Who Kills Your Food?

OK, maybe that is a little harsh, but many times the more elemental a statement is the more effective it will be. Unless you are a strict vegan, your every day diet probably involves a very inhumane, heartless process of raising animals in squalor, and then herding them to the dispatch facility.

Hunting is a way to get closer to the animals we respect, while giving them a more than fair chance to live their entire life in the natural environment they were meant to inhabit. I am NOT suggesting that everyone should become a hunter. We outstripped the lands ability to support that long ago.

What I am trying to get across is that maybe hunting isn't that barbaric thing everyone would have you believe it to be. In its truest and purest form, it is meant to be reverent and respectful. Grateful for the direct involvement in a pursuit that brings one closer to the actual symbiosis God has in mind for us. A life is given so that another can continue, and the relationship between hunter and prey goes on.

Do This Daily...

This blog is one of my favorite daily rituals. Please follow the link below to see their take on how, and why, you should focus on GRATITUDE every day. It is a self creating practice that depends on your purposeful diligence.

http://www.marcandangel.com/2016/06/22/one-daily-gratitude-ritual-that-will-change-the-way-you-think/

Do This Daily...

This blog is one of my favorite daily rituals. Please follow the link below to see their take on how, and why, you should focus on GRATITUDE every day. It is a self creating practice that depends on your purposeful diligence.

http://www.marcandangel.com/2016/06/22/one-daily-gratitude-ritual-that-will-change-the-way-you-think/

Tiny Hooks Lead to Big Fish

Tiny Hooks = Big Fish

My wife has a friend at work that was talking the other day about a lake near his mothers house. He said she told him there were a lot of fish there and he should go by and check it out sometime. The problem was, he didn't have any equipment to go fishing. When I heard the story I realized it was on opportunity to share one of my real passions in life. I have been fishing, and thus collecting fishing gear all of my life. Some of my earliest memories were of sitting on the bank of a pond with my Grandfather. All we had were two bamboo poles, a couple of small hooks and a cup of worms we dug out of the flower garden behind his house. Even so, we caught enough fish to feed the entire family in only a few hours. In fact, we pulled in fish at a rate of about one per every two minutes or so. I am convinced the feeling of accomplishment in being successful, and pride from actually providing food for our meal that night, was a lesson that continues to be reinforced in me even to this day.

While sorting through my tackle looking for pieces I could share with my wife's friend, I decide to start him out small, like I was. I am sure there are some big fish in the lake he was talking about, but those can wait for another day. I found two rods with small close faced reels that are very simple to operate. If I had cane poles I may have even suggested them, but alas I have fallen prey to the technology of the day. In looking through some other gear I began to realize the importance of this "Learn to walk before you run" fishing philosophy. Like life, fishing is best learned in small pieces and from the ground up. If you can have some success in learning how to catch small fish, those same principles can be applied to and improved upon when it becomes time to seek the bigger fish.

Too many people these days assume that success is somehow owed to them and they want immediate large results. Professional fishermen roar around the lakes in $100,000 boats using electronics that cost as much as some peoples daily driven cars. They have ten specialized rods on the boat, with highly tuned open faced reels that take thousands of casts to perfect. Each rod and reel rig may approach $500 and the tackle in their multiple soft sided bags are equal to the worth of another small family car. Their goal for each day on the lake is to catch five large fish, have them weighed, and hopefully stack up against the competition. Then release the fish back into the lake. How many of our daily pursuits begin to look like this by comparison? How often do you invest large sums of money to engage in high stress competitive events (school, work, etc.) only to end up walking away with nothing after it is all over with?

I am not trying to say we shouldn't participate in the world around us. I am just saying that I bet if you asked those professional fishermen what their favorite memories of fishing were, they would probably talk about fishing on the bank with their granddad, or teaching their kids how to bait a hook and then watching the delight shine on their smiling faces as they enjoyed the "little things" in life. Every day we have the opportunity to learn something new in life. I just want to encourage you to slow down, start small, and appreciate the beginnings of what may someday be your passion. Don't go casting around with impossibly large lures expecting that trophy to jump on your hook with very little effort. Even if it did, the reward would not be appreciated and would soon give way to the reality of life. Every small action leads to a small reward. Small rewards accumulate into successful life habits, and those habits bring lasting fulfillment from a job well planned, acted upon and confidently accomplished. This happens when you build your life through appreciating the small gifts we are given every day.

