Joy and Sailboat Dreams

I grew up with daydreams created from books like Kon-Tiki. There were times in the Army when my only escape from war was sailboat dreams.  I’d never sailed, but when I got out of the service I looked for a small sailboat to buy.  One weekend I found two small boats for sale.  The first boat was an old Sunfish, I told the man I wanted to check out the second boat.  The second boat had been sold, and when I got back to the Sunfish someone else was ready to buy the boat.  The seller asks me if I still wanted the boat.  I took him aside, told him I had no money, but I wanted to buy the boat.  He told the other man I was buying the boat.  I’ll never forget when the other man pulled out his wallet filled his $100 bills, but the seller said it was my boat.  We shook hands on the deal and he thanked me for serving my country.  I paid him $50 a month for a year.  Life is about passing on our joy to others.    

Feed the Hungry Nourish Souls

Chef in India Feeds the Hungry & Nourishes the Souls

Yesterday, I was at the Houston Food Bank as a member of the Shape Up Houston Steering Committee for Faith Communities. We have been working on a project in collaboration with 400 Churches that serve meals to the hungry in their communities to provide more nutritious food and information / classes on how to prepare healthier meals and takes steps toward healthier living. During my inline skate last night, I couldn’t help but pause in wonder on how these churches were feeding the hungry and nourishing souls. Maybe you remember the CNN report about the chef in India that quit his job to feed the hungry and nourish soul? What steps have you taken in “your” community?

Hope a Loving Whisper

Walking through the hospital yesterday I watched a greeter talk to a young mom pushing her daughter in a wheelchair.  The little girl was hugging a straggly long eared stuffed dog whose name was embroidered on his chest – Hope.  You could see it in the young mother’s eyes, and feel it in the way she stroked her daughter’s hair.  We’ve all been there, expecting the best from life, even when the evidence suggest differently.  Psychologists tell us willpower is the driving force behind hope, and way power are the mental plans or road maps guiding our hopeful thoughts.  But my experience suggests that it is my spiritual connection deep inside that has become a loving whisper and keeps me believing in life.

Looking for Joy

One of my favorite early morning activities is tinkering with the edge of my reality through meditation, reading, and escaping to past and future moments.  This sounds so counter to my mindfulness practice of being present, but these solo early morning adventures connect my DNA with the sands of time.  A liberating experience where the flow of life and all its imperfections fade away and I experience raw joy.  My dad died unexpectedly years ago during a weekly cancer treatment, but as he lay dying he asked a friend that was sitting with him, “Do you hear the angels singing?” and then he died.  I have no doubt he was experiencing pure raw joy.  Remember, joy is a gift we give ourselves through love.  Looking for joy?  I like the stories in Melody Beattie’s Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul.

Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul

Dance with the Solitude of Your Soul

It was my last summer at LSU and I was working as stage manager for the LSU Summer Dinner Theater. Before opening night, one of the doctoral students that guided our work threw a get-together at his house. He was an artist and I remember being captivated by his painting showing a man climbing inside a mirror to get a look at the other side of himself. I scratched out this poem that night: “most of my poems / are written inside out / they are tiny windows into my soul / sentence fragments never spoken / words linked in odd ways / reflections of feelings and emotions / imprints of memories long forgot / who I am when I am not / a way to dance with the solitude of my soul”. Dance with the solitude of your soul today.

Enjoying the Journey

I can still hear her voice, and feel her smile as she tells the story of my first swim test as a 5 year old at the Huey P. Long pool that sat below the Indian Mounds on the LSU campus.  She watches a big group splash and lots of little hands and feet paddling across the pool.  But where is Billy?  She runs over to one of the instructors, “Where’s Billy?”, and the instructor answers, “There he is”, and points to a little shadowy image swimming underwater, “Billy prefers to swim underwater, and is the only child that can swim the whole width of the pool underwater.”  My mother smiles, “he always has to do everything a little different and make it just a little harder than it really needs to be.” But mom, I have so enjoyed the journey. 

Everyone Matters

Yesterday, I watched a youtube clip that Lee Coffee, a soldier soul mate at MD Anderson, had sent me from the group Everyone Matters.  It’s the kind of clip that digs deep within your soul.  This morning I found a new homeless person residing in my neighborhood.  These experiences became embedded in my feeling from two days of training a group of U.S. Army Resiliency Coordinators who care for the healthcare providers caring for our soldiers still at war.  Were these just coincidences or as Robert Johnson, popular Jungian author would suggest, a meaningful synchronicity experience unfolding the unique life of my soul.  Be open to the synchronicity in your life.

Everyone Matters