Nice News: Star Cluster

@nasa

This image shows a star cluster floating 2,900 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way, and it was the focus of a new astronomy study. Per NASA, researchers found that the cluster regulates its own size, meaning only some new stars can form before others limit their growth. The science is pretty cool, but we can’t stop looking at those swirling, colorful clouds of gas. 

Previous Nice News....

God Wills, Desires, Takes

The contemplative responds to the divine in everyone. God wills the care of the poor as well as the reward of the rich; so, therefore, must the true contemplative. God wills the end of oppressors who stand with the heel in the neck of the weak; so, therefore, does the true contemplative. God wills the liberation of all human beings; so, therefore, must the true contemplative. God desires the dignity and full development of all human beings. Thus, God takes the side of the defenseless. And, thus, therefore, must the true contemplative; otherwise, that contemplation is not real, cannot be real, will never be real, because to contemplate the God of justice is to be committed to justice. The true contemplative, the truly spiritual person, then, must do justice, must speak justice, must insist on justice, and they do, and they always have, and they are.

-- Sister Joan Chittister

3 Observations & A Question

We are always carrying our perceptions of the past into the future — informing our perceptions of what is new from our experience with the old.

Just because we have done it, doesn't mean that we should continue to do it (that also doesn't mean that we shouldn't).

Almost anything can be developed (good and bad) — with enough desire and effort.

You know something needs attention when you have to remind yourself that you need some laughter — when's the last time you laughed?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

On the Lighter Side: Black Friday

On the Lighter Side:

Normal America strikes back

Regarding our ever-present diet of controversy — surely we're over it already, aren't we?  Maybe we are...:

My new obsession is that most of America is exponentially more normal than cable TV, Twitter and the most-read mainstream stories make it seem, Jim writes.

• Why it matters: The past few months prove that for all the hyperventilating and self-loathing, normal America is prevailing over the loudmouths on the left and the right who dominate our screens.

Before you email me that I'm nuts, let's go to the tape:

• Most election deniers running for positions to manage elections were defeated, contrary to widespread worries.
• We had a razor-thin election for control of Congress, yet virtually everyone accepted the results, even when the vote-counting dragged on for days. Minimal protests followed.
• The nation is on the brink of federal protection for same-sex marriage, with 71% of Americans in support of it — unthinkable less than a decade ago.
• Democrats have mostly dropped their "defund the police" calls, replaced by a general consensus that police are a vital, if imperfect, part of safer communities.  Continue here....

-- Jim VandeHei

Steps In and Does Something

The man of faith, of energy, of warmth...steps in and does something.

-- Vincent van Gogh

Do I Want To?

When trying to navigate a path through difficult decisions, especially one with several options, we often reach for all kinds of things essentially designed to keep us from one significant question — what do I want to do?

We avoid this question for a variety of reasons, including just not wanting to put ourselves out there for all to see.  Reasons, we claim, are why we do things.  But, so often that is not really the case.  Often, we don't do something simply because of our fears — fear of failure being among the larger ones.

Data, for example, is a convenient thing to hide behind (even from ourselves).  But, doing something because of the data alone too often just serves to create some cover for us to locate blame, if things don't turn out well.  At the heart of the matter, we really are just avoiding a more powerful driver in our lives.  Do I want to do this or that?  ...not whether this or that will work out.  

Many times we do things out of necessity; that is simply part of life.  But, when it comes down to choosing between options, we really need to face why we wouldn't do, in the end, what we really want to do.  There may, in fact, be good reasons.  But, choosing something, even for good reasons, that you really don't want to will likely just be exposed at a later point in time — you didn't really want to do it anyway.

So, though a process of getting to it is important, the more significant question persists regarding any particular option — do I want to do this?

All of this is on my mind at the moment because of something directly in front of me right now...finish here.

LT: Careless

When we care less about our people, our people become careless.

-- Simon Sinek

"Even Those Found In The Constitution"

So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential election results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!

UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD REQUIRES UNPRECEDENTED CURE!

