The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

WE WILL ALL GO TOGETHER

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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

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Photo by Kevin Nalty on Unsplash
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(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

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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

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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. . .

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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

JUST A MOMENT: THINKING vs DOING GOOD THINGS

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In just a moment, we usually know right now and quick the difference between thinking really, really great things I mean, imagining the impossible versus doing just really simple things, good things: paying for a guy’s cup of coffee, paying for a couple that you look across the room and you see they’re sitting at the diner you’re in and you pay for their bill, or you see a little girl asking her daddy if she can have a doughnut and he said, Oh no, not today, honey, we don’t have the money,” but you go up to the cashier and you make sure that they do have the money or, or maybe it’s just a simple somebody popped into your head and  you think about “wouldn’t it be nice not to buy him a big gift, but just to send them a card or a text to say, “HEY, you just popped in my head and I thought I’d send you a text just to see how you’re doing for no other reason than (the most power two words): JUST BECAUSE.    .      .

It’s shameful and I’m not proud of it, but I do so many great things that I think about that I imagine in my head, that I never actually do, and if in fact, I did half the things that I thought about for the good of somebody else, I can’t imagine how much better the world would be or individual people.

“I thought it was a good idea at the time,” and then I didn’t act on it.  So it’s not so much my New Year’s resolution as it is my Lifetime resolution: When somebody pops into my mind or when I wake up, thinking of them or when I see them I just wanna text them, or stop by, or send them a card let him know that I’m thinking of them; and if I just did that one thing, nothing more just that one thing, what a difference it might make not just in them, but just their simple day and their day-to-day routines to know that somebody thought about them and acted on it

I don’t know if this will make a difference. I hope I am A Caring Catalyst enough to find out and more, inviting you along with me to find out, too.

Here’s your LICENSE to go a little past
THINKING
and
D O I N G
the next best thing.       .     .

COLOR YOUR WORLD WITH KINDNESS

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Kindness is in short supply these days. Will you help make the world a better place?

The world is as divisive as we’ve seen it, but one way to stem the tide of negativity is through kindness. The award-winning social psychologist Dr. Barbara Fredrickson talks about “micro-moments of positivity”, the short and fleeting day-to-day experiences that have the power to put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. A held door, a thumbs-up, a happy glance—research shows these small kindnesses have a cumulative effect on our emotional health and well-being.

Will you take 5 seconds of your day and Be A BetterWorldian: Smile. Let someone in front of you. Pick up something that someone has dropped. Listen intently. Empathize. Share. Give. Be kind.

CAN IT REALLY BE THIS SIMPLE:

BE THE PROOF

THE PAUSE OF BEING OUT OF CONTROL

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Ok, here’s the Truth of my TRUTH.            .               .Uhhh.     .     .  I never have a shortage of words. I always have something to say ask Erin she’ll tell you I talk even in my sleep, but sometimes even though I have a lot to say there’s a lot more going on in my mind that I don’t say and even more in my heart that I can’t say so every once in a while, I run across something that says it much better than I can and when I find that at a moment that I’m not even looking for it, I share it~~ENJOY:

JUST A MOMENT: THE GRIT OF OUR GRIT

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It doesn’t matter if you’re religious or not, the universal truth is the universal truth, which is from dust we come and to dust we return; it’s not a new revelation that we’ve known where we came from and we know where we’re going to  return,  but it’s the NOW;  it’s THE MOMENT  that lets us know there’s so many moments in our lives; lifetimes within lifetimes,  which define us, and more, lets us know we have a grit about us that’s much stronger than any ash or speck of dust that’s ever challenged us.

GUILTY:  I wrote this poem weeks before Ash Wednesday, as a matter fact, because I was having an Ash Wednesday Moment where I felt just about as low as a speck of dirt and even less meaningful. We live Ash Wednesday moments almost on a daily basis because we don’t live in a perfect world and we certainly are not perfect people. And yet, and yet, look at how much we can accomplish by being more than just a mere speck of dust that we ever seem day by day to be returning. So, rise up and let the wind take you where it may, and as it does, leave your smudge, your mark along the way.      .      .      .

Bits of grit
the Wind
scatters us
where it will
as we travel
to destinations
not yet GPSable
but have waited
an Eternity
to welcome every
irritating speck
of us
Home
(however we define it)
(wherever we find it)
or it unearths

OUR POWER
IS FOUND 
BY RECOGNIZING 
THAT AS MERE SPECKS 
WE ARE NOT A PART OF A MOUNTAIN
BUT THE MOUNTAIN IS A PART OF
U S

ORIGAMI–THE FOLDS OF YOUR LIFE

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Sometimes, maybe more often than we’d like to admit, our lives feel not so much like an art piece of Origami so much as a scrunched up ready to be waste paper basket food.     .      .

LOOK 
at the FOLDS of your Life
some of the greatest wrinkles/crinkles/folds aren’t the ones you planned or expected
which makes us always question:
IS YOUR LIFE FOLDING
                    UN-FOLDING
as you planned or even begun to imagine.            .            .            ?

 

 

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man