On the unexpected joy of being corrected

Posted on August 3, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

a Heliconia

Good Morning, God!

I must say that Google is an amazing help to bad spellers — that being me. I use Google instead of a dictionary because in a dictionary — if you have the second and fourth letters WRONG — you can’t find the word you want. Aaah, but with Google you can! I was delighted, God, to have Google correct me on my spelling of heliconia.

It seems to me, God, that I have been corrected a bit more frequently than I like in the last few days. Mind, You, God, cleaning up mistakes is very satisfying. Having to acknowledge that I MADE them is hard. And, yes, it DOES make a difference on WHO it is that is “correcting” me.

As with most things, there are concentric rings of difficulty involved in being corrected. Being a semi-nonspeller from birth makes acknowledging that sort of error relatively easy — if embarrassing. Other errors or mistakes are more painful. Certainly, mistakes that effect other people are very hard.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a doctor who slips up in surgery and nicks an artery — or a nurse who gives a patient the wrong medicine. Or, just recently, a young man — racing — who crashes and kills a child. Sigh. Ah, GOD. How are we EVER to forgive ourselves for mistakes like that?

We want to be “good” people, God. We don’t want to hurt or harm others. And when it becomes clear to us that we have — what then? Oh? You seemed to have backed me up a step. You say that You are pleased when we do “A Fearless Moral Inventory” and have our mistakes become clear to us? Being willing to see — even to search out — our mistakes is a big step forward in growth. That’s a comforting thought. Thanks, God!

Posted in a hand up, a series of molts and upgrades, choosing HARD, courage to see myself, Help me to see

Joyful Colors — And a Rainbow of Choices

Posted on August 2, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Blossoms of the Royal Poinciana

Good Morning, God,

It’s been raining — thank YOU! But even if the days are a bit wet these brilliant red-orange blossoms of Summer bring delight! Colors do bring joy. That’s why I bought some zinnias for my car port pot garden. Joy is important. Beauty is important.

And living in Hawaii, beauty is all around me. Actually, the world seems amazingly full of beauty. It just comes in a variety of colors and shades. I remember how hard it was for me as a child to move from the green of the Bay Area down to the browns of Los Angeles. Green is so easy to appreciate.

Appreciating shades of greys and browns requires a more nuanced pallet. And the coastal June gloom of California requires a bit of effort. I remember on one grey day — a friends saying to me: “I KNEW you’d wear your red skirt, today!” What a wonderful step forward it was when artificial dyes made color accessible to ordinary folks.

Hmmm. Not so wonderful when they put dyes in “food products!” Still, God, I’m glad I’m living right now! It’s true we haven’t figured out how to clean up after ourselves — or better yet, live without poisoning the planet!

Part of what makes that so hard is the amazing array of colors and choices spread out before us. Consuming less is like eating less. And our obesity epidemic makes it painfully clear just how hard choosing wisely is — both for ourselves and for our world.

Please help me, God. I need Your Help. And I hear: SMALL STEPS. VALUE SMALL STEPS! MAKE SMALL CHANGES!

Tagged with: It takes a lot of hope to keep on trying
Posted in becoming the change I wish to see, being a Slow Learner, Colors, hope, JOY

A Palm doing its job — Am I doing My Job?

Posted on August 1, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

a palm living inside a huge building

Good Morning, God!

Today is a lovely — slow — relaxed Sabbath Day. And I think of what Jesus said about The Sabbath Being a GIFT to Man. It IS!
But, alas, God, like many of Your Gifts it goes unclaimed. I am sitting here “seeing” the various people around this lovely world that I am praying for. To see them IS to hold them up to Your Light.

Hmmm. Small aside here — I shall print up a Prayer Photo Album — to help me in my intercessions. Praying WITH and FOR people is another one of Your Gifts that often goes unclaimed. How easy it is, God, to have our attention diverted — or worse yet, to be disconnected.

Anger and Fear do that. They send us back to a primal, vulnerable-to-attack state. And, then people do horrific things to one another — horrific things that are gathered up and stored to feed the hate of future generations. Tragic. It becomes a cycle of Victims and Revenge Seekers.

