Sept 3 2009, Saturday

When the work of earning a living, raising a family, maintaining health and fitness, managing relationships start to overwhelm us, it’s good to think about how small our part in the universe really is. While we quietly obsess over our work, God quietly does His – He keeps the earth rotating, planets revolving, seasons changing.. every night, He changes the pattern of night lights in the sky. Without lifting a finger, we get to enjoy sunrises and sunsets. Every year, the seasons change on schedule.

At times, life can be difficult, often painful and for now, imperfect. But despite all, nothing can separate us from God’s lavish expressions of love.

God’s grace is immeasurable; His mercy iexhaustible; His peace inexpressible.

“neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:39

Tune Him In, Turn Him On: Using Intuition to Find and Keep the Man of Your Dreams

By Servet Hasan

Published December 1, 2009 (Paperback) Llewellyn Worldwide

My son said yesterday, “Mom, you’re a witch.” Calmly.  With love in his voice, so I knew he didn’t mean the Margaret Hamilton kind.  I protested.  “You are,” he said, “You’re the most pure person I know, and when you’re really yourself, amazing things happen.”

So why do I need a book to remind me to use what’s God-given?  Tune Him In, Turn Him On arrived today, on time, as do most of the books I need and want most.  Servet Hasan says in her book that she comes from a long line of psychics, and that we all have this intuitive ability.  We just have to respect it — and listen to it!  Yeah. But.  I’ve spent a lifetime ignoring the magic I hear and see and feel — when it comes to the men who enter my romantic life.

Servet Hasan tells how to go out of body, into the body of the man we’re interested in — and sense him out.  Ask questions, and receive answers.  Respectfully.  She says he won’t know, but I have done this kind of thing before, and the guy nearly always calls me at that moment.  A bit spooky. If you have questions about a relationship, get quiet, and ask in your head — staying open to perceive the answers.  Trust your intuition. Another variation – reach out through your third eye and enter his heart chakra to sense his spirit.

Burn that past baggage, and monitor your thoughts.  If you’re hearing “nobody is going to want me,” you are to replace that thought immediately with something like “I naturally attract loving relationships into my life.”  Yay!  Doesn’t that feel awesome already.  Relationships, she says, have to be on all three levels – physical, spiritual and psychological.  She also says, like my friend Marianne Comaroto, to love yourself enough to marry yourself.

Servet is  happy to kick your butt if you’re hanging onto the wrong guy or nagging a guy.  She emphatically tells you to use your intuition to sense what is truly going on.  What a liberating stance.

As I read the book, my older son stopped by, saying he was headed out.  I noticed the Red Bull.  I stopped, and “read” him, and picked up that his ego was in command, and that his body didn’t really want that high level of caffeine.  So I told him.  He brushed it off, took off with his Red Bull, and I just got a text that said, “You were right.”

He’ll be okay.  So will I – now that I know I can use my intuition on men.

Sept 3 2009, Thursday

While Paul was traveling as a prisoner, bound for trial before Caesar, he wrote: “I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear” – Phil. 1:12-14

Even when our journey through this life is marked by confinement and limitations, we can find comfort that the Lord will encourage others through us as we speak His Word and trust in Him.

The journeys that we take in life
Though unexpected they may be
If we commit to follow Christ
His work through us the world will see. -Sper

For the Christian, what looks like a detour may actually be a new road to blessing.

L. D. Turner

People are often confused about whether or not one’s vision is from God or whether it is just something generated from within themselves or some other source. This is an important question, but the answers to solve the issue are not all that complicated. Basically, with rigorous honesty examine the vision with the following criteria in mind.

First of all, a genuine God-given vision is something for which you are going to feel a great deal of passion. We all have things that we are interested in, things that capture our attention of a time, and even things that excite us. But a God-inspired vision is different. A God-given vision is something you are super-charged about pursuing and makes you want to get out of bed in the morning. A God-inspired vision may even keep you up at night.

In addition, a vision from God is energizing. It gives you the power and the persistence to God the extra mile, even when things are going the way you expected. In short, a vision from God does not crumble at the first sign of trouble. Instead, when our vision is from God, we continually look for solutions to whatever difficulties may arise. We are able to tap into our resources of creativity and “out-of-the-box” thinking. If our vision is from God, passion and energy are not hard to find.

This doesn’t mean we won’t get tired. On the contrary, we may find ourselves exhausted from time to time, but this tiredness is a positive sense of exhaustion that comes from consistently and persistently applying ourselves to the pursuit of godly goals. In fact, if our vision is truly from God we may have to learn ways to slow ourselves down, relax, and conserve our resources.

Another issue involved in evaluating the source of vision is the Kingdom of God. Is this vision in some direct way involved in helping establish God’s kingdom here on earth? If it is, then chances are it is a God-inspired vision. Inherent in this question is another question: Does this vision help others, inspire others, and in some way build others up? In essence, we also ask: Is this vision unselfish? If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, you can generally assume that your vision is from God.

These are just a few of the initial principles you can use in evaluating a particular vision. There are, of course, other principles that may or may not be involved. For example, we can normally expect to meet with at least a modicum of resistance to pursuing our vision and sometimes this resistance comes from unexpected quarters. For example, our family may find our call to vision not to their liking.

This is where things can get tricky.

I recall, for example, an old friend of mine who we will call Stan. The oldest of five children, Stan had four sisters and an ailing father. Stan’s family was, by local standards, fairly well off. Stan’s great-grandfather had bought several thousand acres of prime farm land way back in the 19^th Century. As the city began to grow, especially in the 1970’s, this farm land was the envy of developers far and wide. Stan’s grandfather sold much of the land, made a fortune, and invested wisely. The result was that Stan’s father was a millionaire many times over and owned a highly successful commercial real estate business that was also doing quite well.

It was a given that Stan, the oldest and the only male child, would some day take over the business and look after the family fortune. Stan attended the finest private boys’ school in the state and was accepted into Colgate University, a fine Ivy League institution. Everything was running smoothly until Stan’s junior year.

An Episcopalian since birth, Stan’s religious upbringing was at best window dressing. The family attended church fairly regularly and gave plenty of money to their local parish. Stan’s father, in fact, served for years on the church vestry.

In college, Stan did not attend church and had pretty much relegated his relationship with God to the back burner. He believed in God and tried to live a decent life and, with the exception of an occasional bender after a football game, avoided the life of a typical drunken college student. He had a Bible in his off campus apartment, but had never unpacked it since moving out of the dorm in his sophomore year at Colgate.

