I say potato you say chips? The difference between peace and joy and happiness

AROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME—

“this  blog thing” is nearing 200 entries and most recently a couple readers (and I appreciate  each of you more than  you might know, but maybe less than I should because I’m not sure any of us is grateful enough for the folks who walk with us— have asked  “what’s the difference between seeking peace and joy and seeking happiness?   Well I’ll get to that in a minute.  I’ll start by saying even  if I communicate it perfectly (lol right?) I will always defer to whatever definitions you choose.  After all  this this thing we use—language is not an exact science and just ask Pluto neither. Is science.

Take for  example the Sentence Yesterday I read the paper, but today I’m going to read a magazine.  Okay that’s one  example, however not the one I thought about first.  That word is “tablet.”

You see  very early each morning I get a little  water or other moisture in my  mouth and take a little  bit of medicine and it’s called a tablet.  Then there’s this thing I’m writing  on right now.  I’ve been known to have a big mouth and  to consume my share (and your share) of liquids at some points in my life, but the odds of me swallowing  a Kindle or iPad by mouth once a day are pretty slim.  Of course, I could get all biblical and  reinforce this difficulty in swallowing  tablets.  After all some folks have difficulty with any sort of moral code.  Some people   Wish they could see the Ten Commandments in their original. Stone format and complain about  how w2e don’t have written history of  many things in the distant past.  I, for one,  would love to have a transcript of what the native tribes thought after the first Thanksgiving Dinner.  Unfortunately there is no written evidence that these  kind warriors went back to their. Villages looking  through the ads to see what Black Friday sales they just couldn’t  wait to line up for at 4 A.M.  the next morning.  Anyway back to tablets.  today is the birthday of Noah Webster the dictionary guy.  Imagine if  he or other lexographers (sp) —I should look up  how to spell that—would have had to  work in stone tablets.  Spelling Bee winners would have  been  the strongest people in the village just from page turning.  It woulda have taken  a fitness freak to write “the Grapes of. Wrath” or “war and Peace.”  I can imagine young Levi telling his  parents. “I’ve going to  go out  back and lift the cows awhile so that I can read “the Catcher in the Rye” next summer. 

Alright, alright that’s enough—back to the whole Peace and Joy/Happiness question.  For me happiness is a temporary fleeing emotional state when we ignore our challenges  and focus on  the reaching of  one destination. Along our path.  We celebrate happiness knowing that it will not  last.  Don’t get me wrong happiness is great and I wish all the happiness in the world for each of you.  Peace, however is a sender of being in the right place at the right time and doing  your best with all the gifts you have or are growing.  Peace is  deeper than. Happy and it requires things that happiness does not.  Peace requires  forgiveness and acceptance.  Peace  requires patience.  Happiness for me does not require these things.  Joy is  not quite the same as happiness either.  Joy is  a look you can see in someone else’s eyes.  Joy is not a destination—it comes from  not needing a map because. You trust your compass.  Happiness can be share3ds with others, but joy is an attitude.you can impact others with re3gardless of  the outcome of happiness for yourself or others I think happiness is on the spectrum of joy.  

Again... this is just my  definition, I hope it makes some sense.  

That’s about all I’m going to  put on my tablet about this because my hammer and chisel need some repairs.  Rock on

Peace joy and boomerangsjoy

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Photo of boomerang

Peace, Joy & Boomerangs

I beat the drum of staying in the present and leaning toward the future—but not too far forward.  Leaning forward. Is just my way of thinking  about creating. Something of value for  my fellow travelers when the creative process cannot be completed immediately.  In the last week or so I drifted back into my high school experience to share some thoughts of gratitude.  Lo and behold, I wound up. On memory lane a bit more than  usual and picked up some  feelings of old regrets.  I thought that I had thrown most if not all of these  away over the last two decades —wrongg!  A couple of them came  flying  back with a bit more. Force and clarity than I would have imagined.  I wasn’t expecting this cosmic boomerang and yet maybe  this is a lesson that can move me  in a good direction when seeking peace and joy.  So I caught the boomerang  yesterday and let it sit. With me. Until a couple minutes ago.  

This. Recent  flashback spree  suddenly  became a source of. Peace and joy when two things happened.  First, when I realized that  some of the people who. Shared my past experience had learned lessons by reflecting on those even in the present hour.  So I tried that and learned that I can be more aware of how my  current actions become not only part of my past, but also  part of what others will think about and learn from when they. Drift back in time at a future point.  That means if people are going to drift back, give them your best effort to create experiences that are rich with the gifts  you have to offer and if they are somewhat. Unique  gifts that’s all the better.  In short, give more right now so that someone else’s boomerang comes back  with  possible wisdom attached.  

