Color

Color – 02.22.2022

Epiphany 42

The page was blank and the possibilities endless.  What would be created when the color was applied to the page?  Would a flower slowly appear?  Perhaps it would be the profile of a loved one?  Maybe splotches of color would reflect the vibrancy of life.

“I will have me a symphony of coloring. I will enmesh me in the noon sun’s gold and wind about me the moonlight’s silver sheen. I will dream in a gown made of the haze of a summer evening twilight, and I will have robe on robe of the sky’s deep blue, and I will line them with clouds of ermine, and from their trailing folds red stars will gleam. I will pluck the green from the treetops, where wild birds nest and sing, and in the weaving I will ensnare a song. And when Sorrow is my guest, I will wear a gown made of the cold, gray mist.”  Muriel Strode Lieberman certainly saw the vibrancy of life as she related life experiences to colors.

Robert Fulghum also used colors in speaking of living.  “Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. – a happiness weapon;   a Beauty Bomb.  It would explode high in the air – explode softly – and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air.  Floating down to earth – boxes of crayons. … And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one… And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.”

Writer, poet, and artist Jay (nickname for Julia) Woodman also knows the value of coloring.  “Colour outside the lines, live outside the box. Don’t let anyone tell you what to do, or not. Don’t be afraid, listen to your heart.  Heaven is a state of being – of one-ness, and Hell is a state of being – lost. We simply need to live as we best define ourselves, find our own ways of being who we are in our world.

“There is no requirement – only freedom of choice. We should not be judged if we are doing what we think best according to our perceptions at any given time.  Guilt should be discarded, moved beyond – what matters is who we choose to be in the next moment, given what we might have learned. We continually create ourselves anew.  Forgiving someone is a great way to show love, and forgive yourself too for the hurt you held onto far too long.  Take back the energy you have wasted on these things and reclaim your power to be your next best self.  Honor the past but refresh.”

When we color, we are building on the past in order to create something new, something for the future.  We begin with a blank page or possibly an outline.  We can color within the lines but also outside of them.  Maybe we do this by ignoring the set path or by using imaginative colors.    The fact is the future is ours to create.  Beauty without color should not exist in your world.  Crayons, paints, pastels…These are all magical dream sticks.  Pick one up today and begin to color your future.  It will be a masterpiece!

Focus

Focus – 02.18.2022

Epiphany 44

Growth is living.  We all evolve from our life experiences but how do we turn those experiences into positive change?  How do we avoid the anxiety that living inevitably creates?  How do we focus on the good, learn from the bad, and move forward productively?  IF what George Lucas says is true – “Always remember; your focus is your reality”, how do we create a better reality for the future?

In his book “The Light in the Heart”, Roy T. Bennet offers this advice:  “Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses.  Focus on your character, not your reputation.  Focus on your blessings, not your misfortunes.”  Great advice but exactly how do we do that?

Socrates believed “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.”  Mindfulness is defined as the state of active, open attention on the present, maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and environment in the absolute present.  Many believe it to be the first step towards what Socrates termed “building the new”.

A recent study conducted by Georgetown University as a clinical trial for the National Institutes of Health involved eighty-nine patients and yielded some interesting results on how what is our focus can determine what our future becomes.  It also afforded insights into better living of the present.  Testing and scientifically proving the reported benefits of mindfulness meditation, including longer attention span, pain management, support overcoming addiction, and lowered blood pressure, has been a challenge, even though people have been practicing the technique for thousands of years.

“Many prior tests of meditation-based therapies have compared a meditation group to an untreated control group. Because participants in such studies are not ‘blinded’—they know if they are getting treatment or not—they are likely to be influenced by the placebo effect and other forms of expectancy bias,” a press release regarding this clinical trial stated. It was believed that the way the study was designed eliminated any participant bias toward a particular treatment being tested. 

