The Feminine Has a Head Start by Richard Rohr

The Feminine Has a Head Start By: Richard Rohr Historically speaking, in most cultures the role of men has been to create, to make new things, to fix broken things, and to defend us from things that could hurt us. All these are wonderful and necessary roles for the preservation of the human race. However, most children saw their mothers in a different way. She was not a creator, a fixer, or a defender, but rather a transformer. Once a woman has carried her baby inside of her body for nine months, and brought it fourth through the pain of childbirth and into the world, she knows the mystery of transformation at a cellular level. She knows it intuitively; yet she usually cannot verbalize it, nor does she need to. She just holds it at a deeper level of consciousness. She knows something about mystery, about miracles, and about transformation that men will never know (which is why males have to be initiated!) Women who are not mothers often learn it by simply being in the community of women. The feminine body can be seen as a cauldron of transformation. Her body turns things into other things – her body turns an act of love into a perfect little child. Yet, in her heart, she knows she did not do it. All she had to do was to wait and eat well, to believe and to hope for nine months. This gives a woman a very special access to understanding spirituality as transformation – if she is able to listen to her own experience and her own body. Admittedly, not all women do.

What Man Can Be. by Bob Richards

The International Olympics Committee had accepted canoe racing for the first time. Bill Havens of Arlington Va, was a member of the Washington D.C., Canoe club, and his four-man team was going to Paris. But as the time drew nearer, it became clear that Bill's wife would have her baby while he was away. In those days there was no commercial flying back and forth across oceans. Bill hesitated. His wife implored him to go; but the more he thought, the more he felt his first responsibility was to be near her. He withdrew. The canoe team went to Paris without him, and news of their win arrived a week before Bill's son, Frank, was born. Bill Havens never mentioned his disappointment over missing out on the Olympics, and the years passed. Then came July, 1952. A cable arrived from Helsinki, Finland, where the Olympics were on: "Congratulations, Pop," the cable read, "I won. I'm bringing home the gold medal you lost while waiting for me to be born." That baby, Frank, who had been responsible for Bill's turning down the Olympics of 1924 had won the main event in singles canoeing.

Looking for your face by Rumi

Looking for your face – Rumi From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face, but today I have seen it. Today I have seen the charm, the beauty, the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for. Today I have found you, and those who laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry that they were not looking as I did. I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty, and wish to see you with a hundred eyes. My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty that I now behold. I am ashamed to call this love human, and afraid of God to call it divine. Your fragrant breath, like the morning breeze, has come to the stillness of the garden. You have breathed new life into me. I have become your sunshine, and also your shadow. My soul is screaming in ecstasy. Every fiber of my being is in love with you. Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart, and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky. My arrow of love has arrived at the target. I am in the house of mercy, and my heart is a place of prayer.

The Caterpillar

The caterpillar, interesting but not exactly lovely, humped along among the parsley leaves eating, always eating. Then one night it was gone and in its place a small green confinement hung by two silk threads on a parsley stem. I think it took nothing with it except faith, and patience. And then one morning it expressed itself into the most beautiful being. Carla Cooper - cmcooper@gvtc.com

Fire by Judy Brown

Fire What makes a fire burn is space between the logs, a breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight can douse the flames almost as surely as a pail of water would. So building fires requires attention to the spaces in between, as much as to the wood. When we are able to build open spaces in the same way we have learned to pile on the logs, then we can come to see how it is fuel, and absence of the fuel together, that make fire possible. We only need to lay a log lightly from time to time. A fire grows simply because the space is there, with openings in which the flame that knows just how it wants to burn can find its way. ~ Judy Brown ~ (Leading from Within, ed. by Sam M. Intrator and Megan Scribner)

St. Augustin of Hippo.

"Late have I loved you, O Beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And behold, you were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for you, and in my deformity I rushed headlong into the well-formed things that you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you. . . .[But] you called and cried out to me and broke open my deafness; you shone forth upon me and you scattered my blindness; you breathed fragrance and I drew in my breath. . . ." from a great book After meditation: from St Augustine of Hippo, “The Confessions,” AN ANTHOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM, ed. Harvey D. Egan (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1996), p. 68.

Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtpQmU6v6kQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran The Prophet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtpQmU6v6kQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Fr. Robert Spitzer

"St. Ignatius recognized that affective consolation and spiritual consolation frequently run hand in hand but not always. That’s also true of affective desolation and spiritual desolation. Hence, he saw the need to formulate three rules for the discernment of spirits.
Rule 1: Be attentive to false consolations.
Affective consolation is usually the work of the Holy Spirit, unless it eventually leads to less trust in God, hope in salvation, or love. So the basic rule is, follow affective consolation (feelings of peace, love, joy, and unity with God) unless it begins to result in long-term spiritual desolation. When that occurs, you should stop following the seeming consolation, because it’s very likely to be a false consolation sent by “the enemy of our human nature,” to quote St. Ignatius. Spiritual desolation means we are moving away from God. That’s always a signal to reexamine any decisions or actions that might have led to the false consolation masking a spiritual estrangement. It is usually a good idea to do this with a person or persons of spiritual experience and maturity.
 