The other thing I learned (or am learning) is that it is really important to develop a support system  of friends and information  sources that  keep pulling you forward at least as far as the present.  It’s okay to. Drift back if you do so understanding that it is a way to see how positively you have changed.  If  going back doesn’t create that sort of mirror don’t  go there.  

Yesa and when you are going to  walk down  memory lane watch out for boomerangs. And last. But not least watch your  speedometer because when you hit  88 miles per hour you might. See some serious shit...

Looking forward to writing this tomorrow—Hint think tablets :)

Discovering peace and joy

? Over persons head

“DISCOVERING” PEACE AND JOY

Well imagine it’s  Columbus Day and imagine an inspirational and intrepid explorer in 1492 sailed the ocean blue.  Then this  valiant explorer discovered a brand new world.  Wow what a discovery.  Well...I could  write paragraph after paragraph about this shipload  or three sahiploads of nonsense.  You don’t discover something if you sail there and  people are  greeting you from the shore—just saying.  Anyway, the banks are closed and we don’t have mail delivery today which means we have discovered ol’ Chris’s PR machine still lives on.  Since  his story lives on and people. Believe  the story in spite of the facts maybe Columbus discovered politics?

On the other hand, I would  like to  take something positive from this whole thing if possible and that  I suppose is the ability to celebrate “discovery.”  Columbus did set out to find something new.  Perhaps  the biggest problem was. Having found it the effort changed into  stopping the discovery process and starting the defining  process.  In short curiosity  shifted to control way too quickly.  Differences were  discounted and continued learning turned to  competition and conquest.  Possibilities  turned to possessions.  So...let’s. Slow down a minute and  consider discovery as a part of seeking peace and. Joy.  Growth and change are almost  always needed to seek peace and joy and these things  are moved forward by embracing an explorers mindset.  Now you may not get where you are thinking. You are heading but if you keep  building your compass you have a pretty good shot at it eventually.  You may have to  make a few efforts and have a few restarts, yet with the spirit of discovery you will expect to learn while using the tools that. Have. Helped you or you will go with the people who have helped. You up to now.  You  may also knowyour journey will require accepting  some known territory and from time to time  heading off alone.  

You may think  that Google and  YouTube have already discovered everything for you, however I would encourage you to try to discover new things anyway.  Read  a book and discover a new phrase or quote that fits into your experiences and helps you bring meaning to. Them.  Write a poem or a song and discover the rhythm of sounds and words and that you can create.new ones.  Bake a cake but change the. Ingredients just a bit or at least use a different frosting to see what  new tastes you or your friends  will enjoy.  Walk to a new  place or on a new path.  If all thease seem beyond  your reach, then simply slow down and pay more attention to what makes you smile if even for a moment or what makes you ask. Questions —even the ones you. Rarely dare to  ask.  Listen to your own breath and understand  that this is food for your  spirit and share yourself with someone  new as often as you can handle it without losing your  unique gifts.  

You don’t have to sail across oceans  to discover a “new world.”  A great place and great people. To discover are. All around you at almost all times and a new and growing you lies within also calling for you to explore.  

So go forth and discover—the banks might  not be closed to celebrate your journey and yet I suspect your spirit will understand the power of discovery in seeking peace and joy. d your reach simply slow dow. n and 

Seeking a smile and some peace and joy

FREEING YOUR SERIOUS MIND ON A SILLY SUNDAY

<sarcasm alert>

Rumor has it that sometimes I don’t take things  seriously when writing these posts.  Really?  

<alert canceled>

Well sure...guilty.  Voltaire once quipped, “god is a comedian waiting fro.his audience to laugh.”  I’m not claiming divinity here or its opposite, however, I do think a good laugh never hurt anyone.  I’m not sure of this detail regarding the exact ages here, yet I know I’ve read that the average small child and or infant laughs  up to 400 times a day whereas the average. 40 year old only laughs 4 times a day.   I’m not going to  provide a laundry list of why this might  be though I do think we need to restore a balance here.  Oh and I am going to use a laundry list to start that task today.  So sit back and relax—and if you choose to just smile or laugh good work...it will always help in the process of seeking peace and joy.