 Driving home at the conclusion of the fall semester, Stan car began making strange noises and eventually stalled right in the middle of small town in rural Virginia. It was around noon on Saturday and the only mechanic in town told Stan he might as well find a motel, because it would be Monday before he could get the needed parts to fix Stan’s car.

Stan settled in at one of two local motels, phone home to say he would be home on Tuesday, and flipped on the television. Nothing interested Stan so he decided to take a stroll. Just down the street from the motel was a church, which for some odd reason, was packed out on a Saturday night. The parking lot was full to overflowing and people were still arriving. A young couple, walking toward the building from their car, greeted Stan and he asked what was happening. The couple told Stan that this was the closing night of a week long revival and they invited Stan to join them. Figuring he had nothing better to do, Stan decided to take them up on their invitation.

Stan had never been to a revival before and nothing could have prepared him for what he had walked into. Not only was this a revival, it was a Pentecostal revival, complete with loud praise music, jumping, yelling, and most bizarre, tongue speaking.

Fast forward to the end of the school year when Stan returned home to inform his parents that he wouldn’t be returning to Colgate for his senior year and instead, would be transferring to some small Bible College in Missouri, where he would enter seminary and become a preacher in the Assemblies of God denomination.

Stan’s mother literally passed out and his father went absolutely berserk. After much prayer Stan was still convinced that the vision he had was indeed from God and, although he met much resistance from every member of his family, he followed through with his plans and his ministry has blessed many people over the years, including his mother and two sisters who became active members of the same denomination as Stan.

The opposite can also be true. There are times when someone feels a genuine call from God to pursue a particular course of action, when in fact, the call may not be genuine. Janice, an old and dear friend, felt that God was calling her to go the mission field in China. She asked that she be placed on one of the LifeBrook China teams and planned to initially go to western China for a two-year stint as a nurse.

I had a few reservations about the “call” that Janice felt and discussed those with her. She was open to what I had to say, but said she was convinced that this was what God wanted her to do. I told her we had a medical team leaving for a short trip, three months, and why not try that on for size first.

My concerns stemmed from the fact that Janice had a two-year-old Downs Syndrome son and if she left for the mission field, it would leave the full burden of caring for this child, not to mention their other two kids, on Hank, her husband. I just felt it odd that God would call her away when all of this was going on at home.

As it turned out, Janice went with the three-month mission, but returned at the end of the first month. She found life in China too rough and harsh, and was not able to make the necessary sacrifices that such a calling requires. It was a tough lesson, but she grew a great deal from it.

In most cases, a calling to a vision, if it comes from God, will always involve compassion. It will also most often involve some degree of sacrifice on your part and it will sometimes also necessitate sacrifice from those who are close to you. However, I don’t think a genuine vision from God is going to put your loved ones in harms way.

As I said earlier, in evaluating whether or not a particular vision is from God a key principle involves whether or not the vision creates a vital sense of passion in your life. If the dream you are entertaining brings you to life and gets your engine running at maximum efficiency, then there is a good chance that vision has a divine origin.

 I clearly recall when I began to explore the possibility of going to the mission field in China I felt not only a great excitement, but the passion I felt for this calling gave me a renewed sense of purpose, direction, and usefulness. I had just come through a major health crisis, and the thought of going to China was not even on my radar screen. But it was on God’s screen and once I discovered it and got on board, my life once again moved forward with great passion.

 Dr. Myles Munroe speaks clearly about the connection between passion, purpose, and vision:

Most people have an interest in their destinies, but they have no passion or drive to fulfill them. They don’t really believe the dreams God has put in their hearts. If they do believe them, they don’t do the things that will take them in the direction of fulfilling them. Yet that is what separates the people who make an impact in the world and those who just exist on the planet……Finding something you can put your whole self into will fill your life with new hope and purpose…..When you discover you vision, it will give you energy and passion. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” The vision in your heart is the spark that will enable you to pursue your dream because, unless you do so with all your enthusiasm and strength, it will not happen. I believe this Scripture expresses a truth that most people miss: You accomplish only what you fight for. Again, if you are merely interested in your dream, it will never come to pass. However, if you are willing to put all your energy into it, then nobody can stop it from succeeding.

In closing, let me also add that it is vital that when you are evaluating the source of a particular dream or vision, don’t press yourself too hard and try to proceed with unnecessary haste. If you want to truly succeed at your life’s calling, you have to consecrate your entire being to that calling. Half-measures will avail you nothing. When you commit yourself to the Master, you commit your total being. The same principle holds true when you commit yourself to his calling on your life. So, please, take your time and thoroughly evaluate your situation.

Trust that if this calling is from God, he will let you know it without equivocation.

© L. D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved

My volunteer responsibilities in New Orleans ended around 4 p.m. each day, giving me enough time to tour some of the area’s less popular attractions. For me, they are places where I’ve been able to place my personal mark on the recovering city. However slow that recovery might be.  

My final two days in town, I decided to leave the colorful, vibrant French Quarter for the Musician’s Village, the neighborhood in the Upper Ninth Ward where Hurricane Katrina’s impact is still felt. Pastel-colored homes, built by Habitat for Humanity crew and volunteers, dot the neighborhood. I turned onto Law Street, where two of the houses I had a hand in constructing proudly stood next to vacant lots and dilapidated homes. I got out of my car and stood in front of the houses for a few minutes, admiring the craftsmanship of the front porches and railings I pieced together a year ago. Peering down the street and noticing how much more work needed to be done, I knew my few accomplishments weren’t much, but it was a start. I wanted so badly to knock on the door and see who was now living in these teal-colored homes, but I didn’t. I suppressed my inquisitive nature and just stood there–imagining what horror the residents might have experienced when the storm hit and how they have pieced their lives back together. If I hoped to bring a sense of normalcy back to New Orleans, that meant not placing the residents under a microscope and letting them get back to their daily routine. (I’ve learned that as of this October, Habitat has built more than 350 homes in the New Orleans metro area and more than 46 are still under construction.) I hopped back in my car and moved on.

Crossing the bridge to the Lower Ninth Ward, certain sections of the neighborhood were abuzz with construction. Brad Pitt’s baby–the Make It Right Project–was placing its mark on the area through an array of houses that define convention. Their awkward, yet eye-catching, green designs made a statement. A sense of civilization was returning to to the area, even though many of the old roads look more like green fields than a former neighborhood.  I must have counted more than a dozen of these homes–quite more than the three or four I saw last year.

