Friday, May 31, 2013
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Not Enough Time
Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
-- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
-- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
False Self
If there are not serious warnings about the blinding nature of fear and fanaticism, your religion will always end up worshiping the status quo and protecting your present ego position and personal advantage -- as if it were God!
By definition, authentic God experience is always "too much"! It consoles our True Self only after it has devastated our false self. We must begin to be honest about that instead of dishing out fast-food religion.
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
By definition, authentic God experience is always "too much"! It consoles our True Self only after it has devastated our false self. We must begin to be honest about that instead of dishing out fast-food religion.
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Monday, May 27, 2013
Some May Say
Some may say...
...that a cloudy, rainy holiday is an unfortunate waste of time -- when we could be doing something fun or getting stuff done. I might be one of those...at times.
But, today I am mindful of the grace of such a day, when those things can't happen...when I have to stop. Stop and acknowledge that even weather reminds of our need for rest, for stopping, for not doing much of anything other than taking things in...even taking in something like sleep. The cloudy, rainy is like a blanket...that can melt me into something flat. I need to be flat. I need to melt.
I need something as seemingly capricious as weather to stop me, because I need rest. The last month has been a flurry of more-thans. All things that are good, in and of themselves, but things nonetheless that have drawn deeply from me, and from my wife. Part of what has been drawn from comes from the exuberant activity of Spring, the coming alive of everything sensual -- color, aroma, sound...all combine to form a taste, intoxicating for life, for living. But, high demands from jobs, and kids, and many other things we have loved thru...have escorted us to our need for rest.
We just drove around quietly today, after waking up much later than usual. We didn't say much, other than to acknowledge how unusually our tiredness has gripped us...and how much we need its limitations.
Something really good is going on today...a cloudy, rainy holiday. We're resting...and, more than just physically.
...this text sounds a bit better suited for a Labor Day holiday. I do feel a deep sense of gratitude from 'Memorial'izing that even the opportunity to 'rest' has come at a great price for many who served our country with their very lives.
...that a cloudy, rainy holiday is an unfortunate waste of time -- when we could be doing something fun or getting stuff done. I might be one of those...at times.
But, today I am mindful of the grace of such a day, when those things can't happen...when I have to stop. Stop and acknowledge that even weather reminds of our need for rest, for stopping, for not doing much of anything other than taking things in...even taking in something like sleep. The cloudy, rainy is like a blanket...that can melt me into something flat. I need to be flat. I need to melt.
I need something as seemingly capricious as weather to stop me, because I need rest. The last month has been a flurry of more-thans. All things that are good, in and of themselves, but things nonetheless that have drawn deeply from me, and from my wife. Part of what has been drawn from comes from the exuberant activity of Spring, the coming alive of everything sensual -- color, aroma, sound...all combine to form a taste, intoxicating for life, for living. But, high demands from jobs, and kids, and many other things we have loved thru...have escorted us to our need for rest.
We just drove around quietly today, after waking up much later than usual. We didn't say much, other than to acknowledge how unusually our tiredness has gripped us...and how much we need its limitations.
Something really good is going on today...a cloudy, rainy holiday. We're resting...and, more than just physically.
...this text sounds a bit better suited for a Labor Day holiday. I do feel a deep sense of gratitude from 'Memorial'izing that even the opportunity to 'rest' has come at a great price for many who served our country with their very lives.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
The Trade
Speaking at Commencement at Oklahoma State University:
“Before we go to lunch, I want to make you a thought provoking offer,” I said. “I hope you realize where you are in life today. You have the best seat in the house. I would trade you everything I have for it.”
Boy, things got serious quick.
“My Gulfstream airplane. My 68,000-acre ranch,” I ticked off a long list of my assets, before adding, “I would gladly give it all to anyone of you to be where you are sitting right now. There’s only one catch. If you make the trade, you have to be 79 and I get to be 18 again.”
Suddenly, lunch didn’t seem that important after all. They were trying to figure out how to get what I had without giving me what I wanted. Guess who had gotten their attention? After I finished my speech, two of Alexander’s classmates came up to me and said, “You really got us thinking today, Mr. Pickens.”
“You guys want to make the trade?”
-- T. Boone Pickens
Continue Reading his address....
This weekend marks the beginning of visitations of nearly a dozen young people I have gotten close to over the years; young people who are graduating from high-school this year. I think about where they are in life; what lies ahead of them.
I think about them through the lens of my 50th birthday, a couple of weeks ago.
I think about how honest I need to be that I am often more tired than I used to be, and that I wonder more often about what my value is in a world that trades in the currency of youth.
I think about them through the metaphor of this morning's sunrise, which is occurring right now behind me, and the voice that I have become accustomed to hearing from it that says 'get up, there's beauty out there...go see it, go get in it'.
I think about how I have beauty yet to know, beauty to offer, beauty to call out in others.
If I was 18 again, I probably wouldn't make the trade either (nor would I now). You?
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Will Himself Restore You
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
-- 1 Peter 5:10
-- 1 Peter 5:10
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
With Deep Affection for the Forest
Like the sweet seduction of goodness, the voice of the forest did its morning beckoning again today. While my body groaned, my spirit was aroused.
Its paths were a beautiful balance of browns, dark and light - moist and dry, cutting their way now through a ganging-up chorus of Spring greens that nearly engulfed them. My spirit was aroused.
Like fans along the streets, flowers were also crowding the now foliage-rimmed routes. Pink, white; purple and a couple of stray yellows inched their way into the mass of leaves. Some stood tall in the back, while others in exquisit delicateness were right on the earthen floor. My Spirit was aroused.
Brilliant blue bathed the scene from above.
And, the creatures. The creatures were already having a blast welcoming that great daily greeting of cool and warmth. Creation was aroused.
It was an awesome morning of nature quietly yelling "beauty, beauty, beauty" to all who were out being consumed by it. I was...consumed, with a deep affection.
Its paths were a beautiful balance of browns, dark and light - moist and dry, cutting their way now through a ganging-up chorus of Spring greens that nearly engulfed them. My spirit was aroused.
Like fans along the streets, flowers were also crowding the now foliage-rimmed routes. Pink, white; purple and a couple of stray yellows inched their way into the mass of leaves. Some stood tall in the back, while others in exquisit delicateness were right on the earthen floor. My Spirit was aroused.
Brilliant blue bathed the scene from above.
And, the creatures. The creatures were already having a blast welcoming that great daily greeting of cool and warmth. Creation was aroused.
It was an awesome morning of nature quietly yelling "beauty, beauty, beauty" to all who were out being consumed by it. I was...consumed, with a deep affection.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Flagship of All Relationships
A wedding is, among other things, the culmination of a waiting for a marriage relationship with someone. On it rides the hopes of all things good, good things that come from a marriage.
Our marriages are but a fore-shadowing of the ultimate relationship we will have with God in His fully manifest kingdom. In some ways, a wedding signals our desire for this ultimate relationship. It indicates our aspiration to commit ourselves to the things that make that possible (faith).
Weddings can remind us of that commitment, of that desire...even in painful ways...for what we ultimately hope for, whether we experience it now or not. We should continue to hope for such things, to have faith for such things, to love for such things.
For marriage inevitably becomes the flagship of all other relationships. One's own home is the place where love must first be practiced before it can truly be practiced anywhere else. No one likes to be out of joint with a good friend or with in-laws or with an employer, but such problem at least can be tolerated. Yet any little thing that comes between a man and his wife is capable of wrenching them apart inside, and if that is not the case, then it can only be due to the growth of a callousness in them that cannot help carrying over into all their other relationships. A husband and wife are "one flesh," and to be alienated from one another is equivalent to being alienated from their own bodies. How can a man who harbors bitterness towards himself be anything but bitter toward the rest of the world? "He who loves his wife loves himself," says Paul (Ephesians 5:28).
-- Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage
Our marriages are but a fore-shadowing of the ultimate relationship we will have with God in His fully manifest kingdom. In some ways, a wedding signals our desire for this ultimate relationship. It indicates our aspiration to commit ourselves to the things that make that possible (faith).
Weddings can remind us of that commitment, of that desire...even in painful ways...for what we ultimately hope for, whether we experience it now or not. We should continue to hope for such things, to have faith for such things, to love for such things.
For marriage inevitably becomes the flagship of all other relationships. One's own home is the place where love must first be practiced before it can truly be practiced anywhere else. No one likes to be out of joint with a good friend or with in-laws or with an employer, but such problem at least can be tolerated. Yet any little thing that comes between a man and his wife is capable of wrenching them apart inside, and if that is not the case, then it can only be due to the growth of a callousness in them that cannot help carrying over into all their other relationships. A husband and wife are "one flesh," and to be alienated from one another is equivalent to being alienated from their own bodies. How can a man who harbors bitterness towards himself be anything but bitter toward the rest of the world? "He who loves his wife loves himself," says Paul (Ephesians 5:28).
-- Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Leeches and Cocaine
No one uses leeches or cocaine as therapeutics anymore—but they used to.
Doing the math, that comes to $104 Billion. That’s $104 Billion (with a B) for procedures that are “…usually dangerous, invasive, expensive, and largely ineffective.” So while it would seem that syrups and stents are the clinical way to go, the evidence may not really be there to support it. If clinicians don’t know that, they are doomed to blindly and expensively continue on.
One of the pioneers of evidence-based medicine is quoted to have once said that “Half of what you'll learn in medical school will be shown to be either dead wrong or out of date within five years of your graduation; the trouble is that nobody can tell you which half -- so the most important thing to learn is how to learn on your own.”
-- Dr. Chris E. Stout
Continue Reading
- Cough remedies do no better than placebo for children or adults
- Angioplasties and stents do nothing to prevent subsequent heart attacks in 95% of patients receiving either of those procedures.
- Patients undergoing coronary bypass operations have prolonged life as a result only 3% of the time.
Doing the math, that comes to $104 Billion. That’s $104 Billion (with a B) for procedures that are “…usually dangerous, invasive, expensive, and largely ineffective.” So while it would seem that syrups and stents are the clinical way to go, the evidence may not really be there to support it. If clinicians don’t know that, they are doomed to blindly and expensively continue on.
One of the pioneers of evidence-based medicine is quoted to have once said that “Half of what you'll learn in medical school will be shown to be either dead wrong or out of date within five years of your graduation; the trouble is that nobody can tell you which half -- so the most important thing to learn is how to learn on your own.”
-- Dr. Chris E. Stout
Continue Reading
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Standing There Frozen
If you do what you think is expected of you, or what you are supposed to do, you will look to external sources for what to do next. You will be standing there frozen on the ‘stage’ of your life.
-- Dick Costolo
-- Dick Costolo
Monday, May 13, 2013
The Problem is Not the Internet - It's Me
I must say I've been tempted to join some of the yelling on the sideline...about the Internet, or at least some of the forms that ride on it. But, I've also felt an urge to 'keep it down'. Something about doing so feels a little moralistic, and that it didn't really match my own habits with regard to the Internet. I've taken on some fasts. They were helpful. But, I use still use it every day in one form or another.
Then I ran across this article and some good visual-type relief was created for me about the subject.
The problem is more as I suspected, even if unclearly; the problem is not the form, in this case, the Internet. The problem is me. ...although, I do think that forms can often contribute or enhance the problem of me.
Read: I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet
Then I ran across this article and some good visual-type relief was created for me about the subject.
The problem is more as I suspected, even if unclearly; the problem is not the form, in this case, the Internet. The problem is me. ...although, I do think that forms can often contribute or enhance the problem of me.
Read: I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Trust
Trust the past to God's mercy, the present to God's love, and the future to God's providence.
-- St. Augustine
Trust God for everything; He is trustworthy.
-- St. Augustine
Trust God for everything; He is trustworthy.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
The Most Valuable Thing We Can Give
"What can I get for you?" the old man asked when I walked in the store. The expression on his face was expectant and hopeful, almost uncomfortably so.
I was on my bike, two mountains into West Virginia on a long ride. "Just a couple bottles of water," I said. His shoulders sagged, disappointment obvious, and I noticed the chalkboard menu behind him.
"And one of your sandwiches," I added quickly.
He asked what kind. I told him to make me his favorite. I pulled an old metal chair up to a scarred wooden table and...
That memory of the flicker of desperation in a struggling entrepreneur's eyes inspires me to try to give others in the same position a few tools that might go some small way towards helping them achieve their dreams.
And barring that, I try to provide a little spark of hope, because the most valuable thing we can give, no matter how faint or fleeting, is the gift of hope.
Continue Reading this good read by Jeff Haden
A provoking description of the changes afoot now for some time in our American-Dream land. The gift of hope...taps something deep within me, something I too want to be a part of giving to others.
Friday, May 10, 2013
50!
Click image for a well-candied story....On my 50th birthday, I recognize how much I have for which to be thankful. A swell of gratitude rose within me during my morning run and like icing on cake, the above was awaiting me upon my return...with all 3 'musketeers' eager for my enjoyment of it.
I give my loving and faithful wife credit for inspiring them to honor me. Her words were also very dear, overcoming me in their observation of my life with her.
My parents, brother, friends, co-workers all wished me well in this milestone of sorts.
Because of all of these graces and the many more from my walk with God over the years that have freed me in many ways to be more alive and live with more energy towards life and towards others. Among the many capstones of life, I must put Gratitude near the top...or perhaps near the bottom, as a foundation of all else that is good, honorable, pleasurable, and full of joy. THANK YOU 50!
...by the way, a friend whispered to me today that Lewis' notion that the 'best is yet to come' isn't really the case...for the next 50 anyway (he's in his 60s). ;-)
...uncool to put a smiley-face on a blog, but couldn't resist this time.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Ends Up Rotting
As fearful people we are inclined to develop a mind-set that makes us say: “There’s not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I save enough for myself in case of emergency,” or “There’s not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy; so I’d better keep my knowledge to myself, so no one else will use it” or “There’s not enough love to give to everybody, so I’d better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me.” This is a scarcity mentality. It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won’t have enough to survive. The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.
-- Henri Nouwen
-- Henri Nouwen
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Will Crush Them
The mercenaries will always beat the draftees, but the volunteers will crush them both.
-- Chuck Noll
-- Chuck Noll
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Underneath All the Layers
It is a revolution, but it is a joyful revolution. It is a revolution based on a simple idea: each of us has something inside that is making a noise. Underneath all of the layers…the me-first layer and the get-out-of-my-way layer and the keep-your-hands-off-my-stuff layer…a halfway decent person is in there, waiting to be heard. That person isn't angry, he/she just wants out.
-- Dr. Chris E. Stout
I would probably describe it differently, especially the 'halfway decent person' part. But, the depth of something inside of us that is good...covered up by such layers, certainly seems true in my experience of others. In my experience of myself.
Continue Reading
-- Dr. Chris E. Stout
I would probably describe it differently, especially the 'halfway decent person' part. But, the depth of something inside of us that is good...covered up by such layers, certainly seems true in my experience of others. In my experience of myself.
Continue Reading
Monday, May 06, 2013
I Can't Persuade Myself
After the start to my day yesterday, I wondered what the rest of it would bring. I was surprised to be so broken open emotionally at church later that morning. Several young people shared about how they were impacted by the book, The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom. They spoke deeply from within themselves. They spoke deeply to me about trusting in God, during times when it is hard to do so. They spoke about how they encountered God because of the book, because of the way Corrie lived her life. They spoke that it is often during these times, that we encounter God.
