God bless the Children of Syria

God bless the children of Syria,
who cry only for their world to go back together,
caring not for the ways of the world and who wins,
when everybody loses as rubble becomes their homes.

God bless the children of Syria,
who harbor no hate for anyone but hunger, oh
they hunger for more than food and what words
they lack to ask for what does not even rise as prayer.

God bless the children of Syria,
Forgive us this day our weapons of any kind,
that ravage more than a land or a people but pain
the soul that knows the void from people who don't care
for what really matters. 

Living the Grandma Moses Way

"I look out the window sometimes to seek the color of the shadows and the different greens in the trees, but when I get ready to pain, I just close my eyes and imagine a scene."

                                                  Grandma Moses

Anna Mary Robertson Moses became a cultural icon for American primitive folk art in her latter years and inspired countless people to live the fullness of their lives. She is best known for living with her eyes shut, imagining the scene and then painting it--whereas so many painters combine pictures or stand out on the site to paint plein air.  For Grandma Moses, aptly named by the press, she painted from the depths of her spirit, the eyes of her heart.  How many of us to start the day begin with our eyes closed to see afresh with spirit eyes?

Grandma Moses September 1860 to December 1961

Walk with a Rear View Mirror!

"I entered the deepest, darkest part of the woods where there was no trail."
     Dante, adapted from The Inferno








I felt like Dante today as I blazed what could be a trail for an Eagle Scout project--and there was no opening to begin it.  I just dove right in.  As I made my way, I could see the natural seam in the woods where a trail could go....with thanks to the deer who run through this area.  As I walked on--the woods became impenetrable.  Ever hear the expression--"Can't get there from here?"  So, I left the woods, backtracked the trail--and I drove to what is supposed to be the other entrance.  I started blazing from that end, winding through a lot of over-growth and poison ivy.  Time and again, after hanging up the long, yellow tape to mark the trail, I would look back and see how it could go in a straighter line with less work...still following the seam of the terrain.  Finally, I was far enough along that I could stop and watch for the yellow tape from the other trail.  There it was!  And I could curve this part of the trail to connect with it.

Thought I to myself--so much of life is a journey of taking account where you are. Take time to stop, look around and discover that without haste, there just may be a different way ahead by looking back.  Better yet, visualize what you believe the ending may be.  Approach where you are from that point and try to connect the trail from the other end.  We travel this life in such a short period of time.  Better do more than to stop and smell roses. Take an account of where you are and where you are trying to go.  Of course, as the Cat said to Alice--if it does not matter where you are trying to go, then any road will do!  

Among the Kennedy Graves

The Eternal Flame

I stood among the graves that cannot hold 
the Kennedy brothers,
a light for all three burns brighter than any
eternal flame.  
The world aglow because they lived to dare
the rest of us,
to find justice and live it wherever the world
breaks little ones.
The strong do what they will, said the wise 
Thucydides, while
the weal do what they must and seldom bear.  
The flame burns brightly,
for the fallen king with two simple crosses,
                                                                                        a trinity still living with us.

Grave of Edward M.  Kennedy

Grave of Robert F. Kennedy

Where have all the books gone?

Okay, who was it?  Somebody out there sent my wife a Kindle, or was it a Nook--you know, one of those contraptions that is taking books off the shelves and storing them electronically.  Just give me a hammer and I will smash it into pieces!

I had a vision the other night while standing in Barnes and Noble.  The place was transported into the future.  A sign hung on the door:  "antique shop."  People got to come and look at what used to be "books."

Why not?  Everything is being compressed and stored electronically.  So why not books and soon the bookstore will pass into extinction--except for those rare collectors.  It makes perfect sense.  I guess I am just not ready to change.  Oh, I made the jump to computers, memory sticks, cds and dvds--so why not the book?

For me, the book is tangible, a body of truth and experience one embraces--an incarnation, if you want to make something religious about it.  The Hebrews were known as the People of the Book; Episcopalians are people of the Prayer Book.  The People of the Nook--now that does not get it! 

And why not?  Look above at the picture.  Put a nook there instead of the book and see how that feels! 

