The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

SPLASH

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“OUR TASK MUST BE TO FREE OURSELVES BY WIDENING OUR CIRCLE OF COMPASSION TO EMBRACE ALL LIVING CREATURES AND THE WHOLE OF NATURE AND ITS BEAUTY–Albert Einstein

Can IT be measured?

“THEY” say we are made up of about 60% water.

Talk about making a SPLASH!

What percentage of us is actually made up of Compassion? 10%? 25%> 50%? 75%? Can it actually be measured?

Do you measure IT in smiles? Looks? A Touch? Gestures? A kind Word? Presents?

When’s the last time you were reduced to a puddle of Water?

When’s the last time you REDUCED another to a puddle?

No formal education is necessary, no fancy words, no pomp or circumstances–Just YOU–Willing to show another maybe what no OTHER will or actually can do at the moment you CAN.

Will YOU?

Forget about making a Ripple–it’ll take care of itself.

MAKE A SPLASH!

Soak Another in Compassion. . .and your Understanding and Imagination won’t be able to be expand enough to comprehend the Water World you’ll Create!

Come on, Einstein. . .I know you’ve got it in you. . .maybe that’s the problem–we all do–but what we have in us makes no matter until we make it a part of another and make them just a little more than what they were before our simple act of Compassion.

WOW! You’re all wet!

Getting Your Compassion OFF

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It’s all about Compassion, isn’t it?

Everyone makes a push to “Get Their Compassion ON!”

Maybe it’s really about Taking your Compassion OFF. . .and not so much just SHARING it, but actually unequivocally, unabashedly, no-strings-ever-attached-GIVING IT!

Sure, the small film was made in Oslo, Norway. That would never happen in Cleveland, Ohio or Chicago, IL, or Fargo, ND, or Nome, Alaska, would it?

The thing that ultimately haunts me about the film is that the little kid, NEVER asked for a coat or clothes, or a scarf or gloves…not once.

Would it have made a difference?

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Vereses

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The best song’s have more than just one verse, don’t they?

The best song’s not only have more than one verse, but a killer chorus that bounces around in your head like a bullet ricocheting around in a steel encased room.

But we don’t believe it!

We know it, know that the song has multiple verses, might even be able to sing through everyone of them like a long Dylan song gone amok, but we just don’t believe it–or at least act like we believe it.

The Apple commercial with Robin Williams, borrows his speech from his role in Peter Weir’s 1989 film, DEAD POET’S SOCIETY. In the film, Williams plays a teacher who inspires some pretty rigid academy students with his unorthodox teaching methods and passion for poetry. Williams ends the commercial with his oft-quoted line from the film:

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Through the Wringer

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A long, hard Winter will have you not only actively wishing, but dreaming about Summer.

You don’t always need a Winter, though, do you?

Growing up was always one of the greatest times of the year wasn’t it? For me, it meant that we could spend a whole week at my grandparents WITHOUT my brothers and sister.

I was King for a week during that time. I always got to pick the menu for the week, and lima beans wasn’t on it. I could pick out the flavor of ice-cream I liked the best and if I wanted to, I could stay up and watch Johnny Carson.

I always took the opportunity to tell my grandmother what terrible people my parents were; why they made me take out garbage, put my clothes in the hamper, make my bad and even had the audacity to make me do the dishes from time to time.

I remember asking my grandmother what terrible things her parents made her do, and she would tell me it was many, many tasks too horrible to describe, but one in particular, doing the family wash, was the worst because they didn’t have a wash machine. My grandmother would have to haul the family laundry into town, wait while it was being done, and then have to come home afterwards; an all day event, she bemoaned.

She told me she’d remembered very vividly when their neighbor was drafted into the war and he boarded up the house and moved his family in with the in-laws and asked my great-grandparents if they’d be so kind as to take care of some of the things they were leaving behind. Wouldn’t you know, one of them was their wash machine. It’s the kind you actually find out on the back porch of an antique store, the one with the tumbler and wringer. She even proudly displayed a nasty scar on her hand where she’d actually got it caught in the wringer.

She said, chasing that old wash machine across their dirt basement floor as it would shake, shimmy, spit, and spew suds all over the place was a kind of peace on earth–besides she could now do the family wash at her convenience and not for a whole Saturday.

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Smudges

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W H A A A A A T?

You may be wondering why people have marked up foreheads today…some, you might be able to see as an actual sign of a cross and others are going to look like smudges that have been unnoticed and unattended.

Before you go with a, “Ummmm, there’s a big black smudge on your forehead,” card, just know that it’s Ash Wednesday, the official day of the 40 days of Lent.

Most liturgical churches celebrate the occasion, but it’s not ever found in the Bible as one of the “OTHER” Silent Commandments. There are some peculiar settings for the ritual, though.

Smudged Cross Wearers are not trying to show off today and or pronounce, “HEY LOOK AT ME, I’M A REAL CHRISTIAN!”

The Smudge is worn to remind the Wearer and the See-er of the Smudge, “FROM DUST YOU WERE CREATED AND TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN.”

Hmmmm, a nice way of saying, “DEAD-SINNER WALKING!”

But and it’s a rather Big, B U T, sporting the Smudge is actually meaningless unless there are some inner change that shows up outwardly much greater than the Smudge itself…and of the the two, this one hopefully is more noticeable and longer-lasting than the Smudge.

