Hope — Page 80

Broke D O W N

October 12, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

When’s the last time you’ve been

B R O K E D O W N ?

No. . .

I’m not talking about the last time you blew a tire

I’m not talking about the last time your battery quit battery-ing

I’m not talking about the last time the Alternator stopped Alternating

I’m not talking about the last time when you blew a Radiator hose

I’m not talking about the last time your water pump stopped pumping

I’m not talking about when you pushed it and ran out of gas. . .

I’m asking,

When’s the last time you’ve been

B R O K E D O W N ?

. . .When you’ve read something

. . .When you’ve heard something

. . .When you’ve watched something

that actually Broke You Down ?

I’m pushing a very dangerous limit here.

According to a recent study from Microsoft Corp., we now have an attention span less than a Goldfish

(Talk about getting Broke Down)

The study reveals that we generally lose concentration after about eight seconds, which seemingly highlights the affects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain.

So. . .maybe somewhat foolishly. . .

I’m asking you to watch a five-minute-thirteen-second video that was suppose to be a social experiment of how long it would actually take someone to stop to help a motorist who was broken down on the side of the road.

It took over two hours and then the person that actually stopped. . .

W A I T. . .

S T R E T C H

Your Attention Span by five-minutes-and-five-seconds and get

B R O K E D O W N

to become more

whole

than you could ever possibly be on a Monday Morning in any other way.

And. . .

CONGRATULATIONS FOR CONCENTRATING LONG ENOUGH

to make it through the video and this blog posting. . .

maybe the berm

has put you well onto the Road again. . . .

And if you would like to help a not-so-broken-down-ONE to become more whole you can contribute to: https://www.gofundme.com/xbmt3w

Your Neutrino Of Compassion

October 7, 2015 By ChuckBehrens 2 Comments

Congratulations to Takaaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo and Arthur B. McDonald of Queen’s University in Canada who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering

THAT THE UBIQUITOUS BUT ELUSIVE SUBATOMIC PARTICLES KNOWN AS NEUTRINOS HAVE MASS

The ghostly neutrino–it means, “SMALL NEUTRAL ONE” in Italian–carries no electric charge and is so light that it had been assumed for many years to have no mass at all. These two Scientists showed that Neutrinos, which are found in three ‘flavors,’ could oscillate from one flavor to another–changing identities like a spy on the run, as they traveled through the atmosphere or through space from the sun–demonstrating that they do in fact have mass.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize stated,

“The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost working of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the Universe. . . .”

S O W H A T ?

Well. . .

The universe is swamped in neutrinos that are left over from the Big Bang, and many more are created in nuclear reactions on earth and in the thermonuclear reactions that power the sun.

. . . Once thought to travel at the speed of light, they drift through the earth and

OUR OWN BODIES

like moonlight through the window. Knowing that they can change identities–and that they have mass–has helped cosmologists understand how the Universe has evolved and how the sun works, and it will perhaps help them improve their attempts to create fusion reactors on earth. . . .

S O W H A T?

So. . .

if some SMALL NEUTRAL ONE

can do all that from the Sun

so very many, many years ago

from the Big Bang

and it’s in

OUR BODIES. . .

how much more

can just a single charged minuscule neutrino

reflect the Light

of our Compassion. . . ?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. . .

Holy Neutrinos, Batman

I don’t think we saw the light

we just might have on purpose with full intent,

c r e a t e d

i t !

May that be the Combustionable in us

exploding in atomic proportions

r e p e a t e d l y. . . .

Monkey Wrenched

October 2, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Ever felt like a

S M A S H E D P L A T E ?

S H E D I D

It was the Saturday before Halloween all the

W A Y

back in 2002

It was an all day retreat that I was contacted to do on

HOLY HELL

for a couple of Church groups that wanted to work through their

SMASHED PLATE SYNDROMES

S H E

was the one who contacted me; she was a Parish Nurse.

The day before the retreat, unbeknownst to me for these past 13 years,

S H E

had been diagnosed with MS.

I broke a plate using a monkey wrench

over and over again while asking:

“WHAT’S YOUR MONKEY WRENCH ?

I pointed out to the group that this was a harrowing sound as these smashed pieces jingled in the bag as I walked around the circle among where they were sitting.

I shared that this eery sound reminds us all of the one single day we celebrate every day of the year, sometimes with gusto: HALLOWEEN

(Because of all of the varied and many masks we wear)

I told the group not to worry because psycho-sociologists have a remedy for this bag of broken pieces that sounds like a bag of chains with each step taken. . .

