Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was” [Dag Hammarskjold].

While making the three-hour trip to Thanksgiving dinner last week, I noticed a road sign I had not seen before.  It was your typical yellow diamond-shaped warning sign which read, “Hill Blocks View.”

And while the road we were on was quite narrow and unlined, and the sign appeared at the bottom of a hill, the terrain wasn’t what I would call treacherous, nor was the hill especially steep. I guess the sign was present simply to notify drivers that the hill created a blind spot.

I mentioned the sign during lunch and my sister said, “That’s what hills do, they block the view.  Why in the world would they need a sign to alert drivers?”

And, that started me thinking about why, indeed, you would need a sign at this location to state the obvious.

Perhaps the sign was present specifically because the hill didn’t appear to be dangerous. I wondered how many drivers, without a reminder to use caution, went flying over the hill only to experience a disastrous encounter with a piece of slow-moving farm equipment or stopped school bus or other unexpected obstacle.

Each of us encounters hills that block our view of the future. It is not unusual to encounter similar challenges over and over — they may not appear especially difficult or dangerous or out of the ordinary, but at that moment they are all we can see.  And because they block our view of what could be, we accept them as permanent and insurmountable. In reality, however, if we keep going, they become temporary obstacles which dissolve away as we continue our climb toward the summit.

Don’t become discouraged. Don’t stop. The hill in front of you, the one that is blocking your view, is not meant to be your future.

If you keep going, you’ll be able to see your future from the top of the hill. I guarantee the view will be worth the effort!

It’s the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance and sweeps away all obstacles [Claude M. Bristol].

Whatever you are, be a good one!

Deanna

Image by Bruce Stoddard, for Getty Images

“The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the U.N. and what it means clearly. Everything will be all right — you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction, and see it as a drawing they made themselves.”

~ Dag Hammarskjöld

–
October 24 is United Nations Day.
Dag Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat and author and was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations

This past Friday night, I went to see “Bright Star” with my mom.  It was one of those films that stuck with me a day later, as I thought about the tragic life of a young poet who left this earth far too soon.  At twenty-five John Keats died of Tuberculosis, a common disease for the time period.  Still in twenty-five years of life, he lived more and loved more than some people get to achieve in 90 years on this earth.  He understood the brevity of life and that each breath should be cherished incase it could be his last.

“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of imagination. What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth – whether it existed before or not.” -John Keats

It made me contemplate the quality of people’s lives.  Whether they live 20 or 80 years, I think individuals actions and values in their life determines how much they have “lived”.  When you look at life in a Positive Prospective Perspective, ignoring all the “what if” negatives and follow the “why not” positives, you will smile more, breathe easier and realize that life is meant to be absorbed through events, challenges and taking risks.  Too often we concern ourselves with what the “cons” of a situation are, and that often leads to us not taking the risk or the leap- how boring(!) You can’t make guarantees on what “will” happen because it is out of your hands.   Fate, destiny, a persons “unavoidable future” is a debated topic.  On one hand people claim that you choose your life, because making certain decisions results in an outcome.  Others, on the other hand, release all control and say that whatever is meant to be, will be.   I agree with both.   I see my life as a timeline; getting from point A to point B.  However, those are more of positive intentions rather than controlling ones.  I believe there are different paths and events that we take in order to get to point B- so where I am going is my decision, and I will do everything in my power to keep toward that goal.  In that sense I am controlling my own destiny  by taking action.  How I get there, how long it takes, the minute details, I will leave up to the universe.  Because in the end, after asking yourself “Why did this happen” a million times, a pivotal life changing incident occurs and you sit back, smiling to yourself, “Oh, now I see”.

“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.” -
Dag Hammarskjold

“Bless your uneasiness as a sign that there is still life inside you” – Dag Hammarskjold

“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.”
– Dag Hammarskjöld

.

Bubbles

4″ x 6″ Watercolor

Playing with my new St. Petersburg set of Yarka watercolors. I got this idea from Leslie White’s blog, when she had a link to June Malone’s blog. I just love artists! June’s example was way more colorful and skilled, as was Leslie’s, but I still had fun and I got to try out my new colors.

About Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjöld, a Noble Peace Prize winner, was a diplomat who strengthened the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission. Born in Sweden in 1905, he followed his father’s footsteps into national government, where he coined the term “planned economy” before becoming a delegate to the U.N. and a two-time secretary-general. He negotiated the release of Americans captured by the Chinese in the Korean War, worked to resolve the Suez Canal crisis, and was on a mission to the Congo when his plane crashed in 1961, killing all aboard.

