Joseph of Thebes described three types of worshipful men.
1. One’s thankful when ill or tempted.
2. One’s thankful in pleasing God openly.
3. One’s thankful for the subjection of God’s will before their own desires.
A mere seventy words of reflection, and I paraphrased. I know all three of these people. I am them, and so are you. I’m number one on Saturday night and number two Sunday morning. Number three is transcendent. Is it attainable? That’s the hard part, because who can know God?
Number three is attainable when applying one’s trade. A teacher, a doctor, a businessman, and a person with good in their heart at all times may be described as such. Grace. Number two is a safe and good place. Leave God out it. Live life openly, won’t that keep you honest?
What is God’s subjection, especially if we haven’t met him? I would like to please God. As a child my gods included my parents. They told me that my actions were a reflection of them. Heavy for a five year old.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Think One and Think Two (a la Suess)
Think One:
It is my contention that with out Good or Evil, you do not have the other. If evil is vanquished, or otherwise disappears everything else is good and there for Is. I am Good, there for I am, or Evil for that matter.
Think Two:
Living perfect, sustainable, green, conscious of the environment is great and something to put effort in, but there is a cost. It may be inconvenient. It may be expensive. It may be good. I recommend doing it to the limit of your abilities. I think this is a search for perfection, therefore a futile and destructive effort on an individual, community or personal level. There is always a better or new way, and when it is discovered, it makes previous efforts detrimental or lacking in worth.
It is my contention that with out Good or Evil, you do not have the other. If evil is vanquished, or otherwise disappears everything else is good and there for Is. I am Good, there for I am, or Evil for that matter.
Think Two:
Living perfect, sustainable, green, conscious of the environment is great and something to put effort in, but there is a cost. It may be inconvenient. It may be expensive. It may be good. I recommend doing it to the limit of your abilities. I think this is a search for perfection, therefore a futile and destructive effort on an individual, community or personal level. There is always a better or new way, and when it is discovered, it makes previous efforts detrimental or lacking in worth.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
High Point Low Point
What was your high point for the day? What was your low point? It's a nice exercise. It commemorates a day. It creates a moment of reflection. The kids and I have a bedtime routine that continues to evolve. We no longer pray - regularly. After we do our readings I ask them a series of questions.
Do you want to say a prayer? No. No.
Do you want to be thankful? Yes. No. Then my daughter says she is thankful for her family.
Do you want me to say a prayer? No. No. On occasion one or both may say yes, then I ask them if they would like me to pray for anything particular, then I do or pray generally for each of us.
When they were younger we prayed more. Now we don't. The exercise for prayer, to me, was creating a reflective moment for each of them, and me. I was disappointed they didn't engage in it. Prayer is personal, and may also be private. I began to move on.
Then I asked them one night, out of the blue, to share their high point and low point of the day. They share the mundane aspects of their day with me, but sometimes their reflection speaks volumes. At first, I asked them to share, but I did not. Then I began to share since it didn't seem right to withhold.
The exercise has created moments of lightness. It has relieved stress. It has made me feel connected to my family and my life in a new and better way. I don't think I discovered anything new, but it helped me, so I am sharing. Today is too new, so my high point yesterday was seeing my kids awake before I left for work and my low point was having fits and starts engaging in work.
What was your high point? Low point?
Do you want to say a prayer? No. No.
Do you want to be thankful? Yes. No. Then my daughter says she is thankful for her family.
Do you want me to say a prayer? No. No. On occasion one or both may say yes, then I ask them if they would like me to pray for anything particular, then I do or pray generally for each of us.
When they were younger we prayed more. Now we don't. The exercise for prayer, to me, was creating a reflective moment for each of them, and me. I was disappointed they didn't engage in it. Prayer is personal, and may also be private. I began to move on.
Then I asked them one night, out of the blue, to share their high point and low point of the day. They share the mundane aspects of their day with me, but sometimes their reflection speaks volumes. At first, I asked them to share, but I did not. Then I began to share since it didn't seem right to withhold.
The exercise has created moments of lightness. It has relieved stress. It has made me feel connected to my family and my life in a new and better way. I don't think I discovered anything new, but it helped me, so I am sharing. Today is too new, so my high point yesterday was seeing my kids awake before I left for work and my low point was having fits and starts engaging in work.
