Sunday, July 8, 2012
What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
Eleanor Roosevelt has a few quotes about doing the thing that scares you and that it gains you courage and confidence (to greatly paraphrase two very amazing quotes of hers). Today, write about risks you can take to make the world a better place. They can be large or small. Or perhaps they can seem small to an observer, but be large to you. This is a great prompt to do a freewrite on: write for 10 minutes without stopping or editing yourself and see what comes out. Then take the good stuff out of that and make something out of it : )
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what brings us to the stop? you know the stop. I have found i am familiar with three stops.
ReplyDeleteThe first kind of stop is the one where we have worked something to exhaustion. We have done enough. It's the kind of exhaustion that physically affects us. We are hungry, tired, and sometimes want a shower, a cool bath. Maybe even a sprinkler to run through.
The second kind of stop brings emotional feelings. You know what I am talking about the kind of stop that leaves you discouraged. The kind of stop that lures you away into dreaming or thinking about your soul, your spirit or others. This stop can be tricky. It can also lead you to think only about yourself so you can heal. We can all heal if given the time to do so. God prepares us to heal every Sunday and we can give ourselves the chance to heal by thinking about what we heard, felt, or remembered about our Sunday. Everyone has Sundays.
The third stop brings us only to think about others. We want to listen to others and hear their stories. We want to know what their frames of reference are, what their world is like. Where they came from and what they lived like in their world. We can only experience the third stop after we have nourished our first and second stops. Stops are a part of life they help us focus.
Flossie
ReplyDeleteMrs. Claus to us,
she was Flossie to her friends.
She was our 5th grade Sunday School teacher.
She had no college degree,
not that she wasn’t smart enough
it just wasn’t what most people
and especially few women did in her day.
But she taught us with purpose,
energy, high expectations
and love.
She taught us Jesus parables with contests,
which I never won.
She taught us to live every day
and every year of your life
with passion.
She did and she was 116 years old (in my ten year old mind)
when she taught us,
(that’s about 72 to the rest of you).
She taught us to enjoy life and laugh
in spite of your struggles.
She did.
She loved us that year in Sunday School
and in all the years that followed
when we would see her in church and around town.
She worked part time at a grocery store
but she taught Sunday School for a living
and oh could she live!
(I think of the people in my life who are beacons, some of them did simple things for so many years and made such a profound difference.)
When we think about what we can do to make the world a better place we may think of things like doing volunteer work, or sending money to a worthy charity.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if we can make the world a better place by first making ourselves better people.
Perhaps we make the world better more by what we don't do than by what we actually do.
Maybe we won't be so quick to judge someone by appearances.
Maybe we won't become so anxious about world events.
Maybe we will let another's light shine brighter than our own.
Maybe we will forgive.
Maybe we will be peaceful.
Maybe we will trust.
Maybe we will be content, no matter our circumstances,
and maybe that peace, and trust, and contentment will be
enough to make the world a better place.
by Pat Mason
Seed Talk
ReplyDeleteby Marlene Obie
Doesn’t seem like such a big thing to do—
opening the mouth and letting out
a phrase or sentence, to say I’m not in agreement.
with snapping turtle judgments clacking in the air.
“”Those people,” “they,” “them,”
Sometimes, I’ve listened and shakened my brain,
not afraid to engage, but deciding that
offerings of facts or different paradigms
would merely bounce off the cemented-in prejudices.
More often now, I throw out a small pearly thought,
question, idea or experience with hope that
a few will find small cracks to sink into
It may take a while and contributions
from life passing by. Yet the landscapes
of fear, hate and indifference can change,
one flower at a time.
If I dare and care enough to speak.