Rule 2: Never make a life decision in a time of affective or spiritual desolation.
Both affective and spiritual desolation can impair judgment and induce confusion and sadness. For that reason, desolation will almost always lead to bad long-term life decisions, which is challenging to grasp even with the benefit of spiritual consolation. This is why St. Ignatius counseled that you should never make a life decision when you’re experiencing desolation, either affective or spiritual. He hastened to add that the desolation will soon give rise to consolation, at which point you can make much better decisions. It is always worth the wait. Some followers of the saint considered this his most fundamental and important rule for making progress in the spiritual life.
Rule 3: The evil one can come as “an angel of light.”
The devil usually dissuades us from our good intentions by trying to discourage us, but sometimes the deceiver offers thoughts that appear to be aimed at building our spiritual life. However, the real intention of these temptations is to discourage us in the long term. For example, say you’re in a state of fervor about improving your spiritual life and your love of neighbor. In the midst of this fervor, a thought might come to you: “If half an hour of daily prayer is good, then three hours must be better.” You begin your new discipline, but you find yourself growing progressively tired. You don’t have enough time for your family and work. You find yourself snapping at people and looking down on them (“They should pray as hard as I do!”). You start to believe that God is a taskmaster who expects at least three hours of prayer each day from you, and you resent that He isn’t giving you the graces you expected from all this effort. In the long run, you can feel cynical and discouraged about your faith, and all because the evil one succeeded in pushing you beyond your limits.
When the devil can’t tempt a person to give up prayer and turn from God, he can tempt you to try to do something perfectly good but in an exaggerated manner. He’ll encourage you to adopt an unrealistic timeframe (“I want to attain purity of heart tomorrow”) or take on too many spiritual goals at once. He may try to make you think you can grow spiritually through your own willpower without help from God, and present an image of God that is stoic and demanding (“Spitzer, this is God speaking. Why aren’t you already perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect? I’m tired of waiting for you to get that right!”).
If we find that a pious decision or resolution might be exaggerated and burdensome – so much so that it’s leading to spiritual and affective desolation, then we simply need to ratchet it down a few notches to correspond to our own potential and to the timetable and will of the Holy Spirit."
A fuller understanding of the power of these spontaneous prayers can be found in Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life by Fr. Robert Spitzer

Harmon Killebrew

5/21/2011

The death of Harmon Killebrew moved me more than I would have thought. I understand that Twins fans loved him. He was the hero for most of my peers in Minneapolis. I enjoyed watching “The Harmon Killebrew Show” on TV before each game. He was a nice guy with a warm friendly personality. He never said a bad word about anyone. Harmon was a great role model for kids in Minnesota. He shaped me personally more than I would believe.

Personally, I loved Pedro “Pete” Ramos, the Twins pitcher (1961). He came from Cuba (a distant almost unthinkable place on Earth at that time). I knew he was playing for almost no money at all and couldn’t return home. Clark Griffith loved to exploit the Cubans because he literally paid them minimum wages in the 60’s (it was tragic). Pete couldn’t speak a word of English when he was a Twin. I was his greatest fan. My Father would say, “The guys got an E.R.A. over 4.0, what do you see in him?” But I loved Pete and wouldn’t miss a game he pitched. Somehow I connected with the guy. This is what sports are all about.

Oh yes, Vic Powel. I loved Vic (1962-64). He was a first baseman. He was a very colorful character. He would catch the ball at first base (without his foot on base) and touch the base with his foot a fraction of a second before the runner would step on first base. The crowd would go wild. He had his own style of play. Vic was a showman and an artist. No one ever played first base like him. He copied no one. You couldn’t predict what he might do next. The guy always had a big smile on his face. He had so much fun. Vic was a great defensive player and an average hitter. I was his greatest fan of all time. I just loved watching him play.

Tony Oliva was another hero of mine. He was an amazing baseball player. I remember the first game he played at spring training in Florida (1961). He didn’t make the team until about 1963-64. I always believed that he should have been on the 1961 team (I think I was correct). I met Tony Oliva about twenty years ago in Seattle, Washington, at a restaurant (at the time, he was a batting coach for the Twins). I told him how much I enjoyed watching him play. I couldn’t thank him enough….he was one of my childhood heros!

Rod Carew, no doubt the greatest player for the Minnesota Twins. Everyone loved watching him play. It hurt when he left Minnesota. What a great player he was. He was also a first class person in my opinion.

Harmon Killebrew played with all my heros. I deeply respect him. He was a good man and a good athlete.

Harmon….Life without you doesn’t seem right. Thanks for all the great memories. You were a “great person” and Minneapolis will never be the same without YOU! God Bless you Harmon. I will offer Mass for you and pray for you.

Death of Civilizations

Nineteen of the twenty-one notable civilizations have died from within and NOT by the conquest from without. Where does American stand at this point in time?

The Edge is in the Mind by Mark McCormack

The better you think you are doing, the greater should be your cause for concern: the more self-satisfied you are with your accomplishments, your past achievements, your “right moves,” the less you should be.
The championship’s true edge exists solely in the mind, and over the years I have observed three attitudinal characteristics which are common to every superstar I have even known. They are just as applicable in business as they are in the athletic area. I have adapted them to my own business career and they are the source from which I derive most of my drive and determination.
The first is that champions’ profound sense of dissatisfaction with their own accomplishments. They use any success, any victory, as a spur to greater ambition. Any goal that is attained immediately becomes the next step toward a greater more unreachable one.
The second is an ability to reach their peak performance, to get themselves up for major tournaments and events. No one can operate consistently at his or her highest level, yet the legends of any sports era always seem to perform at their best when the stakes are greatest. This is particularly true in tennis and golf, perhaps the most mentally demanding of all the major sports, perhaps the most mentally demanding of all the major sports, and why the major tournaments in both have always been dominated by a handful of players.
Finally, it is their ability to put their opponents away. This is referred to as “the killer instinct,” but that tells you more about the result than of what is going on mentally.
In the champion’s mind he is never ahead. He distorts reality to serve his competitive purpose. He is always coming from behind, even when the score indicates he is destroying his opponents. He never believes he is performing as well as he actually is.

Attitudes

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes. By William James.

Great short video

Here is a GREAT short video. I had all my students watch this and write about it. They also thought it was outstanding. Take a look. Its only 5 minutes long. It's very powerful.

http://www.gratefulness.org/brotherdavid/a-good-day.htm

Show me your wounds.

From my Psalms class tonight at Gonzaga University.

A man died and met God in heaven. God said to the man, “Show me your wounds.”

The man replied, “I really don’t have many wounds. I've had an easy life. I have very few wounds from living”

God said, “Do you mean that you had nothing in life to fight for? You had no battles during your lifetime. I know you not.”

Author unknown.

By Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

-this version is credited to Mother Teresa

On Children

“The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran

On Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of children. And he said, Your children are NOT your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves the bow that is stable.

Fundamentals

"Success is all about CONSISTENCY around FUNDAMENTALS." by Robin Sharma.

You achieve what you EMPHASIZE, nothing more and nothing less. Emphasize fundamentals consistently!

The power of love

When the POWER OF LOVE overcomes the LOVE OF POWER there will be PEACE on Earth.

What one emphasizes

The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse. The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.

Relationships by Bill Milliken

"It is relationships, not programs that change children. A great program simply creates the environment for healthy relationships to form between adults and children. Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level, and when they also have a sense of belonging to a caring community."

More about learning

Education is all about making connections and building relationships around a persons passions which are significant. I believe this is absolutely true. I call this PASSION EDUCATION.

Definition of learning

"Students learn what they care about, from people they care about and who they know care about them." By Betty H. Carson

This is an excellent definition of learning as well as education. She hit it on the sweet spot didn't she!

Poster at Gonzaga University

Michelangelo's thoughts on education.

Michelangelo; "Inside every block of marble dwells a beautiful statue." We can't mold all students to be the same. Each individual has their strength and weakness. Every human being has their own PASSION. Take what they love and cherish and help them discover WHO THEY ARE.

Gerry Wills on What the Gospels Meant

"Jesus tells his followers to lay up spiritual treasure where no moth or rust can comsume it; to keep the heart pure and the eye single; to serve a single master, not two masters; to leave how one lives to the Father; to refrain from judging others; to give to all; to seek with trust; to beware false profits; to build on a solid foundation. The message throughout is one of reliance on the Father." page 88 This is wonderful, don't you agree?

Man Action by Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (Italian Jesuit)

MAN is born for ACTION; he ought to do something. WORK, at each step, awakens a sleeping force and roots out error. Who does nothing, knows nothing. RISE! to work! If thy knowledge is real, employ it; wrestle with nature; test the strength of thy theories; see if they will support the trial; ACT!

Raising children.

Teach your children to be gracious, grateful, have courage in difficult times and live with joy and purpose.

Building your self esteem

Your SELF ESTEEM comes from doing QUALITY WORK! It doesn’t come from people saying you are great! It doesn’t matter what people SAY, It’s the work you DO that builds real self esteem.

Your mental WELL BEING is directly affected by your work and behavior. YOU ARE IN COMPLETE CONTROL of your work, well being, and self esteem.

By Richard Nixon

Quote one; "If the President done it, It's not illegal." Quote two; I'm the last casualty of the Viet Nam War."

Dr. Gertrude B. Elion / Nobel-Prize winner

Rewards come to those who are willing to work hard for them. First you need the education appropriate to your goal. Then you need the will, dedication, and perseverance to fulfill that dream.

By Gail Sheehy

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it, "Take a new step, uttering a a new word, is what people fear most." The fear should be the opposite course.

Aristotle

As Aristotle wrote in his book Ethics, “We are what we repeatedly do."

Achieve your destiny

"Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve. Learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigor, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then, you will achieve your destiny."
by Krishna from The Bhagavad Gita

Twitter

You should join my Twitter group. Go to; www.twitter.com.stevef Twitter is a mini blog program (if you don’t know about it). It’s designed to showcase your most profound, insightful, deep philosophical, mind blowing, significant, civilization changing, eye opening, relevant, thoughts and ideas. However, you only have 140 characters per Twitter entry. So your thoughts must be written very short and directly to the point.

Your entry will be sent out to tens of thousands of people around the world. It’s the fastest growing web site right now. It’s fascinating to read.

Within Twitter you can add “friends.” It’s a mailbox which adds the Twitters from just your friends. You will have “followers”, which are people that read ALL your Twitters as they are released.

You can also read everyone’s Twitters as they are sent out. There are far too many to read them all. I basically just read my friends Twitter.

Build a reputation

"You can't build a reputation on what you're planning on doing." Henry Ford

Stones

"All stones are broken stones." By James Richardson

Power, Arrogance, Corruption

When people acquire POWER they seem to become very arrogant. ARROGANCE leads to lack of ACCOUNTABILITY and the lack of ability to LISTEN. Power, arrogance and unaccountability leads ultimately to CORRUPTION. The United States has lost a great deal of credibility around the world. Can you see it?

More about positive attitudes

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. by Herm Albright

Yogi Berra on all the lies

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.

Redesigning education

Mark Oehlert said the education system will require a complete redesign of the learning environment because, "You can never fix a bicycle enough for it to be an airplane." What a great statement. Outstanding Quote!

From Frederick Buechner

Frederick Buechner wrote, “The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you."

To Possess Something

To pluck a flower means to take possession of it. It also means to KILL it. Be very careful what you try to possess.

Christianity & Democracy

Christianity; Do I love my neighbor as myself? I’m not certain I do. Am I a real Christian? Do I practice Christianity? We say we are a “Christian nation” but what evidence do we have? Many people go to church and talk about Christianity. But are we a real Christian nation? Do we attempt to uphold the Ten Commandments? No, not our government nor our people. Do we love our neighbors as ourselves? I don’t believe we do.

Democracy; Do I wish my neighbor to be free? I’m not certain I always do. Do all men, in this country, wish their neighbors to be free? Absolutely not! Do all men, in this country, wish their neighbors to have equal rights? The answer is clearly NO.

Democracy; Do we maintain and defend all our neighbors civil and religious liberty? The answer once again is clearly NO, not in this country. Are we a real democracy? We are a Republic, at least on paper.

Do you see some hypocrisy here? We are a democratic Christian nation, which wants to convert every nation to Christianity and export our democracy to every nation on earth. Maybe we need to examine ourselves. Maybe we need to become Christians and build a democracy here. Maybe we need to take care of our neighbors.

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Character Counts

Nothing can stop a man with character and the right attitude. There are six pillars that are the foundation of character building. We must improve our character daily.

1. TRUSTWORTHINESS. Loyalty, Integrity, honesty, reliability, and promise keeping.

2. RESPECT. The Golden Rule; Treat others as you would like to be treated, and courtesy.

3. RESPONSIBILITY. Accountability, pursue perfection, and effort level.

4. FAIRNESS. Justice, openness to information and ideas, reasonableness, consistency, and fair play.

5. CARING. Concern for others, charity, kindness, unselfishness, and compassion.

6. CITIZENSHIP. Do your share of the work, respect for authority, and the law and community service.

Falcons have strong CHARACTER!

Einstein's view of education

Einstein commented that if you study a subject for 10 minutes per day in one year you will be an expert.

By W.C. Fields

A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her.

Adversity

I believe that Jacob Braude once said that adversity is like a grindstone. Adversity either grinds you down to nothing, or it polishes you up like a sparkling diamond. Adversity causes some people to break and others to break records. It's essential to embrace and welcome adversity into your life. Never run from adversity but use it to motivate yourself. A handicap is adversity which can polish you and make you shine.