Something immense within,
a seed bursting its case,
a mother with child,
the only passenger
in the little boat
of your life,
a whole world’s worth
of divine love
pent up in you,
vast, given, swelling
with heat and beauty,
your own particular fire—
let it out
or it will sear you!
Let it out
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
Why Epiphanies Don’t Work | by Jacob Sokol
With no shortage of wisdom, biz-strategies, and life-advice, why aren’t we all already living the lives of our dreams?
Does the problem lie in our inability to find the right balance between *knowledge* acquisition and actual *implementation*?
Epiphanies can be life-altering, but in reality, most are short-lived and fade away within days or weeks.
So, how can we effectively translate epiphanies into lasting change?
In one of my all-time favorite interviews, that’s the exact question I asked moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt for our upcoming WTF Should I Do w/ My Life?! virtual conference.
What Jonathan shared was shocking…
Epiphanies are thrilling but they’re cheap. They fade away. And then months later, nothing ever happens.
Here’s a HUGE insight: Unless you change your *environment* or your *relationships*, change will not last.
This is why community is SO important. In order to utilize the information you’re learning, you need to make changes in your life that will allow you to sustain whatever insights you have. If you want to change yourself, change your peer group.
So, how can you stop hanging out with the knuckleheads and start hanging out with people you admire?
http://www.entheos.com/?c=3673
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.
Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be.
– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org/
After yesterday’s Boston Marathon bombings, people around the world are praying for this city, and the people affected by the violence. But don’t stop there: pray for the whole world. After all, it’s really the world’s marathon. I’ve been there near the finish line, surrounded by people of every nation. As the winner runs by, a crowd breaks out in the national anthem—of Kenya. I’m sure you noticed all the international flags in the news videos. It’s the whole world’s race. And today we’re a part of the whole world’s pain. We share the trauma and grief that much of the world lives in every day. This is not Boston’s unique pain. It is everyone’s. Pray for the the healing of the world.
People say, “Be strong.” We will, yes, we will. But the world does not need strength. What the world needs is kindness. The world needs people who have the courage to be gentle, even when those around them are full of rage and despair and violence, who refuse to join the world’s bitterness. The world needs people who choose love over fear. That’s the only thing that will actually change the world.
It’s not easy. Love is not quick, and does not produce immediate results. It’s a marathon. It takes dedication and training and a lot of commitment. It’s not for the faint-hearted. As Gandhi said, if you are too cowardly to be nonviolent, by all means take up arms to fight for justice. Love takes guts. It takes faith, confidence that a greater love is at work even when we cannot see it. And it takes patience, like a marathon — the willingness to go the distance, to keep at it when your body cries, “Quit!,” when your mind thinks of better things to do, when pain and weariness make you want to give up —it takes guts to keep going anyway. The Via Dolorsa is the toughest race. To share in the world’s pain and sadness, and still keep up hope and love — that is the world’s oldest marathon. The good news that we do not run alone. Nor do we run on our own energy: we are moved by the desire of God for the healing of the world.
Pray for those who are in pain today. Pray for the world, and for each of us, for the spirit of peace, for the courage to love in the face of fear and be gentle in the face of violence, for the guts to be part of the mending of the world. Pray for those who are hurting, for those who are afraid, for those who are in sorrow. Pray for all of us, that we may make gentle this wounded world. Even now the Lamb of God is moving among us, never giving up, keeping on with unflagging love and tenderness. Take heart, breathe deeply, and keep going.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
Brennan Manning
writing of grace
in his human broken frame
a ragamuffin
full if love and scars
he is now home with our Abba
God brought him to me
through Wyatt
in Florida
a weird and wonderful guy
who also brought me to
Henri Nouwen
and
John Eldridge
Wow!
that was a very strange and beneficial encounter
The words and calling
of Ruthless Trust
The Ragamuffin Gospel
the truth resounding
The Furious Love of God
Abba’s Child
The Wisdom of Tenderness
Above All
I read every word of his
I can get hold of
each echo in my heart
We are here to help each other
from one ragamuffin to another
Yes, he lived his calling
in a brave and wonderful way
finding intimacy and true relationship
through imperfection
just as I have
there is great joy in heaven
as he goes home
I am sure he is enjoying
the band greatly
4/13/13
The Road to New Beginnings
Completion
by Madisyn Taylor
Just as new beginnings are important, so is honoring the experience of closure.