Nevertheless--I had the vision.  Barnes and Nobel, the antique store, the books of a bygone era.  It makes sense alright.  I just hope I never live to see it! 

Throw Away Culture

Where have all the coke bottles gone?

Yes, you can still get coke in bottles--quite the novelty, alright.  Some of us are old enough to remember how the bottles would be collected, recycled by the company, and then sold again.  Bottle drives were the big thing for charities.  Now, look at the picture above and the plastic coke bottle.  Holds more, sells more, no need to recycle.  Done with it and just toss it. 

Now think about the culture in general--and it is more cost effective to toss than to repair things?  "Why bother to fix it when it is cheaper to get a brand new one?"  That includes the fancy Bose stereo in my car.  No point in fixing it.  Just get a new one. 

What does that say about us?  First, we don't make things to last--- there's built-in obsolescence.  We expect things to break. Second, that we a consumers to a high degree--we are "user-uppers."  Third, the bottom line is the profit, not expensive recycling for the environment.  There's no getting around the fact that we participate to some extent in all three levels. 

How do we reverse that?  Do we go green in other ways where we can?  Take advantage of recycling when possible?  That's a step in the right direction.  Reversing what is going on in the culture.  At least we can think and act locally by cultivating the environment we are working so hard at using up.

Reading the Real Signs

So I hopped on the metro subway, and a young woman sat down next me. A young man sat across the car in the opposing seat--and within seconds, they signing to each other (American Sign Language).  At the same time, a young man in his twenties sat one row back.  I could read his expression.  He looked interested and then amazed at the silent language.  First he looked at one person, and then at the other--back and forth his eyes went as if to try and see the expression and signing from the other person.  I wondered if he was only amazed at the use of the hands going so fast...or at the body language of the signers?  There was more in that body language than in the movement of the hands alone.  An excitment, a joy spoke loudly between them.  Over and over--Jesus railed at those who could judge but not read the signs of the times.  How about the "signs" in each other's faces, the language that is passed from one person to another through the body?  It is said that only 10% of the message is the literal content, some 35% is tone, and the rest is body language.  Do you suppose that those who sign their words actually speak more fully because of the body motion in their hands?  Never mind, I found myself engrossed in the young man watching the signing going on and wondered if he ever paid that much attention to a conversation--let alone any of us. 

Winslow Hoer's Inspiration

"The problem with mankind 

is that we cannot go into our rooms and be quiet."

Ron Eyre, The Long Search

The fireplace in Homer's cottage

In this room in his Prout's Neck (ME.) cottage, Winslow Homer retreated from the world and a universe opened before him. You can see his etchings in the window panes!  Here in the midst of wild roaring winters, the artist fired his creativity from living on the edge of the ocean. In this place--the sea as he experienced it, emerged from his brush.  

There is a sense in which we live with the ocean of life roaring around us---there is no virtual reality to the hustle and bustle of life rolling around us.  Yet, where is the room that we can go to, the crackle of the fire to stir the coals in us, to flame up what matters?  Could we paint it, describe it, smell it like the ocean?  

Too much to say that the death of any age is the disconnect between our lives and the natural world.  Faulker did come to that conclusion, however, and that may give us pause to go into our own rooms and sit quietly to see and experience worlds that open for us--which fire life. 

Awake to What's Important

The Ocean at Prouts Neck, Maine

I swore as soon as I saw this picture in the Smithsonian that it was Monhegan Island, Maine.  It only said "Maine Cliffs" without a location. These cliffs are so famous and painted so frequently that I figured it just had to be Monhegan. Then, and only later, did I see that it was an original Winslow Homer!  I overlooked the painter completely.

How often does my familiarity lead me to assumptions which overlook what is most important? 

TS Eliot warned that most of us walk through life asleep. He had good company in Jesus, Buddha, and even Voltaire.  However, and this is key--even if we are truly awake to the moment, what are we to focus on, look for?  I saw the picture, I was taken to a place in my imagination--"Why, I have been there, I said!"  And perhaps I had.  The artist captured the feel, the raw power, and the spirit of the ocean slamming the cliffs--by painting the particular detail (Prout's Neck, ME?) he caught the universal.  Could it be that the artist in us can awake to the detail in the particular and glimpse something of the universal?    William Blake certainly  saw this when he wrote:

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

                                          Auguries of Innocence

Ever heard of August Schellenberg?

