Work Doesn't Work

Work doesn't work without play.

-- Shonda Rhimes

Musculature for Grief

Ever noticed…how little musculature we have as a society for grief?

And, we can’t figure out why we’re so anxious….

Among other things, we don’t want to take the time to grieve — opting, in effect, for retribution and revenge instead.

We even elect leaders who will do that for us now.

Let’s stop blaming them and look in the mirror.

Through Friendships

It was only later, through friendships with Christian men and women who truly embody the spirit of understanding and compassion of Jesus, that I have been able to touch the depths of Christianity.  

-- Thich Nhat Hanh

Be honest — what of Christ has really impacted you outside the context of deep Christian friendship?  We aren’t changed by information (theology) as much as we think.

It is in relationships that reality is embodied, where truth is experienced…where Christ is truly revealed.

3 Observations & A Question

Prayer, for me, is increasingly like on-going dialogue.

Good power seems to be far less something that you have than it is something you access.

Ultimately, we have to accept that healing is something we can't rush.

In a number of ways, isn’t a warrior mentality primarily juvenile in nature (if not in substance)?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Options for the future

From Michiana Chronicles: 

We stood on the beach skipping stones into Lake Michigan, the Beach House Blowout at our backs. A steady wind in our faces, rolling waves singing across the pebbled apron at Indiana Dunes State Park. 

A timeless and irreplaceable jewel, this day stretched out in lazy solitude under a white-blue sky. Across the lake, at 10 o’clock, silhouette stalks of the Loop on the horizon. 

But then a disorienting sound – faint but closing fast and now exploding everywhere all at once. The heavy thwap of helicopter rotors, dozens of them, the swelling, deafening sounds of violins, trumpets, French horns! 

From behind the dunes they burst over the trees – ancient, olive drab Hueys – so close we could see the faces of the door gunners, the glint off pilots’ aviators. 

This howling swarm moved in a menacing...continue here.

-- Brett McNeil

Our Conscience

My longer posts each week seem to rotate between something happening in the world around us (more often political stuff lately) and something more sublime (why do we have to force ourselves away from our media-diet of controversy (which we say we hate, but do we really? — after all, we all know by now that we actively perpetuate it…).  Given that cadence, I guess it's time for...the former (ugh).

Honestly, I've not been immune from what the sucking-us-down has been doing to all of us.  It does, ironically, seem conspiratorial (conspiring against us).  How do we engage, and not stick our head in the sand (pretending what is happening isn't), without becoming incapacitated by it all?

The range and depth of issues is confounding; impossible to both enumerate or itemize.  Why should we even have to?  But, what happens if we don't (maybe the exact opposite of what we tend to think; but, who knows?)?

It’s like watching a ship take on water.  But, you feel it a little differently if you’re on that ship.  You feel stupid, angry, and most of all…helpless. “Do something!” we scream (at ourselves in the mirror).  We know panic doesn’t help, but we’re increasingly desperate for an effective alternative.  And, if we’re honest, we all have this sinking feeling that we’re aiding-and-abetting things somehow. 

How does one, then, resist what truly needs to be resisted?  We don’t know how, in part, because we still haven’t collectively re-agreed on the what.  So, what should be resisted?  We need a better answer than the easy one of simply saying, “the other side”.

We have to find out though.  We must find a way to identify it.  The ship is going down and we’re going with it.  Our very survival is being pressed now into differentiating between a basic understanding of what is good and bad and what is being co-opted as being so (yet another horrifying example here…yes, go ahead, add 1 more thing to the controversy column).  In other words, we are having to rediscover what really is at the core of our individual and collective conscience.  Perhaps the silver-lining is that this is long overdue...and is now happening (or starting to).  What do we really want collectively?  What do we really need collectively?

Our resistance is not predicated on how likely it will be to alter the conscience of the oppressor. We resist to retain our own conscience. And to awaken all others who are still in possession of their own souls.  

-- Cole Arthur Riley

Loyalty To

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world — and never will.

-- Mark Twain

Smartest Person In The Room

The smartest person in the room, I’ve learned, is usually the person who knows how to tap into the intelligence of every person in the room.

-- Scott Kelly

AI

I’m wondering…about AI — mostly about where meaning and morality fits in (or doesn’t).  