The laundry List

So on Friday I had to visit the bank and do some other business that sort of required being dressed up a bit.  Having finished that I got home and wanted to. Get into some more comfortable clothes.  CAUTION: IF YOUY HAVE AN ACTIVE IMAGINATION AND HAVE BEEN DRINKING A LOT—THIS PART INCLUDES  PARTIAL NUDITY SO TRY NOT TO EMBARASS ME BY THINKING THAT WAY

 So I undo my belt and take off my pants so I can put on some sweats.  I notice that I have taken. Off pants but there is only one item of clothing on the floor Should it be called a pant?  I know  that a pant is heavy breathing and in my youth taking these off might have created heavy breathing...but that’s another thing altogether.  Now I pulled on my sweats- or sweat pants again only one item Now by the logic of how these  itemsI should have. Started to take off my shirts, but I only took off one item—a shirt—and had nothing on from the waist up.  I looked through my pile of things on my dresser and  picked out a fine choice black t-shirt.  I decided to  change my socks.  NBow I wished they were pants.  Not that I like to go without pants, however if socks were pants I’d only have to change one because  well pants are only one thing.  I think the dryer is trying to tell us something because single socks disappear from there  all the time.  

Okay I find some white socks in my drawer.  I’ve never seen this furniture  sketch out even  a stick figure so why  does it get that title?  

I move ahead to put on my shoes and this whole process that is full of  strange words in about finished.  Of course you know what they call this?  Yes they call it “dressing.”  Dressing?  Isn’t that what some folks put on salad?  Okay don’t picture me or anyone else pulling on sweats standing on a huge pile of mixed greens with  a little tomoato on the side.  

Anyway... I’ve been thinking... we make up new. Words. All the time.  Maybe we can work on these  clothing  words such a bit what do you think?

I ‘m. Thinking we don’t  need to get too complicated and think of words like. (Sp). Cummerbund, but  we need to do something to help future generations.  

Well enough is enough on this.  Tomorrow is Columbus Day—prepare for another  little rant and some more peace and joy

Smile

Peace joy and gratitude for teachers sister Gregory the summary

SEEKING PEACE AND JOY- SISTER GREGORY—SUMMARIZED SORT OF

So...looking back I sometimes wonder if I had a huge advantage over my fellow students because of the  time I spent with Sister Gregory before my Freshman year?  Heck yes...but not for the reasons some would think.  When it comes to math, Ihave a gift—well it’s not a gift really—it’s just that I’ve never been afraid of it.  By the time I started  school that year the shock of having to perform algebra in public was behind me.  SisterGregory was world famous for assigning students to work on  problems at the board in front of  your peers.  I’m pretty sure  everyone eventually got a problem they couldn’t solve and stood there sweating until chalk stuck to their fingers and hatred entered their  soul.  Maybe this was like  the devil tempting  Jesus in the wilderness, because often  you could see students looking to see if the person next to them  was finished and could nod slightly as you moved forward  in completing your equations.   In short, I didn’t think this was the most fair way to treat my classmates but it did give us all a common challenge and maybe it was a way of reminding us that we were all in this together and maybe it  was just  a form of using guilt because Catholics are the undisputed all time champions of using guilt.  

Anyway, I have come to take this tutoring much as  the quarterback on the football team getting special assistance or instruction on how to  grip a football or position his feet.  These  things give. Him an advantage over an offensive  tackle  in knowing how to pass , but give the entire a better chance to succeed.  

Anyway , if you are a classmate of mine reading this, I hope I tried to help with my skills enough during high school and some of you didn’t need it.  

Now to the heart of the matter..

The Value of Teachers in Seeking and Joy

The good ones give you concepts.  Concepts give you models to choose from in picking paths needed to approach existing challenges.  Having choices leads to  peace and applying these  choices to solve  barriers is a source of joy.  Secondly, if you observe the teacher you can learn how to find the gifts in others or meet people part way in discovering their talents and provide support thus giving that person their own  set of new choices.  Understanding  this process is a great source of joyful experiences.  Knowing that the work needed to solve a single problem will pay off for many  people and many problems (to me) means that learning  about many things will always pay off over and over.  This type of investment  is worthy it and again another source of peace.  

Sister Gregory never once said “look what I have taught you.” And this let me view. Things as things I had learned.  She didn’t open up my head and pour stuff in (although  there were times I wish she could have done that because it would have been a little bit  less painful.  

Some of you have. Had the actual Sister Gregory experience and I hope you experienced her  in just a little the same way I did.  Others have  had other teachers who have given you much the same. Experience.  Even more wonderful some of you have been the teachers that. Have provided this type of experience to others and I can’t say thanks enough for your efforts.  

