Someone Else

Ever noticed...that many of us want someone else to go first?

Your Little Grain of Salt

Your one little grain of salt can help with something someone else’s grain can’t. And when all the grains get mixed and sprinkled together, preserving and flavoring and helping others flourish occurs everywhere. 

-- Margaret Feinberg

3 Observations & A Question

Embrace where you are, in sunshine or rain.

What you see is impacted by what you experience; what you do is impacted by what you see.

They say character doesn’t matter — that the ends justify the means….

Isn’t one of the secrets of life to enjoy whatever you have been given (as opposed to what you haven’t)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question…

Visual: Nā Pali Coast

Visual - “Nā Pali Coast”

Nā Pali Coast,  Kauai

The Phone Call

When you receive the phone call….

You know, the one that changes something significant about your life.

What do you notice happens inside yourself?  What kicks in?

I received one of those today (actually, it was a TXT). My first reaction was anger, followed by blame (I told you this would happen, if…).

Even though it may feel hard, the easy part is to react.  Reacting can be ugly, but it may also be necessary in order to get to what is driving the reaction.  Often that is deep senses of disappointment, hurt, or loss.

Sitting with your reaction is often quite challenging, but it can disarm the locus of your feeling and enable an awareness that your perspective may not the only legitimate one.  This can open us up to what otherwise feels like something that wants to shut down. And, an openness to ourselves allows for an openness to others.

We are, after all, not the only ones receiving ’bad’ news in life.  We can hold each other because of our unique, but also common, suffering.  And, when we do this, we discover we have more capacity to offer grace, than anything else, to both ourselves and others.

…but, this still takes commitment and more work than we often prefer.  I’m still trudging my way through it internally, because I know things will not be returning to the way they have been.

The phone call changed that.

If It Is Not Right

If is is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.

-- Marcus Aurelius

Success

What is success depends on how you define it, otherwise you are left with how others (society) defines it for you, which is often quite inadequate (if not wrong).

Money

I'm wondering...about our relationship with money, as a society and as individuals.  

When does it liberate us? 

When does it keep us in bondage?

We can’t just be privately happy that the stock market is at record highs and ignore the predatorial oppression it has created through the unprecedented wealth of a select few.

Sundays

-- Joseph Vogel, Timpanogos Hiking Co.

4 Observations (from Others)

Whenever you have a choice between being right or being kind, be kind.  No exceptions.

-- Kevin Kelly

 

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

-- Joseph Campbell 

 

 

Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up. 

-- Brené Brown

 

 

There is no greater exhaustion than a charade of spirituality.

-- Cole Arthur Riley

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

In These Dark Days

'Poem for the week' -- "In These Dark Days":

From what darkness in its center

does the amaryllis call forth

the tall green stalk, the muscular bud,

the voluptuous petals pealing back

from the center like radiant red bells?

What impossible sun shines

inside the rough-skinned bulb

to generate such lushness,

such extravagant beauty?

I want to know it, to trust it,

this bright immensity that pulses through

what is darkest in me, this life force

that cannot fit inside, that thrusts

through the desiccated skins

of my exhausted hopes to reveal itself

vulnerable and soft, vital, astonishing,

belonging to no one, alive within us all.

-- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Crisis

What is on my mind today?

Well, what isn't? 

In many directions right now, I feel a foreboding sense of existential crisis. 

And, when I stare at it (rather than just feel it), I remember things that I know.

In our humanity, feelings and knowing go together, in spite of when they feel like they don't. They inform each other.

And, so, I know that such feelings are what they want you to feel.  Wait, who is they?

The system; the world.  The powers of it.  They don't want you to feel peace.  That keeps you dependent on them.  I know this.

But, I still feel it....

Breathing helps.  But, it doesn't suppress it fully.

Crisis has a way of putting you face to face with other questions — like what you ultimately are depending on.  Crisis reminds you that you are not enough on your own.  Crisis puts you in touch with a larger reality, that is needed for survival (if not well-being).

How does having to trust in something bigger than myself put me in touch with something I tend to otherwise dismiss? 

Does that change the crisis (probably not much)?  Does that change something else and how I relate to it?

Yes. 

For one thing, it opens me up to thing like...this.

Participation In A Society

Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it's a human need.

-- Ai Weiwei

Need To Be Flexible

To get on a path to success, we need a plan. To achieve success, we need to be flexible when the path is blocked.

-- Simon Sinek

Suspicious

Every third Monday, I ask myself, what have I noticed lately...about myself. 

This week, for example, I’ve noticed…that I've become more suspicious lately.

Over time, I've recognized that when this happens, something has shifted within me. 

Something feels (more) at risk. I've been having dreams about it.

This should be OK; after all, there's always risk. So, its really about the relationship I have with that risk that seems to shifts sometimes. I've observed, more than once, this is related to how secure I feel internally as a person, at any given moment. And, my sense of security is often based on what I feel threatened by...and why. 

In the end, it is often my awareness of the basis, of my true sense of security, that moves. 

This is the kind of thing that a lot of mental health strategies are actually working with. Our sense of security is also a fundamental base-line of basic spirituality. 

Do I really need to be suspicious, when I notice that I am? Probably not. Perhaps, noticing my suspicions can be an indicator that something has shifted within me...and that I need to pay attention to it and do something about it. 

Almost Everyone Prays

Almost everyone prays...when they feel desperate enough. 

Perhaps the question then is, when (and why) do we stop praying?

"Why do it, if it doesn’t do any good?" — one of our not uncommon thoughts.

An assumption is embedded in this not uncommon working conclusion. Do we think this because when we pray we are, in essence, trying to change God's mind? Truth be told, we often pray because of the leverage we feel in need of. If we feel a lack of power to secure what we need (or want), especially when we feel desperate. So, we appeal to a higher one (until we don’t need it anymore). It would follow then that if it feels like we can’t get God to do it, then why bother?

What if, however, prayer is not really as much about getting something from God as it is a way to get ourselves in the right state of being (in relation to everything…God). And, what if we need to pray because we acknowledge we need God’s help to do that? 

What if, then, prayer is really as much about changing something in ourselves, as it is about changing God's disposition?