Worse yet, those who have been harmed seek to inflict twice as much harm on the perpetrators — the Fire Bombing of Dresden springs to mind. MADNESS, God, MADNESS. All of this creates great gapping cracks in the surface of the earth. Abysses separating peoples on Ice Flows of Hate.

Hmmm. Perhaps You are calling us to be like this Palm. It is doing its best to process CO2 into oxygen — life giving oxygen. Do You want us to process Hate into Love? Ignorance into Understanding? Fear into Confidence?

YES! YOU ACTUALLY WANT US TO PRACTICE FORGIVENESS! ZOONDS! Now there is a whole Series of Unclaimed Gifts!

Ah, GOD! Now THERE is a CALLING! Having Planted us in Your Love — help us through Your Holy Spirit to bear fruit worthy of Your Calling!

Tagged with: Called to overcome Evil with Good
Posted in a matter of scale, being planted, being together in a compassionate presence, breathing in Your Spirit, Choosing to respond, Expand my Heart, God as an Ongoing Gift, images, letting the Holy Spirit flow through us, living by every word that comes from God, water and love

Sweet Temptations, Industry Funded Studies, and new fangled “foods”

Posted on July 31, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

An American Agave

Good Morning, God

I’ve been sitting here looking up articles on High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Last night Kit showed me a letter to the editor of the Princeton Alumni Weekly that said Americans consumed 37.8 pounds of HFCS a year. I’ve been avoiding HFCS — yes, God, reading the labels of the few packaged “foods” we eat. But, I thought I’d try and see what the problem is.

One surprising and distressing (to me) bit of information was that agave syrup was pretty much the same as HFCS. That is to say highly processed and not at all Natural! Dang! I was had — not that I bought the product, just the idea — by advertising. We humans really do CRAVE SWEET! And there is money to be made on anything we humans crave. How sad to have to give up an appealing substitute. (All appealing substitutes?)

Here is what Wikipedia says about glucose as used in the brain. “When glucose is low, psychological processes requiring mental effort (e.g., self-control, effortful decision-making) are impaired.[8][9][10][11]”. My my. That explains a LOT!

So, I guess the real question is: Are all forms of sugar the same? Or is glucose what our bodies and brains were designed to run on? Let’s see. Chemists and Industry experts — who are making lots of money off of their CREATIONS — say they are all the same.

But there is a big difference in the results of INDUSTRY FUNDED studies verses INDEPENDENT studies. Sigh. Then, of course, there is the BIG BELLY SYNDROME (my term) diabetes, and assorted new kinds of cancers that are on the rise. Hmmm.

My money — at the store or Farmers’ Market — is on the OLD ways.

Tagged with: Distrusting New "Foods"
Posted in complexity, food questions

We Are Learning About Learning!

Posted on July 30, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Sunset from the Punahou Campus

Good Morning, God

What a lovely time I had yesterday — ending up with a presentation at Punahou on brain research — followed by a tour of the Omidyar Kindergarten and First Grade complex.

Just think, God, now they KNOW that children learn better if they are active every 25 minutes. Amazing! It sounds as if children are no longer being set into little rows (like corn) and expected to grow. Movement is now seen as a key to learning. Indeed, to leap to the other end of the age spectrum, movement is a key to keeping older minds working well.

I suppose, God, that the sunset photo is a symbol of the sun setting on the old model of education. Hmmm. At least it’s setting at Punahou. I’m very happy about this as it seems clear to me that you designed us to enjoy learning. And maybe it will have some effect on our culture’s current obsession with being RIGHT.

Right is such a narrow, joyless place — at least to my mind. I suppose it comes from the emphasis on taking “tests” where there is a “right” answer — unlike “life”.

A friend said that he had learned in life that: “You can be Right or you can have Relationships”. Wouldn’t it be extraordinary, God, if we could learn to enjoy discovering that we were wrong about something? My, THAT would change things — turn them right side up! How about if being “smart” wasn’t about getting the right answer — but being flexible enough to play with ideas and delight in tossing out disfunctional ones.”