I hinted as ending my post yesterday with the notion that the day may yet have something I didn't expect. It certainly did, through the passion of these young lives.
But more than that, I felt - no, not beautiful. Even on such a romantic day as this, I could not persuade myself of that. I knew that my jaw was too square, my legs to long, my hands to large. But I earnestly believed - and all the books agreed - that I would look beautiful to the man who loved me.
-- Corrie ten Boom
This passage was shared yesterday by a young lady at our church, she herself went on to say:
I liked these stories because even though I can't persuade myself that I’m beautiful, when my family and friends remind me that I am, I can go deeper than my feelings and believe those that are close to me.
-- Gynnea Hochstetler
...it turned out to be a 'great day' after all, because I was reminded again of things that matter...of truth I can believe even when I don't feel it. I wonder how my beginning of it affected what happened later in it.
I hinted as ending my post yesterday with the notion that the day may yet have something I didn't expect. It certainly did, through the passion of these young lives.
But more than that, I felt - no, not beautiful. Even on such a romantic day as this, I could not persuade myself of that. I knew that my jaw was too square, my legs to long, my hands to large. But I earnestly believed - and all the books agreed - that I would look beautiful to the man who loved me.
-- Corrie ten Boom
This passage was shared yesterday by a young lady at our church, she herself went on to say:
I liked these stories because even though I can't persuade myself that I’m beautiful, when my family and friends remind me that I am, I can go deeper than my feelings and believe those that are close to me.
-- Gynnea Hochstetler
...it turned out to be a 'great day' after all, because I was reminded again of things that matter...of truth I can believe even when I don't feel it. I wonder how my beginning of it affected what happened later in it.
Sunday, May 05, 2013
Not Every Day is 'Just Great'
Today is one of those days for me...just not great. I'm feeling yanked a bit by emotions, pulling on the tiredness I feel in my body and in my mind. I feel emotionally drained and weakened. I think it has something to do with disappointment I feel about myself in the way I've reacted to things in the last few days.
This is a bit unusual for me on a Sunday morning, especially after a good run in the woods, where the sunshine was doing its slant thing I love in beautiful fashion and the fresh season's red-buds were floating their purple throughout the forest. I was awakened to something again, as usual in that scene.
But, returning home, I felt pulled right back into all the work that feels in need of attention. When the dogs carelessly trampled some of the good bit of it I did yesterday, I felt angry. I feel anger at my anger, especially over such things.
Some days don't feel..."just great!" But, who knows how this one will turn out...it's not over yet.
This is a bit unusual for me on a Sunday morning, especially after a good run in the woods, where the sunshine was doing its slant thing I love in beautiful fashion and the fresh season's red-buds were floating their purple throughout the forest. I was awakened to something again, as usual in that scene.
But, returning home, I felt pulled right back into all the work that feels in need of attention. When the dogs carelessly trampled some of the good bit of it I did yesterday, I felt angry. I feel anger at my anger, especially over such things.
Some days don't feel..."just great!" But, who knows how this one will turn out...it's not over yet.
Saturday, May 04, 2013
What About You? Do You Like the Chelsea Clintons?
Pretty funny, us humans and our needs to be...seen or known as something or other. Kind of sad, too...all our little desperations.
Friday, May 03, 2013
Freedom Attracts
When you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not. Freedom attracts wherever it appears. A free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell. Our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us. But when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom.
-- Henri Nouwen
...for a nice thread on some ideas connected to this notion of the importance of 'space' in our lives, click the 'space' link above and follow the links in subsequent pages, too. These have been very helpful for me...against the back-drop of all the demands I feel in life (including the ones I've created for myself!).
-- Henri Nouwen
...for a nice thread on some ideas connected to this notion of the importance of 'space' in our lives, click the 'space' link above and follow the links in subsequent pages, too. These have been very helpful for me...against the back-drop of all the demands I feel in life (including the ones I've created for myself!).
Thursday, May 02, 2013
Opportunities and Environment for greatness
My view of leadership is grounded in the belief that it is not a leader’s job to put greatness into people. But rather, it is our job to acknowledge the greatness that already exists and create opportunities and an environment for that greatness to come out.
-- Brad Smith, President & Chief Executive Officer, Intuit
I would use the word 'greatness' advisedly since, to me, it is a bit over-used, not to mention presumptuous. But, the notion of fostering a context in which such a thing, even greatness (with a small 'g'), could be discovered and grow and reveal itself I find quite appealing when working with others.
-- Brad Smith, President & Chief Executive Officer, Intuit
I would use the word 'greatness' advisedly since, to me, it is a bit over-used, not to mention presumptuous. But, the notion of fostering a context in which such a thing, even greatness (with a small 'g'), could be discovered and grow and reveal itself I find quite appealing when working with others.
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Q&A: Being Humble and Listening
Q&A:
Q: What were some early leadership lessons for you?
A: When you’re in your 20s and have that leadership gene, the bad thing is that you don’t know when to shut up. You think you know all the answers, but you don’t. What you learn later is when to just listen to everybody else. I’m finding that all those adages about being humble and listening are truer and truer as I get older. Creativity cannot explode if you do not have the ability to step back, take in what everybody else says and then fuse it with your own ideas.
-- interview with Francesca Zambello
A: When you’re in your 20s and have that leadership gene, the bad thing is that you don’t know when to shut up. You think you know all the answers, but you don’t. What you learn later is when to just listen to everybody else. I’m finding that all those adages about being humble and listening are truer and truer as I get older. Creativity cannot explode if you do not have the ability to step back, take in what everybody else says and then fuse it with your own ideas.
-- interview with Francesca Zambello
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
How Close They Were
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
-- Thomas Edison
-- Thomas Edison
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Like A Nail
Christianity is like a nail, the harder you strike it, the deeper it goes.
-- Yemelian Yaroslavsky, "League of the Militant Godless"
-- Yemelian Yaroslavsky, "League of the Militant Godless"
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
I've Failed, too...
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
-- Michael Jordan
Though it's difficult to know how much to argue that Michael Jordan failed, at least athletically...it does seem like it is an important concept for our kids to consider -- to see in a success-dominated messaging culture that adults fail, including their parents. If they never see me fail, how can my kids become convinced that it is OK when they do...that they will actually survive their failures, that failing actually creates opportunities for them? In other words, I am not just the presentation of my successes to my kids. I am my failures, too.
Here's an example to consider...continue reading.
-- Michael Jordan
Though it's difficult to know how much to argue that Michael Jordan failed, at least athletically...it does seem like it is an important concept for our kids to consider -- to see in a success-dominated messaging culture that adults fail, including their parents. If they never see me fail, how can my kids become convinced that it is OK when they do...that they will actually survive their failures, that failing actually creates opportunities for them? In other words, I am not just the presentation of my successes to my kids. I am my failures, too.
Here's an example to consider...continue reading.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Falling
We are not helping our children by always preventing them from what might be necessary falling, because you learn how to recover from falling by falling! It is precisely by falling off the bike many times that you eventually learn what the balance feels like. The skater pushing both right and left eventually goes where he or she wants to go. People who have never allowed themselves to fall are actually off balance, while not realizing it at all. That is why they are so hard to live with.
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Seven-years-olds and Grownups
I'm convinced that the main difference between seven-year-olds and grownups is that adults have learned to hide our emotions. But that doesn't mean we no longer have fears or dreams. It doesn't mean we no longer have short attention spans. It just means we have gotten very, very good at pretending to listen and understand.
Likewise, if you make adults listen to a convoluted strategy that you pay them to follow, adults will pretend to follow it. But the strategy still won't work. Continue here....
