Personal mantra anyone?

Spend some time on Google with "personal mantra" and see what turns up for you. 

Apparently, mission statements, at both personal and corporate levels, are becoming passé.  Something to do with length, actual utility and impact. 

The new move is toward the shorter, more focused and memorable personal or corporate mantra--one to four word commitments that shape life, value and action consistently. 

One way to understand this notion is to consider how work and life are not only ordered, but what is the fundamental value proposition relative to how daily life and work roll out.  What is the fundamental commitment of my organization?  What about my own life, day by day?

The video below gets at the organizational mantra.  I think you'll find it challenging.

But, on a personal basis, what is the one indispensable commitment, truth, action or goal that I bring to every day and to every situation and encounter inside every day, no matter where I am, who I am with or what I am doing?

Here's mine:  Listen carefully.  Listen constantly. 

What's your personal mantra? 

What's essential

"The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Snow. . .

What is it about snow?

I don't know about you, but I'm fascinated by it every time it comes! 

I suppose it goes back to my childhood.  Nothing was better than an unexpected, "snow day" in Texas that put an end to school and turned everyone out into the white wonderland. 

I also expect that somehow I'm "hard-wired" to appreciate the white stuff.  I'm told that the afternoon I was born, Spokane, Washington took the assault of the worst snow storm the city had seen in about 25 years!  So, I got here in the snow, and I've always loved it.  The more the better. 

As I've grown older though, snow has pushed me down and along a more contemplative path every time it shows up.  Over the past few years my experience with snow prompted more time with a camera in hand, as if the magic and mystery of the snow would somehow escape me before I could savor it adequately. 

And the amazing, deep, unexpected snows of the last 2-3 years have brought amazing experiences of appreciation, celebration and self-reflection, as if snow signals my way farther down a very important pathway I'm meant to take. 

Call me crazy, but there is something about the snow. 

I caught the image above earlier this month when I was in Colorado speaking to and working with about 150 business majors from Abilene Christian University and Lubbock Christian University.  The corner post on the porch of the cabin where I slept found itself adorned with the beautiful stuff on the morning my trip came to a close.  Dare I say a special blessing to point me in the right direction once again?

Serenity

When I detect a beauty in any of the recesses of nature, I am reminded by the serene and retired spirit in which it requires to be contemplated, of the inexpressible privacy of life, — how silent and unambitious it is. The beauty there is in mosses will have to be considered from the holiest, quietest nook. The gods delight in stillness, they say ‘st–’st. My truest, serenest moments are too still for emotion; they have woolen feet.

- Henry David Thoreau in his journal

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Serenity is an indicator of inner peace, and thus of wisdom. We don’t want to live boring lives and adventure definitely has a role in a life well-lived, but serenity is an indicator that someone has thought through their life and pursued it with discipline and goodwill. Serenity is an indicator that a lot of other things in someone’s life are working well. They don’t try to take on too much, for instance. They have a margin of energy in reserve. They set aside time for the contemplation of beauty. There’s not much rushing. Hectic activity, desperation – these are not part of a life of serenity or wisdom. Serenity is the outcome of a well-designed, a well thought-through life.

I’m reading a biography right now of Abraham Lincoln and perhaps the most thought-provoking characteristic of his life is the serenity with which he conducted his relationships, even when dealing with dishonesty. Lincoln had a particularly close bond with his stepmother, who is described as having been a constant source of encouragement, support and love to him.

Serenity comes from acceptance, including acceptance of one’s own faults and the faults of others. It may be easier to accept life, including our faults, when we are also comfortable in the knowledge that despite those faults, we are valuable or important to ourselves and to others. Characteristics of serenity:

an unwillingness to judge oneself harshly

an unwillingness to judge others harshly

an absence of conflict

a feeling of connectedness to others and to nature

[June 3, 2011, Heron Dance]

Madeline Reedy's Mission Year

No surprise here. At least, not to anyone who knows Madeline Reedy.

Madeline has worked at Central Dallas Ministries for the past four years. Her focus has been on youth who "age out" of the foster care system here in Dallas. She has done a great job at everything under her charge since joining our team.

Now she is about to embark on a year-long mission assignment with Adventures in Missions. The project, "The World Race," will carry Madeline around the world where she will work in 11 nations before returning home next year.

Madeline's question to all of us is simple: "Will you choose to love the world with me?"

Madeline tells me that there are three ways we can help her.

1) Provide encouragement

2) Pray for her and her work

3) Provide funding

Take a look at the brief interview I shot recently and then, go to this website where you can learn more about The World Race and sign on to be her partner in loving the world!

