I am always grateful to my readers who
offer me inspiration as I work my way through this A to Z blogging challenge.
My friend Jerry suggested I blog about opinions because everyone has one. His
reason reminded me of what my wife Zoe says about opinions, which is actually a
line from the 1988 movie The Dead Pool.
“Opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one and everyone thinks everyone
else’s stinks.”
The dictionary defines opinion as “a belief or judgment
that rests on grounds insufficient to produce
complete certainty” and “a personal view, attitude,
or appraisal."
Opinions are not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. They are simply what
one personally believes. Some people change their opinion on something over
time. However, sometimes opinions become so ingrained in our psyche that they
are no longer an opinion, but a belief. If enough people hold the same opinion,
it can evolve into a belief system.
Read moreThe aspects of one’s spiritual life my readers suggest I blog on
always intrigue me. The N words suggested for this week’s blog included
negligence, negativity, naïve, and nonjudgmental. I was very tempted to write
about being nonjudgmental as it is something I have been working on in my own
life. It has assisted me with being impeccable with my thoughts and words. However,
negativity seemed to beg me to look at it, especially as I strive to be
intentional about being positive at all times and in all situations. The reality,
however, is that there are memories from my past which do not always elicit the
most positive of reactions. Perhaps it also intrigued me because we tend to, in
this culture, think about negativity, or negative energy, as the polar opposite
to positive attitude or energy. However, they are both parts of our lives and
are interrelated and connected.
Read moreA few weeks ago, I wrote a blog called I
is for Impeccabilis. It was all about being impeccable with one’s words,
thought, actions, and energy. The more we become impeccable in our lives, the
less likely we are to practice mal-intent. Mal-intent is when we are not
impeccable with our words. It is when we say or do something with the purpose
of harming or hurting one’s self or others. Talking about mal-intent is not
quite the same as talking about being impeccable.
Read moreA
few weeks ago, a colleague posted the above picture on Facebook. It generated a
thoughtful and insightful discussion of ladders. We talked about how the ladder
is not just a place on which we ascend, but also a place on which sometimes we
must descend. We each climb our spiritual ladder at our own pace. Rabbi
Elimelech, a Hasidic mystic, taught that if a person wishes to rise higher in their
spiritual journey, they must have mastered the character traits of their lower
level. He taught that a wise person would first test the safety of the rungs of
the ladder to ensure they are whole and intact, so that you could return to
them at any point if need be. All too often, we focus on the ascension as
positive and think of descending as negative. However, there are some very
healthy reasons for returning to a lower rung on the ladder. For example, sometimes
we just were not ready for the next rung. Sometimes we have something we need
to let go of before we can move forward.
Read moreSome words are easier to use than explain. Kindness is one
of them. I recognize an act of kindness when I am the recipient of one, but
trying to explain it has been difficult. It is not so much what someone has
done that makes it feel like kindness, but the context in which it happens. For
example, when I was still able to drive and had my own car, friends would swing
by and pick me up so we could go do something together, I never thought twice
about them doing that. It was just something we did for each other. Now that I
can no longer drive and I have lost my paratransit services, when my friends
offer to come take me and my manual wheelchair so I can go somewhere with them,
I experience the effects of their act of kindness. In a poem called Kindness by
Naomi Shihah Nye,[1] she explains
that kindness is an inherent part of who we are. We become kind and gain an
understanding of kindness when we understand what it is to have been in that
space of deep sorrow and loss.
Nye, Naomi Shihah (1995). Words Under the
Words: Selected Poems, Portland,
OR: Far Corner Books.
Read moreWhen I was in seminary, Dr. Gail
Ricciuti, my homiletics professor, told me about a book by J Ruth Gendler called
The Book of Qualities. It has since
become one of my favorite books, in part because she has helped me to
understand human qualities, such as jealousy, in new ways and enabled me to put
a very different human face on them. She wrote this about jealousy,
Jealousy stands by the blue flame of
the gas stove stirring obsession stew. In his mind he is tearing people limb
from limb. He wears a shirt that is almost in style with it odd angular shapes
and bright edges. He can be quite charming when he wants to be. He certainly
has a flair for drama. After a while though, the roles jealousy takes begin to
seem shallow, dishonest, repetitive. The more upset he feels, the more loudly
he denies it. For a time I stopped giving parties because he wouldn’t come if I
invited certain people. At that point, I couldn’t give a party without inviting
him, and I was unwilling to censor my guest list for his sake. He is quite capable
of showing up anywhere unexpected, uninvited, unwelcome.