-- Bruce Kasanoff
Likewise, if you make adults listen to a convoluted strategy that you pay them to follow, adults will pretend to follow it. But the strategy still won't work. Continue here....
-- Bruce Kasanoff
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
Emptiness
A friend spoke yesterday about the role of emptiness in our lives. It is counter-intuitive to consider its value, especially in our culture. People don't understand emptiness and the importance of it until they've been emptied....
Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness.
-- Tim Kreider
Some may think this is 'a bit over-stated', but I think not. Just watch what happens when you don't have something to do...how quickly you run to fill it with something else. Watch how ferociously you are willing to attack something (someone) that pokes at the possibility of you being emptied. We are frantic about it...much more than we realize.
The good news is that emptiness creates an echo of the bitterness we hold over not getting what we want...but in way that reveals to us what we didn't even know we wanted. It is the beauty of submitting to something that is good for us.
Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness.
-- Tim Kreider
Some may think this is 'a bit over-stated', but I think not. Just watch what happens when you don't have something to do...how quickly you run to fill it with something else. Watch how ferociously you are willing to attack something (someone) that pokes at the possibility of you being emptied. We are frantic about it...much more than we realize.
The good news is that emptiness creates an echo of the bitterness we hold over not getting what we want...but in way that reveals to us what we didn't even know we wanted. It is the beauty of submitting to something that is good for us.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Growing Into Freedom
True freedom is the freedom of the children of God. To reach that freedom requires a lifelong discipline since so much in our world militates against it. The political, economic, social, and even religious powers surrounding us all want to keep us in bondage so that we will obey their commands and be dependent on their rewards.
But the spiritual truth that leads to freedom is the truth that we belong not to the world but to God, whose beloved children we are. By living lives in which we keep returning to that truth in word and deed, we will gradually grow into our true freedom.
-- Henri Nouwen
But the spiritual truth that leads to freedom is the truth that we belong not to the world but to God, whose beloved children we are. By living lives in which we keep returning to that truth in word and deed, we will gradually grow into our true freedom.
-- Henri Nouwen
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Cultural Narcissism
This...is critical for our own civilization right now. We have too many people on the extremes: some make a "sacrificial" and heroic life their whole identity, and end up making everyone else around the sacrifice so they can be sacrificial and heroic. Others, in selfish rebellion and without any training in letting go, refuse to sacrifice anything. Basically, if you stay in the first half of life beyond its natural period, you become a well-disguised narcissist or an adult infant (who is also a narcissist) -- both of whom are often thought to be successful "good old boys" by the mainstream culture. No wonder that Bill Plotkin calls us a "patho-adolescent culture".
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Friday, April 19, 2013
Courage is Not the Absence of Fear
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
-- Meg Cabot
This makes a lot of sense towards explaining how the things in yesterday's post post could happen...where people move to help others in need.
-- Meg Cabot
This makes a lot of sense towards explaining how the things in yesterday's post post could happen...where people move to help others in need.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The World - A Dangerous Place
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
-- Albert Einstein
We went to a local CASA vigil one evening this week, where the thought above was shared. We have a responsibility to help those who are powerless. I particularly like Bonhoeffer's perspective on this.
...like those that helped in the bombings in Boston earlier this week. It seems to me that those who help others the most are the ones who have traveled through the pains of this life themselves -- they have seen the other side of pain and can reassure others that it is survivable and may even give you a gift in the process. When this happens, we let go of the fist that grips the things that we believe we need to avoid pain and allows us to offer the same 'release' to others. Here is a beautiful story from the bombings in Boston earlier this week that illustrates this surprising, but deeply true discovery.
-- Albert Einstein
We went to a local CASA vigil one evening this week, where the thought above was shared. We have a responsibility to help those who are powerless. I particularly like Bonhoeffer's perspective on this.
...like those that helped in the bombings in Boston earlier this week. It seems to me that those who help others the most are the ones who have traveled through the pains of this life themselves -- they have seen the other side of pain and can reassure others that it is survivable and may even give you a gift in the process. When this happens, we let go of the fist that grips the things that we believe we need to avoid pain and allows us to offer the same 'release' to others. Here is a beautiful story from the bombings in Boston earlier this week that illustrates this surprising, but deeply true discovery.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Habit Formation: The 21-Day Myth
Most people believe that habits are formed by completing a task for 21 days in a row. Twenty-one days of task completion, then voila, a habit is formed. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. The 21-day myth began as a misinterpretation of Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s work on self-image. Maltz did not find that 21 days of task completion forms a habit. People wanted it to be true so much so, however, that the idea began to grow in popularity.
-- Jason Selk
Continue Reading -- worth consideration.
-- Jason Selk
Continue Reading -- worth consideration.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Ego
It is often when the ego is most deconstructed that we can hear things anew and begin some honest reconstruction, even if it is only half heard and halfhearted.
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Who vs Why
One of the deeper questions we have during suffering is 'Why?' Why is this happening? What is this happening to me? What is wrong? What can I do about it? Why, God?
We live enculturated with the assumptions of cause-and-effect. So, we can hardly avoid our 'whys'. We almost require an explanation.
But, the answers to our deeper questions really come more from the question of 'who?'...than from the question of 'why?'
In other words, it is not really the answer to 'why' that satisfies us (even though we crave that answer)...because it only lasts until we are forced to ask it again. It is the answer to a different question that we really need, 'Who?'. Who is with me...during this time of suffering? Who am I? Who do I belong to? ...the answers to these 'who' questions satisfy. The Answer helps address our more human question of 'why?'.
This, by the way, is what so many people don't get about The Bible. They think, as I have so often thought, that it is supposed address our questions of 'why', particularly when we suffer. It doesn't. It wants to tell us Who is with us, especially in our suffering. ...a far different question, with a far different answer.
God doesn't offer us explanation for our pain nearly as much as he offers to be with us in it.
We live enculturated with the assumptions of cause-and-effect. So, we can hardly avoid our 'whys'. We almost require an explanation.
But, the answers to our deeper questions really come more from the question of 'who?'...than from the question of 'why?'
In other words, it is not really the answer to 'why' that satisfies us (even though we crave that answer)...because it only lasts until we are forced to ask it again. It is the answer to a different question that we really need, 'Who?'. Who is with me...during this time of suffering? Who am I? Who do I belong to? ...the answers to these 'who' questions satisfy. The Answer helps address our more human question of 'why?'.
This, by the way, is what so many people don't get about The Bible. They think, as I have so often thought, that it is supposed address our questions of 'why', particularly when we suffer. It doesn't. It wants to tell us Who is with us, especially in our suffering. ...a far different question, with a far different answer.
God doesn't offer us explanation for our pain nearly as much as he offers to be with us in it.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Words
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
-- Rudyard Kipling
Whether we use that drug to heal or harm lies in the power of the tongue.
-- Darlene Price
-- Rudyard Kipling
Whether we use that drug to heal or harm lies in the power of the tongue.
-- Darlene Price
Thursday, April 11, 2013
the Table
Most of the time, I eat like someone’s about to steal my plate, like I can’t be bothered to chew or taste or feel, but I’m coming to see that the table is about food, and it’s also about time. It’s about showing up in person, a whole and present person, instead of a fragmented, frantic person, phone in one hand and to-do list in the other. Put them down, both of them, twin symbols of the modern age, and pick up a knife and a fork. The table is where time stops. It’s where we look people in the eye, where we tell the truth about how hard it is, where we make space to listen to the whole story, not the textable sound bite.
-- Shauna Niequist
Love this read on the value of taking time to eat together...
-- Shauna Niequist
Love this read on the value of taking time to eat together...
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Up and Down
Loss and renewal is a pattern so constant and ubiquitous that it hardly could be called a secret. Yet it is still a secret, because we do not want to see it. We did not want to embark on a further journey if it feels like going down, especially after we put so much sound and fury into going up. This is certainly the first and primary reason why so many people never get to the fullness of their own lives. The supposed achievements of the first half of life have to fall apart and show themselves to be wanting in some way, or we will not move further. Why would we?
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Monday, April 08, 2013
Deeply Rooted
Trees that grow tall have deep roots. Great height without great depth is dangerous. The great leaders of this world – like St. Francis, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. – were all people who could live with public notoriety, influence, and power in a humble way because of their deep spiritual rootedness.
Without deep roots we easily let others determine who we are. But as we cling to our popularity, we may lose our true sense of self. Our clinging to the opinion of others reveals how superficial we are. We have little to stand on. We have to be kept alive by adulation and praise. Those who are deeply rooted in the love of God can enjoy human praise without being attached to it.
-- Henri Nouwen
From: http://wp.henrinouwen.org/daily_meditation_blog/?p=2031
Without deep roots we easily let others determine who we are. But as we cling to our popularity, we may lose our true sense of self. Our clinging to the opinion of others reveals how superficial we are. We have little to stand on. We have to be kept alive by adulation and praise. Those who are deeply rooted in the love of God can enjoy human praise without being attached to it.
-- Henri Nouwen
From: http://wp.henrinouwen.org/daily_meditation_blog/?p=2031
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Tragedy
Tragedy rightly calls faith into question, but it also affirms faith.
God has chosen to respond to our predicament not by waving a magic wand to make evil disappear, but by joining us and absorbing it in his very person.
-- Philip Yancey, National Tragedy and the Empty Tomb
God has chosen to respond to our predicament not by waving a magic wand to make evil disappear, but by joining us and absorbing it in his very person.
-- Philip Yancey, National Tragedy and the Empty Tomb
Saturday, April 06, 2013
The Mute Button
Another video...two in one week makes me think I need to get back to work. I did do some really good reading though, too.
Pretty funny study (using the term loosely) in human group dynamics!
Pretty funny study (using the term loosely) in human group dynamics!
Friday, April 05, 2013
Vision
The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing. The same royal consciousness that makes it possible to implement anything and everything is the one that shrinks imagination because imagination is a danger.
-- Walter Brueggemann
Thanks, David, for passing this along...seems true in a number of domains of life.
-- Walter Brueggemann
Thanks, David, for passing this along...seems true in a number of domains of life.
Thursday, April 04, 2013
The Familiar and The Habitual
The familiar and the habitual are so falsely reassuring, and most of us make their homes there permanently. The new is always by definition unfamiliar and untested, so God, life, destiny. suffering have to give us a push -- usually a big one -- or we will not go. Someone has to be clear to us that homes are not meant to be lived in -- but only to be moved out from.
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
-- Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Tuesday, April 02, 2013
Monday, April 01, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
New, Undiminishable Hope
A new, undiminishable Hope has Come! Truly, Happy Easter!
The ultimate droop of our collective human heads has paused their seemingly final descent. What is this news?! Like a tidal wave of unending momentum, the previously indefatiguable power of Death has been overcome. Could it be...an after-all like no other! With wonder we turn from yesterday's desperation to a Today that is surprising beyond measure, unimagined beyond comprehension, something so full of Hope that Joy is the only description of the prospect of real Peace.
The Omnipotent Power has trumped Death, once and for all, and we can now share in the reunion of All the Good God has created. He is Risen!
...no more Fridays, no more Saturdays. Sunday has Arrived!
The ultimate droop of our collective human heads has paused their seemingly final descent. What is this news?! Like a tidal wave of unending momentum, the previously indefatiguable power of Death has been overcome. Could it be...an after-all like no other! With wonder we turn from yesterday's desperation to a Today that is surprising beyond measure, unimagined beyond comprehension, something so full of Hope that Joy is the only description of the prospect of real Peace.
The Omnipotent Power has trumped Death, once and for all, and we can now share in the reunion of All the Good God has created. He is Risen!
...no more Fridays, no more Saturdays. Sunday has Arrived!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
The Most-Worst Saturday
The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. What must that have been like -- that day between an utter dashing of hope and the re-brightening of it? The ever-brightening of it!
But, before that earth-shattering reality of the actual possibility of Resurrection, that Saturday...what were people experiencing then? A crushing sense that all that they had so pinned their hopes on might actually not be anything more than anything else had ever been...Defeated. Nothing had changed after all And, now, an ever-dismaling prospect that it Never would. Just another, even more, massive disappointment. Confined now...to Hopelessness.
How could one go on? That Saturday with an Easter-not-yet. An Easter not known. An Easter now not even likely...given the swallowing up of everything by Death just the day before.
It's hard to even imagine the devastation of what that most-worst Saturday must have been like. But, then again, maybe not...much of our world gropes on in utter hopelessness, without knowledge of the Easter Coming.
But, before that earth-shattering reality of the actual possibility of Resurrection, that Saturday...what were people experiencing then? A crushing sense that all that they had so pinned their hopes on might actually not be anything more than anything else had ever been...Defeated. Nothing had changed after all And, now, an ever-dismaling prospect that it Never would. Just another, even more, massive disappointment. Confined now...to Hopelessness.
How could one go on? That Saturday with an Easter-not-yet. An Easter not known. An Easter now not even likely...given the swallowing up of everything by Death just the day before.
It's hard to even imagine the devastation of what that most-worst Saturday must have been like. But, then again, maybe not...much of our world gropes on in utter hopelessness, without knowledge of the Easter Coming.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Good Friday: No Thanks
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
-- Romans 1:21
...knew, but not thankful.... How simple, but how profoundly corrupted. Only Death could rescue us from such a pit.
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
-- 1 Corinthians 11:26
We proclaim His death with our gratitude. I am grateful today...for His redemption:
-- Romans 1:21
...knew, but not thankful.... How simple, but how profoundly corrupted. Only Death could rescue us from such a pit.
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
-- 1 Corinthians 11:26
We proclaim His death with our gratitude. I am grateful today...for His redemption:
- of my futile thinking
- of my foolish heart
- of my darkness
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Stop Trying to Triage
Effectiveness part is choosing which priorities to focus on. Efficiency comes in when we streamline how we do those things.
“This is why you don’t see Hussein Bolt texting,” said Hanselman. “He is trying to sprint. If he were trying to multitask, he’d probably be slowed down.” Effectiveness, said Hanselman, is doing the right things, and efficiency is doing things right.
-- Francesca Levy
Continue Reading
“This is why you don’t see Hussein Bolt texting,” said Hanselman. “He is trying to sprint. If he were trying to multitask, he’d probably be slowed down.” Effectiveness, said Hanselman, is doing the right things, and efficiency is doing things right.
-- Francesca Levy
Continue Reading
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Managing Compassionately
Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness, and compassion without wisdom is folly.
-- Fred Kofman
As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I read Jeff Weiner's, CEO of Linkedin, article on Managing Compassionately. A healthy read, in my opinion, underscoring the value of human dynamics in business.
-- Fred Kofman
As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I read Jeff Weiner's, CEO of Linkedin, article on Managing Compassionately. A healthy read, in my opinion, underscoring the value of human dynamics in business.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
When a Valuable Lesson at Work Became an Invaluable Lesson in Life
The ability to be a spectator to my own thoughts, especially when becoming emotional; putting myself in the shoes of others and seeing the world through their eyes rather than projecting my own perspective; and working hard to manage compassionately...
...as hard as I worked to manage compassionately at the office, I was not always actively applying the same approach with my family.