Two 4″ x 4″ Acrylics

Roosters

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only those who keep their eye fixed on the far horizon will find their right road” [Dag Hammarskjold].

You completed the research. You spoke with the experts. You designed the plan. You assumed the risk. You gathered your confidence and made your move.

Today you are facing in the direction of your dreams. You can see your destiny way out there, in the distance. It may appear to be a little speck on the horizon to others, but in your mind it glows bright with possibility.

You take one step. And then another. Each day you make progress.  At times, the progress is simply that you didn’t move backward. Other times there are small steps. Some days there are leaps and bounds. You cannot be deterred; you keep your eye on the prize because it glows bright with possibility.

Your family cheers you on.
You write about it in your journal.
You discuss it with friends over lunch.
You print it out in fancy script and frame it for your office.
You print encouragement on notes and scatter them throughout your life.
You are going to do THIS!

There will be days when the winds blow. The storm clouds gather. The journey becomes difficult. The bank account is small. The choices too many.  DON’T LOOK DOWN!

You can look down at the distractions or remain focused on where you want to go. You can stumble over the disappointments or continue confidently toward your future. The choice is yours.

When the frustrations mount, take time to recall the moment when you decided to do this. When the passion was fierce. The energy was high. Your gaze was focused on the goal . . . which was bright with possibility.

Encourage yourself. Don’t look down. Remain focused on the goal. You can do this!

“By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination” [Christopher Columbus].

What are you looking at?

Whatever you are, be a good one!

Deanna

“To be ’sociable’ – to talk merely because convention forbids silence, to rub against one another in order to create the illusion of intimacy and contact: what an example of la condition humaine. Exhausting, naturally, like any improper use of our spiritual resources. In miniature, one of the many ways in which mankind successfully acts as its own scourge–in the hell of spiritual death.”

- Dag Hammarskjöld; translated from Swedish by Leif Sjöberg & W.H. Auden.

Likewise, he also wrote poetry; or possibly merely arranged his thoughts through a rhythmic symbolism:

Too tired for company,
You seek a solitude
You are too tired to fill.

Seems to me that these both can (at times)  fit autism pretty well.

A few more that I like, from the book “Markings,” that I found on a free books giveaway table here at school a few weeks ago:

“To say Yes is never more difficult that when circumstances prevent you from rushing to the defense of someone whose purity of heart makes him defenseless before an attack.”

or

“Your position never gives you the right to command.   It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.”

I think that the spirit of this last quote should be drilled into the minds of all prospective and current teachers–K-12 AND University.

Här är jag med en av uppsalas kändaste personer.

Han heter Dag Hammarskjöld, eller “Daggan” som alla fjolliga statsvetare brukar säga.

Nunca mires abajo para evaluar el suelo antes de dar tu siguiente paso; sólo el que mantiene su ojo fijo en el horizonte lejano encontrará el camino correcto.

Dag Hammarskjold.

Porque si te mantienes enfocad@ en tu meta, da igual el suelo; no habrá nada que te impida llegar hasta ella.

¡Bonito día!

We all have within us a center of stillness surrounded by silence. ~ Dag Hammarskjold

“I don’t know who—or what—put the question: I don’t know when it was asked. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone—or something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal. From that moment I have known what it means “not to look back,” and to take no thought for tomorrow.”

It was as if I was in a bubble. A nice, comfortable, impenetrable (or so I thought) bubble, but then when I shifted position, I realized that it had burst and I was no longer in my comfort zone. This moment came to me as soon as I got off the plane. As I walked towards Baggage Claim, one of the airport attendants passed by and greeted me with a warm “Aloha!” Perhaps sensing from my disheveled appearance and tired eyes, that the flight had taken its toll on me and that his greeting was as close to a piece of lei as he could offer, welcoming me back home.

To many, starting over may seem like a crazy, irresponsible and unnecessary endeavor to undertake. But like many explorers who have gone before me, the thrill of a challenge was too tempting to turn down.

I’m not exactly sure when this new journey began. Whether it was the 10-hour airport stopover that tested my resilience or the long flights in between, I knew that as soon as I left familiar grounds, I would never be the same again.

While still in its uncertain stages, my future, like a novel still being written is a mix of moments, stories and experiences, strung together in sentences and paragraphs, forming an idea but nowhere near complete. Every day I am faced with new challenges. There are good days and bad ones; there are productive moments and idle times and there are always new and unfamiliar tasks to conquer.

I can’t say that I am winning all of my daily battles, but I’m pretty sure I have survived to face them another day.  Somehow I know that I am where I’m supposed to be, I just have to figure out what I’m here for.

