Grant That I May See Them

Almighty God, who creates all that is and gives us all that we possess: I thank you for the objects of our daily life. Grant that I may see in them your holiness, often present in the ordinary and common. Allow me to treasure the things that I forget to notice because they are so present in my daily life. Give me the grace to appreciate them, to see them, to treasure them. Amen. 

-- Laurie Brock

Observations & A Question

Thinking about what you can give today is a choice.

We tend to get more fearful as we get older — beware those that pedal to your fears.

Love learns to forget about reciprocity. 

Is it your job to meet all of (or any of) my needs?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

Black Friday

Lots of press about Black Friday again this year.

Makes one wonder if consumption hasn’t become our nearly highest cultural good, and about how low a bar that really is.

The Happiness of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, it seems to me, is true happiness.

When we are grateful for what we have been given, we have less room to worry about what we haven’t (been given). It is this posture that enables us to receive even more…and positions us to be part of giving that for others. 

…which is about as close as you can get to true happiness, isn’t it?

If gratitude is the mindset, expressing thankfulness is the action that embodies happiness about the specifics involved.

Gratitude: Ten Lepers (Luke 17:11-18)

Ten people broken and ostracized. Ten people crying out for deliverance. Ten people cleansed by the power of the Great Physician. Ten people able to return to their homes and families. And only one returns to say thank you….  

But this passage is not about the thank-you as much as it is about the returning and the remembering. In the story, only one of those healed returns to Jesus. He does not just say thank you; he throws himself at the feet of Jesus and cries out in a loud voice. This is not polite gratitude for a favor done. This is the cry of someone who has been restored to a healthy condition, a condition he thought unattainable. 

Gratitude, real thankfulness, is a mental return to the moment of need—a physical, spiritual or emotional need…. Gratitude requires returning to that moment of need even after the need has been met. 

Pierce reflects on how she has been in the position of each character in the story: 

I have been the broken one in need of healing, who fails to return to my moment of need and to remember after I have been healed. Full of energy and new life, I have forgotten to acknowledge the source of my strength and say thank you…. 

I have also been the one who has returned, throwing myself at the feet of those who have so richly blessed me. I have at times heeded my grandmother’s advice to “give others their flowers while they are still living.” Whether with real flowers or words of praise, I have at times remembered to return in gratitude to those teachers or neighbors or colleagues who have blessed my life even if they did not know it. 

But nothing has humbled me more than to be on the receiving end of someone’s gratitude. After a long season of pouring out pieces of my heart and soul, thinking no one understands or appreciates my efforts, I may receive a card or note or a visit with a word of thanks. Tears flood my eyes when this happens, because at that moment I truly understand the power of gratitude. The recipient has been blessed, and their expression of gratitude humbles and blesses the gift giver. 

It is in this space of mutuality—giving and receiving, thanking and being thanked, returning and remembering—that we can truly appreciate the story of the one man with leprosy who returns with words of thanks. He is not only cleansed; in his expression of gratitude, we can locate his complete healing. The cleansing from the disease takes place after only a few words from the Healer. But the full healing of his mind and body happens when he acknowledges his need, gratitude, and love for the Divine One. Ten are cleansed, but only one, through remembrance and return, is made completely whole. 

 -- Yolanda Pierce

Radical Humility and Gratitude

All the truly great persons I have ever met are characterized by what I would call radical humility and gratitude. They are deeply convinced that they are drawing from another source; they are instruments. Their genius is not their own; it is borrowed. 

We are moons, not suns, except in our ability to pass on the light. Our life is not our own; yet, at some level, enlightened people know that their life has been given to them as a sacred trust. 

They live in gratitude and confidence, and they try to let the flow continue through them. 

 -- Richard Rohr

Only Day I Can Really Live

I’ve noticed…that the only day I can really live is today.  

Is that defeating or liberating?

We all know it depends…on how we look at it, right?

Few things are in more contrast than how we look at things. Anxiety compounds itself when I’m preoccupied with what I think deserve. Gratitude ever-expands when I realize how much of what I experience is a gift.

Every day is a new opportunity for this. It, in fact, is freely provided for us. Worry about the future or regret about the past only serves to rob me of the opportunity of today — to gratefully receive what has been given and to be a part of giving to the world around me.

Bears vs Steelers, 2025

More pics...here.

3 Observations & A Question

To love someone is to believe in them…no matter what.  

Controversy and substance are not always self-referential.

We could all benefit from more quiet.

Is gratitude a response or a discipline (watch out for binary questions, by the way)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

Song “A”

'Poem for the week' -- "Song “A”":   

Where my kindred dwell, there I wander.

Child of the White Corn am I, there I wander.

At the Red Rock House, there I wander.

