honest).  But, with it, we are highly poised to engage with both life's highest of highs and lowest of lows.  This allows us to more effectively travel these cycles of life and to both give and receive from them.

Few things are more impacting throughout these than our relationships, especially family.  It is as if it is designed this way.  When it becomes so broken, we must attend to it...even with separation.  But, otherwise, we must simply cooperate and engage with it.  And, herein lies the beautiful invitation of it.  

At times, doing so will challenge us to the core (after all, in the most basic of ways, we come from it).  At other times, it will lift us to heights we otherwise may never have imagined.  How it feels is important.  But, what it is is even more important.  Our vision of this cycle of life can certainly grow:

Aging can be either a life of nostalgia or a wholehearted engagement with the future. 

-- Ilia Delio

So, may we let it.  It keeps the whole thing going, in healthy ways (so beautifully described by Susan Cain here and Pat McCabe here).

Here’s a Christmasy version of the idea...sent to me by my daughter (who, by the way, is now pregnant):

...the cycle continues.

Nearest To The Great

We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.

-- Rabindranath Tagore

Pain & Wonder

Ever noticed...how full life is, of both pain and wonder?

Irrational Season

This is an irrational season

When love blooms bright and wild.

Had Mary been filled with reason

There'd have been no room

for the child.

-- Madeleine L'Engle

75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Seventy-five years ago today, on December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly announced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). 

At a time when the world was still reeling from the death and destruction of World War II, the Soviet Union was blockading Berlin, Italy and France were convulsed with communist-backed labor agitation, Arabs opposed the new state of Israel, communists and nationalists battled in China, and segregationists in the U.S. were forming their own political party to stop the government from protecting civil rights for Black Americans, the member countries of the United Nations nonetheless came together to adopt a landmark document: a common standard of fundamental rights for all human beings.  Continue here....

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

3 Observations & A Question….

Pain is often a deterrent — sometimes I stop before doing something I want to do that isn't good for me, because of the (painful) consequences.

In matters of faith, people often need a frame — which, while helpful, can also lend itself to becoming the object itself, instead of the content of the frame.

If you need to be re-grounded, spend some extended time outdoors in silence and solitude.

Can you? — you can, but the better question might be, should you (in other words, is it good for you or for others)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Soaked With Blood

Refugee

My oh my, in light current events, how some things don't seem to change....

'Poem for the week' -- "Refugee":

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple, 

Or cosy in a crib beside the font, 

But he is with a million displaced people 

On the long road of weariness and want. 

For even as we sing our final carol 

His family is up and on that road, 

Fleeing the wrath of someone else's quarrel, 

Glancing behind and shouldering their load. 

Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower 

Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled, 

The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power, 

And death squads spread their curse across the world. 

But every Herod dies, and comes alone 

To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.

-- Malcom Guite, Waiting on the Word: A poem a day for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany

Act As If

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

-- William James

People With Resources

People with resources can really influence, if not shape, the experiences of many other people. 

It’s actually a rather wonderful thing, especially when that influence is good.  Obviously, you don't have to look very far to see that it can go the other way, too. 

For example, how many of us have collective appreciation for things, for certain things, because of the beneficiary nature of shared experiences as a child? These could be community events, or many other things, which we remember with a degree of fondness from our childhood and perpetuate (or seek to) as adults. I remember a Christmas parade I would attend in a neighboring town as a child with my parents each December.  In the little town I live in now, someone with resources funds an elaborate display of Christmas lighting.  It's actually a bit cheeky, but I tend to overlook that feature; likely because of what it taps into...like my community-based childhood family rituals and the nostalgia it represents of a more innocent time.  

While this often happens at localized levels, we can also see this effect at broader scales.  National parks in the United States, for example, are a great example of a vision of preservation of collective resources that are good and beneficial for society. Obviously, we don’t always get this quite right (especially when scale is involved), and so there are failures (and abuses) as well. But, if we can somehow retain the embedded values of true shared goodness, we can recognize the power of how resources can be used to impact society at large, as well as individuals who participate in it.

In the end, resources of any kind (economic, natural, etc.) are the only thing we actually have.  So, how we use them is both important and telling.  If we're honest, so much of our personal good is impacted by a collective good, which in turn goes back the other way, too.  After all, each of us has resources to contribute for the betterment of others...and together, it all adds up.

Trustworthy

Being right doesn't make us trustworthy. Being honest makes us trustworthy.

-- Simon Sinek

Processing Information

I'm wondering...why we seem to have elevated processing information to nearly the status of virtue.

