Chris Gribble

Be yourself - Everyone else is taken (Oscar Wilde)

Daily Examen

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Question One – Where did I see God today?

Gerad Manly Hopkins words “For Christ plays in ten thousand places, / Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his.”

Question Two – What am I thankful for today?

Connection with two friends. Time spent sharing deeply together.

Playing touch football with a group of friends.

Question Three – What did I feel today?

I felt good. A good mix of time alone. Reflection and activity.

Question Four – How do I feel about tomorrow?

There are a couple of tasks that I need to do that I am not looking forward to. I will do them and they will be finished.

Community – Parker Palmer

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In true community we will not choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. Instead, our companions will be given to us by grace. Often they will be persons who will upset our settled view of self and world. In fact, we might define true community as that place where the person you least want to live with lives!…

Community reminds us that we are called to love, for community is a product of love in action and not of simple self-interest. Community can break our egos open to the experience of a God who cannot be contained by our conceptions. Community will teach us that our grip on truth is fragile and incomplete, that we need many ears to hear the fullness of God’s word for our lives. And the disappointments of community life can be transformed by our discovery that the only dependable power for life lies beyond all human structures and relationships.

In this religious grounding lies the only real hedge against the risk of disappointment in seeking community. That risk can be borne only if it is not community one seeks, but truth, light, God . Do not commit yourself to community, but commit yourself to God…. In that commitment you will find yourself drawn into community.

 

Parker Palmer

 

The still point – T S Elliot

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At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
TS Elliot
ballerina-855652_1280

Love and Relationships

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“Some people cannot love you the way you want to be loved, because they are emotionally and spiritually frozen. They recoil from or avoid affection. You will never meet a deep penetrating gaze from their shallow eyes; only a surface glance. They will touch your hand with their hand, but never with their heart. They will serve your body but not your soul.

They can only connect with you through utility, but never passion. If you need cupcakes or a jar opened, they are perfect; if you need compassion or wisdom, you are all alone. They are only a person as society made them, not as nature intended them.

They live life so perfectly, but know nothing of life at all. They did everything they were told to be a good person, but are hardly a person at all. They are empty. They are dead inside. They will break your heart if you let them. They are usually very judgmental. They see themselves as nice but are often mean and cold. They feel themselves superior. They think everything they do is exactly the way it is supposed to be done. They are repeaters. They lack original thought. If you challenge their slumber with awakened thoughts, they will panic and flee. They will make you feel crazy because they only believe what the masses believe. They are the embodiment of the masses, because they have not become their own individual person. Individuation is an attainment of spiritual maturity — frighteningly seldom attained in today’s world. You cannot change these people. They are trapped inside of themselves; stunted.

You will waste your whole life waiting for them to wake-up to the treasure of what you have to offer. You cannot snap them out of their sleep. Only a tragic event will awaken them.”
— Bryant McGill

Michael Faraday – Self Deception

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“The force of the temptation which urges us to seek for such evidence and appearances as are in favour of our desires, and to disregard those which oppose them, is wonderfully great. In this respect we are all, more or less, active promoters of error. In place of practising wholesome self-abnegation, we ever make the wish the father to the thought: we receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us; whereas the very reverse is required by every dictate of common sense.”

Faraday

Learning to Be

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“Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others’ faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.”
Rumi

Toxicity

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Haven’t you been listening to your inner-voice? Be honest, your gut has been screaming but you have been ignoring it. How much more of your life are you going to throw-away for a lie? Accept it. Some people never change. Some people have abusive, negative, controlling tendencies in their blood; they are wired for havoc, bickering and deception. They know of no other way to interface with others except through their created chaos. Chaos is their home-court advantage where they play their mind-games so they can have power over you; it’s a rigged game you can never win. They will wear you ragged and bring you to your knees emotionally and physically. In time they will destroy every wonderful thing you have in your life. You are in danger: your health, your peace of mind, your happiness and maybe even your life. There is more than one way to lose your life; quickly through violence, or fettered-away and wasted around dreadful, toxic people. You must take control of your life and make good decisions for yourself. The insanity must end, for your sake and for theirs.
— Bryant McGill

The importance of being in over your head

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From “The Dream Weaver”

I was eating lunch with a friend who has a PhD in leadership development, I asked him, “Based on all your research and experience, what would you say is the most important secret to developing world class leaders?”

