WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY
is a really simple question
with a Ga-Zillion answers
but when you clear away the clutter
way before the dust even has a chance to settle
The Pandemic
(as if you shamefully even needed one)
let us all know that it’s not
our medical advances
our scientific discoveries
our masks
our vaccinations
our boosters
our therapies
our interventions
that save us. . . .
so much as our
R E L A T I O N S H I P S
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
A WONDERFUL WORLD
isn’t the stuff that it holds
IT IS THE PEOPLE WHO INHABIT IT
WHAT MAKES THE HOLY DAYS HIGH
WHAT MAKES THE HOLY DAYS HIGH is
R E C O G N I T I O N
Can we talk about diversity and cultural competency for a minute. . .
OR A FEW DAYS. . .
OR A SEASON. . .
Every Fall there are about 7 million Jewish holidays that Jewish workers have to navigate. Ok, that’s only a slight exaggeration but that’s what it feels like, especially when they are, at times, completely overlooked or just not recognized
Some years they fall on the weekends but others they fall on the weekdays like this year.
And every Fall, without fail, businesses, affinity groups, organizations etc schedule meetings and events on these very important Jewish holy days. For many Jews, scheduling something on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur is akin to scheduling something for non-Jews on Christmas. It’s pretty discouraging, hurtful and objectionable. In an age of now super-sensitivity to diversity and inclusion, scheduling something on these holy days can even come off as offensive.
So a quick guide to the Jewish holiday season for this year seems to be a very Caring Catalyst KIND of thing to do.
It’s an opportunity for all of us to not only share best wishes for the holidays but take the extra step of rescheduling team meetings, events etc for days that are not Jewish holidays. This will go a long way to making everyone feel included and respected at what is a really busy but very meaningful and important time.
May these Holy Days be made be held even more HIGH with the kindness, openness and recognition we share with each other
H A L T
Dave is a friend of mine from Nacogdoches, Texas. He owns and operates
Galleria Z, a Custom Picture Framing and Artful gifts decor shop. He recently posted the following story:
Most everyone knows this word, but it also functions as an acronym that has some helpful wisdom. A man I’ve gotten to know comes in my shop from time-to-time seeking small jobs to make a little money but now more often just to talk. He has numerous life challenges including mental illness and alcohol dependency. He got sober a couple of months ago and says he’s been going to AA some. He’s also been fighting to find stable/regular employment. Every day is a battle for him. Anyhow, I’ve talked to him about this notable AA acronym. For those who don’t know, it’s meant to advise not to get too Hungry, too Angry, too Lonely, too Tired. This can be good advice for anyone, but for an alcoholic those things can be triggers for a relapse. Anyhow, I gave it to him today when he came in my shop. He was most appreciative and said he would hang it on the wall in his bedroom to help him keep his recovery top-of-mind.
W H Y
As I read Dave’s brief story and saw the H, the A, the L, the T it kind of rang a bell in me that sounded more like a siren on a dark night that promised no sleep; and I didn’t know if all of the sudden the sign was shaking or I was. . .
I won’t give you the statistics or the graphs; I won’t offer up the “You better watch out’s” or “Something’s got to be done’s” because we all know that we are way beyond all of that.
T H I S
is more than just some horrible pandemic. This is a tsunami wave that’s left no one dry and it just keeps washing up on shore after shore forever changing geographical landscapes; gashing out grave sites that look more like grotesquely unhealable wounds instead of serene places of rest. We have all be infected.
Just letters. . .
H
A
L
T
until they take on a deeper meaning
much more than any acronym
may be ever has. . .
MAYBE
it’s a sincere way to live a balanced life:
“. . .It’s meant to advise not to get too Hungry, too Angry, too Lonely, too Tired. This can be good advice for anyone. . .”
For now
I’m not so much inviting you
to bow your head
close your eyes
fold your hands
and bring your voice to a whisper
so much as to
OPEN YOUR EYES
HOLD UP YOUR HEAD
RAISE YOUR HANDS
AND SHOUT OUT:
a m e n
and
A M E N
THE VIDEO YOU WON’T WATCH BUT SHOULD
THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT/HELPFUL/INSIGHTFUL MONDAY BLOG VIDEO’S I HAVE EVER POSTED IN THE PAST SEVEN YEARS AND THERE’S A REALLY GOOD CHANCE YOU WILL NEVER WATCH IT, BUT SHOULD
THE MOST IMPORTANT 10 1/2 minutes you can spend for this entire year and the rest of your life. . .