Put another way, I was doing what so many of us have a tendency to do: Taking the people we're closest to for granted by assuming they are the ones we don't need to make an effort with. After all, they'll understand, right? However, nothing could be further from the truth.
It's taken me over 40 years to realize what makes me happy -- simply put, it's looking forward to going to work in the morning, and looking forward to coming home at night.
-- Jeff Weiner
A good read about how to integrate life and work...Continue Reading
...as hard as I worked to manage compassionately at the office, I was not always actively applying the same approach with my family.
Put another way, I was doing what so many of us have a tendency to do: Taking the people we're closest to for granted by assuming they are the ones we don't need to make an effort with. After all, they'll understand, right? However, nothing could be further from the truth.
It's taken me over 40 years to realize what makes me happy -- simply put, it's looking forward to going to work in the morning, and looking forward to coming home at night.
-- Jeff Weiner
A good read about how to integrate life and work...Continue Reading
Monday, March 25, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Path
I headed in. It was through a familiar, but little entrance in an otherwise dense wall of trees and brush. All shades of brown and gray, mixed together this time of year. Emerging from the other side of the portal, I saw...a path. A sense of something flowed through me.
A path. What is it about a path that quickens something within us. Is it 'a beckoning' that produces a sense of anticipation that this could lead somewhere...somewhere significant? I rarely see another person on this particular path. So there's 'an embedded contradiction' here -- a path with no one on it can only infer that at one point or another there have been many others on it...otherwise, how could the path exist? Somebody, somebodies that is, has walked it...and continue to walk it. So, if I'm on it even if alone at the moment, I'm not really alone after all. I'm travelling a way that others have also traveled. I can't make a path by myself, but I can perpetuate it for someone else, just by walking it.
A path also is intriguing because it is 'a way' through something. A path is often surrounded by all kinds of things; things growing, things thick, things amass, things untouched, things beautiful, things unknown, things scary, things dangerous. In the middle of such things, physical or otherwise, we want a way through it. A means of getting from where I am to where I want to be, even if I don't yet know where or what that is.
There is a series of pictures on a wall at church, depicting a path. I am regularly drawn to something by it . In that context, I am drawn to the notion that there is a Way. A Way that is something more than an actual place. Contemplating this, a verse comes to mind:
Jesus answered, "I am the way
and the truth and the life."
-- John 14:6
In spite of all of its attending questions, part of the mysterious power of a path is that it's only real requirement seems to be to walk it.
Remember, sinner, it is not your hold of Christ that saves you -- it is Christ.
-- C.H. Spurgeon
Perhaps this is part of the compelling nature of a path. We can walk the path in front us, knowing the destination isn't in our hands. The destination is good...and so is the Way to it. Follow the path.
A path. What is it about a path that quickens something within us. Is it 'a beckoning' that produces a sense of anticipation that this could lead somewhere...somewhere significant? I rarely see another person on this particular path. So there's 'an embedded contradiction' here -- a path with no one on it can only infer that at one point or another there have been many others on it...otherwise, how could the path exist? Somebody, somebodies that is, has walked it...and continue to walk it. So, if I'm on it even if alone at the moment, I'm not really alone after all. I'm travelling a way that others have also traveled. I can't make a path by myself, but I can perpetuate it for someone else, just by walking it.
A path also is intriguing because it is 'a way' through something. A path is often surrounded by all kinds of things; things growing, things thick, things amass, things untouched, things beautiful, things unknown, things scary, things dangerous. In the middle of such things, physical or otherwise, we want a way through it. A means of getting from where I am to where I want to be, even if I don't yet know where or what that is.
There is a series of pictures on a wall at church, depicting a path. I am regularly drawn to something by it . In that context, I am drawn to the notion that there is a Way. A Way that is something more than an actual place. Contemplating this, a verse comes to mind:
Jesus answered, "I am the way
and the truth and the life."
-- John 14:6
In spite of all of its attending questions, part of the mysterious power of a path is that it's only real requirement seems to be to walk it.
Remember, sinner, it is not your hold of Christ that saves you -- it is Christ.
-- C.H. Spurgeon
Perhaps this is part of the compelling nature of a path. We can walk the path in front us, knowing the destination isn't in our hands. The destination is good...and so is the Way to it. Follow the path.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Claiming the Sacredness of Our Being
To acknowledge the truth of ourselves is to claim the sacredness of our being, without fully understanding it.
When we trust that our souls are embraced by a loving God, we can befriend ourselves and reach out to others in loving relationships.
-- Henri Nouwen
Continue Reading
One might ask, why is such a thing necessary...this notion of befriending ourselves (see link above)? It actually takes some time to discover the 'why'. Because it isn't until we run into what we are not -- in contrast to all that we think we are or want to be -- that we become aware of the serious problems with the images of ourselves we so carefully maintain.
For one thing, we are limited beings...whether we want to admit it or not. Further, we are damaging to others when our primary commitments are to ourselves. Both realities can lead to one of two things: a desperation or a humility. It is out of the latter that we have opportunity to trust the all of who we are (and are not) to God. And, it is at those moments that we access what makes us truly alive and able to be a part of extending the embracing of God to others.
When we trust that our souls are embraced by a loving God, we can befriend ourselves and reach out to others in loving relationships.
-- Henri Nouwen
Continue Reading
One might ask, why is such a thing necessary...this notion of befriending ourselves (see link above)? It actually takes some time to discover the 'why'. Because it isn't until we run into what we are not -- in contrast to all that we think we are or want to be -- that we become aware of the serious problems with the images of ourselves we so carefully maintain.
For one thing, we are limited beings...whether we want to admit it or not. Further, we are damaging to others when our primary commitments are to ourselves. Both realities can lead to one of two things: a desperation or a humility. It is out of the latter that we have opportunity to trust the all of who we are (and are not) to God. And, it is at those moments that we access what makes us truly alive and able to be a part of extending the embracing of God to others.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Lousy
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.
--Bill Gates
--Bill Gates
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Without Self-Restraint
A man without self-restraint is like a barrel without hoops, and tumbles to pieces.
-- Henry Ward Beecher
-- Henry Ward Beecher
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Real Manhood and Steubenville
The culture of 'boys will be boys' — means 'girls will be garbage' and you were made for more than this, Son. Your Dad and I believe boys will be godly and boys will be honoring and boys will be humble.
-- Ann Voskamp, After Stueubenville: 25 Things Our Sons need to know about Manhood
A gripping and powerful must read...for all sons and their fathers.
-- Ann Voskamp, After Stueubenville: 25 Things Our Sons need to know about Manhood
A gripping and powerful must read...for all sons and their fathers.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Mastery
Research that shows the opportunity to build mastery is one of the three most motivating things for most people, professionally. The other two are autonomy and purpose.
-- Daniel Pink, Drive
-- Daniel Pink, Drive
Monday, March 18, 2013
Being A Mentor
Being a mentor means fulfilling many roles but the most important is being a soundboard that steers an entrepreneur to their own answers to problems. It’s about inspiring someone to think deeply about their concerns and challenges, rather than giving simple answers which only tells them what you think is best for them.
-- Micha Kaufman
Continue Reading
-- Micha Kaufman
Continue Reading
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Listening
The veil was different this morning. I couldn't tell whether it was gone or whether it was no longer above me, and had just descended around me. Either way, it felt like I was in the middle of something. Now I was not blocked from something; now I was in something. And the being 'in it' was wonderful. It was as if I had somehow entered into prayer, rather than trying to send it to something or through something.
A frost crunched on the thawing pad of leaves and dirt beneath my running feet. All manner of the flying were surrounding me aloud -- the winged singers were caroling away, a big black was cawing in the distance, the honking ones were apparently reading bumper stickers from the skies above me, and a rat-a-tat tatterer with the red hat was beaking his hole into something woody nearby. I was in the middle of something...something at this time of year both dormant and alive at the same time. I breathed prayer this time...into the veil.