Currently, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness diagnosed in the United States, and affect 40 million adults, or 18 percent of the country’s population.  A person who suffers from anxiety will often focus on future prospects and become overwhelmed with fear that everything will turn out badly. These feelings can restrict a person’s ability to work, maintain relationships, or leave the house. The condition also may come with side effects that resemble health disorders, such as sweating, shaking, increased heart rate, bowel issues, and hyperventilation.  “Mindfulness meditation training is a relatively inexpensive and low-stigma treatment approach, and these findings strengthen the case that it can improve resilience to stress,” said lead author Elizabeth A. Hoge, MD. 

A 2013 article in Psychology Today offered six quick mindfulness exercises anyone can do.  First, take two mindful bites.  Instead of attempting to do mindful eating all the time, try mindful eating for the first two bites of any meal or snack.  For the first two bites of any meal or snack you eat, pay attention to the sensory experiences – the texture, taste, smell, and appearance of the food, and the sounds when you bite into your food.  Pay attention to your sensory experience in an experiential rather than evaluative way and do not concentrate on the actual flavor. 

Secondly, pay attention to what one breath feels like.  After all, breathing is one of the most essential parts of our day.  Feel the sensations of one breath flowing into and out from your body. Notice the sensations in your nostrils, your shoulders, your rib cage, your belly etc.  Next, take a mindful moment to give your brain a break instead of checking your email.  Look out a window and notice the grass or leaves.  Check out your environment rather than that inbox full of emails. 

The fourth exercise is to be mindful of the air around you, the air touching your skin.   Pay attention to the feeling of air on your skin for 10-60 seconds.  This is best done when wearing short sleeves or with some skin exposed but if you are wearing long sleeve, roll them up just above the wrists.  When you do this, you are experiencing the air in an experiential processing mode as opposed to evaluative “judging” mode, which is our usual default.  Remember, this mindfulness exercise is about experiencing, not judging.

Next, look at your body from top to toe, noticing any sensations of discomfort or tension. Attempt to soften any sensations of discomfort. Next, scan your body for any sensations of comfort or ease.  Focus on the sensations of comfort and ease.  Don’t spend a great deal of time on this but do recognize both the negative and the positive.

Lastly, consider something you do every day, some action that you do each and every single day.  Perhaps it is opening a newspaper or brushing your hair.  Consider that action and focus on it.  Maybe it will be that first sip of coffee in the morning.  Whatever it is, focus on it mindfully and be in that moment.  When you are doing that, you aren’t worrying about that busy schedule that will hit you as you walk out the door.  By turning your focus to the delightful smell of your cup and anticipating that taste of coffee or by concentrating on how the bristles of your brush are massaging your scalp as you brush your hair, your body will relax and your anxiety level will drop.

According to researchers at the Mayo Clinic, mindfulness is the act of being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling at every moment — without interpretation or judgment.  Spending too much time planning, problem-solving, daydreaming, or thinking negative or random thoughts can be draining. It can also make you more likely to experience stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression. Practicing mindfulness exercises, on the other hand, can help you direct your attention away from this kind of thinking and engage with the world around you.  More importantly, you will turn your focus on yourself in a positive non-narcissistic manner, reconnecting with your essence and nurturing yourself.

Walk

Walk – 02.17.2022

Epiphany 43

“In the end, our success in resolving conflict and affecting deep change is not made by focusing on the leading figure of our discontent, but rather on the much less visible number of women and men who form his or her base of support. While it may be tempting to focus our attention on the leader, waiting for and pouncing on his every misstep and falter, in the long run our most effective response will be in how well we do at the hard work of creating a new solidarity with those who see the situation so differently than we. A good reminder of this fact is in considering how we came to this crossroads in the first place; the responsibility is not the Russians alone, but our own: we got in this situation partly by overlooking the need to reassure some of our good neighbors that they were needed and valued. Taking human hearts for granted can be a costly mistake and not one to be made twice. So while we may be mesmerized by what goes on in Washington, D.C., it would do us well to be even more active in communities farther afield. Building bridges there could be the ethical and political infrastructure we need for winning the next series of crucial elections. The question is not how many in the inner circle are hearing us shout, since they will be largely deaf to our appeal, but instead how many of those who put them there are hearing us in quieter conversations all across America. Success will be measured not by how many of our own we can put in the streets, but even more importantly, by how many women and men in the rust belt will be willing to wear a pink hat the next time around.”  These words written by retired Episcopal bishop Steven Charleston bring us to my point and our verb for today.