Now before I wrap this up, I do have to admit my algebraic way of viewing the world has not helped me learn everything Iknow.  For example, Two  red solo cups full of Boone’s Farm wine does not equal one serving of fruit.  Booking a mime troop for an assembly at the school for the blind might not  be the best use of  an all school event budget.  

 You don’t have to use your valuable. Time looking for people’s faults s long as one or both of their parents  or in-laws are still alive—someone else has that covered.  

Oh and if by chance someone is really dragging  your dream down by pointing  out your  physical appearance don’t  fret it.  It is truly. What’s on the inside that matters and your left kidney is gorgeous.

Anyway that’s about it for. Now...Sister Gregory May show up again,

Amen! but thank you Sister.  

Peace and joy gratitude for teachers the sister Gregory experience part two

Photo of a math formula

SISTER GREGORY’S PATH TO SEEKING  PEACE AND JOY Part 2

(SEE THANK YOU THURSDAY FOR TEACHERS FOR THE BEGINNING OF THIS STORY)

About  4 sessions into this  tutoring/hazing and I could almost walk into the. Little room without worrying that I might be struck  by lightning or turned into a Pillar of salt.  I was used to being drilled again and again with “sample problems” on these cassettes and  pulled from thin air by this math machine otherwise known  as Sister Gregory.  She introduced something called a “multi variable equation) which I had always  just called a problem with  lots of letters that could stand for numbers in it.  

So in this session—near the end and near. What I thought would be the last session she stopped me in the middle of a solution and said, “Does this work if  x is 2 and y is 3?”  I said “No way”. She says, “How many numbers have you already plugged in?  “About 7 numbers for each”. She sapped the table and said “these are not  functions.”  I thought  that’s good because I had no worldly idea what a function was.  I muttered “I didn’t think so.”  “Why are you solving I like a function?  If you didn’t know your multiplication  so well and weren’t fast with it, you couldn’t ever  solve these things fast enough.”  I was bewildered..... I was getting the right answers.  “You are not using the concepts you’ve learned.”  I said I was using. Multiplication or fast addition as you  have explained it.”  “You cant use a hammer for every job,” she said as she lowered her forehead.  You might get by a year with your. Way of doing this and many students get by that way.  But pretty soonball without a bat. I’m going to be in Fort Madison  next week and I want  you to study these sheets and come visit me down there for our final session.”  She handed me  two pages of concepts defined and formulas and told me these were  copied from about page 100 in  our Algebra I textbook (actually it was page 97, but who’s  getting all egotistic here?). 

So after studying these things for a. Couple of hours on a couple days (my absolute limit because I had bike riding to do music to play just loud enough to annoy my parents, and some other things to master before school started.  One of these tasks was learning to shave and I’ll talk about that it a future  effort.  For now, I’ll just say shaving for me was like trying to  shave nails off a 2x4 covered with a mine field of little  greasy bits of greas and blood spread out in the path I needed to  do the job.

Okay TMI

So I studied and went to the convent in Fort Madison, except when I got there we were going to meet in a dining room.  This wasn’t just a simple wooden table thing.  It was this  fairly  long  but narrow “fancy” room with ta door at each end and mirrored walls all around that were designed to make this  room seem less narrow.  a friendly nun sat me down the room and said Sister Gregory would be  there in a minute and told me to make myself comfortable.  “Make myself comfortable?” My mind laughed at the  possibility.  So the  nun who had led me  in. Opened  the opposite door and I expected Sister Gregory to come in—but. No.  Two other  fully adorned  nuns came in and sat. Down at  one end of the table and so there were. Three nuns sitting. Down talking about  teaching and as hard as I tried to ignore them I couldn’t.  Let’s face it, you couldn’t have ignored them  either because this mirrored room created  a fun house mirror/colidoscope of sisters.  They were everywhere I looked and  because the  mirrored door was slightly open they were at every possible angle.  It’s  a good thing that smart phones didn’t  exist I could not have resisted the temptation to get some pics of this and post them  immediately.  Thank God (and  this was the perfect place to thanking God, Sister  Gregory cam in and sat down.  We talked about the terms and. Formulas.  Then. We did this strange review covering nearly everything I had learned except. I had to solve a couple of problems using  different concepts when possible.  About 25 or 30 minutes in she closed  her  eyes and said, “now you have to promise me  one thing.”  I nodded.  “You are going to be bored maybe for a semester and maybe  a year...help. The other students if you can, but mostly watch your tongue...I’ve seen that smart Alec look in your eye and you will be tempted.”  