"You must have something special, 

that's why Willy didn't eat you up. 

 Maybe high blood, medicine roots ... 

or you're just one lucky little white boy."

Randolph Johnson, Free Willy

August Schellenberg is the actor we know when we see him.  He died at his Dallas home from cancer at age 77. The Canadian actor loved his role as Sitting Bull in Crazy Horse; he also  played in Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee and all three of the Free Willy Movies.  He was the "foreigner" in Free Willy, the man set apart from status quo society. He spoke of his roots as half-Mohawk and Swiss--"Sounds like a sandwich," he used to laugh.  When he spoke, he was the truth-teller, the sage, and acted as the mentor for troubled boy, Jesse. We all need this kind of person in our world, a prophet who is not afraid to speak the truth."  My favorite quotation was when he told Jesse very calmly in an adult voice that "stealing a boat is piracy," and then added, "Let's do it for Willy."  The plot with its  struggle of the juvenile Jesse is a story of freedom for the boy as much as it is for Willy. After a long fight with cancer, Schellenberg struggled for and found his freedom from cancer. 
 

Awarded an Emmy

The Cure for A-Rod

The Cure:
Bypass Surgery for A-Rod

Okay, all of baseball seems to be on the outs with A-Rod--the Bronx Bummer.  They threw at him in Boston--but he also came back in the next at bat to blast the ball. So everyone wants to make a statement because the suspension won't go into immediate effect?  The evidence does seem enough to fill the stadium, doesn't it?  So instead of throwing at him, just walk him every time he comes up.  Bypass surgery!  By my count, he scored more by letting him hit.  And what better way for A-Rod to make news than the infamous "most walked ever player" bypassed by the judgment of his own peers.

Sure beats beaning the bum!  There is just something ignoble about sidelining the guy, taking the bat out of his hand, isn't there?  I hate to allude to Gandhi -- but ya know--that kind of passive, non-violent resistance would put the guy under the judgment of peers and in the book of bums.  There's just too much truth in the fact that when we throw at others, we hit ourselves. 

Trail of Life

I was driving out of the parking lot when I saw three fawns tracking after their mother.  Two of the fawns were larger than the third and speckled with white spots.  The third was a good bit smaller without the spots--completely different!  Apparently, it is very rare for a doe to give birth to triplets, but when it does happen, one of the three can be a "runt" of that litter.  Or, there is a high probability that the different one was adopted by the doe.  All I can tell you is that the thought never crossed my mind at the time.  I turned off the car and my spirit walked after them into the woods, the trail of life that beckons and goes on.  Do you suppose that is how the disciples felt when Jesus called them by the sea of Galilee...that irresitible tug at the spirit by Spirit that leads into life?

I will not wish thee riches, nor the glow of greatness, but that wherever you go some weary heart shall gladden at your smile, or shadowed life know sunshine for a while. And so your path shall be a track of light, like angels' footsteps passing through the night. Author Unknown

42! The Real Courage Within

Gandhi said it....
                     Jackie lived it!  

Yesterday's post heralded Gandhi's famous line that real strength is forgiveness...and that weakness is the inability to forgive.  In a very real way, Jackie Robinson in the movie 42 heard the same message from his coach played by Harrison Ford--"I want somebody with the courage NOT to fight back."  Coach was also speaking for himself--to find non-violent ways to assert justice by speaking power to powers.

The scene in which Coach talks of real courage

The good news of our lives is that we live by our scripts also....usually they are very old ones! We've always done it that way...can be the motto just as insidious as racism.  It is the blindness that fails to recognize the indifference to others, the pain intentionally meted out--because we do not have the courage to step out of our scripts and rewrite them.  Voltaire wrote that the unexamined life is not worth living.  Yet we do it all the time!  Aren't our lives worth the time to step back and consider the things we have "left undone and those things we should not have done" as the prayer says?  It takes courage from within for the cowardly lion within to roar in quiet ways of real courage. 