Step outside of the touristy areas, and you’ll see  a side of the Big Easy that continues to struggle. But as life continues to teach me, hope can transform any tragedy into something beautiful. 

THE ETERNAL OPTIMIST

A good guy on the web by the name of Vincent Wright asked this question.  I call questions like this “trick questions” because there is no definitive answer.  Here’s my answer:

Optimism is often intentional.  Deciding to see the glass half full is a choice.  Sometimes optimism is accidental.  Even a pure pessimist can surprise him or herself when they seek “help” in difficult or dark times.  Seeking any kind of help indicates hope.  Hope is an optimistic response.  Optimism can be imposed on one by optimistic people who are trying to “help you see the light”.  An imposed view can support feeling better for a while, but it will not last unless the imposed mindset gets turned into the supposed mindset.  Optimism can only be denied by you.  It can never by denied by God.  God denies nothing that is good.  Can you choose to be optimistic?  Your only power in any given moment or situation is your power to choose.

Vincent, I am supposed to be organizing my office and paying bills thanks for this distraction.

Vincent Wright asked this question.

I call questions like this “trick questions” because there is no definitive answer.  Here’s my answer:

Optimism is often intentional.  Deciding to see the glass half full is a choice.  Sometimes optimism is accidental.  Even a pure pessimist can surprise him or herself when they seek “help” in difficult or dark times.  Seeking any kind of help indicates hope.  Hope is an optimistic response.  Optimism can be imposed on one by optimistic people who are trying to “help you see the light”.  An imposed view can support feeling better for a while, but it will not last unless the imposed mindset gets turned into the supposed mindset.  Optimism can only be denied by you.  It can never by denied by God.  God denies nothing that is good.  Can you choose to be optimistic?  Your only power in any given moment or situation is your power to choose.

I am supposed to be organizing my office and paying bills thanks for this distraction.

I tend to be an optimist. I’ve had some pretty shitty things happen to me in my life, and sometimes I’ve found myself in a tight corner, but on the whole, things have tended to work out. Not always the way I’d planned or expected, but nevertheless I find myself some weeks or months later in a different place. Hard to say if that’s the cause or effect of my optimism.

Nonetheless, I take it for granted that things, on the whole, improve. I take it for granted that there’s a way out, a solution of some sort, even if it’s not the one I envisage at the time.

And this, strangely enough, is a useful tool for my work in developing software. We programmers tend to be an obsessive bunch. We like to have it all worked out before we do the next bit. My personal demon is that once I’ve thought of an optimisation, I physically can’t implement any new features until I’ve gone back and refactored everything. It’s like deciding halfway through laying the tiles in your bathroom that actually, yes, underfloor heating would be a much more elegant solution, and ripping out all the tiles, jack-hammering up the concrete, laying that underfloor heating, then re-pouring all the concrete, re-laying the tiles and then, only then, even thinking about looking in the Philippe Starck catalogue.

Ha – that just reminded me of a friend of mine who bought a kitchen and they forgot to sell him any drawers. For the cutlery. Not pants.

Anyway, yes – taking things for granted. At various times I’ve had the joy of running teams of developers, and without exception they have been delightful, intelligent, curious and engaging people. However it must be said that they share a tendency to obsess about problems for which they do not yet personally have a solution.

An example: I remember working with a very smart chap who had the job of implementing an application, part of which involved a serial control protocol for a piece of video equipment. He was convinced that the protocol prohibited the sending of instructions to the VTR which would cause it to pre-roll with frame accuracy. I became aware of this conviction when, after three weeks, none of the rest of the application had been started. His conviction had caused him to lose faith in the final goal, and he had been largely procrastinating because, like, what’s the point of building the rest of the app if it’s doomed to failure anyway, right?

I said to him that surely we could take it for granted the protocol did in fact allow for this feature because we could observe VTRs prerolling with frame accuracy under this same serial protocol by the VTR operators in our own video facility every day?

He blinked. Then he went back to his desk and solved the problem that afternoon.

Now this chap was smart, like I say. He was a great programmer, but he was lousy at the big picture. Not an uncommon description when it comes to developers, and I include myself. The solution, I strongly suggest, is just to take more for granted. Look around, see what other people are doing. If it looks like a solved problem, take it for granted that you, too, will solve it.

It’s very easy for obsessive people to go down a rabbit hole, and good developers are by nature obsessive. Sometimes, you just need to back the truck up, park it, and move on to something else.

And inevitably that something else will be far more important to your users.

New beginnings and getting going

I’m shifting gear a little with projects. Some tasks are moving to the perfunctory box ~ get them done and get them done fast.  And I have new tasks that aren’t hard but they aren’t habits yet.  I could easily founder simply because I haven’t done them often enough to slide into them without thinking.

Getting over dithering

As I dithered, just a little, in the normal way we do when we settle to something big, I came across a post that I wrote about Inpowr, the Montreal based web2.0 platform where you rate areas of  your life and set goals.

A digital reminder

Inpowr has some good looking interfaces.  Moreover, it pings you every day at your chosen (Montreal) time and reminds you to review your goals.  That makes it great.  To develop some good habits, it helps to have someone to nudge you!

Choose between your positive and negative versions of events

A tip though: Inpowr will ask you to rate your achievement of each goal on a 1-5 scale.  Don’t just rate and move along.  Expand the task a little. Describe how the day went.  Rate 1 and answer the question.  Change your rating to 3 and answer your question.  And then change your rating to 5 and answer the question again.

Answering all three questions helps you to see your negative and positive thinking and choose between them.  Which is most useful to you?  The negative or the positive version?

Privacy

Oh, and do watch the privacy settings.  It is possible to make your goal setting open to the world.  Maybe you would prefer your exercise to be private.  Check your settings!

21 days on Inpower

Inpowr runs on 21 day cycles.  What can you accomplish by Christmas?

Grateful Heart Mandala

We are now beyond the eating (overeating?), the football games, the parades, the time with family and friends, and the stress of the Thanksgiving holiday. Does this also mark the end of the period of public displays of gratitude?

Yesterday, people in my apartment building, at the gym, and on the street greeted each other with a “Happy Thanksgiving!” I wished my taxi driver the same as I paid and thanked him for the ride.