(Or NOT; YOU can go on, not connecting and worrying and fretting AD NAUSEAM)
THE SAND AND THE FOAM
The Sand And The Foam – Dan Fogelberg Inspired by Khalil Gibran’s book “Sand and Foam”. from The Innocent Age Album (released 1981) (The Sand And The Foam Lyrics)
Dawn, like an angel, lights on the step Muting the morning she heralds Dew on the grass like the tears the night wept Gone long before the day wears old (Chorus) Time stills the singing a child holds so dear And I’m just beginning to hear Gone are the pathways the child followed home Gone like the sand and the foam Pressed in the pages of some aging text Lies an old lily a-crumbling Marking a moment of childish respects Long since betrayed and forgotten (Chorus) (Repeat First Verse and Chorus) Gone like the sand Gone like the sand Gone like the sand and the foam
I remember getting this vinyl album (AND I STILL HAVE IT) when it was first released in 1981. I was a little over a year of being ordained and used it for youth group workshops when we talked about LIFE and yes, DEATH.
It was 13 years before I began my journey as a hospice chaplain and I’ve heard it countless times since 1981 and have it on multiple playlists I play. It takes on an entirely different meaning to me now some 28 years later, long down my hospice journey road.
When it popped up randomly the other day, I was sitting in a parking lot of a Walmart with 33 minutes before a funeral I was going to conduct. I wonder if Fogelberg was thinking about his own life/death and the ever-so-brief frailty and quickness of life. He died in 2007 after battling advanced prostate cancer for three years.
AGAIN…the words took on a different meaning for me.
As I kept hitting repeat
REPEATEDLY
these words came to my shore
and hopefully now will ebb up on yours
As we do our own dance with
The Sand and the Foam:
YOU CAN’T BE LATE FOR MY FUNERALIt may be too cold
Rainy
or a snow that wants to imitate it
It may be hot
With a humidity that begs for a breeze
not to be found
It may be greening Spring
a Summer’s hued sunset
A Fall’s Frosted pumpkin morning
Or a Winter’s pristine glistening white snowfall afternoon
You can’t be late for my funeral
It’s been indefinitely canceled
Postponed for a day
that doesn’t exist
You can’t be late for my funeral
because there’ll be no celebration of my life
No curious resurrection
If something never ended
but continued on in other ongoing ways
What makes for a HAPPY ENDING
is knowing there’s never an
everlasting one
LABORED DAYS
Muhammad Mashali was a doctor who treated Egypt’s poorest citizens completely free of charge for 50 years.
Mashali passed away in 2020 at the age of 76.
He spent 12 hours a day in the clinic and received 30-50 patients a day. Not only did a line of people form in front of his ambulance every day, people would approach him on the street and he would give them medical advice. Dr. Muhammad Mashali never had a car or even a telephone. He walked from home to work.
When a rich man heard about his story, he gave him $20,000, a car and an apartment. But a year later, when his benefactor returned to Egypt, he learned that the doctor had sold his car to help poor patients and bought new medical equipment.
When Muhammad Mashali graduated from Cairo Medical School in 1967, he explained why he wanted to sacrifice himself for the good of others:
“My father sacrificed his life so that I could become a doctor. Then I promised God that I would not take a penny from the poor and live a life of service to people of all cultures and religions.”
BUT LABOR DAY WAS THIS PAST MONDAY. . .
or may be
it’s today
or any day
you wake up
to be
A Caring Catalyst
NOT AGAIN. . .
but
O N C E
M O R E. . .
MAKE YOUR JOB
SOMEONE’S PLEASURE. . .
SPECTACULAR LIFE
Speech by Robin Williams. All footage is from Robin Williams Movies, in this case (It’s from the movie Jack (1996). ——–
You know, as we come to the end of this phase of our life, we find ourselves trying to remember the good times and trying to forget the bad times, and we find ourselves thinking about the future. We start to worry , thinking, “What am I gonna do? Where am I gonna be in ten years?” But I say to you, “Hey, look at me!” Please, don’t worry so much. Because in the end, none of us have very long on this Earth. Life is fleeting. And if you’re ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky when the stars are strung across the velvety night. And when a shooting star streaks through the blackness, turning night into day… make a wish and think of me. Make your life spectacular. I know I did.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Am I the only one
embarrassingly so
who has to sadly admit again
how I fail
to see just how
S P E C T A C U L A R
L I F E
I S. . .
Maybe it’s not so much
WHAT’LL TAKE FOR ME TO RECOGNIZE
HOW SPECTACULAR LIFE IS
AS MUCH AS JUST NOT FORGETTING
T H A T
i t
i s. . . ?