Focus

"We need a focus. A main thing. Something bigger than skin cream or tennis shoes that reminds us of the purpose of it all. If we expect to regain a more simple heart, a more centered pace for our day, we need to order our lives in specific ways."

David and Barbara Sorensen

Play, play, play!

Ran into what is posted below in Heron Dance, a continuing source for contemplative thought and practice.

Sure makes sense over here in my part of the world. How about yours?

____________________________

I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.
- Rabindranath Tagore

We string and unstring our instrument because we don’t believe enough in our song.

Sometimes we’re afraid of our song. The metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly demands a lot, including courage, sacrifice and hard work. It requires resourcefulness. It is shy and retreats easily. It requires nurturing.

In return, it offers a deep experience of life.

The starting point, the process from which one discovers one’s song, is a dream. It arises out of our center. Its roots are in the pre-verbal, the half understood, the subconscious. There is a wisdom inside of each of us that often cannot be put into words but, with practice, can be used to guide and shape our lives and our work.

Our song arises out of that which is holy inside of us.

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Life that's lived up

Do you get weary of the continual, almost unrelenting emphasis on and attention to external appearances? I know I do.

I learned recently that one of the little girls from China who "sang" during opening ceremonies of the summer Olympics was actually lip-syncing the voice of another young girl. The girl who sang was not considered "cute enough" to appear in public, so a surrogate was recruited to stand in and pretend to sing. The "cute factor" seldom gets us anywhere of much value or substance.

Here's a motto for life that my wife handed me not long ago:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, latte in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!"

While I expect my doctor would cringe a bit and while I recognize that this adage doesn't tell it all, I love the spirit of these words! How about you?

I think I might add something like this: "totally worn out, completely broke from investing in life and in people. . . ."

Got any mottoes for life that would be encouraging to others inside and outside your community? Let's hear them.

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Now, the work of Christmas

A litany from Howard Thurman, heard in church on Sunday. . .

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

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Considering the circumstances of my demise

No one who believes in life can choose the details of his or her ending.

My parents continue to teach me about the tough reality of growing old. Movement to life's end can be halting, harsh, humbling, humorous and, at times, horrible.

So, I find myself working on a check list of hopes relative to the conclusion of my own journey. Here's what I've come up with so far:

1) I hope I live fully until the last minute, sixty seconds after which I long to fall over dead and gone. Then, let the party begin! I am currently working on a list of friends who will be invited to tell jokes on me at my funeral, that is, if they can rise from their own wheelchairs.

2) I hope to be delivered from long stints in unfamiliar and dangerous hospital beds where the floors around are always too slick for common sense, weak legs and distended bladders. I suppose bugs in the rugs are more of a threat than broken bones on the linoleum.

3) I hope never to be "delivered" to any "skilled nursing center"--since I now know that is simply code for "nursing home."

4) I hope never to be "roomies" with anyone who doesn't remember his name or who insists on singing off key all night long.

5) I hope when someone says to me with a stupid grin, "Well, I bet you have seen lots of changes," that I have the good sense to say, "Well, not nearly enough!"

6) I hope I never need a pill box to keep all the meds straight, morning and night, that I can't keep up with in my head.

7) I hope, if I have to have doctors, that they will have the good sense to talk to one another, at least occasionally.

8) I hope I never end up on some chaplain's list for "rounds" and prayers that I haven't asked for. Why does that line, "May I say a prayer for you?" always make me angry?

9) I hope my running buddy, Dan and my development partner, John and my long-time friends, Edd and Randy, as well as others I won't list here, come by to see me just because they want to and not because they feel obligated. I also hope they sneak in hamburgers and milk shakes!

10) I hope I get sweeter and softer--however, I fear I'm already headed in the opposite direction!

11) I hope I'll be able to communicate to my children, grandchildren and, if I live long enough, great grandchildren just how much I love them in a manner that will make them laugh and understand deeply without feeling any embarrassment.

12) I hope I remember my name, at least every now and again.

13) I hope I'll keep up with technology so that whatever is coming after my laptop will be something I use daily. I hope I can think clearly enough to write something or someone every day.

14) I hope I still read the box scores during baseball season. I hope I can get out to a game or two or 10 every year.

15) I hope that I die before I leave the battle I most believe in.

16) I hope, even if I am forced to sit down, that I never give up.

17) I hope I don't outlive those I love the most.

I'll keep working on this list. You got one?


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Commander's intent

Recently, I attended a seminar facilitated by an ex-Marine. He told us a couple of stories from the first Gulf War in Iraq.