Where the dark kethawns are at the doorway, there I wander.

With the pollen of dawn upon my trail, there I wander.

At the yuni the striped cotton hangs with pollen. There I wander.

Going around with it, there I wander.

Taking another, I depart with it. With it I wander. 

In the house of long life, there I wander.

In the house of happiness, there I wander.

Beauty before me, with it I wander.

Beauty behind me, with it I wander.

Beauty below me, with it I wander.

Beauty above me, with it I wander.

Beauty all around me, with it I wander.

In old age traveling, with it I wander.

On the beautiful trail I am, with it I wander.

-- translated from the Navajo by Washington Matthews

The Power of Confirmation Bias

I've heard people say that bias-training is stupid; because they don’t have any biases (sounds a little biased to me).  Such things are often said in a certain context — to identify with something or to resist something.  If we can disarm whatever is…arming us, we might recognize that there are some important (and helpful) things to know and learn about ourselves.

I think this is one of those things:

We all have filters: What do I already believe? Does this new idea or piece of information confirm what I already think? Does it fit in the frame I’ve already constructed? 

If so, I can accept it. 

If not, in all likelihood, I’m simply going to reject it as unreasonable and unbelievable, even though doing so is, well, unreasonable. 

I do this, not to be ignorant, but to be efficient. My brain (without my conscious awareness, and certainly without my permission) makes incredibly quick decisions as it evaluates incoming information…continue here.

-- Brian McLaren

Those stories that we will follow are the ones that feel true, feel like they have continuity to our past and that resonate with the trajectory of our lives. We’re looking for the story that doesn’t necessarily change our minds; we’re actually looking for the story that confirms what’s in our minds.

-- Jacqui Lewis

Be One

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be.  Be one.

-- Marcus Aurelius

You Don’t Need More Intensity

You don't need more intensity; you need more consistency. Intensity impresses; consistency transforms.

-- Shane Parrish

Anger & Pain

Ever noticed…the obvious relationship between anger and pain?

There are those who say something like, “…why do they have to be so mad all the time?”.  The answer appears to not be so obvious to them (except when they’re in pain for more than a minute  or two).  For the most part, it’s a basic lack of understanding of these two brothers (I was going to use sisters here, but that would just slide right into another whole issue, right?) — pain and anger.

Maybe we would better off starting with some basic education in human psychology…or simply a little more personal honesty.  How often is your anger related to pain (pain you’ve experienced or pain you’re trying to avoid) in your life?

It has been observed that hurt people hurt other people.  I don’t need a lot more evidence that this is how it often works in me.  Unless I recognize this relationship and take pre-emptive steps, I do this rather easily.

Imagine, then, what this is like at nearly any scale, in a society….

God’s Goodness

God brought things into being in order that God’s goodness might be communicated to creatures, and be represented by them; and because God’s goodness could not be adequately represented by one creature alone, God produced many and diverse creatures, that what was wanting to one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another. For goodness, which in God is simple and uniform, in creatures is manifold and divided. 

-- Thomas Aquinas

3 Observations & A Question

We do the best we can to plan our lives, and then…life happens anyway, as if only partially interested. 

We often don’t see things because we stop looking. 

It’s just too much easier to be critical than it is to be constructive.  

What happens when a petulant bully is given more power than anyone in the whole world (that’s getting more painfully obvious by the day, isn’t it?)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

The Longer It Takes

Morning Brew

Enough

Ultimately, you come to recognize that you have enough.  

Sometimes (when I slow down), I notice how much of what is in my closet I haven’t really worn in a while.  Or, I’ll notice how much stuff is accumulating in my basement (most of which is there because I don’t use it regularly).  And, then, I look around my house and my garage and my yard…’stuff’ everywhere.  I don’t need much more of anything (where would I put it anyway?).

This recognition happens, in part, when you can’t really do very much more by having much more. In our American context, that recognition seems more rare (and counter-intuitive) than not. Pretty obviously, this is a function of the consumer orientation we’ve developed about our existence as a culture.  Our economic engine actively promotes making more stuff so that we buy it (whether we need it or not).  We actually get bored with our lives if we can’t spend our money on more things.

Accordingly, we don’t really like the notion of enough. Because enough is, actually, not very much. The problem is, though, that the appetite we create for more, more, more only becomes more ravenous…it even feeds on itself (often without us even realizing it). But, there is a point at which you can’t do anything, at least substantively, by simply getting more. 

More actually takes us in the opposite direction, primarily because it takes us away from our need (both our sense of it and what that actually is). Perhaps this is, essentially, what is behind the trope 'less is more'. Because more buries us. It hides us from ourselves. It fills, what needs to be filled, with things that make us less of what we are.  