Life is a collage of beginnings and endings that run together like still-wet paint. Yet before we can begin any new phase in life, we must sometimes first achieve closure to the current stage we are in. That’s because many of life’s experiences call for closure. Often, we cannot see the significance of an event or importance of a lesson until we have reached closure. Or, we may have completed a certain phase in life or path of learning and want to honor that ending. It is this sense of completion that frees us to open the door to new beginnings. Closure serves to tie up or sever loose ends, quiets the mind even when questions have been left unanswered, signifies the end of an experience, and acknowledges that a change has taken place.
The period of completion, rather than being just an act of finality, is also one of transition. When we seek closure, what we really want is an understanding of what has happened and an opportunity to derive what lessons we can from an experience. Without closure, there is no resolution and we are left to grieve, relive old memories to the point of frustration, or remain forever connected to people from our past. A sense of completion regarding a situation may also result when we accept that we have done our best. If you can’t officially achieve closure with someone, you can create completion by participating in a closure ritual. Write a farewell letter to that person and then burn your note during a ceremony. This ritual allows you to consciously honor and appreciate what has taken place between you and release the experience so you can move forward.
Closure can help you let go of feelings of anger or uncertainty regarding your past even as you honor your experience – whether good or bad – as a necessary step on your life’s path. Closure allows you to emotionally lay to rest issues and feelings that may be weighing down your spirit. When you create closure, you affirm that you have done what was needed, are wiser because of your experience, and are ready for whatever life wants to bring you next.
Developing self-esteem requires an act of revolution, or several mini-revolutions, in which we begin to separate from group thought and establish our own sense of authority. We may suddenly; realize we hold an opinion different from our family or our peers, but in either case we will have difficulty freeing ourselves from the group’s energy, whose strength depends upon numbers and opposition to most expressions of individuality The act of finding our own voice, even in mini-revolutions, is spiritually significant. Spiritual maturity is measured not by the sophistication of a person’s opinions, but by their genuineness and the courage necessary to express and maintain them. By courage, I do not mean the intractable stubbornness of two people locking horns, Spiritual maturity in contrast, is the capacity to stand one’s ground as a reflection of a genuine inner belief.
– Caroline Myss
Many of us go through getting what we “think” we want, only to see that it wasn’t what we were really asking for. I wanted to get Love from significance; it was a long and painful road that taught me that we get significance from being Loving.
This is why, “Thy will, not my will, be done” is such a powerful and potentially scary prayer to say. We have to let go of the ideas of how we will get the things we think we really want.
– Mastin Kipp
The Daily Love
thedailylove.com
I walked a mile to school today
In the snow
Uphill both ways
Not my favorite type of snow,
But still beautiful and exciting.
Wind gusts blew me around
Making me fight to keep my ground
Snow spitting in my face
Felt like salt or sand
I pulled my hat down and squinted
As I walked I sang the old hymn
The prayer of my heart
Open my eyes
That I may see
Glimpses of truth you have for me
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free
Silently now I wait for Thee
Ready my God
Thy will to see
Open my eyes
Illumine me
Savior divine
When I reached my school,
Branford River,
I grew silent and allowed my soul
To open to the beauty
the wonder
it continued as I walked my return path
returning
I felt again the birds flying above me yesterday
Free falling
Catching the wind
So graceful
and sure
and I realized my fear
the fear I had learned
Fear of falling
All my life
Taught I was clumsy
that I would crash if I tried
That I couldn’t fly
Couldn’t dance
my problem identified as
Not very graceful
What if that was not true?
