Hugs just may be the answer

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Everything happens according to plan

What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present, and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good?
- from A Course in Miracles

Men I love, part 1

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-- Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech

Find them. Love them.

Mother Theresa is my hero. Though she helped the desperately poor in Calcutta, she always reminded people that they could do the same in their own hometown. People need love everywhere and we can provide that love today--at work, in our neighborhoods, and in our own homes.

Some favorite Mother Theresa quotes:

"We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty."

"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go."

"There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives--the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them."

The true genius of America

I have a faith in simple dreams, and an insistence on small miracles...

I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

Lookin' toward the future:

"America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do -- if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November [2008], and [Barack Obama] will be sworn in as President, and [Whoever he Chooses] will be sworn in as Vice President, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come."

-- Barack Obama, 2004 Democratic National Convention

Try something new today

Haiku is a very short poetic form of traditional Japanese poetry. The haiku poet writes about a moment in time, a brief experience that stands out. The traditional haiku poet usually focused on nature, although modern poets have the urban setting as their venue.

Traditional Japanese haiku consisted of three lines of 5, 7, and 5 units each, which are generally applied as syllables, and contained a special word — the kigo — that indicated the season in which the haiku was set. Some consider that a haiku must also combine two different images, be written in present tense, have a focus on description and have a pause (the kireji or "cutting word") at the end of either the first or second line. Today's English-language poets produce haiku in one of three ways:

(1) by using three (or fewer) lines of no more than 17 syllables in total;

(2) by using the concept of metrical feet rather than syllables. A haiku then becomes three lines of 2, 3, and 2 metrical feet, with a break or pause after the second or fifth;

(3) by using the "one deep breath" rule: take a deep breath and you should be able to read the haiku aloud without taking a second breath.

Often the subtle linkage between the two sets of images within a haiku will contain an interesting insight or spiritual message.

An example of classic haiku (by Basho):

An old pond!
A frog jumps in -
the sound of water

Another Basho classic reads:

The first cold showers pour
Even the monkey seems to want
a little coat of straw

Here's my attempt on a late Tuesday evening (while listening to iTunes):

Randy Travis -
Wallow in lonesome longing
A good Fall sound

And a second one, a bit longer (5-7-5)

I like working here
Good business mixed with laughter
Time passes quickly

Try it!

A new look at your old hometown

I'm from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a port city on Lake Michigan that retains some renown for building submarines during WWII. It was not a bad place to grow up, but the blue collar factories and farming certainly didn't hold any career excitement for me. So I joined the Air Force to get out and pretty much never looked back.

I recently came across some photos of my hometown on flicker that made me rethink my entire upbringing. Obviously the city has had some visionary leaders through the years; they have repositioned it as a tourist destination and all I can say is, wow.

Was the area always this lovely?