Five years ago many women took part in the Women’s March.  Many felt moved to participate because of conflicting ideals with a new administration.  Many marched because they feared the loss of freedoms and rights.  Others marched as a show of solidarity for women.  Some walked simply because they could.  They donned pink hats and walked, marched, or simple gathered to support women, wearing pink hats and carrying signs.

What comes after we have walked?  What comes after we take a stand for a cause or ideal?  The answer is life, that forward progression of steps we make each day that, eventually, will comprise the journey of a lifetime.  You see, getting your dander up for a good cause is great but that can only last for a certain amount of time.  How do we live those ideals for which we marched?

Sometimes the conflict is not so much about the other guy but about our response and the manner in which we respond.  It is so much more fun and easy to get mad and stay mad but seriously, unless you do jumping jacks or some other exercise in your anger, getting mad really accomplishes very little.  Real, long-lasting action requires thought and – gulp – reconciliation. 

Reconciliation starts with understanding.  First we need to admit and understand that there are other points of view.  No matter how wrong or ill-conceived we may judge them to be, they do exist.  Generally speaking, many have as valid a right to be felt as do our own.  Those incorrect beliefs that are wrong, as in harmful or illegal, need to be understood and explained.  Appeasement does not always mean acceptance and that is something to remember. 

No one person is a god or even a demi-god.  We all are human beings and deserve equal respect and opportunity to survive and thrive.  Some of our steps need to be toward building bridges to carry us all into a productive and efficient future.  That is the best march of all.

Help

Help – 02.16.2022

Epiphany 42

“Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself.  It’s what you do for others.”  This might just be the most difficult post I will ever write for some of you to read.  I completely agree with actor/comedian Danny Thomas in the opening quote.  I also realize that very little in today’s world agrees with his words.

This week the Surgeon General of the United States, the top medical officer of the United States, announced his entire immediate family had all received positive Covid-19 tests.  Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy suddenly became not someone special but just another patient.   “Staring at my daughter’s positive test, I asked myself the same questions many parents have asked: Will my child be ok?” Murthy shared in a Twitter thread on Tuesday. “Could I have done more to protect her? Was this my fault? In these moments, it doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or Surgeon General. We are parents fi

rst.”

Danny Thomas was a struggling actor with a family to support when he said a prayer one day.  Praying to St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, he asked for work.  He promised that if he got a job that he would do something for others.  He got a job and kept his promise.  The result was St Jude’s Children’s Hospital. A hospital devoted to the treatment and curing of multiple childhood diseases once considered incurable.  Because of St Jude’s, children with these illnesses such as cancer are no longer considered lost causes.  They now have a chance at living and many of them are doing just that.

If you are a follower of this blog, then you might recognize this topic and my discussing St. Jude’s.  It definitely bears repeating.  Moreover, this post might be difficult to read because it is asking you to look away from the mirror and think of someone else.   I am telling you that all you have accomplished for yourself is nice but it is only that.  Your focus on yourself needs to be broadened to include others.  What’s more, you need to do for others what you want done for yourself.

I am going to again quote Ralph Waldo Emerson because he eloquently spoke of this topic.  “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”  Read that again because it really says quite a lot.  “The purpose of life is not to be happy.”  Really?  Then where does happy come into play?

“The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.”  Gordon B Hinckley realized that in order to be happy we have to stop trying to be happy.  We cannot make being happy our life’s goal because we will never reach it if it is.

The purpose of life needs to be helping others.  Then and only then will we find true happiness and feel complete.  It is easy, in today’s world, to fall into despair and become frightened.  It is fitting that we find the answer to such negative feelings in the words of the man who is spending his last few days as President of the United States.  “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” 

Charles Dickens succinctly said “No one is useless who lightens the burdens of another.”  I hope that today you see that your purpose is in helping someone else.  The best way to lighten your own load is to lighten that of another.  Then we not only help our neighbors, we help ourselves and, quite possibly, discover our purpose in life.

