The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

S E M A N T I C S

By Leave a Comment

I love words.           .          .
I kind of use them to make a living
If I’m not speaking them, I’m writing with them and always in search of using them better.          .        .
I was recently reading a LinkedIn post by a
National Speakers Association, colleague, Lou Heckler
who shared:
“I’ve been thinking about “the heat of the afternoon versus the cool of the evening.”  It’s a phrase I first heard in a journalism class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  The professor was talking about reporting on an event that had stirred up your emotions and had prompted you to want to act a little to quickly.  (We had lots of subjects in that category at that time: the Vietnam War, race relations, political hanky-panky, to name a few).  It was his version of “count to ten,” I guess.  Step back, get your perspective, take a few extra breaths…and then place your hands on the keyboard.  I have heard his advice in my head many times in my business and personal life.  I’m not sure that’s a frequently practiced technique these days as I read all the invective in news coverage, in online posts, even in conversations.  My hope for you this week is that you won’t react too soon as you face whatever your challenges are — in fact, see if you can “hold” for a few moments in the heat of the afternoon and then decide what to do in the cool of the evening.”

Which got me thinking
just because you know what you’ve said
doesn’t mean you have any idea what’s been heard.          .          .
H E N C E:
Feeling like the first day of Spring
has a whole other feeling than
Feeling like the last day of Winter

Semantics, huh?

Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford LanguagesLearn more
noun
  1. the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of branches and subbranches of semantics, including formal semantics, which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics, which studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics, which studies the cognitive structure of meaning.
    • the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text.
      plural noun: semantics
      “such quibbling over semantics may seem petty stuff”

I love words
I love using them
speaking themn
writing them
reading them
hearing them
and now,
being ever cautious of them.          .          .
Sometimes the right word
at the wrong time
is the very essence of
STICKS AND STONE WILL BREAK MY BONES
BUT  WORDS WILL NEVER HURT ME
or did we read that
W R O N G.          .          .

JUST A MOMENT: WHAT’S THE USE(S)

By Leave a Comment

The older we get the less USE we have
is usually a lie we tell ourselves
even if it’s not our Birthday
So even when the World as a whole doesn’t recognize it
OR WORSE
just have USE of us any longer.            .            .
Never forget that we can still do
what no one else
CAN
Yeah, that kind of
C     A     N
t o o.          .           .

HAP HAP HAPPY BIRTHDAY

By Leave a Comment

Here’s the deal about Birthday’s,
there are candles to be lit
and wishes to be made.       .      .
B               U               T
you don’t have to wait for the celebration
of your actual birth date.          .          .
why waste another moment?
CELEBRATE NOW
and forget to stop…
The best wishes aren’t wished,
but lived
until they become more true
than any wish, wished
or dream, dreamt…
SEE.           .           .
It’s ALL worth celebrating
N O W
So, I’ll leave this with you as a simple wish of mine before the 
candles are fully extinguised
and the cake and ice-cream
passed around:

LET ME BE A STORY

Let me be a story you tell
because you have experienced it fully
with no exceptions
no if’s
no but’s
no until’s
no excepts
but with an openness you’ve never known before
but now can’t help but to share
because you have known it so well

Let me be a story you tell
sprinkled with moments of humor
loaded with once upon a time’s
and an unlimited amount of
“what about the time’s?”

Let me be a story you tell
not because you’ve heard it with your ears
but deeply have known it in your soul

Let me be a story you tell
in a timeless generation yet to be born
not because the story is so infamous
but it’s moral is so absolutely right

Let me be a story you tell
A tune you hum
A poem you read
A life you now live a little better
and more inspired and hopeful

And may you too be the story someone else tells
A story uniquely yours
One that doesn’t mirror the same
but reflects even more

A manifesto poem
One that is known before it’s told or pondered
One that is lived well
One that is shared
One that is once upon a time’d
One that is fire to your wick
                  a flicker to your flame
                  a light to your lane
One that Is~~always IS

SPILLAGE

By Leave a Comment


“You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.

Why did you spill the coffee?

“Because someone bumped into me!!!”
Wrong answer.

You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.

Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea.

Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out.

Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out.

It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.

So we have to ask ourselves… “what’s in my cup?”

When life gets tough, what spills over?

Joy, gratitude, peace and humility?

Anger, bitterness, victim mentality and quitting tendencies?

Life provides the cup, YOU choose how to fill it.

Work towards filling our cups with gratitude,

forgiveness,

joy,

words of affirmation,

resilience,

positivity;

and kindness,

gentleness and love for others.”
We most likely have heard that story before or some version of it but until what SPILLS out of us takes on another consistency, hear, read the story again and again and again and .          .          .