“PICK UP THE PIECES AND GO ON”

Problem:

WE STILL HAVE A BAG OF BROKEN PIECES!

B U T . . .

There’s a Universal law that every major Religion and all of the

N O N E S

agree:

ALL THINGS ARE MADE NEW

( Pssssssssst: Which Spring doesn’t Prove THAT? )

I often tell every group I present before:

“I AM NOT HERE FOR THIS GROUP TODAY. . .I AM ONLY HERE FOR ONE, SINGLE PERSON. . .I JUST DON’T KNOW WHICH ONE OF YOU ?

Nearly Thirteen years later I found out it was

H E R

I conducted the funeral for a 95 year old gentleman I had never met before. He was retired High-School Choral Teacher and there were many of his former students there. I actually joked about what George Burns once said about getting THAT old:

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT PEER PRESSURE”

S H E

was the wife of the Choral Teacher’s grandson.

S H E

came up to me after the service and said,

“You probably don’t remember me. But I hired you to come to a Church in 2002 to give an all day Seminar for a group of grieving people. I was one of them. I had just found out the day before that I had MS and I know it doesn’t show that much but I struggle every day. My MRI is a mess and I was a terrible wreck that day with where my Life was headed with this terrible Detour I had just been told. You smashed that plate, telling us that our Life has a way of meeting up not so well with Monkey Wrenches that get thrown into the middle of our living. I felt like those broken pieces and just when I thought you were going to leave us with, ‘PICK UP THE PIECES AND GO ON’ you showed us that there was something much better than trying to pick up the pieces and futilely attempting to put them back together, or just going on. . .You held up a brand new plate that was a replica of the one you had just smashed and boldly stated:

BEHOLD. . .ALL THINGS BECOME NEW !”

With tears trickling down her face she said, “That day. . .that moment. . .you transformed my life. Can I give you a hug?”

“TODAY. . .I AM HERE FOR JUST ONE, SINGLE PERSON. . .I JUST DON’T KNOW WHICH ONE OF YOU?”

What. . .

What message are you giving. . .

What One, Single Person needs The Gift. . .

DESPERATELY NEEDS

The Gift of Y O U, today?

Sometimes, it may take as much as Thirteen years to find. . .

Sometimes, you may never find out. . .?

S H O W U P

Do not Disappoint. . .THEM

G I V E

even when you feel

like The Gift is Empty

or as if it’s

N O T H I N G. . . .

Throw a Monkey Wrench at Something bad to make something good. . .

SOMETHING NEW !

The Sweetest Sounding TRASH

September 21, 2015 By ChuckBehrens 2 Comments

Have you ever been

T R A S H E D ?

NO. . .

not drunk, not hung-over, not disabled with too much alcohol or drugs–

W O R S E

Discarded

Forgotten

Left Behind

Thrown Away

Given up on

S L A M M E D S H U T

T R A S H E D ?

I Love this video about some kids in Cateura, on the cusps of Asuncion, Paraguay who are showing the world that tunes out of trash is a real thing.

Favio Chavez is an environmental technician who visioned up a music school as an open door for kids. Don Cola Gomez is a simple trash worker and carpenter. He had never seen, heard or held a violin in his life, but when someone described one to him, he took a paint can and an old oven tray into his dirty workshop and made a violin.

I’m moved

I’m embarrassed

I’m inspired

How someplace I’ve never heard about, took a junk heap and literally turned it into a concert hall

I F . . .

THAT

. . .what. . .of me. . .of you. . .of us ?

What tune can come from my mess. . .

What symphony can crescendo up out of my Soul. . .

What Maestro can wave up a baton and command me to Create/Produce/Harmonize out an aria. . .

w h a t ?

REALIZATION

THAT

CAN ?

Garbage always has a way of earning it’s name

. . .But our mess often can become music

if. . .

you just keep playing. . . .

A symphony is never just a note

but try having one without a single first euphony

Shhhhhhhhhhh. . .the Sonata is beginning

you’re up–

S O U N D

O F F

. . .the world needs your music

desperately

YOUR DUMP

is the World’s Dance Hall

. . .do not disappoint. . .

P L A Y !

EAGLED

September 7, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

WHO ARE YOU ?

It’s a question we get asked all of the time, isn’t it. . .

It’s a question we. . .