I spent a few hours on Thanksgiving day with friends and friends of friends. We laughed, learned new things about each other, and ate delicious food that we all had a hand in preparing. There were endless compliments about the meal, and lots of hugs and well-wishes as we went our separate ways at the end of the evening.

Late last night I browsed Facebook and read many status updates filled with expressions of thankfulness. Beautiful stuff.

So now what? Do we go back to our ‘ordinary’ lives and wait until the next holiday to reflect on what has made our lives happy and harmonious?

“Every day, and in endless ways, you can show how grateful you are for all that is in your life.

Smile. Tell someone you love them. Offer a helping hand. Say ‘thank you’ in times when you might not. Give an unexpected gift to someone. Sit silently and give thanks to all of the people and events that have shaped your life. Honor Nature. Pat yourself on the back and tell yourself how amazing you are.

When you do those things you increase the peace and prosperity that exists inside and all around you. That is good news!” – At One + JM

How do you express gratitude? Do you give thanks only for the good stuff? Can you be grateful for the not-so- good stuff and honor the lessons that came from that?

Amen.

** A note about the mandala at the top of this post: The “Grateful Heart Mandala” was created by Vikki Reed at the web site Chakra Mandalas. Vikki kindly granted me permission to use her beautiful image after I found it on her web site, chakramandalas.net. She says, “the Grateful Heart Mandala intends to fill your heart, remind you of the lovely gifts you are constantly receiving, inspire you to always freely express your gratitude, and allow yourself to fully participate in the dance of your life, giving and receiving with an ever Grateful Heart.”

Today I am grateful for an abundance of good food, friends and family, Vikki at www.chakramandalas.net (please visit her web site for more beautiful mandalas that speak to the heart and soul), my cat, long naps on the couch, the McBurney YMCA, Enterprise Rental Cars, the MTA, NJ Transit, SEPTA, my Blackberry, my laptop, my book agent and editor.

Thanks and peace to all!

Joe

“Our thoughts are what makes us.” I saw this quote in our office with a big mountain on the background of the quote, which in my opinion signifies great thoughts and dreams.

I’m a natural born negative thinker, and it’s ironic that I’m writing this now as this article should refer to somewhat positive thinking. My teenage years passed by without me realizing that I’m really a pessimist and depression without any reason always visit me. This really is a pain in the ass and have really bad effect on our body. Small happenings will drain a lot of energy because you’ll be worried on the results by making you think and think of negative things that might happen in the future which could be the result of your decision, also known as anxiety.

In my family, my mother is also somewhat a negative thinker and worry a lot of times. I think she’s the most dedicated person to our church, in our family. She also has heard lots of sermons and preachings about these thoughts, anxiety and worrying, but still she can’t apply it in our daily lives properly. Small ‘not-so-good’ happening or event, makes her become anxious and worry too much.

I always wanted to change that character of ours. Today, I’m still not a full-blown optimist, but I’m starting to get there, and I knew I’ll get there someday. Lots of factors have helped me, but the 2 main factors are as follows:

• I’ve read the verse Matthew 6:34, which is stated below.
• I’ve read a part of a very good article by Yogi Gupta which can be seen through this link http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/gupta2.htm

Our thoughts indeed is what makes us who we are now, and what we can do and achieve. By forming series of ‘healthy’ and positive thoughts, and erasing negative things in our mind, it will bring a boost of positive energy in our lives and makes us healthier each day. I knew and have proven this, because I’ve been there and did my best getting out of it. With the help of the Lord and using the article to change a part of myself, I feel like I’m a better person each day. A worry-free life indeed is a great life.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matthew 6:34

You must realize that your fulfillment in life is dependent on your becoming and doing what you were born to be and do. Anything less makes life your enemy and death your friend. It is essential, vital, crucial, and necessary that you understand this fundamental principle of purpose and pursue it with all your heart. For without purpose, life has no heart. Remember, those who don’t know where they are going will probably end up someplace else.

Dr. Myles Munroe

(from The Pursuit of Purpose)

Supporters of the 350 campaign gather at the pyramids in Giza, Egypt, during the Oct. 24 International Day of Action. Churches will ring bells 350 times on Dec. 13 as a call to action to the United Nations Climate Change Conference. A UMNS Photo courtesy of 350.org.

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*
Nov. 24, 2009

As world leaders grapple with the issue of global warming in December, churches will be ringing their bells to remind them of the need for action.

At 3 p.m. local time on Dec. 13—about halfway through the Dec. 7-18 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen—churches and other religious groups will sound bells, drums, gongs or other instruments 350 times to symbolize the 350 parts per million that mark what many scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“We envisage a chain of chimes and prayers stretching in a time-line from the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific—where the day first begins and where the effects of climate change are already felt today—to northern Europe and across the globe,” says the World Council of Church Web site promoting the event.

In Denmark, the ringing bells will signal the end of a high profile ecumenical celebration at the Lutheran Cathedral in Copenhagen, the Church of Our Lady, which will be attended by United Methodists and members of other faith groups.

In recent weeks, it has become clear that the original expectation for the Copenhagen Summit—that 192 nations will agree to a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocols—will not be met. One of the barriers, according to The New York Times, was the inability of Congress to set binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases in the United States.

‘Guarded optimism’

But John Hill, who works on public advocacy issues for the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, believes there might be an even better opportunity for the religious community to help shape the debate on global warming. “I think there is some guarded optimism that a fairly strong framework can be established at Copenhagen,” he said.

Hill will be representing Church and Society in Copenhagen, along with Liberato Bautista, who is in charge of the board’s United Nations office, and Meghan Roth, a young adult board member from Richmond, Va.

Harriett Olson, chief executive of the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, addresses the Nov. 5 Climate Witness near the U.S. Capitol in Washington. A UMNS photo by Lesley Crosson, Church World Service. .

“The disappointment is that there will not be a treaty,” said Bautista. Still, he added, “I think governments are quite aware of how important a climate change agreement is.”

Tyler Edgar, who is going to Copenhagen on behalf of the National Council of Churches’ Eco-Justice Program, said the faith community is “working hard” to promote a strong U.S. position there.

“Our hope is to send a clear message that climate change is a moral issue that demands a strong and effective response—a response that ensures justice for all of God’s children and will protect God’s Creation for future generations,” she declared.

Among the other United Methodists headed to the summit are the Rev. John McCullough, executive director of Church World Service, and the Rev. Pat Watkins, a church and community worker who leads the “Green Church Initiative” of the denomination’s Virginia Annual (regional) Conference. He will be representing United Methodist Women and the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

When God created the earth, Watkins pointed out, there were no greenhouse gas emissions, and as a Christian he wants to advocate for better care of God’s planet.

