Meditations on God

Impractical Effort
Just because something seems impractical, does not mean that we should avoid attempting it.

In fact, nearly all great change in the world is made by people who had the bravery, the arrogance, or the stupidity to attempt something impractical.

Practicality is measured in what has worked, what usually works, and what is expected to work.

Something is practical because it is predictable.

Change, at least profound change, the kind of change we want to make in the world, is neither predictable nor practical.

That means it is going to be difficult.

It will be difficult to conceive of, difficult to execute, and it will be difficult to get others to believe in it.

This is true, at least, until our work is proven.

Exactly how do we prove the value of our work before it is proven, before it is practical?

The simple answer is that we can’t, but this is why we must believe in our work before we can expect others to believe in it.

And, most importantly, we have to do it.

We have to put in the effort.

We have to master our craft.

While we do this, have to show up, we have to show our faces, and we have to share our work.

We must do this consistently and uncompromisingly because this is how we prove that we are serious.

Once people see that we are serious, that we are not giving up, and that our crazy idea is not going away, they may ask to join us on our journey.

Our once impractical idea now has traction and change has started to take hold.

It is a good thing we did not quit before we got started.
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February 24, 2021

bravery, change, effort, ideas, practicality
From Resistance To Service
Resistance is rarely the most practical and immediate way forward.

In fact, it tends to slow us down and impede our progress.

Simply because we may not like something, or at least the idea of it, has no bearing on whether or not we should or must do it.

Resisting what should or must be done will not only waste our time and energy, but will also invariably cause us more trouble along the way.

Instead of making our lives better or easier, this will only make things more difficult for us.

When we feel ourselves resisting what is required of us, rather than having an attitude of “I don’t want to,” which will more than likely make our lives and our relationships worse, we should pause and ask ourselves, or even others, how we can be of service.

Not only will this help us to overcome our own resistance, but it will also, more than likely, help us to avoid the unnecessary resistance of others along the way.

When we cannot change what is being asked of us, we can at least change our attitude toward the task at hand.

An attitude of service is one of the surest ways to overcome an attitude of resistance.

The former will get us where we want to go much faster than the latter anyway.
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February 23, 2021

difficulty, resistance, service, success
It Is Not About The Dishes
Have you ever noticed that the dishes are never really done?

Inevitably, after they are all washed, dried, and put away, someone, perhaps you, gets hungry or thirsty again and, just like that, there are more dirty dishes in the sink.

They are not going to clean themselves.

We can tend to them one-by-one as they are used, doing our best to keep the sink bare and clean at all times.

We can ignore them and let them pile up until there are so many that we simply have to do something about it.

Or, we can shrug off responsibility altogether and hope or demand that someone else deals with this never-ending problem.

Regardless of how we choose to address the issue, there will always be one more plate, glass, or bowl to wash and this fact will be as true tomorrow and the next day as it was yesterday and is today.

If the dirty dishes are not going away no matter how many times we wash them, if they are going to be a fact of our existence for as long as our bodies need nourishment and our food requires a vessel from which to be travel between flame and mouth, why do we behave like every time we have to wash them is the first time?

Why does it seem like such a big deal?

Are our memories that poor?

Are our expectations for the future that out of touch with reality?

We have to eat, after all, if we want to survive.

We have to drink.

And, for as long as this is true, there will be dishes to wash, dry, and put away.

Dirty dishes are as much a part of our lives as the food and the drink they carry.

But, of course this is not about the dishes at all.

It is about us.

It is about how we deal with the trivial, mundane, and repetitive tasks in our lives.

We can either see them as a chore to be overcome or avoided, or we can embrace them as an opportunity to be grateful for what we have, a moment to be present, and a gift through which to find a little bit of joy and contentment in our otherwise hectic and chaotic lives.

We will never really finish washing the dishes, after all, so we may as well make the most of the experience.
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February 22, 2021

contentment, gratitude, joy, mindfulness
Smiling From Our Center
“Turn your frown upside down, daddy.”

While I was meditating this morning, a daily practice I restarted last year as a way of mitigating some of the stress and anxiety brought on by our global pandemic, my daughter touched my hand and whispered this phrase into my ear.

Not surprisingly, it worked.

I became immediately mindful of the tension I was wearing on my face, unbeknownst to me but obvious to my daughter, and I relaxed and smiled.

She let go of my hand and went back to playing.

Throughout the rest of my meditation, as I noticed my mind drifting away from my breath, I also observed the smile that this little girl put on my face drifting away as well.

As I re-centered and refocused my attention to my breath, I did the same with my smile.

It was a healthy and timely reminder, not only of the fact that our children observe and experience everything around them, all of it affecting and influencing them in ways none of us fully understands, but also that happiness requires intention.

We are not guaranteed permanent and uninterrupted joy in this life.

We have to work for it and we have to work on it.

This means working on ourselves, not just for ourselves, but also for all of those who are influenced and affected by our presence, our demeanor, and the energy we are putting into the world.

Happiness, joy, and contentment do not just come to us.

They require intention and effort.

Happiness, joy, and contentment are our responsibility to acquire, maintain, and to work our way back to when we find ourselves drifting away from our center.
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February 21, 2021

centeredness, contentment, happiness, joy, meditation, mindfulness, smiling
Information Procrastination
It is easy to excuse ourselves from taking risk by insisting that we need to do more research.

Research is important.

Good information and reliable intelligence are both essential for success.

After all, we cannot expect to achieve our goals if we have not done our due diligence before taking action.

However, acquiring more and more good information without actually using any of it is just another means of procrastination.

In the end, information and intelligence are only as good as the action we take because of them.

We should keep this in mind as we prepare to do any kind of research.

Before we begin gathering and studying any kind of information on a subject we hope to eventually take action on, we should take a moment to consider at what point we will have enough information from which to act.

We need a stopgap.

We need to know when enough is going to be enough.

We need to decide when, if we are not really making any progress, we should get off the proverbial pot and do something.

This means making a decision early on in the process to remove our excuses for inaction before we even make them.

Excuses love to masquerade as good intentions.

Our job, then, is to not allow ourselves to be fooled by ourselves.
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February 20, 2021

achievement, action, goals, information, intelligence, procrastination, research, success

Impractical Effort

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From Resistance To Service

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It Is Not About The Dishes

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Smiling From Our Center

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Information Procrastination

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