But I remain hopeful. My past up to now has been about growing up. And while the direction towards the future is still uncertain, I take with me all the roadmaps that I have acquired and say “Yes!” to stepping towards the direction of this new path.

“To be free, to be able to stand up and leave everything behind—without looking back.
To say “YES”
Yes to God, yes to fate, yes to yourself. This reality can wound the soul, but has the power to heal her.
You dare your YES—and experience a meaning. You repeat your YES—and all things acquire a meaning.
When everything has a meaning, how can you live anything but YES?

“–Night is drawing nigh…
For all that has been—Thanks!
For all that shall be—YES!”

*Quotation taken from Dag Hammarskjold’s “Markings”

Nog niet zo lang in de winkel!

Anselm Grun – Paulus,

ervaring als kern van het christelijk geloof.

De ondertitel is voor mij veelzeggend. Anselm Grun is naar aanleiding van alle publicaties over de ‘omstreden’ Paulus aan het mediteren geslagen naar aanleiding van zijn geschriften. Zo kwam hij uit bij de ervaringen van Paulus achter zijn ‘theologie’. Wat betekenen die ervaringen van Paulus nu voor ons? De waarde van de ervaring in het christelijk geloof kan moeilijk overschat worden. Niet dat het geloofsvertrouwen daar continue door gevoed wordt, maar wel als bron voor de getuigenissen uit de bijbel en ons dagelijkse geloofspraktijk. Hierbij bedoel ik niet ervaring als gevoel, maar ervaring in de zin van alles wat we horen, zien (lezen), ruiken en voelen en de sporen van God die we daarin tegenkomen.

Kick Bras – Mystiek dagboek

Kick Bras is specialist op het gebied van de christelijke mystiek. Hij heeft ook al in het blad BODEM een artikel geschreven over ‘lectio divina’. Nu heeft hij een dagboek samengesteld met teksten uit de brede christelijke traditie. Namen die we tegenkomen zijn: Thomas Merton, Etty Hillesum, Augustinus, Simone Weil, Johannes van het Kruis, Franciscus van Assisi, Jan Luyken, Ignatius van Loyola, Meister Eckhart, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dag Hammarskjold en teksten uit ‘de wolk van niet-weten. Een inspirerend boek voor elke dag.

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   2 Corinthians 5:20-21

In his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul effectively calls on Christians throughout the ages to be “ambassadors for Christ,” embodying God’s perennial appeal to all. What better time than the first day of this season of Lent to remember and act on Paul’s plea, reaching out to others and inviting reconciliation to God and acceptance of the salvation that Christ offers each of us?

But what does it mean to be an ambassador? How should we be “ambassadors for Christ?”

The dictionary defines an ambassador as “a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative” or as “an authorized messenger or representative.” However, in his book From Literal to Literary – The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors (Rising Star Press, 2005), James Rowe Adams suggests that our modern view of an ambassador as “a powerful person, one with proven political connections, who can threaten and intimidate as well as negotiate in the international arena,” does not reflect what Paul had in mind. Instead, Adams argues that ambassadors in the ancient world often were not only defenseless, but also could be sacrificed. He quotes Martyn Percy, author of Power and the Church (Cassell, 1998), on this point:

Typically, a community or person sent an ambassador in circumstances of weakness, dependence or vulnerability. Ambassadors were often dispensable people, who in many cases had to extol a brief that simultaneously made them expendable and integral. Essentially, ambassadors were supplicants ─ even though often they were people of high standing in the communities from which they came. . . Paul’s choice of the metaphor of ambassador precisely illustrates his understanding of his power ─ and weakness ─ as an apostle of Christ. . . It illustrates that at its heart, his task was to appeal, to supplicate, to beg, and to entreat.

Adams further notes that tsiyr, or hinge, the root for one of the Hebrew words translated as ambassador, also reflects this weakness and vulnerability. “A hinge can be forced to turn, so hinge became a metaphor not only for an ambassador or envoy, but also for pain.” According to Adams, the other Hebrew word translated as ambassador is malak, which usually appears in English as messenger or angel.

Turning to Greek, Adams notes that the word for ambassador in the early Christian letters is presbeuo, actually a verb meaning to act as an elder or to be a representative. “The verb presbeuo has the same root as presbyteros, which is variously translated as presbyter, elder, or priest,” Adams states. “In its original meaning, presbyteros identified an older person who was worthy of respect, but it came to be a title for a member of a governing council in Judaism and in the church. The two meanings ─ an older person and a person of high standing in a community ─ suggest that an ambassador was both a person of authority and one who was expendable. A sensible community would not want to choose as their envoy to a powerful adversary an able-bodied young person, who might be imprisoned or killed. An old man, no matter how wise, was always dispensable. Paul…presumably used the term presbeuo to emphasize the weakness of [this] position.”

