Birds Walking Around

I saw a compelling bumper sticker a few weeks ago: "When birds can't fly, they walk." That got me to thinking about how we're all designed to fly in our own way, but we often limit ourselves to walking instead of flying. Let's face it, flying is dangerous. You can fall and hurt yourself. The fear of the potential pain keeps most of us earthbound. But flying also enables you to travel much farther than walking and see things from a perspective not possible from the ground. It also calls others to flight.

I have often taken pot shots at those "birds" I see soaring near me. How dare they fly around me, taunting me? Can't they see my wings have been clipped, that I'm not able to fly like they do? But it's easy to bring down those who are soaring. It's much more challenging to continue to care for my wounds and work on the healing I need to do in order to get to a state where flying is the most natural thing in the world. This is a state where walking seems silly. This is a state of mind that says to me, "Why wouldn't you just spread your wings and take flight? So what if you fall and get hurt? You'll be able to rise, heal, and try again."

I'm trying desperately to listen to and heed that voice. I pray it will grow stronger as my wings continue to heal and work themselves back and forth, priming themselves for that first (or next) big flight. And I pray that voice grows within you as well.

"Your Life Is Your Life" Quote from Taming Your Gremlin

This quote was so inspiring to me that I copied it and pasted it to my wall. Please let me know if you resonate with it as well or if it brings up questions or thoughts for you. Peace!

"One way or another we all at some point get hit in the face by a blast of wind, open our eyes, and see that we are not only on the bow of a colossal sailboat on an open sea, but that we’re the captain of the damned thing. Once you glimpse this fact of life, you have some choices. You can squeeze your eyes shut and make believe that you don’t have to take the wheel, you can run around flapping your arms and yelling “Somebody take the wheel, somebody take the wheel,” or you can take the wheel and learn to handle it.
If you settle down and trust the wind instead of fearing it, you’ll eventually become pretty good at sailing. You will find that while you don’t know what’s around the next cape, and while you may at times work up a soaking sweat trying to stay afloat in a nasty storm, all in all you can have a fine time sailing where you want to and occasionally you can drop anchor and bask in the sun. The breeze is always blowing, at least a bit, so keep your sails unfurled.
What you do with your life is up to you. It’s not up to your mom, your dad, your spouse, your pals, your coach, or your therapist. It’s all up to you. Just underneath the fear of being in command of your life is outrageous excitement about being in command of it. Best of all is the freedom – the freedom to lead your life your way, testing the waters on your won, getting your very own battle scars, and relishing your own rewards. You may hook up with a sidekick or two in this sea of life, but even those relationships will work best if each of you has a clear sense of ownership of your own life."

An Easter Psalm

You restore me and refresh me, my God.
You call me out of the grave, restoring my soul,
Blowing your breath into me,
Calling me back to life and vibrance.
All the world around me is vibrating with
Your love.

When I quiet the fears and doubts churning
Inside me, when I let them go,
I begin to hum harmonically with those notes.
I participate in the eternal song of praise
And worship that all of creation is singing to You.

Who am I that You would sing your song
Through me?
Who am I that You would come into this
World and do your work through me?
I am unworthy, limited, small, and broken.
Sometimes I think you have the wrong guy.

But then the dawn breaks, your sun shines forth.
And all is new.
And I am new.
And you are real. And here. And alive!

Praise be to the GOD of heaven and earth!
All creation sings together, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
Amen. Alleluia!

Seeds and Stems

I was cleaning some grapes the other day and found myself complaining silently about the stems. “If only it weren’t for these stupid stems, this process would be much easier,” I said to myself. Then I thought, “It’s a good thing these are seedless grapes, because I hate seeds.” But wait, what about that? Where do they get the next generation of seedless grapes, anyway? But I digress.
I then realized that without the stems, there would be nothing attaching the grapes to the vine, so they wouldn’t be able to receive their nutrients. This holds true in life. No stems = no fruit. Likewise, without seeds, there would be no new growth or fruit in life. I don’t have to look far in my life to discover many “stems” - things that may not be very tasty but connect me to Life, and “seeds” - things that don’t bear fruit in my life in and of themselves, but with time, patience, and nurturing will grow into something much larger than themselves and bear fruit of their own. These aspects of life aren’t merely things to tolerate, they are necessary for life to be here in the first place. I’m learning to be thankful for these elements, both literal and figurative, recognizing that even these seemingly meaningless aspects of life still have a purpose in the big picture (of which I can only see a small corner). Engaging them with this attitude transforms my posture from one of defiance and resistance to an open, embracing one. It enables me to remain in a state of gratitude even while a seed gets stuck between my proverbial teeth.