What was your high point? Low point?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
I made four resolutions:
1. Be deliberate with my family and my self (patience)
2. Make a monthly goal (January: write a personal blog post each week (how silly of me))
3. Be self-conscious about weight and health
4. Read 12 books
I make them because they work. I have successes in reaching them. Each year, I make four resolutions, two new and two that build upon the last year. Goals three and four build upon last year. Why did I make these goals? I will explain, vaguely.
Resolution number one. This will be the hardest and the one I struggle with long after 2011 is over, so check in, I'll update you.
RN2. I'll explain more in a later post. In addition, I have already failed to meet RN2, but the overarching resolution I am excited about and look forward to making February's resolution.
RN3. I failed 2010's goal of losing twenty pounds. So this one is flexible because of that fact.
RN4. I did not meet my 2010 resolution of reading 12 books but was close, so I decided to try again.
I have a number of excuses and reasons I can share for not making two of last year's and discussing the futility of trying to meet some of this year's, but it isn't worth your time. I do want to spend some time on RN2, because I outwitted myself.
I read the following and it may have ruined me. "Abbot Pambo questioned Abbot Anthony saying: What ought I to do? And the elder replied, Have no confidence in your own virtuousness. Do not worry about a thing once it has been done. Control your tongue and belly." This is from The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers translated by Thomas Merton.
I have to come clean and I’m not sure how to do it. This blog was started because of a specific reason I haven’t shared. The problem is sometimes when I write this reason crops up and deters me from my general goal of writing for my own sense of whatever: gratification, catharsis, wants, desire… I thought my first of four posts this January would be a meditation from the translation because it neatly summarized my resolutions. It still does, but it is illuminating of my own “virtuousness” keeping this thing to myself.
After a particular point, you’ll say I’m being coy. If I share I can get on with it and write with abandon. If I don’t, I can maintain the dignity of the thing insofar as I’m not moving on and that is bad too. In the end it’s me, not the issue. Sharing it on the blog somehow is bigger than a conversation. I’ll lose control, and that is what I don’t want the most.
For now, ask me, I’ll tell you, maybe you already know and I’m just being me.
1. Be deliberate with my family and my self (patience)
2. Make a monthly goal (January: write a personal blog post each week (how silly of me))
3. Be self-conscious about weight and health
4. Read 12 books
I make them because they work. I have successes in reaching them. Each year, I make four resolutions, two new and two that build upon the last year. Goals three and four build upon last year. Why did I make these goals? I will explain, vaguely.
Resolution number one. This will be the hardest and the one I struggle with long after 2011 is over, so check in, I'll update you.
RN2. I'll explain more in a later post. In addition, I have already failed to meet RN2, but the overarching resolution I am excited about and look forward to making February's resolution.
RN3. I failed 2010's goal of losing twenty pounds. So this one is flexible because of that fact.
RN4. I did not meet my 2010 resolution of reading 12 books but was close, so I decided to try again.
I have a number of excuses and reasons I can share for not making two of last year's and discussing the futility of trying to meet some of this year's, but it isn't worth your time. I do want to spend some time on RN2, because I outwitted myself.
I read the following and it may have ruined me. "Abbot Pambo questioned Abbot Anthony saying: What ought I to do? And the elder replied, Have no confidence in your own virtuousness. Do not worry about a thing once it has been done. Control your tongue and belly." This is from The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers translated by Thomas Merton.
I have to come clean and I’m not sure how to do it. This blog was started because of a specific reason I haven’t shared. The problem is sometimes when I write this reason crops up and deters me from my general goal of writing for my own sense of whatever: gratification, catharsis, wants, desire… I thought my first of four posts this January would be a meditation from the translation because it neatly summarized my resolutions. It still does, but it is illuminating of my own “virtuousness” keeping this thing to myself.
After a particular point, you’ll say I’m being coy. If I share I can get on with it and write with abandon. If I don’t, I can maintain the dignity of the thing insofar as I’m not moving on and that is bad too. In the end it’s me, not the issue. Sharing it on the blog somehow is bigger than a conversation. I’ll lose control, and that is what I don’t want the most.