IN JUST A MOMENT: USING SPACES

By Leave a Comment

Ohhhhhhhh the LIE
of an empty space.          .          .
If we just had a little bit more time.            .            .
if we just had an extra day.            .            .
give me a minute.            .            .
wait a second.            .            .
We’ve all said these things before
and guess what
if we literally
magically
were given an extra day
and extra hour
and extra minute
a moment
we most likely wouldn’t do anything differently to make a difference~~
NOW THAT IS A TRAGIC WASTE OF SPACE.          .           .
(one you don’t have to waste at all with no extra time needed)

LOVED INTO BEING

By 2 Comments

https://youtu.be/jmFEKCwONkg?si=rFaYlvdZZ9xdDTs

WHO HAS LOVED YOU 
WHO HAS LOVED YOU INTO BEING

I truly hope you took 
A MINUTE
with Mr. Rogers and Lloyd 
and experienced the
WONDER OF YOU
and how you are 
LOVED
TO LOVE
Is it really
JUST THIS EASY
Mr. Rogers would lie.          .          .
LOVED TO LOVE
(beginning with yourself)

F. E. A. R.

By Leave a Comment

What’s your greatest FEAR?
What’s your greatest F. E. A. R.? (F alse E xperiences A ppearing R eal)
Is it the same Question?
Is it the same Answer?

There comes a day when you realize that the fear never really goes away,
that if you really want something,
you have to be willing to do it afraid.

And maybe this is the only way you ever get to discover your fullest potential.
Maybe you just have to dive right in and face the thing that scares you the most.

Because in the end,
it’s not the rejections and so-called failures that will haunt you.
It will be your own potential left unexplored.

So maybe you don’t need to wait until you overcome your fears to take the first step forward.

Maybe you just need to know there’s something more important than fear. Something greater.
Something worth fighting for.

And maybe overcoming your fears is the least important part of your story anyway.

Maybe what matters is that you’re scared but still determined.
Shaky but still standing.
Afraid but still willing to try.

– Zanna Keithley
Artist: Skategirl

What’s your greatest FEAR?
What’s your greatest F. E. A. R.? (F alse E xperiences A ppearing R eal)

False experiences appearing real or is it Forget everything and run or is it Face everything and rise?  
WHAT SAY YOU…or are you to afraid to say?
Hmmmmmmmmmm.          .          .
Is it the same Question?
Is it the same Answer?
Your answer is what you SHOW
not what you SAY!
Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
When it comes to
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
no special shoes are needed.    .   .
JUST WALK
(it’ll eliminate being paralyzed or worse: DOING NOTHING)

IN JUST A MOMENT: HO HO HO TO HO HO HELL

By Leave a Comment

MOST ASK, “WHY CAN’T IT BE LIKE CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY ?”
MOST DO LITTLE FOLLOWING DECEMBER 25 TO ANSWER THE QUESTION

ARE YOU MOST?

NEVER-ENDING-ALL-SEASONAL GREETINGS
Today
Tomorrow
Ho Ho Ho TO TO TO Ho Ho HELL

HALF OF THE WORLD AWAY

By 2 Comments

This is the story of a young girl called Lily. Looking at the moon through her family telescope one night, she is amazed at what she finds, a man on the moon. Lily watches on as our man goes about his chores, all alone up there. She becomes determined to get something to the moon, to send him a message and show him that someone down here is thinking of him.
(The music is ‘Half the World Away’ performed by Aurora, the original song was by Oasis.)

Sometimes being half of the world away is a lot closer than we allow ourselves to believe; especially if we look at it through THE LENSES of a Child.            .             .
Go ahead.          .            .BLINK.            .          .
Gently rub your eyes and take another look,
a long gawking and
SEE


SEEING
Christmas in July
isn’t as half of the world away as it seems and that mostly:
K I N D N E S S
IS
ALWAYS 
IN SEASON

So.        .          .on this Monday, July 22:

NEEDING TO BE MORE OF AN ATHEIST

By Leave a Comment

Y                  E                 S
I’ve been ordained for 44 years and
Y                  E                 S
I do believe in God and all of the allusions referring to G. U. S.
G reat  U niversal  S pirit
and then I have this story come to me again
after being buried in the great
Somewhere
for
Sometime:

A rabbi was asked by one of his students “Why did God create atheists?” After a long pause, the rabbi finally responded with a soft but sincere voice. “God created atheists” he said, “to teach us the most important lesson of them all – the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that God commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his actions are based on his sense of morality. Look at the kindness he bestows on others simply because he feels it to be right. When someone reaches out to you for help. You should never say ‘I’ll pray that God will help you.’ Instead, for that moment, you should become an atheist – imagine there is no God who could help, and say ‘I will help you’.”
– Martin Buber

So as a hopefully kind Caring Catalyst, I have to ask, SHOULD I BE MORE OF AN ATHEIST?
SHOULD ANY OF US?
Can Anyone’s hands
ever be too
C              L              E              A              N

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man