Read moreImpeccabilis is Latin for impeccable which means not to sin.
The first agreement in Toltec Wisdom is to “be impeccable with your word.” So
what exactly does that mean? To be impeccable with one’s word is not just the
verbal or spoken word, but also those that float through your mind. It means we
are mindful of what we think about others, the universe, and ourselves.
Being
impeccable with one’s word is not easy.
Read moreMost of us know that the heart is the organ,
which pumps blood through the circulatory system. They are also a symbol of love,
which you often find on Valentine’s Day cards and are the shape of candies that
people give each other on that day, at least in the United States. However, the
heart I have been thinking about today is not a physical heart or a material
heart, but the spiritual state of being which enables love to flow through our
mind, body, and soul. It is that state of being which enables love to flow in
us and through our interactions with others.
Several years ago, a dear friend underwent
open-heart surgery. She needed it to fix the disease, which had physically
damaged her heart. Recently, I had a conversation with an acquaintance who
suggested she needed open heart surgery because she had experienced so much
wounding and hurt that she no longer trusted herself or others.
Read more“If
the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” –
Meister Eckhart
Gratitude
is more then an attitude, it is a way of being. It is a spiritual practice,
which has been shown to have significant impacts on the quality of one’s life.
Two psychologists,
Michael
McCollough of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Robert
Emmons of the University of California at Davis, wrote an article about an
experiment they conducted on gratitude and its impact on well-being. The study
split several hundred people into three different groups and all of the
participants were asked to keep daily diaries. The first group kept a diary of
the events that occurred during the day without being told specifically to
write about either good or bad things; the second group was told to record
their unpleasant experiences; and the last group was instructed to make a daily
list of things for which they were grateful. The results of the study indicated
that daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness,
enthusiasm, determination, optimism, and energy. In addition, those in the gratitude group experienced less
depression and stress, were more likely to help others, exercised more
regularly, and made greater progress toward achieving personal goals.
Read moreI was looking at the image on our website's homepage and the fog, which hovered over the water and the mountains, caught my
attention. The fog seemed heavier in some spots then others. As a result, I could
see the details in some areas more then others. It reminded me of when I was
driving through fog and I could barely see what was ahead of me. However, as I moved
through the fog in faith, a few feet at a time, I always reached my
destination. Sometimes I had to slow down and focus on being mindful of where I
was and what I could see, but I made it through.
Read moreThis might seem like a strange way to begin my first blog
for this New Year, but empty for me is an awesome space to be at in my life. I
am not talking about the stressful kind of empty like when you run out of gas
on the highway because you did not realize your gas tank was empty. Nor am I talking
about that space when you may feel like you are running on empty because you
have no energy left in your life. Nor am I talking about how you feel like your
life is empty of love, life, and meaning, although that too would be a great
focus for a reflection. Rather, I am talking about this state of happiness and bliss,
which comes when one is empty, and in need of nothing.
Read moreI woke up this morning wondering whether to reflect on destiny or devotion as they both resonated with my spirit for different reasons. However, the more I reflected on the word destiny, the more it drew me in and made me realize I was destined to write about destiny on the day I celebrate the 11 year anniversary of the woman I was destined to share my life with.
Talking about destiny is not as easy as it seems. One of the challenges I found was in how to define it. The definitions I found in dictionaries often times used destiny interchangeably with fate, as if they are the same thing. Fate is about all that was decided before we are incarnated. Destiny is about our participation in our life and how we respond to what arises in our life. Do we make the best of our lives regardless of what situations we encounter?
Read moreIt is not as if I have not written about compassion before. I have done so a couple of times in Compassion and Courage’s Friend: Compassion. However, I felt inspired to reflect on this spiritual value again for two reasons: the holiday season and the recent tragedies globally involving the deaths of children and adults. The recent tragedies at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and at the Chenpeng Village Primary School in the Henan province of China[1] have begun conversations about weapon control and addressing mental health issues domestically and globally. These are the topics most frequently addressed by the media and on social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter, surrounding these and similar tragic events in our world.
Read moreThis week I was blessed with a number of B words to consider as inspiration for this week’s blog. Those included bread, body, blessings, bologna, and breathe. No offense to the one who recommended bologna, however, short of bringing back memories of fried bologna sandwiches from my childhood it left me short of inspiration. Although I did feel blessed when my mother would make them and I would take a deep breath between each bite and give thanks for what was then a very special treat in my life. The others left me with memories of topics I have blogged on recently, or at least in the last few years. For example, there were the blogs Breathe before speaking, Breath, Baked to Perfection, and To the love of my life.