Just because LLM’s can make new connections to an unfathomable degree and at an unprecedented rate doesn’t mean that they're real (or substantive).  None of this happens without a rate of an investment that we’ve never seen before.  Investment is predicated on the possibility of return.  Perhaps we need to evaluate more carefully what that return actually is — we are, after all, funding this through our societal choices.

Too often, we throw up our hands on such things and say, in effect, “but what can we do about it?”  Well, other societies aren’t caving in as easily.  They are doing something about it, by getting at the values they have as a group.  So, why aren’t we?

Just because you can make money at something, doesn't mean you should.  Sometimes I wonder how much our love of money has stunted our growth and development as a society (no to mention as individuals).  

Many of our leaders have just caved in to our appetite for consumption, regardless of the implications.  Given the amount of money involved now, is AI just one more example?

Small, Dark, and Negligible

While I am looking for something large, bright, and unmistakably holy, God slips something small, dark, and apparently negligible in my pocket.  

-- Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark

4 Observations (from Others)

A crowded mind leaves no space for a peaceful heart. 

-- Christine Evangelou

It is more important to find the truth than it is to know the truth. 

-- John Cleese

If something is true, no matter who said it, it is always from the Holy Spirit. 

 -- Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate

If the truth will set us free, why are we so committed to trying to control for it?

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Wealth Transfer

The Wall Street Journal explained that there were 927 American billionaires in 2020 and 1,135 in 2024. Together, they are worth about $5.7 trillion. The 100 richest of the set control more than half of the total at about $3.86 trillion. As the number of billionaires grew, “supply side” economic policies in the U.S., designed to concentrate wealth at the top of the economy among investors rather than on the “demand side” made up of consumers, hollowed out the middle class. From 1975 to 2018, at least $50 trillion moved from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. 

-- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

On The Lighter Side: Dead Yet?

 On the Lighter Side:

Stars, Love, God

I looked up early this morning at the still nighting sky.  

The stars were stunning.

I was reminded that they always are and that the only thing that really changes is my perception of them.  They're sitting there all the time; shining or doing their thing (whatever that is).

Invariably now, when I put myself in a position to see them and then contemplate their significance, my thoughts drift towards…love.  Is that cultural conditioning?  Or, is that something innately existential?  Many have debated the question over time.  So, if nothing else, I'm not the first to wonder about it (not to mention what really changes whatever I end up concluding?).

Something (Someone?) put such things in place, even as the nature of their 'place' is always evolving.  The span of time involved so far exceeds both my experience and understanding of it, my conclusions are somewhat irrelevant (at least on that scale).  It makes a lot of sense (even beyond rationality) to me that such a thing means something.  The traditions of understanding that nature is the primal representation of spirituality is not hard for me to accept (even if I tend to forget it at times).

Further, the connection between nature and that Being described as love does not feel inappropriate or even a stretch.  It would seem that Being would have a motive when creating something beautiful — true at both human and divine levels, isn't it?  A motive to do that would be what we might characterize as...loving.  The meaning involved would seem to necessitate communication;  portrayal, offering, invitation, acceptance.  

Doesn't nature seem to do this?  Obviously, there are deviations from a constant state of this (how else can you fit things like earthquakes or other 'natural' disasters into this equation of understanding?).  But, the overall pattern seems to be beauty, harmony, inter-relatedness, dependence, care, respect, work, enjoyment...and on and on.  This all could be described in a variety of ways (and has been), but it holds water for me to also describe it as love.

I'm going to a funeral today.  Why (am I going)?  

I suspect it is related to all this because the life lived, in the context above, was caught up in the meaning of this beauty.  He tried to capture it.  He wanted to embody it.  Many benefitted because of it; we were drawn into each of the three dimensions I'm describing here.  Nature, love, God.  I want to honor that and the person who was involved and who lives on, despite his physical passing.

Perhaps my body lifted my head this morning (usually I'm looking down, trying to avoid falling in the dark).  Perhaps it said something like, see what persists (and surrounds) in all the living and dying we do on this earth.  Notice it.  Appreciate it.  Perpetuate it.

Nature does it, in my opinion, because it represents Something (God) who does it, so that we can do it, too.  

Better To Hope

In all things, it is better to hope than to despair.

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Good Life

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.

