The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

FAMOUS IN YOUR U NIVERSE

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U  NIVERSE
It might as well be useless
I mean 
What exactly is a 
NIVERSE
Nary another nothing until a
U
Is brought not just to it
                    but for IT
Who would think
(Not Many)
That it takes a U
your simply perfectly imperfect 
You-est  U
To not just complete 
                     include
But actually create 
The Universe
with the best part being 
that it is evermore being 
Created/Recreated because of
Oh the holiest of holies 
U

 

JUST A MOMENT: THE NOTES OF OUR LIVES

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The notes of our lives are not played by ourselves.            .            .

.            .            .when we pause
to hear those notes
it’s just not some scale that we maybe used to know
it truly is a joy to the world
that we can’t hear at any other time.            .           .

Now the real question is not just will you hear that song you play.            .            .
Will you share that song?
In Just a moment we can all know

A BAD DAY

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BAD DAY by Daniel Potter came out well over 14 years ago and we haven’t heard much from him since but he left us with a question:  WHAT QUALIFIES AS A BAD DAY?  And maybe even more: WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT IT?

Ok. You had a bad day. Seriously, not to minimize, that but exactly what does the Bad Day look like for you?  No matter what your definition is, we can bet that it’s varied between each of us and all of us a bad day arrange from a wrong cup of coffee in the morning to a fender bender to the loss of a pet to the loss of a loved one to a bad bad result from a test, to any one who has had to suffer and now endure the effects of recent hurricanes and flooding or living in the Middle East.

person wearing red hoodie

Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Pexels.com

Whatever a bad day is, can we safely assume that somebody that doesn’t look like they’re having a bad day, just may be having one and that maybe just maybe, we can make it less bad, not better, just less bad?

Now guaranteed.          .          .If  you do that and you consistently do that.          .            . bad day’s may not completely go away, but they do fade and lose some of their sting.                 .                 .
IN THE MEANTIME:

Please, try hard not to make your bad day a bad day for Another

HANGING IN THERE

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It’s a common response and answer to the question of how are you doing?  And sometimes we shrug our shoulders or we raise eyebrows or we just heavy sigh, “Hanging in there.”  Pretty loaded response to an even more power keg kind of a question.          .          .Less of one that any ears ever stay around long enough to hear the next question: “No, really how are you doing. . . ?

We are all sometimes just hanging in there and the scene itself, the image itself, is not usually one that pops in our mind is it?  If it’s kind of the one that doesn’t pop in our mind, hanging, it can’t be good, even if it’s with strong fingers and hopefully not around our neck.          .          .But the truth of the matter is, it feels more around our necks, tightening than it does around our fingers loosening.               .            .

Be A Caring Catalyst enough to ask one more question beyond an answer that’s given to you because it’s the greatest way not only to show your care and to offer your compassion, but more importantly to loosen the noose, and free somebody from it.             .            .

HANGING IN THERE
no matter how we
Frame It
or decorate it up
or glamorize THERE
I’m still Hanging
             Dangling about wildly
Oh that my tired fingers don’t weaken
My nail beds don’t rip
and hold strong
And that the Hangman’s noose
doesn’t slip from grasping hand
to tighten away all that’s left of me
around my neck

UNLOOSE THE NOOSE.            .             .
WE ALWAYS HAVE THAT POWER
OVER ANOTHER
UNLOOSE THE NOOSE

THE WEIGHT OF WAIT

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I LOVE TO WAIT.      .      .said nobody ever.            .            .

It’s the pure test of what we call what most of us don’t have: P  A  T  I  E  N  C  E

WE HAVE NONE, and if we’re made to wait all the audacity or anger; all our frustrations, not just from waiting, but everything, EVERYTHING else comes into that moment, and it adds to the WEIGHT  of WAIT

But let’s imagine, just for a moment, (that’s right, a REAL MOMENT where we self-impose WAIT)  if we use that time,  those mere moments of  time,  of what we call waiting;  if we use it to think, to analyze, to listen, to pause, to dare say: analyze or meditate.            .            .

Presume of all the weight.          .           .so let’s suppose the next time that you’re forced to WAIT  we actually use it for one of those things.            .            .wouldn’t it change everything.            .            . taking the WEIGHT out of the WAIT

It could happen.             .            .

The question is

will  it ?

Let’s, uhmmmmm wait and see.            .            .