Still Healing

I had surgery to fix a deviated septum in December. The surgery went quite well, but it takes at least eight weeks to feel the full benefits of the procedure. I wanted to be sure I had patience with the process, so I put a reminder on my calendar so it would remind me, "Patience - still healing", twice a week. It really helped me remember to keep my expectations in check and not expect too much, too quickly.
Since then, that thought, "Patience - still healing", has come to mind when I find myself getting twisted up about something in my life being imperfect or just not the way I want it at the moment. There are so many areas which are still healing in my life. And, God willing, I'll continue to heal and grow so eventually the things that bother me today won't be such a big deal. I imagine there will be a whole new layer of challenges to overcome at that time. But I'm beginning to understand that the cycle of being stretched outside of my comfort zone, growing in the ways I'm being called to grow, and being stretched again is all part of the process of life. Without this process, it's easy to fall in to atrophy. Sure, it's painful, but the pain is directly proportional to my investment in my old ways of being or relating to the world. And the gifts that I receive when I embrace this process are way beyond my imagination.
So the next time you find yourself railing against any situation, just tell yourself, "Patience - still healing".

Giving Up

We are programmed to never give up in this culture. "Keep striving, keep trying, don't give up!" is a common mantra. This is usually a good thing, since it's all too easy to short-change ourselves when we meet with obstacles of any time. However, the problem with this cultural habit is it makes it more difficult to give up things when it's time to let them go. We grasp on to things that are slipping through our fingers. If our circumstances are wresting control from us, it's likely that God has something greater in mind for us. But as long as we continue to grasp on desperately to the last vestiges of control, we make it impossible for God to fill up our arms with these blessings. So what if we took a different view of giving up? What if we saw giving up something that needs to go as an offering to God?

My friend Devon (www.divinecoach.com) defines surrender as "moving over to the winning side". Now that's a revolutionary view of giving up! With Lent approaching, maybe it's time to examine our lives (yes, me too) and ask, "What am I being called to give up today?".

All Cylinders vs. Fifth Gear

I often use the term “hitting on all cylinders” to describe my ideal state of energy output. By this I mean I want to be fully engaged, not “missing out” on any potential value that I can add to the situations that I’m engaged in due to my “misfiring” on any front. I want to bring my A game as consistently and as often as I am able, regardless of the externals of any given situation.

I recently had sinus surgery to correct a deviated septum, and it threw me off this intention for a bit and prevented me from being as engaged as I usually am, and that was frustrating for a while. That is, until I thought more about this metaphor. I realized that just because an engine is working properly doesn’t mean that it’s running at full speed all the time. In fact, if you run an engine full-out for very long, it will break down. Everything (natural and man-made) needs the opportunity to recover from exertion or it won’t be able to perform for very long, and that includes humans. So I’m learning to give myself grace when there’s something about me or my situation that prevents me from running at full speed. Instead, I add the value I am able to add in the moment and try not to get hung up on whether what I’m adding is “enough”. All you can do is all you can do, and sometimes that’s not very much.

Conversely, being aware of which “gear” I’m in keeps me aware of my energy output and accountable for adding the value I’m able to add. If I’m only in second or third gear and there’s no external reason why, I can examine what’s going on inside of myself and stop any energy drains, which mostly appear as getting tied up in imagining the future or recollecting the past. It helps me to show up fully here, now instead of time travelling in my mind. Again, grace is a key element in this process, since judgment and condemnation never helped anyone accomplish anything.

Here’s to a year of full engagement, regardless of what gear you’re running in today.