The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

THE FINISH LINE

By Leave a Comment

Sometimes it feels like
THERE IS NO FINISH LINE
you just keep running and running
going and going and going and. . .
and the worst is when there is an apparent END
only to find out when you get to IT
it’s just the beginning of an ongoing
ever-changing HORIZON

HAVE YOU EVER FELT LIKE THAT.            .            .            ?
W          E          L          L:

I recently read a post from a fellow National Speaker Association, colleague, Lou Hecker who shared:

“I’ve been thinking about “no finish line.”  I passed a business this past week and a sign out front really caught my eye:  ‘”HUMAN PROGRESS HAS NO FINISH LINE.”  It really meant something special to me — here I am at an age when many say, “Okay, I’m done.  That’s it.  All through.”  And that’s the opposite of what I feel.  I believe most people are built for achievement — for the results it brings others…for the joy it brings the achiever…for feeling like we matter.  The great tennis star and humanitarian Arthur Ashe said this, “I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.”  What will you do this week to foster that attitude among the people who work for and with you?  And how will you embrace that idea yourself?  Was it Yogi Berra who said, “it’s never over ’til it’s over.”?    Maybe we could change that to, “It’s never over,” right?”


Now maybe this RE-FRAMING
is something that’ll have us thinking a little past our
ONCE UPON A TIME’S
.           .           .m a y b e

JUST A MOMENT: A JUNK DRAWER

By Leave a Comment

It’s easy comparing a junk drawer to our lives, it?

I mean, isn’t a junk drawer a whole lot of what feels like inside of us; all kinds of things that we save, all kinds of things that we just can’t get rid of only because one day, one day they will come in handy, and we will absolutely, undoubtably, need them, these special ‘save a-lots”  Yet,  how often have we gone to the junk drawer and never used the things that we’ve saved or worse, the one thing that we need isn’t there and we have to go and get it anyway?

Gobs of knickknacks, this and that’s, trinkets, odds and ends, widgets, novelties, whatchamacallits, thingamajigs, etc’s

GUARANTEED: THE ONE THING YOU NEED IN THE JUNK DRAWER ISN’T THERE!

Beyond frustrating and as irritating at the rumpled up piece of sandpaper at the back of the drawer.   So, I don’t know,  is the message just clear out everything, hit the delete button and just forget all the things that no longer serve you or that you really don’t need, or.    .    .just keep saving on because one day, one day your hope will come true, and you most definitely need that 30w fuse or just merely will need everything that what you’ve saved but don’t dare throw out
BECAUSE.         .        .
Quite a parable.          .          .
quite a life.          .          .
quite a junk drawer, huh?

ENJOY THE WEATHER

By Leave a Comment

S      O      M      E      T      I      M      E      S
we are so soaked with getting
e v e n
that we get drenched with never getting our
a measure for a measure
but getting what we need
and maybe not what we want
all the while never really enjoying the weather
or the Life
that sprinkles on by us
and evaporates
all to soon.     .     .WHEN YOU DARE TO RE-DEFINE
 W          I          N          N          I         N          G
you’re already the happy
V I C T O R

 

WHEN LIFE BREAKS YOU

By 2 Comments


“When life breaks you, it is because you are ready to be put back together differently. Every piece of you that feels shattered is a piece that will find a new place, a new purpose, a new meaning. Trust that the cracks are where the light gets in. And sometimes, in our brokenness, we find our greatest wholeness. We find the courage to rebuild, to reimagine, to redefine what it means to be strong. You are not broken; you are breaking through.” — with Golden Words .

PROTECTED PRESENCE

I’m Broken
and I’ve lost a lot of my pieces
I don’t exactly remember when I
Humpty-Dumptied if off the wall
No recollection of all the Kings men
and all of the horses they rode in on
But I know. . .ohhh how I know
How I’ve not been put back together again
and when you dare to
provide protective presence
and choose to hold me
It’s not so much of an Embrace
as a specific piece that never existed
You’ve brought to me
A wholeness I’ve not known
but now never want to forget
or ever want to be without

JUST A MOMENT

By 4 Comments

H          E          Y
JUST
A 
MOMENT

Seriously.          .           .
t  a  k  e
J    U     S     T
A 
M  O  M  E  N  T.            .              .
or at least

8.25 seconds

Average Human Attention Span Statistics.    .   .The average human attention span is 8.25 seconds. Attention spans can range from 2 seconds to over 20 minutes. The average human attention span decreased by almost 25% from 2000 to 2015. Humans have shorter attention spans than goldfish (9 seconds).

Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
That was 10 years ago;
it’s even shorter now
So about a year ago I decieded to switch things up.
On my Wednesday Blog, I use to do an educational piece that usually read anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes
and given the current information on our shrinking attention spans
THAT’S
WAY
TOO
L                    o                       N                g
so roughly about a year ago
on Wednesday’s I began doing a quick
(less than 2 minutes)
video that’ll take you,
(you’ve got it)
JUST
A
MOMENT

If you wouldn’t mind,
I’d like your feedback or your feelings on this
format
so I can better inform
and at times
entertain
Y O U
but only if it’s
JUST A MOMENT
otherwise my attention span of a gnat
might not be around to
get the message
Just sayin’

 

WE WILL ALL GO TOGETHER

By Leave a Comment

I have never heard of some guy named, Jacob Collier but then I chanced upon this video of Laufey, Dodie, and Jacob Collier singing “Wild Mountain Thyme,” a Scots-Irish love song.  Phyllis Cole-Dai randomly posted it on one of here blogs and WHA-LA!