-- Carl Rogers

Physical Activity

I've noticed...physical activity helps orient me to my emotions.

3 Ways Seeking ‘Awe’ Is The Secret To A Sharper Mind—By A Psychologist

Imagine standing at the edge of a vast canyon, gazing at the endless expanse of stars in the night sky or hearing a piece of music that moves you to tears. In these moments, something remarkable happens—you feel humbled and uplifted. This powerful emotion, known as “awe” has the ability to shift your perspective and awaken a sense of wonder about life itself.

Fortunately, awe is not only reserved for life’s grand events. It can be found in the mundane, like in the kindness of a stranger or the laughter of a loved one.

As Dacher Keltner suggests in his book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, this emotion offers far more than a pleasant, fleeting experience—it holds the potential to profoundly shape our mental and physical well-being.

What you might not realize is that awe also brings significant cognitive benefits that can positively impact your brain function and how you interact with the world. From enhancing creativity to improving decision-making, awe has the unique ability to sharpen our minds and transform the way we think.  Continue here….

-- Mark Travers

3 Observations & A Question

A long enough walk can resolve surprisingly many things.   

Seeing and doing are not the same thing — though each can contribute to the other. 

A lot of American masculinity is toxic; not the least of which is evidenced by the claim of that masculinity that it is femininity that is toxic.

When will we again see that our personal well-being is only as good as our collective well-being — that we’re only in this together?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Correlation & Causation

So, how about we just ignore science altogether and systematically undermine public confidence…unbelievable.

Soften Into What Is

I am continually challenged to stop arguing with reality and instead soften into what is. Over time, I learned to find beauty, meaning, and wholeness in the heart of reality. Unpredictable, ever-changing, humiliating, and humbling reality. 

-- Mirabai Starr

“Anything I Want…”

I have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States.

-- Donald Trump, this week

In honor of the many freedoms I enjoy, I would like to fly the American flag, like I used to. 

However (assuming anyone even noticed), I’m afraid that would be completely misunderstood..  As much as I would like it to be about patriotism, the community I live in would tend to read it, especially right now, as nationalism.

There is a distinction between patriotism and nationalism. 

And, I think it's pretty obvious who is leveraging the difference — someone who doesn't care about the distinction in the first place and believes he can do anything he wants...to anything (and to anyone).

This piece was not intended to be a mantra about the virtues of patriotism or diatribe against nationalism (though both are certainly needed).  It is about the vagaries of arrogance or, even worse, conceit.

The degree of meddling in all aspects of society is not only stunning, it is deeply disturbing.  Is this what a President is (not to mention, should be)?  I think we have another word for it. 

"Oh, he's just a businessman" seems to be the favored retort.  No, I don't think so.  He is far more than that.  An attempt to itemize that detail would stunt our senses (and certainly truncate the reading here).  He is dragging our collective down, hoping we won't notice (or get too excited) until it is too late.  

Historically, there has only been one thing that can stop this kind of power-grab — the people.  

Will we?  Or, are we just done with freedom as a broad concept for people other than those who happen to share my experience of it?

Typically, I recognize and resist the urge for simple ranting.  The harder part nearly always is what to do about it.  What is needed is now so vast, that more often than not, we just feel overwhelmed and don't do much of anything.  But, how bad will it have to get before we do something?  I'm afraid we are finding out.  If it hasn't hit home yet, perhaps we just need to wait a little longer until the loyalty spot-light shines more fully on us, too...and whether we are flying the flag or not. 

If only it could look more like this....

My Sensitivity

I happen to know that my sensitivity is my strength.

-- Hannah Gadsby

Do you know yours?

Question Yourself

Question yourself, yes, but don't doubt yourself.  There's a difference.

-- Charmaine Wilkerson

How Much Changes

Ever noticed…how much changes when you are aware of how and why you matter?

Sense of Astonishment

In the end, what I’m supposed to walk away with from reading the Christian Scriptures is a sense of astonishment about God’s love. If they’re not coming across as astonishing, then I need to take another run at it.  

-- Carmen Acevedo Butcher

3 Observations & A Question

Sometimes the stories are as important as the truth they represent.

 

You have to take ownership of your own health — it’s not somebody else’s job. 

What feels good and what is good are not always the same thing — the trick is to find out what is both.

