It’s been a busy week, with the Imus controversy and all. I received some really great comments in response to “Sticks and Stones…”, so I’ll generate a separate post with those comments (partly because I lost some of them in the post and I can retrieve them by email) in the next couple of days.
But today’s feature is my favorites for the week. Highlighted in this week’s Favorites:
Favorite #1 – My blog exists to try to help us all (men too!) share and attain wisdom. Sometimes we want the latest and greatest revelation, thinking that “that something new” is the latest and greatest panacea for all our woes. But are those cures always so elusive? Wendy at eMoms At Home provides some insight in her post “Have You Bought Into the Lie of the Missing Piece?”
Favorite #2 – Have you ever walked by an individual on the street, the elevator, the job, and made an assumption about him or her, or prejudged that person because of his or her appearance? It’s human nature to do so – I don’t think any of us are immune. The author of Observations In Life shares an admission that he made an inaccurate assumption of, well… Read his post entitled “On Assumptions About People” to get the whole story.
Favorite #3 – Remember when your mother warned you, “Don’t cross your eyes. They’ll get stuck!”? Ririan at ririanproject reminds us of those warnings reassuring us that these are “15 Warnings From Mom That You Needn’t Worry About.” What do you think about those crossed eyes? See what Ririan says about it and other common motherly misconceptions.
I had one more post I was excited to share today, but when I double-checked the link, the site did not load. Hopefully the site authors will fix the problem because the post demonstrates such wonderful creativity and I think many of you would enjoy it. Maybe next week…
Favorite #4 – I was caught a bit off guard by this one. Do you think books are only meant for reading? Portachi at Fun Forever will show you that some people think differently in the post “Don’t try this at home!” I really enjoyed this post because it demonstrates the wonderfully creative things you can do with books in ways I’ve never seen before. Let me know what you think.
Favorite #5 – An addition that I just found that I couldn’t wait until next week to include. Melanie at A Quiet Symphony posted “18 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity.” Yes, insanity! It is hilarious!
That concludes this week’s edition of my Friday Favorites. As always, take a look at the sites and leave comments!
I love books. It would be a crime if there were no bookstores, no libraries. I’ve learned a lot from books, whether self-help, fiction, non-fiction, scripture…
I like creativity books. I find myself on the outside looking in sometimes, though, when I read many of them. But have you ever read books by Sark!? Looked at them? In a very childlike way, Sark, author of Living Juicy: Daily Morsels for Your Creative Soul
, Creative Companion: How to Free Your Creative Spirit
, and Succulent Wild Woman
helps bring out that fun, free, joyful spirit that longs to live 
with us in the world. I
love her books.
I was getting reacquainted with these wonderful Sark resources the past couple of days, when I discovered a “lesson” entitled “How Can the Truth Serve Us?” from Sark’s The Bodacious Book of Succulence: Daring to Live Your Succulent Wild LIife
. When I read it, I immediately said, “Ooo, ouch!” But oh, so enlightening. I’ve never encountered these wound-opening questions. Yet, they were so profound to me. So I offer them to you and ask you to think about them.
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HOW CAN THE TRUTH SERVE US?
by Sark
If we live in truth, we will be closer to our actual experience, and therefore, open to more joy, and more of our own essence. (Our essence selves love the truth.) The truth is our ally and our revealer. If we let ourselves be truly seen, then we can be truly loved.
The truth hurts and heals. Hurts when we fear and resist it, heals when we allow it to speak and change how we see.
Truth Questions
- Are you currently choosing to lie?
- About what?
- What are your rewards?
- What part(s) does truth play in your life?
- What lies seem essential?
- Where can you increase truth-telling?
- Do you fear the truth?
- How do you explore the truth in your life?
The Thrill of the Truth
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If I might share just a little bit, I can say that I’ve chosen to lie about my anger. Notice that it appears I’ve taken “ownership” of that emotion. Well, I think I must do so. Trying to avoid it and pretend it’s not there has not been helpful because it has caught me off guard when it rears its ugly head. I think I must keep it closer, to sort of get to know it. My anger runs pretty deep.