Not only are the featured singers’ voices a lovely blend, accompanied at points by the National Symphony Orchestra. But also they’re performing the song at the Kennedy Center before, well before February.

Midway through, Jacob Collier leads the diverse audience in the joyful experience of improvised humming. Yes, the joy of simple humming . . . together . . . in close harmony. (Just look at those smiling faces!)

Almost by definition, the arts are free. Expansive. Inclusive.

They bring us together. They inspire and empower us. They remind us of what’s possible, even beyond our seeing.

We must continue to be part of a love song for humanity that refuses to end.

We will all go together to pull the wild mountain thyme.



WILD MOUNTAIN THYME
(traditional, with varying contributors cited)

Oh, the summertime is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will you go, lassie, go?

Refrain:
And we'll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will you go, lassie, go?

I will build my love a bower
By yon clear and crystal fountain
And on it I will pile
All the flowers of the mountain
Will you go, lassie, go?

Refrain

I will range through the wilds
By yon deep glen so dreary
And return with the spoils
To thе bower of my deary
Will you go, lassie, go?

Refrain

[audience humming . . . ]

Refrain

(My thanks to vocalists Laufey, Dodie, and Jacob Collier; the National Symphony Orchestra; and the audience-participants, via PBS.)

OFF THE LEDGE

By Leave a Comment

high rise buildings during daytime.jpeg
Photo by Kevin Nalty on Unsplash
https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9cefa77c-64df-4c91-8a1d-5f730f5fd3a0_706x574.png

(My thanks to Amy Hempel, viaPoetry Today.)
There are a lot of LEDGES out there begging us to walk to their end
GO AHEAD
WALK THERE
LOOK OVER
and see for yourself
THERE IS SO MUCH BEFORE YOU
THAN BENEATH YOU.         .        .

IN JUST A MOMENT: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FEELING LUCKY AND BEING BLESSED

By Leave a Comment

There is a huge difference between feeling lucky being lucky and being blessed and you can find out in just a moment, you really can. Listen, I don’t want to take away your lucky charm or steal your magic potions; I don’t certainly want to debunk anything that makes you feel like you can have a better day, but here’s the guarantee you want to be and feel lucky at the same time.

It’s this easy:  Be someone’s lucky charm for somebody; Be their blessing.  If you know that person, great.  If not, even better!  I mean, willy-nilly, pick a person–be a lucky charm, a magic potion, a special moment and in just a moment you will know the difference between being lucky and being blessed.          .          .

Guaranteed

THE BEST WAY OUT IS THROUGH

By Leave a Comment

There’s not a whole lot of “Ohhhhhhhhh-Ahhhhhhhhh” 
to this short little clip
and maybe that’s the true
M      E      S      S      A      G      E
HOME RUNS
aren’t the only way to score runs or come from behind or stay ahead
S O M E T I M E S
there are hits, walks, errors, sacrifices and stolen bases
that add up to a WIN
.     .     .it all ADDS UP
to the absolute truth
THE BEST WAY OUT IS THROUGH
ONE STEP AT A TIME
ISN’T A BAD WAY TO MOVE FORWARD

TWO WORDS

KEEP GOING

GUILTY: DYING TO SELF OR. . .

By Leave a Comment

 

Do you feel guilty? What does it take to make you feel that.          .          . because a lot of times, I think if somebody accuses me that the world is in the place that it is right now it’s my fault, which is more than somebody gaslighting me; I mean, I actually feel guilty for just about everything. Maybe that’s something I need to work on more than just blog about, but when I read the piece below it makes me feel even more guilt, not for what I’ve done, not for who I am, but for what I haven’t done and maybe even what I can’t do and yes, for who I am not quite possibly never will be. Do you feel guilty?  GUILTY as charged, even if it’s a self-inflicted charge, even if you are your own jury, your own peer, your judge, and your executioner.         .         .what say you foreman of the Jury:  ARE YOU GUILTY?  HAVE YOU DIED TO SELF?

Dying to self

When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don’t sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy.     .     .
THAT IS DYING TO SELF

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take in all in patient, loving silence.        .        .
THAT IS DYING TO SELF

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any impunctuality, or any annoyance; when you stand face-to- face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility-and endure it.      .      .
THAT IS DYING TO SELF

When you are content with any food, any offering, any climate, any society, any raiment, any interruption.        .        .
THAT IS DYING TO SELF

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendations, when you can truly love to be unknown.         .          .
THAT IS DYING TO SELF

When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances.          .          .
THAT IS DYING TO SELF

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart.           .          .
THAT IS DYING TO SELF

Are you dead yet?  Feeling Guilty?

Maybe what you need to do is read Thomas Merton‘s prayer to take the burden of Guilt off of you, not that you’re exonerated, not that you’re free, but sometimes the worst prison isn’t the one that somebody condemns you to, but the one that you put yourself in and throw away the key or maybe it’s time to find the key, or at least something to pick the lock. Yeah, be guilty of that.       .       .

My Fellow GUILTY FEELERS maybe it’s time, maybe

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man