Sergio Vierira De Mello

As present-day, would-be ambassadors for Christ, we have examples of individuals whose lives and works reflect both the ancient and the modern interpretations of this role. Dag Hammarskjöld, the Swedish envoy who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until his death in a plane crash in the Congo in September 1961, offers one model, and Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian United Nations emissary for 34 years who was serving as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Iraq when he was killed in the Canal Hotel bombing in August 2003, provides another. Both men were diplomats of the highest rank, intelligent and persuasive. Both strove to achieve reconciliation, but understood their vulnerabilities and suffered and died in pursuit of a more peaceful world. These men ultimately may have been expendable, but their desire and drive for peace were not.

As ambassadors for Christ, we must appeal, supplicate, beg, and entreat others to be reconciled to God, our sovereign who bids us serve as messengers of God’s grace. In doing so, we must be willing to risk being vulnerable and dispensable.

Dear Lord, thank you for the Christ whom you made be sin who knew no sin, so that in Christ we might become your righteousness for others.

Edith Holmes Snyder

Images in this post are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Brazil License

Just had my first experience with blog regret.

I was lying in bed, trying in vain to go to sleep and it occurred to me that I wasn’t happy with some of the things I had posted here in the Garden.  So I got out of bed and deleted them. 

It’s not that they were incorrect, it’s that they were ugly. 

I remember a quote from Dag Hammarskjold’s Markings, it went like this, “He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.”

words to live by here in the Full Sun Garden.

I own two copies of Dag Hammarskjöld’s book Markings. The first one I purchased a decade ago at a used book sale (a well-spent fifty cents). I really enjoy Dag’s mixture of poetry, prose, and thoughts. Here are two excerpts that I particularly like:

“We carry our nemesis within us: yesterday’s self-admiration is the legitimate father of today’s feeling of guilt.”

And the second:

Beauty: a note that set the heartstrings quivering as it flew by; the shimmer of the blood beneath a skin translucent in the sunlight.

Beauty: the wind which refreshed the traveler, not the stifling heat in dark adits where beggars grubbed for gold.

“Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top.  Then you will see how low it was.”  Thus wrote Dag Hammarskjöld, a Swedish diplomat who died on this date, September 18th, 47 years ago (Wikipedia bio). He served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, heavily shaping the office and according to many, including Kofi Annan, he is the greatest person to have held the post; John F. Kennedy praised him as “the greatest statesman of our century” and he remains the only person to win the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously, having been nominated prior to his death.

U.N. Secretary-General and Christian mystic Dag Hammarskjöld at his desk

Hammarskjöld died in 1961 while on a mission to negotiate a cease-fire between warring factions in the Congo and his plane crashed. Unfortunately, conspiracy theories have grown up surrounding this event, but it appears likely to have been nothing more than an unfortunate accident.

A Christian mystic in the tradition of Thomas à Kempis, Hammarskjöld is remembered now not just for his diplomatic accomplishments but for a thin volume of writings that he contributed to throughout his life which was published posthumously under the title Markings.  I find the book remarkable, and would describe it as a cross between the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and Thoreau’s Walden.  Like the former, it was not intended for publication but merely to collect his thoughts for his own purposes.  Here are a few excerpts.

From 1955:

Sun and stillness. Looking down through the jade-green water, you see the monsters of the deep playing on the reef.  Is this a reason to be afraid?  Do you feel safer when scudding waves hide what lies beneath the surface?

On Christmas Eve, 1956:

Your own efforts “did not bring it to pass,” only God–but rejoice if God found a use for your efforts in His work.  Rejoice if you feel that whast you did was “necessary,” but remember, even so, that you were simply the instrument by means of which He added one tiny grain to the Universe He has created for His own purposes.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has placed Hammarskjöld on their calendar of saints, recognizing him annually on this date as a “renewer of society,” a designation he shares with Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Florence Nightingale, among others.  He is in very good company.

As a young man he penned the following poem:

Tomorrow we shall meet,
Death and I–
And he shall thrust his sword
Into one who is wide awake.

But in the meantime how grievous the memory
Of hours frittered away.

Hammarskjöld’s tomorrow did not come for decades after that, but ours may come at any time.  May Death not find us frittering away the hours.