“We’ll push for the developed countries to be financially responsible for some of the problems that climate change is causing in some of the developing countries, particularly the African countries,” he said.

Others on the Women’s Division delegation are Tupou S. Kelemeni, a director from Honolulu; Pamela Sparr, consultant on its Countdown to Copenhagen campaign, and Esmeralda Brown, staff executive.

Making a witness

Faith leaders have been calling attention to climate change as a justice issue. During an ecumenical “climate witness” Nov. 5 near the U.S. Capitol, church leaders spoke on the lawn, visited senators and delivered postcards urging support of climate change legislation. Harriett Olson, top executive of the Women’s Division, noted that climate change has a huge impact on women and children. “Women are the highest percentage of the poor and women and children are among the most vulnerable in any vulnerable population,” she said.

We invite you to join the dialogue. Share your comments.

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Church leaders outside the United States are just as concerned about climate change. In an Oct. 17 letter, “A Call for the Care of Creation,” the All Africa Conference of Churches pointed to the famine, flooding, shrinking of rivers and lakes, and depletion of tropical rain forests and declared that Africa, “like no other continent, bears the brunt of these negative effects of climate change.”

In response, the organization, which is participating in the Copenhagen Summit, has sponsored several consultations on climate change in Africa and named a program coordinator for climate change and care for creation last January.

Its representatives were among the nearly 200 faith and secular leaders attending a Nov. 2-4 conference at Windsor Castle in England, organized by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation and the United Nations Development Program.

Ecumenical News International reported that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told conference participants “the world’s great faith communities occupy a unique position in the discussion on the fate of our planet and the accelerating impacts of climate change.”

Advocating for change

Whether faith communities can capitalize on that position remains a question.

A report from the Nov. 15-20 World Council of Churches U.N. Advocacy Week quoted United Methodist Lois Dauway as saying that churches and the ecumenical community have the theological wherewithal to dismantle global injustice but not the will.

Lois Dauway gives the keynote address during the World Council of Churches U.N. Advocacy Week in New York. A UMNS photo by Mark Beach, WCC.

Dauway, a member of the council’s Central Committee and executive with the Board of Global Ministries, challenged participants during her keynote address to pool resources and “turn the world upside down in the name of Jesus.”

At the very least, they can ring those church bells 350 times on Dec. 13. It’s already happened once, on Oct. 24, the International Day of Climate Action.

United Methodist Bill McKibben is the co-founder of 350.org, the group behind the bellringing campaign. A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College in Vermont, he is the author of “The End of Nature,” the first book for a general audience on climate change, which was published 20 years ago.

In a video message this fall to United Methodist Women, McKibben stressed the need to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. He said that Copenhagen represents the best chance to move quickly.

“It’s time to take seriously this greatest challenge, not only to the integrity of creation but to the thread of social justice around the world,” he said.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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De contemplat pe muzica asta – Pink Martini, Lullaby…

A few (‘bloggable’) things I am thankful for in 2009:

- This was my 5th year working for a big multinational software company, and it was the best one so far. This is a place that truly has changed my view of things. I continue to learn and challenge my limits every single day. I never thought I would meet so many amazingly smart people.

- Not bailing out on the stock market: Most of my investments got close to 50% returns since the end of 2008.

- America’s freedom: We moved yet again to a new city in 2009 and my family and I have never been happier.

- The US and its resiliency: For all the gloom and doom pushed by the media daily, the undeniable truth is that after 2 years in what is considered by some a cataclysmic recession, this is a country where everything continues to function and 90% of its active population is still working and generating wealth. Including me.

One of my amusements during the holiday season is people-watching.  Particularly in situations where crowds, lines and captive children are the norm, amusement is easy to find.

During a Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving swing through a local grocery, I landed behind a child and his mother in the checkout line.  The boy might have been three or four, and he was fussy.  Hanging on to his mother’s skirt, he circled around and around until he found safety, tucked between her and the cart.  Turning to look past us to the vibrant displays of merchandise across the aisle, he pointed to something, tugging on her skirt to gain attention.  Busy sorting through her purse, his mother ignored him – a mistake she would come to regret.

The boy began tugging with both hands, demanding her attention as “fussy” transformed itself into ”cantankerous”. Finally pushed over the edge by parental insensitivity, he began to wail with rage and frustration.  He was tired. He wanted to go home. He especially didn’t want to be waiting in line while his mother sorted through coupons and double checked lists. As his outraged protest grew louder and more high-pitched, his obviously embarassed and distraught mother tried her best to reason with her monosyllabic son.

“Do you want to ride in the cart?” she asked.   No, he did not want to ride in the cart.  “Do you want to look at your book?”   No, he did not.  “Do you want me to spank you?”  “No”.  “Do you want to go to your room when we get home?”  ”No.”

In desperation, his mother looked at the overflowing grocery cart and asked, “Do you want a cookie?”   “NO!’, he shouted.  Obviously startled by an unexpected response, his mother asked again, “Are you sure you don’t want a cookie?”  “NO!!!”  Suddenly, his mom stopped. Looking at her boy she asked, “Do you know what I just asked you?”   “NOOOO!!!” came the reply, as he re-buried his face into her skirt.

Funny as the little drama was for those of us who were watching, uncomfortable and embarassing as it obviously was for his mother, what made it most astonishing was the intensity of the child’s “No”.  Caught up in the sheer, perverse pleasure of negativity, his ”No” had become more important to him than even a cookie.

Unfortunately, the instinctive response of a child can become the habit of an adult.  Looking around, it isn’t hard to find the nay-sayers among us.  Petulant, obnoxious, pessimistic and filled with cynicism, their entire raison d‘être appears to be shouting “NO!” into the face of life.  Offered the hand of friendship, the challenges of collegiality, the possibility of intimacy, their response is to cling ever more tightly to their rejection of every overture, every gesture of conciliation.

Tiresome and exhausting in personal relationships, negativity becomes corrosive and even toxic on a social level.  When whole groups begin saying “no” to one another, more than feelings get hurt. Society becomes segmented. Fear begins to erode acceptance. Selfishness appears, together with its unhappy twin, power-hunger.  From urban alleyways to the halls of Congress, from boardrooms to lecture halls, we increasingly are confronted by the spectacle of enraged, petulant children shouting “No” – albeit with the unhappy addition of adult strength and power.  These “Nos” can kill, or reshape lives without regard for consequence.