He put his fork down. “Well its not a course, a lecture or a book,” he said. He then picked up his fork and started eating again.

His answer intrigued me. I asked him to explain.

“The single best way to develop leaders,” he said, “is to take people out of their safe environment and away from the people they know, and to throw them into a new arena that they know little about. Way over their head, preferably. In fact the more demanding their challenges the more pressure and risk they face, the more likely a dynamic leader will emerge.”

At first his theory surprised me. It sounded unsafe and unkind. But on second thought, it reminded me of many of my own experiences in the wasteland.

In fact God used a similar approach to raise up a leader in the wilderness, on the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.

(p. 117)

God loves you anyway

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Even when you have made mistakes, God has loved you totally. Even when you have betrayed yourself, God has loved you totally. Even when you have transgressed against others, God has loved you totally. Even when you have hated Him, God has loved you totally. And that is how He would have us love… Those who are mistaken about you, love them totally. Those who judge you, love them totally. Those who betray you, love them totally. Those who despise you, love them totally. That does not mean you should give them your keys, or surrender boundaries or any of that. It means only that love —and only total love — lifts us above the darkness of the world. When we think as God thinks, and love as God loves, we are given wings and a mantle of light to protect us and bless us all ways, on all days. For such is the power of Love. Amen
—Marianne Williamson

Everything will be ok!!!

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“Breathe. You’re going to be okay. Breathe and remember that you’ve been in this place before. You’ve been this uncomfortable and anxious and scared, and you’ve survived. Breathe and know that you can survive this too. These feelings can’t break you. They’re painful and debilitating, but you can sit with them and eventually, they will pass. Maybe not immediately, but sometime soon, they are going to fade and when they do, you’ll look back at this moment and laugh for having doubted your resilience. I know it feels unbearable right now, but keep breathing, again and again. This will pass. I promise it will pass.”
—Daniell Koepke

Leadership – Anxiety

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Definition of Leadership: “Being a non-anxious presence”

Recognition of what a non-anxious presence is:

– Secure in identity/anchored
– Well defined boundaries
– Knowledge of self

  • Centered, responsive, + flexible
  • Faithfully engaged in significant activities
  • Being free to be yourself as God made you
  • Planning + Prioritizing
  • In a world of tension, having no fear
  • Formally relating to others, but being approachable,so as to inspire, and transform

My quote of the day

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About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.
– Josh Billings-

This is very true of most of what is blogged.

Attention spans

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Herbert Simon – “What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Quotes on responsibility

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Part of our essential humanity is paying respect to what God gave us and what will be here a long time after we’re gone. – Bill Clinton

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor Frankl

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it. Franklin P. Jones

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach. Tony Robbins

Responsibility:  A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one’s neighbor.In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911

Why do children want to grow up? Because they experience their lives as constrained by immaturity and perceive adulthood as a condition of greater freedom and opportunity. But what is there today, in America, that very poor and very rich adolescents want to do but cannot do?  Not much:they can “do” drugs, “have” sex, “make” babies, and “get” money (from their parents, crime, or the State).  For such adolescents, adulthood becomes synonymous with responsibility rather than liberty. Is it any surprise that they remain adolescents?~Thomas Szasz

What wisdom would you like to pass on to others?

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Steve Pavlina has this list of quotes of wisdom that he would like to pass onto others. Here are a few of them.

  • After the age of 50, you will discover that your greatest trophies in life are your children.- Rod LeGrande
  • There are no ordinary moments. – Mark Valentine
  • Effective communication involves more than talent. It involves trust, respect, understanding, empathy, and resolution. It is an art.- David Rohlander

My addition would be something like this:

” Always seek what is admirable in others it wlll bring you wealth beyond what can be counted in dollars”

Quotes on personal courage

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“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave.” – Mark Twain –

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.-Louisa May Alcott

“Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to carry on with dignity in spite of it.”  -Scott Turow-