Well that was the end of the last “private math lesson” I had from Sister Gregory, but it wasn’t my last lesson. I’m going to. Describe one more today and sum up.some things tomorrow.  

A week or so into my last quarter  as a senior Sister Gregory handed back what I figured was the next to last  “math Analysis”  exam.  She gave me my test last.  Now I hadn’t missed a single problem on a single. Assignment or test all year so I didn’t  even turn the exam over to see. The score.  Sister Gregory stood right in front of my desk and said “look at it.”  In big  red numbers there was a 95.  A 95?!!! I shook my head and asked what problem/answer couldn’t you read?  I knew my hand writing was horrible. ..this had to be a reading issue.  

“You didn’t miss anything,” she said.  I just figured. You would look at this and demand to talk with me.”  That was. Very true.  She asked me to come sit by her desk a minute.  I did.  Then she said quite softly...

“Jim, (what the hell? I  had always been Mr. Whalen)—you have learned a lot of  concepts and. Solved a lot of  challenges in mathematics and if you should choose to do it you probably will solve more after you leave here.  The thing is you have the tools to make this simple for you but in life things, mostly people  and their. Troubles. Will. Not be so simple sometimes.  Don’t get angry with them for not being  simple or logical.  Don’t get. Angry with yourself for seeing the world in  the beautiful. Language of math, but  learn other languages and start with the concepts.  You might. Not understand. What I’m saying. Right now, but I think you will someday.  Oh and remember this  more than anything I have tried to teach you.  You may quit  going  to church some day but don’t fret it as long as you remember you are not in the church the church is in you.”  

Okay I understood that concept but I have  had to practice  the story problems behind that concept over and over  for  about 40 years and am still learning  to recognize when to apply that concept nearly every day.  Well we’ve reached the other side of the equals sign for today— one more  brief  entry about. This and teachers in general tomorrow.

Learn the Concepts

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Teachers edition thank you Thursday seeking peace and joy

THANK YOU THURSDAY

THANKS TO ALL THE TEACHERS WHO 

Seeking Peace and Joy is a journey of working with fear and  joy to encounter your own meanings, other people, and the physical world.  If that journey was  taken without  guides, mentors, and supporters the difficulty level would be somewhere between staggering and virtually impossible.  In short, without  dedicated teachers in schools and in other environments, we’re screwed.

I don’t have the space or time to highlight all the teachers  who have provided the tools for me to  explore and interpre t experiences.  I can, however,  “profile” one to start.  

I am blind/visually impaired/have low vision (no that doesn’t;t mean I can only see people. Below the knee) and this created several obstacles and created some gifts during my early education.  Almost everyone can imagine the barriers so I won’t  put out that list.  The  benefits are worth reviewing.  I was often seated in the. Front seat in class making it  easier to pay attention or at least to pretend I w2as.  It also made it easier to hear the classroom from the vantage point of the teacher.  I could. Hear the teacher’s  nonverbal auditory  responses to the answers provided by my classmates—the subtle and not so subtle changes in breathing etc.  I also was afforded the chance to listen to the teachers without the  goings-on  that transpired in the middle and back of classrooms.  This  ultimately  allowed me to dervelop some learning tools that others probably could not access.  Not seeing took away a valuable source of input, however,  not having to process. Almost limitless visual stimuli, I could focus on what I heard and was able to develop a memory processing skill that s serves and curses me to this day.  Mostly.I count it among my greatest blessings/gifts.  

Well...when I was. Heading into my Freshman year in high school, I  (and my Mom  and a middle school librarian)  made it known that the math teachers had not done a particularly  good job of verbally explaining the concepts that would prepare me to move forward with success.  People thought “I was pretty good with numbers,” but my grades didn’t really reflect it.   Well, bottom line my future “Math Guru” better known as Sister Gregory decided to find out for herself the two things she needed to know to do her job.  She decided to request/require me to have some  lessons with her before starting. High school so that the school could  choose the best starting point for my education.  She  somehow  obtained some math cassettes and we schedules some appointments  where she was to  assess my skill level, perhaps fill in some gaps, and send me on my way.  

So my mom drags my greasy-haired pimpled-face somewhat less than enthusiastic soul into a small room in a convent to begin.  If you’ve never sat face to face with  a veteran Catholic nun in a room containing a simple light, a crucifix, a small wooden tablee, two wooden chairs and a cassette player waiting to be judged on something, my description of the emotions associated with that  situation can’t possibly be of any practical value here.  

