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….

More good news on inflation

AXIOS

Fall Tree Of The Day, 2023

An annual series:  Fall Tree Of The Day:

Warsaw, IN

More Fall pics here....

Fraud

If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.

-- Nicholas Nassim Taleb

Justice

What is justice?  

Does anybody really care what it is (especially those who have the power over it)?

What is the basis of our sense of justice?  Perhaps, even more importantly, is that basis changing?

It is often claimed that Judeo-Christian ethics make up the cornerstone of our sense of justice.  But, assuming that was true, how long has it been since anyone has really asked whether or not that is still true, especially in terms of whether or not that is actually happening?  Claiming something is one thing; doing it is another.

As seems true of so many things, our working definitions and supporting assumptions seem to be getting smaller against the back-drop of what is true about justice in the broader sense.  And, part of that smallness is reflected in how we think — especially about what is fair.  Further, that working definition presumes an understanding that is primarily focused on what happens to us as individuals.  Justice, too often, has come to understood as what seems fair...to me (or, more indictingly, for me).  Most common folk still seem to resonate that nobody should have an unfair advantage (although, it sure seems like we don't seem to mind too much when we have it...).  And, if something unfair should somehow still occur, we believe we deserve compensation for that unfairness (after all, that is only just, right?).  

But, fairness is a rather small slice of the idea of justice.

And, believe it or not, the Christian Bible has something to say about the extent of its interest in justice.  Though it considers personal ramifications, it seems far more interested in something collective.  What is good, needs to be good for everyone.  Individual issues often seem subordinate to the needs of the larger community.  Faith in the Bible is not primarily personal...or private.  This quickly runs afoul of the American sense of what is important about justice.  We seem much more interested in dealing with the criminal, than we are the dynamics involved with crime.  Just "put them in jail"...and we can check that (them) off of our list.  Interesting though, how things get different real fast when we feel that something unfair happens to us.  Suddenly, we're very interested, at all kinds of levels.

So what does the Bible actually seem to portray about what justice looks like in God's eyes? 

For starters, the word for “justice” in the Bible is the same word as “righteousness.” This overlap shows that the central concern of biblical justice was not “getting what you deserve”; rather, it was making right what was done wrong, restoring what had been destroyed, healing the wounds of an offensive act. It was about bringing balance and wholeness back to the community, which is why you often see scales as an icon for justice.  

But the scales can be misleading, since it is not just about balance or even “eye for an eye” justice. Real justice goes much deeper. One of my friends who is a biblical scholar says the best contemporary translation for the ancient notion of “justice/righteousness” is “restorative justice.”

-- Shane Claiborne

It would seem that perspective looks a lot more like it is about love, than it is about a personal sense of fairness....

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

-- Williams Shakespeare

LT: Absorb Pain Without

Leaders are ones who learn to absorb pain without passing it on to others or to themselves. 

-- Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice

Pleasure

I'm wondering...if pleasure is not as much a goal, as it is a byproduct.

When it becomes a goal, its logical extent becomes a bit strange.

When We Are Asking Questions

We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.

-- Abraham Joshua Herschel

3 Observations & A Question….

It’s one thing to talk about something that is good; it’s quite another to actually see it happening (just one example...here).

We seem designed to respond to challenge — because, at every age, it creates and maintains a mechanism of engagement.

You really need to acknowledge what you don't feel like doing — so, you can decide whether or not to do anyway.

 

Don't we pretty much have to admit that so much of what we think about things we haven't directly experienced is mostly influenced the opinions of others (whoever it is we're reading or listening to)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Some (US) History: Veterans Day

In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson commemorated Armistice Day, saying that Americans would reflect on the anniversary of the armistice “with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…."  Continue...here.

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

Knowledge Transfer

In the school nurse’s office, I loved chatting with Sarah, a vivacious 9-year-old who had been managing her Type 1 diabetes for years. Several times a day, she stopped in to check her blood sugar and adjust her insulin dose. I asked her why one day, just to see how she answered.

“Because I’m always eating too much sugar and too many cookies, and I can’t keep my blood sugar down,” she said.  

This response made me profoundly sad because she had somehow assumed she was to blame for her condition. In Type 1 diabetes, the body attacks the pancreas, keeping it from producing sufficient insulin. Even if Sarah ate a perfectly healthy diet, she would depend on insulin injections to process carbohydrates.

When I talked to Sarah’s parents, they were upset—they never realized that she thought about the disease as her fault. But this kind of hidden miscommunication is common. One way to uncover it: a technique called teach-back, which research has shown to be effective for learning. 

Here’s how it works: continue here...

-- Kelly Fradin

Accept It

Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.

-- Eckhart Tolle 

With The End In Mind or ....

I’m trying something new today....

I will be adding things here as the day unfolds. Largely unedited, I’m going to try to capture the flow of some of my thoughts, see how they evolve, and watch where they end up without anything particularly preconceived guiding the way. …will use my phone, too, so could be some typos (just saying).

For starters, it seems to me that having the end in mind is generally pretty helpful, especially given the sometimes-tyrannical nature of the moment.

But, once you’ve lived a while, it is hard not to also recognize the tenuousness of much of life and, therefore, at least some of its outcomes.

An anticipated or desired end certainly can (and does) happen. But, more often than not it seems, whatever that is isn't what actually happens, while at the same time something else does.

Assuming this isn’t an aberration, the question could be, why (especially given our goal-oriented tendencies)? Why do things happen more like this, after all? Is it because it generally takes us a while to truly learn that any particular end is not quite as important as what is learned in the process of getting there? Or, perhaps as it is often more popularly put, is the journey more important than the destination? 

One would wonder, though, how different what happens on the journey would be if the destination you set out for was actually something else? In other words, isn’t what happens along the way distinctly impacted by the direction one heads in the first place? It doesn’t seem hard to argue, for example, that the content (if not quality) of our current experience is often impacted or influenced by what has happened to us (good or bad) before this particular moment.

So, what do we make of this dialectic — do we set hard-and-fast goals and relentlessly pursue them or do we go-with-the-flow because it doesn't matter anyway?

First of all, always be aware that things presented in binary form are likely missing something important.

I am in Chicago today for business.  As I drove through it, I couldn't help but reflect on what it took to make everything the way it is now in this big city.  On the one hand, a lot of vision — staying on track.  And, on the other, a lot of other stuff along the way — being flexible with the challenges and opportunities that were happening at any given moment.  The city is still changing right now, in fact, even as it both resembles and defies what some of those who had vision for it, before it began, had in mind.

Final thought (for now):  The more we observe this dynamic between these two phenomena, the more we can acknowledge it and embrace the notion that, actually, both are important.  This lends itself to making room for each and considering when they might be best applied, either by context or at differing points in time.

At a more personal level, the most compelling data comes from our personal experience — wouldn't you agree?  What I planned to do and where I've ended up are, in fact, quite a mix of things partially anticipated and nothing I could have imagined.  How about you?

Asking For Help

Asking for help is an act of service. Don't deny the people who love you the honor of being there to support you.

-- Simon Sinek

Response vs Reaction

I’ve noticed...that I can work rather hard (often subconsciously) to balance walking a tight-rope between creating response and creating reaction. 

Sometimes that walk is so self-serving, it loses any power altogether.

A Slippery Slope

'Poem for the week' -- "A Slippery Slope":

I can feel an unfamiliar inclination to cynicism growing with the weight of recent days,

and I know it is a stumbling block to my worship.

The beating heart of my being is belief 

that you are always graciously giving

and, in so doing,

restoratively drawing all things to your center.

Cynicism is a protective barrier

and a clean means of categorization—

but it insulates me from the earthy richness of your mercy.

Tilt my heart’s inclination again,

that I might joyfully slide into the grass and gravel of your goodness.

May delight be definitive,

may I work in wonder,

and may my life sing—

above the beating war drums of commodity, competition and carelessness—

that all is gift.

Amen. 

-- Emily Cash, Driftwood Prayers

4 Observations (from Others)

A human being would certainly not grow to be 70 or 80 years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species to which he belongs. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning. 

-- Carl Jung

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. 

 -- Walter Lippmann

Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen — that stillness can become a radiance.

-- Morgan Freeman

Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Go-time in the Red Zone

From Michiana Chronicles:

Grandma watched the game through a chain link fence, sunk deep into a folding camp chair near the concession stand.

“Hit ‘em!” she shouted.

The offense was moving too freely, driving through the D line down after down. The tackling was terrible.

“Wrap ‘em up!”

But nobody did. A ground-and-pound clinic from the boys in silver just punching it up the gut against the boys in blue. Smashmouth football. Rock’em sock’em football. Blue had no answer.

To be fair, Blue’s defensive end was three-and-a-half footballs tall. Their interior line was pretty shrimpy, too. Silver had some dudes up front, and their running back was more than five footballs tall.

Grandma turned away from the game and into her smartphone.  Continue (or listen) here....

-- Brett McNeil

How We Enculturate

Years ago, I read about a study that has stuck with me. Middle school children were given a scenario: Your mother is very ill and needs medicine, but you don’t have enough money. What do you do? Most of the boys responded that they would steal the medicine while most of the girls responded that they would approach the pharmacist to make an arrangement to work off or pay for the medicine in installments. The male response was praised for its efficiency, and the female response was dismissed for its passivity. The lesson was that guys get things done, no matter the method. For the boys, the ends justify the means. For the girls, the ends are the means.

-- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

We Are Stronger When

We are stronger when we listen, and smarter when we share.

-- Rania Al-Abdullah

2 Hours Outdoors

So much of our existence has become fragmented.  And, our sense of stress has increased accordingly.

According to Outside magazine, Americans went on 1 billion fewer hikes, bike rides and walks in 2018, compared with 2008.  And, Axios Finish Line reported that while the share of people spending time in nature ticked up during the pandemic as folks had more free time, we're still spending more time indoors than we did a decade ago.  More startling is the statistic that some 100 million Americans, including 27 million kids, don't have access to decent green spaces.

One Nature.com study — with 20,000 participants — by researchers from the University of Exeter found that people who spent two hours a week in parks, at beaches or in woodlands scored higher than others on metrics related to physical and psychological well-being.

For years now, I have noticed a similar pattern — something about spending time in nature shifts an internal dynamic about reality for me.  While I'm guessing it could be debated what that shift is, I'm pretty confident that our internal systems signal the impact of a more natural orientation to our existence (than the hybrid-ized one we have ended up with).  And, you don't have to look very long to discover that people throughout time (ancient or more recent) have reached similar conclusions.  Even sacred narratives seem to point this out.

Our sense of self is better understood in the context of the range of broader relationships with the world we all live in (acknowledged or not).  We exist within something larger and that is important to know about, if not more fully understand.  While many features of American life are often somewhere between interesting and good, many others are not.  Stress caused by the isolation often felt from a false sense of autonomy is pretty evident.  According to widely available reports like those referenced above, it would do us all well to make some re-prioritizations...like routinely spending even a small amount of time outside, where a full range sensory impacts can be experienced in a way that connects us to the larger goods of reality.

In the wilderness, I sense the wholeness hidden “in all things.” It is in the taste of wild berries, the scent of sunbaked pine, the sight of the Northern Lights, the sound of water lapping the shore, signs of a bedrock integrity that is eternal and beyond all doubt.

-- Parker Palmer