. . .For this, there is a Biblical Mandate from the book of Isaiah 58:5-7 and truly it transcends all Religions and becomes Universal because each Religion actually embraces:

“IS THIS THE KIND OF FAST I’VE CHOSEN FOR YOU, ONLY A DAY TO HUMBLE YOURSELF? IS IT ONLY THE BOWING OF ONE’S HEAD LIKE A REED AND FOR LYING ON SACKCLOTH AND ASHES? IS THAT WHAT YOU CALL A FAST, A DAY ACCEPTABLE TO THE LORD? IS THIS REALLY NOT THE KIND OF FASTING I HAVE CHOSEN FOR ALL: TO LOOSE THE CHAINS OF INJUSTICE AND UNTIE THE CORDS OF YOKE, TO SET THE OPPRESSED FREE AND BREAK EVERY YOKE? IS IT NOT TO SHARE YOUR FOOD WITH THE HUNGRY AND TO PROVIDE THE POOR WANDERER WITH SHELTER–WHEN YOU SEE THE NAKED, TO CLOTHE HIM AND NOT TO TURN AWAY FROM YOUR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD?”

. . .So, getting Smudged may not be of utmost importance, wearing the smudge for a day, even less, but literally S M U D G I N G others with your kindness, compassion, care, UN-CONDITIONAL LOVE, acceptance, and assistance (FOR MORE THAN A DAY OR A SEASON OR A MERE OBSERVANCE). . .well now. . .

May I be the first in line to not so much offer my broad forehead, but my Open Heart!

Join me!

GET SMUDGED and SMUDGE UNCEASINGLY!

Passers-By

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Dead Poet’s Society, 1989.

Some say the movie is timeless and that it should be a requirement for Teachers before teaching their first class.

Maybe that’s selling it completely short and putting it into a $1.00 or under re-sell bin at a rummage sale.

The story in 1989, 2014, and most like in 2089 will never be about teaching or learning or living or dying.

Truly–it’s about you!

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The “Z” in Xylophone

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Question.

Have you ever felt like the “Z” in Xylophone?

It’s not always a comfortable feeling is it? In fact, most of the time, we try severely hard to feel anything but the “Z” in Xylophone, don’t we?

We don’t like finger pointing, especially when they are pointed our way. Most really like to fly under any radar recognition, even if it means not getting properly identified.

In fact, if we’re really honest, we are doing so much to “FIT IN” we give little or absolutely no thought, to stand out!

Can we re-read THAT, in a slightly different way?

How is it that we spend a huge portion and much of what we define our Life as being, devising ways to FIT IN when we are born to stand out?

CAN WE RE-READ T H A T in a slightly different way?

We are born to be OUTSTANDING people and we are constantly looking for a crowd to slip inside of to be counted. . .at the cost of being COUNTED ON!

Have you ever felt like the “Z” in Xylophone?

Psssst: The next time you feel like that glorious “Z” in Xylophone–PLAY IT!

You are an important NOTE in the Symphony that composes this Universe. Without you, the concert may continue, but continually be incomplete.

STAND OUT!

Risk being OUTSTANDING!

Be the Glorious “Z” you were created to be, now, here, in this moment you’ve been placed.

Be of NOTE!

RE-S O U N D!

Ripple on. . . .

Make Toes, Tap.

Make Fingers, drum across table tops.

Make Hearts, Beat.

Make Mouths, Sing.

Z OUT before you Zzzzzzzzz away!

Change That Doesn’t Jingle

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The only thing constant is Change, isn’t it?

8:54 isn’t a very long time to change is it?

Neither is a Second or a Trillion years…

If the Change is really a Change that doesn’t jingle, in your pocket, a tin can or, or even your Soul!

No matter how long Change takes, the Eight plus minutes to watch Sharon Wright’s amazing film, Change For A Dollar, or a lifetime or a Million Years, it really means nothing, if Change doesn’t happen in you.

When I contacted Sharon last week to ask her if I could use/promote her film, she was gracious in permitting the honor of possibly sharing SOMEthing that could not only cause Change, but ripple it out so that it could do it many times over–if you too would SHARE!

I knew after seeing this over a couple of years ago that I would not only be changed by it, but also have the responsibility of sharing it so that YOU may be changed, so that others, too might be
changed. . . .

I just didn’t want you to receive it–see it–experience it–I wanted you to S H A R E it as I have with you.

The only thing constant is change. . .when it doesn’t jingle in your pocket or in a tin can.

You’ll know it’s real, authentic, long lasting…uhh, yeah, even the Life-CHANGing Kind when it rattles around in your Soul like it can’t in any other way, in any other place.

Let that Jangle around in your Soul until it becomes the most glorious symphony the World begs to hear, Maestro.

Tap that Baton.

Start Directing.

Bring IT.

The Music of CHANGE never really Ends…we just stop Hearing IT!

Being THAT GUY

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Maybe it’s not so much about being Remembered as it is simply not getting FORGOTTEN. . . .

I’ve NOT been remembered LOTS as a minister, a Life-Celebrant, a Spiritual Care Coordinator with hospice, a Wedding Liturgist, a Speaker for Leadership, Communication, Spirituality, End-Of-Life Issues. Maybe too many times. But I have literally, powerfully, emphatically NOT been Forgotten.

Most of the phone calls I get to fulfill any of the roles above is merely been because I’ve NOT been forgotten.

I’m sincerely, intimately, “THAT GUY!”

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SMILE–You’re on Camera (ALWAYS)

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“SMILE, YOU’RE ON CANDID CAMERA!”

Sounds simple enough doesn’t it?

If you’re old enough, it was great entertainment, this show, Candid Camera with Alan Funt which ran from 1960-1967. It always caught unsuspecting people who were usually placed in confusing, impossible, embarrassing, ridiculous and hilarious situations, while their reactions were caught on a hidden camera.

Funny, what made for great entertaining, not-to-hurt-anyone-TV that ran for some seven years, once a week, is now a 24 hour, 7 day a week, 365 days a year event.

With Social Media and everyone having a Smart Phone, and NSA being accused of the modern day nightmare come to reality, Big Brother…we’re all movie stars…willing or unwilling and unsuspecting, aren’t we?

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Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man