MATTER

Most things don’t matter.

Yes, some things do, 

and those things really matter!

But most of the things, especially

those that twist my psyche into a pretzel?

Well, they just don’t.

It’s just so easy to get confused

--and then stay there--

about what is and isn’t important. 

So, when it comes 

to the do’s and don'ts of matter, 

I turn to love.

It keeps asking me,

“What’s the loving thing to do?”

Besides, it helps me cull 

my wheat from my chaff, 

it motheringly chides me 

not to bother taking offense 

at every little thing my ego 

prods me to go ballistic over, 

and it smooths the grooves

of my oh-so-easily-ruffled feathers. 

So, I’m learning, slowly, yes,

but I’m learning, I can trust 

in the thrust of love. 

Plus, I like the friends 

that Love hangs with. 

Faith, soft and sweet, 

reminds me not to rely 

on my puny little self so I can see

my own bigger, brighter, bolder picture.

And Hope? Hope keeps me playing my life forward 

even when I get stuck in my own mud. 

No, most things really don’t matter

but Faith, Hope and Love?

Yes, these three.

They really do.

(Based on I Corinthians 13:13)

DEALING IN IMMENSITIES

All too often we humans deal in frivialities and trivialities.

But you, Source of our lives and our legacies, you deal in the immensities of boundless grace and peace, unfettered justice and mercy. We deal in days and hours, minutes and seconds. You deal in infinities and eternities. We deal in commodities and securities. You deal in faith and hope and love. We deal in microbiology and macro-economics. You deal in creating quarks and constellations. We deal in self-gratification and self-aggrandizement. You deal in care and compassion for all with whom we share this spherical home. We deal in violence and revenge. You deal in forgiveness and reconciliation, wellbeing and wholeness. We deal in inadequacies and idiosyncrasies. You deal in dignity and beauty, honor and truth.

Yet in your infinite wisdom, you are present not just among us. But also within us. We are made of you. And it shows. You shine within our humanity and reveal our divinity--the greatest immensity of all.

Thank you.

TODAY...AND EVERY DAY.

LET'S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET'S THINK THANKFULLY.

STANDING INVITATION

I am free, 

free to be,

free to be,

and be and be.

Won’t you come,

come with me,

come and be,

free with me.

Together we,

you and me,

we can help

the world to see,

just how free,

just how free,

just how free,

we all can be. 

“If you continue in my word, 

you are truly my disciples; 

and you will know the truth, 

and the truth will make you free.” 

John 8:31 NRSV Bible

JOY TO THE WORLD

You know by now one of my favorite topics is joy. It’s a prominent life theme for me. More than that, it’s my personal mission statement in just four words: BE JOY. BRING JOY.

I try to start (and sometimes restart) every moment of every minute, hour, and day with joy. Why? Because it’s the best attitude and feeling there is. Because in its purest form it’s unconditional. Because when I’m feeling joy, I’m feeling fantastic. It’s when I’m most resilient, most altruistic, most generous, most forgiving, most insightful, most aware, most enthusiastic, and most in touch with both my internal and external landscape. 

It’s when I’m at my personal best. It’s how I access my greatest creativity, make my best decisions, experience my deepest sense of wellbeing, feel my healthiest sense of control. It’s when I’m less likely to be controlling, manipulative, or egocentric (Well, a little!). 

In short, it’s when I’m most alive!

Can we “conjure up” the feeling of joy? Absolutely. Just like we manufacture any other feeling (love, hate, fear, anger, etc.)--often doing so with such finesse and frequency that we don’t even think about it. In fact, based on early childhood experiences and taught values, we learn certain emotions and clusters of emotions. We become so proficient at feeling them that, from an early age on, they become habit. For better...and worse. Once so, we no longer need to think in order to feel them. In fact, we need to mindfully think to NOT feel them!  

Often, we don’t even think about the fact that we can choose what we feel--and that we are doing so absolutely every waking minute of our lives. No, we just go there. Feel our feelings. Do them. And then they do--or undo--us.

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW WE FEEL.

FAVORITE QUOTE DAY

Something different today, friends.