Knowing all this, and understanding full well the power of negativity to erode, consume and destroy, I prefer the folly of optimism – a willingness to believe, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary, that humanity at heart is good, that joy is possible,  and that no matter how broken, trust can be rebuilt. To paraphrase Faulkner’s famous words, I chose  to believe humanity not only will endure the shouts of “no” we call history, but that it will prevail over that history by the “yes” of courageous human hearts.

Is such optimism naive?  Has faith in humanity become outdated?  Have the cruelty, ridicule and small-mindedness of the schoolyard made dignity, perseverance and grace irrelevant?  Faced with such questions, it becomes my turn to speak a “no”, to affirm human decency and the possibility of grace and to align myself once again with a poet of my roots.  Let the naysayers of the world rant on. Carl Sandburg knows the people, and he knows the people’s ‘Yes”. 

The people yes
The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
    They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
    The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
    You can’t laugh off their capacity to take it…

The people so often sleepy, weary, enigmatic,
is a vast huddle with many units saying:
    “I earn my living.
    I make enough to get by
    and it takes all my time.
    If I had more time
    I could do more for myself
    and maybe for others.
    I could read and study
    and talk things over
    and find out about things.
    It takes time.
    I wish I had the time.”…

Between the finite limitations of the five senses
and the endless yearnings of man for the beyond
the people hold to the humdrum bidding of work and food
while reaching out when it comes their way
for lights beyond the prison of the five senses,
for keepsakes lasting beyond any hunger or death.
    This reaching is alive.
The panderers and liars have violated and smutted it.
    Yet this reaching is alive yet
    for lights and keepsakes.

    The people know the salt of the sea
    and the strength of the winds
    lashing the corners of the earth.
    The people take the earth
    as a tomb of rest and a cradle of hope.
    Who else speaks for the Family of Man?
    They are in tune and step
    with constellations of universal law.
    The people is a polychrome,
    a spectrum and a prism
    held in a moving monolith,
    a console organ of changing themes,
    a clavilux of color poems
    wherein the sea offers fog
    and the fog moves off in rain
    and the labrador sunset shortens
    to a nocturne of clear stars
    serene over the shot spray
    of northern lights.

    The steel mill sky is alive.
    The fire breaks white and zigzag
    shot on a gun-metal gloaming.
    Man is a long time coming.
    Man will yet win.
    Brother may yet line up with brother:

This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers.
    There are men who can’t be bought.
    The fireborn are at home in fire.
    The stars make no noise,
    You can’t hinder the wind from blowing.
    Time is a great teacher.
    Who can live without hope?

In the darkness with a great bundle of grief
    the people march.
In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for keeps, the people
march:
    “Where to? what next?” 

Comments are welcome.  To leave a comment or respond, please click below.

K9N6ECV2E5TY

Aseara s-a lansat sub forma unui proiect surpriza, la Galeriile ArtMark, colaborarea intre Gusto si marele caricaturist Stefan Popa Popa`s, care continua ideea de promovare a optimismului popularizata si in cadrul conferintei Optimism 2009. Astfel, au fost dezvelite mai multe caricaturi avand protagonista mascota brandului si care vor putea fi admirate si pe ambalajul pufuletilor. Mi s-a parut interesant ca organizatorii s-au gandit sa alature un produs ieftin unei atmosfere elegante, alaturi de sampanie,pe muzica lui Marius Mihalache  si intr-o asemenea locatie.Toti cei prezenti au putut sa simta pe propria piele cum e sa fii transpus  live pe hartie  de catre caricaturistul cu cea mai rapida mana din lume. Ma mandresc ca “am intrat in istorie” , asa cum zicea maestrul insusi, alaturi de un numar impresionant de personalitati din intreaga lume .

By Jen

No character is perfect, and no actor can be either.  A need for perfection might be a strong character choice or motivation, but no one is perfect.  It is an impossibility.

In her autobiography, “Lessons in Becoming Myself,” Ellen Burstyn tells the story of an exercise she did in class with Lee Strasberg, in which she created the image of a cup of coffee in her mind.  She carefully constructed the cup in her imagination until she could see and feel the dimensions, and feel the weight of the drink in her hand.  As she worked, Strasberg called on her and asked if she rode horses.

As she attempted to keep her concentration on her imaginary cup of coffee, they discussed her knowledge of horses, until he said, “You don’t have to ride that cup.”  With her perfect cup still in her hand, he asked her, “What would happen if you made a mistake? … Go on, make a mistake!”

“And that began my new life,” Burstyn shared.  “Lee told me that the first step was the willingness to make a mistake, to suffer the humiliation of daring to risk, to grow.  I just had no idea how terrified I was not to be perfect.”

For many actors, struggling and unyielding faith are just part of “paying your dues,” in the hopes of one day meeting success — but having that ambition and optimism is not enough if you have fallen out of love with what you do.  Demanding so much of yourself — to put forth the perfect image, to dress correctly, to deliver your lines in a certain way, to be a part of the right crowd, to project the best image to the public — is futile if you are empty inside and striving for perfection.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says,

“And now I will show you the most excellent way.  If I speak in the tongues* of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames† but have not love, I gain nothing.”

One of Stella Adler’s mantras was “agitate from your essence.”

What you feel, what you give of yourself, and what you bring to the stage must come from within you.  It must be motivated deep inside so that you can give every bit of yourself to your character.

In other words, do not be a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal — a hollow attention-grabber spouting lines emphatically to an audience or striding perfectly in front of a camera.  Giving 100 percent is not about the effort you put forth alone.  It is the total commitment of yourself to your character, and your ability to let go, step aside, humble yourself and let that character drive you.

Dare to make a mistake.  Dare to take a chance.  Dare to be in love with everything and give everything you have within you to the world.  Let go of the control, step out of the way, and just be.

*languages

†early manuscripts say “body that I may boast”

No, this post is not about one of the John’s Travolta movie. Is more about how hard it is to stay alive on the business side of life, and how often the Murphy’s law seems to be the only law that actually is accurate, and that everything goes wrong when it will do the most harm possible.

With the actual economic downturn, sales are almost something of the past, and although I was thinking that it was more related with the incapacity of the company to sell new products or the generate new prototypes that could interest new buyers to acquire our products, but talking with other people in other industries and other countries, everything seems to be really flat and sales very low.

