The Caring Catalyst

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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Through the Wringer

March 7, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

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

March 5, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

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!

The “Z” in Xylophone

February 26, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

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!

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