-- Donald Trump, December 3 2022

The red meat never stops — I'm not sure what's worse, the brazen pandering or the height of delusion.

Point of Achievement

Ever noticed...that the point of achievement is not as much that you have accomplished the thing (though that is not insignificant), but rather what you can do with what has been accomplished.  

Passing a test is not nearly as significant as what you do with the content involved with what is being tested.

Becoming qualified to be a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a coach, etc. is not nearly as significant as what you do as one of these.

Avoiding Experiences

I've spent my whole life avoiding the experiences Jesus said He would use to help me grow.

-- Bob Goff

BigTen Champs - MICH-AGAIN!

What a night!  More pics here....  And, highlights here.

4 Observations (from Others)

One application of kindness:

Just one random act of kindness. But it sparked a family's decade of giving.

Kindness is the only non-delusional response to everything.

-- George Saunders

Violence is a failure to see the other person as a person.

-- Pamela Cooper-White

The point is not to pay back kindness, but to pass it on.

-- Julia Alvarez

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Survey: Should Trump Run Again?

inkFreeNews

This is pretty interesting, especially given the red-country it represents (north-central Indiana).

You Will Understand

All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else.

-- Isaac Asimov

'Tis the Season...of Lights

Light is ubiquitous and ever-present (daily, obviously), but it seems like some times of year are more tuned to celebrate it.  Take this season, for example.

As with many things, accentuating something usually is influenced by its relationship to its opposite.  So, perhaps, it is this darker time of year...that makes all the variances of light more apparent, experienceable, enjoyable.

This, of course, can be highly cultural; but whatever the case, many of our traditions this time of year seem like a dance between darkness and light.  I often have a sense of excitement about the sparkle this season creates — attracted to the beauty of lights in the context of darkness.  

And, so, I annually return to a ritual of creating my contribution of light to the world.

Light does carry meaning for me.  It reflects something from within me.  It is a kind, I suppose, of a soft statement — about what I believe, about what I want.  It is an appeal to something I need, as much as it is a gift of something I want to offer.  It points to something that I participate with, that I join...a broader constellation of light-making in life.  It makes tangible, in my proximity, something that is both transcendent and eternal — like an earthened version of the stars.  

And, so, I get out the lights and put them up (irritated once again by their endless tangle, but committed nonetheless to doing it anyway) — satisfied by seeing their effect, knowing that they shine even when I'm not seeing them.  I’m grateful for the significance, desire, and invitation that the lights of this season seem to create.

Tis the Season....

Apparently, I'm not the only one who is mesmerized by such things...:

Shelter

I felt it shelter to speak to you.

-- Emily Dickinson

LT: Molder of Consensus

Ultimately, a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sense of Time

I'm wondering...about how our sense of time impacts us.

Contradicting a few things I believe about being in the now, I have been thinking about the prospect that much of what we do in any given day is really about something we are trying to anticipate down the road; in other words, in the future.  It is true that there is something quite powerful for humanity regarding the prospects of the future; isn't this the essence of hope?

I've caught myself these days living a lot (too much) in the future.

But, it also seems apparent that we can become so future-oriented that we miss what is around us right now.  And, the irony is that what is happening around us right now and how we respond to that is what creates the future. 

Of course, there is the past which can only be re-experienced in the now (we can't experience the past in the future).  The past, then, was a prior now.

The future is a not yet now.

So all we really have is...now.

We can (and should) be informed by the past and the future.  But, today is the only moment we can ever really live.

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

-- Abraham Lincoln

Touching the Sacred

Deepening your connection to God, in you and around you, do not be afraid to feel the love, the joy, and also the pain that are present. Don’t be afraid to have a heart and to risk breaking your heart. Feel into it all and know that every time you are touching the pain, you are touching the sacred wound of God. God who is always accompanying us and guiding us. God who is suffering with us...God whose life-giving love and justice will one day be “all in all” [1 Corinthians 15:28].

-- Adam Bucko

UM Beats OSU...AGAIN!

mgoblue.com

16-minute high-light reel here:

3-minute version here....