Ghandi & the Way Out

“The weak can never forgive. 

Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

Gandhi

I will never, ever forget that scene in the movie "Gandhi."  A Hindu comes to Gandhi and says, "I am in hell.  I smashed a baby against a wall.  He was a Muslim."  Gandhi replied without enunciation--"I know a way out. Find an orphan.  A Muslim...and raise him."   That's forgiveness by stepping into an other's world to care, really care!  I think this is what Gandhi meant when he said that "forgiveness is an attribute of the strong." 

Coping with more than Cancer

Dear Mr. God.....


Dear Mr. God,
I’m writin’ You today
Because it seems like lately
I’ve forgotten how to pray
I know I don’t need this pen
But everybody likes to get
A letter now and then
I’m sorry for not writin’ more

Chorus:
‘Cause I need you
But it’s hard to see
Why anyone as big as You
Needs anything from me
You know You’re there
So how ya been?
I’m alright but I can’t lie,
Sometimes I feel like givin’ in
You’re all I’ve got

Thank you Warren Brothers for this part of your song and for the rest of it!  From the motion picture, Letters to God, comes a wonderful story of the inspiring battle of 8 yr. old Tyler Doherty against cancer.  He demonstrates for me--completely outside of the good movie makers--that the journey through life is not intended to be a solo act.  Although at times, surely we must walk by ourselves, nevertheless, can't we invite others along the way?  For Tyler, this is God in his daily letters.  It's his act of faith to reach beyond tragedy that will end his life prematurely to the Life that opens the door for a new way of living NOW, in the midst of cancer.  As the soundtrack sings--"I am gonna live my life like I have a second chance."  And as such, Tyler does in fact get that new lease on life.  He writes a chapter with his letters that inspire others--especially the mailman, new to his neighborhood and more lost in alcohol than cancer. 

When the Silence Speaks....

 

What would you say is the pivotal point in Jesus' life?  Of course, there's the decision to go to Jerusalem and face the cross.  He mentioned that at least 3 times...until Peter tried to rewrite his script in his own way when Jesus had to tell the Satan in him to get behind him.  No, I think the pivotal choice was something he did so frequently---he went away to a "lonely place" to just be with his Father.  That daily choice formed the freedom to put the Satan behind himself who bargained right up to the point when Jesus hung on the cross.  The need to break away for solitude, to let ourselves be is precisely the time when the silence speaks and whispers the voice of God.  We clear the noise from, inside us.  We open the ears of our spirits to what the Spirit says.  

Maybe it is true what they say.  We cannot go away and lock ourselves in a room without wiring ourselves to some technology...the constant dinging that electronic world is breaking in on us.  Try the silent room technique.  Give the noise time to drain away.  See what fills the void.  That in itself speaks volumes....

Love that DVR!

 

Behold the TV….

Who is in charge?  The TV or the Operator?

It is so easy for me to plop down in front of the “tube,” what we called it growing up—and just surfing until you I hit something that takes me off to break the day.  It’s a distraction.  Sometimes it works!  Enter the remote control and DVR.  For one blessed moment, you can make an

intentional choice. 

Spell that with big letters to remember it as the opportunity for this age.  That remote and DVR can be used to get rid of the commercials and save a lot of precious time.  You can set up a series to follow in a sitting and watch the characters develop.  The point is that you can manage your time and should I even say this—“diet” of what you “eat” into your spirit. 

The peril of our age is that our technology sucks the very time of our life away.  We can begin to reach the “time of our lives” by making good choices about what we take into our spirits.  Remember what Jesus said—the real evil is what comes out of us.  Our choices…  And we cannot begin to even consider choices if we numb ourselves up with surfing

              that

                      washes

                                     us

                                            away…….

Perry Mason Never Loses!

The Secret of Perry Mason's Success,,,,

That's right....never known this guy to lose!  Poor Hamilton Burger the DA is on the losing end as the foil for the super attorney.