Whatever happened to the question, "Can you tell me more about that?"?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

“Nope” - More MAHA Conspiracy

Sufficient

'Poem for the week' -- "Sufficient":   

Citron, pomegranate,

     Apricot, and peach,

  Flutter of apple-blows

     Whiter than the snow,

  Filling the silence

     With their leafy speech,

  Budding and blooming

     Down row after row.

Breaths of blown spices,

     Which the meadows yield,

  Blossoms broad-petaled,

     Starry buds and small;

  Gold of the hill-sides,

     Purple of the field,

  Waft to my nostrils

     Their fragrance, one and all.

Birds in the tree-tops,

     Birds that fill the air,

  Trilling, piping, singing,

     In their merry moods, —

  Gold wing and brown wing,

     Flitting here and here,

  To the coo and chirrup

     Of their downy broods.

What grace has summer

     Better that can suit?

  What gift can autumn

     Bring us more to please?

  Red of blown roses,

     Mellow tints of fruit,

  Never can be fairer,

     Sweeter than are these

-- Ina Donna Coolbrith

Chaos and Isolation

How chaotic does the world seem to you right now?

How about in your own life — how chaotic does it feel?

Where does this lead you? Do you feel like you just want to isolate yourself from it all?

I know people who try to literally move away from what they feel is chaotic — to insulate themselves from the outside world. . It feels like an almost natural response (after all, why would you want to stay in chaos?). But, moving away from it doesn’t really deal with it, it is mostly just an attempt to avoid it, often with only short-term effect.

When I am disrupted by something, I feel like moving away from it. Others respond in the opposite way, they confront it. Disruption is not always a bad thing. But, chaos usually is, especially when it is persistent.

Chaos makes you feel like something is out of control. It makes you feel like you have to do something about it — that you can't handle it, if you don't.

Chaos disables connection.

Chaos enables isolation.

Isolation enables the impacts of chaos. It is an attempt to control it, when in fact it actually contributes to perpetuating it.

Even in its most legitimate form, isolation is simply a method to reposition how one enters the chaos. And, sometimes that is needed. But, isolation is mostly ineffective and, in the long run, an illusion.

Working on something collectively (together) is often the greatest antidote to chaos.

Going it alone, whether at a personal or national level, betrays a fundamental flaw in one’s understanding of what it means to be in a healthy relationship with the dialectic of order and chaos. Isolation only tips the scale further away from a more constructive and healthy engagement with chaos in life.

We should be both aware of and vigilant against, then, those who use chaos to divide and isolate us. Ironically, chaos when use this way is even more about power at times than order is (which can also at times feel just as heavy handed).

Disruption is one thing. Monetized chaos is another.

Given what and how these things work, we need to come together.

Nor A Problem To Be Solved

The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved; it is a reality to be experienced.

-- J.J. van der Leeuw

A Compass

Curiosity isn't random; it's a compass. 

The single most effective habit is the willingness to change your own mind. 

-- Shane Parrish

Entertaining Ourselves

I’m wondering…if we’re entertaining ourselves to death.

Your Diet

3 Observations & A Question

Few things are quite like ‘live’ experience.

Stories crack us open — your story gives me access to mine.

There are 100s of things (1000s?) that pull us in different directions — the key is to find what best centers us.

Is it just me or are we all just refining our working conclusions and summary judgments?  

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

UPDATED: Why you might not know that 2024 was America's safest year since the 1960s

An overwhelming majority of Americans, 64 percent, believe that crime increased across the country in 2024, according to a Gallup survey conducted late last year. An overwhelming majority of Americans are wrong.

On Tuesday, August 5, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its comprehensive report on crime in the United States for 2024. As crime data expert Jeff Asher noted, not only did the report reveal that overall crime was down substantially in 2024, but crime "fell in 2024 across every category and population group." Specifically, it "was down in all seven categories of crime across all 10 population groups that the FBI measures."

Moreover, the new FBI data shows that both violent crime and property crime are at their lowest level since the 1960s. Continue here....

-- Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby

These stats, by the way, are also (verifiably) true in Washington DC.

Largely a belief issue and I think we all know why:

The Trump administration takes a very Orwellian turn 

At some point, the overwhelming evidence of what Trump is trying to do is at odds with the general purposes of government (debate can still be made, of course, about the extent of those purposes).

