LT: Problems Arise When

Problems arise when we start compromising our own standards, those we have set for ourselves, in order to earn the admiration of others. Problems come when we choose to focus on what others think and see versus reality.

-- Shane Parrish

Emotionally Brave

I’ve noticed…that I don’t see myself as particularly emotionally brave. 

Is that because I’m not? Or, because of something affecting the way I see myself?

Power We Didn't Know We Had

True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation.

-- Thomas Merton

3 Observations & A Question

When things are integrated, they hold together; when things are dis-integrated, they fall apart — this seems true in many domains.

Beware those who trade in the rhetoric of evil — especially, where dehumanization is involved.

It’s good to see perspectives other people have of the world (especially by the way they live their lives) — it informs our own perspective.

What do we become internally when we constantly saturate ourselves with stimulation externally?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

4 types of clutter—and how to get rid of them

Most people identify clutter as a tangible entity. It’s that pile of papers, books, and objects sitting on your desk waiting to be put away. While the physical stuff is obvious, most of our clutter is invisible, says Barbara Hemphill, author of Less Clutter More Life and founder of the Productive Environment Institute.

There are a few different categories of clutter, according to Hemphill: 

• Physical
• Digital
• Emotional
• Spiritual

“Physical and digital clutter are symptoms of emotional and spiritual clutter,” Hemphill says. Years ago, when she started as a professional organizer, “I realized that every time there was somebody who was a real pack rat or hoarder, they had trouble letting go,” she says. “If I asked enough questions, I would inevitably find out they had experienced a severe emotional loss that would leave them physically paralyzed when it came to clearing up the clutter. It wasn’t a paper problem; it was an emotional problem.”

Spiritual clutter also gets in the way by representing our hopes, dreams, and fears. “I believe God created every person for a specific purpose, for a specific work,” says Hemphill. “We are to not only accomplish our work, but we are to enjoy our life. When you know your purpose, then it’s easy to know what’s clutter.”

Hemphill suggests asking yourself the question, “Does this [physical or digital thing] help me accomplish my work or have the life I want?” “If it doesn’t, by definition, it’s clutter,” she says. “Clutter prevents you from reaching your purpose, but getting rid of clutter helps you reveal your purpose.”  Continue here....

-- Stephanie Vozza

You’re the Top

‘Poem for the week’ — “You’re the Top”:

Last night I get all the way to Ocean Street Extension, squinting through the windshield, wipers smearing the rain, lights of the oncoming cars half-blinding me. The baby’s in her seat in the back singing the first three words of You’re the Top. Not softly and sweetly the way she did when she woke in her crib, but belting it out like Ethel Merman. I don’t drive much at night anymore. And then the rain and the bad wipers. But I tell myself it’s too soon to give it up. Though the dark seems darker than I ever remember. And as I make the turn and head uphill, I can’t find the lines on the road. I start to panic. No! Yes—the lights! I flick them on and the world resolves. My god, I could have killed her. And I’ll think about that more later. But right now new galaxies are being birthed in my chest. There are no gods, but not everyone is cursed every moment. There are minutes, hours, sometimes even whole days when the earth is spinning 1.6 million miles around the sun and nothing tragic happens to you. I do not have to enter the land of everlasting sorrow. Every mistake I’ve made, every terrible decision—how I married the wrong man, hurt my child, didn’t go to Florence when she was dying—I take it all because the baby is commanding, “Sing, Nana.” And I sing, You’re the top. You’re the Coliseum, and the baby comes in right on cue.

-- Ellen Bass

From the author:

“Guilt and regret are my familiars, and it’s a continual challenge to pry myself from their grip. This poem encounters a reprieve—a mercy strong enough to throw me into a delirious acceptance of all my past failures—for the moment. And if we write (and read) to be changed—and I do—then I trust that at least a trace of that acceptance will stay with me.”

Human Together

My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.

-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Good of the Whole

When did we forget that our individual good is a function of our collective good?

Somewhere along the way we made a trade.  We bought into a Marlboro man motif (even though he never really looked like he was having that good of a time) — I am my own man, which translates to (among other things), so no one should tell me what to do.

Um...there's quite a few logical leaps there (but, hey, since when did we really care that much about logic?).  We just want to be happy, right?  Then again, how's that working out — especially collectively?

Do you ever get the sense that something is missing...in the equation, we're trying to work with?