WE ASK OURSELVES

. . .A LOT, too, isn’t it?

Does the answer ever

C H A N G E ?

THEY

tell us that our children and most especially our grandchildren will most likely, in their lifetimes, have not just five jobs, but actually

FIVE OR MORE CAREERS !

So if we are

WHO WE ARE

as a profession or how we earn our money or

WHO OUR HEART SCREAMS WE ARE WHEN NO ONE ELSE IS LISTENING OR WATCHING ?

Hint:

You know you’ve been

E A G L E D

when you START OVER

. . .especially if it’s not been your choice to do so

We never have a purpose

We never have a reason

We never have a destiny

We never have a meaning

We, out of the very many things, the very many labels, the very many roles, the very many people we actually become and occupy, the absolute one is that we never stay

T H E S A M E

The Eagle doesn’t so much teach us how to soar. . .

so much as

HOW TO SOAR AGAIN

(and here’s the best part)

AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN

If that’s not a celebration of

Labor Day. . .

you quite possibly

have never worked

have never changed,

have never finished/begun again

have never celebrated

have never lived

(enough)

I Don’t Know (IS AN ANSWER)

September 4, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

I don’t know. . .

is a terrible answer.

Does I don’t know ever sit well with anyone, for anyone?

Does I don’t know ever make the heart beat lighter, the mind more peaceful, the soul more settled after a room full of Doctor’s all through out the day parade in, giving theories, hypothesis, checking, re-checking, testing, re-testing and after IT all

I DON’T KNOW

is the end all answer Erin and I were given after five seizures, five nights at Cleveland Clinic, numerous tests, a spinal tap, blood work and more worry than two mixed up minds could possible comprehend.

“BUT SOMETIMES, SOMETIMES, ‘I DON’T KNOW’ is the only answer there really is,” the Doctor told us before we went home.

He told us to take solace in all of the things we now know IT IS NOT: A mass or tumor, a hemorrhage or a bleed, or a stroke.

Maybe we’ve come to expect too much when it comes to our modern day medicine and our sophisticated ways of diagnosing and prognosing infections and diseases?

But out of all of the Punctuation we use or is used against us, none is more haunting or frustrating than

THE QUESTION MARK

In the three weeks, home now from the hospital, there have been a few more question marks that have arisen but most of them have become more vapor-like because as the Doctor’s promised,

“These symptoms of the headaches, ear pressure, dizziness and endurance will diminish over the next three weeks, going along with our theory that it was a viral infection that we just can’t prove in the lab.”

So life. . .like it so often does,

from the Mt Everest’s to the Dead Seas

goes on. . .

The clock’s have ticked their Toc’s

The Calendar pages have been ripped away and discarded

The Sun has risen and the moon has become full

Medicines have been taken

Meals eaten,

L I F E G O E S O N

with Periods, Commas, Exclamation points, Hyphens, Semi-Colons,

QUESTION MARKS

. . .and that IT GOES ON

dims. . .if not in fact, eliminates the

making the other side of the sheets a little more bearable

(This is the third installment of four of the ROUGH SIDE OF THE SHEETS: These are some of lessons experienced, learned, and how hopefully, shared. It’s my hope that you enjoy these journey-ings, and more, take the time to share a few of yours so that we can all learn a little more about those razor blade laden sheets…and in the sharing, soften them a little)

The T I M E

September 3, 2015 By ChuckBehrens 4 Comments

(This was originally posted on Friday, August 28, 2015, but because of some unexplained technical problems, it didn’t post as universal as expected; hence the reposting of this article)

THE TIME. . .

Do you have it?

Do you possess. . .o w n it?

Was there just one, specific, distinct time you actually did. . .

When T I M E

in reality. . .

S T O P P E D ?

Monday

8/10/15

3:15:54 p.m.

was my

T H A T

moment. . .

my point in time. . . .

When you find yourself on the other side of the sheets, you not only find them rougher, unsoothing, cutting, severely less than anything that could be considered comfortable. . .

THESE ARE THE KNOWNS

from THAT side of the sheets.

It’s the

U N K N O W N S

that makes the other side of the sheets so

g r a v e l l y

It had just been some 34 hours since Erin’s last of five seizures and there was a lot of disorientation, a vastness of confusion from her to me to the medical staff compassionately attempting to get an

exactness

on her condition. . .trying to isolate the

WHY, THE HOW COME, THE WHAT-FOR

of it all.

