Let 'no' mean know?

 

So what if... we got rid of the word 'no'?

 

Ok. Not realistic. Maybe we need it like we need the penny. For Life's transactions and 'real-word' stuff. Fine.

 

Maybe some re-framing? What if we conditioned ourselves that every time we heard the word, it pushed us further? After all, what really ends even with a 'no'?

 

And, 'no', I'm not suggesting that no means yes or an open-ended concept that justifies license to stupidity, insensitivity or lack of respect. No way.

 

How about for our spiritual activities? Do you think God uses that word? Or better yet, does He need to? Clearly, the Bible is full of examples of God declining the prayers and wishes of his faithful. But does He ever really say 'No'? Did Jesus?

 

Does Life ever really say 'No'? Can you imagine a world without 'no'? Unnerving or stimulating? Or both? Don't cook this one too quick... Let simmer, roil, stew... keep tasting.

 

I feel that the Universe definitely does say 'Yes'... Must there then be a 'No' to balance that out?

 

But balance what out?

 

More questions than answers I admit. And I'm still forming this concept.

 

This spun out this morning while pondering what I 'know'... and don't. I listened while I wrote...

 

 

 

So here's a little 'k and w'

I use it when I bless

those situations in my life

when Life

does not say

Yes

 

See there's always but one answer

when the question's placed Above

to your God

and your Creator

Who responds in only

Love

 

Though it isn't always shaped or formed

in how you'd like it so

When you add some 'k and w'

the Truth

then you shall

K-no-w

 

That God responds

And not because

He has to...

There's a choice

but know the sound

when He's around

He speaks it through

your voice

 

So be sure to keep some handy

in a jar or envelope

When you need some 'k and w'

to conquer Life's steep slope

 

All those mountains

and the oceans

all the climbing and the rowing

With a little 'k and w'

your life will keep on

flowing

 

And when it seems the answer

sounds like anything but 'Yes'...

with a little 'k and w'

you will KNOW

that YOU

are

BLESSED

 

 

I'm watching the yellow and black finches and red cardinals enjoying breakfast at the Lesley birdfeeder. How irrelevant the word 'no' must be to them. They consume the seeds and nuts and shuffle their feathers in the dew-laden grass (which is in need of cutting) . Back in forth they go; feeder to tree-line. Tree-line to feeder...

 

Until they die, they live 'Yes'.

 

I do believe that word; they know...

In Memorial to the Reluctant Heroes

 

We all find ourselves with expertise in reluctance. At first thought, it is not perceived as a virtue.  To hesitate... to doubt...to question...to be non-committal... We've  got a lot of experience in this.

 

To be 'reluctant'.

 

So I'm reluctant to see what Webster has to say. Guess I'm not looking for any additional opinions on the matter. But actually, I am.

 

Because I've been rather  reluctant of late to compose and share. Oh, I've been composing. But it seems I'm avoiding something. Currents of change swirl. I am feeling the flow push and pull me in a number of directions. Today I have a centering energy that takes over my fingers and eyes and heart.

 

The Reluctant Heroes.

 

 

Today we honor you with Your day.

Those who gave the 'last, full measure' in battle for our freedom, peace and way of life.

Thank you.

 

Webster surely must account for this form of reluctance if I look it up. To resist false glory... to deny hype and pomp... to avoid the limelight... for self-gain and ego... To simply yet courageously do what is right in man's eye and God's.

 

The Reluctant Heroes.

 

Yes, reluctance can be noble. Warriors who sacrificed for their brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, parents  and those behind the front lines of conflict. For infinite kindness and peace that we pray they have found as the result of their sacrifice.

 

Amazing grace... how sweet the sound...

 

God I'm reluctant to say this. But I feel I missed something. Somewhere I should have been or someplace I was supposed to be. For someone else. And I, the wretch, was saved instead.

 

Today, do you feel a bit the same way? Is this a collective sense of guilt? A gratitude for something we could not earn but yet benefitted? I won't say I hope so. But I will admit I will accept it and never forget.

 

Among the marks of true heroism is the light that it leaves behind. An illumination of sorts that shines into eternity. This is the lasting credit to mortals who light the path to a greater nobility in life for us to follow.

 

And while we must always remain willing and able to defend our true treasure, let us, with the same noble virtues gained from those who've gone ahead, be reluctant to dispense the mortal weapons we have accumulated. If we ever must, God have mercy on us. Today, especially:

 

God Bless the Reluctant Heroes.

 

 

P/S:  Dear Mr. Webster:

FYI, I believe this form of reluctance to be a Beacon; of hope, faith and courage.

A Memorial unto it's own.

Thank you for considering in next edition.

Most humbly submitted; 

 

Your reluctant author,

 

Memorial Day; 26 May, 2014

Easter Sunday; A Glorious Day.

 

Rise and shine...

 

 

He made it… so it’s Possible.

Impossible is 'nothing'.

