Category: Mind

Cut and Dried?

In my neck of the woods, I’m guessing the farmers will be planting corn in the next few weeks. It must be harvest time somewhere not too far from here, though, because I saw ears of corn for 18 cents a piece today at the store. Now, I’m sure you’re asking the question, “why is he talking about corn?” Good question, and it just so happens I have a good answer 🙂

I took this story about making decisions from a book entitled Close To The Heart, written by Margaret Silf. It’s a nice little book on prayer.

A farmer friend told me one day that according to an old tradition, the cut corn at harvest time was supposed to lie in the fields to dry until the church bells had rung across it three times, that is, three Sundays.

As my friend gave me this piece of wisdom, the phrase cut and dry came to my mind. It made me wonder about my own was of discerning things and making decisions. I saw that my decisions and so-called discernments usually get cut and gathered on the same day, with no time for maturing- so sure am I of my own judgments.

But the habit of reflection can make a difference. It can slow us down just long enough to make a short space of time after prayer “for the corn to dry” before we rush off to meet the demands of the day. It provides an opportunity to let our own feelings about our prayer time come to the surface- a chance to stand back and notice how the time has been, gathering any fruits of that time that come to mind. It may be all we need to ensure that our prayer is not only cut but dried as well, so that it has time and space to mature and become more fully a part of our lives.

Just yesterday, I was speaking to a friend about a situation he found himself in. He needed to take care of some issues, and as we talked, it became clear to both of us that he needed to take his time and not rush things. Do you share with me the experience of realizing that so many mistakes in life are made when we make decisions too quickly, not thinking of all the consequences of our choices?

Now I know where the old saying about something being cut and dry comes from. I’m planning on using it a bit more often.

Spring Cleaning

It took me awhile to find a picture of an office that looked worse than mine. Well, here it is. Luckily, mine wasn’t that bad, but it was getting there. It is truly amazing how quickly the junk piles up. Although I have my own office, it’s pretty small, and during the year, when I’m running programs for hundreds of people out of it, well, I get buried.

A few weeks ago, I really started getting frustrated with myself for letting it get this bad. I couldn’t find some things that I needed, and it took way too long to locate them. I decided that once classes were over, I’d get to cracking. Classes ended Thursday.

Unfortunately, today was an absolutely beautiful day here in Maryland. But, I made a commitment to myself, so around 9:00 this morning, I began. I didn’t finish up until about 6 pm, and there’s more to do. But, it felt fantastic to throw so much unneeded stuff into the recycling dumpster behind our building.

I don’t know why I kept so much outdated material. I guess it has to do with our culture. We keep thinking we’re going to have time to read this or that article or book, but the time never comes. The “when I have the chance” pile gets out of control. Maybe you’ve been there too?

They say that if you haven’t touched something for six months, you should throw it out. I think that’s going to be my new rule, except I want to expand it for the school year, so I’m going to give myself an extra three months. Going forward, I’m going to stand near a recycling bin when I look through my mail. I’ll keep only the most important things.

As I was cleaning, I had an interesting thought. I wonder if we keep things around to trick us into believing that things are what they represent. For instance, I had a picture one of the kids in Life Teen years ago, taken on a trip to Arizona. It was in this funny little teepee frame, and I think I kept it up on the shelf because of the frame. Well, there it sat, collecting dust. Ben has long since graduated from college and is now working for his dad in the plumbing business. I can remember that trip without the picture, thanks very much. The funny thing is, I have a far more meaningful group shot taken on the same trip. Ben’s teepee went into the trash and up when the group shot.

One is enough. That’s going to be a new motto for me. It seems like we have to have more and more to make us feel happy, but in some sense, doesn’t having all these things leave us even more frustrated and wanting more?

Even though I didn’t finish, I was pretty happy with myself when I walked out of the office. I’m going to be even happier when I get everything done tomorrow.

In the next several weeks, I’m going to have a new employee starting. I’m still not sure the person we’re going to select, but I’m already looking forward to meeting with him/her in my nice, clean, and organized office.

I’m moving ahead, focusing on the here and now, not so much about the past. I don’t need to keep all the old stuff around. Certain precious things, yes, by all means. Ten year old forms, books and magazines that I’ll never look at, no thanks. Off to be recycled into something better.

Don’t you just feel good thinking about it?

Catholic Church Ignatian Spirituality Mind Spirit

Patient Trust

A funny thing happened last night. Someone actually called me wanting to know when I was going to post my blog entry. I would have never guessed that I’d now start getting pressure about the speed of my postings. I thought blogging was supposed to be relaxing and good therapy 🙂

Actually, that call, plus speaking to someone else today, just excites me more about this use of communication. There’s a lot to learn, and it takes quite a bit of time, but I love it. Thank you to everyone who has been following.

Now that most of my responsibilities at work will be much less pressing, I’m going to take a few afternoons off in the next couple of weeks and improve the way Making All Things New looks. I want to get many more recipes up. I want to make things clearer and more easily found.