I wonder.  This series is set eons ago in a time in which the personal life was never portrayed.  The script was the work world.  The drama was the plot.  The point was to succeed, over and over again.  I mean, the poor guy gets ready to take a vacation and go fishing--just when the producer has another case drop in on him.  In our age, Mason and secretary Della Street would be going at it between court scenes.  Just think of the dramas today -- made for TV, made for you and me!

Now look at Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.  The bad guys sometimes get away....the officers screw up...a window opens on their personal lives and families.  They are writing for us today in our humanity--or as some have said, our tireless desire for voyeurism in the extreme to assure us that we are really okay,   It's not about success.  It is about survival.  Do you suppose the TV writers know us well enough to know our scripts?  Do we know ourselves well enough to recognize ourselves--and our spirits struggling sometimes just to be human, God's people who assures us he takes us as we are? 

A-Rod in Us...

Alex Rodriquez at News Conference

Sorry...
I have enough in my life to handle without commenting on A-Rod.  Toss a stone his way and it comes right back at me.  Grant him grace to deal with himself and his God--and that grace comes back to you.  Ages old formula--what you do to others, you do to yourself.  Learn to have compassion--instead of just judging (and it is rational....) "the jerk had it coming," and that same judgment is given to you not to blow it in your life.  If we are to befriend ourselves--better start with the way we judge others--even big league ball players who cannot buy the "wholeness" for the "holes" in the ego to set themselves up as their own god.  Opps!  Was that a judgment?  Or what I recognize in my self. 

Frederick Beuchner is a favorite author of mine--a Presbyterian minister, scholar, and author of many books.  But I met the guy in person.  And I shall never forget him saying this at the conference--:"The judgment you have for others is the acid in your own pocket."  I took that to mean--any judgment can be toxic, as we shout at TV news, newspapers, people who cut in front of us--hold onto it, and it eats through you like acid.  Turn it aside and you become lighter and buoyant, freed from what weighs you down and eats at you.  

The Deepest Thirst!

"Hey, want a bottle of water for the road?" 

We've had some brutal heat this summer mixed in with a lot of rain.  It's on the hot days that I always ask the mailman, the UPS person, the guy hired to cut the neighbor's yard--"hey, how about some water?"  One FEDEX person in particular looked like he hit an oasis! These people dash through through their tasks because they must meet a schedule.  Suddenly, somebody recognizes them as a person.  Let me tell you.  They already have found the living water that Jesus talks about.  In the deepest places of the spirit--we need to be recognized and affirmed to be reminded of our God given worth--made in God's image.  And by the way, I drank deeply also by offering the water and recognizing who was standing before me at the door.  "Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these--you have done it to me."  (Matt 25:40ff) 

Try it just once.

See what thirst it quenches in you!

Luke Skywalker & Handling Difficult Emotions

How many of us ever go through a car wash with the windows open?  I cannot think of a better image for being flooded by emotion than leaving the windows open while we go through a car wash,  Now granted---I am not saying we should not let ourselves "feel."  Even Luke Skywalker had to trust his feelings!  The point is that many of us don't know what to do when an event "floods" us with so much emotion that we are literally "awash."  So what are we to do?  How about trusting ourselves to let the flood wash over us--knowing it is only emotion.  That's difficult!  It means stepping outside of the car wash effect and pushing the button to turn off the machine.

I have been so favorably impressed by this new book---
 How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind by Pema Chödrön

Notice the key part of the title--"making friends with your mind."  It means that you do not let your emotions wash you away. You allow yourself to feel them, then to settle through breathing and focussing on something else, and once you resettle--then the event has passed (i.e. the machine is turned off --and you can step out of the event instead of being dragged around by it.  

For Chondron, the key is to realize that you are NOT your emotions and thoughts--they are like electricity that pass through you.  The point of meditation is to learn on a daily basis to separate yourself out from thoughts and emotions.  Trust yourself to let them go!  Sorry Skwalker--it is not to trust your feelings.  It is to trust yourself to let them pass through you while not possessing you.  

Luke had to trust himself to let the Force of emotion pass through him.

 

Superman from the Pulpit?

