ChuckBehrens

President of the Impostor’s Syndrome International Club

April 16, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

I pinned it on Pinterest!

IT received to date: 2858 REPINS, 844 LIKES and five comments.

IT is one of my most biggest fears (after Snakes and the Dentists)

MY BIGGEST FEAR
IS THAT EVENTUALLY
YOU WILL SEE ME
THE WAY
I SEE
MYSELF. . . .

…And alas, I’ll unanimously be voted as the President of the Impostor’s Syndrome International Club–Forever!

Anything FAKE about you…anything genuinely Imitation?

WHY?

When was the last time you were actually all YOU?

What brought it out? What made IT feel so authentic? So REAL?

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Believing In Good

April 14, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

It’s the universal law of life, right?

YOU GIVE…YOU GET!

. . .But wonder if it’s not all that Universal…wonder if there’s NEVER a pay off, nothing added to a 401K or a meager Bank Account? Wonder if you got NOTHING for any, for EVERY thing you give. Would you still keep it up?

Wonder if truly the only thing you ever got for a kind act was only the shaking of a head, or frustration and anger…or, NO THANKS or Recognition in the tiniest of forms?

WOULD YOU STILL KEEP IT UP?

Wonder if all you got was just pure, unadulterated Emotions. A smile? A nod? A faithful, following dog? A hug? Witnessing someone truly benefiting from your kind, compassionate giving.

WOULD YOU STILL KEEP IT UP?

The World often becomes better not in big, huge ways, but small, almost unnoticed ways that often go UN-thanked and UN-paid.

See.

Be.

Free…that magnificent Light that allows others to not only be in the Brightness but also in the Warmth that often accompanies.

Make YOUR limelight be their Spotlight!

Find WAYS to out do, out give, out live yourself and you won’t have to worry about the World rewarding you…IT will be BENEFIT Enough!

Princess Unawares

April 11, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

They really live anywhere, but still you wouldn’t expect to find ONE there. . . .

It was a Friday afternoon and the air still couldn’t figure out if it was the last day of Winter or the First day of Spring.

It was quiet in the hall way of the nursing home, well after lunch, with many naps in progress.

But not her. She was sitting in a wheelchair in front of the nurses station. She noticed me right away, this Keeper of the Hall way Kingdom.

“Hey, WHO ARE YOU?”

“My name’s Chuck,” I said to her.

“WHO?”

“My name is Chuck. I’m a Chaplain.”

“Come over here, I want to see your name tag,” she demanded.

I went over and knelt down in front of her and she grabbed the name tag I had clipped on my shirt and she first smiled and then started laughing…almost hysterically.

“What’s so funny,” I asked her?

“You’re Charlie Chaplain!”

I laughed with her and smiling back, owned it, “Yes I am.”

“Well, WHO AM I,” she asked, looking confused?

“You don’t know?”

“No, really, I don’t know. Who am I?”

“Well you’re a Princess!”

“A Princess?”

“Absolutely. A Princess. I knew it as soon as I started walking down this hall way and I really knew it when you asked me who I was?”

“And who am I,” an aide asked as she came from behind the nurses station?

“Well, you have the most important job of all, ma’am. You’re the Caretaker of the Princess, making her even more special than she is, every day and night!”

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Chipped Ham Sandwiches

April 9, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Chipped Ham Sandwiches!

Quick: WHAT COMES TO MIND?

Hunger? Mayo? Mustard? Barbecue? Fresh Bread? Picnics? Packed Lunches? Root Beer? Pickles?

Or Him?

For me, it’s always him.

Junior High through High School and then a few times during Christmas vacations or quick Summer visits.

Chipped Ham sandwiches.

It was his signature move, but not his only one.

On Friday night sleepover’s he’d make them after basketball practice. The freshest of Italian Bread slices, sometimes with thinly sliced tomatoes and an even thinner layer of mayo. It was a masterpiece, too good, almost to eat and always slow enough to savor.

He lived his life with the same kind of Masterpiece living. He always spoke softly with a smile and kept his car clean enough to eat a sandwich or a holiday meal. His garage and house was impeccable, nothing ever out of place and I loved always the perfect fire in the basement fireplace on cold winter evenings.

He loved Sinatra and was even more of a GENTLE man. He was a perfect compliment to a wife he adored and his two children whom he cherished.

He always asked of family and others before sharing of himself. I never knew of one of his needs, even when he was hurt in a steel mill accident.

I would often see him walking a track that I ran on in both of our adult years and he would always nod in acknowledgement and extend a hand before you could get one out of your pocket.

He has grieved heroically since his wife died suddenly in 2007 and I hadn’t seen or talked with or seldom of him since.

I had heard of his death like so many other things I learn of these days: A Facebook post.

I thought of Chipped Ham Sandwiches and the ease, skill and expertise he showed as he made them very shortly after unpacking his other groceries.

I will attend his funeral today out of respect for him and mostly his Son who has been my best friend since 8th grade.

I will Honor and celebrate Him with some shared memories.