For now, ask me, I’ll tell you, maybe you already know and I’m just being me.
Monday, October 4, 2010
6 Minute Story
I'm not sure how I stumbled upon it, but its a nice starter, pick-me-up or interlude to a long, slow, unsteady, hectic, confusing day that needs a little Zen moment.
Check out this Web site: Six Minute Story.
It’s a neat little thing that takes no time to set up. You create a profile that is simple enough. You create a username/log in that you probably have set up since you'll want to share with your tweeps or FB friends.
It is a writing exercise, and no, it’s not an obituary. If you're like me, and I suppose there are more people out there that spend a good potion of their day reading, writing, and researching for their job. I happen to work in a technical field, and I've found, with only three efforts to date, that it clears my head to get on with it.
It only takes 6 minutes, plus the effort to register, to write your first story. Can you waste 6 minutes? Try it and see what you may gain. Read mine: Gone, Hello Chazz, or Spores.
Check out this Web site: Six Minute Story.
It’s a neat little thing that takes no time to set up. You create a profile that is simple enough. You create a username/log in that you probably have set up since you'll want to share with your tweeps or FB friends.
It is a writing exercise, and no, it’s not an obituary. If you're like me, and I suppose there are more people out there that spend a good potion of their day reading, writing, and researching for their job. I happen to work in a technical field, and I've found, with only three efforts to date, that it clears my head to get on with it.
It only takes 6 minutes, plus the effort to register, to write your first story. Can you waste 6 minutes? Try it and see what you may gain. Read mine: Gone, Hello Chazz, or Spores.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Kidizenship
My daughter reminded me there is time for play and time for everything else.
As I went into my son's room to fulfill a request, I noticed my daughter was still awake. I gave her the one-minute signal. I re-tucked James in and went in to Lily's room. She was upset. She was trying to act tough, big-kid style. She's lucky to have a 6-year old's vocabulary, because what she said belied her efforts to be cool - not be a kid.
"Lily, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Are you sure?"
"Uh-huh," and now she's clinging to me, trying to bury her head in my neck.
"Lily, what's wrong, I can tell you've been crying, you're upset."
She burst into tears and said, "I want to be a kid forever!" Then she proceeded to sob uncontrollably.
My response was to laugh and then tell her there was no use, she's going to grow up, but its how she decides to live her life that makes her concern real or not. I don't subscribe to birthdays and age and (im)maturity. You are who you are, and you get over it. Then I realized I was over my head.
I picked her up and took her to my wife. Kelly cries twice a year - unprovoked by me - in August and just after Christmas. She says August is the coldest month of the year, and the excitement of the holiday’s are gone. Kelly is an expert in kidizenship. I laughed again, because Kelly was whispering to Lily and she was crying. She had wanted to be a kid forever too.
Lily is going to grow up. Hopefully, I won’t get in the way, but maybe I can live a little younger with her as my role model.
As I went into my son's room to fulfill a request, I noticed my daughter was still awake. I gave her the one-minute signal. I re-tucked James in and went in to Lily's room. She was upset. She was trying to act tough, big-kid style. She's lucky to have a 6-year old's vocabulary, because what she said belied her efforts to be cool - not be a kid.
"Lily, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Are you sure?"
"Uh-huh," and now she's clinging to me, trying to bury her head in my neck.
"Lily, what's wrong, I can tell you've been crying, you're upset."
She burst into tears and said, "I want to be a kid forever!" Then she proceeded to sob uncontrollably.
My response was to laugh and then tell her there was no use, she's going to grow up, but its how she decides to live her life that makes her concern real or not. I don't subscribe to birthdays and age and (im)maturity. You are who you are, and you get over it. Then I realized I was over my head.
I picked her up and took her to my wife. Kelly cries twice a year - unprovoked by me - in August and just after Christmas. She says August is the coldest month of the year, and the excitement of the holiday’s are gone. Kelly is an expert in kidizenship. I laughed again, because Kelly was whispering to Lily and she was crying. She had wanted to be a kid forever too.
Lily is going to grow up. Hopefully, I won’t get in the way, but maybe I can live a little younger with her as my role model.
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