What I believe about bread, body, blessings, bologna, or breathing is only true for me and only if I agree that it is true.
Read moreLately, others have invited me to participate in some interesting blogging challenges. This week was no different. For the next 26 weeks, I will be blogging my way through the alphabet. When I asked some of our Facebook and Twitter followers for some A words as inspiration for this week’s blog, you offered me appreciation, awareness, agreements, attitude, asparagus, and anchovies, in no specific order. While the last two might seem a stretch in terms of this particular reflection, the more I thought about these letter words, the more I realize that they were, in their own unique way, related.
One of our followers suggested the word appreciation because she said she appreciated everything Inspiritual does for our readers, members, and followers. While we too appreciated the feedback, I realized that being able to be grateful and appreciate someone else’s actions, words, or behaviors was in part about awareness and attitude. If one is not have an attitude of gratitude about the blessings in one’s life, then one cannot appreciate the fullness and richness of those blessings.
Read moreFor the last several months, in our newsletter, I have been writing about the metamorphosis type transitions we undergo when we are faced with a major life transition. Metamorphosis is not easy, not simple, and the process is filled with challenges. Metamorphosis is the process a caterpillar undergoes, as it becomes a butterfly. Metamorphosis is not about being a caterpillar or a butterfly, but the journey from caterpillar to butterfly. Metamorphosis brings about a dramatic change in character or appearance of those who go through it. Metamorphosis is about evolution. It is about rebirth. It is about transformation. It is about conversion. It is about making corrections at any point in time in your life. It is about remolding, realigning, and readjusting to what the Divine is calling you to become next in your life. It is about the willingness to take quantum leaps in your life and make total changes, often times radical and sudden. Are you ready?
Read moreThere are those moments in life where what you are feeling transcends description. I have yet to discover an English word, which would capture the depth and essence of what I feel at these moments. It is in my attempts to describe those moments that I am reminded of how limited language can be. Sometimes I cease trying to find the perfect word, assuming that it either does not exist or when I am meant to know it, it will find it’s way to me. It was quite by accident, that I stumbled upon the Yugen while on stumbleupon. According to the site, Yūgen means “an awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious for words.” As I read the definition of this word, a wave of peace, exhilaration, and recognition moved through my body, mind, and spirit. I recognized this feeling quite well. The last time I experienced this was when I was seeking the word to describe my purpose in life and found the word Antevasin while reading Eat, Pray, Love.
Read moreOne of my favorite books for the longest time was Robert Fulghum’s book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. In it, there was a list of important life lessons he learned in kindergarten. Number 11 “Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
When one was in kindergarten, it seemed easy for most people I know to lead a balanced life. We went to kindergarten, learned and thought about things like the alphabet and big and little letters. We would spend time in school and after school, playing and creating games or stories with our friends or by ourselves.
Read moreAs human beings, we are all prone to struggle with things; most of our struggles are of our own making. We are prisoners to a whole host of things but the source of our struggles is closer than many of us would like to admit. For many of us our prison cells contain bars of fear, doubt, worry, and lack. We constantly worry about what somebody might say, might do, what might happen. We let our fears about the unknown, the uncertain rule our lives. We doubt whether we are good enough for someone or something, if we have what it takes to do what we feel called to do, doubt that we know what it is that the Infinite wants us to do, doubt whether or not the Creator loves us just as we are, doubt that there would be room for us at the inn. We worry about all kinds of things, we worry about our bodies, how we look in our clothes, if people are going to like us, if we going to be able to pay our bills this month, how we are going to get someplace, car issues, job issues, health issues, and relationship issues
Read moreWhat is compassion? When I was in seminary, one of my professors introduced me to a book called The Quality Of Characteristics. The author Ruth Gendler, describes compassion in the following manner.
Compassion wears Saturn’s rings on the fingers of her left hand. She is intimate with the life force. She understands the meaning of sacrifice. She is not afraid to die. There is nothing you cannot tell her. Compassion speaks with a slight accent. She was a vulnerable child, miserable in school, cold, shy, alert to the pain in the eyes of her sturdier classmates. The other kids teased her about being too sentimental, and for a long time she believed them. In ninth grade she was befriended by Courage. Courage lent Compassion bright sweaters, explained the slang, showed her how to play volleyball, taught her you can love people and not care what they think about you. In many ways Compassion is still the stranger, neither wonderful nor terrible, herself, utterly, always.[1]
Read more