What about the remainder of those questions? Well, I can’t go any further right now. There’s too much involved, and my brain is fried right now. I plan to come back to it; but in the meantime, I encourage you to explore these questions yourself. Unless I’m preaching to my own little self…
Isn’t technology the most wonderful “thing”? I tried to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress, and voila! My whole blog disappeared, along with most of the comments my wonderful readers left here Wednesday, April 11th. Moreover, this “guffaw” affected my husband Manchild‘s blog as well; many comments left for him on Wednesday disappeared as well. I had to call my host provider who restored everything…well, almost everything…
If you left a comment for me (here) or my husband (at When Least Expected™) Wednesday, April 11 between midnite and 5:00pm, it probably disappeared since the provider had to use a backup as a restore point. I am so sorry, because those comments were so great…
If you notice a comment you left does not appear on a post and you want to resubmit it, PLEASE do it! I highly value your feedback, and would love to see it back here again. If you don’t get a chance to do it, I will attempt to reclaim them from my emails, but it might take awhile.
So please don’t think I’ve deleted your comments!!!
Last week, the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball team played the University of Tennessee in the NCAA championship. If you haven’t heard, nationally syndicated radio host Don Imus and executive producer Bernard McGuirk (and others), commenting on the Rutgers women’s basketball team on his show “Imus in the Morning” said the following, in part (click here at MediaMatters.org for a detailed account and video of the incident):
IMUS: That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and –
McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.
IMUS: That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don’t know.
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
…ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.
Many people have commented on Imus’ remarks, calling for his resignation. It was racist and sadly, FCC-supported. While I support the move calling for his resignation, I did not write this post with that intent. This post is a call for people in this country to think a bit more critically to understand that contrary to the popular children’s rhyme, sticks and stones hurt, and words hurt as well.
I was styling my daughter’s hair this morning as I listened to a Black radio talk show host addressing Imus’ racially-charged criticism of women he hadn’t met and didn’t know. My daughter is beautiful, intelligent, a great person, a superstar, as my husband, Manchild, says, “destined to achieve greatness,” and a gorgeous three-year old Black girl with very curly, beautiful hair. We constantly affirm her in who she knowing she will encounter ignorant remarks such as those Don Imus and his cohorts so insensitively made. I grew up in the Midwest/North, yet, racism was and is still alive and well. And being called out of your name, while knowing inherently the filth directed toward you isn’t the truth, it still penetrates, it still hurts. So when (notice I said “when,” not “if”) our daughter hears racial slurs spewed across the airwaves or in her face, she will know the truth. I pray it will not penetrate her soul. I pray we will impart so much of how much we love and esteem her and how gloriously God views her that her spirit will not be damaged.
Unfortunately, the damage has already been done to some. During the Michael Baisden show (a nationally-syndicated Black radio talk show airing weekday afternoons), a young Black girl called and expressed her views about Imus’ epithets in the form of a powerful poem. She read the poem with such passion that it’s difficult to really hear the pain and anger in her voice as she read it over the air. Michael Baisden posted the poem on his forum at MingleCity.com. I offer the poem here as well.
Violent
By Yvonne Espinoza
We’re violent because this is all we know
You taught us this along time ago
We’re violent because you made us this way
You beat us naked, you hung our people,
Raped our kids and stripped us of our pride
And you now wanna ask why?
Give us a reason not to be
You can’t, it’s impossible
Because to give us a reason, you’d have to right all the wrong you’ve done
But you can’t and if you could then
You’ve only just begun
You’d have to beg for mercy, plead and cry
You’d have to feel the pain we felt
The pain that took lives
You go through the hardships,
The trials and tribulations,
The suffering, the heartache, the dying babies
You sit on a boat full of hundreds of sick,
Old people living to die
How about you dance to make money
Look ignorant on t.v.
Go to jail for nothing
Harassed because others don’t like what they see
Have your people get beat to death
By those who get paid to protect
You eat trash to survive
How about you watch your people and babies die
Get sold for a dime
Kill themselves because they don’t want to live this life
We went through it then and we go through it now
And you know it’s true, and you still ask why?
How dare you have the audacity
Who made you king?
Despite common belief and despite what you think
There is only one king, one God
And he walks with me, with us
The ones who were forced to live in grief
Who were cut, killed, raped and beat
Like animals, brainwashed to think like you
You hacked away, pulled and dragged us down
Until we didn’t want to be Black or Brown
We didn’t want to be Colored or Negroes
We wanted to be High, Suddity, White Folk
We though if we looked, smelled, and act like you
We could live a regular life, and though we tried
You still continued to beat and lay us out
To hang us from our necks, to laugh at our bodies
You could never blame us for being this way
Because you taught us violence
So how dare you think of forming any kind of alliance
Now we know that two wrongs don’t make a right
But since we have none,
Why should we spare your life?
It’s your fault for all of this
And if you didn’t teach us violence
Then who did?
It couldn’t have been us
Because, remember, we’re ignorant!
You should be careful what you say
Because your words have power
Say it enough and it’ll come true…
I know you’ve heard of karma
God have mercy on you.
(If you are new here and you are interested in this study, please page down to the “Article Series” link below, or “Women Who Run With The Wolves” in the Category section in the sidebar to the right to view previous reflections.)
Finding That Intuition (Part 2)
As I stated in the last article in this series, “Oh, how I’ve been waiting to get to this place!” Please click here if you haven’t read the story of Vasalisa (upon which this chapter is based).
I found this story to be very sweet, yet complexingly strong and slightly intimidating. After the conclusion of the story of Vasalisa, Dr. Estes begins her analysis saying,
“Vasalisa is a story of handing down the blessing on women’s power of intuition from mother to daughter, from one generation to the next. This great power, intuition, is composed of lightning-fast inner seeing, inner hearing, inner sensing, and inner knowing.”
The analysis of this tale is very straightforward, very easy to understand. It consists of nine tasks for women to complete to regain the intuitive nature, to regain the ability and “skill” to reset that instinctual power that enables us to walk through life with clear thinking and powerful knowing of not only what’s inside, but what’s outside as well. In this post, we’ll take a look at the first five of those tasks. We’ll complete this chapter’s study by completing the remaining four tasks next week.
Task #1 – Allowing the Too-Good Mother to Die – The activities which must be taken on in this stage include:
“Accepting that the ever-watchful, hovering, protective psychic mother is not adequate as a central guide for one’s future instinctual life…Taking on the task of being one’s own, developing one’s own consciousness about danger, intrigue, politic. Becoming alert by oneself, for oneself. Letting die what must die…”
In this first stage of reclaiming one’s intuition, we, as females, must grow up. We must grow more astute, more aware, viewing the world with our eyes wide-open instead of our mothers doing it for us. This is the ideal for all young girls moving into adolescence. Nevertheless, this growth process may not have occurred for some girls because of:
- Psychological hardship early in one’s life
- Continuing influence from the overprotective mother
- Not enough of the mother’s good influence
I know early in my own life, I didn’t get a sense of who I really was from my parents. I didn’t get the sense that I was pretty enough or good enough. That’s not to say my parents didn’t love me; but they really didn’t have a good sense of who they, themselves, were as human beings. So I wasn’t affirmed as a beautiful, smart young lady who didn’t have to settle for hound dogs. Moreover, my mother (father too) didn’t teach me how to make good decisions. Although she always bragged on me to her friends about how nice I was, the only advice my mother gave me regarding how to make decisions was “Just don’t get pregnant.” The decision to make there was to eventually start birth control. But what did that decision do for me? No, I didn’t get pregnant. But that wasn’t the point. What was I supposed to look for in boys? How were they supposed to treat me? How was I supposed to act in their presence? I’m not making excuses here; I’m just saying that I understand how this process of intuition development can be stunted and arrested – it was in me. (This will NOT happen to my daughter.)
Nevertheless, it is necessary for women “to let die the values and attitudes within the psyche which no longer sustain her. Especially to be examined are those long-held tenets which make life too safe, which overprotect, which make women walk with a scurry instead of a stride.” As women, we must
“…set for (ourselves) a something in life that (we) are willing to reach for and therefore take risks for. It is through this process that (we) sharpen (our) intuitive powers.”
Task #2 – Exposing the Crude Shadow – In this stage, the following activities are important (but check the chapter to get a complete listing):
“…Experiencing directly one’s own shadow nature, particularly the exclusionary, jealous, and exploitative aspects of self [and] [a]cknowledging these unequivocally. Making the best relationship one can with the worst parts of oneself…Ultimately working toward letting the old self die and the new intuitive self be born.”
This task is related to the role of the stepmother and stepsisters in the story. In this stage of initiation of the intuitive life, these “family members” represent
“…aspects of oneself which are considered by the ego to be undesirable or not useful and are therefore relegated to the dark…They enter as a chorus of unredeemed hags who taunt, ‘You can’t do it. You’re not good enough. You’re not bold enough. You’re stupid, insipid, vacant. You don’t have time. You’re only good for simple things. You’re only allowed to do this much and no more. Give up while you’re ahead.’”
Oh, this so resonates with me. But what really hit a nerve in the story was the father’s response to the stepmother and stepsisters’ ill-will toward his daughter – NOTHING! As Dr. Estes notes, “…the father of the psyche doesn’t notice the hostile environment…and has no intuitive development himself.” I know all about this – my father is highly naive, and as Dr. Estes remarks,
“It is interesting to note that daughters who have naive fathers often take far longer to awaken.”
I’ve suffered the consequences of having a father who didn’t teach me what I know my husband is intent on teaching our daughter. If there are any men and fathers reading this post, please, please, please,
FATHERS, PLEASE DON’T CRIPPLE YOUR DAUGHTERS BY REMAINING NAIVE AND UNKNOWING. TALK TO YOUR DAUGHTERS, TEACH YOUR DAUGHTERS, LOVE YOUR DAUGHTERS BY TELLING THEM THE TRUTH!!!
In spite of her stepmother’s and stepsisters’ ill-intent, Vasalisa tries her best to remain nice and accomodating. She submits and complies to their requests in the midst of their oppression of her. After awhile,
“the stepwomen so squeeze the burgeoning psyche that through their machinations the fire goes out. At this point a woman begins to lose her psychic bearings. She may feel cold, alone, and willing to do anything to bring back the light again…Vasalisa, like us, needs some guiding light that will differentiate for her what is good for her and what is not…Women who try to make their deeper feelings invisible are deadening themselves. The fire goes out…”
But for many,
“…when the fire is put out, it helps to snap Vasalisa out of her submission. It causes her to die to an old way of life and to step with shivers into a new life, one which is based on an older, wiser kind of inner knowing.”
I’m there! I’m with her! So now, on to the next task…
Task #3 – Navigating in the Dark – some of the activities necessary in this stage include:
“Learning to develop sensitivity as regards direction to the mysterious unconscious and relying solely on one’s inner senses…Learning to feed intuition…”
Before she died, Vasalisa’s mother passed on to Vasalisa a doll (you’ve got to read the story!). This doll represents “the inner spirit of us as women; the voice of inner reason, inner knowing, inner consciousness…It is our helper which is not seeable, per se, but which is always accessible.” And according to Dr. Estes, this is so important for daughters as,
“There is no greater blessing a mother can give her daughter than a reliable sense of the veracity of her own intuition. Intuition is handed from parent to child in the simplest ways: ‘You have good judgment. What do you think lies hidden behind all this?’”
This statement was revelatory to me. My parents didn’t do this for me; yet, my husband and I do this for our daughter when we say, “You make good choices” when she actually does, or just in the course of our daily activities.
But intuition must be fed. And how do we feed our intuition?
“…[B]y listening to it and acting upon its advice…it is like the muscles in the body. If a muscle is not used, eventually it withers. Intuition is exactly like that: without food, without employment, it atrophies…but with exercise it will come back and become fully manifested.”
“We, like Vasalisa, strengthen our bond with our intuitive nature by listening inwardly at every turn in the road. ‘Should I go this way, or this way? Should I stay or go? Should I resist or be flexible? Should I run away or toward? Is this person, event, venture true or false?’”
Well, we’ve taken a lot in with the first three tasks. This post is longer than I intended in examining the first three tasks. So instead of reviewing the first five tasks, I’m going to cut it off here for this week. I think there is much to reflect upon here, and so I’d like to continue to do over the next several days. Next week, we’ll examine the next three tasks (if you’ve been reading along in the book, you know what the tasks are; if not, you’ll have to get the book or just wait!!!) in reclaiming our intuition.
What do you think? Where are you in your reclamation process? Have you made it? Have you arrived? If so, let us know how you did it. If you’re still on the journey, share with us how you’re making it along the way.
Lent. Fast for 40 days. Abstain for something I enjoy for 40 days to prove what? That I can be like Jesus? I think not.
No, I’m not a skeptic. I believe in Jesus. He is my Savior. I believe He was crucified and died for my sins. I actually believe He rose three days after His death. Which is what Easter is supposed to celebrate.
So why the Easter bunnies and colored, decorated eggs?
I’m not against the bunnies and eggs, signs of fertility and new life. Indeed, Jesus’ resurrection symbolizes new life, and I can say I’ve experienced new life in some form in one way or another. So, in spite of the fact that we won’t be attending church on Easter to show off our non-existent new garb, Manchild, my daughter, and I will be celebrating the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and out of that tomb on that fateful Sunday upon which the Christian faith is based. If you didn’t know, the Christian movement would not have existed if not for Jesus’ resurrection. If He hadn’t risen, there would’ve been nothing to talk about the past 1,973 years (approximately).
