Roots, Ripples, and Still Water

Who are we really? Where did we come from? What were our ancestors like? What did they think about? How did they live? Were they farmers or carpenters or fishermen or lumbermen? How much of them do we possess? What did they pass down to us? I suspect there is more of them in us than we suspect!

From my Swedish grandfathers came a love of woods and lumber – the appreciation of smooth finished wood grain. My love of tools and intricate and precisely functioning machines probably comes from my German grandfathers. Throw in a little English and a bit of Irish and you find me. My thoughts and love of books come straight from my father. But ultimately who I am is my responsibility. The interests, inclinations and instincts that I inherit from my fathers are mine to use to master the knowledge and skills with which I want to form my life. By adding education – not schooling but education – real education where intellect, aptitude and the desire to produce come together – to those traits from my fathers and to those other teachers who come across my path I can begin to master skills to make my life count in the world.

As we master skills and knowledge there is another responsibility we bear. We need to teach the skills and knowledge to those whose interests bring them across out paths – whether our own children or simply others who are brought our way. True mastery is never acquired unless tested. And the purest form of testing is not necessarily in the performance of a task so much as it is in the passing on of that knowledge and skill. But not only the knowledge and the skill but also the passion that is required to actually master something. In that the master begins to send out ripples that will far outlive him. No master can ever be satisfied until those ripples are expanding endlessly around him. And he will know true success when those students begin to excel beyond his own skill.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt

As a man lives he must find time to set aside to reflect and to allow God to speak to his soul. Perhaps a busy man can only find 10 minutes a couple times a day for this important exercise. Other times perhaps a whole day should be side aside for this quiet, still water time. Time to read the Bible and pray – not bringing God a list of things we desire but listening instead of talking – time to allow God to instruct us as to how we should “be”. Life is too short to go through it without some serious consideration as to how we spend our days. Questions need to be asked: Am I fulfilling my reason for being? Is my work the best use of my knowledge and skills? Am I keeping myself in condition physically and mentally to live life as it should be lived? This quiet time is a still water time – not a time to making ripples but a time to dive deep into our souls and remember our God. A time to think about our roots and who we really are. A time to ponder the ripples we are sending out. Time to think about how we are affecting the people around us. Still waters are deep and time there is necessary – more necessary than ever as it is so easy to be distracted by busyness in our fast paced world. Time for still water is time to breathe. Time for a quick compass reading to make sure our “true north” principles are in mind as we continue to seek mastery of our chosen skills and knowledge – as we seek to create the ripples that will affect the world for good.

“The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is “look under foot”. You are always nearer the divine and your own true sources of power than you think,” John Burroughs

“Be not a slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime sea, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Be still and know that I am God” Psalms 46:10

Boundaries

BOUNDARY, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.~ Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914)

“Love the moment and the energy of the moment will spread beyond all boundaries” - Corita Kent

"There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination." - Edmund Burke

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves arou nd and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favour in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Henry David Thoreau






“Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one's liberty.” - Henri Frederic Amiel

"If we presume that the boundary of the universe is a kind of surrounding wall, then we think like ancestors who thought there's abyss at the edge of flat earth."— Toba Beta

"Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. Only the most naive of questions are truly serious. They are the questions with no answers. A question with no answer is a barrier that cannot be breached. In other words, it is questions with no answers that set the limit of human possibilities, describe the boundaries of human existence."— Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)







"Don't go overboard in praising required behavior: 'We have only done our duty' (Luke 17:10). But do go overboard when your child confesses the truth, repents honestly, takes chances, and loves openly. Praise the developing character in your child as it emerges in active, loving, responsible behavior." — Henry Cloud






The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

It is not the weight of the future or the past that is pressing upon you, but ever that of the present alone. Even this burden, too, can be lessened if you confine it strictly to its own limits. - Marcus Aurelius






A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.~ Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Today's Light

I took this picture this afternoon. Sometimes we gain understanding the way this drop gathered the light. Even on the darkest, most dreary days there is enough light. Maybe all the light we can take at this moment. And tomorrow there will be more to add to the light we found today. The key is to look for today's light and let tomorrow's come when it gets here!



^{Matthew 6:22; 32-34 (Amplified Version)}

The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your entire body will be full of light.

For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own.

I took this picture this afternoon! Sometimes we gain understanding the way this drop gathered the light. Even on the darkest, most dreary days there is enough light. Maybe all the light we can take at this moment. And tomorrow there will be more to add to the light we found today. The key is to look for today's light and let tomorrow's come when it gets here!




Matthew 6:22; 32-33 The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your entire body will be full of light. For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows.
For love is the beauty of the soul.
- Saint Augustine



Even from the darkest night, songs of beauty can be born.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.
- Rabindranath Tagore

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
- Carl Jung

New Year 2011

For Light

Light cannot see inside things.

That is what the dark is for.

Minding the interior,

Nurturing the draw of growth

Through places where death

In its own way turns into life.

In the glare of neon times,

Let our eyes not be worn

By surfaces that shine

With hunger made attractive.

That our thoughts may be true light,

Finding their way into words

Which have the weight of shadow

To hold the layers of truth.

That we never place our trust

In minds claimed by empty light,

Where one-sided certainties

Are driven by false desire.

When we look into the heart,

May our eyes have the kindness

And reverence of candlelight.

John O’Donohue, Benedictus

My word for the coming year is Light, I want to live in such a way as to be striving toward Light so that those around me feel more Light than Darkness. I want to avoid footsteps in my journey that keep me in the shadows of negative thoughts and patterns and choose trails that keep me more in the light of positive thoughts and expectations. Our world seems full of dire predictions and truly tragic circumstances and for this reason people need to seek Light and the discipline of mind and spirit to expect good and live with a mindset that accepts the abundance that is here in this life. Are there hard things to understand and live through? Of course, but the attitude we approach such things needs to be tempered by the knowledge that “all things truly do work together for them that love God and are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) This world was created to us to enjoy life in the Light of a relationship with God. We choose whether we walk in that Light of stay in the shadows. “For you were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord; walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Ephesians 5:8-9)

“The tree rises from the dark. It circles around the “heart of darkness” from which it reaches towards the light. A tree is a perfect presence. It is somehow able to engage and integrate its own dissolution. The tree is wise in knowing how to foster its own loss. It does not become haunted by the loss nor addicted to it. The tree shelters and minds the loss. Out of this comes the quiet dignity and poise of a trees presence. Trees stand beautifully on the clay. They stand with dignity. A life that wishes to honour its own possibility has to learn how to integrate the suffering of dark and bleak times into a dignity of presence. Letting go of old forms of life, a tree practices hospitality towards new forms of life. It balances the perennial energies of winter and spring within its own living bark. The tree is wise in the art of belonging. The tree teaches us how to journey. Too frequently our inner journeys have no depth. We move forward feverishly into new situations and experiences which neither nourish nor challenge us, because we have left our deeper selves behind. It is no wonder that the addiction to superficial novelty leaves us invariably empty and weary. Much of our experience is literally superficial; it slips deftly from surface to surface. It lacks rootage. The tree can reach towards the light, endure wind, rain and storm, precisely because it is rooted. Each of its branches is ultimately anchored in a reliable depth of clay. The wisdom of the tree balances the path inwards with the pathway outwards.”

Celtic Reflections on our Yearning to Belong.
Written by John O’ Donohue; Eternal Echoes-

© John O’Donohue. All rights reserved For more information and further reading visit www.johnodonohue.com

WHEN I AM AMONG TREES

by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks, and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,”

they say, “and you, too, have come
into the world to do this, to go easy,
to be filled with light, and to shine.”