The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

WINTERINGS

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iceberg near mountain during day
Photo by Derek Oyen on Unsplash
[UNTITLED]
Yasuhara Teishitsu
Translated from the Japanese by R. H Blyth

Ice and water,
Their difference resolved,
Are friends again.


(My thanks to Yasuhara Teishitsu and the translator. 
Unfortunately I can't remember the source of the poem.)
In Northeast Ohio we can often have four seasons in one day
and worse, we can experience all four seasons inside us, too.    .    .
It's up to each of us to bring Sun Shine to each day
.      .      .but will we.           .        .       ?
Now that would be a great (never-ending Season)
WINTERINGS
We need no crumpled calendar pages
to announce the comings and goings
of the Seasons
No synchronized Apps
through an un-weathered Cloud
to Announce our Events
Our seemingly important moments
or lacksadaisical 'To-Do's'
No. . .it all settles down wobblingly
to our eventual Winterings
with one guaranteed Promise:
'There is no Winter that's never not been
Obliterated by the Spring'
. . .Especially when it feels like our
Final One

SHE MAKES THINGS GROW (BETTER)

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Mark Twain
once said,
“The two most important days in your life are
THE DAY YOU ARE BORN
a n d
THE DAY YOU FIND OUT WHY”

We celebrate a person’s Birthday

Not because of the Day that they were born

But because of what they have born

Because of what they have given Birth in us. . .

I’ve celebrated well over 38
of my wife,
Erin’s Birthday’s
with her
And not one of them
has ever been without the over apparent
R E C O G N I T I O N
that I,
that many
are far more better
no so much
because she’s been Born
but because of what she has BIRTHED
in us.   .   .
Erin
creates
CARING CATALYSTS
in everyone she meets
or those who come across
her paths

which means that the best
Birthday Gift of all
Is what you cause to be born in others.      .      .
Your are the next Rung
on all of our Ladder’s
that take us Higher
.      .     .Always Higher
There’s no Candle on a Cake
that could ever illuminate more
and it’s
u n e x t i n g u i s h a b l e
Some actually powerfully prove
their Flicker
never compares to the
F L A M E
they ignite
and spread to others
.   .   .talk about a
fortunate inextinguishable inferno.      .       .

SHE MAKES THINGS GROW

All ground is fertile
and she proved it
by taking what had no life
L I V E
She makes my soul her soil
when she rakes deeply
and prunes, sharply
The ache is more of a yearning
Ahhhhhhhh
than a moaning Owwwwwwl
She makes things grow
out of nothingness
an Everythingness
hardly without notice
but never unnotable
BIRTHDAYS
MARK YEARS;
M  O  M  E  N  T  S
make
L I F E T I M E S
and I just can’t stop smiling
for all of the things
SHE MAKES GROW
in everyone she knows
and meets

A BILLION REASONS

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HERE’S A BILLION REASONS
I HAVE MORE HOPE
ON THIS MONDAY MORNING BLOG POST.          .          .

Watch this. It is beautiful. This is THE moment when students of Albert Einstein College of Medicine got to know that they no longer have to pay any fees. Ruth Gottesman, a former professor at the college announced that she is donating USD 1 billion to the school. The college followed up and made themselves tution free rather than shoring up its reserves. With no student debt overhang, many students will now be able to pursue medicine as a public service.

Now here’s the thing, I may not have $1 billion to donate but I have a billion other ways which I can contribute to make the world a better place and make lives around me easier. As a Caring Catalyst, so do you.  Let’s do what we can to make this more than just a nice Monday morning blog post in a billion other different ways!

MOON HANGERS

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Residing in the City of Souls
walking the streets
hanging the moon
on bare branches
aching for bloomings
that will bring
Awe to Ahhh
without a shine
Glowing a Way
But being ever present
to banish the shadows
of Aloneness
Moon Hangers
We Are
if we are

Admitting it would be outrageous. If fact, it would really border on raw arrogancy if we thought we actually brought  A  LIGHT  that nobody else in this world can bring; how egotistical is that?  And yet, the fact of the matter is nobody can light the world just like we dan where we are, because of who we are INDIVIDUALLY
THE  SHAME  OF   IT
We don’t think we are THAT LIGHT.          .          .
so forget about shining, glowing, illuminating any dark corner
or shadow throwing any doubts or lonelinesses away
STOP   IT.           .           .
HERE’S THE TRUTH OF ALL TRUTHS
YOU JUST DON’T HANG THE MOON
YOU BRING ITS GLOW
AND YOU REPRESENT ITS BEST KIND OF BEAMS
P     E     R     I    O    D.        .       .
Now excuse me,
I’ve got a Moon to hang
(AND SO DO YOU)

S E N S I T I V E (THE NEW SUPERPOWER)

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ARE YOU.          .          .          ?
Are you Sensitive?
On that imaginary scale of 1 to 10 where would you rate yourself, 1–not so sensitive or 10, extremely Sensitive or just somewhere in the middle.          .          .          ?