Change

Change – 02.15.2022

Epiphany 41

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but building the new.”  In many states, 2022 is an election year.  It is a time in which people will engage in a common act – the casting of a vote.

Tony Robbins once said “Change is inevitable; progress is optional.”  That single quote describes the feeling of many today.  Politics aside, what comes next will be dependent upon many people, people who in spite of all the pomp and circumstance will have the same power as the man being sworn in today, his cronies, and followers as those who opposed his campaign. 

One of the hallmarks of the US Constitution is the recognition it affords change.  Winston Churchill believed “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. “  It is something we all tend to resist, however.  Nothing in creation remains the same.  Nature is one large and unending cycle of change.  Anatole France recognized this.  “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”

It seems contradictory to say we must die in order to live but there is a great deal of truth in that.  No one ever moved forward by constantly looking backwards.  We cannot embrace the future is we are stuck living in the past.  You will never see where the ocean might take you if you remain firmly planted on the shore.

It is not just those within the boundaries of the United States that will be watching the changes this election year might bring.  Leaders all around the world will be watching, waiting, and wondering what will come next.  Often attributed to “anonymous”, our closing paragraph today actually comes from Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Reinhold Niebuhr.  It not only sums up the of new elected officials, but it offers a great roadmap as we encounter the inevitable changes of our own lives.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.  Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.  Amen. ”

Negotiate/Deliberate

Negotiate/Deliberate – 02.14.2022

Epiphany 40

“Engage brain before mouth in gear.”  Popular in the 60’s and 70’s, this piece of advice seems to have been forgotten in the fine art of conversation and public speaking.  And lest you think I am specifically referring to politicians, I am not.  I am referring to all of us.

Negotiation and compromise is a part of everyday life and if it is not a part of yours, then you are doing something wrong.  No one gets a free ride from the responsibility of negotiating.  We live on a planet with many others and whether it be nature or humanity, we have to learn to get along together.  That requires negotiation. 

The farmer who is successful does not simply tear up the ground and drop whatever seeds he/she wishes wherever and whenever.   Compromise is essential to insure the best yield of a crop.  Rotation of seeds planted, paying attention to the weather and available water supply, Crops which will grow in the given climate, availability of manpower/womanpower to harvest and process said crops – all of these things must be considered, compromises made, and negotiations scheduled.  Otherwise, we would not have food to eat.  Human beings would perish.

Words have power and the words we speak have consequences.  All too often it is the word we do not say that carries the most impact.  Parents play a vital role in the life of a child but it is the absentee parent that often plays the biggest role and whose presence or lack thereof carries the most weight.

Just as our actions are important, so are the words we utter.  As we proceed through this series of Epiphany and words of action, I hope you take a moment to think before you speak.  Is what you are about to say really necessary?  Are you saying it effectively so as to be fully and completely understood?  Is it kind and most importantly, is it completely true?  If the answer to any of these is no, then please remember this adage:  Silence is golden.

Play

Play 02.13.2022

Epiphany 39

Paraskavedekatriaphobia might seem the phobia of the day today since today’s date is the 13th.  Another would be friggatriskaidekaphobia.  It really depends upon whether one likes the Greek or the Norse version of celebrating the 13^th.  How comfortable are you on the 13th of the month, even on a Sunday?

While many associate Friday with a fear of the number 13^th, such a fear exists in many different forms.  The English word Friday comes from the Norse goddess Frigga, a goddess said to have also been a seer.  Triskaidekaphobia is also a term bandied about today although it takes a more circuitous route to justify its terminology.  Whether you fear “paraskeví”, meaning Friday and “dekatreís” meaning thirteen, The Goddess Frigga and her day falling on the 13^th day of the month, the fear of which is called triskaidekaphobia, or want to fear three and ten as triskaidekaphobia warrants, today might make you very uneasy.

Basically Fridays have had a bad rap ever since Geoffrey Chaucer wrote that all sorts of evil occurred on a Friday in his “Canterbury Tales”: “ And on a Friday fell all this mischance.”  If you don’t remember that, and are not that into football, then it might be a good day to stay inside and reread this classic.  In fact, reading a good book is a good activity on any given day, regardless of the date.