Without sales and incomes keeping a productive capacity able of producing content becomes very hard as you can keep for ever a structure with a high burn rate, without any kind of money flowing in. Tought measures needs to be taken, and then everything is a spiral of complexity and problems.

How to keep alive them? I wish I could know the answer, but from the mistakes and successes of my recent past, I would say the secret lies in :

i) Do your homeworks. Search constantly for new sources of financing (public or  private); Constantly work in new ideas, new projects and new lines of work

ii) Don´t take investment decisions based on expectations, but rather based on realities, until you don´t have an agreement on your table to be signed everything is virtual, and you may end with investments that you don´t need.

iii) Don´t tolerate inefficiency, failure or negative thoughts in the company. As soon as you are detecting any of those, act immediatly, or it will be a growing problem.

iv) Don´t loose motivation. Be an optimist, because in the end, even if you are not able to find a solution, you will be stronger and more experienced for the next time.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.
~ Melodie Beattie

Thanksgiving feels like a magical time.  No matter who we are, where we are, we come together and celebrate the things for which we are thankful.  And we really do have much to celebrate.   Alas, that we could carry this feeling of plenty through all our days!  The thing is, we can.  After the turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pies are zip locked and put away, we can make each day its own Thanksgiving.

How?  These are really tough times.  Being grateful doesn’t imply that everything in our lives is great.  However, being consciously aware of the blessings we have, appreciating what it is we do have, instead of what we don’t, can be a powerful energetic force, and ultimately, a source of joy in our lives.

Go on, open your heart.  Make each day its own Thanksgiving, and enjoy the prosperity in your own life.

Episcopal Church To-Do List:

Know the difference between Hope & Optimism

…embrace the former.

There’s been a Facebook challenge since November first to post every day something for which you are grateful.  To read everyone’s personal gratitude lists has given me a few epiphanies about my friends and their lives, offering me new perspectives.

Since reading these, I have begun to muse about the times I worked in a church during this season.

Christ the King Sunday arrives and the plug-and-play organist chooses all the kingly songs, a kingly anthem – maybe the kids sing a zippy “Ride On King Jesus”.  The program in the parish gurgles along in its peristaltic reflexive way – throw in a lot of crowns, kings, reigns, and we’ll be doing right by Jesus.

Then Thanksgiving gets into the mix. In my staff experience, this is a thorny hump in the middle of the week. There are digressions into gossip about the parish fellowship meal which morph into analyzing the history of the community ecumenical Thanksgiving service.  The “positive” aspect of these staff meetings is people imagine they’re focusing on fixing everything while complaining,  idealizing stuff that is always going to be problematic because people are problematic. It would be so much more effective – and spiritually mindful -  to just work together on offering a meal and a worship service. It doesn’t seem worth the energy to try to control who cooks what and who eats what and whether the organist at the Methodist Church is as good as the one at our church. Food, fellowship, music, and prayer.  It’s very simple.

This year, Advent 1 falls on the Sunday immediately after Thanksgiving.  Another staff moan fest  - numbers will be down because people are traveling.  The Sunday School teachers will be a week behind on teaching the kids about…what, exactly… Hope? Everyone will make their Advent wreaths a week later.  And one rector I worked with somehow thought this timing meant more work for her. What the what?

For the faithful who have left the church, we are observing the rise and fall of the spiritual tide, being mindful of the waves on the sand.  We observe the lectionary year prayerfully in our own ways.  We will be decorating for Advent, searching the links between Christ the King Sunday, Thanksgiving, and Advent 1 without waiting to be told what to do or how to do it.

It’s lonely. The faithful are homeless. We dare not go into a church to look for fellow travelers in hope because someone will slap a name tag and a “Smile!” sticker on our lapels.

Christ the King Sunday can be such a tough one to make relevant in the two-thousandies. One year when I was team teaching 6^th and 7^th grade Sunday School, I was alone with 15 hormonal tweens and teens on this last Sunday in the liturgical year.  Nothing made sense to me in the canned curriculum, which is always a start – unless our teachers, serious catechists, deacons, priests,  bishops, and communications officers, embrace a grounded faith in consort with a willingness to be upended by reality there can be no hope.  We must seek personal transformation, and then the transformation of those around us will happen.

I downloaded about 20 different images of Jesus, and brought in icons and other images I had at home: Jesus the teacher, Christ the king, Jesus the healer, Rasta Jesus, laughing or dancing Jesus, activist Jesus, suffering Jesus, Jesus eating.  Who do you say that I am? We passed the pictures around and talked about which one we related to most.  We talked about what Christ the King is like, questioning if this aspect of Christ was one we could invite into our daily lives.  We laughed when a girl remembered a boy named Jesus in her nursery school who was always hitting the other kids. “Jesus – go to the time-out chair!”

http://www.rejesus.co.uk/site/module/faces_of_jesus/

We never came up with a definitive Jesus for everyone.  It was an enormous gift for me because most of the middle schoolers related to laughing or dancing Jesus. Why? “He seems so free to be himself.”  Now, whenever I see a petulant middle schooler, chip on her shoulder, I remember that dream of those Sunday School kids:  to be free to be who God created them to be. I suspend all judgment and head straight for the conversation.  Had I imposed my own notion of what Christ the King meant, or asked the rector for advice I would never have received this ongoing gift.

A few weeks ago, I saw a montage of a lot of Hollywood moments where the slobs got their recognition.  It included things like rewards to the Wizard of Oz quartet and Han Solo and Chewbacca getting cheered by the crowd as they receive laurels from Princess Leia. This moment is inscribed in our hearts through popular culture time and again – from the justifiable humiliation of Lena Lamont when the curtain goes up to reveal who is really singing in Singing in the Rain, or when Jamal rises out of a pit of offal in Slumdog Millionaire.

This is an aspect of a Christ the King moment.  It’s not only that the Risen Christ rules – or reigns or whatever verb the hymnody spits out at us – it’s that the slobs beat the snobs.  Our King is one of us, we are all victors.

And here is where there’s another light on the road for me:  I can travel from Christ the King to Advent 1 in my own spiritual journey because Christ the King represents not royalty or the One who doth Reign, or golden crowns – but hope.  Jesus as wise, compassionate, deserving King is a core story of hope, the theme of the first week of Advent.

The tomb is empty. The cross is bare.  Are we there yet? Yes we are!