I also want to ask you all a favor. Please post comments! One of my goals with this blog is to get people talking. We should all be helping each other, not just hearing from me.

The other night, a friend from California wrote me an email about how much this blog is helping her. Interestingly, I’ve never met her. We know each other from taking an on-line certification program through the University of Dayton. The courses are meant to help us understand how churches can do a better job teaching our faith to adults. We’re just finishing the second of many courses. Ugh.

When I was praying about making this dive into social communication, I was dreaming about what it might become. It’s been a bit overwhelming, actually. To think that people are waiting to receive a message from me is pretty amazing. I’m going to guess it’s more about the boredom in this guy’s life than it is my lofty thoughts 🙂 (just kidding. He’s busier than me).

Before I get back to my on-line course, I want to leave you with a thought entitled Patient Trust, written by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955),

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything

to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something

unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability-

and that may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually- let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try and force them on,

as though you could be today what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances

acting on your own good will)

will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.

Ignatian Spirituality Mind Spirit

Expect the unexpected

I was reading a little motivational book this morning, and I came across something worth sharing.

I heard a great story recently about a guy who decided to send flowers to the grand opening of a friend’s restaurant. At the grand opening, he decided to check out the flowers he’d sent. Much to his dismay, he discovered that he’d sent a white wreath that said, “May you rest in peace.” Of course, he panicked and stepped out to call his florist. The florist said, “Bob, I’m not worried about you because as we speak, there’s a guy being buried who got a dozen roses that said, “Good luck in your new location.”

It seems like we get these little curve balls thrown at us just about every day. For me, yesterday would have been a great example. We’ve been working on a big project. As we were finishing up, we picked up on a couple of errors that hadn’t been noticed previously.

So often, the little errors (and sometimes great big ones) are missed because we are so busy. To do things right, you have to take your time. Think it through. Have a Plan B.

We worked through our issues, and got the project done. When you stop and think about it, there are very few problems that can’t be resolved.

Life is too short to dwell on the problems. Your valuable time would be better spent working on the solution.

Ignatian Spirituality Mind Spirit

What Will It Be?

On Thursday mornings, I’m the lector at 7:00 Mass, so I have to get up earlier than usual. In the winter, it’s hard to get out of that warm bed. But at this time of the year, no problem.

In his homily, our priest talked about making a choice in how you live your life. He said that you could go through life depressed, angry, bitter, judgemental, and a generally unpleasent person to be around. Or, you could approach your daily living positively, focusing on the goodness that surrounds you, whether that manifests in people, places or things. We can choose to see the good in people, or we can focus only on the not so good. I think its sometimes a lot harder to concentrate on positive thinking, but in the end, I can’t help but think that’s what God calls us to do.

I don’t mean by this that we mask or deny the problems and difficulties, but rather choose not to dwell on them.

A few years ago, I had the chance to take a group on a mission trip to Mexico. We were there for several days, and I had never seen poverty like that experienced by the people we met. The photo above was taken in a church in the middle of nowhere. It had been built a few years earlier, but the people had no money for windows. In fact, they lived in shacks surrounding the church.

They gathered each Sunday in a church with no doors, no windows, no heating or air conditioning. But it was one of the most joy-filled and beautiful Masses I had ever been to.

In their poverty, the Mexican people I met chose to look beyond their situation in life, and instead focused on the good they saw all around them. The people, especially the childen, were grateful that they had a church with a roof. The rest will come later, and they trusted in God’s providence to provide.

So, as you read this email, think about your approach to life. What do you choose to focus on? Do you dwell on the negative, or seek out the goodness in people and situations? What choice will make you a better, happier person? What will it be?

Catholic Church Ignatian Spirituality Mind Spirit

The End and the Beginning

Post author By seedthrower1
Post date 05/05/2010
No Comments on The End and the Beginning

It’s the end of a long day, and I feel like I’ve been racing through it all. Our programs are winding down for the school year, I’ve been interviewing people for our open position, I took a group out to dinner to thank them for all their hard work, etc., etc., etc. You know how it goes. You’ve probably had the same kind of day.

I’m looking forward to heading home to get some rest. And then it will start again. But that’s o.k. In fact, it’s great. I say that because I get to see another sunrise, enjoy the gift of co-workers, thank a bunch of volunteers, plant my tomatoes, and thank God for loving me the way He does. It’s funny. As soon as I typed that last line, I realized I got the order mixed up once again.

If we want our days to go right, we need to start with God, and thank Him for the fact that we lived to see another day. What a gift! Every new day He presents us with a chance to make it a better day. It’s up to us. Think about it when you open your eyes tomorrow morning.

Mind Spirit

Hard Times

Last Thursday, I received a frantic call from one of my friends. She had just learned that she was going to be laid off the following day. She has been such a great asset to the place where she was working, it was hard for me to believe that her time with them would end in this way.