So it began.  Having no book. Open se starts with “I’m going to  ask you some things to start with and then we’ll go from there.  It will be about thirty. Questions and  I want you to give an answer when you. Can and when you can’t tell me what you are thinking.”  I didn’t dare say anything  about what I was thinking just then especially in a convent.  The questions  started.  They were what used to be called  “multiplication facts.”  You know. 2 times  2 except they were.  Ranging from there up  until  about 20 times 20.  I knew these from memory except for maybe a couple  like 17. Times 19 which 4 months later I would. Come to think of  as s18 squared. Minus 1 and since 18 squared is 324 then the answer of course is 323.  We crusied through multiplication and then she reversed course to addition.  I was quick to answer the three and four digit problems.  We were about 220 questions in and then she stopped.  IShe asked if I had any questions so far.  “Not really except...”  Then I went  silent afraid to ,eat my natural smart mouth show through.  So what was your question/ she smiled.  “Why did we do mul.tplication the addition? I asked.  “We were  doing addition all the time.” 

What was  I supposed to do argue with a nun?  she then said in a very simple  manner, “I’ll explain at the end of our time today.  I just thought, “okay we’ve been at this  about 40 minutes—only about 20 left.  We did some subtractions, division, and fractions etc for what seemed. To be about ten minutes.  Then  she picked up a cassette out of this folder that looked like a book and said. “You are fast enough—now woyou have to decide if you want to take algebra or not”. I remained silent but, of course I was thinking “wasn’t that what I came here for you to decide?”  We She says, “we are going to listen to this cassette for a few minutes now unless you already know the foil method.”  I mumbled..”foil method?”  I knew how to put that silver stuff over a  casserole dish to  cook with or in the case of Tupperware that you could no longer find the lid for (which is a majority of the containers more than six months old.  

“No matter” she said as she popped in the first cassette and then started fast forwarding.... “that’s just a bunch of stuff by the author” she said and smiled completely throwing me off psychologically.  “He goers o and on like he invented mathematics or something and we don’t need to hear all that.”  For five minutes  we sat in this quiet room listening to the table of contents for an introduction to algebra textbook—certainly  the activity I had dreamed  of doing doing my summer vacation.  I recognized about 30 percent of the concepts and  that seemed okay.  

she clicked the stop button and asked. How much I knew in this book.  I told her. That I knew about 10 percent.  She nodded and said “that’s good enough then —your mom  will be here soon so let’s finish up.”  I nodded.  

“We’ll see how this goes next time, but I can teach you and you will be ready for Algebra by the start of school. You do listen  well and don’t ask bad questions so far.  Before school starts you will understand that  everything is. 1’s. And zeros and that everything else is  addition.  You don’t. Need to understand this now, but I’m going to say it so that you can think about it between now and next Tuesday.  Multiplying. 2x3 is the same as adding 2+2+2 right?  Division is just the reverse just like - is the reverse of + so what is six divided. By two?  I started to say. 6-2- and she cut me off..”Yesa you count the. Number of times you can subtract.  You’ll get this”. “Algebra” is just  a beautiful  and fast way to add and I think in the next few you will discover it and start to see things differently.  

It was months before  I really started to see things differently, but after a mont or five  weeks of these individual lessons, I was pretty sure this teacher wouldn’t take any excuses from me and  would demand  my attention to mastery.  

I’ve written about enough  for one day, but not about this teacher, so tune in tomorrow for the second  installment  of  my “Sister Gregory Experience.

  I think it will take  at least  one plus one plus one or so entries to do this justice.  

Thank a teacher today!

Imagine peace and joy standing on a limb with a saw in your hand

L

Imagine peace and joy

(Standing on a limb with a saw in my hand)

Today marks the anniversary of John Lennon’s song “imagine.”  There is a real temptation (for me) to say just go listen to that and you will understand something about seeking peace and joy today and this entry is finished.  Yet......that would  leave some things about  that iconic  song unexamined by some and part of my spirituality  (notice I’m not claiming religion) just won’t quite allow that.  