Friday and the fear of it has some religious roots.  Friday is supposedly the date on which Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit.  The man known as Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a Friday and, according to the book “The Da Vinci Code”, author Dan Brown wrote that the Knights Templar were arrested, tortured, and killed on a Friday, Friday the 13^th in fact.  In his book titled “Friday the Thirteenth”, Nathaniel Lachenmeyer wrote that a stockbroker chose that day to incite a panic, hoping to take down Wall Street.  Maybe reading a book might not help you get over such a phobia after all.  Of course I am writing this on a Saturday and assume we have all survived yet another Friday!

Supposedly the last to arrive at the Last Supper, the final gathering in the Bible of Jesus and his disciples was the disciples Judas.  Judas would be the one to betray him and lead Jesus to his arrest and torture, the 13^th man to arrive at the meeting.  The number thirteen has other nefarious connotations, however.

Traditionally, there were thirteen steps leading up to the gallows.  Twelve was considered the number of completeness – twelvemonths in the calendar, twelve hours on a clock face, twelve tribes of Israel, and the aforementioned twelve apostles or disciples of Jesus.  Several serial killers have thirteen letters in their name – Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson (Go ahead and count; I’ll wait.).

So why write a piece entitled “Play” on the thirteenth of the month?  Is it because one of the most watched televised sports games will be happening later today – Super Bowl – or is it because it is a really great time to do just that – play.  Numbers only have the power that we give them.  There is no magical power or evil power associated with any particular number.  We might, today, need to stop overthinking and simple enjoy.  Getting married on the thirteenth of any month is actually less expensive since there are very few people vying for this date.

This year of 2022 will only have one Friday the Thirteenth and that will be in May.  Retail merchants overall lose between three to eight millions dollars on such days due to people staying home.  That much desired reservation at the latest posh restaurant might be available, however, since millions report a fear of venturing out. 

Of course, there is the first recorded instance of the day and number as being unlucky.   The death of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, a man who believed that both Friday and the number 13 were unlucky, ironically occurred on Friday, Nov. 13, 1868.  He was one of the most popular opera composers to have lived so today might be a great day to watch an opera on a streaming channel.  You can celebrate the wonderful life of such a talented composer who died not due to any evil associated with the number 13 but from pneumonia. 

Enjoy yourself today.  After all, it is a Sunday and for many, it is considered a day of rest.  Life is to be lived and hiding out in fear is really not living.  The root word of the term recreation is create so perhaps today is a good time to play artistically.  Why not plan a family dinner and incorporate some games played at home into the mix?  Spending time with loved ones is not only healthy, it can be fun!  Stop taking the date so seriously and make time to play.  Life is meant to be enjoyed and today, the 13^th, is a great time to start living a positive, healthy life!

Could

Could – 02.12.2022

Epiphany 38

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”  Sage advice from Harriet Beecher Stowe opens our discussion today.  The title invokes one to believe in…. what?  Maybe that is the real question.  Certainly the two teams playing in today’s Super Bowl have records that support Beacher Stowe’s advice.

Most recently Regina Dugan, former head of DARPA, gave a TED talk in which she paraphrased Robert Schuller, a minister, by asking “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”  We discussed this question several days ago but it bears revisiting.  After all, it seems a bit strange that the former director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, would be quoting a minister who hosted his own television religious program and was best known as a writer and head of the megachurch known as the Crystal Cathedral.

Rev. Schuller actually asked three questions.  “What goals would you be setting for yourself if you knew you could not fail?  What dreams would you have on the drawing board if you had unlimited financial resources?  What plans would you be making if you had thirty years to carry them out?”

Schuller wanted people to set goals and then follow through in making them their reality.  He strongly believed in the future and in making the future what you wanted it to be.  He believed in the power of the word “could”.