We may not know what it is (or what to do about it), but we have both an individual and shared sense that something isn't right.  How we're going about things, isn't really working (statistically, or otherwise).

Maybe, our shared sense of real society has dissipated.  Perhaps our own sense of personal humility has escaped us.

Clearly the new social networks that have replaced the old ones aren't serving us particularly well.  In spite of the technology (or, perhaps, because of it), we're in fact feeling the opposite of what they're supposed to be providing.  We are connected to everything, but at the same time to no one in any substantial way.  The symptoms of isolation are so loud and clear, we have no real imagination left for what they're telling us.

But, if nothing else is apparent, our problem seems rooted in a false sensibility of what is real.  We're simulating everything and then confused by why it doesn't feel right.  

...because it's not the real thing.

To add to the point, this seems true, too — I am not able to know what is real...by myself.

And here, we come full circle.  Independence is really isolation.  And isolation is not a coherent relationship with the most basic dynamic of our existence — that everything is inter-connected.  Every one is inter-connected.  Everything that is happening, at all levels, is impacting everything else.  Just because we don't see it or recognize it, doesn't mean it's not happening.

Perhaps we don't like what that essentially requires of us; so, we fantasize about a reality that excludes that basic truth.  When we, as a means of getting our bearings, try to compare what we have with what we've lost, we detect that despite its imperfections and even inadequacies, life together (as opposed to isolation) has many benefits, even when they're inconvenient.  

Together helps families love each other.  Together helps people be neighborly — engaging and sharing with each other.  Together helps communities protect and help each other in times of need.  Together helps what can be good about national presence in the world.  Together  helps us think and work at the obligations we have to ensure respectful global citizenship on our planet.

There is a collective good, from which we all benefit as individuals.

What if we started more actively exploring that again (many already are), not simply for the sake of us individuals (though I think we will individually benefit, too) as much as for the sake of what is good for the whole?

LT: Prioritization

In the long-run, prioritization beats efficiency.

-- James Clear

Earth Day 2024 - "Planet vs Plastics"

Knowing that you love the Earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the Earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.

-- Robin Wall Kimmerer

8 Ways to Live More Sustainably (if you want them, here are a few more...).

Closer to home:

Warsaw Residents Invited To Tour Wastewater Utility Plant For Earth Day

Some History:

Letters from an American

The Right To Discriminate

The gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.

-- Dorothy Day

3 Observations & A Question

The real enemy is the one who keeps saying someone else is the enemy.

I am amazed sometimes at what people have strong opinions about, especially when they are about things that don’t seem to affect their lives directly at all.

Sometimes, it seems like people are more interested in the idea of God, than in actual relationship with God.

Don't we realize that the more we do something, the more our brain modifies in relation to what we are doing?

Prior3 Observations & A Question….

Homicides

AXIOS

No regrets: 5 strategies to get clear about what you want in life

The poet David White once said, What you can plan is too small for you to live. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of plans when it comes to finances, ad campaigns, and organizing events, but when it comes to navigating life, plans prevent us from seeing possibilities as they emerge in real time. The life brief is a practice of permission to hear and heed your voice, allowing it to be your life’s compass.

Clarity is the most important action you can take. 

The path to clarity begins with curiosity. When we lean into our curiosity, we unlock insights and epiphanies about what makes our lives worth living. That exploration often reveals latent, buried, or previously undiscovered paths for living that transform overwhelm into adventure.  Continue here....

-- Bonnie Wan

Simple Harmony

What is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?

-- Albert Camus

Humility

Humility seems to be something that needs to be developed.

In that sense, it may not be very natural.  Or, whatever the mitigating factors are, they seem to have contributed to it becoming unnatural and, therefore, in need of something to cause, at least the possibility, of humility.

We all know people that don’t seem very humble.  How would we describe them?  Self-centered? Prideful?  Arrogant?  Conceited?  Of course, these are always other people….  So, theoretically then, how would we describe it when we sense a lack of humility in ourselves?

And, then, there is the person who truly IS humble.  Often, those people barely register with us, because there is so little self-promotion involved.  We find these people not only easier to work with, but also that we are drawn to them.  Perhaps this is because they put us at ease.  No posturing is required. We relax in their presence.

As we get to know humble people, we discover something they often seem to have in common — experience that has taught them something that they seem to value for the rest of their lives, even if they have to continue working at it.  They’ve learned, often in painful ways, about things they don’t want to be like. 