3 Observations & A Question

It's just too easy to eat cake when it is just sitting there on the counter — many things in life are like that.

At almost every level, violence is a response to threat that, while it may delay it, actually just increases it.

What we appear to be most capable of extending others is directly related to what we have received (particularly as a child) — as what most difficult for us to extend others is often a function of what we didn't receive.

Does it ever occur to you what it’s like to be on the receiving end of you?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

So Much To Be Thankful For

More pics here....

A Thanksgiving Prayer

We are better when our leaders are more truly human (when they act better because they believe better) than the rest of us.  What does that mean?  It usually means they are connected to source of what being human means.

The true meaning of Thanksgiving focuses upon relationship. Thanksgiving is a relationship between God and man. Upon their arrival at New Plymouth, the Pilgrims composed The Mayflower Compact, which honored God. Thanksgiving begins with acknowledging God as faithful, earnestly giving Him thanks, in advance, for His abundant blessings.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.  That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks — for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation…

-- George Washington, 1789

In the United States, Thanksgiving is historically a day to praise and give thanks to God for our blessings and ask Him to heal the nation's wounds. It was also a national day of penitence to humbly repent for our sinfulness and selfishness.

As a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

-- Abraham Lincoln, 1863

A Thanksgiving Meal Prayer for Blessings Past and Present. Lord God, we gather around this table to humbly thank You for all that You have given us this past year – not just what is on this table, but who is sitting around this table. Thank you for life and laughter, health and happiness, relationships and memories. Thank you, too, for the lessons learned and the tears we’ve cried because of Your ability to grow us through them. 

Thank You for Your comfort and presence in light of good days and bad. Thank You for what we have now, what we had yesterday, and what You will continue to give tomorrow. Let us never take that for granted, but to always be grateful for every good and perfect gift that comes from You. May we have hearts full of thanksgiving today and every day of our lives. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, Amen. 

-- Cindi McMenamin

Continue here....

We Are Miraculously Part of Something

Gratitude, ultimately, stems from recognizing “that we are miraculously part of something rather than nothing.” We need not always seek out things to be grateful for — we can, instead, discover a “deep, a priori” state of thankfulness for “the underlying gift of life and incarnation.”

-- David Whyte

More Grateful When

I've noticed...I'm most grateful for things that I have directly experienced. It is in these contexts that I more recognize what I have been given.

I became more grateful for a job after I lost one.

I became more grateful for community when it gave to me in my need.

I became more grateful for friendships after I experienced reconciliation in them.

I became more grateful for my wife when she forgave me.

I became more grateful for my children when they return home.

I became more grateful for God when I realized all that God has provided...not just to me, but to the whole world.

Reaching Past Your Past

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years.  She had endured much under many physicians and had spent all that she had, and she was no better but rather grew worse.  She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,  for she said, “If I but touch his cloak, I will be made well.”  Immediately her flow of blood stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.  Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my cloak?”  And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ”  He looked all around to see who had done it.  But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.  He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” 

-- Mark 5

This week I realized that every sermon I have ever heard on this text has just been sorta vague about the actual ailment of the woman who reached for the hem of Jesus’ garment.

This week I also realized that all the sermons I’ve heard on this text over the years were preached by men.

So, just so we are clear ladies, the woman from our Gospel reading today who was healed when she touched Jesus cloak had her menstrual period for 12 years.

She had her period for 4,383 days in a row. 

And it’s not like they had pads or tampons in the 1st century.

Just take a moment and consider what that was like.

And even worse - back in her day women on their periods were considered impure– they were treated as so unclean that they couldn't be around other people or even enter the synagogue until their bleeding had stopped. Why? Because their impurity was considered contagious. Like someone could catch your period from you.

For 12 brutal years, our sister not only had her period but she was also segregated from the so-called good healthy people.

I imagine that if anyone can understand what it is like to live year after long year being told you are a woman who is not safe for other people to be around it might be you in this room.

