Seriously what gives you that Christmas morning feeling?
Is it music is a family friends is it presence?
Is it all the food? Is it kind of anti-climatic by the time we get to THIS Christmas morning and all of the feelings have come along with it?
You know, there’s an answer to all of those questions. . .
Three simple letters
Y O UWhat say
Y O U
May all of the Lights of this Day
be yours
to see
to be
to free
in you
for others
always for Others
so that all may know
That Christmas Morning Feeling
NEEDING TO BE MORE OF AN ATHEIST
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
X-RAY of the SOUL
And so there it is. .
.
My poor left knee. . .
Most likely more than you wanted or needed to see, huh. . .
And yet it shows the painful truth that at nearly
6 3
I have arthritis
and I am bone on bone
because of all the years of running;
Hmmmmmm and here I thought I was actually taking care of myself. . .
It wasn’t the 8 marathons
so much the
T R A I N I N G
for the 8 marathons
AND ffter having a really rough time getting in and out of a car
climbing up and down stairs
getting out of a chair
or even walking comfortably
I finally
with the advice of my family doctor
went to see in orthopedic surgeon. . .
He confirmed what my knees were screaming:
‘your knees maybe nearly 63 years of age but they look like a 95-year-old man’s. . .
O U C H
~~Literally~~O U C H
. . . after talking and confirming the obvious
we talk different plans and maybe different interventions
The least invasive was
getting a Cortizone shot
(It was painless)
and even more so
before I actually got off the examination table
I was pain-free for the first time in 3+ years. . .
I N C R E D I B L E
It kind of got me to thinking though. . .
if I can take a shot for something like this
and alleviate this physical pain
that I have Night and day
and worsened under certain conditions. . .
Is there such a shot intervention for the pain in the
S O U L. . .
I believe there is. . .
I believe you’ve experienced that
I believe without going to a physician
or counselor
you can have that even at this very second;
I believe it can last longer than three weeks
or three months or
possibly even six months at its best. . .
I believe it has no downside
no side effects
and the only bad reaction
is limited to how often I apply
or take the treatment/intervention/therapy. . .
It’s the most effective,
least evasive,
absolutely cheapest,
without a doubt the best guaranteed treatment available. . .
In fact it not only what makes a soul,
A SOUL
But it’s also what
D E F I N E S I T :
C O M P A S S I O N
If it were possible to take an x-ray of the soul
each and everyone
would contain this element of compassion
and the only obstacle would be how we dispense it
and how often we do. . .
And this is where we believe the L I E S :
COMPASSION can only be dispensed very sparingly or else it will cease to be compassion
or very effective compassion. .
.
THAT
Every once in a while compassion is all that’s needed
not each time or one time but every time. . .
The shot of compassion normally does another soul good
but
E S P E C I A L L Y
THE O N E S O U L
which dispenses it even better with greater effects. . .
THIS COMPASSION
(GIVEN)
absolutely has no limit;
no shelf life
no expiration date
W H E N
GIVEN and RECEIVED
f r e e l y
not just magical
but miraculous things
take place to both the Giver and the Receiver
The B A D N E W S :
T H A T
Will never show up on an x-ray
or an MRI
or a blood test;
there will never really be a device
a mechanism
and instrument
that’ll ever be able to measure
I T
but there won’t be a device
and instrument
a mechanism
that will ever be able to deny it. . .
Some of this out giving
Of C O M P A S S I O N
from your soul to another soul
may not be able to be completely measured;
B U T
it will be absolutely
unequivocally
undeniably
not just received
but wonderfully
E X P E R I E N C E D
Uhhhhhhhh, Yeah. . .
I don’t want to shot of that
(I WANT AN OVER DOSE)
Pssssssssssssssbsssst, R E M E M B E R:
Pay Attention, Class:
Spirit H e a r i n g
She heard me speak.
It was to a large group of Activities Directors
and she wanted to hear more after the last word. . .
She saw me in the parking lot after the presentation but didn’t,
well, she was afraid,
not so much of what she was going to say,
but what I was going to hear. . .
She called me through an office to another office
who contacted another office
to leave me a message to contact her. . .
I didn’t remember her;
and even now,
several years later I don’t remember her name
or recall in detail her face;
They gave me her name and number,
but I had never met her to remember her;
“Could we meet?”
She wanted to know if we could meet
at an area nursing home where I would be visiting patients
and, as it turns out,
her Partner of nearly 30 years had died. . .
We set a time. . .
A Friday around 11:00 a.m;
She recognized me coming down the hall;
I only saw a woman,
mostly in a shadow
with the sun at her back from a smudged window;
We found a small lounge area
and she began to tell a story
that didn’t so much need telling,
but most absolutely
H E A R D
I l i s t e n e d. . .
L i s t e n e d
with my eyes;
she looked tired,
weary with tears
that begged to streak down her face;
L i s t e n e d
with my nose;
she sprayed on a lot of perfume;
L i s t e n e d
with my mouth;
I sipped from a cup of coffee
that she had poured for me from the lobby;
L i s t e n e d
with my hands;
I handed her a tissue
and felt the roughness of her hands,
her fingers
when they touched mine;
L i s t e n e d
with my heart;
words that a mouth couldn’t share;
L i s t e n e d
with my ears;
but heard more listening in the other ways;
l i s t e n e d. . .