Why do we have government anyway and how has it evolved? A refresher on some of the evolution / role of government might be of use…here.

Opportunity To Do New Things

There is always opportunity to do new things.

I heard someone reflect once that they’re always learning new things. Other people have described some of these people as always needing to learn new things.

For me, the opportunity to do new things and the need to do so are not exactly the same thing. The latter often seems to come from a kind of drivenness. The former, comes from something more like curiosity.

Few things move me towards a sullen resignation or depression more than drivenness. Drivenness (again for me) leads to resentment. I don’t feel free under the clasp of drivenness. Opportunity, on the other hand, feels more free because it is like a beckoning. It’s like something is calling and offering an invitation. I have the freedom to decline or accept the invitation. Something about the posture of invitation allows for self-regulation and choice.

Needing opportunity stymies something in me. An invitation feels more like “Come if you want to, but you don’t have to.” I find this context for opportunity to make a lot of difference for me. I don’t have to do something. I get to do something…again, if I want to.

This can put me in a slightly different kind of bind, because it forces me to acknowledge (and address) what I want. Obligation is dismissive of what I want. It doesn’t care. Perhaps, this is why I am drawn to opportunity in one context and not in the other.

All of this can happen on the smallest and simplest of levels.

If I have to mow the grass, I invariably head towards the notion of “damn it, here’s just one more thing I have to do”. It leads me to feeling like a victim. But, if I say, I get to mow the grass, I get dropped off at the door of something closer to “so, how do I want to do it? Do I want make straight lines today? Do I want to use angles? Or, do I want to put a funky curve in the pattern? If I get to mow the grass, I get to ask how do I want to mow it? If I have to mow the grass, I fall towards a sullenness because of all the things that something is making me do.

At a more sublime level, when facing something that feels new or hard (or both), framing the question as something that I get to do provides me with more agency to ask how do I want to do that thing. Again, freedom.

In a relational context, obligation leads me towards thinking that this is just one more thing that I have to get right or figure out so that you won’t be upset with me. In the other frame, I am free to explore why you, as another person, feel the way you do. You may say that your problem is with me. And, that may be true. Or, it may not be (me) and that would be something you need to discover. I get to listen to you enables the opportunity to find out which it is. Doing it from the point of view of obligation makes me not want to find out (even if it turns out that I’m not the problem).

Many times this distinction seems to pivot on my interest in and perception of the potential outcome. More often than we would like to admit, we seem to let the potential outcome dictate to our interest in proceeding. This is pretty normal, actually. But, it can also be insidious. It can change our view of the smallest of things, not to mention the largest of things. It’s not bad to consider potential outcomes. But, managing for them often is, especially in the context of opportunities. On the one hand, this is one more thing I have to do. On the other hand, this is one more thing I get to do. One has freedom and agency aimed in an open-ended direction. The other does not; it shuts down those things.

Often, in writing, it is easier (than in other modes of communication) to go back to the beginning and confirm whether or not where you started is supported by where you headed. So, in this case, I return to my opening line.

There is always opportunity to do new things.

It seems strikingly non-committal, especially in light of where it ended up. That may not be a bad thing. I wasn’t sure, initially, how much I liked the thought. Having parsed it a bit, I feel some affection for where such an unfreighted statement could lead.

I think now I have a little more to work with as I face the opportunities in my life.

Hack Away

It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease.  Hack away at the inessentials.

-- Bruce Lee

Barely Know He Exists

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. 

-- Laozi

Experiencing Nature

I've noticed...that experiencing nature is not simply a luxury or leisure — it is a necessity.

Love Mercy

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. 

   And what does the Lord require of you? 

To act justly and to love mercy 

   and to walk humbly with your God. 

-- Micah 6:8 

Why do so many Christians seem not only uninterested in mercy (not to mention, love it), but actually seem to ridicule those who need it? 

I’m assuming you have noticed that the mysterious merger of justice and mercy can only occur in the context of humility….

The pain in your electric bill could be AI’s fault

Energy costs are rising this summer, and it’s not entirely because you’re sitting in front of your air conditioner for 16 hours a day wondering why people prefer this season over winter.