But, the Gospel tells us, she had heard about a man – a teacher  – a prophet – a healer who did not recoil from women like her. She heard about a man who touched the unclean, who didn’t seem to mind being close to lepers and prostitutes and mad men in tombs. She heard about a man who caused a stir- a man who caused religious people to clutch their pearls, a man who caused the blind to see.

She had heard about Jesus…and in a heroic act of self respect, she pressed through those holy people who if they knew it was her who was touching them that day– would have reported her.

She had heard about Jesus and breaking all the rules, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, and said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”

So she reached with everything she had–she reached past her fears – she reached past her limitations,– she reached past the dirty looks– she reached past 4,383 days of isolation and disappointment and despair – she reached past the hateful things said to her by those who were supposed to help her, she reached past her past. Our sister reached for her own healing and her own dignity and her own wholeness and said if I but touch his clothes I will be made well.

That is to say, if I but touch his clothes I will be made me.

I will be made me again and not what everyone has labeled me.

And immediately her bleeding stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed by the power of Jesus of Nazareth.

Her Yelp review would be like, Healing was immediate and thorough; 5 stars.

Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

He was looking for the one who reached for her healing and received it. He wanted to look this woman in the eye – a woman who for 12 years never received a whole lot of eye contact but he knew it was HER he felt.

And his disciples are like, “Dude,  everyone is touching everyone’s clothes it’s a huge crowd’”

But he kept looking for her eyes.

And the woman, who knew what had happened to her in that moment of her healing AND who knew very well what had happened to her in her 4,383 days of confinement came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.

She did not hold anything back.

She told him the whole truth and nothing but.

Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Everyone else may have called her impure, unclean, and unholy . . . but he called her daughter.  In that one word Jesus tells her who she really is. A beloved child of God.

You are well, you are a daughter of God, go in peace and live as a healed woman.

I love this story so much, BUT I have some questions.

I’ve always wondered if that word “daughter” – caused any pain as it surged through the parts of her that had been deprived of love and life for so long.

I wonder if it hurt to be healed even though it is what she wanted. 

Because sometimes it’s actually more comfortable to allow parts of ourselves to die than to feel them have new life, because then we have to face the pain of the whole truth. 

But mostly I wonder what her life looked like after that moment. 

Because 12 years is a long time and it’s not like there was some kind of re-entry program she could participate in. No half way house between clean and unclean.

I wonder if, for our sister the bleeding woman, there were times it actually felt more comfortable to cling to the identity of being unclean because at least it was familiar.

At least then she knew where she stood.

I wonder if there was an adjustment period for her before she could really live her new identity.

I say this because this week as I thought about her I also thought about how I spent the first three years of my sobriety trying to live the exact same life as before I got sober, just without the drugs and alcohol because I could not let go of who I was. Technically I was sober, but I was trying to live like I was still the same person…I was even copping dope for other people and not even taking a cut, because I could not cope with the idea of not being connected. It was terrifying to incorporate into my self-understanding the idea of being someone who no longer knew how to score. And leading the same life with the same people in the same scene and the same job and the same sleeping around with the same exact kind of people and being in the same room as people who were getting messed up – it ends up - that is a very painful life to lead without the benefit of intoxication.

The point being, I may have been sober and going to meetings for three years but I didn’t really get well until I could accept both who I had been and who I was becoming and accept any distance there was between the two. And ultimately, when the pain of trying to lead the same life when I was not the same person was acute enough, I became willing to re-think old ideas about myself.

Because at the time,  I desperately needed relief from a life in which I was impersonating an old version of myself. I needed to repent of all the ways I defined myself for so long. I don’t know why losing things that hurt me also causes me to hurt, but it does.

But on this path of God’s grace, what I have experienced is that anything I use to define who I am. . . and anything I use to define who everyone else is other than the gospel is going to be taken away and I’m going to hate it and it’s going to hurt. I wish I had something that sounded more cheerful than that, but I respect you too much to lie.