A recent circumstance in our community involved a person that few people would primarily describe as embodying traits of humility. The exposure involved engenders the question, why are certain people humble, while others are not. Personality certainly seems to make contributions to things like humility, but there also seems to be something else that circulates around our question of why.

What has captured a bit of my imagination is how entitlement contributes to a lack of humility.  Humble people don’t seem characterized by a spirit of entitlement. So, what is the soil out of which the seeds of entitlement tend to grow? Some might include things like conditioning or specific circumstances from which one has reached certain conclusions about their relationship with others and the world.

I’m a bit hesitant to draw a hard and fast rule on this, but it also seems a bit conspicuous that a kind of relationship with power is often involved — for both the humble and the not-so-humble. And, in our economies, power is often connected in one way or another to money. In other words, the more money one has, the easier it seems to be powerful.  Whether that is attributed by others or claimed by oneself, a number of dots connect a perceivable pattern between money and humility. But, there does seem to be something about money that makes us think we deserve it (especially when characterized by concluding we’ve earned it). Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule. And, most certainly, there are many people who have no money (or power), who would also not be characterized by humility, . 

But, an intriguing thought to me is how much humility is more than a state of mind or spirit and includes the patterns in choices we make about how we live. Whether money and power are involved or not, choices I make seem to keep me in a position to be aware of my need for humility.  Conversely, then — what patterns and choices move me away from that awareness...even from humility itself? 

I think the question I’m asking is somewhat connected to this; do I have to choose to live simply enough that my awareness, my dependency on others and the dynamics of life, remains intact?  Does the complexity I so often opt for (or, simply end up in) lead me away from awareness and, therefore, humility?

This feels far easier to answer for...someone else, than it is for myself.  But, is it?

At the very least, humility seems to be something that is catalyzed by what we learnlearn over the course of lives, and that we need to consciously work at, often in the simple choices that we make as we go about the way we live.

Same Level of Consciousness

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

-- Albert Einstein

Breathing

I’m wondering…why does nearly all spiritual practice include conscious breathing?

Perhaps it is because you can't you experience spirituality only in your mind, separate from your body and spirit.

Why do we try to experience so much of American spirituality then, primarily through the mind...or, more simply, through belief systems?

Wisdom Begins in Wonder

Do We Really Want To Find Out?

God allows people a great deal of freedom to do evil and ruinous things. Giving humans moral responsibility entails allowing us to act immorally and to suffer the consequences of our actions — or in the case of climate change, to let other people to suffer the consequences, at least at first. Do we really want to find out just how far God will let this go before God “does something”? Or, could we instead perceive that God is indeed doing something, through the knowledge and work of people and through the self-healing powers built into the planet? The question for each of us is whether to resist or cooperate….

-- Debra Rienstra

The greatest manifestation of the power of God comes when we work together to find ways to be together and do justice together and love together and stand together. 

-- Yvette Flunder

3 Observations & A Question

Life is too short not to stretch yourself — it might hurt a little, but typically not as often as you fear and not nearly as much as you grow.

Be non-partisan, if you want — especially, if it means being more human.

If you really want something to change, you have to do something about it.

At one point or another, doesn't belief and love seem to pull you in opposite directions?

Prior3 Observations & A Question….

Spectacular Northern Lights Dazzle Onlookers in Alaska

Come Let Us Be Friends

‘Poem for the week’ — “Come Let Us Be Friends”:

Come, let us be friends, you and I,

     E’en though the world doth hate at this hour;

Let’s bask in the sunlight of a love so high 

     That war cannot dim it with all its armed power. 

Come, let us be friends, you and I,

     The world hath her surplus of hatred today; 

She needeth more love, see, she droops with a sigh,

     Where her axis doth slant in the sky far away. 

Come, let us be friends, you and I, 

     And love each other so deep and so well, 

That the world may grow steady and forward fly,

     Lest she wander towards chaos and drop into hell.

-- Sarah Lee Brown Fleming

Quality of Attention

The quality of your life depends quite a bit on the quality of attention you project out onto the world.

-- David Brooks

Society

Society is a social agreement.

The agreement essentially is bigger than its ability to enforce itself.  In other words, enforcement in a society is ultimately self-imposed or, in the end, the agreement no longer works.  It borrows something from the willingness of its citizenry to participate and to cooperate with what has been agreed to.