THE MEN WHO TAKE ME PLACES
I have shared some other Ben Rector songs on this blog post before, maybe the most recent was back around Thanksgiving, literally called the THANKSGIVING SONG. . .but this one, like so many other YouTube videos found me recently even though it was recorded over 6 years ago, but the message. . .THIS MESSAGE
is a truly timeless one that hopefully will allow you to do more than tap your toe or bob your head as you listen way past the message a tune can bring in a lyrical moment. . .h o p e f u l l y
It just might remove a few questions about the
WHY’S
HOW COME’S
WHAT FOR’S
in your heart that’ll let it beat a little easier
as you become a better Caring Catalyst
just by allowing others to make you
S O
A HOPELESSLY DEVOTED CARING CATALYST
I was in college and trying to pay my way through as best as I could when of all things my grandmother, Vi got me a job that no one knew the implications. It was working at a Pipe/Tobacco store where I sold expensive Meerschaum pipes down to ones that look like Popeye would toke on in between downing cans of spinach.
The real behind the scenes stuff was the great stuff. . .I would cover for Charlie my boss, who was either out cheating on his wife or playing poker with the boys when his wife would call and he’d look the other way when I took REESES CUPS and SNICKERS for dinner; it was a good deal made better when the Pipe shop would close and I would go a half of a block down the street to his retail store where he sold a host of mostly unnecessary plastic objects and a few vinyl records. It was there that I sold hundreds of Olivia Newton-John’s records:
I never tagged her as Country-Western but that’s the section Charlie wanted to peg her under and I spent a lot of time hitting the cash register tune of glorious sales for him and her.
THIS is hardly what anyone would remember about Olivia Newton-John after hearing of her death earlier this week. WHAT IS BEING REMEMBERED AND CELEBRATED is just what a ferocious Caring Catalyst she has always been. Having been diagnosed with Breast Cancer well over 30 years ago, she never took the “WHY ME?” stance or the “I WILL NEVER DIE” denial position; Olivia made sure that something way past her last song would not just be remembered but used her platform to become an advocate, a Caring Catalyst for all cancers–spending tons of time, energy, and money building research organizations, clinics, and more.
Craig Marshall is a guy I met through National Speakers Association who often tells the story:
There’s still Olivia Newton-John…. When I was a monk, I had an coaching session with a man that told me the saddest story I ever heard. He’d been in a car accident, which killed several of his children. His wife was in a coma for months and then died. He lost his job and his dog died. It was sad beyond words. But when he ended telling me his litany of loss, he paused and looked at me and whist-fully said, “But you know what? There’s still Olivia Newton-John!” Years went by, and I found myself sitting at an outdoor restaurant table in Malibu, designing a book cover with my good friend Fred Segal.
After discussing some graphic possibilities, Freddie said, “We’re guys. We need some different input,” and he yelled over to two ladies sitting at a nearby table, “Come over here please.” They came over, sat down, and Fred started asking them about what they thought his book cover should look like. After awhile, for whatever, reason, everyone at the table got up and began talking to friends who’d entered the restaurant, leaving me alone with this poised blonde lady with an English/Australian accent. It suddenly hit me, and I said, “Are you Olivia Newton-John?” and she said yes. I told her, “I’m so glad to meet you because I want to share with you a story of a man who lost almost everything in life, but clung to you as his only inspiration.”
Olivia was always charming, and I ended up hosting several workshops at her home. She was always thoughtful, genuine and just lovely.
I don’t know why people hope their departing loved ones “rest in peace”. I wish for Olivia great music, great fun, and great friends. Her smile is what I’ll remember. It was so dazzling that she never needed to wink. Like that guy, I also believe that there will always be Olivia Newton-John.
ONE OUT OF ONE OF US DIES
is one of the harshest realities ”
any of us with a pulse
will ever wrestle
B U T
there’s something that
goes beyond the Life
we live here
and that’s the
L I F E
and that’s the
E X I S T E N C E
we inspire
in others
even make possible
way after we are gone
. . .that’s a huge part of what it means to be a Caring Catalyst
to begin in others
what will outlast us and even them
but never goes into extinction
as long as we keep sharing our very Best
for the Best of everyone else. . .
Yes, there’s still Olivia Newton-John
a Hopelessly Devoted Caring Catalyst
WE ARE A GENTLE, ANGRY PEOPLE
There are many different covers of this song but I like this version because it reminds me what we know, what we know we know, what we’d bet our lives that we know but for the LIFE OF US never act like we know. . .
WE ARE ALL INSTRUMENTS IN THE SYMPHONY OF THIS UNIVERSE
and the WE ARE AT OUR BESTS when we not only play in unison and harmony but when we just merely play together. . .
WE NEED TO BE THE CHORUS we already long have been and need to be now, UNMUTED, UNDILUTED, PURE, UNADULTERATED, UNFILTERINGLY US. . .
The video starts quietly but builds. I love how the singers end the song. ENJOY!
(My sincerest gratitude and appreciation to GALA Choruses.)
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