“Imagine all the people living for today.”  Seeking peace and joy certainly  seems to be something to  practice today and every day if possible.  Yet many people  have a conflict of faith with other lyrics.  “Imagine there’s no heaven—it’s easy if you try—No hell below us—above us only sky”. Well...that gives a me pause for reflection.  Was that open  criticism of what  I’ll loosely refer to as Western Religion?  Maybe.  On the other hand was it an open challenge for us to imagine a world where we  did not take on the. Role of eternal judge with regard to someone’s worship?  Was it an admission that caring for one another should be part of the  meaning of every person’s life instead of being conceited  enough to think humans have fully answered. All questions about  spiritual aspects of our universe?  Is it a plea for us to have the courage to. Explore all of our fundamental assumptions?  Is it a request. To seek more of what we have in common than the human categories we apply?  

I feel I owe the reader my interpretation here.  I believe that we are spiritual beings living a human experience.  Is there a God?  Yes.  I am neither wise  enough, nor do I feel an overwhelming need to claim my understanding of what that means applies to every other human  being or creature  on this planet or  any other for that matter. Could it? Possibly but not because I believe it, and certainly not because other people raised like me do or other people with the same color of skin or inhabiting the  same physical space believe it.  I do not think my faith is weak, although sometimes it is, and  I would understand others as seeing it to be.  Judge not lest ye be judged.  

On the other hand I do believe we  can approach peace and joy is we imagine and then create (and there is a definite connection ) experiences and meanings for those  experiences that allow us and all others to pursue their true gifts and “place.”  

Do we live in a world that could allow each of us to  become our  dream, I don’t know but I believe we must start by “imagining” so

Some Sunday silliness with a single exception

SIMPLY SOME SUNDAY SILLINESS—WITH A SINGLE EXCEPTION

A question I  have heard  a couple hundred times, at least,  came floating across the phone line (well no line actuallyit’s a cell phone.  “So what’s going on in your neck of the  wooods?”  There was a conversation following that question, however,  I’ll admitI was less than a full participant.  Why?  My mind, which, is usually pretty mindful, got stuck on the question—where exactly is the “neck” of the woods?  Does a woods have more than one neck?  Does every woods have a neck?  What about a left elbow?  even if I knew what was happening in the neck, would I necessarily  want to know what goes on there?  How about the lower intestines?  

Yes, I should have stopped there—should have being the operative term.  Unfortunately, I  had just finished a chocolate covered peanut butter cookie and a couple swallows of  Coke and neurons were lighting up cash registers on Black Friday.  So on I went.

What other  geographical or topographical  features have body parts I need to be tracking?  Well, let’s see...trails have a head, but I’ve got no idea a woodland path is thinking.  Yes and rivers have a mouth and sometimes they speak to my spirit, but rivers have no teeth or tonsils that I know of.  If the river started to run dry would you see its tongue or would that be dry too?  

Now just what size would I go to the Nike store and buy  for the hills near the Rockies?  Or the Blue ridge Mountains?  after all  don’t they. Both  have “foot” hills?  A lot of ranches band farms have a “back” forty and some roads moisturize regularly as they have “soft shoulder” warning signs.  

Do tropical storms, hurricanes, cyclones, and tornados ever  stop in the mall at LensCrafters?  After all, they have eyes but often seem to take the strangest and unpredictable paths.  

Well that’s almost all I have to say about this....except for when I sat down to make sure I had the whole body thing out of my system, I had a serious thought.  

Do you remember. Wounded Knee?  

If not look it up tomorrow..

Peace

Build a circle even though there is an end

Add caption

  This looks like the Looney Tunes ending screen

MAKING PEACE WITH  THE END OF THINGS

Hey Friday by default has been  designated as the end of the work week, although with the trend for people to work part time jobsand  doing their own  career endeavors....one might argue Friday’s distinction is losing a bit of it’s identity.  

The  perception of endings like the work week are pretty valuable when. You are engaged in things. That are not under. Your control or serve as a constant source of fear or anxiety.  As regular human beings we hope for the end.  

So endings  in some sense can bear seen as a  source of joy.  Unfortunately as Tom Petty reminds us... “the waiting is the hardest part.”  

In seeking peace and joy I have not had a great deal of success yet, but am working on this new thought pattern.  If I’m wishing. Something would  end, thenI have a choice.  I can make the best of what remains  in the area of my life I wish  to be rid of or I  can start working on the change I want to see once this ending comes to pass.  I can reduce my emotional ties to the thing that is not going well. I can do this after I ask myself if I’ve given this  a full effort.  If the answer is yes, i usually tell myself to give it one more  great attempt and then understand the time is  at hand to let. My illusion of control go.  Instead of thinking in terms of. “Beginning, Middle, and End”.I’m working on an alternate inner narrative where the story is “beginning, middle, review and change.  Till there be an ending?  Perhaps but it will be linked weigh the learning of the the review and the learning of the change and new effort.  Will there be  a feeling of defeat and loss or grief associated with the end?  Of course, if you act intentionally  in life you have  invested in your actions and relationships, however, you will also. Have started to build your ladder out of that hole so that your time in the penalty box or being stuck will be less and far more peaceful.  If you are moving forward the tasks associated with  working. Through the past will be spread out among tasks of building new things and thus you have a better shot at balance and a far bettter  perspective. Of “failures” or losses as lessons or experiences to be learned from in the future.  

