Do you ever meet someone and get the feeling they're not really connecting to you, not really interested in your story at all, they just want to sell their product or their program and their sense of mission breathes so strong in them they just can't see you as another human heart with a mission of your own?
I met some fine people today and one man in particular, and I don't want to cause him any hurt or injury so I'll just speak generally. The man burned with an intensity for his cause. He felt tremendous passion for what he had learned and the journey he'd completed, and he wanted you to take the same journey. Now this was a good man and his cause was just and worth his fervor, but at the end of our conversation he didn't know my name, or that the woman sitting next to me was my wife, that we had been separated for nearly four months and had come to this place to seek healing and recovery. These were vital facts, because his cause involved, say it with me, healing and recovery.
We have to learn to hear one another's stories, to take a vital and genuine interest in them, because the intersection and commonalities in our stories is the beginning of wisdom. In sharing stories we begin to appreciate how powerfully God is moving in our lives, beginning with the remarkable gracious gift of bringing us together. I am amazed as I discover each day how if you begin a journey of faith and discovery you will be showered with opportunities and blessings, and the chief blessing is the people you meet. People with incredible stories, people who will offer you bread for your journey. It's a Biblical principle and a fact supported by every teaching and most philosophies that when we are receptive, we receive. The blessings run over us like living water. We meet the lifechangers, the difference makers, the inspirational characters, the talented, giving, remarkable people that fill us with hope, possibility and the audacity of action. The author Tom Robbins said, "We are put on this earth to enlarge the soul and light up the brain," and the chief force in that marvelous unfolding transformation is the great gracious gift of the people you meet every day. Hear them. Be interested in them. Remember their names. Jot yourself a note of what they uncovered for you today, or what they may have needed from you.
I don't want to sound for a moment like I've mastered this. My goodness, what a clod I can be. Every day I have moments where I hurt someone with my insensitivity and my self absorption or impatience, so I have no place to condemn anyone for their efforts. In fact my friend Gretchen chastised me today, rightly, for the fact she's offered me dozens of wonderful comments and encouragements about my blog and beginning these stories, but I hadn't written anything on hers. She wrote, "I know my blogs are not as well written and don't contain nearly as much emotion as yours but they are important to me :)" Of course they are. Her entries are the story of her family, and it is a remarkable story, a story of faith and devotion:
http://gretchenanddougandfamily.blogspot.com/
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is the Way the Transformation Begins
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, Robert F. Kennedy
This is the way the transformation begins.
It begins in me.
It begins now.
It begins with small incremental changes and shifts in attitude
it begins with positive action
failing forward
and suddenly I start looking at the world and my place in it in a new way. I speak differently and dress differently and project a different energy, and the world opens up like a glorious pink azalea bush, eight feet tall and blooming like mad.
photo by Kajo123 from the website flickr.com
Good morning!
An engineer builds a bridge and every bolt and weld has to be exactly right; every measure has to be perfect, or the bridge collapses or fails to take its place. Fantastically detailed blueprints have to be laid out. Impact statements have to be filed, sediment has to be studied, years of effort, months of planning, and a man-made marvel rises in the sky. Park somewhere and take a good look at a bridge, and think of all the skill and knowledge and hard honest work it took to create it. Consider how a few thousand years ago we were living in caves.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
The Hawthorne Bridge at sunrise, Portland Oregon. Photo by Joe Collver, from flickr.com
Genuine happiness and success start with an attitude of abundance
Make it a daily practice to begin your day with five minutes of thankfulness. You can even do it in your car on the way to work. Do it in your own way, whether it's thoughtful reflection or a prayer or singing out loud, but focus on your rich, amazing, abundant life.
Feeling grumpy or resentful or worried instead of thankful? Change direction! Consider the incredible gifts you have--mind, body, spirit, senses, your family, your friends, your clothes, your car, and the breakfast you enjoyed this morning. By the standards of 99% of the world, Americans are incredibly, amazingly rich. You truly have no idea how richly blessed you are until you start thinking about it. Even the heart that beats within you and the lungs that breathe your air are an intricate and amazing miracle.
Some of my favorite movies are ones that feature a once-defeated character waking up to an absolutely new day: "It's A Wonderful Life," the various versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day." How exhilarating it is for George Bailey to wake up and realize his life isn't over, it's just beginning, and that today truly is a brand new day.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
George returns home to everything he ever wanted.
1 comment:
Dear Dale, I must say your stories truly are interesting and filled with emotion. I wasn't looking for publicity for goodness sake just to know you were sharing in my stories too. I hope I can really listen to other people and let people know I really care. I know I often get so busy in my life, I don't listen to others. Your blog makes me remember I really need to try to be part of others stories.
Post a Comment