NOT JUST A HAT

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IN A WORLD WHERE WE ARE KNOWN AND OFTEN CHAMPIONED 
FOR ALL OF THE HATS WE WEAR.           .            .

WHO WOULD THINK
IT’S NOT THE ONE’S WE WEAR
IT’S THE ONE’S WE DON’T WEAR

THAT JUST MAY MATTER
THE MOST.      .      .     .
(Sometimes it all comes down to a hat.    .    .)

(My thanks to Amina Amdeen and Joseph Weidknecht, via StoryCorps.)

WHAT GRIEF LOOKS LIKE

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AND WE ARE ALL IN IT.          .           .
ALL OF IT
L             I             F             E
that has this amazing coin
no bank contains
but each pocket contains:
LOVE
with the flip side of
GRIEF

This is what grief is. A hole ripped through the very fabric of your being.
The hole eventually heals along the jagged edges that remain. It may even shrink in size.
But that hole will always be there.
A piece of you always missing.
For where there is deep grief, there was great love.
Don’t be ashamed of your grief.
Don’t judge it.
Don’t suppress it.
Don’t rush it.
Rather, acknowledge it.
Lean into it.
Listen to it.
Feel it.
Sit with it.
Sit with the pain. And remember the love.
This is where the healing will begin.

[Melancolie by Albert György]
This heartbreakingly beautiful sculpture is called Melancolie. It was created by Albert György (living in Switzerland, but born in Romania) and can be found in Geneva in a small park on the promenade (Quai du Mont Blanc) along the shore of Lake Geneva

S       O.                    .                    .
What does your GRIEF
really look like?
Please, tell me.            .            .
I’m not here to take it from you
.    .   .it’s not mine to have
but I’d be honored to
c o m p a n i o n
it
with you

 

JUST A MOMENT: IN THE FLICKER OF A FLAME

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BiGGER
BETTER
BRIGHTER
that’s what it’s all about in our world today, isn’t it.            .            .
and oh guess what.          .          .
we’ve been told countless times over
IN FACT
just watch the news
or just being in a group of people that you don’t even know
standing in line at a grocery store
or a coffee shop
S   T   O   P
Listen to all the bad news that the world is giving us
P  L  A  C  E  S
As if we don’t have those very dark places in our life
that are asking for what not a bonfire
not even a candle
or even a constant flame.        .       .
How about just a
F          L          I          C          K          E          R
just a flicker of Hope
and psssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
even if it comes from a
fake candle
that gives
it’s better than a brand new one that doesn’t.          .          .
so maybe the biggest question is:
ARE YOU THAT FLICKER
FROM A FLAME
AND LIGHT
A DARK SPOT
IN A DARK PLACE
TAHT NEEDS TO BE ILLUMINATED.            .           .
Are you?
BE THE SPARK
THE EMBER
THAT STARTS
THINGS
G  L  O  W  I  N  G

NEEDING TO BE MORE THAN JUST SOMETHING

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Sometimes LIFE calls for us to be more than just

S              O              M              E              T              H              I              N              G

BEING THERE

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In our darkest moments, we don’t need solutions or advice. We simply crave the warmth of human connection. A gentle touch, a silent presence – these are the anchors that ground us when life’s storms rage.

Don’t try to fix me. Don’t carry my burden or chase away my shadows. Instead, be the steady hand I can hold as I navigate my inner landscape. Sit with me in the quiet, bearing witness to my struggle without trying to change it.

My pain is my own to feel, my battles my own to fight. But your presence reminds me I’m not alone in this vast, sometimes terrifying world. It whispers that I’m worthy of love, even in my brokenness.

So when the night seems endless and I lose my way, will you simply be there? Not as a savior, but as a companion. Hold my hand until dawn breaks and I find my strength again.

Your silent support is the greatest gift you can offer. It’s the love that helps me remember who I am, even when I’ve forgotten.

~ Etheric Echoes
~ Art ‘Broken’ by Karen Wilcox

BEING THERE

Being There
isn’t a far away continent
another galaxy not yet discovered
in fact, it’s not a place at all

Being There
doesn’t have a street address
where Uber Eats will deliver
what might fill your stomach
but leaves the vastness of your hurting soul wanting more

Being There
is a You that is brought to an ache
that can’t be medicated or sedated
but when simply Companioned
knows no rival

You possess a Being There
that can’t be sold or bought
but readily given
If.    .    .

 

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man