Giving — Page 49

The Compassionate Competitor’s Chord

May 5, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Well, does it?

Does Competition bring out the best in you?

Does it make your Compassionate Chord ring out its best?

Just how Competitive are you?

I can’t play golf or bowl. It’s not that I don’t know how or that I haven’t, it’s just that I WILL NOT golf or bowl, because it brings out all Beast and nil to nary Beauty.

I mean that in all of its viciousness.

My best time EVER for running a marathon was the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. 1983 on a cool 45 degree rainy day. I ran it in 2:50.26 seconds.

I finished 286 out of 9987 runners that day. I didn’t even get to the starting line because of that vast crowd almost until six minutes AFTER the race began. I should be proud. Honored. Bragging about it….

The qualifying time to go to the Boston Marathon that year was 2 hours and fifty minutes. I missed it by 26 seconds. That averages out to 6 minute 29 second mile for 26.2 miles and I still needed to be a second faster per mile. I MISSED IT!

I swear. I never felt winded that day. My legs never hurt. I never hit The Wall. But I failed.

I NEEDED TO BE JUST ONE SECOND PER MILE FASTER…and I wasn’t.

Yes, I could have contested the race saying I wasn’t able to even reach the start line for 6 minutes…but in my heart, even if granted the allowance, I WOULD KNOW I WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH…and there’s been the dance of competition I’ve haggled with all of my life.

I compete with my self more fiercely than any one else. I don’t need a foe…I AM FOE to myself. I am constantly challenging myself to do more, be better, faster, more efficient, More, MOre, MORe, MORE,
M O R E!

And I never, ever settle. Never give in. Always looking for the next battle, challenge, competition, game.

What competitor’s song bounces within you? Does it’s notes haunt or taunt you? Are your striving to be better…even more than yesterday?

I have found that as destructive and sometimes as devastatingly disappointing this could be, it has taken me to new, higher levels when it comes to my Compassionate Ways.

Can I be more giving? Can I Care more? Can I listen more empathically? Can I be more accepting? Forgiving? Nurturing? Sharing? Loving?

When I compete with myself, DAILY, on these feats of the heart…can others gain, be better? Can I?

It’s then that these vicious musicians, duel madly within me, trying to OUT SOUND and gain Center Stage…but if the notes all work together for the good…this magnificent Symphony beautifully unfolds in a most magnificent way.

…hands get clapped, toes get tapped, faces wear smiles and the Music of the Soul bursts forth and OHHHH, how that pleases the Maestro…but NEVER ENOUGH! There’s more symphonies to be created and perfomred!

And on THAT NOTE…it’s time to begin again.

Buckle up!

When 60 Minutes Takes Less than 30 Seconds

May 2, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Did you see it?

I don’t normally watch 60 Minutes on Sunday’s…mostly because I rarely am able to put 60 minutes together consecutively…I didn’t last Sunday either; but you know what “THEY” say: “Timing is everything.”

I was REMOTELY switching through some channels when I chanced upon a 60 Minutes expose as it started…pure chance or….

It featured 104 year old Nicholas Winton. He was a young stockbroker in 1938 and he was severely distressed as he watched Hitler’s Germany march its way across Eastern Europe. When he was in Prague for a vacation he thought, “Someone should do something?” and he thought even more decisively, “Hey, I AM SOMEONE!”

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Taking Back TRUST a DVD at a Time

April 30, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

It was suppose to be a simple trip.

A favor that turned into a furor!

Why do things go all ka-fluey when there’s just no reason for them NOT to go smoothly?

Don’t tell me: “JUST BECAUSE!”

Don’t tell me: “It’s a fate thing?”

Don’t tell me: “Mr. Murphy has moved next door and wants to be intimately close to you.”

Don’t tell me that sometimes when I look at something square on without blinking that I still can’t see if for the very life of me.

I went to the Redbox kiosk as the rain beat down on me like a war drum gone amok. I tried pressing the RIGHT buttons but, oh, no, Mr Murphy on a Christmas morn with an Easter sunrise, the Redbox machine was more frozen than an iceberg in January.

As I was ‘praying’ an unheard sanctuary prayer, a couple came running from their car to return their DVD and when I told them of the problem, they too joined me in this unholy litany to the Redbox gods.

And then, then it happened. I told them that I was going to go to another Redbox a few miles a way and if they wanted, I would be glad to return their two DVD’s.

They didn’t pause. They said, “Would you? That would be so nice of you.”

They shoved the DVD’s in my hand quicker than they could have ever done to that Redbox machine. And they ran back to the car faster than the next raindrop and were gone.

They trusted me. They trusted me with about $100.00 worth of their DVD movies. They trusted ME!

On the way to the next Redbox kiosk (about three miles) away, I was no longer mad at a favor turned bad. I was a little more humbled, a little more encouraged and validated.

What, what made them trust me? Was it the rain? Was it the baby crying in the back seat and wanting to get home NO MATTER WHAT THE COST? Was it my face? A kind offer that surprised/shocked them? Was it the frustration of a frozen Redbox machine? What?

What do we show people? How are we ultimately seen? Kind? Sincere? Compassionate? Trustworthy?

I can’t pass THAT or any other Redbox kiosk now and not ask myself those kind of questions.

Come on, there’s day’s when I do everything I can NOT to look my way for any reason.