(My son reminds me of the same thing.)

Lead the way for others…who need a lift.

And some Light.

 "I’m blessed and highly favored

I’ve got a lot going for me…
I’ve got some good stuff in me…

And I know things can get better”

As I'm listening to a solo piano piece playing 'Amazing Grace' ...with happy birds feasting on the nuts and seeds in the backyard feeder, the wet grass grateful for the rains that came yesterday and now; the morning sunshine which is beginning to warm it and grow it with it's illuminating energy... I am also renewed.

And refreshed.

Thank you, Jesus.
-My Pathfinder, my Rock and my Light.

I so look forward to our run this morning...

Happy Easter Morning to you
And the earth
And all her creatures.

Namaste

 

 

Of Emerson...Thoreau and James

 

-Reflections from a morning's musings... and inspiration from those who have come before; those 'prescient critics' who spoke of the relationship between the soul and world surrounding us. Grand thinkers who, right or wrong, were 'not confined within the limits of institutions or traditions'.

 

Might truth be intuitively experienced from nature? Might this be God's way of revealing what is truth?

 

If all things are connected to God...are not all things divine?

 

 

"Along the Trail

of the Gossamer thread

Connected there...

from words I'd read

 

Of Emerson

Thoreau and James

From woods and streams

From ice and flames

 

A stream of consciousness imbued

upon my soul's infinitude

The proof of God

in nature's weave

Surrounding all I can conceive

 

The trail diverged in a yellow wood

And naked, humbled there I stood

Cold and wet and trembling

My soul was reassembling

 

Unto the form of grand design

Arrayed in spider silk

Divine"

To Inspire there must first come Illumination

 

 

There are those who self-proclaim as 'light'.

 

Are they a light-bulb? A candle? A search-light or flood light? A spot-light or sun?

 

Better to simply enter a dark room and illumine... and let your inner light so shine. Illuminate as one of your eight eyes of perfection.

 

So that which may inspire may first be seen...  (see Paul to the Ephesians 5;12-14)

 

 

 

Yesterday on my run, I came upon a rabbit laying in the road. Road kill is a pretty regular occurrence for those of us who travel the road's edge; usually messy.

 

This wasn't and I stopped. I do that.

 

The side road was not busy at the time. I bent down and put my hand on the rabbit's motion-less body as a big, open eye seemed to look at me; still, deep and empty. The body was stiffening but still warm. And soft, furry. I felt that. The remnants of life...sharing a connection of the heart.

 

I looked at it; the big eye. I felt a form of prayer travel from me to this creature of God, as lowly as a road-kill rabbit may be. I picked it up and brought it over to the grassy edge of the roadway property. I would spare myself the sight of it getting reduced to a stain on the road over the next few days. The least I could do?

 

For a few minutes as I continued my run, I had this sense that I was supposed to do more? But like what? 

 

Then there was a set of car keys in the road.

 

I picked them up and thought, 'What do I do with these'? One of those runs, huh, Gary? I thought that, too.

 

I hung them from a branch on a small tree along the sidewalk. If someone comes looking they will surely see them on the tree.

 

More 'key's from the road of life I travel upon... with eyes open...and a deep gratitude for the gift of life.

 

Always. Everywhere. Everyday. I pray that I never close my eyes to that.

 

Even in death.

 

And I shall write

as if upon the table of my very heart; true to His word

- and the apple of Thine eye.



 

1. Insert quarter

2. Avoid Klingons

 

 

As a birthday boy who was set spinning his journey in 1955, and with my baby-boomer friends, we recall a simpler, 'web-less' time when technology was blooming alongside our lives. It was the '70's. I had my '69 Pontiac Lemans. We were doing Atari in black and white in student unions and arcades.

 

 

 

With a month head-start on me (born in February), a guy named Steven Jobs was making 'Pong' better. We were dropping quarters into the machines, unknowingly underwriting the brilliance and genius which would become Apple. I was learning/teaching the art of flight. Jobs had a vision to put a computer into every home and I was scheming how to make the world 'a safer, brighter place...', often from 10,000 feet. We both had our 'stimulants'... and passions.

 

So Jobs and I had a few things in common but he was wired in a very different way. Not better or worse. Just different. Very different when it came to issues of abandonment, as he was adopted as a baby. I was blessed with unconditional love; Jobs received the same from his step-parents. But that was different for him.

 

Think Different

 

There's not a lot of 'thinking' that takes place in the natural world. The 'thought' process in animals is more akin to what we would refer to as conditioned and intuitive. Action-reaction-results. Certainly more impulsive but not reckless or without frame work. I always approached my flying as an act of intuitive creativity. And passion. I taught it that way, too.

Be the wings...be the engines...feel the wind...envision your moves... screw the gauges (temporarily)

Eagle-in-flight stuff.

 

Jobs spoke about the difference between using intellect and intuition. An early trip to India underscored the cultural differences for him and was something that formed his approach to design and innovation. Intellect does not connect to jumping the curve.