Could in its original form was the past tense of an Old English word “cunnan”.  It literally translated as “to be able”.  Through the centuries this word has become “can” and “could” its past tense.  Today, though, we often define it as “maybe”, as in some dreams maybe coming true rather than some dreams could become real.  The difference may seem slight but the expectations of the two are very different.

Do you dreams really reflect a belief in yourself?  Having dreamed a dream and set a goal, do you really believe in its possibility?  Could it become true or real?  Could it be your future?  Why not?  The biggest hurdle we have to overcome is ourselves.  Once we believe in ourselves, we can accomplish practically anything.  All we have to do is believe in the word “could”.

Nurture

Nurture – 02.11.2022

Epiphany 37

Nurture is one of those words seldom used and yet envied by all at some point in their lives.  Although they both come from the same Latin root word, “natura”, nature and nurture have seemingly been at odds since the late nineteenth century.  I think this fact to be sad and perhaps one of the root causes of the problems we face today.

“Natura” as a Latin word referred to not just the natural way of the things but that which exists from birth forward.  A form of the Latin word “natus” which means birth, “natura” was used in the context of all things in the universe which were a part of the natural order of things. It referenced one’s natural character, both of humans but also of the universe itself.  The innate disposition of all of creation was thought to be one of a nurturing disposition.  Somehow, with all of man and womankind’s advancements, we seem to have forgotten that one fact.

There is great debate on the topic of nature versus nurture but, for me, the best discussion comes not from psychologists and sociologists but from an author, the entertaining and seldom-considered overly deep Mark Twain.  “When we set about accounting for a Napoleon or a Shakespeare or a Raphael or a Wagner or an Edison or other extraordinary person, we understand that the measure of his talent will not explain the whole result, nor even the largest part of it; no, it is the atmosphere in which the talent was cradled that explains; it is the training it received while it grew, the nurture it got from reading, study, example, the encouragement it gathered from self-recognition and recognition from the outside at each stage of its development: when we know all these details, then we know why the man was ready when his opportunity came.”  Who knew Mark Twain could be so great at answering the question – nature versus nurture?

The environment we create and decide to plant ourselves in determines a great deal about us, not only who we are but our hopes and aspirations.  Suzy Kassem explains it most succinctly:  “Empathy nurtures wisdom. Apathy cultivates ignorance.”  We may inherit a certain amount of DNA from our heritage but we alone control our future, in spite of whatever circumstances to which we were born.

“While genes are pivotal in establishing some aspects of emotionality, experience plays a central role in turning genes on and off. DNA is not the heart’s destiny; the genetic lottery may determine the cards in your deck, but experience deals the hand you can play. Scientists have proven, for example, that good mothering can override a disadvantageous temperament,” maintains Thomas Lewis, a psychiatrist and professor at the University of California in San Francisco.  I think those of days gone past knew something when they made nature and nurture from the same word. What if we lived as if they were truly the same thing?

If we lived in this natural world and considered to the need to nurture each other just as important as sharing the air we breathe, if nurturing became a natural order of our living in our relationships with each other, what type of world would we create?  If when we opened our mouths, what might result if we did so with the intention of only uttering that which would nurture our audience and not alienate or judge?  Would we perish from the effort or would we reap a more beautiful, productive world without the need for alienation and terrorism? 

I hope that this weekend you are able to do something that will nurture your soul.  You might just discover how natural it is to share the calm and peace that being nurtured affords one.  We all have a choice in every interaction with others as to whether encourage or discourage, nurture or destroy, let the loving nature of our being come forth or… well, let’s just explore nurture and leave the world a better place.

Move – 02.10.2022

Four Letter Words

Epiphany – 1

Action determines everything.  Even the quality of being inactive, the perceived opposite of action, has consequences.  The season of Epiphany is an often confused season.  It might be easiest explained with the graphic of a lightbulb, although generally a star is used.  Liturgically, the Epiphany was that time when wise men traveling from far off reached the baby they believed would be a savior for their world and its peoples.  It is the actual beginning of the religion known as Christianity since these were the men who proclaimed the baby to be the Christ-child.  The child would grow up and become known as Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem.  By birth he was of the Jewish faith and yet in the end, his own rejected him.  He came, he said, for all and vetoed notions that some were better than others, that some might be “chosen” and others could be ignored.

