Struggle

Lived experience…

so we are told is the greatest school of learning

Yet even the struggle comes from within

to seek knowledge, live wisdom

to aid those called to help

what if…

the one called

is the one in need?

13.5 years

since the night of blackness

since a crutch was thrown away

a mental break with the anger that seized

drove to be soothed

through a warm…strong…amber…liquid…

no longer soothed

released in grief

yet this genie needs no bottle

it is a demon tearing at the soul,

rending and ripping

as the aromas of long ago soothings once more in the house

BEGONE!

Release,

weep,

it is okay to cry,

true humanity embraces emotions,

lives into them

and out emerges a soul

that is ready for renewal…

But the struggle will always be

below the surface

for in all of us exists

the duel capacity of self—

love or destruction…

but one must choose…

Love

 

Related articles

• Anger, violent thoughts: Too sick to own a gun? (usnews.nbcnews.com)
• What’s so wrong with a Poverty Mentality? (soulsnet.com)
• The Soul Urge Challenge (omtimes.com)
• WW – Break from bleak (wagfarms.com)
• Struggle for Solace (saqibkhanaphorismsforlife.wordpress.com)
• Inner Struggle Photography – Dignity by Bence Bakonyi Depicts the Battle Between Body and Soul (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)
• The Soul Knows Its Way Home (fumblingforlight.wordpress.com)
• Life is a Struggle, Accept it! (catnipoflife.wordpress.com)
• Retreat in London with a soothing salty soak at Floatworks (queenofretreats.com)
• Inskincosmedics proudly introduces the new emerginC Scientific Organics Water Lilly Radiant Recovery Mask into Australian salons (prweb.com)

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Missing in Action Archives…

Op-ed piece on our brothers and sisters in homelessness (2000, Herald)

Lose the Soul, Lose the Community: The Role of Community in Healing & Ending Homelessness (Eisner Institute & The Mustard Seed, 2010)

Short-Term Mission Reasearch Committee (Canadian Theological Seminary, 2006)

ASQC Training Manual (1996)

The Problems with Killing (Theatreblitz 1996, Alberta Theatre Projects)

The Great War (Cecil Swanson School Library 1988)

BMX & Me (Cecil Swanson Newsletter 1986)

As well as thousands of stories, novels, plays, and a short-movie from 25+years of storytelling 🙂

To Make you go Hmmm…

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

WATCH: Arianna Huffington Interviews The Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama sat down with Arianna Huffington at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to celebrate his Templeton Prize, and discuss the importance of a productive conversation between spirituality and science.

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BLOG POSTS

	John L. Esposito: Racing Backwards Into the Future: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Regrettably, recent religious decisions in both countries are unfortunate reminders about the hurdles and pitfalls in the implementation of religious reform.
	Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie: Why Obama and Romney Should Share Their Religious Beliefs When candidates flaunt their religion or manipulate it as a political tool, Americans are angered. When candidates share their religious beliefs as a way of telling us who they are, Americans are grateful.
	Arianna Huffington: My Conversation With the Dalai Lama: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (VIDEO) To find the peace of mind that alone can replace an aimless search that for many has led to an epidemic of stress, anxiety, and drugs, the Dalai Lama is looking to science to convince a skeptical, increasingly-secular society of the power of contemplation and compassion to change our lives and our world. As he wrote in his 2005 book, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality: “The great benefit of science is that it can contribute tremendously to the alleviation of suffering at the physical level, but it is only through the cultivation of the qualities of the human heart and the transformation of our attitudes that we can begin to address and overcome our mental suffering.” For his decades-long passion to bring together science and spirituality the Dalai Lama was awarded the Templeton Prize today. I sat with him before the awards ceremony. Here is our conversation.
	Aaron Taylor: Was Jesus a Fundamentalist? When I was in my early 20s, a Bible teacher posed a rhetorical question that continues to haunt me to this day: “If Jesus was your only source of information about what Christianity should look like, how would you live your life?”
	The European Magazine: Talking to God: It’s a Brain Puzzle What happens when believers attempt to communicate with their God? If the brain did not evolve a system for conversing with highly abstract invisible entities, what brain systems activate when it does?

