The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

JUST A MOMENT: WHEN CAUTION HAS MORE THAN ONE MEANING

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IN JUST A MOMENT.          .          .isn’t it amazing that we have many different moments that are going through our mind all at the same time, like when we see a CAUTION Sign or DO NOT ENTER or NO TRESPASSING.           .            .

Sometimes it’s like, OK and other times it’s an invitation isn’t it, to trespass, to go forward, to forget the caution and proceed forward.    .    .

No, in just a moment, it may differ from one situation to another; but for you, when you see CAUTION

When there’s the undeniable, NO TRESPASSING when there’s the actual in vivid livid color, DO NOT ENTER.        .       Do you go forward or do you turn around or just keep on walking on by.            .            ?

In just a moment you know the answer and in just a moment you know that that’s how you live life to your fullest
WHEN THERE’S A SLIVER OF AN INVITATION THAT BEGS YOU TO LIVE A LITTLE PAST YOUR COMFORT ZONES.     .    .

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS

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CHILDREN KNOW THE PLACE

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends,
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.


(from Where the Sidewalk Ends)

(My thanks to the poet and the producers of the video, via Shamis.)
Sometimes becoming a kid again
(or at least a little more CHILD-LIKE)
is just a poem away.          .          .

 

 

SMALL KINDNESSES

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We could attribute many things under the Title:

THINGS I COULD BE CONVICTED FOR.          .          .

Here’s one:  IF KINDNESS WERE A CRIME, WOULD YOU BE CONVICTED GUILTY

Forget about the BIG KINDNESSES, how about focusing on some SMALL KINDNESSES.     .     .

SMALL KINDNESSES
Danusha LamérisI’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”

It’s downright impolite how we’ve become at being polite. . . .

PROVE     IT

TAKE CARE

“TAKE CARE,”

she yelled at my back
as I stepped into a cold morning
that would have made the unshaken 
flakes in a snow globe shudder
“TAKE CARE,” I muttered, “YES!”
TAKE CARE to the Soup kitchen

TAKE CARE to the homeless shelter
TAKE CARE to the prisons of Innocents
TAKE CARE to the Church Closings
TAKE CARE to the one star Nursing Homes
TAKE CARE to the Battered Women’s Shelters
TAKE CARE where you Go but never thought you’d Be
TAKE CARE
And when you’re done TAKING CARE
and there’s none left
Go to that dark place no one knows you know
And wait.  Wait.  WAIT for some yet known One
to TAKE CARE to you

JUST A MOMENT: NO MACHINERY NECESSARY

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Sometimes it feels impossible to excavate what we think can’t ever be moved, but here’s the secret of all secrets:

YOU DON’T NEED MACHINERY TO MOVE THE SEEMINGLY UNMOVABLE.     .      .

YOU don’t need specialized tools. The thing that we’ve known for billions of years at its simplest level, is that if you want to move a mountain, I mean really move it, if you want to move an obstruction and obstacle that seemingly seems unmovable, the one thing that will always do it quite simply IS KINDNESS; IS COMPASSION;  especially if you’re not waiting for or expecting something in return.          .          .

Do you want to move a mountain; do you want to  remove an obstacle; do you want to release what seemingly can’t be unreleased.          .         . go ahead.          .          .

Try it out. Experiment with it. No strings attached; no judgment; unconditionally. Go kindness on somebody; go deep compassion on someone and you’ll see a mountain that once existed doesn’t amount to not hill of beans, but not even a grain of sand.          .          .

No heavy machinery, necessary.            .            .(e v e r)

MORE THAN A HAT

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HOLY BEANIE, BATMAN.      .     .
W H O A
STOP RIGHT THERE.     .      .
I don’t know if I can fully understand let alone figure out all the time what I’m thinking and now
ABRACADABRA 
PRESTO 
We have a hat you can wear that’ll do it all for you
Pretty high SCI-FI stuffs, huh.           .           .

Now instead of giving you a PIECE OF MY MIND
you can have it without me saying a word.     .    .
JUST THINKING ONE
I may know what I’m thinking
before I know what I’m thinking
.    .    .but FEELING
EXPERIENCING IT
might be a whole another
A I
m a t t e r.    .    .

MORE THAN A SONG, GREATER THAN A MEMORY

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SOME say it’s a Christmas Song

SOME say it’s more than JUST A SONG

SOME say it’s Universal

SOME wonder what you’re Wondering

Saying

Doing.          .          .

On a cold Christmas Eve in the mid-1970s, Dan Fogelberg walked into a small grocery store in Peoria—and unexpectedly came face to face with his past.

She was a high school love. The kind that doesn’t fully leave you, no matter how much life moves on.

They hadn’t planned it. Hadn’t spoken in years. But in that quiet, ordinary place, they shared something rare—presence. A moment of genuine connection, without pretense, without rushing. Just two people honoring who they had been, and who they had become.

Years later, that encounter became Same Old Lang Syne.

Not just a song—but a reflection of something deeply human.