Alright... speaking of endings... I’m feeling the need to move on from here.   The last couple of entries  have  been about beginnning and adopting a “inner beginnner” mindset when posssible.  Now I’m  gtrying to convince myself almost  as much as you that the process that contains. An end is more like a summing up of lessons to  carry forward to new places.  

I feel oke this. Entry has to have a semi-poetic  conclusion.

Someseeds will grow —some others cry

The ground  we’re in is much too dry 

But these were planted side by side

Which. Plants to raise? How to decide?

If we try to  grow them all

None of them get strong or tall

And scarce will be the fruit they bare

Leaving none for us to share

So which to pick to meet the needs? Some that  will yield  fruit—some that will yield seeds

And next time that the soil is turned

Thank EVERY PLANT—from them you’ve learned

For plants you lose shed  but three tears

One  to honor the past years

One to recognize this day’s sharp grief and 

The last for  growing new hope’s belief

Hey 

Semisonic seeking peace and joy

Semi-Sonic Peace and Joy

Every new beginning....

In an earlier entry (yesterday if you are reading in order or if I’m putting these in order for you to read?) the topic was sort of—“the inner beginnner and the benefits of adopting that stance.  Now, I’m going to talk about  the end of the beginning.  Please note the end of the beginning is not the beginning of the end or at least it doesn’t have to be.  That friends, brings me to the title as a starting point for today’s notions.  Semi-Sonic is not half the speed of sound just like the Supreme Court is not where Diana Ross played tennis.  It’s the name of a rock group that had one hit which was “closing time and in that song there were two lyrics that really grabbed my attention.  These aren’t original sentiments, however they used them to more3 than “semi—perfection.  First is the  lyric... closing time you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here...”You are at the end of a beginning or the beginnning of the end when you come to that realization.  Second lyric that hit me like a ton of bricks was “closing time —every. New beginning  comes at some other beginning’s end.”  Together these lyrics serve me as a bit of  wisdom.  In my life, I have come to the point where I realized I couldn’t stay where I was physically or emotionally.  When I reached that point I have usually found relief or a bit of peace because  I didn’t have to ask” “should I come or should I go”—it was in fact “time for me  to fly,” roll with the changes,” so to speak. 

The idea that every new beginning comes  from a beginning’s end has to meanings for me.  There come’s a point where I have the opportunity to reflect and determine  whether. I stay on the course I’m on and f so to decide what I’ll need from here to  embark on the next part of the journey.  It also means that I will lay some things down at this point.  Something has to end in order for a new thing to start most times—not always—but  most times and that is okay.  

In short, you may have to leave the a building you have  built to see what’s out in the world...because if you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat....(biblical reference and given the amount of rain some of you have had recently I figure  a boat—or an arc reference is appropriate. 

Okay I’m done with cliche for now.  Here’s  what I’m suggesting.  Seeking peace and joy means movement from where you are and exploration of new places with as little judgment as you can live with.  It’s telling your mind and your spirit that you don’t have to believe you are  heading home to move from the place you are and reminding.myself that while persistence is important, holding on to old beginnings when I’m no longer treating them like learning experiences often means that another b eginning. Has reached its end.  

Tomorrow—while I’m tempted to be stuck in the middle with you, I’m going to skip to ending places and how they  are connected with peace and joy.   Till then I’ll leave you with two “Groucho-like”  notions.  It won’t seem long  until. Tomorrow because “time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana.”

ALSO I’D LIKE TO  CALL SOME ATTENTION TO MY NEWEST SPONSOR... AND A CREATIVE ARTIST (and my daughter) who has this artisan business.  she is launching her Halloween Line today with some fabulous hand crafted items—isn’t  that the kind of life we want a quality experience with people we know doing things that matter for people who care?”  

Anywaay back to Groucho—I’ve done some good writing in the past year———(pause) but this probably isn’t it.  

Keep Smiling