I invite you to share one of your favorite quotes. It may have come from a famous person or from your grandmother--who may have been a famous person. Doesn’t matter. They have subtle but surprising transformative power in our thinking (and subsequent actions) because, like a good friend, we keep them close to our hearts and return to them again and again. Both in the moment we read them and for the rest of our lives they authentically change us. 

Here’s one of mine by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Finish every day and be done with it…You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. To-morrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” 

EVOLVE & EXPAND

We, along with every other species of plant or animal--and the universe itself, seem to be bound together in a singular mission: to evolve and expand. Barring the obvious, “We’re here. We like it. Let’s stick around!” even astrophysicists can only speculate as to why this seems to be the primal and primary purpose of all life forms.

Both historically and currently, we see evidence of this inherent drive at the individual and collective levels (persons, families, communities, corporations, governments, nations, religions). Some do it well and thrive. Some do not. Most lie somewhere in between.

Oddly, other than DNA, we don’t come with instructions. So, except for natural disasters (poor dinosaurs, Pompeians, etc.), it appears the “how” is up to us. (Maybe those ARE the instructions!) That is, each of us gets to decide how we’re going to help bring this mission to fruition.

THAT’S INCREDIBLE!

Here's a single question that can not only enable us to contribute to this grandest scheme of things. It can also help us connect with each other and the rest of the universe while doing so.

The question?  How can I personally evolve and expand in this situation, this opportunity, this crisis, this mistake, this relationship, this challenge, this failure, this success, this job, this endeavor, this niche, this debacle, this triumph, this disaster, this etc.?

Or if you prefer the short version . . . in this moment?

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE UNIVERSE AND OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S THINK ABOUT HOW WE CAN EVOLVE AND EXPAND.

OUTED

Today was a day they wished we’d stayed in bed,

But alas, we’d resolved to clean the garden shed.

“They,” four little furries sleeping peacefully hidden,

in between rakes, stakes, mower and midden.

The first one I outed made for the door.

The second took a dive down a hole in the floor.

The third one, God only knows where it landed,

when it leapt from the box which I had been handed,

‘cause the box, too, took flight. Yes, I freaked. What a sight!

But really, can you blame me when I had such a fright?

Besides, who knew they could scurry so fast! 

When clearly, at stake was their sorry little ass.

While the remains of this day soon become history,

the whereabouts of that last vermin linger in mystery.

As I reckon where that little beady-eye wanders

The tippy tip tip of my frontal lobe ponders;

if we humans keep choosing our fight or flight brain,

as a species we can’t help but go down the drain.

But enough for now, time to quit all my gritchin’,

I just got word, there’s a mouse in the kitchen.

GREAT MINDS THINK . . . DIFFERENTLY

Great minds (e.g. Aristotle, Madame Curie, Mozart, Catherine the Great, Einstein) don’t typically think in the same loops that most of us do. They think deeper down, higher up, farther out, further in. The one thing they don’t do is think alike.

More importantly, great minds think differently--THAN THEY PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT--that is, they are continuously observing, questioning, exploring and expanding. They don’t just let go of time-honored ways of thinking. They leave behind currently accepted norms and conventions. In other words, they push out their what-if’s. Then push some more.

We often think that such people have bigger, better, brawnier brains than ours. And it’s true--sometimes! But even the greatest minds must approach thought with the same curiosity, openness and humility as we do. Seldom do they change the world with a single magnificent break-through idea--and never ex nihilo. Rather, it’s the organic consequence of a lifelong practice of thinking differently.

How we think determines how we see the world--and more importantly, ourselves--in it. How we think is the basis upon which all religion, philosophy, science, technology, medicine and mathematics--indeed, nations and empires are built. It’s responsible for every discovery, every breakthrough, every advancement throughout history. It determines how we respond to anything and everything that happens to us--regardless of our age, circumstances or station in life. It determines not only how happy or sad, joyful or mad we are in any given moment. It also decides how small or great a contribution we make throughout our lifetime. 

No, great minds don’t think alike. . . but small ones often do.

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK.