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Tag Archives: success

Christmas Anyone?

04 Thursday Apr 2019

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do my best, Meg Wheatley, perseverance, success, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I have a Christmas cactus that doesn’t seem concerned about the rules. It never blooms anywhere near Christmas. I woke up one day recently and noticed that there was an incipient bloom leaning against and propped up by one of the longer branches of the plant. There was no place for it to go as it was connected to a three-sectioned stem close to the dirt that fills the pot. (I’m hoping a picture will clarify this unhelpful description.) I had no expectation that this flower would be able to bloom as it was not free to bow and unfold in space. I pictured it as a stillborn child that would die as it lived – tightly closed in upon itself. (Those of you who are familiar with Christmas cactus know that their flowers usually bounce at the ends of each branch in increasing beauty during their lifespan.)

This morning as I was seeking help from Meg Wheatley in her book, Perseverance, I looked up and saw the first unfolding of my sweet flower! I was reading about success at the time and had just stopped to consider the following thought: “Can you accept as a measure of success that you kept showing up, day after day, even when you weren’t feeling helpful or effective?”

I don’t know what tomorrow will be like for me or the flower but I do know that, for today, her measure of success has motivated me to show up and do my best in whatever comes my way.

Try This!

15 Friday Feb 2019

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Brian Johnson, mantra, Optimize, success, Teddy Roosevelt, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Sometimes on Fridays I like to take stock of what the week has held of events and accomplishments (or lack thereof). This week I feel as if all I’ve done is answer emails and telephone messages, trying to catch up with myself and hoping each day for more “success.”

This morning I smiled as I read one of the various websites that just appears on my screen each day without any invitation from me. I have just begun to read it occasionally rather than automatically deleting it. It is written by Brian Johnson and is called “Optimize.” Today I didn’t even have to click on his topic to get the message, which he says comes from Teddy Roosevelt, because it appears in big, bold letters – all CAPS and says: DO WHAT YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU HAVE WHERE YOU ARE. 

Sounds like a mantra for the day to me! Thanks, Brian, wherever you are!

Imagine!

21 Sunday Oct 2018

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A Deep Breath of Life, abilities, Alan Cohen, awareness, creativity, enlightened, healing, I am the way, Imagine, Jesus, joy, life, love, seeking, striving, success, support, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth, trying

aimagineHome again this morning in my own space, I first did what is my usual Sunday morning task: checking my calendar for the week to make sure nothing creeps up on me for which I’m not prepared. I was reminded that there is some creative work to be done and that is a good thing for my spirit. That task done but still in waking mode, I turned to Alan Cohen to find the perfect message for this morning. Perhaps you will find it to be so as well.

Imagine that all of your trying, seeking, and striving has been completed. Imagine that you have within you all the awareness and tools you need to live a life of joy, creativity, success and love. Imagine that you don’t have to pass any more tests or prove anything to anyone. Imagine that you don’t have to earn the love or favor of God. Imagine that you have the abilities and credentials to offer healing and support to others. These imaginings are much closer to the truth than imaginings that you are broken, wounded or needy. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” If you recognize who you are, you can make this statement with equal authority. 

Practice being enlightened. It is the truth about you.  (Alan Cohen – A Deep Breath of Life)

Life and Death

23 Wednesday May 2018

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death, die, divine, failure, foibles, God's embrace, humility, letting go, psalm 49, regret, success, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wealth, willingness

aletgosoilPsalm 49 speaks loudly of the reality that “you can’t take it with you.” No matter our success or wealth, wise people die, the psalm says, “and likewise the senseless and the stupid pass away leaving to others their wealth.”

No matter how I tried to ignore talking about death at the beginning of the day, I kept coming back to it, remembering an often repeated concept of our wisdom work that recommends learning to “die before you die.” What might that mean exactly? For most of us there are events or circumstances in our lives that we would rather forget for our poor handling of the situation or the pain we have caused, but blotting them out without learning the lessons they teach merits us nothing. Owning up to our foibles, expressing our regret, making restitution if necessary and then letting go is a “death to self” that opens up the possibility of a deeper way of living. Not beating ourselves up for mistakes but having the humility to acknowledge that full and true humanity is a skill learned as much through failure as through success seems the only sensible way to live.

If we practice letting go each day of our faults and the perceived failings of others, we will be ready to let go of everything about this human realm to which we have been clinging, be it wealth or prestige or relationship or even the lovely simple things of life. The reward of this willingness, we trust, is a letting go into the divine life that awaits us where we fall effortlessly into God’s embrace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s In Your Bowl?

12 Monday Mar 2018

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, consciousness, enlightenment, fear, guilt, happiness, health, light, spiritual tradition, success, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unworthiness, wisdom

abowloflightIt seems that the theme of light is meant to continue here for at least one more day. In Alan Cohen’s book, A Deep Breath of Life, just the title for this morning’s daily reflection got me curious. “Rocks or Light?” it asked. He was talking about the Hawaiian spiritual tradition that every child born into this world is like a “bowl of light” containing the radiance of heaven. The theory is that if rocks – like fear, guilt and unworthiness – are placed into the bowl, the original brilliance is obscured. The more rocks in the bowl, the less light we shine. Cohen’s comments are very similar to yesterday’s Scripture readings. (I love it when serendipity like this happens to support my conclusions!) Here’s a little of what Cohen offers.

The game of enlightenment is not about going out and getting something we do not have or becoming something we are not. We are already enlightened; we have simply covered over our wisdom. We started out fine; then we got de-fined; now we must be re-fined.

Health, happiness and success are our birthright and we carry all we need within us to manifest all the good we seek. But first we must remove everything from our consciousness that works against the full expression of what we are.

What rocks are in your bowl?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking Together

12 Monday Feb 2018

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brothers, doggedness, faith, James, joy, Meg Wheatley, perseverance, persistence, sisters, steadfastness, success, tenacity, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

awelcomemorningThe beginning of the Letter of James says this today:

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (JAS 1:1-2)

These are days when it seems that our perseverance is being tested in many ways. Meg Wheatley, who wrote a book of that title, speaks of a persevering person as “one who sees through to the end,” or “one who does not yield.” It includes notions of maintaining our activity in spite of difficulties and is synonymous with tenacity, steadfastness, persistence, doggedness…My favorite notion in Wheatley’s introductory remarks is this: In Chinese, the character for perseverance is often the same as the need for patience.

On a mundane level – which is where most of us live all the time – I see perseverance as simply putting one foot in front of the other to “keep on keeping on.” But here is the key to success, I think. We cannot do it alone. Regardless of how strong we think we are or how capable of achieving success on our own, we need each other in order to survive. Once we conquer resistance to that reality, we are at least half-way there.

 

 

 

 

 

Epiphany Today

07 Sunday Jan 2018

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Christ, compassion, epiphany, essential meaning, experience, insight, intuitive, occurrence, perception, recognition, Revelation, success, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universal love

aepiphanyI just read my post from yesterday to refresh my memory of what I said or didn’t say about Epiphany. As it happens, I think that post turned out to be a bit of an example of the meaning of the word. As celebrated in Christianity, the Epiphany is the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles represented by the Magi: a moment of great revelation. In a modern dictionary definition it is seen as “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”

I was talking yesterday about the possibility of overcoming fear through simple, commonplace practices of eating, walking and talking to a friend. It isn’t the practices themselves, however, that overcome the fear. It is rather our recognition of our ability to achieve success in those things that gives us new confidence in facing what frightens or stops us.

It is all well and good for us to celebrate the revelation of Jesus to the larger world 2000 years ago but that revelation is only “activated” in our day if something related to the event is triggered in our lives. If we consider the most important lessons we have learned from the life of Christ, which I believe to be universal love and compassion, it would seem that our job is to manifest the reality of those lessons in our daily lives.

What does love of neighbor mean in 2018? How are we able to practice compassion when we see a need – either spiritual or physical? It takes keeping our hearts open and, yes, “eating our vegetables” to push us beyond our limits – one step at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Margin of Greatness

16 Friday Jun 2017

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, effort, faith formation, hope, kindness, lights, lights in the world, patience, Philippians, shine, simple practices, St. Paul, success, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

ajeterThe verse before the gospel today was encouraging. From Paul’s letter to the Philippians, it urges us to shine like lights in the world as you hold on to the word of life. (2:15D, 16A) Thinking about my day yesterday with a group of parish faith formation leaders, some of whom who are wrapping up a challenging year in their churches, I was happy to reflect on their willingness to live in the reality of their experiences while still fanning the flame of hope in their hearts. The day was not an intensive, content-heavy experience but rather offered them some simple practices for everyday life that also included a brief nature walk and some poetry. The important element, as I saw it, was simply their presence together in community with no expectations except the support of one another. It was clear to me that they are, indeed, “lights in the world.”

I found the same spirit in Alan Cohen’s thought for June 16th in his book, A Deep Breath of Life. He was talking about baseball and how a batting average of .250 was a good predictor of a solid career if the player was also a decent fielder. In contrast, a player with a .300 batting average is a star. He pointed out that the difference between these two was one hit out of 20 times at bat. His reflection on that “margin of greatness” was the following.

Sometimes just a little effort is all we need to put us over the edge to huge success. In your career, family, or spiritual path try to stretch beyond your perceived limits. A little extra patience with a customer could make her a lifetime client and bring you her friends’ business. A seminar participant told me that she signed up for an intensive workshop simply because I had responded to a letter she had written me. An extra kind touch, one more deep breath, or a willingness to listen could make the difference between a modest salary and a million-dollar contract, or a life of mere survival and a glorious adventure.

I doubt that any of the people sitting in front of me yesterday will ever be a multi-millionaire, but I have a hunch that, in the end, they all have a good chance of looking back on their lives as a blessing – and maybe even a great and glorious adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telling the Truth, Honestly

13 Friday Jan 2017

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, divine teacher, failure, gained, God, history lesson, lessons, meditation, psalm 78, self-esteem, success, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unconditional love, wandering, wisdom

afailureI was in a conversation last evening about the difficulty of being honest if one is dependent on others for self-esteem. There are other reasons why people lie, of course – perhaps especially in business these days – but even in our everyday lives the challenge is to avoid linking our worth to success or failure in the eyes of others or even ourselves. As I write this, my thoughts come round to the conclusion that our image of God needs to be taken into consideration here. If the God I believe in is the God of unconditional love, I ought to be able to be honest about both my successes and failures before God and, in that assurance, not be so timid about speaking the truth in all situations.

Psalm 78 is one of the longest psalms. It is, according to one commentator, the retelling of the epic journey of Israel, both an interior and an exterior experience of wandering. It is the reflection of someone who wants to see clearly the realities, and who laments the mistakes of the past…He or she does not glorify the past (as most epic stories do), but tells it in stark detail, failure after failure…It is perhaps true that this is wisdom literature precisely because it refuses to do what other literature does: glorify the past and gloss over the failures in which lie the deepest lessons of wisdom. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, p.199)

The first eight verses of the psalm tell of the purpose of recounting what is to come in the rest of the “history lesson” and it is these verses that appear in the lectionary today. I think it bears repeating.

Listen carefully, my people, pay close attention, all who belong to me. For I am about to speak as teacher, explaining the mysteries of old. I will teach you using parables drawn from ancient times. I will teach you many lessons you must know. And what you learn and come to hear, speak it to your children, so generations yet unborn will know God’s works and ways, how God taught ancient Jacob and Israel knowledge of the law; how it became a pathway, a teaching meant for all. It passed as holy wisdom to the people as yet unborn so as they lived their trust would grow upon the paths of God, and not rebel or learn so slow, as their ancestors before them.

The commentator asks questions for meditation which stood out to me as directive for today. 1. Where have you experienced the divine teacher in the midst of both success and failure? 2. What have you learned specifically from failure and sin, or disobedience to the best that you knew? AND What have you gained from mistakes made in ignorance?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living in the Now

22 Thursday Sep 2016

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celebration, failure, light, limit of our days, live, moment, now, present, psalm 90, success, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time, wisdom of heart

astarAs I read today’s lectionary texts, I am struck once again with the necessity of living every moment to the fullest without grasping at the past or the future – which I no longer have or do not yet have (and maybe never will, who knows?). This is not a new theme but as I write I am hearing in my head some lines of a song by Greg Greenway, a wonderful musician and poet. The refrain goes like this: This is the light I carry. Tonight is a celebration. Have no complaints, sinners and saints, under the bright constellations…The hymnal’s wide open at the Church of What Is; let’s sing!

One of my alternative psalm translations says this: (Please pardon the repetition, if repetition there is): Time for you is as nothing, Lord, a thousand years of it, your yesterday, passing as a watch of the night. We are your dream, we’re briefly here and then simply gone, like grass. In the morning green and growing, at sunset we are withered, dry. So teach us now the limit of our days, that we may give our hearts to wisdom’s voice. And turn a gracious face toward us, for we are here on earth to serve. So may this grace, this graciousness be ours, and rest upon us now and evermore we pray. Amen. (Ps. 90)

The familiar (to me) translation of one of those lines says, “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain wisdom of heart.” Although I note the great similarity of the two translations of that sentence, I’m tempted to jump on the word “limit” in the first one as something different from the obvious meaning, i.e. the “number” as in the traditional sentence. What if the limit we are supposed to learn is what can be accomplished in a day, which shifts as we age. Can we learn to accept our days as we live them with the level of “success” or “failure” without needing to even apply those words to anything? Can we be awake to the wisdom, the lesson in each passing moment, so that without lamenting our limitations we live as we were meant to – in the graciousness with which we were created, which is the way that I believe and hope God is attending to us? Let us pray for this grace today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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