Related articles

• The Dalai Lama, Arianna Huffington Interview: His Holiness Discusses Compassion, Science, Religion And Sleep (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Arianna Huffington: My Conversation With The Dalai Lama: The Convergence Of Science And Spirituality (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on accepting the 2012 Templeton Prize (evolutionarymystic.wordpress.com)
• Dalai Lama wins Templeton Prize, says China suffers from ‘moral crisis’ (interfaith-spirituality.org)
• China slams Britain after Cameron meets Dalai Lama (sacbee.com)
• China protest at Dalai Lama meeting (thisislondon.co.uk)
• Dalai Lama receives 2012 Templeton Prize, gives away $1.7 million award (photoblog.msnbc.msn.com)
• China slams UK PM’s Dalai Lama meeting (thehimalayantimes.com)
• Summer riots were shocking ‘because British people are supposed to be sensible’ says Dalai Lama at St Paul’s Cathedral (dailymail.co.uk)
• Belief Blog’s Morning Speed Read for Tuesday, May 15 (religion.blogs.cnn.com)

Why Lead?

I must admit that one year ago today when I received the e-mail that I had been nominated for the greenhouse I was blown away.  Sure I had held leadership titles, commissions, ordinations, whatever, but I always and still see myself as a plugger trying to build a better world. This was a year of self-reflection and renewal. Yup my own personal reformation, for this work started for me when I was 8 years old when my elementary school challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to disarm, and it became a more localized human rights work when I was 15 years old and the first child sex trade pad was busted in my local pizza parlour so me and my friends started working with the original street teams, to 12 years ago this coming January 8, 2012 when I became associated with the Mustard Seed.

 

     It was a simple belief that following the love of Christ meant working for equality and inclusion in this world.  As I walked and talked with people from the Royal Canadian Legion and Veterans Affairs I realized that part of the renewal this year was seeing the same passions emerge within my own children. My son, Leland, who at 5 ½ years old and experiences life with Cerebral Palsy. According to the experts was never to leave a hospital bed and have a 1% quality of life, can now take 25 steps unassisted and anyone that meets him has stated that it is like meeting the love of God on earth, he’s my Preacher_boi that challenges me to continue in this world of inclusion, he wants to be a preacher. My princess, Justina who at four years old astounds her teachers with her imagination, but when a new person enters her class room she boldly walks up to them and says “Hi I’m Justina, let’s play you’re my new best friend”. My little ambassador.

 

     This year with the Greenhouse has allowed me to focus in on my personal leadership understandings and styles and to grow. I thank my peers and leaders for thinking I am a leader, and know that my personal vision of just making my own corner of this world a better place is my true calling as evidenced in my children’s actions.

 

A Matter of Perspective

I used to love the short lived Alien Nation t.v. show, but had never seen the movie, thanks to the bargain bins at Rogers (buy 1 get 2 free) I purchased it for the grand sum of $0. Shawna and I watched it last night, for the unitiated the series is set in 1991, an essentially an alien slave ship has crash landed in the U.S. of A under the Reagan Administration, the movie is placed one year after the 300,000 have come to earth and started to be assimilated into American Culture.

It is a traditional police procedural drama, much like Lethal Weapon or Beverly Hills Cop or Stake Out Vein.  The story is finding the murdered of Matthew Sykes’ partner, to do this he is partnered with the first Newcomer police detective Samuel Francisco or Sam Francisco, so Sykes dubs his partner George saying that the port authorities must have gotten quite punchy while handing out the 300, 000 monikkers. George, stipulates yes, unlike Sykes which in his language means cranium excrement, Sykes looked dumb founded to which George stated “Shit head in my language”.

So really what we may view as strange, is all a matter of perspective and context.