"It's A Bird ... It's A Plane ...It's Superman!”

Preaching from the Pulpit?  

Can you blame Warner Bros. for enlisting a special media marketer to promote its new Superman movie to special interests groups---including religious groups, including sending out stock "Superman Sermon Notes?"  This IS the way of promotion!  It was not different when other films came out like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.   Now, I have no problem whatsoever in finding analogies between films and faith--"this could mean that" and so forth.  But, if we compare them this way, then we must also point out stark contrasts.  In fact! I contend that the opposite is true--that Truth can be best seen in sharp contrasts.  In the same way that Isaiah proclaimed that "your thoughts are not my thoughts and my ways not your ways," so too can we use the media to identify what we do believe which Hollywood INC cannot possibly capture.  I mean--look at it seriously, do we wish to make the slightest comparison between superman and a God who flies around preventing tragedy?  Or, do we proclaim the God who pulls order out of chaos and life out of death?

The point is that small comparisons might oversell the larger themes.  Jesus as the "Man of Steel?"  Jesus as the "Super-Man?"  Really!  God becomes Jesus, fully human--not the "idealized type" because the fullness of God dwells in him, the human being.  So as the ancient professions says, "God come down to us to lift us up to God."  (Augustine)  He does not enter the human race as the master policeman to defend "truth, justice and the American way."  Jesus' sign is the cross and not powerful "S." 

Mark Twain Speaks from the Grave

Mark Twain Wisdom Speaks Today!

"This is what I need," said Mark Twain, "a good house fire. Then I have to make the choice exactly what to save.  There is no better way to know what you value."  There is one catch.  In this scenario, you know the house is on fire and you have time to actually grab something and run.  That was not the unfortunate case for the man (reported on CNN) who came home from vacation and found that his house had been mistakenly demolished by a wrecking crew.  That's right.  Nothing but a slab! 

Of course, by the time they interviewed this guy, he had time to recover from shock.  In a paraphrase, he said:  "Well, I have always wanted to rebuild the place and update everything.  The company has been more than apologetic by saying they will take care of everything."  I bet!  Perhaps a little inconvenience--but what a return on the investment!

But there is the wisdom of knowing what you value and building it into your life--before the house catches fire.  What do we weigh in the balance among so many things to live with--who and what do we live for?  That's the best part of a fire sale, a demolished home, any kind of loss--the grace to begin again with what really counts.

Oh yeah, what would you put in the scales of your values? 

The power of MIND-fullness!

What the Chipmunk said...

I stood out at the birdfeeder and poured in new seed.  Before I was done, out came a chipmunk foraging on the ground right beneath my feet. That tame?  Or was the lesson rather for me?  I stood there and just watched it gathering seed--the pouches on the side of its faces ballooned (like the one in this picture).  Then, as I stood there silently, the chipmunk said to me:

"Why are you racing around foraging for food?  Be still.  You will be fed.  Be still and breathe in your own air.  You will be refreshed."  Then for the first time, I understood the practice of MIND-fullness.  Not being full of your mind.  But directing your mind to focus on life and the living.  Not tearing off into the future.  No longer carrying the past.  But still, being still in that moment.  Controlling your thoughts.  Not being driven by them.  Most of us are full of our thoughts --and are dragged off into past or future.  It sucks away the present.  Our thoughts drag us back to the past---or into the future.  Peace comes when we direct ourselves to be WITH ourselves in the NOW.

How do we deal with thoughts that drag us back or forward iun time?  You have to first understand the heart of the problem….and that is what Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power of NOW, has helped me to learn.  The brain is your tool which you can direct.  You can direct it toward the past, present or future.  Or, you can get so sucked into the thoughts it generates that you BECOME your thoughts.  Like a runaway car, it speeds off with you.  You live in the illusion that you can no longer direct it.  

Take the movie Speed. They were strapped to a bus that would explode if they went below 50mph—and sooner or later, they would eventually run out of gas!  When our minds “speed,” we yield control to our brains—which should be the tool and not the driver,,,,the tool to conduct our thinking and living—not to drive our lives.  