How about if we could leap over arguing — and get into observing what works, and what doesn’t? Hmmm. I think, God, that this sounds like Humility. Humility that learns and admits mistakes and errors. It takes a very strong person to be able to be that humble.

Tagged with: Can we redefine "smart?"
Posted in humility, learning, Ongoing Transformation, Play

The Joy of Seeing, Appreciating and BEING appreciated

Posted on July 29, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Monkey pod tree in silhouette seen Wednesday morning

Good Morning, God

This tree — seen in silhouette — stopped me in my tracks and I reached for my camera. I love these trees, God. I love the way they branch and twist and curl. They go from trunk to branch to smaller branches to tiny branches so quickly. Or maybe it is only the last two stages that happen quickly?

No matter! These trees bring me joy — and even more joy when the sky above them is a clear blue with white clouds. The background is important.

Hmmm. We have emotional and expectational backgrounds, too. For example, my father told me early on that Life is Hard — it isn’t supposed to be easy. So, when I look around me and see kindness and beauty I am filled with joy.

Alas, some people seem to expect life to be easy and painless. And when something bad happens, as it not doubt will, they seem fixated on it. Frozen in place, staring at it. How sad, God, how sad. Perhaps that is why people in underdeveloped countries manage to find joy? They know that they have to look for it.

I’ve recognized that we have control over what we choose to focus our attention on. But, I don’t think I’ve thought much about our ability to choose what’s the background and what’s the foreground. Indeed, mostly I haven’t even been aware that I have a background of expectation — and of emotion.

I suppose, God, that my relationship with YOU is my True Background. It seems woven into my being that I matter — and that EVERYONE matters. We are all somehow Your Favorite Child. Hmmm. I wonder, does each leaf on the tree feel that IT is the tree’s favorite. I hope so.

Posted in background / foreground questions, beauty, clapping our hands in joy, Vantage Points

A Few Thoughts on Breakfast Cereal

Posted on July 28, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Wheaties: The Breakfast of Champions

Good Morning, God

The cereals of my childhood. Wheaties! And Cheerios! I remember once we had 5 boxes of Cheerios open so I could send the box tops off for a Captain Midnight ruby decoder ring — or was it the Buck Rogers Venusian Alligator glow-in-the-dark ring?

I suppose, having gotten so much enjoyment out of the cereals of my childhood, it unkind of me to carp about their nutritional content — or lack of same.

Then along came Sugar Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms and I let my children eat them. I think, God, that is what happens when families turn away from Grandmothers and toward Experts. Not that my grandmothers were saying anything. Of course, it is all relative. Artificial sweeteners are so bad that they are making sugar look almost good for us.

We are eating a lot of things that You didn’t create, God. It was Michael Pollan who observed that all traditional diets will support life. Our’s is NOT a traditional diet. Let’s see. What is the latest news. 4 cans of diet soda can increase a pregnant woman’s chances of having a premature baby by 80%.

Perhaps the problem isn’t so much Experts as Corporations. Profit making tends toward pandering. We love sweet stuff and so competition makes cereals sweeter. Hard to resist. Of course, our “food” manufacturers are pretty much the same companies that brought us cigarettes. Hmmm.

I think, God, that we might need a New Leviticus. At least a few more Prophets decrying Splenda?

Tagged with: cigarettes and sugar frosted flakes
Posted in Cherishing our Bodies, choices, choosing HARD, Common sense and reasonableness, compassion to care for myself, traditional food patterns, Transitions

Hope for Our Future? Calling all Grandparents

Posted on July 27, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Grandfather Tom and William

Good Morning, God!

This photo came from a colleague of Kit’s and it brought tears to my eyes! The FATHER SPIRIT glows — only it seems to take us humans to the GRANDPARENT category before the Parent Spirit can step out — freed from daily worries and fears. Oh, God! Would that we had more of YOUR SPIRIT glowing through us all.

And, that is surely a good place to end my morning blog, God. Smile. Only — not too surprisingly — I have another thought. Well, two thoughts. The first is that when women started to live longer — becoming more grandmother than mother — their daughters had more help and so did their daughters children. The second thought is that as the demographics of the Industrial World slide us into EXPLODING GRANDPARENTHOOD — maybe this could help our species survive?

