Do you like change?

Someone asked me yesterday, “Do you like change?”

They were asking because I was watching the inauguration of President Obama.



My reply was, “Some change I like. I like orderly change. For example, I don’t like change that comes based on news from a doctor.”

A few other changes I don’t like are changes based on an emergency call in the night, or a traffic accident, or some unanticipated business announcements.



I like managed change and participatory change.

Although I didn’t vote for Obama, I was proud of him, America, and the smooth transition of governing that the inauguration showcased.



As I awoke this morning, I thought, Such “big” changes yesterday. Historic changes. And yet my day seems remarkably the same.

That’s the kind of change I like.

Cut back the roses...

Roses never quit blooming in Orange County, California, but they still require an annual pruning. This procedure involves cutting all the stems back to two or three foot lengths. Besides filling up three or four trash cans, there are two other downsides to this procedure: 1) Thorns and the cuts that go with them, 2) No roses for several months.





I threatened to cut my 14 rose bushes back some weeks ago, but alas other priorities gave them a reprieve: until this weekend.

I'm not without blossoms, the geraniums are bouncing back from a root trim I did three or four months ago, and one of my trees, a Pink Tabibuya is beginning to show blossoms. (At the other end of the yard, my Liquid Amber just lost the last of its leaves. Plants get confused in this part of the country.)




It has been in the 80's for the last four days or so, but we're headed back to the mid-60's by mid-week. It's even supposed to rain on Wednesday. (Oh, horrors!)

This is the kind of weather that made the soldiers who did basic training in California in preparation for WWI and WWII move to this part of the country after the war. (It just beats freezing your tail off elsewhere. Sorry.)




So, over at the One Minute Writer last week, we were given the task of writing a rhyming poem. I give you my rose inspired entry:

Cut Back the Roses

It's winter here,
not really drear.

The roses are still growing,
The lawns still need mowing.

But the roses need a rest.
Cut 'em back: that's best.

In two months they'll bloom again.
In two months they'll bloom again.

Two months.

Dreams, Nightmares, and Visions

Some people take special note of the dreams they have at night. They interpret them, they ponder them, they get “direction” from them. I’ve done that.

Some people have nightmares. These nightmares may be extreme, chronic, or just occasionally bothersome. I’ve only had the last on the list: bothersome.

T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia, a famous news correspondent) said this:

"Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act their dream with open eyes and make it possible."

What we dream of in the night is, in my opinion, of less importance than what we dream of by day. (I’m not talking daydreams, but life dreams.)



Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which was signed into law in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan. A civil rights activist in the late 50’s and early 60’s, King’s most famous speech was given in August of 1963 at a rally in Washington DC. Entitled, I Have A Dream, the speech is one full of powerful rhetoric and inspiration.

In the speech King shares with his listeners his dream of a United States of America that would be more free, more equal, more cooperative. King died before that dream could be realized, but he was working to realize the dream.

King was a social activist who worked on the local, state, national, and even international level. But what of us?


What is your waking dream? What vision guides you in your efforts to make the world a better place?

The scale of our influence may be smaller than King’s, but scale isn’t the most important measure. What matters is your dream.



It’s not a matter of knowing the whole vision. What matters is, What are you doing about what you have seen?

“…the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act their dream with open eyes and make it possible.”

We may act our dreams with open eyes, but will we? Will I? Will you? Let’s be dangerous!


Bonus...

"The Impossible Dream"
from MAN OF LA MANCHA (1972)
music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion

(Listen to Jim Nabors sing the song as Gomer Pyle)

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

Delivered from Death!

A Miracle on the Hudson, that’s what the dramatic emergency landing of a USAirways jet on the Hudson River is being called. MSNBC reports, “An investigation has begun in New York, after a US Airways jet crashed late Thursday afternoon into the Hudson River. Miraculously, authorities say all passengers survived.”

A modern day miracle? Watching one of the passengers retell her story on YouTube, I was convinced she saw it as a miracle.




Have you ever thought you were going to die and didn’t?

I remember the first time that happened to me. I was 17 years old and thought I was invincible. (Or at least I didn’t think I was going to die any time soon.) Until one afternoon…



I was on my way home from somewhere, driving my black 1967 Fiat Sport Coupe. I was going about 30 miles per hour through a residential area on an unfamiliar route. I slowed up as the road turned left, but just as I was coming out of the turn, I saw my street on the right. I made a quick right turn, hitting a slight dip where the two roads met.

The abrupt turn, the speed, the dip, and the centrifugal force all conspired to send my car up onto two wheels. As bad as that was, it got worse. My car stayed on two wheels as if I were a stunt driver who knew what he was doing, but I didn’t.

I looked down to my left where I could now see the curb two or three feet away. While I was deciding what to do… my friend hung on for dear life suspended above me to my right.

Which way would you turn the wheels?



I turned right, away from the curb, but that was a mistake. The car lurched and began to tip over, until I turned the wheel quickly to the left, back towards the curb. That was enough to send the car back onto four wheels.

At this point I pulled over to the right side of the road to gather my wits, as I gasped to my friend, “We could have been killed! We really could have died: right there.” And we could have.

Similar to those aboard the USAirways flight, I understood that God had spared my life. I could have died. Like many who have experienced near-death experiences, I came away with a sense of destiny. I thought, “God spared my life for a purpose. I wonder what it could be?”

Years later I read this in the Psalms: “God is to us a God of deliverances and salvation; and to God the Lord belongs escape from death.”

To this day I thank God that he allowed me to escape from death. I enjoy life. I’ve done some stupid things in life that could have gotten me killed, but didn’t. I wasn’t just lucky, I was spared. It wasn’t luck: it was a miracle, because “…to God the Lord belongs escape from death.”