So yes, my husband and I plan to, for the first time, dye eggs with our daughter and nestle them in her Easter basket along with the chocolate candy in which she will indulge. We will also, though, tell her of the story of the resurrected Christ and what He means to us. For me, it means resurrection in our own lives. How can I go about even seeing this possibility? As Einstein, a scientific genius, while believing in God, yet not a personal God, said,
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.”
And the resurrection is mysterious, isn’t it? It can’t be explained through natural means, can it? And yet, Einstein said, as well,
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
And I certainly can imagine, when I read Luke 24, that I am one of the two (wo)men walking with Jesus to a village called Emmaus, not having a clue that I’m walking with the resurrected Christ. I can imagine I’m talking with Him, not really understanding the word He was trying to teach me along the way. I need no physical proof of His appearances after He arose out of that tomb. In fact, the fact that the tomb was empty is proof enough for me.
So I’m going to say so boldly that if I can believe as Einstein believes, then I’m a genius for believing what God did in the work of raising Jesus on that third day. And we will teach our daughter the same.
(I just stumbled upon the following article, “He is Risen: Evidence beyond Reasonable Doubt,” from Crosswalk.com. As a teacher of biblical studies, I found it compelling; I offer the article as a departure point for those who might want to engage the topic a bit further.)
I’ve discovered some very interesting posts this week as I’ve been attempting to come off my “hiatus.” There’s a mix of some spiritual, some practical, some humorous…Take a look…
Favorite #1 – I love this post. What Angela at Ang4Him encourages us to do in her post “Daily Blessings Challenge…” is to think about what we are thankful for, not just for one day, but for an entire week, starting on Easter Sunday. Read her post, and regardless of whether you are a “blogger,” regardless of whether you celebrate Easter, I want to encourage us all to reflect on that for which we are grateful each day this following week. It might become something we begin to do on a regular basis. In fact, I plan to personally commit to posting each day, starting Sunday, to take on this challenge. What about you?
Favorite #2 – In this next post written by Darren at Imaginality, “Winnie the Pooh philosophises on user response to creativity,” may speak to those writers and other creative people who doubt that which is inside them. Humorous, but so true. It’s amazing the wisdom we can get from a bear.
Favorite #3 – Many people have found God; yet many people are searching. Alexander at B.I.D.E. – Spiritual Commentary On Current Events provides the opportunity to discover where you fall on the spiritual spectrum in his post, “Spiritual Survey.” According to the survey, I fall in the “Lover” spectrum. When I told my husband, he laughed. I think I should take it again.
Favorite #4 – Need some inspiration to stay positive when the glass appears half-empty? Ndeyefatou at Nomore a girl, Not Yet a Woman!! A Taste of My Life lists some modern-day proverbs which might help us view the mundane in our lives in a humorous, upbeat sort of way in her post “Stay Positive.” (When you go to the site, make sure you scroll down a bit to get to the actual post.)
Favorite #5 – It’s been said that if you’re trying to lose weight, weigh yourself only once per week. Personally, if I do that, I’d feel less secure about myself. Nevertheless, I’ve discovered “How to weigh yourself accurately” by Star8278 at Life’s A Dance You Learn As You Go which might encourage those who believe in the “once per week” mantra to do it everyday. Really, it might work for you.
That concludes this week’s edition of Friday Favorites. Provide feedback, and most all of, when you visit the favorites I’ve chosen here, make sure you leave comments!!! We all love comments!!!
I subscribe to the online publication, The Revealer, which, according to its site,
…is a daily review of religion in the news and the news about religion. We’re not so much nonpartisan as polypartisan — interested in all sides, disdainful of dualistic arguments, and enamored of free speech as a first principle. We publish and link to work by people of all persuasions, religious, political, sexual, and critical… We begin with three basic premises: 1) Belief matters, whether or not you believe. Politics, pop culture, high art, NASCAR — everything in this world is infused with concerns about the next. As journalists, as scholars, and as ordinary folks, we cannot afford to ignore the role of religious belief in shaping our lives. 2) The press all too frequently fails to acknowledge religion, categorizing it as either innocuous spirituality or dangerous fanaticism, when more often it’s both and inbetween and just plain other. 3) We deserve and need better coverage of religion: sharper thinking; deeper history; thicker description; basic theology; real storytelling. (punctuation errors not mine!)