No, it’s mostly due to the prevalence of AI data centers, the power-sucking buildings that allow users to ask generative AI bots like Grok if something is true:

• PJM Interconnection provides electricity to 13 states and Washington, DC, and is considered a bellwether for the rest of the US.
• Its customers are seeing a spike in energy bills as high as 20% this summer. The boom in AI data centers is the main culprit.

Why are residents paying for Big Tech’s power needs? PJM conducts a yearly capacity auction, during which utilities in the states it serves pay to ensure they have enough power to cover peak usage days. Last year, capacity prices at auction rose by 833%, and the impact is now being felt. An independent monitor attributed three-quarters of those increases, which are eventually passed onto customers, to the demand from existing (and impending) data centers.  Continue here....

-- Dave Lozo

3 Observations & A Question

We tend to think about what we see around us — the converse is also true.

We already know the first couple of things we need to do — to move towards where we want (or need) to be. 

The more we do something, the better we tend to get at it.

Everything is subordinate to the sovereignty of something else — we do know that, right?

 

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

On The Lighter Side: Second Breakfast

On the Lighter Side:

Change: The Lens of Growth

Change can be viewed less on a spectrum of acceptance (or rejection) than on a spectrum of growth (non-growth).

So many of us right now are concerned about change — both the content of it and rate of it. To many, it feels unfamiliar, out of control, and difficult to determine what to use to keep their bearings. There is something instinctual that makes us want to reign it in, slow it down, find a basis to evaluate what parts of it are ok and what parts aren't. The waterfall of the information involved is overwhelming — it feels like we're drowning...in something.

When this kind of thing happens, people will often try to get back to something — to the basics they might say. One way we often do this is to try to break things down into simple parts. Often, into binaries. This or that. One or the other. Keep it or toss it. People try to figure out what things to work with and what things not to.

Often this takes on personal dimensions pretty quickly. And, for some reason, it seems easy to make things about acceptance (or rejection). In other words, if I make choices, I am making them on the basis of whether they are good or bad. I need a frame to sort with and often I end up using labels (like good or bad) to reinforce why I am making choices the way I do.

This, of course, is mostly a method to simplify the process. But, it also is about defending it (either to ourselves or to someone else).

Invariably, though, it also becomes about whether or not I perceive that you accept me for my choices. Somewhat amazingly, we get all the way from uncertainty about the nature of change to whether or not you accept (or reject) me. At the very least, this dynamic is not very helpful in general, but in particular with our relationship with change. Change happens regardless. Our sense of acceptance from other people is almost entirely another matter.

What if, then, we could move this frame of thinking to a different one. What if, rather than a matter of acceptance, change is really more about growth?

It kind of is anyway, isn't it? Will I adapt and grow with an evolving reality? If there is one thing that humans do, it is that — they adapt. Any even cursory review of history will reveal that not only does this happen, it has to happen. The conditions of our surroundings (manmade or otherwise) have always influenced what humans do, where they live, how they think about their relationship with it. This, by the way, is not isolated to human beings. All living things, in fact, do this over time.

If I am willing to grow (change), I can often not only survive, but also thrive. I can be enriched by the growth that comes from change and become more capable of working with it and contributing to my life and the life of others. If I am not willing to grow, though, I become stuck and, to some degree, incapable of making much contribution to reality.

It is easy (for most) to see the importance of growth in young people — they need to grow and develop in order to become fully functioning and healthy adults. We accept that. What we don't often see as easily is the need to continue to do so; just because we have reached a certain size or age doesn't mean that our growth should stop. When this happens, we call it wisdom. The dimensionality of our growth continues to expand in all directions and we become increasingly capable of guiding others into the same process.

So, what if change could be more intentionally viewed through a lens of growth?

The Amount of Work Is The Same

We either make ourselves, miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.

-- Carlos Castaneda

Need To Slow Down

The body has such intense, innate wisdom and intuition, but we need to slow down to be able to hear it.

-- Casey Means, MD

Degree of Distortion

Ever noticed…we all have (and maintain) a degree of distortion in our perception of things?

Living and Healthy Tradition

I think what we are all really seeking is a living and healthy tradition, something that isn’t just about words or arguments, but that is about life in all its fullness and about deep, deep love—a love for this earth, a love for each other, and a love for God who we experience both within us and all around us.  