For today I was listening...instead of punching. Nouwen describes the difference:
Listening in the spiritual life is much more than a psychological strategy to help others discover themselves. In the spiritual life the listener is not the ego, which would like to speak but is trained to restrain itself, but the Spirit of God within us. When we are baptized in the Spirit – that is, when we have received the Spirit of Jesus as the breath of God breathing within us – that Spirit creates in us a sacred space where the other can be received and listened to. The Spirit of Jesus prays in us and listens in us to all who come to us with their sufferings and pains.
When we dare to fully trust in the power of God’s Spirit listening in us, we will see true healing occur.
-- Henri Nouwen
A frost crunched on the thawing pad of leaves and dirt beneath my running feet. All manner of the flying were surrounding me aloud -- the winged singers were caroling away, a big black was cawing in the distance, the honking ones were apparently reading bumper stickers from the skies above me, and a rat-a-tat tatterer with the red hat was beaking his hole into something woody nearby. I was in the middle of something...something at this time of year both dormant and alive at the same time. I breathed prayer this time...into the veil.
For today I was listening...instead of punching. Nouwen describes the difference:
Listening in the spiritual life is much more than a psychological strategy to help others discover themselves. In the spiritual life the listener is not the ego, which would like to speak but is trained to restrain itself, but the Spirit of God within us. When we are baptized in the Spirit – that is, when we have received the Spirit of Jesus as the breath of God breathing within us – that Spirit creates in us a sacred space where the other can be received and listened to. The Spirit of Jesus prays in us and listens in us to all who come to us with their sufferings and pains.
When we dare to fully trust in the power of God’s Spirit listening in us, we will see true healing occur.
-- Henri Nouwen
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Thinking
I don't know what I think until I try to write it down.
-- Joan Didion
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos preaches the value of writing long form prose to clarify thinking. Unless you're a professional writer, writing is not always about the written output; it's about the thinking that happens as you attempt to communicate. Do not assume you have to share your writing with others for it to be time well spent.
Continue Reading about writing...and thinking.
-- Joan Didion
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos preaches the value of writing long form prose to clarify thinking. Unless you're a professional writer, writing is not always about the written output; it's about the thinking that happens as you attempt to communicate. Do not assume you have to share your writing with others for it to be time well spent.
Continue Reading about writing...and thinking.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Once You're Motivated
Once you're motivated to learn something, you can get a lot done in a short amount of time.
-- Logan LaPlante
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Dispatch from a Near Drowning, and A Love Note to Self-Loathers
I was swept off my feet a few days ago.
By the massive cold hand of a wave—an ocean wave twice as big as its brothers. I was there on the beach beside my house with camera in hand because of a certain desperation. A certain hate of the familiar.
Rain and snow had lashed our houses and windows for days on end, which is usual for this island in the Gulf of Alaska. We live and commercial fish surrounded by wilderness, among stupendous beauty, but it is not always enough.
Continue Reading...a lovely read.
By the massive cold hand of a wave—an ocean wave twice as big as its brothers. I was there on the beach beside my house with camera in hand because of a certain desperation. A certain hate of the familiar.
Rain and snow had lashed our houses and windows for days on end, which is usual for this island in the Gulf of Alaska. We live and commercial fish surrounded by wilderness, among stupendous beauty, but it is not always enough.
Continue Reading...a lovely read.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Not A Hero, A Servant
O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also with great expectations. I hoped for a great breakthrough, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart; I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul.
But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning. Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness before they could see your light. Let me be thankful for your gentle way. I know you are at work. I know you will not leave me alone. I know you are quickening me for Easter - but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament.
I pray that these last three weeks, in which you invite me to enter more fully into the mystery of your passion, will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way that you create for me and to accept the cross that you give to me. Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own desire. You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you.
-- Henri Nouwen
Thanks for sharing this with us, Veisa.
But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning. Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness before they could see your light. Let me be thankful for your gentle way. I know you are at work. I know you will not leave me alone. I know you are quickening me for Easter - but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament.
I pray that these last three weeks, in which you invite me to enter more fully into the mystery of your passion, will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way that you create for me and to accept the cross that you give to me. Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own desire. You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you.
-- Henri Nouwen
Thanks for sharing this with us, Veisa.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
The Most Important Thing My Dad Ever Told Me
...I remember my father asking me why I was upset. After I told him that I wanted to be pretty, I remember his response even better: “Sallie, you are pretty. And look at Gloria Steinem. She wears glasses, she’s a knock-out, and she’s changing the world.”
Here’s the important point. There is research showing that the most important relationship in determining a woman’s success in the workplace is the one with her father.
Over to you, Dads... to Finish Reading.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Make Every Effort
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
-- 2 Peter 1:5-9
-- 2 Peter 1:5-9
Saturday, March 09, 2013
Practice
A fascinating WSJ article is referenced below in this helpful consideration about matters of faith. Both are good, but I especially like the WSJ content on the role / power of practice (reminds me of the post earlier this week on neuroplasticity):
In a recent Wall Street Journal article (“Practice Makes Perfect – And Not Just for Jocks and Musicians”), author Doug LeMov states what my mom knew all along: “Practice lets us execute a task while using less and less active brain processing. It makes things automatic… What drives mastery is encoding success – performing an action the right way over and over.”
I know of an eleven year old budding violinist who has set an alarm on her iPod to remind her to practice an hour a day. How different would I be if I reminded myself to practice grace an hour a day?
Continue Reading
In a recent Wall Street Journal article (“Practice Makes Perfect – And Not Just for Jocks and Musicians”), author Doug LeMov states what my mom knew all along: “Practice lets us execute a task while using less and less active brain processing. It makes things automatic… What drives mastery is encoding success – performing an action the right way over and over.”
“Practice lets us execute a task while using less and less active brain processing. It makes things automatic. When performers master one aspect of their work, they free their minds to think about another aspect. This may be why many of us have our most creative thoughts while driving or brushing our teeth. Rote learning and conceptual thinking often feed synergistically on each other, freeing our brain capacity for those tasks that require the maximum amount of attention and creativity.
Research has established that fast, simple feedback is almost always more effective at shaping behavior than is a more comprehensive response well after the fact. Better to whisper "Please use a more formal tone with clients, Steven" right away than to lecture Steven at length on the wherefores and whys the next morning.”
A few weeks ago, when I found myself heading into a highly charged situation, I remembered the Wall Street Journal article about practice. Even before I started to freak out over it, before I gathered my verbal ammunition and prepared my defenses, God impressed upon my thoughts: “Practice grace in this.” So I did. I approached the situation with a recalibrated mindset and a different vision. I practiced something new. And God transformed a difficulty into an opportunity.
I know of an eleven year old budding violinist who has set an alarm on her iPod to remind her to practice an hour a day. How different would I be if I reminded myself to practice grace an hour a day?
Friday, March 08, 2013
Thursday, March 07, 2013
Neuroplasticity and Habits
You may have heard that we're born with a huge amount of brain cells, and then we lose them steadily until we die. Now, the good news: that’s neuromythology.
The new understanding is what’s called ‘neurogenesis’: Every day the brain generates 10,000 stem cells that split into two. One becomes a daughter line that continues making stem cells, and the other migrates to wherever it’s needed in the brain and becomes that kind of cell. Very often that destination is where the cell is needed for new learning. Over the next four months, that new cell forms about 10,000 connections with others to create new neural circuitry.
Neurogenesis adds power to our understanding of neuroplasticity, that the brain continually reshapes itself according to the experiences we have. If we are learning a new golf swing, that circuitry will attract connections and neurons. If we are changing a habit – say trying to get better at listening – then that circuitry will grow accordingly. On the other hand, when we try to overcome a bad habit, we’re up against the thickness of the circuitry for something we’ve practiced and repeated thousands of times.
For more from this compelling article, Continue Reading
The new understanding is what’s called ‘neurogenesis’: Every day the brain generates 10,000 stem cells that split into two. One becomes a daughter line that continues making stem cells, and the other migrates to wherever it’s needed in the brain and becomes that kind of cell. Very often that destination is where the cell is needed for new learning. Over the next four months, that new cell forms about 10,000 connections with others to create new neural circuitry.
Neurogenesis adds power to our understanding of neuroplasticity, that the brain continually reshapes itself according to the experiences we have. If we are learning a new golf swing, that circuitry will attract connections and neurons. If we are changing a habit – say trying to get better at listening – then that circuitry will grow accordingly. On the other hand, when we try to overcome a bad habit, we’re up against the thickness of the circuitry for something we’ve practiced and repeated thousands of times.
For more from this compelling article, Continue Reading
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Truth - Unbudging and Unpredictable
The truth most often just sits there...waiting for us. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, especially since truth rides above and beneath and around things like rules. At times it barges in on us. But generally, the truth is simply patient, beckoning but only softly until we collide with it enough to recognize our need for it. And, then, it pierces us like a dagger because it has tied itself into something we really want. We are changed by it, but often not in many of the ways we expect or want it to. It gives us something far more valuable, perhaps most poignantly in its invitation to pursue it further. And, in that endeavor, something about us changes...as we pursue its pursuit of us. Like a river it flows, whether we notice it or not, but when we do, we are mesmerized. Called. Enlivened. Changed.
Monday, March 04, 2013
A Leader Must Be Aware
...only by being fully conscious can you arrive at a realistic assessment of yourself and others. Objective data can deliver information, but only awareness answers key questions like "can I handle this challenge?", "Who's my best ally?", and "Who's not telling me what he really feels?" to put it in reverse, if you aren't aware, you will quickly lose touch with the human level.
I know that sensitivity training is anathema to many, especially males, and that empathy is often equated with being squishy or weak. But in reality the greatest secret to success is knowing how to feel your way through life. As much as we exalt thinking, being able to feel your way involves empathy, bonding, catching subtle signals, sensing danger signs, knowing what others need, and much else. It takes the complete person to feel his or her way through life; a good computer can do analytical processing far better than almost any of us, but no one ever voted a computer to lead a company.
-- Deepak Chopra
Continue Reading
I know that sensitivity training is anathema to many, especially males, and that empathy is often equated with being squishy or weak. But in reality the greatest secret to success is knowing how to feel your way through life. As much as we exalt thinking, being able to feel your way involves empathy, bonding, catching subtle signals, sensing danger signs, knowing what others need, and much else. It takes the complete person to feel his or her way through life; a good computer can do analytical processing far better than almost any of us, but no one ever voted a computer to lead a company.
-- Deepak Chopra
Continue Reading
Sunday, March 03, 2013
All Fortune
We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good, if bad, because is works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.
-- C.S. Lewis
-- C.S. Lewis
Saturday, March 02, 2013
Unless You Try
Unless you try to do something beyond
what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
-- Ronald E. Osborn
what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
-- Ronald E. Osborn
Friday, March 01, 2013
Inspiration
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing.
Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
-- Frank Tibolt
Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
-- Frank Tibolt
Thursday, February 28, 2013
The Harder You Work
"The harder you work, the luckier you get."
There's some debate about who first made this statement. Ben Franklin apparently once said “Diligence is the mother of good luck," although more recently people think of legendary South African golfer Gary Player as the person who coined the phrase. That's probably how it was eventually passed along to me, as my Dad started teaching me ...
Continue Reading
There's some debate about who first made this statement. Ben Franklin apparently once said “Diligence is the mother of good luck," although more recently people think of legendary South African golfer Gary Player as the person who coined the phrase. That's probably how it was eventually passed along to me, as my Dad started teaching me ...
Continue Reading
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Best Advice: Live The Questions
Success, he said, doesn’t just happen. It requires daily effort. And he began to list the things that went into it. This list seemed endless and impossible to achieve. He described physical, mental and emotional discipline, ranging from daily exercise to regulating passionate reactions to circumstances beyond my control. It was pouring by then, and the world outside the window was a spangled gray mass of teary rectangles, crying with me. I was overwhelmed. I wished I’d never bothered to send him a letter. He knew this, so he gave me a copy of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet:
“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”
In the days that followed, I realized that maybe I would never achieve mastery of every item on the long list of advice that had been presented, but my life would only improve if I tried.
Continue Reading
I was quite excited to run across this today. Rilke's thought is one of my favorites, after a period of my life where I needed to learn the beauty of this kind of living. I have it on my desk in my office. Years ago, I tediously painted some of it on one of the walls at our church...that process sank it's truth deeply into me. It is the voice of God to me.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Advice I Wish Someone Had Given Me for My First Job
Revel in working hard no matter what the job is. You might be smart and clever, but a solid work ethic is the main thing that'll separate you from all the other viable candidates. You may start with a bunch of grunt work, but you can't be an oversensetive employee. If you're not learning anything, it's time to look at yourself and...
Continue Reading
Continue Reading
Monday, February 25, 2013
Want To Be Taken Seriously?
Want to be taken seriously?...become a better writer.
A tourist in New York asked a woman on the street, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” and she replied, “Practice, practice, practice.” The truth is, the best way to get better at anything is to do it repeatedly.
So it is with writing...
Continue Reading
A tourist in New York asked a woman on the street, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” and she replied, “Practice, practice, practice.” The truth is, the best way to get better at anything is to do it repeatedly.
So it is with writing...
Continue Reading
Sunday, February 24, 2013
I Asked
Prayer of an Unknown Confederate Soldier, The Creed for the Disabled
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
Thanks, Jake, for sharing this with me.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Goals
Long-range goals keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.
-- James Cash Penney
I was talking to a friend yesterday about his observation that this (his) generation doesn't reflect very much, they just live in the moment. There is always a risk of over-generalizing, but I found it fascinating. It seems to me that this is quite a by-product of our times. In reaction to something, we have really pushed culturally the importance of 'the moment'...and perhaps succeeded.
We talked at length about this. Thinking about the future really isn't much on the radar...almost an ambivalence to it. Is it masking a fear -- too much to take on, to truly consider? He also mentioned the role of consequences...or the lack of it. 'Just do it' seems to prevail (wonder where we got that one?). Further into the conversation, he reflected on how important the realization is that one thing in life leads to another...in essence, that we have to be thinking ahead. He is seeing a connection between his action and his opportunities...especially now that he sees something that he clearly wants (which may be the key anyway).
He has a goal...and 'the moment' doesn't need to prevail. Fun to watch and to reflect on.
-- James Cash Penney
I was talking to a friend yesterday about his observation that this (his) generation doesn't reflect very much, they just live in the moment. There is always a risk of over-generalizing, but I found it fascinating. It seems to me that this is quite a by-product of our times. In reaction to something, we have really pushed culturally the importance of 'the moment'...and perhaps succeeded.
We talked at length about this. Thinking about the future really isn't much on the radar...almost an ambivalence to it. Is it masking a fear -- too much to take on, to truly consider? He also mentioned the role of consequences...or the lack of it. 'Just do it' seems to prevail (wonder where we got that one?). Further into the conversation, he reflected on how important the realization is that one thing in life leads to another...in essence, that we have to be thinking ahead. He is seeing a connection between his action and his opportunities...especially now that he sees something that he clearly wants (which may be the key anyway).
He has a goal...and 'the moment' doesn't need to prevail. Fun to watch and to reflect on.
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