 

To suspend common sense and defy established knowledge is rooted in a 'knowing' that is primal. It is intuited. Intellect plays a role but can also get in the way. It's a mystical, mysterious and momentous process that is stimulated by the slightest of inklings.

 

Jobs was known for commissioning the "crazy ones". The ones who think different. According to Walter Isaacson and his seminal work on Jobs, Steve "insisted that he wanted the word 'different;' to be used as a noun as opposed to an adverb." That's Different...

 

"Here's to the crazy ones.

The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.

The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules...

...because they change things.

They push the human race forward...

...crazy enough to think they can change the world...

...the ones who do."

                       (From Jobs return as CEO and 1997 Apple advertising campaign)

 

Getting more intuit

 

As I look back and I look forward... from another birthdate vantage point, oh sure, I'd like to have a greater intellect. And I intend to continue developing my knowledge base across a number of areas including health, finance, social psychology, geo-political issues, world  history and more. But most importantly, I am committing to getting more into who and what I am.

What is my 'primary question' that consciously and sub-consciously is being asked? What really has consequence for me? I'm going to make that question more empowering, even while I'm discovering it with greater clarity on my way to...6-0.

I say 'pretty cool'.   ;)

When you start pushing six decades and believe that you've stayed awake for most of it, you appreciate and acknowledge this realization: I've pretty much 'been there - done that'. The question to square up with now is "So what?" I have always wanted to make things better. Can I achieve that to the degree I can keep growing my joy, peace and happiness? My faith?

So this year, I'm going to push myself further into getting "intuit"; a suitable play on words. Intuition is the key to innovation; the other book-end of SpiderLogic. Actually, they are more like opposing poles on a sphere, with infinite ways to travel and connect from one to the other. Like the number of ways you could travel from the North Pole to the South Pole. Both on the axis of rotation; the rotation of the evolution of our soul.

So here's a quarter for you and quarter for me. A birthday gift for both of us. Let's play the game for all it's worth; intuitively.

And take Steve's advice:

Avoid the Klingons!

(Thank you All for your wonderful Birthday greetings!!!  I hope Spring finally made it to you today. God Bless and have a terrifically empowering week.  GL )





 



 





Every Revolution an Evolution...

 

 

So when our 'Charlotte' spiders; those vertical orb-weaving araneomorphs, construct their wondrous webs, there is a refined process that takes place; one which is repeated around the world billions of times a day and perfected, over hundreds of millions of years. (Safe to say "Mastery? I'd say yes!)

 

 

Briefly, the web site location is a strategic placement that factors in access to and volume of food stuff; i.e prey, protection, anchor points, angularity to the sun, competition, insect flight paths, past success and more. A typical construction set will take a couple hours and for most of the year, until later in the season, the web of an orb weaver will be consumed and rebuilt daily. Other than the anchor lines and maybe some of the other framings, it appears and disappears regularly.

 

Using a number of select silk variations (usually three or more) she can express through her collection of spinnerets, a temporary spiral that will be woven in among the radius lines, starting from the hub and working out to the outer edges of the frame. The spacing is wider than what the finished web will be comprised of and even a different silk. This is all part of the "proto-web", in essence, the temporary scaffolding, as Authors Leslie Brunetta and Catherine Craig describe in their book: SPIDER SILK.

 

"By connecting the radial lines at regular intervals from the center out along their length, the temporary spiral stiffens the web...This bracing keeps each radial line from sagging as the spider steps onto it. Finally, starting out on the web's outer edge, the spider begins to lay down the sticky capture spiral."

 

 

Every Revolution an Evolution...

 

Our spider will finish where she began. In the center. She gets back by making revolutions around her web; each time around, closer to her destination. Closer to her ultimate evolution. For that web, anyway. And 'that' web is the only one that ever matters. Tomorrow's web will take care of itself...

 

This concept became a metaphor for me in contemplating the difference between living a life of 'going around in circles' versus moving forward with purpose and intention.

 

And instead of spinning aimlessly - like an out-of-control second hand on the crazy clock of an out-of-control world, approaching each day as another ring of capture silk on the path home.

 

 Every Revolution an Evolution...

 

While she is making the journey back to the center, our spider is removing and eating the temporary spiral line as she replaces it with tighter rings and sticky silk. (The better to catch you, my dear!)

 

So a spiral is a circle...that takes you either further from or closer to the 'center'. A vortex if you will. For every time around does not bring you back to the 'same' place.

 

Like life.

 

You can not go around and end up in the same place. Spin in or spin out - but we just don't stay on the same ring. Nature shows it and our spider teaches it.

 

And once you apply a bit of SpiderLogic, you'll intuit a portal of the wisdom of nature weaving itself into the web of your life; hopefully one evolving into greater joy and happiness.

 

Every Revolution an Evolution...

On the Journey Home.

 

 

 

 Home...Sweet Home.