In fact, processing information is of relative little value, in and of itself.  It often just leads to an appetite to simply process more information.  While it has a helpful place, it is what we do with information that matters.

Advent Narratives

The advent narratives demand we take the political and economic world of Roman Palestine seriously. The Gospel writers named the empires of Caesar and Herod not for dramatic effect; they didn’t mention a census or massacre for literary flourish. The Gospel writers used contextual markers to describe in concrete ways the turmoil of the times that hosted the first advent.

It is this very context that makes the advent narratives contemporary—whether in Israel-Palestine or lands beyond. Our troubled times, shaped by all manner of injustice, cause continued suffering, making the loud cries of lament and cries for peace timely, as they are answered by advent. . . .

The Incarnation positions Jesus among the most vulnerable people, the bereft and threatened of society. The first advent shows God wrestling with the struggles common to many the world over. And from this disadvantaged stance, Jesus lives out God’s peace agenda as a counter-testimony to Caesar’s peace.

This is the story of advent: we join Jesus as incarnations of God’s peace on this earth for however long it takes. God walks in deep solidarity with humanity, sharing in our sufferings and moments of hope. Amid our hardship, God is with us. Emmanuel remains the name on our lips in troubled times.

-- Kelley Nikondeha

While the scene here doesn't fully match the observations above, I love that the message is still being proclaimed, even if in song (sometimes, that's better anyway).  More Christkindlmarkt pics...here.

BigTen Champs - 3-PEAT!

 More pics...here.  And, highlights here!

4 Observations (from Others)

You can't heal what you don't feel.

-- David Kessler

I don't believe that all of these problems are happening to us. I believe they're happening for us.

-- Ava Duvernay

The voice of doubt, shame, and guilt blaring in our heads is not our voice. It is a voice we have been given by a society steeped in shame. It is the “outside voice.” Our authentic voice, our “inside voice,” is the voice of radical self-love! 

-- Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology

In this moment, through simply allowing and accepting and being with what is, you can find peace in the midst of any circumstance, any weather. 

-- Mark Coleman

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Who Produces the Most Oil?

AXIOS

We’re stuck between rock salt and a hard place

Another example of just because you can doesn't mean should:

By thwarting your adult snow day dreams, road salt keeps the wintertime economy humming.

Just one snow day is estimated to cost Northern US states as much as $2.6 billion in lost wages and $870 million in retail sales, according to IHS Global Insight. Politicians have even lost their jobs for flubbing their snowstorm response.

That’s why we’re using so much road salt. It’s usually mined in reserve-rich states like Kansas or imported from Chile or Canada. Ten times more chlorine and caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) gets slathered on roads and sidewalks than goes into processed foods, according to the US Geological Survey.  Continue here....

-- Molly 

Deeper Powers

Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.

-- Joseph Campbell

Access To Rather Than Possession Of

Christianity has access to the answer. 

The problem is, a lot of it right now really doesn’t understand the question.  

And, because of that, it morphs from having access to the answer to believing it has the answer.  This is an oft undetectable, but not so subtle, shift because there is a fundamental difference in how this works itself out — not the least of which is the humility with which it effectively operates.  Humility lends itself to the questions that need to continue to be asked.  Answers as a possession, rather than something we have access to, are too often heading away from humility and towards something else...much of which would not be characteristic of biblical Christianity.

Nationalism (with a small 'n') is simply a thing and not automatically bad — simply a mechanism for appropriate pride in one's country.  Nationalism with a capital 'N', however, is generally not a good thing because of all what tends to become involved in relation to other nations and, thereby, to itself.  History has well-informed us about its vagaries (and, apparently, still does).

Combining a basic misunderstanding of Christianity with Nationalism (capital N) is often, then, a terrible thing.  We don't have to look around very much to see how true this is.

A Christian does not, in the end, have power (or even desire it); a Christian has access to power...and is, thereby, a conduit of it.  It is much more of a dependency, than it is a solution (especially when wielded against others — something that is diametrically opposed to true Christianity).

May we increasingly become aware of who we are (and, who we are not), for the sake of the answer...and those questioning it.

Recognize & Respond

The skill of emotional intelligence is simply the ability to recognize your feelings and understand how you’re responding to them — and do it without judging yourself.

-- Susan David, Ph.D.

Self-Conscious

I’ve noticed...a fatal-flaw in my personal psychology — self-consciousness.  

Self-consciousness is not self-awareness; it's self-protective.  