If you are an escapee, remember to be grateful to God, and to live like you’ve been given another chance, because you have. Just like me.

Co-workers who rock!

Yesterday at school, we had an awards assembly. This is a monthly event where various students are recognized for their achievements, sometimes for writing and other things scholastic, but usually for demonstrating positive character traits in their classroom.

As part of the assembly, there is a rotating award called Making a Difference. This award is for staff. It may be a teacher, janitor, front office, or other person who the previous month's recipient thinks deserves some recognition and thanks.

I inherited the award last month, and this month I passed it along. In doing so, I had to pause and think: What do I value in a co-worker?

1) Pleasant and hard-working.
2) A good sense of humor.
3) Thinks of others! (Helpful)

I mentioned these as I announced the new winner who is indeed a joy to work with. One attribute I didn't mention publicly, but I would add this to my personal list:

4) Is relatively "drama-free." (Life has real drama, fine. But unnecessary drama, urgency, and petty offences are anathema.)

Happily, with this description I could have given this award to almost anyone on staff. It's a great school. It's a great bunch to work with. It makes me glad I work there. And it's really quite simple: Three things to have, one to avoid.

What kind of co-worker are you?

Lincoln, the Future, and Psycho-Cybernetics

I recently read a good Lincoln quote: "The best way to predict the future is to create it." I like that. It goes along with what I’ve learned over the past two years regarding how to change your habits.

I believe that “first you form your habits, and then your habits form you.” For example, my eating habits, formed in my youth, helped form my middle aged girth. Oops! Who knew?

What’s a person to do? Lincoln knew: Create a new future!

But how? Here’s what I’ve been doing with great success:

I’ve developed a positive self-image via affirmations.

Self-improvement begins with how you see yourself: now and in the future.

An improved self-image starts with a new goal. But how do you find the right goals?



Use your head and heart to find out what would make you feel good about yourself. That’s what you “need” to learn. That’s a worthwhile goal!

That new worthwhile goal then needs to be re-written as an affirmation. (An affirmation is a goal written with positive words (no nots), with strong feeling words, with a personal pronoun (I), and with present tense verbs.)

Once the affirmation is written, I rehearse the new affirmation by repetition and visualization (image making or directed daydreaming).



I was already was good at visualization and repetition… it’s called worry! Mental rehearsal is simply pre-living a dream (visualization) instead of pre-living a nightmare (worry).

Because I am in charge of my habits.
I set goals, create affirmations, and use them.
I consistently review my affirmations and goals.
I spend time visualizing (image making) my good habits.





And that which was difficult (improvement) becomes easy! My habits are reformed in keeping with my new self-image, and my new and improved habits reform me! Go figure.

Too simple? Too bad.

Money, Prayer, and Burning the Old Year

I'm still not back into the groove of 2008 blogging, and I just may not ever return! In fact, I can't. Not to worry, I'll keep on blogging, but I may miss a day here and there. 2009 is a New Year. The groove of 2008 needs to give way to the new paths of 2009.

Some of my "missing" days are spent perusing other people's blogs and commenting there. That was partially the case this past week. So I've compiled three links and offerings from blogs I've visited lately. Three topics are presented: money, prayer, and the New Year. Read on!

One web-site I visit periodically is the One Minute Writer. There you are given a daily prompt and challenged to spend one of your allotted 1,440 minutes a day writing. One prompt caught my eye. It was simply: "Money. Can it buy happiness?" (I had also recently been challenged to writing cinquains over at Rambles from my chair, so I offered my post in such a poem (2,4,6,8,2 syllables... 5 lines).

A Monetary Cinquain

Money:
What can it buy?
Surely not happiness!
But godliness with contentment?
Great gain!

It was interesting to read the responses of others, most of who agreed that money cannot buy happiness. I did find one contrary opinion that was thought provoking, and I spent a bit of time checking out the contributor's blog. (It’s All Good at her blog: Rawan’s Random Thoughts.) She said:

"Money DEFINITELY buys happiness, without a doubt! I don't know to many truly happy people who have no food, shelter, or clean clothes. Now do you need A LOT of money to be happy? No, but to say that you can truly be happy without money is just non-sense! Being with family makes you happy? Well it takes money to travel to where they are (because I don't know to many people who have their ENTIRE family within walking distance.) and you need money for those Christmas dinners and fun vacations and adorable outfits worn in the pictures. Money makes memories a lot of the times."




Besides The One Minute Writer, I sometimes contribute over on a page called Pictures, Poetry, and Prose Here a prompt is offered via a photo and a phrase. The picture below appeared with the prompt, prayer. How could I resist? So I wrote...

Photo by Basir Seerat
visit Basir's photo blog at
http://www.basirseerat.blogspot.com/

Prayer: a conversation held with God, whom we assume cares, listens, and responds.

But just whose prayers does God listen to? Does God care enough to hear this woman's prayer? (She's a foreigner, probably not Christian.)

How big is your God? Have we forgotten this story from Acts...

"At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!"

Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.

The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God."

God takes note of the prayers and actions of those who make an effort to communicate with him.

How big is God? Big enough for Cornelius. Big enough for the woman in prayer at this door. Big enough for me. Big enough for you.

I thought the piece on prayer was a good one for a Sunday Morning Post.



The final topic is just a link about ringing out the old year and ringing in the new. It was one of several I found helpful. The whole concept of starting fresh has spurred me on towards Spring cleaning in January, both figuratively and literally. (My home and garage are now less cluttered and I have "new" sofas.)

My favorite line from the poem, Burning the Old Year by Naomi Shihab Nye, is "so few things are in stone."

If you don't follow the link, here's a short quote,

"So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone."

Happy New Year!