We don't need more because more keeps us from knowing what we really need. 

And, how we discover what we need is also rather conspicuous, isn’t it? We should take note of that and let it lead us in a deeper recognition of, and to the better questions about, what is truly enough.  

Ultimately, this happens to us anyway as we are naturally reduced over time by our capacity to handle more (or, even the same amount).

…unless we simply choose to ignore it.

It Takes Time

It takes time to live.  Like the work of art, life needs to be thought about.

-- Albert Camus

LT: How Long It Takes

In most things, success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

-- Montesquieu

What We Own

I'm wondering...about what (we think) we own.

This one was sparked by one of Saturday's observations.

Our sense of being is tied to ownership more than we realize. We often value something about ourselves based on what we own (or don't).

But, whatever we own, isn’t there a significant omission — for how long? Nobody really owns anything for more than a brief period of time (especially, against the spanse of time involved in human existence). So, how does acknowledging that change something...in us?

For one thing, what if our identities weren't tied to who owns what (or, how much)? What would (could) our identities then be tied to? How different would the shapes be of so many things involved in who (we think) we are?

Alternative Wisdom

Worth your time:

We admitted we were powerless over our algorithms

Jesus taught an alternative wisdom that shakes the social order instead of upholding the conventional wisdom that maintains it. 

He is leading us to the new self on a new path, which is the total transformation of consciousness, worldview, motivation, goals, and rewards that characterize one who loves and is loved by God. 

-- Richard Rohr

3 Observations & A Question

Praise effort, rather than success… especially in children.  

Organize your life with practices that help prevent you from starting each day at a deficit. 

The magic happens in relationship  — relationships certainly aren’t all magic, but it rarely happens without them. 

Aren’t we all really just the latest renters, on planet earth?

 

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

On The Lighter Side: Nearly Fell For This One...

 On the Lighter Side:

Shared Suffering

It is our suffering that connects us to humanity — unfortunately, it seems to be our shared suffering that makes us human (or keeps us human). 

Too often, when we acquire wealth, our primary utilization of it is to avoid suffering. But, even though it is just an illusion, we don’t realize that it is this avoidance that too often separates us, not only from humanity, but from our own humanity.

Even Jesus knew this…

and came to show us how solidarity works.

Infinitesimal

In the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal. We are intimately related.

-- Fred Rogers

Who We Are

Our passion lies deep in who we are, not what we do.

-- Simon Sinek

Fix My Mind

I’ve noticed…that to fix my mind, I have to engage my body.

Harvest of the Heart

This is the season of gathering in, the season of the harvest in nature. Many things that were started in the spring and early summer have grown to fruition and are now ready for reaping. Great and significant as is the harvest in nature, the most pertinent kind of in-gathering for the human spirit is what I call “the harvest of the heart.” 

Long ago, Jesus said that [people] should not lay up for themselves treasure on earth, where moths corrupt and thieves break in and steal, but that [people] should lay up for themselves treasures in heaven [Matthew 6:19–20]. This insight suggests that life consists of planting and harvesting, of sowing and reaping. We are always in the midst of the harvest and always in the midst of the planting…. 

Living is a shared process. Even as I am conscious of things growing in me planted by others, which things are always ripening, so others are conscious of things growing in them planted by me, which are always ripening. Inasmuch as I do not live or die unto myself, it is of the essence of wisdom for me conscientiously to live and die in the profound awareness of other people. 

The statement, “Know thyself,” has been take mystically from the statement, “Thou has seen thy brother, thou hast seen thy God.” 

-- Howard Thurman

4 Observations (from Others)

Saints always have a past and sinners always have a future.

-- Oscar Wilde

The more you are focused on time — past and future — the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is. 

-- Eckhart Tolle

For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing. 

-- Aristotle

What if scarcity is just a cultural construct, a fiction that fences us off from a better way of life? 

--- Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

9 ‘National Emergencies’ & the Longest Gov’t Shutdown in History

Morning Brew

We elect officials to govern by serving the needs of 'the people’.

If they won’t do that (or even meet to try), they should give up their own paychecks; not force workers to keep things going without pay. 

And, then, there’s SNAP.  I’d be surprised how many people, who’ve never had to use the system, really even know what it is (outside the narratives that have been attached to it for political purposes).  Read a history of the program…here.

While most things government were started with good intention to address a public concern (that wasn’t being addressed otherwise), many are imperfect.  This is why we elect officials…to perfect them — make them better where they fail.

But, if these elected officials won’t do the work, then they need to get out of the way…so the public can be served.

The only reason they won’t (not to mention the even more nefarious things they’re allowing, like this) is they don’t think the public is paying attention — are they right? Are we?