A take-away I won't soon forget had to do with what he called "Commander's intent."

In battle fronts like Iraq troops face situations that are both highly volitile and filled with uncertainty and chaos. The Marine told us that every soldier was trained to understand the irreducible mission and intent of their leaders. Simply put, when in doubt, follow this clear command:

"Go north and always defend the river."

In this case he referred to the historic Euphrates River.

If separted from the larger force, if distracted or attacked, no matter what, this was the one command everyone knew they could fall back on as a mission statement for next steps type action.

This information left me wondering about our mission and work in the city.

There are so many distractions, so many setbacks, so many interruptions, so many great opportunities and so much chaos.

What would be an equivalent statement for me and for all of us who work in urban renewal organizations, no matter what our specific functions or our unique objectives?

"When in doubt, remember the poor and always stand with the community."

That's a statement that has been rumbling around in my head since I heard my Marine buddy talk. I know there is more here to think about.

I'd love to hear what you come up with.



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A theology for the street

Across the years, people have given me strange looks when I confess that my faith has been shaped significantly by reading liberation theology. I do what I do in large part because of what I have discovered while exploring this very rich school of thought.

Years ago, while in seminary, I enjoyed the good fortune of sitting in a summer school class with Dr. James Cone from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Cone's course, Black Liberation Theology, provided me with hope, courage and even healing. I found him even more amazing in person than in print, which is saying a lot!

I suppose what I find most attractive about the thought of writers like Cone and Gustavo Gutierrez is the fact that everything is rooted deeply in the here-and-now.

Everything is practical.

Action in the real world is the key to every expression of faith.

Instead of becoming lost in the past or distracted by a future that will be experienced on a completely different plane of existence, thinkers like Gutierrez and Cone keep calling me back to the street and its reality.

In a system of thought like this, it becomes almost impossible for middle class types like me to rationalize my failure to engage the pain, injustice, suffering and oppression of my world.

My responsibility in this day happens to be this world or, better, that part of the world where I will find myself living today.

There is not much time for dwelling on the past, except as precursor for the present that is currently "in my face."

There is little reason to focus much on the future, it will take care of itself.

My call is to live and to act in faith for the transformation of the world as I find it.

Liberation thought demands an entering into the life of the world. To put it theologically, it calls for radical incarnation. I must enter the pain and the struggle of this world for the sake of and alongside the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed.

There is no way to heaven but through the earth.

My responsibility is the life and the world in which I find myself. In community with others, I am called to live out my faith from a street level perspective.

The old hymn, "This World Is Not My Home," might be true; but this world is without a doubt my current assignment, it is where I am rooted by faith, and I dare not "pass through" without thought, sacrifice and focused attention. It is what I have been given and called to engage.

Maintaining this very real, practical and "down-to-earth" focus keeps me on track. And, in this regard, I find reading Cone, Gutierrez and other liberationists to be most helpful.

They bring my faith to life and into my world.

In the world. . .

A good "just for fun read" is Brother Odd by Dean Koontz.

Odd Thomas is a Koontz character introduced to readers a few novels back.

In this book, "Oddie" finds himself in retreat at St. Bartholomew's Abbey on the California side of the Sierra Nevada range. It is here, inside the Abbey, that the really strange story unfolds. Koontz ends his tale in a way that makes it clear that we haven't heard the last of Brother Odd!

Surprisingly, I found some fairly amazing quotes buried in the science fiction. I'll share one now and then in coming posts.

Listen in to the conversation Brother Odd has with his beloved "Brother Knuckles."
_____________________

"Though if I was your dad," Brother Knuckles continued, "you'd probably be shorter and thicker, with your head set closer to your shoulders."

"I don't need a neck anyway," I said. "I never wear ties."

"No, son, you need a neck so you can stick it out. That's what you do. That's who you are."

"Lately, I've been thinking I might get myself measured for a habit, become a novice."

He returned to his chair but only sat on the arm of it, studying me. After consideration, he said, "Maybe someday you'll hear the call, but not anytime soon. You're of the world, and need to be."

I shook my head. "I don't think I need to be of the world."

"The world needs you to be out there in it. You got things to do, son."

"That's what I'm afraid of. The things I'll have to do."

"The monastery ain't a hideout. A mug wants to come in here, take the vows, he should come because he wants to open himself to somethin' bigger than the world, not because he wants to close himself up in a little ball like a pill bug."

Journey. . .mission. . .walk

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.

Don't try to see through the distances. That's not for human beings.

Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move.

Rumi

[Lifted from SoJo.net, the on-line service of Sojourners magazine and community.]