Streams of thought....march 10th, 2014

“Three Rules of work: out of clutter find simplicity, from discord find harmony, and in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

A smiling old man… a laughter of a young child… a polite beeping of a horn… the sounds of birds in the morning.  These are some of the sights and sounds of Nicaragua for me.

It has been less than twenty-four hours since I have arrived back to my home here, in Denver, from Managua, Nicaragua. I have been asked a number of times about how my trip went and so far I am not really comfortable in knowing how to respond.  There are so many different adjectives that I could possibly use to describe my experience; so, I am always searching for the right ones to use with the person who has inquired about my time there.

As I was driving home this morning from an appointment, I was presented with an inner question. 

That question is this:

How will I live life going forward?

Will I slowly drift backwards into the life that I once lived?

Will I still seek to be challenged as I was this past week?

How do I value the spending of a dollar when there is a country only a few hours away, by flight, where people exist on less than five dollars a day?

I am not seeing this inner journey of self-reflection as a judgment against or for one society over another. I am not writing this to criticize a system while comparing it to another.  However, what I am doing is measuring my own sense of responsibility in response to the need of another person.
Do I desire what the Nicaraguan culture has?  I saw some things that deeply influenced me.  There were some experiences that made me uncomfortable. There were some experiences that challenged old perceptions and concepts. There were also some scenes that inspired me… and that is why I am at this place in my own processing of this past week.  It is the smile of the old man that welcomed me to the life of living with fear and insecurity; yet living a life that reflects a sense of gratitude for all that is given not in a life time nor in a year’s time but on a daily breath by breath moment.

I am not comfortable in answering how this past week in Nicaragua was… but then again change is never supposed to be comfortable.  It is a personal season where, as Sharif Abdulhamid, told me that the “lens gets smudged”.  Your spiritual muscles get torn and ripped apart so that new muscle cells of our conscience can grow.  We become stronger as a society when we take change and learn from it.
I cannot label this with simple adjectives… no single emotion can embrace what my heart can hold.

Albert Einstein was an amazing man and it was not just in the realm of mathematics and physics.  I learn more about him as a person when I read his thoughts on social justice issues, so his comments above are great guides in not just in the aspect of work but also in life itself.

• “…out of clutter find simplicity…”  Life many times is completely messy.  We get entangled in the busyness of life so much that we lose the beauty of simple things
• “…from discord find harmony…”  We all have multiple opportunities to be in community.  These communities will inevitably have discord.  It is a fact of nature that we will either have our own or will encounter someone that has a misconceived perception.  These ill designed sensitivities will cause disunity. So, within the wind swept mountain side we many times need to find a common place of refuge so that all can find shelter.
• “…in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” It is in the middle of difficulty that we are going to discover the most valuable opportunity.  It is in the midst of pain we will search for relief and an answer.  In the midst of illness, we search for a cure. The marginal challenges already have an answer built within them; so it is in the depth of conflict that we many times begin to look for the greatest opportunity.  

I heard once from a rabbi that we all have been embodied with the capacity to do something phenomenal… a greater purpose.  It is when we do not search for or act upon that greater good that society becomes the poorer for it.

breaking script…Namaste

streams of thought...january 29th, 2014

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking that we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

Recently, I was given the opportunity to write my own personal theory in a paper for the Theories in Counseling class. The paper didn’t seem too daunting since it wasn’t a requirement to write it the APA format nor did I have to do any quasi-research to substantiate my position. Truly a student’s dream to just write down what I thought, as long as it was coherent. It was at this moment when the rule of complex of simplicity took off running.
One of the twelve questions was this:
“What do you think causes people to have problems? I.e. in your experience, what leads people to become unhealthy, to suffer, to have dis-ease, or even mental illness?”
(So, I think that this journal writing will be in a different format…. and here we go.)
Problems… This to me is a difficult term and I believe, based on my experiences, is possibly a reason why so many of us struggle so greatly with the same issue possibly over and over.  Typically, “problems” are seen as being a negative events or at least an event that needs to be solved.  This perception can lead a person to think that they have to fight against emotionally laden issue; instead of them leaning into the moment. If the word is broken down, we would find that the word basically means we are acting against a blemish. That we see something that needs to be adjusted to a correct state of form or appearance. So, it is simply a word that causes us to act… either in fight or in fear mode, which are two of the quickest burning emotions that a person can have.
I won’t discount that there are difficult issues that can cause us to become uneasy. However, I believe that we tend to issue the label of “problems” to announce either internally or externally that this is an uncomfortable situation. If that is the case, we should ask ourselves these questions. Why am I uncomfortable? Was there a previous experience that is similar to this moment that has led me to carry negativity with it?  Or am I uncomfortable with this circumstance because it is an unknown time of my life that I am not sure how to be with?  It is my perception that people dwell too much on events that should be fluid and we simply hold on to them too long.
Suffering… This comes when we take an emotion that we should only give temporary space to so that we can become “aware of” and “be present with” while not giving it a place of residence where it is allowed to develop roots. It is like a stream of water that is meant to flow through; however, we create a dam that stalls and impedes its movement. When we see this happen in nature we see silt, debris and stagnation. It becomes polluted and infested. The water in this case was not allowed to take its natural course to come in, be present, and then free to move on. So it is with distorted or misguided perceptions. The continuation of holding a problem gives root to unhealthy perceptions that often times leads to neurosis. The neurosis then leads to a deeper belief that takes root which eventually will draw in our spiritual and physical health.
Dis-ease… This is the next step in an unhealthy process that was birthed in a negative perception. We have perceived that an event has taken place that will cause either concern, denial, or harm.  When confronted with this event we have an immediate reaction that leads us into a defensive mode. The allowance and continued presence of this event will lead us to a state of emotional dis-ease or disease.  In reality, we have allowed a perception to become a distorted life view. This ill-perceived view will then laden us with heavy energy consuming emotions. These emotions then will pull from us the energy to make changes.
This is where we are led to the quote by Albert Einstein. We simply cannot solve problems with the same way of thinking that essentially created the problem in the first place. If we come to an experience that we have never had before, we need to enter into it with an open heart and mind so that we can be receptive to the possibilities of learning.  This may mean that we are available to learning something about someone else or ourselves. If we encounter an illness that we never expected, it is an opportunity learn the art of resilience. Also, we may discover our own character and to value the people that we have in our lives. If we encounter a loss of a relationship, we learn the art of reconciliation and forgiveness; both to them and for ourselves. If we have a financial set back, we learn the art of simplicity and many times gratitude for the smallest of things.
We have this amazing spirit with us.  We have the spirit to create as well as destroy. We have the ability to overcome as well as be overwhelmed. We, also have the creativity to see things as possibilities instead of impediments. It is a matter of choice.
Breaking script…Namaste