A (potentially) too simplistic example might be a round-about.  You know, the now popular circular traffic management adaptation at intersections of converging streets.  Drivers essentially have to agree to know and follow the yield rules that have been established about how they work.  If they don’t, there will be accidents.  Since society can’t afford to have policemen at every round-about, it largely has to rely on the enforcement that each driver imposes on him or herself.  When that happens, round-abouts seem to work pretty well.  When it doesn’t (I’ve seen some pretty close-calls), not so much.

Though a small example, there are many like it that make up the collective ability to have what we call a society — a group of people agreeing to work with each other in mostly coherent and cooperative ways to achieve some end that serves the desired good of the group.

If a society, then, primarily functions with self-regulation for some common purpose, what happens when the society forgets what it, after all, is regulating or, perhaps more importantly, why it is doing so?

Why, for example, do vaccines even exist? Is it not for common good the society desired?  Or, what about the purposes of government (what it should and shouldn't being involved in)? Does a society need certain kinds of protections (pollution, predators, rogue businesses that take advantage or harm people, etc.)?  Does a society need mechanisms to promote certain ideals it values (safety, community, public-service, fire-stations, parks, etc.)?  

Without such questions, we seem to end up with a narrative that focuses on whether or not things are perfect, as opposed to the purposes that need to be identified or maintained. Both, in the end, are important. But, without addressing the purpose question, it seems quite easy to get collectively lost. And, when that happens, something else breaks down about what a society is and how it functions.  Chaos (at least persistent forms of it) does not enhance a society's sense of well-being (or that of its individual members).

Criticism has an important role in a society. It tests the assumptions that are often involved in society-making.  But, though often resisted, it is actually the easier part of what is needed in aggregate. It is only half of the real work involved — constructing, maintaining, and perfecting what needs to be served, in order to have a healthy society.

If a society, intentionally or not, defers its ideals to enforcement mechanisms rather than to the collective action that is comprised by its members, it will head towards no longer being a society (because there is, in essence, no real functioning agreement).

When that happens, we are forced back to focus on the core question, what do we want to be...together (as a society)?

Say No To...

As I’ve gotten older, grayer, and, arguably, wiser, I’ve come to understand that the things that drive me to live out of balance, de-prioritize my own life and well-being, are more often internal drivers that misread the world and make me think that I can only be worthy of love if, ironically, I deplete myself so much that I disappear (or, worse, end up wanting to disappear). The answer is simple (but hard):  Say no. Say no to even the most fearful parts of ourselves that say, ‘my success depends on my killing myself.’ That’s a lie which, thankfully, I have outgrown.

-- Jerry Colonna

Different Strengths

Ever noticed…that people have different strengths (not to mention, appreciate that they do)? Some are strong physically, others are strong of mind, and yet others seem strong in spirit.

Perhaps, we should honor and respect this, rather than try to coerce them into singular definitions of what people's strength should look like.

Bigger Then The Super Bowl and Taylor Swift

Morning Brew

Trust In Dying

Instagram: scottthepainter

More on this concept here....

4 Observations (from Others)

Walk; walk or wheel yourself outside if you can; seek out green, where furred or feathered things might be.

-- Emma Mitchell

To be alive is to look up at the stars on a dark night and to feel the beyond-words awe of space in its vastness. To be alive is to look down from a mountaintop on a bright, clear day and to feel the wonder that can only be expressed in “oh” or “wow” or maybe “hallelujah.”

-- Brian McLaren

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

-- William Shakespeare

If we are to leave a beautiful world for you and your grandchildren, we have to take seriously the fact that creation does not belong to us; we are part of creation. We cannot do what we like with earth, water, and other human beings. God expects us to keep the earth in good condition. 

-- Mercy Oduyoye

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Two Wolves

A grandfather is talking with his grandson. The grandfather says, “In life, there are two wolves inside of us which are always at battle. One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery, and love. The other is a bad wolf which represents things like greed, hatred, and fear.”

The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second, then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”

The grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”

-- Cherokee parable

Only The Curious

Only the curious have something to find.

-- Sean Watkins

Beauty That Won’t Stop

Sometimes words fail and simply have to defer to the language of beauty of the natural world:

Top 10 pics of Havasupai (ok, 11...)...here.  

Or, for the not faint-of-heart, the mother-load of pics...here.

LT - Joy of Leadership

The joy of leadership comes from seeing others achieve more than they thought they were capable of.

-- Simon Sinek

The Chosen One

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

Something Shifts

I've noticed...that when I am outside, especially for prolonged periods, something shifts internally for me.