Blood tests were taken; EEG was being studied; CT Scan was being evaluated; a not-so-good-MRI without Contrast freshly finished and now, literally in the middle of a Spinal Tap,

standing behind a thin curtain where I could hear the conversations of the medical staff, Erin and my daughter Zoey who was permitted to be present for The Tap to keep her mom still. . .

I felt the light hand pressure of another one of Erin’s Doctor’s on my shoulder.

When I turned around, she motioned me to come into the hall way

and in the few steps away from the curtain, The Procedure,

it took me to follow her to the hallway

my heart was a war drum in my chest. . .

a beat I can’t remember ever duplicated

because I knew in that very moment

at that VERY TIME

my life. . .

our life. . .

was potentially about the change

for an ever.

“We weren’t able to get an MRI with Contrast because she was moving around to much for us to administer the contrast, but we got a good enough MRI to definitively rule out any tumor or mass, any Hemorrhages or Bleeds and no sign of any Stroke. We believe that it is an infection or a virus but we already were very proactive and began her on a high-powered IV Antibiotic, Acyclovir that should more than be capable of taking care of the infection. . .This is very good news, Congratulations. Hopefully, this spinal tap will reveal what we are fighting. . . .”

I looked down at my watch as she turned and walked away.

My watch was blurry. . .

salt water in the eyes, causes that. . . .

I took a picture of my running watch.

I wanted to freeze that moment. . .

isolate it. . .

set it a part. . .

always recognize it. . .

OWN IT

Monday, August 10, 2015; 3:15:54 p.m.

The other side of the sheets didn’t get any less rougher at that moment,

but they certainly got readjusted, fluffed up and fabreezed

. . .the corners still weren’t tucked in, the center all smoothed out

their appearance mocked their texture. . .still

The Watch. . .kept keeping time. . .

held it prisoner

for what any Watch, Clock or Time Piece never fully reveals. . .

The All-Powerful

N E X T

. . .because even if it’s GOOD NEWS. . .

there’s always a NEXT

. . .like when we found out that there was no mass or tumors, no hemorrhages, no stroke and with the early spinal tap results. . .

NO INFECTIONS/DISEASES. . .

N E X T !

(This is the second installment of four of THE ROUGH SIDE OF THE SHEETS; these are some of the lessons experienced, learned, and now hopefully, shared. It’s my hope that you enjoy these journey-ings, and more, take the time to share a few of yours so that we can all learn a little more about those razor blade laden sheets. . .and in the sharing, soften them a little)

BULLY

August 31, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Sometimes. . .

The Bully gets

B U L L I E D

Most of the time, we’d stand up and cheer when we actually see or hear of this happening.

It is, actually, what makes this video so viral. . .

WE LOVE CHEERING FOR THE BULLIED. . .

The Underdog.

Here might be the question of the year. . .maybe even the decade. . .maybe this Century and

CENTURIES PAST:

What if the BULLY and the BULLIED

are one and the same. . .

What if

The Bully and the Bullied are actually

Y O U ?

The worst Bully you might ever encounter is the one that stares you down in the mirror

. . .there just might not be any more of a Brutal Bully.

I’m Fat. . .

I’m a Loser. . .

I’m Lazy. . .

I suck. . .

I’ll never get this right. . .

I’m not meant to be in a relationship. . .

I’ll never kick this habit. . .

I_________________________________. . . .

Whatever you believe about negative Self-Talk

YOU BETTER NOT BELIEVE THAT IT’s JUST IN YOUR HEAD !

The Research shows that HAPPY people have a way. . .a habit. . .of putting bad days behind them and LEAVING them there. . .

Head-butting the over matched, huge, big, bad Bully and not only standing up against that Bully

but actually

BACKING IT DOWN

Knock THAT TRAIN off it’s tracks.

We all do Self-Talk

We all do NEGATIVE Self -Talk

We all have the capability of doing POSITIVE Self-Talk

HOW?

Three Words:

C O N F I D A N T

S M A R T

E F F E C T I V E

Go ahead, Bullied,

Test it out. . .

The next time the Bully starts the trashing of YOU

Get YOUR BULLY on

See YOURSELF as Bullying the bully by being

Confident. . .Smart. . .Effective.

Hmmmmmmm of the The Day:

I bet that’ll get your Goat!

The ROUGH Side of the Sheets

August 21, 2015 By ChuckBehrens 8 Comments

It’s this simple:

The Other Side of The Sheets are always Rougher, Scratchy, More Abrasive. . .