Hope is not optimism.  Hope is anchored in reality, and as a basic human yearning, rises up, infecting our actions so we strive through the pain, and the piles of crap around us don’t matter at all.  Optimism, however, likes to redecorate the crap.  A dead end is renamed a cul de sac.

The greater church is intensely engaged in optimism.  This trickles down, permeating every aspect of how we do business.  Check out whatever ENS has put in your in-box for the week and tell me it’s not optimism.  A Phoenix needs ashes to be a phoenix

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.  In short, I think that the deepest and most important form of hope the one that can keep us above water and urge us to do good works, and the only true source of the breathtaking dimension of the human spirit and its efforts is something that we get, as it were, from “elsewhere”.  It is also this hope, above all, which gives us strength to live and to continually try new things even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do here and now.

From the politics of hope by Vaclav Hamel

I wish us all hope on the journey, thanksgiving for hope, and pray for the church that it may find its way in understanding the reality around it – no matter how painful that may be.

Truly beautiful, collection of some of the humans I have admired most in the world and through history… my deep love of science is what led me to Buddhism. Share and enjoy!

Symphony of Science

      Acum câteva zile, alături de câțiva membri Al-Anon și AA, am hotărât să mergem la Roman, impulsionați de dorința de a da și noi un mic ajutor și de a pune în practică pasul 12.

      Am aflat cu bucurie că la Roman, 2 tineri încearcă să pună bazele unui grup Al-Anon și a unui grup AA, convinși fiind că sunt mulți oameni a căror viață s-ar putea schimba în bine dacă ar beneficia de instrumentele programului.

     Am luat cu noi materiale informative și drumul Iași – Roman l-am parcurs discutând tot despre viața codependenților și alcoolicilor, așa cum o înțelege fiecare dintre noi, după luni sau ani de participare la grup.

     La Roman ne-au întâmpinat cu emoție și căldură cei 5 proaspeți membri ai ambelor grupuri. După obișnuitele prezentări și amabilități am hotărât ca e mai bine să ne separăm și să discutăm problematica fiecărui grup în parte. Ca întotdeauna la întâlnirile noastre de grup, atunci când sunt membrii noi, seniorii aleg sa facă una-două mărturii în care povestesc pe scurt cum era viața lor înainte și cum s-a schimbat ea odată cu venirea la grup. Aici, noi cei de la Iași am făcut același lucru, insistând asupra schimbărilor pe care le-am produs asupra noastră, schimbări care ne-au readus liniștea sufletească, înțelegerea și seninătatea de care avem nevoie pentru a ne continua viața în condiții de normalitate.

     Nu era poate ceea ce noii membri își doreau să audă… fiecare dintre noi când a venit la grup era hotărât să caute soluții pentru a-l ajuta pe alcoolicul din viața lui, și aceeași atitudine am simțit-o și aici: “Nu cred ca eu am vreo problemă, el, alcoolicul e problema mea, el mă face să fiu tristă, nervoasă, irascibilă, mânioasă, din cauza lui am ajuns să nu mă mai recunosc”. Da, e posibil sa fie așa, dar asta s-a întâmplat și pentru că am permis noi să se întâmple…pentru că în final, fiecare este responsabil 100% de ceea ce simte, spune sau gândește. Apoi, odată ce am ajuns în acest punct al vieții noastre în care simțim că nu mai putem continua, e limpede că a venit vremea să ne concentrăm asupra noastră și să ne acordăm șansa de a trai și o altfel de viață, fără durere, fără încrâncenare.

     E timpul să renunțăm la tot ce am făcut până atunci (care nu numai că nu a funcționat, dar ne-a umplut de frustrări și disperare) și să încercăm ceva nou. Ceva nou, dar ce? Cine dintre noi, cei care am făcut aproape imposibilul pentru a ne fi și a le fi mai bine (alcoolicilor noștri), mai crede că mai există ceva care ne-ar putea ajuta să ne recăpătăm încrederea, optimismul, bucuria de a trai?!…

     Și totuși, venind la întâlnirile de grup, detașându-ne de alcoolic și de ce tot ce face sau nu face el, urmând pașii programului, citind literatura propusă de Al-Anon, concentrându-ne, poate pentru prima dată în viață doar asupra noastră, cei mai mulți dintre noi am reușit sa ne recâștigăm controlul asupra propriei persoane.

        Acesta a fost mesajul pe care am încercat să-l transmitem noilor membrii din grupul de la Roman și chiar dacă nu a fost chiar speranța pe care au așteptat-o, credem că le-am sădit măcar sămânța ce în timp va rodi în sufletele lor. La un moment dat, cineva cu lacrimi în ochi, ne-a spus că ceea ce îi transmitem noi o face să se descurajeze și mai tare și am înțeles foarte bine ce a vrut să spună, pentru că nimic din mesajul nostru nu făcea referire la alcoolic, nu oferea speranțe că el se va opri cumva din băut.

      Și în ochii aceia plini de lacrimi, în vocea tremurândă, am văzut o părticică din acel suflet îndurerat, un suflet cum era și al meu acum câteva luni, un suflet străpuns de mii de ace de gheață, gânduri, emoții, speranțe, trăiri, toate înghețate. Viața alături de un alcoolic ne face să ne înghețăm până și propriile emoții, pentru că nu mai avem timp de ele, toată ființa noastră se axează pe el, cel care bea și suferă, în același timp.

         În timp, toate cele ale noastre, pe care le înghețăm, ajung sa ne străpungă sufletul și să trăim cu o durere mereu vie și din ce în ce mai pătrunzătoare. Când învățăm, însă, să ne detașăm de o boală pe care nu noi am provocat-o și nu noi o vom vindeca, când începem să ne redescoperim pe noi, vom simți treptat cum acele ace de gheață se topesc, rănile se vindecă și sufletul nostru redevine cald și luminos.

        Am dorit însa să le transmitem noilor membri și faptul că prin tot ceea ce facem pentru noi, le oferim o speranță și celor apropiați, care sunt alcoolici: le transmitem mesajul că viața poate fi și altfel, că există o speranță ca ei să poată reveni la o viață normală, fără băutură, că noi cunoaștem oameni care au reușit, că există programe și suport pe care ei le pot accesa gratuit.

      Ne dorim ca grupul de la Roman să crească și să fie un sprijin pentru cei care își doresc să găsească izbăvire de orice formă de dependență și codependență.

Cu gânduri calde,

Romina

25 noiembrie 2009