W  A   I   T.          .          .
W  H  A  T.          .          .
IS BEING SENSITIVE GOOD OR BAD.          .          .

Why Being Sensitive Is a Strength

Getty Image

Andre Sólo is the force behind Sensitive Refuge, the world’s largest website for sensitive people, and the author of Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World, which he wrote with co-author Jenn Granneman

When was the last time you bragged about being sensitive?

Most likely, the answer is never. There are plenty of traits we take pride in but being “sensitive” is usually perceived as a weakness. It’s used to mean you’re fragile, thin-skinned, or just overreacting. Men are told that they shouldn’t be sensitive at all, whereas women are told not to be “so” sensitive—an infuriating set of words that ought to be retired.

Either way, the message sensitive people get isn’t to celebrate who they are. It’s that they should “overcome” their sensitivity and “toughen up.” Putting aside that this approach doesn’t work, it’s wrongheaded. Sensitivity is largely genetic, and not something you can turn off. It is a trait linked to giftedness and something we ought to embrace. In fact, according to three decades of research, it’s not only a healthy trait, it also serves as a a powerful asset.

As a personality trait, being sensitive means you take in more information from your environment, and you do more with it. Sensitive people are wired at a brain level to process information more deeply than others do. That includes sensory input (like noticing the texture of a fabric), emotional input (reading social cues), and ideas (spending a longer time thinking things through and making more connections between concepts).

If you’re sensitive, this deep processing changes the way you see the world. You probably notice what others miss, think, and feel deeply, and have a vivid inner life. You probably also get overstimulated in situations that don’t bother anyone else. If so, you’re not alone. Roughly 30% of all people, regardless of gender, score high for sensitivity. These individuals, sometimes called highly sensitive people (HSPs), are wired to go deep. And that depth comes with gifts.

The most well-known and celebrated sensitive gift is creativity. It’s perhaps the one generalization that’s true: Sensitive people tend to be highly creative, and many—perhaps most—artists, musicians, and actors are themselves sensitive people.

But creativity doesn’t end with the arts. The same ability translates to innovation. Many of our greatest thinkers and scientists throughout history have been sensitive people, including Charles Darwin, who was not only creative but contemplative, humble, conscientious, and full of strong emotions — the model of a sensitive person. Sensitive people have this capacity for innovation because they tend to be deep thinkers who spend more time and energy turning problems over in their heads—and end up seeing more possibilities and solutions.

A second strength sensitive people have is their decision making ability. In studies involving both humans and monkeys, the subjects who are sensitive—based on having gene variants associated with sensitivity—tend to outperform others on a variety of cognitive tasks, particularly those that require noticing patterns and using them to predict outcomes and make smart decisions.

This decision-making ability may give sensitive people an evolutionary advantage. In a 2008 computer simulation of natural selection, creatures who spent more resources considering their options and comparing them to past results, as sensitive people do, came out ahead long-term compared to less-sensitive creatures. They amassed more resources over time and out-survived others. In the wilderness, that might mean tracking down game when everyone is hungry. In the boardroom, it means steering companies to the top of their industry.

But perhaps the greatest advantage of sensitive people is what we call the “Boost Effect.” The “Boost Effect” means that sensitive people get more of a boost from the same things that help anyone. For example, a 2022 study looked at hundreds of couples at risk of divorce. The couples had been given a relationship training to improve their marriages, and at a glance, it seemed to help: The couples who received it were more likely to stay together. But when researchers gave the subjects personality tests, they found that it was the sensitive people who were most likely to use the training to save their marriages. Not only that, the couples where at least one person was sensitive reported an improvement in relationship quality overall—they became happier with each other. Other couples got no such benefit.

The Boost Effect isn’t limited to relationships. Over and over, researchers find that sensitive people are supercharged by any form of training or support. If you’re a sensitive person, you can activate this ability by curating a supportive environment around yourself—such as a group of supportive friends—and by seeking out resources such as mentoring, training, therapy, or coaching.