Because being a caring catalyst isn’t about grand gestures. It’s about how we show up in fleeting, unexpected moments. It’s about listening without needing to fix. Holding space without needing to change the outcome. Letting someone feel seen—even if only for a little while.

The holidays have a way of stirring memory. Not just joy, but tenderness. The “what was,” the “what could have been,”  and the quiet acceptance of WHAT IS.         .          .

Fogelberg didn’t just tell a story—he translated a feeling. And in doing so, he reminds us:

Sometimes the most meaningful impact we have isn’t in what we do next—

but in how gently we honor what once was.

Two people.

One moment.

But the heart of it? That was real.

Two people.

One unexpected moment.

And the quiet realization that life moves forward, whether we’re ready or not.

Maybe that’s why the song still lingers.

Not because it’s about Christmas.

But because it’s about us—the people we were, the people we are, and the tender space in between.

And the kind of presence that lingers long after the conversation ends.

That’s the heart of being A Caring Catalyst.          .          .

JUST A MOMENT: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STEPS

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In just a moment, we know very clearly exactly what steps have been most important to us. What steps we’d like to take moving forward; what steps we need to take, sometimes backtracking, retracing our steps trying to figure out our what is NEXT.     .    .

Where have I come from? What did I leave behind, and what’s important right now; and moving forward sometimes that means that we’re paralyzed. We can’t go forward or backward and it’s not always because we’re trying to figure out our next move so much as we’re afraid of any direction that we go we’ll know all of these things in just a moment.          .          .

So here’s the biggest question and it’s up to you.        .       .

What’s your next step?

BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE

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So what constitutes you having THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE.          .           .

Inn your heart of hearts, you know.            .            .

In your truest truth, what do you know about your life, that you know, the one thing that you do that makes somebody love,and even somebody you don’t know, possibly having the the best day of their lives?

Here’s the best thing; here’s the message:

It is more of a lot less than you can imagine, which makes it not only all the more easier but even more awesomely powerful, whatever that small act of kindness happens to be.

DON’T COMPLICATE THE SIMPLE

There’s no secret formula or sophisticated equation.        .       .

JUST DO WHATEVER COMES TO YOUR MIND; DO IT

.       .      .and then stand back and watch the Magic that comes for your Magic that ripples more Magic which comes crashing back to your shore to recreate your landscape with more Magic equally THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE.      .      .

 

ARTEMIS, NO JOKE

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A minister
A minster’s wife
A Jewish man
A Jewish man’s wife
A recovering Catholic
A Non-Church attending Protestant Couple
went to an Artemis Splash Down Party.        .        .

Sounds like the beginning of a great joke, huh.             .            .B U T

Last week, something quietly powerful happened that offered no spoofs as they came together, had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and returned to the Jewish couple’s home to watch the Splashdown.

On paper, they represent difference. In that moment, they didn’t.

There was no “us” and “them.” Just shared attention. Shared awe. With lots of great commentary and easygoing laughter.

What brought them together wasn’t agreement—it was perspective.

As the mission returned from space, it pulled everyone’s focus beyond themselves. Differences didn’t disappear; they just stopped being the most important thing in the room.

That matters.

Because most attempts at unity ask people to compromise their beliefs. This didn’t. No one changed their views. Unity simply emerged through a shared encounter with something bigger.

NASA didn’t set out to create that moment with the Artemis program, but it happened anyway.

Awe has a way of doing that. It quiets division—not by resolving it, but by putting it in context.

Maybe that’s what we’re missing.

Unity doesn’t always come from agreement. Sometimes it comes from standing side by side, looking at the same thing, and remembering we’re part of the same story.

That group didn’t solve anything.

But for a moment, they didn’t have to.

And maybe that’s a place to start.          .          .
A minister
A minster’s wife
A Jewish man
A Jewish man’s wife
A recovering Catholic
A Non-Church attending Protestant Couple
went to an Artemis Splash Down Party.        .        .
And the feeling that was shared, yeah, literally out of this
World . . . No Joke

JUST A MESSAGE: YOUR SHARED MESSAGE

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Shakespeare once said that the whole world is a stage and we are but actors or something really close to that. .  . and much more closer to the truth than at times, we’d like to know.

Here’s the thing about that, it’s both, true but it’s never ending. You see, the script is continually being written and the stage lights; they never dim, they never go out and  everybody.          .         .everybody is showing up for the performance.  Sometimes they care and sometimes they don’t, but make no mistake the world is not only made up of actors on a stage, but critics.  Still, let’s just say right now, in just a moment, here’s your message. Here is your soliloquy, your most inner thoughts, and everybody is leaning in to hear exactly what you have to say and maybe for the first time in your life, and maybe even their’s, they just don’t want to LISTEN but actually HEAR what you have to share as if their life might depend on it.          .          . because in just a moment, maybe, maybe what you have to share makes it so. . . .

TESTING.         .         .TESTING.           .         .SPEAK UP!

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man