I hate to say it, but I think she’s going to have a very hard time finding a new job. She’s very skilled, very well educated, and makes a decent salary. In the past, she’d probably have no problem. But now, things are very different. The market is flooded with the same kind of people.

Right now, I have an open position in my department. I have done very little advertising, but I’ve been flooded with applicants. One person I’ve been speaking to will lose his job at the end of the month. I feel so sorry for all these people who find themselves in this situation, and I want to interview everyone. But I can’t. There are simply too many. And I don’t want to give them false hope.

This continues to be a time to pray. I think praying to God will be the only thing that will get us out of this mess.

Ignatian Spirituality Mind Spirit Travel

The Butterfly Effect

Do you remember these little stores in the malls named Successories? They were always tucked away in some corner, and they offered inspirational gifts, which were really popular in the 90’s. Well, Successories bit the dust some time back, only remerge as Simple Truths. Only available on line, they offer the same kind of material.

Somehow I got on their email list, and out of sheer boredom one day, clicked on the link to their website. I was impressed by what I saw, and, since they were offering some fantastic deals, I bought a few books. One of which was entitled, The Butterfly Effect. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but, since I like butterflies, I figured what the heck.

Well, I love this little book. I’m going to blog more about its contents later, but here’s the basics of the story.

In 1963, a scientist named Edward Lorenz presented a hypothesis to a distinguished academy of fellow scientists. His theory said:

A butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air- eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet.

Lorenz was laughed out of the building. The others thought what he had proposed was impossible. For many years, the butterfly effect only showed up in comic books and science fiction, but no real scientists gave it much thought.

That was, until some thirty years later, when a group of physics professors came to the conclusion that the butterfly effect was authentic, accurate, and viable. Soon afterwards, it was given the status of a law, now known as The Law of Sensitive Dependence Upon Initial Conditions.

Now, you’re probably asking, what does that mean to me? The rest of this little book goes on to speak about the fact that everything we do matters. Every move we make, every action we take, matters.

There are generations yet unborn whose very lives will be shifted and shaped by the moves you make and the actions you take today. And tomorrow, and the next day. And the next.

You have been created as one of a kind. On the planet Earth, there has never been one like you… and there never will be again.

Your spirit, your thoughts and feelings, your ability to reason and act all exist in no one else. You have been created in order that you might make a difference.

Knowing this, would it make a difference in the way you live your life? How about the way you treat others? Maybe change the way you use our limited resources? You can do a lot with this, and I hope you will. I’m going to try…

Body Ignatian Spirituality Mind Spirit

Ready to Relax

For the last several years, one of my tasks in getting ready for the summer ahead is to break out this fountain, which I position next to my pergola. Yesterday, as hit the switch to turn it on, the water slowly filled the upper reservoir, and began to spill down to the basin below.

It’s splashing water is just loud enough to hear from my open bedroom window upstairs. It’s music to my ears as I drift off to sleep. There’s something so relaxing about the sound of water. In the mornings from now until October, I’ll sit in my lounge chair, listening to the fountain, and think/pray/dream. This is one of my favorite times of the year.

Now a days, you don’t have to have a lot of money or space to get yourself a little water feature. Although they might be a bit cheesy, they even have them for your desktop. Maybe listening to water helps transport us to a better place, maybe a vacation or trip to the beach.

Earlier this spring, my family and I went on a little camping trip to Sycamore Cove, just north of Malibu, California. I could hear the waves crashing all night as I lay in my tent. Now, as I sit here in Westminster, Maryland, listening to my lion’s head fountain, I can think about that trip as well, and all the fun my family and I had that weekend. Or, there was the time in Rome sitting in front of the Trevi fountain, eating gelato. But, as my mom pointed out the other day, don’t forget the dolphin fountain in Cortona’s public park overlooking the Val di’Chiana below. Oh, and how about…

Catholic Church Ignatian Spirituality Italy Mind Spirit Travel

St. Catherine of Siena

Today is the feast day of St. Catherine of Siena (1347-80), a one of only three women who have the title Doctor of the Church. Over the summer, I picked up a biography of this great saint entitled The Road To Siena written by Edmund Gardener. I’ll leave it to you to find out more about Catherine. I just wanted to bring her up because, as I learned through reading this biography, she was one tough person who rose above the difficulties of her time and became a shining example of holiness.

Sometimes, actually, I think most of the time, every generation thinks that they have it worse than another other age. We wonder how we will ever survive, yet alone thrive through whatever comes our way. Reading the story of St. Catherine reminded me that we have been through worse times. Catherine lived in a time of plague, heresies, schisms, object poverty and absolute decadence. Sinful behavior seemed to reign. In the end, though, people like St. Catherine kept it together, calling people to task, challenging those in power at the time to live for holiness. Her forceful voice remains with us today, and her words speak to our time. Maybe Pope Paul VI had this in mind when, in 1970, he declared her the first woman Doctor of the Church. Read up on her. Ask for her intercession, for ourselves, and for our Church.