Because whatever it is that we don’t want to let go of:  status, fear, bad relationships, victimhood, political correctness, moral superiority, resentment…name your poison – whatever identities we think will keep us safe – aren’t safe at all they are just familiar and that’s not the same thing.

Because when these flimsy designations touch even the garment of God they fall away. And then Jesus looks us right in our eyes and tells us the truth when he declares, daughter you are well, go in peace and live as a healed woman.

Amen.

-- Nadia Bolz-Weber

Beautiful People Do Not Just Happen

3 Observations & A Question

Just because you have prepared for something doesn’t mean you don’t still have to go through it.

You really can trust the Spirit of God in another person — at the very least, consider the consequence when you don't....

Most of the time, we are operating out of how we prefer to engage the world…as opposed to how someone else prefers to.

It is really difficult to not always measure things in the terms of progress — what is wrong with contentment or simple existence?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Scotland could become first ‘rewilded’ nation—what does that mean?

At the end of the last ice age, Scotland was a truly wild place, where the Highland tiger, a distinctly banded wildcat, and the wolf, lynx, and bear roamed among Caledonian pine forests. The Romans called the country’s north “The Great Wood of Caledon.” But over time, humans purged the land for timber, charcoal, and agriculture. Native species such as wild boar, polecat, and elk vanished. By the turn of the 20th century, only 5 percent of Scotland’s land area was covered by forest.

Now the country is experiencing a zeitgeist moment for rewilding—in essence, the rebuilding of ecosystems to their natural uncultivated states—with new efforts and a matrix of wild lands and natural corridors spreading across the country. The actions of those responsible are aligning and, if successful, would make Scotland the first rewilded nation in the world.  Continue here....

-- Mike Maceacheran

For Who?

'Poem for the week' -- "For Who?":

When the heavens with stars are gleaming

   Like a diadem of light, 

And the moon’s pale rays are streaming, 

   Decking earth with radiance bright; 

When the autumn’s winds are sighing, 

   O’er the hill and o’er the lea, 

When the summer time is dying, 

   Wanderer, wilt thou think of me? 

When thy life is crowned with gladness, 

     And thy home with love is blest, 

Not one brow o’ercast with sadness, 

     Not one bosom of unrest—

When at eventide reclining, 

    At thy hearthstone gay and free, 

Think of one whose life is pining, 

    Breathe thou, love, a prayer for me. 

Should dark sorrows make thee languish, 

     Cause thy cheek to lose its hue, 

In the hour of deepest anguish, 

     Darling, then I’ll grieve with you. 

Though the night be dark and dreary, 

     And it seemeth long to thee, 

I would whisper, “be not weary;” 

   I would pray love, then, for thee. 

Well I know that in the future, 

    I may cherish naught of earth; 

Well I know that love needs nurture, 

    And it is of heavenly birth.

But though ocean waves may sever 

     I from thee, and thee from me, 

Still this constant heart will never, 

    Never cease to think of thee. 

-- Mary Weston Fordham

Recognition of Another Person's...

Love is really...a recognition of another person's integrity and truth.

-- Robert Graves

Good At, Interested In, Exposed To

Is it not the case that what we are good at is often a function of what we have most applied ourselves to?

And, is it not also the case that what we apply our self most to is largely a function of what we’re interested in? And, again generalizing, are not the things we are most interested related to something innate within us?

Assuming some type of progression in this particular sequencing, could we propose that it is our interests that gives us a clue to what we could most benefit from truly pursuing?

So, how does one identify their interests? Of course, there would be many paths to answer that question. But one of them, at the very least, might be that exposure to a variety of things and experiences create opportunity for those interests to be revealed.

I am mindful of some of the things that I love the most today are the same things that I was exposed to as a child. That is probably more than a coincidence. Not to say that if I had been exposed to something else, I automatically would be interested in those things instead of the things that I’m interested in now (though that is theoretically possible). Nonetheless, it is conspicuous that what I enjoy is a function of what I do and what I do is a function of what I’m interested in and what I’m interested in is often connected to what I’ve been exposed to.