Maybe this is a kind, a compassionate reason for all of us to be reminded, “It’s no longer enough just ‘not to be so bad,” but to be kind, compassionate, giving TO BE KIND, COMPASSIONATE and GIVING.

Maybe the “T” in Trust actually begins with an “I?”

Maybe we can actually ‘take back’ TRUST one DVD at a time. . . ?

Maybe THAT’S the special feature we all need to do more than just renting out or simply viewing…?

Maybe. . . .

Love Past A Season

April 21, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

WE say it’s easier if you love someone.

We say it’s easier if it’s a family member.

We say it’s the right thing to do.

We say it’s longer lasting than a Moment, A Day, or a Season.

We say. . . .

The truest Love wrapped in the warmest Compassion overcomes most likely everything in and out of this world.

That Love will grow weary.

That Love will become weaker.

That Love will Know all things, Believe all things, Endure all things.

That Love will never fail.

That Love will never end.

That Love is what we possess and have the power to parlay to and for the good of others.

Let someone else do it?

We are SOMEONE ELSE!

See. Be Free that wonderful gift that exists and you and begs to be shared…but never just once. It becomes more potent each time shared.

Make the Best time…the Next time!

Don’t waste too many breaths in between the two!

Love past a Season is the only Season that lasts and is worth Living…it’s always the Perfect climate! It’s the only time of the year that continues, any you’re it’s caretaker!

The World needs a little ‘SEASONING.’ None better than yours–EVER!

Believing In Good

April 14, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

It’s the universal law of life, right?

YOU GIVE…YOU GET!

. . .But wonder if it’s not all that Universal…wonder if there’s NEVER a pay off, nothing added to a 401K or a meager Bank Account? Wonder if you got NOTHING for any, for EVERY thing you give. Would you still keep it up?

Wonder if truly the only thing you ever got for a kind act was only the shaking of a head, or frustration and anger…or, NO THANKS or Recognition in the tiniest of forms?

WOULD YOU STILL KEEP IT UP?

Wonder if all you got was just pure, unadulterated Emotions. A smile? A nod? A faithful, following dog? A hug? Witnessing someone truly benefiting from your kind, compassionate giving.

WOULD YOU STILL KEEP IT UP?

The World often becomes better not in big, huge ways, but small, almost unnoticed ways that often go UN-thanked and UN-paid.

See.

Be.

Free…that magnificent Light that allows others to not only be in the Brightness but also in the Warmth that often accompanies.

Make YOUR limelight be their Spotlight!

Find WAYS to out do, out give, out live yourself and you won’t have to worry about the World rewarding you…IT will be BENEFIT Enough!

Through the Wringer

March 7, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

A long, hard Winter will have you not only actively wishing, but dreaming about Summer.

You don’t always need a Winter, though, do you?

Growing up was always one of the greatest times of the year wasn’t it? For me, it meant that we could spend a whole week at my grandparents WITHOUT my brothers and sister.

I was King for a week during that time. I always got to pick the menu for the week, and lima beans wasn’t on it. I could pick out the flavor of ice-cream I liked the best and if I wanted to, I could stay up and watch Johnny Carson.

I always took the opportunity to tell my grandmother what terrible people my parents were; why they made me take out garbage, put my clothes in the hamper, make my bad and even had the audacity to make me do the dishes from time to time.

I remember asking my grandmother what terrible things her parents made her do, and she would tell me it was many, many tasks too horrible to describe, but one in particular, doing the family wash, was the worst because they didn’t have a wash machine. My grandmother would have to haul the family laundry into town, wait while it was being done, and then have to come home afterwards; an all day event, she bemoaned.

She told me she’d remembered very vividly when their neighbor was drafted into the war and he boarded up the house and moved his family in with the in-laws and asked my great-grandparents if they’d be so kind as to take care of some of the things they were leaving behind. Wouldn’t you know, one of them was their wash machine. It’s the kind you actually find out on the back porch of an antique store, the one with the tumbler and wringer. She even proudly displayed a nasty scar on her hand where she’d actually got it caught in the wringer.

She said, chasing that old wash machine across their dirt basement floor as it would shake, shimmy, spit, and spew suds all over the place was a kind of peace on earth–besides she could now do the family wash at her convenience and not for a whole Saturday.

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Being THAT GUY

February 19, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Maybe it’s not so much about being Remembered as it is simply not getting FORGOTTEN. . . .

I’ve NOT been remembered LOTS as a minister, a Life-Celebrant, a Spiritual Care Coordinator with hospice, a Wedding Liturgist, a Speaker for Leadership, Communication, Spirituality, End-Of-Life Issues. Maybe too many times. But I have literally, powerfully, emphatically NOT been Forgotten.

Most of the phone calls I get to fulfill any of the roles above is merely been because I’ve NOT been forgotten.

I’m sincerely, intimately, “THAT GUY!”

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A Gift

February 10, 2014 By ChuckBehrens 2 Comments

Dare I take up the next 6:19 minutes of your Life?

Dare you squander it?

Dare you Miss It?

Michael Pollack. You certainly know the name, right?

I didn’t know of him…never heard of him before 10 minutes ago.

Billy Joel.

I’ve liked his music since his very first song, “Piano Man” in the early 70’s.

I remember one story, because of his busy concert schedule, he was going to miss his only child’s, his daughter’s Birthday and she was devastated by the news…he was more so.

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