I like thoughts like that, God! I’d like to think that we are all growing toward MEANINGFULNESS. Certainly, after survival and status needs are met — MEANING and PURPOSE seem essential for true satisfaction.

And now I “hear” You reminding me of Gandhi’s famous quote: We must BECOME the CHANGE we wish to see. Hmmm. That “we” would be me. That would mean change in MY LIFE.

Yes, yes — You are saying it isn’t so much ONE BIG MOLT as a thousand small — seemingly insignificant — steps. Steps toward YOU — steps toward the LIGHT! So Please, God, let me be about Your Business of Recreating me.

Tagged with: A daily becoming a New Creature in Christ
Posted in asking for help for myself, Becoming FRESH from God's Hand, becoming the change I wish to see, changing who I want to become, choosing HARD, Choosing Meaning, Choosing to respond

Zipping Around the East End of Oahu

Posted on July 26, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Rabbit Island seen from Kit's car

Good Morning, God

Well, what do You know! I worked TOO hard getting everything “done” before the Sabbath Day.

Or maybe it was doing a 2 mile run first thing on my Sabbath morning — followed by the drive in for the 7:00 a.m. service? Or maybe it was that there is a BIG difference between Resting and needing to be in RECOVERY? THIS IS AN APOLOGY, GOD! Or is it more of a confession?

Actually, it feels more like an Oh! I didn’t realize how WHY Orthodox Jews start the Sabbath with the First Star. That is so a GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP is PART of the Sabbath.

And WHY Rabbit Island . . . that dear rabbit relaxing in the water with his nose just out and his ears lying back in the water . . . because I took it ZIPPING around? So that what is photographed are the railings and the side of the road. Or because I’d like to be resting in the water — like that rabbit?

Helen Perkins Gilmore said “You can’t pour a quart into a pint.” And on Saturday that was exactly what I tried to do. That is sort of a PATTERN in my “working” life . . . Hmmmm. DOING is SO Addictive!

Aaaah! Here is a NEW WEEK! Let’s try again! You were so right, yesterday, God. I still haven’t put the pieces together. I’m pretty sure You are going to have to EXPAND my mind/heart before the pieces fall into place.

Oh? They won’t FALL into place? I’m going to have to WORK at repositioning them? SIX DAYS I’m to WORK? Hmmm.

Tagged with: A New Week!, Does the Full Sabbath GIFT alway elude us?
Posted in a prayer for healing, asking for help for myself, attitudes, being a Slow Learner

Could I be like Corrie ten Boom? An Astounding Question!

Posted on July 25, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Corrie ten Boom, who in World War II hid Jews in her home in Holland

Good Morning, God!

Off I went early this morning — jogging — and without my iPod, too! Both of those were YOUR ideas, God. You wanted me in silence — and away from home’s distractions so You could get INSIDE me.

I confess, I can’t tell WHAT You do inside me. At this moment I feel as if You are saying to Yourself — she STILL doesn’t GET IT! She’s CLOSE, but she can’t put the pieces in the proper order. Sigh, Ah, well, in Your Time, God — in Your Time.

Meanwhile I find that You keep bringing me back to Oskar Schindler and Corrie ten Boom. Oskar seems to me to have been very successful in saving Jews from the death camps of Nazi Germany. Yet at the end he is distressed that he didn’t do MORE — he sees clearly that his fancy car and his silk shirt represent people who could have lived.

On the other hand — or at the other end of the Numbers Continuum — is Corrie ten Boom. Her family saved just a few and they all — her father, her sister and herself, and no doubt the people they had been hiding — ended up in the death camps. Yet, when I heard her speak there was no sign that she had ever focused on the “Why didn’t I do MORE” question.

This morning I found a quote that helped me begin to understand. Corrie ten Boom said “It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.” Oskar was DOING IT. Corrie was coming alongside what YOU were doing.

Hmmm. I tend to be like Oskar, don’t I God. Do You think I could become like Corrie?