-- Brian McLaren

4 Observations (from Others)

Talk to yourself as you would someone you love.

-- Brené Brown

I hope you heal from the things that no one ever apologized for.

-- Jet Carado

Let courage be your teacher.

-- Morgan Harper Nichols

Real wisdom does not merely cause us to know:  it makes us “be” in a different way.

-- Pierre Hadot

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

To Break a Bad Habit and Create a New One, Neuroscience Says Just Make One Simple Change

I like to think I’m fairly disciplined. I can sit and write all day. I can do mundane physical tasks for even longer. (My superpower, if I have one, is the ability to perform mindless manual labor for hours.)

But I’m also prone to rabbit-holing. I can look for a research study to support a premise, shift to finding a quote from someone famous to back it up … and somehow find myself watching Anatoly prank unwitting gym-goers.

Did I decide to watch a silly video? Yes and no.

While we may think we make a lot of decisions throughout the day (and we do), we don’t make nearly as many as we think. A study published in Society for Personality and Social Psychology shows approximately 40 percent of the things we do aren’t based on decisions.

Instead, they’re habits.

And some, like finding myself watching videos I didn’t intend to watch, are bad habits.  Continue here....

-- Jeff Haden

Bad Things

For all my particular complexities, I’m a rather simple guy — I try to keep bad things from happening (especially things that are close to home, around me, or involving those I love).  This is probably not too far off of what a normal human being would do.

But, more often than I like, I can’t do it — I can’t prevent bad things from happening.  I’m just not that powerful (in fact, against the broader backdrop of our collective existence, what I often feel is more like powerlessness).  Sometimes I forget that.  And, when I do, I get pretty tangled up…quickly.

That’s what I am today — tangled up.

This meditation touches on some of the cords involved and the dynamic related to the mess of it:

Father Richard Rohr explores how getting in touch with our grief allows us to transform our anger:

Anybody who’s on the edge, disadvantaged in some way, or barred from a position of hegemony or power will naturally understand the tears of the prophets, with their gut-level knowledge of systemic evil, cultural sin, and group illusion. Black Americans might have seen white people act nice or speak of human equality, for example, but they knew we lived behind a collective lie. Collective greed is killing America today. We make everything about money—everything—and injustices like these will naturally leave us exasperated and ultimately sad. How can we look at the suffering taking place in Gaza, Ukraine, or Sudan and be anything but sad? It’s sad beyond words or concepts. Only the body can know. 

I recently turned eighty and the older I get, the more it feels like I must forgive almost everything for not being perfect, or as I first wanted or needed it to be. This is true of Christianity, the United States, politics in general, and most of all myself. Remember, if we do not transform our pain and egoic anger, we will always transmit it in another form. This transformation is the supreme work of all true spirituality and spiritual communities. Those communities offer us a place where our sadness and rage can be refined into human sympathy and active compassion. 

Forgiveness of reality—including tragic reality—is the heart of the matter. All things cry for forgiveness in their imperfection, their incompleteness, their woundedness, their constant movement toward death. Mere rage or resentment will not change any of these realities. Tears often will, though: first by changing the one who weeps, and then by moving any who draw near to the weeping. Somehow, the prophets knew, the soul must weep to be a soul at all. 

Spiritual teacher Mirabai Starr describes the compassion that can arise as we experience both our anger and our grief: 

Anger is a natural response when we let the pain of the world into our hearts. It is not the only appropriate response, of course. However, when we can welcome the fire of the Prophets into our own lives, we tap into the true nature of righteousness and draw the vigor necessary to step up in service to that which is greater than ourselves. We remember our essential interconnectedness with all that is and we are motivated to act on the impulse to protect the web of inter-being with all our might.  

Personal and planetary grief are inextricable. Our encounter with the manifold losses that characterize the human experience can till the soil of our hearts so that we are more available to the suffering of other beings and the earth we share. When we have been broken, we recognize the brokenness around us and compassion naturally grows. Sorrow can be paralyzing at first, but compassion, which can sometimes take the form of anger, is a wellspring that offers infinite sustenance. 

Into A Better Shape

I have been bent and broken, but — I hope — into a better shape.

-- Charles Dickens

Inner Peace

Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.  

-- Dalai Lama