Yesterday’s post said the same thing with the illustration of sofa and chairs.  You can CHOOSE the chair of the past, future or to sit on the sofa in the present – and be with yourself.  You can direct your thoughts. 

Certainly there are extreme conditions in which medication can slow the thought processes so you can stop the bus from “speeding” you.  The right medication can help you regain control to direct your thinking. How many drug themselves—not RX prescriptions—just to gain control of their thinking which lies at the heart of their worry, anxiety and fear?  

Exercise

• Clear your thoughts.
• Close your eyes.
• Listen to your breathing.
• Direct yourself, your thinking, to your breathing.
• Each time the thoughts stray—past or present—bring your thoughts back.  

The goal is to strengthen yourself to be in the present and be unhooked from past or future.  See how that feels to you.  Renewing?  Refreshing?  A breath of air from your own lungs.  

Advanced Problem Solving 301

Test Crash

What does it take to really problem solve?

Problem solving begins with the problem solver--YOU! Nothing is as important as preparing yourself by (1) letting go and sleeping on it, (2) learning to get a new vision of the same territory, and then (3)  estimating the impact of results.  It is this third area that we must get clearly in mind-- it is called the bias of anticipated results.  Tests show that we usually over-estimate the negative and underestimate the positive.  Look at the picture.  Exact testing gives the car manufacturer--or Consumer Reports--the precise impact which can be measured.  Our brains are conditioned by experience.  We are more than likely to anticipate and expect the negative than the positive.

For problem solving, this piece of information is invaluable.  Perhaps the real lesson is that we sometimes condition the results into self-fulfilling prophecies.  If we going into a problem thinking positively, then we may just prepare the ground and the way forward for positive results.

The point is that all problem solving in the most effective ways begins with the Problem Solver.  The most important question just may be:

"Do you really have a problem? 

Why is it a problem for you?" 

And then prepare yourself to work with it...

Give yourself time,  

Let go.  

Shape expectations positively. 

Problem Solving 201

 How often do we twist the knot of confusion into perfect misunderstanding?
                                                              Edna St. Vincent Millay


We can all recognize the face of frustration in others--the face that is twisted into knots--but what about us?  If we could catch ourselves in the midst of frustration and look into the mirror, would we even know the face in ourselves? 

As exaggerated as these pictures are...the point is that solution is in the problem.  If we actually stopped, went and looked at ourselves in the mirror--what would happen?  By the times you get to the mirror, you will have diverted your energy into an activity and settled yourself, rebooted yourself into a different mindset. Go ahead and try it.  Stop what you are doing, go find a mirror and look at yourself.  See what happens in just the little time it takes to divert yourself--and pardon the pun--by looking into the mirror, REFOCUS  yourself. 

So what is the difference--beside the obvious body language?  The energy is directed inwardly and there is centering, a focus--a unity in being instead of coming apart at the seams.  The point is that you cannot solve problems until you yourself prepare the place within to refocus yourself in a new relationship to the problem.  This is higher order preparation. You and the state of your being must come before any problem resolution.  Usually we do the opposite and tear ourselves apart instead of putting things back together in a new and creative unity. 

Problem Solving 101

 There was a young boy who was trying to find the land of forever.  Once there, he would always be content and at peace.  Now that's a tall order for people who are relentlessly trying to solve life as a problem in itself.  Finally, after years and years of speculating--and as the boy grew older--he let go of the problem, and then immediately a door appeared in front of him. The door was ajar, the light marked his pathway....
but the young man, just stood there and argued over whether this was the right door that he had wanted!  He made a problem out of the way forward.

Laden in that story is a primary problem solving step--dealing with ourselves, using our brain as a tool, and not allowing the emotions to override the mind.  I have been working with Richard Carlson's steps for problem solving. Would it surprise you as it did me that the fundamental step is first with ourselves?  We should create within ourselves, cultivate if you will, the space and place from which resolutions can germinate.  Once the young man let go of the problem, the door materialized, opened, and let in the light.  However, once the door (the solution) was tackled as the next problem, the door vanished before him.