During this Epiphany season we are discussing actions and verbs as we seek to discover how to manifest that which we claim to believe, how to be the light of our own lives and hopefully, for others.  Perhaps we should ask ourselves just how brave we are, just how narcissistic we are in our everyday living.  After all, it is not about whether you believe one way or another.  It is about the fact that we are all living here together.

Chaos theory helps not only define many of our lives, it gives credence to the fact that we are all in this thing called life together and are affected by each other.  In 1960 Edward Lorenz, a professor at MIT, constructed a weather model.  Weather is the total behavior of all the molecules that make up earth’s atmosphere and Lorenz’s model uncovered patterns from seemingly unrelated instances that aided in predicting the weather.

Chaos theory when applied to humans uncovered the cycle patterns of life.  There is much still to be discovered, more epiphanies of mankind to unearth and yet, we do know some things.  Brutality is not kind.  Criminal actions can be considered evil.  Gangs provide a sense of family but not in a positive way.  What actions provide for a better world?  What verbs might be used to describe your day?

A snow flake is an object composed of water molecules. These molecules do not have a common nerve system, DNA or a chief molecule that calls the shots.  How do they stay together?  What attraction keeps them together?  How does one molecule in one leg of the flake know which private design the rest of the gang is cruising for, in other legs of the flake, for the tiny molecule a million miles away?

Movement determines the path of the world and yet, how often do we really consider our own moves in life?  All too often in life we tend to move in the wrong direction… or at least we tend to think we do.  Sometimes we think that because we are only looking at things from a narrow peephole, that of our own perspective.  The truth is that our actions are determined by a plethora of things and their consequences are often many more than we consider.

For instance, I have a craft project that I have been working on for several years.  To be certain, it is a large project and there are others who have taken just as long to finish or even longer.  I am not really concerned with them, however.  All I tend to consider is how often I have put off this project.  I end up thinking I have failed because there is still much to do on it.  What I am not taking into account is what I have done instead of working on this project.

In that same time that I did not complete this project, I did complete many others and most were for charity.  I also helped teach others in making their own projects as well as over twenty hours a week on doing other charitable work.  I simply did not sleep through those years.  I was busy and productive.  I may not have finished that specific project but I did complete many others.

This series is about living the light that the last holidays of 2016 proclaimed and be learning to be the light ourselves.  When we consider how we can be a ray of light, hope, or joy to another or to the world, we tend to become bogged down in self-doubt and guilt.  The two most destructive words in any language become an active part of our thinking:  “I can’t.”

As long as I think I can never finish my craft project, I never will.  It doesn’t take a magic crystal to see into the future to know that is true.  As long as I continue to focus on what has not happened – i.e., finishing the project, I never will make it happen.  What will guarantee me success is to focus on what will help me move forward.  The first step towards making that happen is for me to decide I am not going to let the project remain unfinished.  It does not really require anything but a conviction to move and make that movement forward movement.

But what if I fail?  I know you are thinking that.  Victor Kiam had a simple answer to that self-doubt that tends to creep in all our minds:  “Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.”  The key to success is to move.  Henry Ford believed that “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”  We often forget that learning truly occurs when something unexpected happens.  What might seem like a failure often is the key to future success.

When we move, we are making things happen.  Not everything happens successfully but everything provides a lesson and those lessons will ultimately lead to success.  Ghanaian writer Ernest Agyemang Yeboah explains it this way:  “A step from the past always demands a step in the mind backed by a robust action. The very place you fall is the very place you make the first move to move.”

Today I will schedule time to work on my project.  Because I want to be successful, I will move toward that success.  No one else can do it for me.  “No one gets ahead in life by living a backward life.” Edmond Mbiaka, A New Yorker said that and I believe it to be true.  We need to move forward and be the light the world needs from us.  After all, everything I do or do not do has a consequence.  I would rather leave a trail of productive things in my wake than negative ones.  We all have a choice:  Will we spend our energy on lamenting doing nothing or by moving forward?