I will Remember…and be thankful for the small, great things that make Life significant. I will take the things I’ve known; the very things I’ve admired, respected; the things I’ve loved and cherished and make them a part of myself–I’ll share them as they’ve been shared with me…so that others may remember and share alike one day on my behalf, too.

. . .and I will eat a chipped ham sandwich. . .

Maybe, Two!

Karma-Rific

April 4, 2014 By ChuckBehrens 4 Comments

It was a simple gift from out daughter. Tickets to see Billy Joel in concert. They were “Cheap Seats.”
We didn’t care…it was nice to be out and see a guy I’ve followed since his first album to his latest work–including his only classical album, which most don’t even know exists.

I had to conduct a funeral. They went to the casino for a buffet dinner and a little gambling before the concert. We took two cars. I arrived first to the concert and went to our seats in the thin air section and within moments received their call that we had been granted FRONT ROW SEATS by a stage hand who was wandering the corridor giving out tickets to ‘ladies who look nice and aren’t afraid to dance.’

They told him about me, and even threw down the MINISTER card, (HOW COULD HE REFUSE, NOW) and he granted them three front row seats.

WOW!

WHY? Why them? Why Us?

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Monkeying Around

April 2, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Now, there’s Monkeying Around and then there’s MONKEYING AROUND!

The story goes that a group of Scientists placed 5 monkeys in a cage and in the middle, a ladder with a bunch of bananas at the top.

When a monkey would make his way to the top of the ladder to get a banana the rest of the monkeys would get splashed with cold water.

It didn’t take too long for the other four monkeys who weren’t climbing the ladder to beat up the one who attempted to climb for the bananas–even a dumb monkey doesn’t want to get splashed with cold water one time or over and over.

Soon, there were no monkeys attempting to climb the ladder, banana or no banana.

This is where it gets interesting.

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Hearing What’s Not Said

March 31, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

More often than the day comes after the night we LISTEN to REPLY!

We have excuses and opinions on “the matter,” but it still is a true statement that becomes more and more true with each passing conversation.

LISTENING for REPLYING sake–not for understanding, not for sympathy, not for empathy, not for compassion, and not for love–for Replying sake.

Even now as you’ve seen the short video and are reading these few fleeting words, good or bad, you’re formulating a response and defend it by thinking, “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.”

Shhhhhhh. . .LISTEN.

It’s amazing what you’ll hear being said and intimated when your ears are open–fully–and your mouth is closed except for an occasional, “Hmmmm,” “Uhhh-huh,” “Really? Can you tell me more about that,” and actually MEAN IT!

It’s not about The Nail…Especially if Someone Else needs it not be.

Now, That’s Communication!

Dare to Hear what’s NOT being Said…even if it’s NOT the way you would actually say it or preferred it to be said to you.

It’s amazing just what will be communicated–both ways–on a road that was never even fully ONE WAY let alone a two or four-laner.

Hear it OUT!

When you Speak with your Ears, you might have Shouted the Loudest and Heard the most. . . .

HEAVEN-less

March 26, 2014 By ChuckBehrens 2 Comments

You knew it was coming, didn’t you?

I mean, it’s the question we have to ask. . .answer, many different times in our lives, isn’t it?

So, do you?

Do you believe in, dare I ask, (yeah, I triple dog dare) H-E-A-V-E-N?

I don’t!

It’s not the first time this has happened, which is probably more affirming than anything.

More substantiating is that it’s happened to different types of people in different economic, religious, sexual orientation, gender, racial and generational realms.

It happened again this morning at a funeral I was conducting.

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The Biggest Bully Ever

March 24, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

What was the worst job you ever had?

Is it your current one? Was it the very first job you had while in school, or just out of school?

Who was the worst Boss or Supervisor you’ve ever had?

Was your worst job connected in any way to the worst Boss?

Can you for a few moments, just pull out that Mirror you look into…you know, the one that doesn’t hang in your bathroom or on the back of the door or maybe on the wall in front of the door you walk out of every day?

No, pull out the mirror that doesn’t exist anywhere else, in any place in your home, except in your mind. It’s that mirror that you see yourself in honest-to-God-full-living-vivid-color which never distorts or dims your truest self.

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Of Grave Interest

March 21, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

RE-MEMBERING

It’s really my favorite way to spell R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R!

In a self-published book that I co-wrote with Cynthia Morgan back in the late 90’s, “RE-MEMBER–A MEMORY BOOK,” it’s how I spelled it and I explained in the Forward that it’s RE because it is actually putting back together the Pieces of a Person’s life as they have fit themselves into the puzzles of our lives.

Do we ever RE-MEMBER enough?

Certainly not a funeral, or around a holiday table, or out back during a family reunion picnic. It’s true isn’t it? Anytime we come together to RE-MEMEMBER, it’s never long enough, which is most likely the reason we continue to come up with little personal ways of RE-MEMBERING that will continue to unfold meaning and significance for each of us.

Stones on a Grave.

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