Tina Barbour of Bringing Along OCD quoted the Prayer of St Francis in her post yesterday and I realized I’ve never told my readers about what this prayer has meant to me.
The song version, adapted and set to music by Sebastian Temple, is my personal favorite: Here are the words…
The storm is ‘a coming.
Anyone who doesn’t believe that the earth is in turmoil, ought to check with the weather channel.
As Long Islanders hunkered down, Hurricane Sandy grew stronger and faster early Monday, bringing a “life-threatening storm surge” to the East Coast, forecasters said.
The maximum sustained winds increased to near 85 mph — up 10 mph from earlier Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center said in its 5 a.m. advisory. It was moving north at 15 mph — 1 mph faster than it was at 2 a.m.
Long Island Newsday
Today I will embrace what I am resisting. At this point in my life, I’d rather resist all competition.* But instead I have joined the race. Race 2012! It is a blogging project by my blogging buddy Monica Medina.
“Race 2012: A Conversation of Race & Politics in America”
Embrace what you are resisting!
I will kick off from the starting line today. But I am not so ready to dive in to the deep end yet. Today I am just announcing it. Politics and race are complex topics, full of history, misunderstanding, and powerful opinions. It scares me even to write about writing about it. But if I announce it in public, then I’ll have to follow through.
I’ve have committed to write about race and politics in America. Eek!
You might be wondering why such a passionate person can resist writing about such an important topic. I am wondering, too. But the answer is, that I am a coward. I am afraid I won’t know enough or that I’ll come across as stupid. I am afraid that I will offend somebody. So easy to do!
When we commit to something, it is important that we take actions steps everyday toward that ethos. It is all too easy to make excuses, put things off, and talk ourselves out of our goals. I have done this too many times to point to the speck in anyone else’s eye.
For me, these delays tell me something about my upbringing. I was always taught to behave.
When I feel this way, I know, the best thing for me to do is to dive in, and dive in I will. My cousin once told me that , “You’ll know the leaders since they are the ones with the knives in their back.” I don’t necessarily want a knife in my back, but it seems cowardly to avoid it for my own comfort. BTW the safety of the coward’s way is an illusion. If I don’t speak up about change, I will go down with the ship, too.
I think it is time to bring out the wild woman and put my efforts to something worthwhile! Wish me luck! And get ready to cauterize the blood.
* It is not really a competition. It is a wonderful collaborative effort to start a conversation. The worst thing to do with a problem is to hide it. It festers, grows more powerful. The more we speak up about what is wrong in the world, and suggest how to makes shifts, the more chance we have of digging ourselves out of this mess!
Fed up with the mess on the news? I will attempt to offer something different. I don’t know what it is yet, but I will start working on right away!
What would you like to hear about?
What do you think you are?
As usual, my children and my clients are my greatest teachers. As I was flitting around one morning multitasking as usual, my daughter stopped me to read me a poem. It made me stop and ask myself: What do you think you are?
This was the poem:
“Zebra Question” by Shel Silverstein
I asked the zebra,
Are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes? Continue Reading →
I met Ryan Harb last weekend (he and I helped at John Perkins Shapeshifting Leadership workshop) and was blown away at what a light in the world he is. He is making a difference by bringing a whole community together while he transforms grass areas of UMass Amherst campus into food-growing, organic gardens. Watch this 5 minute video to see what they are up to.
If they achieve 50,000 views by September 15, sponsors will donate fruit and nut trees to 4 schools, so make a difference, please pass it along!
Many people can experience the same event and bring home different perspectives.
An email a friend sent me this weekend with the subject line “road rage” perfectly illustrates this “same event, different perspectives” concept.
The email suggested that this driver was trying to pass the elephant because he was impatient. Did any of you receive it?
I thought these photos were remarkable and so I did more research. On snopes.com.
It is a perfect example of how the same event where one could think of as “truth,” could be construed in different ways. It makes us stop and wonder what is truth? So I wanted to share.
Thank you for your colors, the “Disney” green of the moss, the deep blue of the sky, the stark white of the clouds. The red and purple in the setting sun.
Thank you for your plants. They sustain us with food, give us medicine to heal our bodies, wood for our shelter, raw material for clothing. They provide our oxygen. They are our greatest teachers and make constant sacrifices for us, always willingly, purposefully. Continue Reading →
Yesterday I asked my 5500 fans on Facebook (Heal Now and Forever Be In Peace) who knew why the rabbit and eggs were associated with Easter and these folks gave some pretty great answers! All were correct! Continue Reading →