What if?
I picture myself jumping from an airplane
Soaring like those birds
I float and fly
smoothly and gracefully in my head
then I dance
Gliding across the floor
with the man I love
and am surprised
I enjoy this feeling
of my grace
my freedom
School has been amazing today
You just never know
What you will learn in
God’s life class
3/7/13
I’m not a fan of pithy capitalized slogans presented as complete and helpful truths instead of mere titles. It’s not that “Live Your BIG Dreams” is an unworthy goal, (although I suspect dreams qualified as BIG in a extroverted consumer culture may not be in alignment with my values) but I always want to ask: What does that mean- look like, feel like, taste like- in one particular human life?
When my sons were small I was ill for many months. Mostly I laid on the living room carpet with these two wonderful beings in my care so I wouldn’t have far to fall and couldn’t drop anyone when I was momentarily dizzy. I didn’t need to Dream BIG. I need a bath and a twelve hour nap. I was overflowing with and soaked in love (and breast milk and spit-up and baby pee.) I needed to find ways to get groceries, do a load of laundry and calm my fears that I’d be incapacitated by illness and exhaustion forever.
Because I’ve been writing a book about choice, I’m particularly aware of how often “Choice” features in many popular slogans: Happiness Is A Choice; Love Is A Choice; Forgiveness Is A Choice; Gratitude Is A Choice. . . . the list is endless. Most often I want to ask: Is it? Is it in this moment for everyone? Is it always?
Now, I get the point of these snappy declarations- they’re trying to encourage us to make choices that result in and come from love and forgiveness and other good stuff. But even that gives them too much credit. They don’t say: “Making Choices That Cultivate Happiness Is (Often) An Option”- they say, “Happiness Is A Choice”- as if you could just give yourself a smack on the forehead and remember that you forgot to turn on the happiness faucet this morning. This is at best misleading and at worst a potential cause for increased suffering as it tempts us to believe that our or another’s unhappiness is actively and consciously “chosen” and therefore deserved.
In my work with individuals I often hear the “should” of inner and outer judgement planted by these sayings. People doing their best to deal with painful illnesses, trauma, and heart-breaking losses tell me again and again that they “should” be able to do better, be happier, to let go of fear, or sorrow and “get over” what is happening “faster.” It makes my heart ache to hear the coals of suffering heaped on top of what is often real pain.
Can we make choices that will cultivate fear or happiness?
Often, yes. And sometimes we’re swept along by pain, or grief, or fear, or unconscious material (which by definition isn’t accessible to choice until it is brought to consciousness.) Of course sometimes we can make choices- to do inner work, to be with those who support us, to ask for help, to take good care of ourselves- that will expand our ability to cultivate happiness, forgiveness and gratitude, make us more available to love. But the assertion that it’s just a matter of choosing to be a certain way can prompt us to shove experiences that don’t align with this assumption (our moments of feeling unhappy, unforgiving or ungrateful) into our unconscious where they shape and limit our choices without us even knowing it is happening.
It can be scary to simply sit with the fact that in any given moment real choices are shaped and sometimes limited by inner and outer conditions. Of course, conditions change- and we can actively choose to change or work toward changing many of them- and this can expand and deepen the real choices we have.
But, in the meantime (which is to say- while we’re still human beings) perhaps we could step away from pretending to know more than we can possibly know about another’s real available choices, can give each other and ourselves a little credit for doing the best we can with what we have to work with in this moment. In the next moment we may offer or be offered or make a choice that will give us or someone else more to work with, and we’ll do the best we can with that.
I’m just sayin’:
Not Pretending We Are In Complete & Conscious Control Of Absolutely EVERYTHING- Is A Choice!
Oriah (c) 2013
http://www.oriahmountaindreamer.com/
life: acoustic & amplified 