differences #2

I discovered the difference between the Northwest and the Southwest.

Northwest has a Starbucks on every corner.

In the Southwest every corner has a bank.

No kidding.

history

‎

We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men.

Edward R. Murrow

What do I do when I come face to face with my fear?

I wish I could say that I don't feel it...but I do. Just because I have the feeling, however, doesn't mean that I have to act on it.

Sure, there are time when my reptile brain takes over and I react without having the opportunity to think at all. Except for those moments, having a feeling--any feeling--doesn't require a particular action. I still have choice. My inner experience is mine alone. What I choose to bring into the world? That has the potential to affect everyone in my path.

What are you choosing today?

bitterness

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Being able to taste bitterness is important. Bitter herbs can heal.

Living in bitterness creates misery. I have known (up close and personal) people who reside there. Not only are they miserable, but there is danger of contagion if one stays too close for too long.

Yes, it is tempting to go there sometimes. And sometimes, pure grace sweetens the path.

differences

So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

JFK

Seeing differences without judgment seems to me to be a sign of maturity. Different. Not better than. Not worse than. Just different.

I love the concept of sitting "with grace and acceptance." I may not like it, but it is what it is. I may not be able to change it either. Acceptance and grace are stepping stones to peace. We don't all have to be the same for peace to reign.

every moment is a moment of grace

I express to you my deepest gratitude. No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.

Elie Wiesel

I keep being reminded that my word for the year is grace. I decided to look it up this evening and found from only one source that grace has at least 20 definitions.

My favorite is this: "the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them."

What's your favorite? I wish that for you.

love thursday 08.26.10 ~ keep on trying

I find that it is better to love badly and faultily than not to try and love at all. God does not have to have perfect instruments, and the Holy One can use our feeble and faltering attempts at love and transform them. My task is to keep on trying to love, to be faithful in my continuing attempt, not necessarily to be successful. The quality of my love may well be the most important element of my spiritual guidance.

Morton T. Kelsey

from his book Companions on the Inner Way

"Badly" and "faultily"...?

Love counts. When we do the best we can, that's what matters.

May you know Love today.

grateful

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

Albert Schweitzer

For those in my life who are kind...

...generous...

...thoughtful...

...caring...

...patient...

...willing to share what you know, as well as what you have...

Thank you.

productive

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

FDR

I continue to be so productive I can hardly stand myself. Making lists. Completing the tasks. Checking them off.

Yes!

summer list

Projects I have completed this summer:

• replaced sprinkler valves
• built a worm bin
• built a shoe cubby for the closet
• installed a composting kitty litter toilet
• assembled a book on blurb.com
  

Ah...the life of the urban farmer!

How about you? Tell me about a project you've finished.

older...not up

I'm growing older but not up
My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck
So let the winds of change blow over my head
I'd rather die while I'm living then live while I'm dead

Jimmy Buffett

take a lesson....

choose faith

To choose what is difficult all one’s days, as if it were easy, that is faith.

W.H. Auden

from For the Time Being

Faith is not always difficult. Some days it rolls off the edge of my mind just like breathing. Other days...not so much.

You see, I don't really like surprises and faith is all about not knowing--not seeing.

Another stretch. Another challenge. I guess it separates the sheep and the goats.

love thursday 08.19.10 ~ compassionate business

There is a common perception that compassion is, if not actually an impediment, at least irrelevant to professional life. Personally, I would argue that not only is it relevant, but that when compassion is lacking, our activities are in danger of becoming destructive. This is because when we ignore the question of the impact our actions have on others' well-being, inevitably we end up hurting them.

HH Dalai Lama

One thing all businesses have in common: People. Whether customers, employees, or owners, every business is made up of interpersonal interactions. If we do not bring compassion to those relationships, the potential for hurt or harm is great.

Will we make mistakes and hurt each other anyway? Sure. Humans do that on occasion even when the best of intentions abide as the rule. However, if we are known as compassionate beings, when the anomaly happens there is room for understanding, forgiveness, and relationship repair.

When we bring compassion and respect to all of our interactions, there is much more latitude for success. With compassion and respect as the groundwork, much greater yield is possible--on all levels.

...when we ignore the question of the impact our actions have on others' well-being, inevitably we end up hurting them.

Actions include how we use our words--tone of voice, comments, speech, written communication. Consider the ripple. Start with compassion.

open hands

To create this new society, we must present outstretched and friendly hands, without hatred and rancor, even as we show great determination and never waver in the defense of truth and justice. Because we know that we cannot sow seeds with clenched fists. To sow we must open our hands.

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

Argentinian human rights activist, from his Nobel Lecture

aging gracefully

"Except for the dying part, getting older is so fabulous, I love it....everybody I know is better older. They are more relaxed, they're more mellow, they're more alert as friends, they have a confidence....You really do acquire a kind of 'I don't give a damn' about what people think, which is so liberating. I love this age now."

Candice Bergen

The quote above and the quote below come from a newsletter I received from Dr. Zur. I love the part about how our brains continue developing into our 50s and 60s. Hope. I am always looking for hope.

• Ms. Bergen is right: Older people are happier, more positive, have better emotional control, and are less concerned about peer pressure.
• While rats develop 5,000 to 10,000 new hippocampal neurons every day, whether the neurons survive depends on whether the rats do challenging tasks (such as complex mazes or difficult discriminations).
  
• Your brain improves nerve cell transmission with increased myelination though your fifties or sixties, and thus continues to develop.
• In middle age, people start making more use of both sides of their brains (bilateralization).
• With aging, people tend to place less value on achievement and novelty and more value on relationships and experiences.
• Air traffic controllers, aged 53-64, perform as well as controllers aged 20-27 (Canadian controllers had to be used for the research, as U.S. controllers are required to retire at 55).
• Since 1984, disability rates, as measured by the ability to perform activities of daily living, have been declining 1.5% to 2.5% a year. Thus, seniors are staying healthier longer.

dream big

Some of my dreams are so big they would scare you!

Dolly Parton

happy birthday, so

you are the light and love of my life,

the designer and keeper of our gardens.

i am so glad you are still here

on this planet

with me

making life worthwhile.

may you be blessed

and loved

without measure.

oh, come on...

You've gotta be shittin' me!

Whose paycheck are these scientists receiving?

we're waiting....

The time will come when wealth will be redistributed, when the workers of the world will once again unite -- standing for economic justice -- for a world where we can all have enough to live fully and well.

bell hooks

from her book Where We Stand

love thursday 08.12.10 ~ people matter