The power of the words you choose

A friend sent an email with the link to this video today and I felt I had to share it.

Our India team spent some time this past week learning a few words of Hindi so that we can communicate, at least a little, to those we meet in India in their tongue.  We learned to say:

• Thank you – – Dhanyavad or Shukriya
• friend — dost
• My name is — Mera Naam Karen Hai
• Excuse/pardon me — Muaf Karna
• Praise the Lord — Jai Masih Ki

We are taking the time to learn to communicate in a way that has meaning to those we are communicating with.

This video brings home to me just how important it is to consider the needs of the reader or listener in choosing the words you use.  It’s a principle well known to those in the advertising industry and the rest of us are well-advised to put it into practice if we want our message to be heard.

Living a Whole Life

I can’t say it any better than was said by Fr. Richard Rohr in his Daily Meditation for February 1, 2012, as sent out through the Centre for Action and Contemplation:

How does one transition from the survival dance to the sacred dance? Let me tell you how it starts. Did you know the first half of life has to fail you? In fact, if you do not recognize an eventual and necessary dissatisfaction (in the form of sadness, restlessness, emptiness, intellectual conflict, spiritual boredom, even loss of faith, etc.), you will not move on to maturity. You see, faith really is about moving outside your comfort zone, trusting God’s lead, instead of just forever shoring up home base. Too often early religious “conditioning” largely substitutes for any real faith.

Usually, without growth being forced on us, few of us go willingly on the spiritual journey. Why would we? The rug has to be pulled out from beneath our game, so we redefine what balance really is. More than anything else, this falling/rising cycle is what moves us into the second half of our own lives. There is a “necessary suffering” to human life, and if we avoid its cycles we remain immature forever. It can take the form of failed relationships, facing our own shadow self, conflicts and contradictions, disappointments, moral lapses, or depression in any number of forms.

All of these have the potential to either edge us forward in life or to dig in our heels even deeper, producing narcissistic and adolescent responses that everybody can see except ourselves. We either “fall upward,” or we just keep falling.

Blessed with restless discomfort and more

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

AMEN.

via An Access to Justice Prayer | Lawscape.

This Franciscan prayer caught my eye and stirred my heart today.  I feel like these are blessings I have received, though I’ve never really thought of them as gifts from above.

 

Holding lightly that which I’ve been given

Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.              Luke 12 :33-34

I started on this post nearly 2 weeks ago – with little more than a title and a quote, I saved it as a draft and forgot about it.  Then, a few days ago, I got a glimpse into what this is really all about.  It’s a bit of a  longish story, but here’s the elevator version:

Lazy morning in our pjs.

Rachel smells something odd.  I do too.

I scan the house to see if anything is melting/burning.

Smoke in the basement.

Get dressed fast.

Call 911

Grab a few “essentials” and get out of the house with child & dog.

First Responders, Fire, Ambulance, Police.

Fire in malfunctioning furnace is extinguished.

Cleanup begins.

 As we were exiting the house, not knowing exactly what was burning, nor how long until it would be extinguished, I briefly considered what I needed to carry out.  I grabbed my cell phone, my purse and my laptop (not sure about that choice but it is the tool of my work).  I wondered if I should take something else but I honestly couldn’t think of anything so precious it needed to be saved.  I knew Rachel was safe, Regis was safe and I would be safe.  (Anthony was at work and therefore not on my list of immediate worries.)  I knew we had appropriate insurance in place.  There was nothing in the house I thought was irreplaceable or that we couldn’t live without.

Rachel felt differently, of course, and worried about her many possessions – toys, stuffed animals, treasures and dolls.  Even the house itself.  It’s the only home she remembers and the thought it might burn was deeply distressing to her. 

Fortunately for us, the fire was soon out and we didn’t have to deal with replacing anything other than the furnace. 

But this whole event got me thinking more about how I need to hold lightly the many material blessings around me – for it all can easily vanish in just the blink of an eye.  If I am holding too tightly to the things that surround me, then those destructible things have become my treasure and the focus of my heart.  And at the end of my life, I don’t want to be found clinging to the moth-ridden, rusted and chipped bits I’ve accumulated when there is so much of obvously greater and eternal value that I might have otherwise set my heart upon.