I find The Revealer to be a great resource in discovering diverse views of how religion plays a part in what we do in this country and how the press covers these issues. In its most recent edition, one of the articles featured appeared in a site entitled “Killing The Buddha,” “a religion magazine for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the ‘spirituality’ section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God.” In the article entitled “Take This Bread,” author Sara Miles recounts her conversion experience as she partakes in a communion service (also referred to as The Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, or the eating of bread and wine) at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. What I liked about this article is not just the beauty in the encounter she has, but her awakening to what seeing God really means. As Ms. Miles reflected on what Christians refer to as the resurrection of Jesus really means for her, she states,
“I believed this God rose from the dead to have breakfast with his friends.”
What does she arrive at in the end? She concludes that Jesus offered,
“a radically inclusive love that accompanied people in the most ordinary of actions — eating, drinking, walking — and stayed with them, through fear, even past death. That love meant giving yourself away, embracing outsiders as family, emptying yourself to feed and live for others. The stories illuminated the holiness located in mortal human bodies, and the promise that people could see God by cherishing all those different bodies the way God did. They spoke of a communion so much vaster than any church could contain: one I had sensed all my life could be expressed in the sharing of food, particularly with strangers.”
This is a very interesting and refreshing way of looking at what our role as children of God really means. I hope you’ll take the opportunity to read it and tell me what you think.
I’m back! I thank all of you who wished me well and were praying for me during my break this past week. It has, indeed, been an interesting week. No doubt you’ve all heard the popular idiom,
One step forward, two steps back…
Or,
Three steps forward, two steps back…
I’ve even heard of,
Two steps forward, three steps back…
I’m sort of feeling all of that right about now. And while some would say,
Why look at the glass as half empty?
I say that it’s hard to do that sometimes, although I’d like to think I’m getting better at it. Nevertheless, I think things are looking up; in fact, I know they’re looking up. And so, I choose to latch on to something I heard the Rev. Gerald Durley of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia say a few weeks ago which was this:
“Life is a peek to peak experience.”
The idea is we all “peek” at things, especially one another. And as we peek at one another, we notice different aspects of persons. We might get a glimpse of their personality. We may discover what foods they like. We may find out what kind of “work” they do. But sometimes when we encounter people, their very presence causes some change in us. Because of a person’s presence, we might decide, “Wow, that person is very insightful,” and take away something of the conversation that helps us finish a task. We may sometimes say, “I like how she saw that situation, it was quite interesting,” and decide to look at that situation from a different perspective. We may, at times, decide to place ourselves in another person’s shoes, choosing to have empathy for someone whose circumstances are difficult or maybe even unimaginable. Yet and still, in all these situations, whether we’re aware of it or not, we’ve experienced growth within. We’ve climbed (aware or not) another level. We’ve “peaked” at that certain point.
Which is not to say that we achieve only one “peak.” Because we “peek” each and every day, we have the opportunity to “peak” just as often. And while looking at others sometimes causes discomfort, even pain sometimes, within ourselves, we can be assured that the encounter is meant for our good. For if it were not meant for us to have “peak” experiences, there would be no need for friendships, marriage, fellowship, any type of relationship at all. And that’s not the way God designed it to be.
One step forward, two steps back. Maybe. But if I’ve reached some peak in the midst of the backward steps – which I believe is completely possible – then those backward steps I’ve fallen back on will not be in vain.
How have you handled your two steps back? Can you see those steps as opportunities for growth?
Yes, I am.
I’ve been thinking about a lot of things…
Creativity…
Fathers…
Daughters…
Teaching…
Writing…
I’ve had a lot to do. I’ve got papers to grade. Presentation to prepare for a meeting on Thursday afternoon. Lectures and discussions to develop…this week.
I’ve also got to spend more time with my husband.
Theodore Roethke once said,
“A mind too active is no mind at all.”
So I’ve got to take a couple of days off…
But in the meantime, as I have been thinking about creativity lately, and plan to make that a topic of discussion soon, I want to offer the following pieces of wisdom taken from The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron:
Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it
and whispers, “Grow, grow.”
The Talmud
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
Joseph Chilton Pearce
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
C.G. Jung
To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to
what the world tells you you ought to prefer,
is to have kept your soul alive.
Robert Louis Stevenson
When a man takes one step toward God, God takes more steps
toward that man than there are sands in the worlds of time.
The Work of the Chariot
I’ll be back on Friday with my Friday Favorites. In the meantime, feel free to comment here! I will respond to comments.
Have a great rest of your week!
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