She s o b b e d
that she had been conceived from a rape;
Cried that she was given up for adoption;
Wept that she has been a victim her whole life
and that her Life Partner
left her when she needed her the most. . .
And then she asked me what
I had never been asked before. . .
As she wiped her face from tears
that were replaced just as fast
as they were wiped away:
“W H A T I S T H E S P I R I T T E L L I N G Y O U
T O T E L L M E ?”
I didn’t think.
I didn’t react.
I didn’t analyze.
I didn’t pause.
I didn’t reflect.
I just answered:
“The person I see right here, right now in front of me isn’t the person she has seen all of her life. Look at the person I see and not the one who looks back from the mirror asking, ‘why me?'”
When we L I S T E N just to R E P L Y we never really h e a r!
What. . .
WHAT STIRS YOUR DEEP WATERS OF UNEASINESS
T H I S
literally took place
several years ago
and yet feels just like yesterday
mostly because of the question
that she asked
that has echoed through me
and now asked by me
in situations
places
events
occurrences
with i n d i v i d u a l s
I Y E A R N to know:
“W H A T I S T H E S P I R I T T E L L I N G Y O U
T O T E L L M E ?”
I asked it a week ago of Jenny and Steve
a couple who made it possible for us to vacation
A N D. . .
it wasn’t a tangible worded answer that they gave
so much as a powerful
W O R D L E S S
J U S T B E C A U S E
v a l i d a t i o n
It’s like looking into a mirror dimly
but being being SEEN
e x p l i c i t l y
Sometimes what we hear,
a Heart can only shout
and a mouth can never whisper. . .
Like a ripple that comes lapping up on YOUR SHORE
from an UN-SEEN Place. . .
but undeniably leaves you soaked. . .
Maybe the Language of the Heart
can only be heard by the Soul. . .
understood from the Being. . .
. . .N O T A L L T H A T H U M A N !
It RE-ADDRESSES
RE-FRESHES US. . .
It’s puts us succinctly
at the bottom of a winding staircase
that waits
b e g s
to take us to a higher place
if we don’t fear the
s
t
e
p
s
D I S C O V E R
that we can grow
In the most unlikely of p l a c e s
of s p o t s
if we let go of
WHAT WE KNOW
.and grab on to
what doesn’t always seemingly exist. . .
It just might be the one way to concretely KNOW
what can never be ANSWERED
by the question:
“W H A T I S T H E S P I R I T T E L L I N G Y O U
T O T E L L M E ?”
I’m sorry. . .
did you say something?
Shhhhhhhhhhh. . .
the more silent you are,
t h e
L O U D E R
y o u s o u n d
the better
Y O U H E A R
Hearing the SILENCE
What exactly do you call
S I L E N C E
that s p e a k s. . . ?
Some call it
C o n s c i e n c e
Some call it
I n t u i t i o n
Some call it
S i x t h S e n s e
Some call it
E n e r g y
Some call it
S p i r i t
Some call it
S i l e n c e
I had just finished a funeral
it was a little 3:30 in the afternoon
and my first thought was to go and finish charting;
but then
I T
happened. . .
As I pulled out of the funeral home parking lot
and began going down the short road to home
I saw there was a lot of traffic
and at the one light
where I would have gone straight
I turned left and got on the road
that took me to
Ames Family Hospice House
one of our inpatient units. . .
When I walked in the front door
there she was. . .
I had only met her once. . .
y e s t e r d a y
and we had talked about
the decline of her father and
. . .and his funeral. . .
and now I walk in and actually see
her being picked off the floor by some staff
and her husband
after being told
“You’re father died,”
after sitting vigil for him with days on end
and just leaving for a few moments
to pick up her children from school. . .
When she saw me, she looked in disbelief and said,
“There’s the guy who’s going to do my dad’s funeral; how did he know to come?”
After I sat with the family for a while
and we made some preliminary funeral arrangements
and I was walking away from them
I heard a voice from a gentleman
who’s uncle I had a funeral service for
two weeks earlier. . .
“C H U C K !”
. . .and when I turned to see who was calling my name,
his wife asked,
“How did you know to come here. . .my mother just died.”
H O W. . .
h o w i n d e e d. . .
was it
c o n s c i e n c e
i n t u i t i o n
s i x t h s e n s e
e n e r g y
s p i r i t
s i l e n c e
The World takes us down so many, many
d i f f e r e n t r o a d s
and one of the biggest secrets in the World
isn’t that they are all in our hands
and not that they all lead
t o a
p l a c e
b u t t o a
d e s t i n a t i o n
w h e r e
s i l e n c e
s p e a k s
that can be heard
in crystal clear
precision
with no misunderstanding. . .
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
l i s t e n. . .
There’s a big difference
between listening to the
s i l e n c e
and actually
hearing
e x p e r i e n c i n g
it. . .
That’ll take you down roads that will have you and people asking,
“How did you know to be here?”