Too often, my tendency is to second-guess my personal power.  I can defer to what others might be thinking about something I do or say — both before and after I have done or said it (whether it's really what they're thinking or not).  I then try to offset something (often subconsciously); even though it needs to be done or said and, in doing so, suck the power out of it.  Not as much because it could be wrong (why couldn't it be?), but because of something I'm trying to avoid about what someone might think if it is.

It's not pretty (others sense it, but are often not sure what is happening) and it's not good (it's self-serving).

The Need to Make Something of Ourselves

Sabbath is not just rest from making things.

It's rest from the need to make something of ourselves.

-- Rich Villodas

Among just a few other things, there's few things quite like snowfall to help make this happen...more early snow-season here.

UM Beats OSU...3rd Straight Time!

mlive.com

3 Observations & A Question….

I don’t care how much talent you have, you have to do something for a while to get really good at it — there’s nothing like experience to leverage talent.

When I am feeling insecure about something (and there are many things), it is helpful for me to shift the dynamic from what I can handle (or not) to what I believe in and desire to work for.

We are the ones who have to take responsibility (be mindful) of what we put into our bodies.

Did you know that eternity, in the Judeo-Christian concept, is not primarily about time?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Moving

I see the direct connection between moving and health.

-- Mathea Allansmith, 92 - oldest woman in the world to complete a marathon

BE Grateful

Thanksgiving Day:

Grateful is something to BE.

Plus, some some history of the day...here.

Involve Your Boys / Symphony / Polar Plunge

For the early-risers on this thankful day, here's a couple of unrelated prism-like (glints of light) considerations for you:

...

This is the time of year we pause to make room for gratitude. And we think about sharing gifts with those we hold dear.

At the same time we are confronted by the news and can so quickly be overwhelmed by the suffering in the world, much of it caused by humans who perpetuate the lie that violence is the first and best and only recourse.

Our both/and, beautiful broken world can make a grateful heart hurt. We struggle to hold all of the above.

I’m reminded again of a story my Armenian piano teacher told me in college. She knew of two women — distant relatives — who during WWII had managed to save a little extra money to buy winter coats this time of year. They walked into town on a windy gray November day and were surprised to discover that a visiting symphony orchestra was going to be performing a concert that evening.

They looked at each other in knowing disbelief.

“We can be cold for one winter,” one of them announced as they stepped up to the box office to purchase ticket.

-- Linford Detweiler

...

And, this one from Garrison Keillor might make you smile more than once:

Thank goodness for Minnesota

Gratitude Is A Gateway

Gratitude is a gateway.

So much research demonstrates that a discipline of gratitude leads to health of many kinds.  But, it also confirms that it needs to be a conscious thing...otherwise we just don't do it.  A centrifugal-type force seems to draw us towards the dynamics of problems and fears, so we have choose to countermand it...at a habitual level.

But, the benefits of doing so are irrefutable.  It helps us make more positive personal choices, like eating well, exercising, and getting outside. It improves our relationships and gives us a more positive outlook on life. Perhaps, one of the more insightful observations about it is that giving thanks is an essential part of what makes us human.

Gratitude is like a big invitation…to more.  An invitation to recognize goodness, an invitation to love — to an understanding of true abundance.  Not the kind that is about the endless accumulation of things, but the kind of abundance that is the endless participation with all the graces that are around us (love this observation of Wm. Paul Young).  It is like a door that opens us up to nearly everything that is good — a gateway.

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.

-- Eckhart Tolle

Not Dependent On Circumstances

Gratitude isn’t dependent on my circumstances. It’s like a muscle. The more you flex and exercise it, the stronger it becomes. Then, the more gratitude I feel and the deeper that gratitude reaches — even when my circumstances don’t warrant it.

-- Allison Fallon

When?

Ever noticed...when you are more aware of what you are thankful for?

…or the things that inhibit that awareness?

Alternative to the 'midlife crisis'

The Earth Never Changes

Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.  

-- Ecclesiastes 1:4–7

(Oh, and don't miss the point here — this is not a rebuttal on climate change.)

Even as our experience is rooted in things we try to keep track of with time, there is a timelessness to things.  This can feel meaningless when we seek meaning exclusively from the things themselves.  But, the Source of things provides the meaning of them and this transforms them from futility to gift.  In this way, there is even a kind of comfort from the motion of this endless cycling, of which we are beneficiaries. 

We have much for which to be grateful — so much has been provided, including our access to the Source itself.

3 Observations & A Question….

We all have working assumptions, some of which are true.

Words matter a lot, but still not to the same degree for everyone.

We are all thinking thoughts — the trick is determining which ones are worth sharing at any given moment.

Do we really want to become experts on the inconsistencies of others (you really can't see where that dumps you?)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….