 The step that Carlson talks about is "letting go of the problem, putting it on hold, letting it settle."  Two analogies come to my mind:  the first is the garden that needs time to cultivate, to grow, and to bear fruit.  The second is the rain storm which muddies the stream and takes time to clear so that you can see what is really there.  Both examples suggest that the more we work at something, the less proficient we become in solving it.  In a hurried up culture, wanting results and satisfaction--all too often we hold onto and magnify problems instead of letting it go -- and as Jesus spoke in his parable--allow the seeds to grow secretly. 
















I have have been working alot with Richard Carlson's problem solving steps--and to my surprise, he adds another dimension often missing in more technical books.  For example,

The Deepest Thirst

The other day, I watched a chipmunk scamper across the driveway followed by another chipmunk in hot pursuit of "catch me if you can." One chipmunk came to a screeching halt. And just on the edge of a puddle, paused, took a few sips of water and took off the rest of the way.  No matter the task, give the critter credit--he stopped for what he need the most--water to live.  Thought I to myself, how often do I stop for what quenches the deepest thirsts of the soul?  Granted you have to first acknowledge that a soul exists and then that it has a thirst.  It needs soul-care.

Look at this pictures.  What do they have in common?  Their lives depend on it.  Of course, one is at the physical level and the other the spiritual.  Needless to say, what happens to the human soul if we scurry around chasing each other like Chip & Dale in hot pursuit and we don't go to the water of life?

The prize winning author, Flannery O'Conner, wrote in A Habit of Being ,that "if the Holy Communion is just a symbol, then I say 'to hell with it.'"  I suppose that the chipmunk would have said the very same thing if it discovered that it was not water but something else. 

The Search!

My dog took me for a walk in the hot heat of the afternoon---and she knew enough to head for the woods.  Sorry Caesar "Dog Whisperer," I am very big on letting the dog explore on a long leash....and even make the pathway ahead for us.  She followed the stream bed and the humidity hung like clouds about us.  Just then, bounding out of the bed, two fawns dashed away for about 30 feet -- and then just stopped almost on cue together to look back at us.  The dog just stood still.  And though I could not see her, I felt the presence of their mother--there, unseen yet watching her offspring with their instinct for life.

Now, I don't know if she was really there. The twins looked young to be out on their own, and no doubt this was a late litter in the season.  But I do think that the primal connection with the mother is carried in us.  I felt that presence.  The fawns, in other words, evoked that sense of the mother's presence in me.  


Our neurologists remind us that there is a conditioning between the mother and fetus in utero. There is evidence to the degree that we maintain that connection after birth--the infant knowing the mother's voice.  I am after something far deeper. Camus and the whole existentialist school wrote about the search for connection once separated from our mothers.  John Paul II wrote that "we leave our mother's body and go in search of the Body you give us."  Namely--the Body of Christ.    Maybe we carry that sense of lost connection in us for which only the search for the Other will do. 

"We all flow from one fountain; - Soul. All are expressions of one love. God does not appear, and flow out, only from narrow chinks and round bored wells here and there in favored races and places, but He flows in grand undivided curents, shoreless and boundless over creeds and forms and all kinds of civilizations and peoples and beasts, saturating all and fountainizing all."
                                                                                   ~ John Muir ~

Dave Matthews Front Row Seats!

Dave Matthews

Do not neglect to show hospitality. 
Many of us entertain angels unawares.   Hebrrews                                               

The woman was trying to get to the Dave Matthews Band concert. She was running late, very late.  But, there by the side of the road was this guy in a beaten up car struggling with a flat tire.  So she stopped.  What many would not do, she put aside her pressing priority -- and she stopped.  Now, the story could end there and she would get points for heaven.  There is no payback for compassion but compassion itself.  Not so! The stranger on the side of the road was himself--you got it!--Dave Matthews!  Guess who got front row seats that night? 

Let's remember the story of the Good Samaritan.  Where was the payback?  Does the story end--and thus the man beaten by the robbers was the King's son and the Good Samaritan walked away rich?  Or, that the man was indeed the outcast as a Samaritan, and both men discovered who their neighbor was--and walked away healed, made whole by compassion?  You write your own story.