It's not hard to notice that exposure to things often sets a number of things in motion. I've watched this in my own experience (as a child...and ever since), in my grand-children (see above), and in the stories of others.

So, what are the implications of such observations?

Finish here....

Insincerity

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

-- George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”

You don't have to stop very long these days to feel the resonance of this observation.

On the Lighter Side: Announcement

On the Lighter Side:

Tribune Content Agency

Stop Long Enough

Ever noticed...how much there is to see, if you stop long enough and stay in one spot to see all the things that are happening in that place? 

It’s almost like the faster and more we move, the less we can notice about what is, in any particular place. 

I wonder if that’s true about our sense-of-self as well….

While our culture rushes from one thing to the next thing and onto the next thing and never really stops, the wisdom of some other cultures fairly consistently seem to indicate that being still is a better way...to move.

Nice News: That's Just 4 Things

My 3yo said she wanted to be an astronaut, and I said she had to study hard, go to college, learn a lot of science, and take a physical fitness test, and she shrugged and said, "That's just 4 things." So she's basically a nonchalant motivational speaker.

-- jendziura, nicenews.com

Other Nice News....

Sabbath: We Are More Than We Produce

Instagram: richvillodas

We keep Sabbath not because it makes us more productive at work.  We keep it to resist the idol of productivity.

We are more than what we produce.

-- Rich Villodas

3 Observations & A Question

Sometimes you just have to live life long enough to know what it ISN'T about.

There is the need to say something and there is what needs to be said — both are needed.

When its leadership normalizes lying (especially programmatically), society pays a big price.

When will we know the full impact of a culture framed by constant competition (when winning and losing effectively translates to people being viewed primarily as winners and losers), or do we already?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

On The Lighter Side: Not The Man I Married

On the Lighter Side:

Herman by Jim Unger

Veterans Day

In 1926, Congress passed a resolution noting that since November 11, 1918, “marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed,” the anniversary of that date “should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”

Thank you for your service to preserve peace.

How You Do Anything

How you do anything is how you do everything. 

-- Zen Buddhist saying

Election Results

AP NEWS

AXIOS

Vote

...at the very least, consider the content AND assumptions (even if it's not your flavor of choice).  

We actually have to re-learn how to listen for the possibility of truth from POVs that aren't familiar to us— our unwillingness to do this collectively IS, in fact, lethal to our society.  We have to join the process, because "Why bother voting because it doesn't matter" can't help anyone.

Why does it seem like comedians are the ones who are more willing to speak the truth, while political leaders are more than willing to tell lies they don't even really believe (primarily just to get votes)?

Extend Gains

I’m wondering…about our apparent need to always extend gains.

In other words, when something is gained or achieved, we seem to have this expectation that it not only continue, but that it also should increase. And, it’s gotten to the point where it’s not just expected, it’s required. Nearly all success is expected to both continue and grow. If it doesn't, then we frame in terms of some kind of failure.

This seems true in our view of history, in sports, in business, in our jobs, in politics…even our religion seems to fall prey to this habit.

But, isn’t there a logical limit to this idea? Can everything, in other words, always be extended further? And, what comes along with that requirement or expectation?

Is there no reality left for the concept of dialectic, not to mention contentment? Or, is it always just more more more?

Too often, perhaps, we get things like drivenness and contentment caught in a binary-type function, rather than allowing for the possibility of there being both (especially over time). One at the expense of the other.

Does everything that is gained need to be perpetuated? Does everything that is gained need to be extended or advanced even further?

What about the idea that something has had a good run? It served its purpose. It’s time for something else.

…or, God forbid, someone else.

Cosmic Optimism Which Trusts

In the long run, violence does not achieve its own stated purposes, because it only deepens the bitterness on both sides. It leaves both sides in an endless and impossible cycle that cannot be stopped by itself. Instead, some neutralizing force must be inserted from outside to stop the cycle of violence and point us in a new direction.