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you & to give thanks continuously. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

WHO AM I?

Who am I? They often tell me
I would step from my cell's confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They also tell me
I would talk to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I would bear the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself,
restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,
yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Less of me, more of You

A friend asked the question today; What would it be like if God answered the prayer "Lord, Empty me of myself and fill me with You". Many of us say these things but don't really stop to think what that would look like in the real world. Although it is a concept that will rest and grow within me for the next several days, here was my short answer...

"I would express love more freely, without reservations or expectations."

...and then I added...

I have an item that struck me earlier in the week... (or maybe it’s the same). Are we closer to God when things are going well, or when they are bad? How often do we make a Gratitude list, and how would that daily practice change our lives?

It is definitely something to think about.

Important Words

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. -- Dale Carnegie

One day my father asked my daughter Lauryn if she was “self conscious” of her braces. She told him no but then asked me later, “Daddy, What does self conscious mean?” She was 13 at the time and I am very glad to hear that was something that hadn’t been a major concern for her yet. On the other hand I was worried that the Pandora’s box had now been opened. Each day as we go through life people try to hand us words of affirmation or degradation. It is up to us whether we hold them and carry them onward or leave them there.

I believe we can change our life, for the better or worse, by what we choose to pick up and carry in our “baggage”. I also believe we have the power to impact those around us for the good if we make it a purpose. Each day in your interactions with people are you talking about something good that you have experienced, or are you sharing a negative thought. If you start paying attention to how you relate to others it may be revealing that dark secret of your soul that you thought no one else could see. If you see a dark slant, don’t let it get you down, you have just identified the obstacle to your happiness. Start building others up with positive, affirmative language. Tell everyone that you meet something nice about them and share a positive experience. “Marge, that is a beautiful purple dress that you are wearing! It reminds me of a color I saw in a gorgeous sunset last week”. Marge may have a load of negative things in her basket but your words will replace some of that bad with good. Do what you can to be a positive influence on the life of others.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle. -- John Watson

I am not in any way saying that I have this mastered this fine art. I am far from it, believe me I know. I do however recognize other people with this talent. They typically have crowds of people wanting to be near them. You know of whom I am speaking. They are the best salespeople, the best restaurant / shop owners and hopefully your pastors. That one close friend that you still have 20 years down the road is that type of person.

Think about some ways that you can start on the path towards being a better influence on those around you. First, realize that a change needs to be made. Second, do something about it. Take the time to sit down and find five positive words on which to build your life. Use them as a filter to judge your actions. I have decided on these: Honor, Appreciation, Humility, Gratitude, Accountability. I may fine tune later but I think you get the idea.

Being nice may seem contrived at first. It may be difficult to say something nice to that person who you hold a grudge against for some long lost reason. Each time you take a small step towards helping someone else into the light of happiness brings it closer to yourself. You may even think that some don’t deserve it, but you do. Keep at it and your life, along with those on your path will be better for it.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. -- Aristotle

Weak Minded Conformist

For me personally, In my life, the hardest obstacle to overcome in my search for God was myself. As long as I treated my quest as an attempt to “add to MY knowledge” I was unable to bridge the gap of faith. The entire life of Jesus was a picture of contrast and contradictory thinking. The Jewish people were longing for a Messiah who was strong and would move them into what they felt was a position of power. Jesus’ ministry was to emulate love and become a servant leader, seemingly the embodiment of weakness. Pride, power, domination, intelligence… they are fleeting. Love is encompassing, everlasting and overcomes.

It certainly doesn’t appear that way at first. It can even be taken advantage of and easily abused. In the end it is true and right. Even those who seek exploitation will admit in their hearts that Love and forgiveness, gratitude and humility are powerful. Again, for me, those attributes were hidden behind pride. I could not begin an authentic faith journey until I changed my paradigm from adding God to my circle into moving myself humbly into His circle. It has not been a walk that “I” had the ability to effectively travel. Until I submitted myself to an admittedly flawed system of worship and sought out broken people who were also on this journey, I could not grow.

Pride is the centerpiece of today’s society. My passage has moved me to the fringe. From this side of the “gap of faith” I find it amusing and also troubling that most view me as a weak minded conformist. As a Christian I am called to love even those who mock and ridicule. I have to admit, it is a heavy burden. But now that I have seen the truth of how things really work it is impossible to go back.