N O T C O M F O R T A B L E

There’s no such thing as a perfect day, but this one came close to it.

Do near perfect days scare you?

Are near perfect days, the big

B E W A R E:

SOMETHING BAD IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN ?

Honestly. . .that thought didn’t cross my mind

THIS TIME!

After a very busy morning, we spent the rest of the day together.

We traveled two-and-a-half-hours to go visit and take my parents out to dinner. We spent over three hours together at a restaurant with them that felt more like less than thirty minutes.

We traveled the two-and-a-half-hour ride back home, much like we did there, talking, dreaming, scheming, singing songs from my LOVER PLAYLIST

We laughed, even got a little misty a couple of times when we talked about things of the past, the specialness of

THE NOW

and spoke of the great Look Ahead and how we saw ourselves

T H E R E

How many times do we say or heard it said:

GRAB THE MOMENT AND MAKE IT COUNT

NEVER PASS UP AN OPPORTUNITY TO SAY OR BETTER STILL, SHOW

I L OVE YOU.

. . .because ‘YOU NEVER KNOW’

We did THAT!

We knew it was GOOD

and we really embraced it for just THAT

We saw exactly how good Life was and then, it wasn’t. . .

We finally got home, but we really weren’t tired from a day of traveling;

Nearly perfect days REFRESH not REPRESS

We watched the end of a show on TV and then the 10:00 p.m. news and went to bed;

slept great.

We woke up early, just like always, ready to make the new day OUR’S like the day before

and before I could blink,

Erin had a seizure and then another one and then another one in the back of the ambulance and then another two in the emergency room. . . .

Before I could take a deep breath or several short gasped ones

We found ourselves on

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SHEETS

We found the other side of the sheets

are much ROUGHER than any other side we’ve ever felt

RAZOR BLADE-LIKE. . . .

Myth of the Day:
Just because we have a Near-Perfect Day,

and Know it,

and Act Like it,

Experience it fully,

EMBRACE IT COMPLETELY. . .

WE STILL WANT MORE. . .always a just a little more. . . .

(For the next several Friday’s I will be posting about the ROUGH experiences from the other side of the sheets, and mostly. . .the lessons experienced, learned and now, hopefully, shared. I hope you enjoy the journey’s and more, take the opportunity to share a few of yours so that we can all learn a little more about those razor blade laden sheets…and in the sharing, soften them a little)

Christmas in July

July 22, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

THE REAL ST. NICK

What?

You don’t recognize him without his red hat and suit?

Are you looking for some accompanying Elves?

Well. . .take a good look. . .

He is a R E A L St. Nick

Sir Nicholas Winton

I just recently heard about him and then I did a little more research and found out what really made him a saint.

On Wednesday, July 1, 2015, Sir Nicholas Winton, 106 years old, died in London.

He lived a most EXTRAordinary Life. . .

A few years ago, 60 Minutes had a story about Nicholas Winton. A young stockbroker in 1938, he watched with a lot of troubling distress, Hitler’s march across Eastern Europe. Traveling to Prague for his vacation, he decided someone needed to do something about the children. Since no one else seemed to be acting, he decided he would. With no authority, no official government sanction, and using very questionable, not really legal, means, he led 669 Jewish children out of the country and away from certain death into England and safety. When asked what possessed him to undertake such a dangerous task, he said:

“I’ve always thought that if something is not impossible, there must be a way to do it!”

See. . .I didn’t lie. . .a Real St. Nick. . . .

Every year I personally celebrate

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

There’s a lot of different businesses from car dealerships to toy stores that try to give incentives to make us shop till we drop much like the madness of that furious shopping month right before Christmas.

We’ll sing JOY TO THE WORLD at the conclusion of the worship service at North Royalton Christian Church on July 26, still some 151 days away. . .

I love that because it reminds me how the world is, at that time of the year, no matter what the situation, or anyone’s religious affiliation. . .it just seems kinder, more happy, more caring and loving. . . .

When I read a story about St. Nicholas Winton. . .

it reminds me that I don’t have to wait for Christmas in July or even December 25. . .

I T

lets me know that it’s not a Season or a holiday or a date on the calendar. . .

but a lifestyle

RECEIVE THAT

ENJOY THAT

SHARE THAT

Dare find out that if something’s not impossible,

there must be a way to do it. . .

and then. . .and then,

DO IT

(Repeatedly)

HOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Merry. . .Merry. . . .

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