Nonviolence relies on a kind of cosmic optimism which trusts that the universe/reality/God is finally and fully on the side of justice and truth. History does have a direction, meaning, and purpose. God is more fundamental than evil. Resurrection will have the final word, which is the very promise of the Jesus event. The eternal wind of the Spirit is with us. However, we should not be naïve; and we must understand that most people’s loyalties are with security, public image, and the comforts of the status quo.

We must not separate ourselves from the suffering of the world. When we’re close to those in pain, their need evokes love in us. Very few of us have the largess, the magnanimity to just decide to be loving. Someone has to ask it of us. We have to place ourselves in situations with people who are not like us, outside our systems of success and security, so we can read life from another perspective. The needs we witness will pull us toward love, toward generosity and compassion.

-- Richard Rohr

4 Observations (from Others)

It takes an entire community for us to feel whole.

-- Marisa Franco

Understanding, love, and respect build cohesive families and communities.

-- Jimmy Carter

Cultures of gratitude must also be cultures of reciprocity. Each person, human or no, is bound to every other in a reciprocal relationship. Just as all beings have a duty to me, I have a duty to them.

-- Robin Wall Kimmerer

We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and all around us, everywhere, anytime. 

-- Thich Nhat Hanh

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Only Thrive In Groups

 

Aspens are like people — they only thrive in groups, never alone.

-- Phil G., captured on the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway (Highway 92) in the Wasatch National Forest, Utah.

Give-Away Song

We collectively called them 'savages' (surely, some of them were; but, so are many of us...).  This poem acknowledges what many of them actually were, as opposed to how they were so often portrayed.  We can learn a lot from good people who have lived before us.

'Poem for the week' -- "Give-Away Song":

This is my give-away—

            not because I don’t want

                  it anymore,

            not because it’s out of

                  style or

                broken or

                useless since it lost

                its lid or one of its buttons,

            not because I don’t understand

                the “value” of things.

This is my give-away—

            because I have enough

                  to share with you

            because I have been given

                  so much

                    health love happiness

                    pain sorrow fear

            to share from the heart

            in a world where words can be

            meaningless when they come

            only from the head.

This is my give-way—

            to touch what is good in you

            with words your heart can hear

            like ripples from a pebble

            dropped in water

            moving outward growing

            wider touching others.

            You are strong.

            You are kind.

            You are beautiful.

This is my give-away.

     Wopida ye.   

          Wopida ye.

                Wopida ye.

-- Gwen Westerman

From the Author:

“‘Give-Away Song’ honors our Dakota value of generosity and sharing whatever we have with those around us. This poem is also a response to the missionaries and Indian agents who often reported that our ancestors did not know the value of things that the government provided them—blankets, flour, meat, food, tools, other supplies—and that when those goods were distributed, the people would immediately share with others who did not have as much as they did. But I think our ancestors did know exactly the value of things and that value only comes when you can share.”

Write the Sonnet Yourself

Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet:  you're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.

-- Madeleine L'Engle

Being Seen

I've noticed...that some days I don't feel very seen.  It's like I just exist between everything else and no one really notices.  On such days, I feel more like an idea (that someone may or may not remember) or a product (that performs certain things, especially the expected things) than I feel like a person.  It doesn't really matter what is happening to me or how I am feeling about life, about my life.  If I want to, I could make a fuss and require some kind of attention from others; otherwise it feels like no one would even notice.

I'm not saying I am alone with this feeling (that others don't feel the same thing), but it also seems that there is something in me that wants to mute what I am feeling by even making this observation (that others experience this, too).  The fact that we all may feel this, from time to time, isn't really the point, is it?

Invisibility is not a good feeling, but it is also likely not one that is as bad as it seems.  It may, in fact, create something — like space for us to consider what it is that we actually desire, not to mention the various and sundry ways we often go about procuring it.

In our age of social media, such compensating efforts can really create an equally false phenomenon.  Do we really need to draw attention to ourselves?  Or, is chasing that really an endlessly unsatisfying kind of futility.

What is it, then, that we really desire...besides being seen?

Manipulate or Inspire

There are only two ways to influence human behavior:  you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

-- Simon Sinek