The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

ARE YOU A WITCH

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Maybe Halloween…or HALLOW’S EVE isn’t quite over yet.                 .                 .
but no matter what the day or the day after is all about:
(Christian origins and historic customs. Halloween is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and practices. The English word ‘Halloween’ comes from “All Hallows’ Eve”, being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day) on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November)

ARE YOU A WITCH

This really got my attention, so I wanted to share it with anyone interested in history.
One of my friends told me about a powerful lesson in her daughter’s high school class recently. They’re learning about the Salem Witch Trials, and their teacher told them they were going to play a game.

“I’m going to come around and whisper to each of you whether you’re a witch or a regular person. Your goal is to build the largest group possible that does NOT have a witch in it. At the end, any group found to include a witch gets a failing grade.” 

The teens dove into grilling each other. One fairly large group formed, but most of the students broke into small, exclusive groups, turning away anyone they thought gave off even a hint of guilt.
“Okay,” the teacher said. “You’ve got your groups. Time to find out which ones fail. All witches, please raise your hands.”
No one raised a hand. 

The kids were confused and told the teacher he’d messed up the game.

“Did I? Was anyone in Salem an actual witch? Or did everyone just believe what they’d been told?”


And that is how you teach kids how easy it is to divide a community. 
Keep being welcoming, beautiful people. Shunning, scapegoating and dividing destroys far more than they protect. Do not allow the political elite to divide us. We must remain united against those who would do so
 

T                    H                   I                    S
got me thinking
and maybe it tickled your gray matter a little, too
and for the record:
Maybe the greatest MASK
you can ever wear.      .     .
IS THE ONE YOU
D  O  N  ‘  T 

THE SHADOW OF HALLOWEEN EVE

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It’s an annual BILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS that casts a large shadow on a lot of pocketbooks and wallets and there’s no hint of it ever stopping on this
HALLOWEEN  EVE
where things go bump in the night
and crash, boom, bam during the day
and the quickly falling shadows.          .          .
It’s amazing how we stand in our own shadow
and wonder loudly why it is so dark . . . .
THE SHADOW
I feared the most was
the one that could
hurt me the least
which made me fear it
all the more

The sound
The smell
The feel of skin crawling
hair raising on the back of my neck
itchingly
All SCREAMING
All YELLING
ABORT
BEWARE
R U N
All
just a shadow
caused something a Light
created but never clarified
An Illusion 
of what could harm me
but never will

N  O   W
that’s a Treat any Tricky Shadow can appreciate.       .       .

MORE THAN A TALK

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AMAZING THINGS HAPPEN
WHEN YOU TALK
AND
L            I                S             T              E             N
especially when you ask
curiously
and
listen hard.               .              .
WE
L     E     A     R     N.           .           .
(A LOT)

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

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

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man