Sensitive people do pay a price for these gifts, however, by becoming overstimulated. Overstimulation is what happens when there is simply too much information for the brain to keep going deep. It feels like brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, and a sense of overwhelm; it happens in situations that are too loud, too chaotic, or too emotionally intense. (A rushed day at work and a conflict with a partner are both common triggers.) This is the only time when sensitive people really might seem less “tough” than others, but sensitive people can learn to largely prevent it—particularly by building time into each day to simply let the mind process and “catch up.” For sensitive people, even sensitive extroverts, a little bit of quiet alone time goes a very long way.

If any of this sounds like you, you might be more sensitive than you realize. If so, you have probably felt the pressure to hide it. But that’s a trap. You cannot make yourself less sensitive than you are and trying to do so only cuts you off from your gifts.

Instead, the single most important step you can take for yourself is what society has told you not to do your whole life: Stop hiding from your sensitivity. Embrace it, and show it to the world.

SO.           .            .
Let’s Rinse and REPEAT:
ARE YOU.          .          .          ?
Are you Sensitive?
On that imaginary scale of 1 to 10 where would you rate yourself, 1–not so sensitive or 10, extremely Sensitive or just somewhere in the middle.          .          .          ?

W  A   I   T.          .          .
W  H  A  T.          .          .
IS BEING SENSITIVE GOOD OR BAD.     .       .         ?
Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
H               I               D               I               N               G
is no longer an alternative or shame
for being Sensitive
EMBRACE YOUR SUPER POWER
and EveryOne Else
will benefit
(you too)

JUST BEING THANKFUL

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Listen, I’m always good for a full turkey dinner with all of the fixings and often get it at one of our local diner favorites, MY FRIENDS.
 (uhhhh yeah, I’m grateful for THAT, too)

D       E       L       I       S       H

So why not a little gratefulness with all of it’s fixings just because it gives more than it promises when you’re feeling it the most.          .          .

DO YOU KNOW THE GREATEST THING ABOUT BEING
THANKFUL.     .     .     ?
YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THANKSGIVING TO BE
T          H          A         N          K        F          U          L
.            .            .SO WHAT ARE YOU
WAITING FOR?

Every once in a while, this song, Nilly Willy pops up on my playlist. It always stops me in my tracks. It usually guts me in such way that I don’t even know I’ve been filleted, but I also know I’m different because of hearing it.  I’ve posted this before but maybe it’s gonna pop up right now on this blog post today at a time where you need gutted or filleted  and you didn’t even know that you needed it but you’re so grateful that it happened anyway.

ENJOY.          .          .

From one grateful Caring Catalyst to another now grateful Caring Catalyst.

Enjoy, indeed.            .            .

Things I’m Thankful For By JJ Heller, David Heller and Melanie Penn

Morning light Starry nights There’s so much good in the world Happy songs Sing along These are the things I’m thankful for

Skipping stones Feeling known The click of my key in the door Summer rain On window panes These are the things I’m thankful for I would know just what to say if you asked me What my favorite is Of all of the wonder in all of the world You’re at the top of my list

Holding hands Weekend plans And finding out what love is for Open spaces Fireplaces These are the things I’m thankful for

I would know just what to say if you asked me What my favorite is Of all of the wonder in all of the world You’re at the top of my list

It’s how you keep Showing me Everything that I missed before But I see ‘em now Too many to count All of the things I’m thankful for These are the things I’m thankful for

JUST FOR THE RECORD

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Maybe it’s not so much for what we reach for as what stretches out for us; sometimes that’s a hand, sometimes it’s an idea, a thought, a story, a poem, but it’s undeniable when it makes contact and causes not even ever so slightly to move us ever so powerfully.

THE NOTHINGNESS OF THERE


Sometimes I grieve

Where I once was

that no longer exists

The house I grew up

The jobs in the town that I had

Friends either gone or dead

The Nothingness of There

is a void with an abyss of its own

And now stronger than a memory

Is a Feeling

With sticky tentacles that intertwine

onto thoughts of what once were

that raspily whispers distinctly

‘You’re not learning to live without 

as much as understanding 

to live with the love left behind’ 

The Happiness PRICE-TAG

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HOW   DO   YOU   REALLY   SEE   THINGS?

DO   YOU   NEED   SPECIAL   LENS

TO   KNOW   WHAT’S   THE   MOST   REAL   THING

IN   YOUR   LIFE.          .          .          ?

Recently, the adage “Money can’t buy happiness” was given a leg to stand on by a study suggesting a raise won’t have a real impact on your state of mind. But a different study claims that in regard to your income, there is totally a financial sweet spot for optimal satisfaction.

The expansive study, published in the journal, Nature Human Behaviour, used a Gallup World Poll to evaluate the income and happiness of 1.7 million people around the world. The authors of the research found monetary averages associated with satisfaction: For daily emotional well-being, people were generally best off earning $60,000 to $75,000 a year, but for long-term satisfaction, the mark was $95,000.

In North America (and most “wealthy” countries), for daily emotional well-being, the sweet spot is an annual income of $65,000 to $95,000, and for long-term satisfaction that number is $105,000.

 

Those numbers are the worldwide average, however; the averages vary from country to country, and in North America (and most “wealthy” countries) they are higher. For daily emotional well-being, the sweet spot here is $65,000 to $95,000, and for long-term satisfaction that number is $105,000. The area with the lowest income marker for long-term satisfaction is Latin America, at $35,000, and Australia and New Zealand report the highest, at $125,000.

People were likely to see decreased happiness if they achieved more than the optimal income for long-term satisfaction, partially due to a phenomenon Money described as the “hedonic treadmill,” in which people adjust to increases in income.

But happiness does peak at a certain point, according to the researchers. If people achieved more than the optimal income for long-term satisfaction, they were likely to see decreased happiness, partially due to a phenomenon Money described as the “hedonic treadmill.” This describes when people very quickly adjust to increases in income.

Still, the study has its shortcomings: Gauging and measuring happiness is a subjective practice that often relies on self-reporting. Additionally, the study examined individual income instead of household income, which might have skewed conclusions about how much money someone needs in order to be happy. Not to mention that the concept of happiness itself is contentious, and many nations don’t place as much weight on it as Americans do.

So, while you should definitely hustle at your day job and also find a side gig that’s meaningful to you, remember to make time for yourself and don’t make money your purpose. Instead, leave work early every now and then to go have fun with your #squad.

SO.          .          .

What brings the Fire

to your   P   I   T

Is   the   Fire   enough   to

I N F L A M E   Y O U

enough    to

E   N   L   I   G   T   E   N            O  T  H  E  R  S

.          .         .It’s the only question

worth asking.          .          .

worth answering;

and it’ll cost you

E V E R Y T H I N G

.           .           .will it be enough

to make you

H          A         P         P         Y


MORE THAN CHOCOLATE

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If you think this is about
CHOCOLATE

t     h     i     n     k 
CONSIDER
a g a i n.               .           .

Come with me and you’ll beIn a world of pure imaginationTake a look and you’ll seeInto your imagination
We’ll begin with a spinTraveling in the world of my creationWhat we’ll see will defyExplanation
If you want to view paradiseSimply look around and view itAnything you want to, do itWant to change the world?There’s nothing to it
There is no life I knowTo compare with pure imaginationLiving there, you’ll be freeIf you truly wish to be
If you want to view paradiseSimply look around and view itAnything you want to, do itWant to change the world?There’s nothing to it
There is no life I knowTo compare with pure imaginationLiving there, you’ll be freeIf you truly wish to be

and

“Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted.          .          .
He lived happily ever after.”

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm:
I M A G I N E
t  h  a  t

 

GET ALBERT’D

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“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”

-Albert Einstein

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
— A. Einstein (1879 – 1955)Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.— Einstein’s words in a letter to the professor emeritus of philosophy, Morris Raphael Cohen, supporting Bertrand Russell’s candidacy as a teacher, ca. 1940.
When’s the last time you go a good dose of Albert?  I’ve got to be honest with you, he lost me, BURIED ME with the E=mc2/relativity stuffs; BUT.        .       .Well.    .   .

“I didn’t arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”

“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”

“Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think.
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world.”

“Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says. The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.”

“The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

“Our separation from each other is an optical illusion.”

“When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected. The greatest tragedy of human existence is the illusion of separateness.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.”

“When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.”

“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.”

“The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten.”

“The more I learn of physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics.”

“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike. We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.”

“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.”

“The common idea that I am an atheist is based on a big mistake. Anyone who interprets my scientific theories this way, did not understand them.”

“Everything is determined, every beginning and ending, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”

“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It will transcend a personal God and avoid dogma and theology.”

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you can not help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

“I am happy because I want nothing from anyone. I do not care about money. Decorations, titles or distinctions mean nothing to me. I do not crave praise. I claim credit for nothing. A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”

I GOT ALBERT’D
and now
m a y b e
you just got Albert’d, too

 

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man