GROWING BABIES
Don't Stay In Cribs
As athletes, as sports enthusiasts, as breathing, bleeding humans, as students or teachers or both, we are willing interns mentoring each other along our journeys. Learning. Discovering. Creating. Innovating.
“Wow!” is a favorite word around here. Eyes sparkle. Brows do weird things.
We hear, “Aha,” and we swoop down. What is it? What is it for? What’s that got to do with mois? Jaws off the floor, we begin to experience incredible leaps and bounds along our journeys following our unique answers to this simple question: what next?
No answer; no leap, no go. Bound!
We’ve discovered something else: the most paralyzing question is a mimic-question and it is this, “OMG! What if I choose that way and run smack into a dead end?”
Paralysis! Bound. Forty years circling tails through the dust. Fifty years? Sixty years? Fear of being judged! Fear of failing! Fear of being laughed at! Fear! The haters’ joy! {Reference: SBL}
INTELLIGENCE KNOWLEDGE WISDOM IMAGE
We Live. We look. We listen. We learn.
WE who KNOW BETTER DO BETTER: "Learning is one of life's most essential activities." Stop learning, you stop growing. You stop going! The journey ends. Whether we go or we stay life is full of surprises and there are daunting challenges on every terrain. Going, we can charge through these challenges; staying, they can pile up on us; they can bury us. Keep growing. Sow new seeds. Start where you are then make the next move. That move may be a step or a maneuver or a decision. Make the move. Then the next. Then the next. Toward your light. Toward your call. Toward your dream. Toward a discovery. Then the next move. Then the next, using lessons learned to inform the current moment, which equips you to make the next move! That move equips you for the next. Engage the moment.
Quite often what stalls us is a lack of drive, a tiredness, or fear! Most often, though, we are halted by one of, or a combination of, three stickier issues - three dangerous clowns in actuality:
a) incongruent principles
b) minding other people’s business
c) faith, trust, belief, dreams, desires, claims
Incongruent - Incompatible - Principles. We have plenty of these. Like platitudes on Sunday Mornings! Each laudible in its own place and time, but incongruent. You haven't resolved these for yourself in your particular situation. You hold onto them with an iron grip, like holding on to the tails of two stalking tigers roaming your cattle field. Let go of one, the other drags you slipshod through the bushes. Hold to both, they rip you apart. And still you won't let go, because you are convinced that letting go of those principles is a really bad idea. You are convicted. Imprisoned by incompatible principles. You have not catered YOUR FIELD. Things are tagged for you: good, bad. You tacked those onto YOUR BILLBOARD. Now they are like glowing red eyes staring down at you. You travel by Guilt! Now you'll go ONLY where the tiger goes. And that's not heaven. That tiger is hungry! The secret? Let Go, baby! God's got the whole universe. What have you got? {Reference: The Rat And The Alley Cat} Know what you believe. Understand why you believe what you believe and if and how and why and when you apply it to the current circumstances of your journey, but ALWAYS Show YOUR true colors.
Mind Your Business! Nothing holds you back like you minding other people’s business. Trying to keep them in check. Making them go the way you go, do what you do the way you do, because you’ve got it tight, now they are babies in your crib. You’ve got to keep your eyes on them. Constantly. You can’t sleep; peeking through the dark. Got to keep feeding those babies. Cranky babies! Not much time left for you to mind your own business. Oh, and guess what? These babies grow. Sooner or later you are exhausted. Let’s see what these babies are up to now:
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
Ooops! Now you have to corral them back into your cribs and hire watchmen - itchy vigilantes - so you've got to watch the watchmen. Babies grow. Growing babies don't stay in cribs. This brings us to our third dilemma. Before we face it, let's remember the secret to escaping this conundrum: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. Remember these too: what others think of you is none of your business; let your life light up the critics; give them work; show your true colors; create, innovate, grow; edify yourself; discover; empower somebody; no other person but you is responsible for your happiness, or your growth, or your achievemnt; every day gives you the same number of hours and minutes they got, so MIND YOUR OWN BABIES, which, incidentally, is the source of our third conundrum.
We Are All Single Parents! Yep, every last one of us. Immaculate conceptions! We've got babies. And those babies have got names. And healthy babies grow. When they don't you have to mind them that much longer. And you already know, don't you, what happens to growing babies left in cribs. And you ought to already know that sick babies left alone in cribs uncared for is a very bad idea. Babies die. Grief sucks. Funerals are expensive. So what must you do? Oh, do I have a brilliant option for you! GET RID OF THE DAMN CRIB! Free the babies! Don't panic. Think anew. Know your babies. Let's begin with the beautiful names of your brilliant babies:
faith, trust, belief, dreams, desires, claims
These are your babies. They’ve got your DNA. And yours alone! God’s DNA is ubiquitous. These babies don’t do well with surrogates. Your sister’s milk will sicken them. Your brother's clothes will itch them. Your parent’s love will spoil them. Your neighbor’s grooming will rile them. Your friends’ food will poison them. These babies are allergic to everyone but you. They respond only to you. You birthed them, you can't avoid parenting them. Nurture them well; they will grow from babies to children to youths to adults, alongside you. These are brilliant babies. They will tell you their needs every step of the way. They don’t listen to strangers. Ignore them and they will suffer with you. No one else sees your babies the way you do; they never can and never will. The secret to an enduring and fruitful relationship is simple: grow with them, they’ll grow with you; train them, they'll teach you; they are genius babies that don't abide being babies too long. Look at the mirror, you’ll see what I mean. (Reference: The HUNK I Dreamed and ILICET - A Time To Begin Again}
KEEP IN MIND OUR 'MIRROR IMAGE’: The three distinct but melded images revealed when an individual stands before any mirror - the images of Intention, Reflection and Projection, each having its own peculiar character: the character of the actor, the character of the mirror, the character of the observer. You'll need this.
Permit me to repeat the Master Of Ceremony:
"Don't allow yourself to be insuted
into compliance. Being you
is not being selfish,
unless being
selfish
is
BEING YOU."
... tAke noTe ...
I am born with potential. I am born with trust. I am born with greatness. I am created to be connected, I am necessary in this season. I'm born to make a difference.
NOT EVERYONE OBSERVING THE SAME IMAGE
WILL SEE THE SAME THING
"Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity." Chimamanda Adichie. Let's embrace all of our story. Let's own it all. Let it stand and it will stand the test of all time. LEARN SOMETHING NEW.
 
LET YOUR HEART TELL YOUR STORY
Light up the eyes around you
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P. C. Ritch, Esq.
GLOBAL
24 Hrs.
CURRENT R E F L E C T I O N
STILL SOWING
TRUE COLORS
NEVER await validation of YOU
This is your life; only YOU can live it.
"Do you see what I see?"
"Dunno! I see what I see."
Let justice roll down like waters 
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
In The Beginning!
God said,
Let there be light: and there was light.
God said,
Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
God said,
Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
God said,
Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
There is more, if you but engage the whole - not just a part - and discover with your own eyes and ears and heart and mind the breath, depth and vastness of hubris and ignorance, being aware in a manner that allows fruitful understanding . . . and think of such things, lest one finds one's self, unwittingly, so conned by the self-righteous, one casts aside the amazing creative capacity with which one is naturally endowed.
| Within this chapel, we strive continually to uplift, encourage, inspire and challenge each other to achieve our best in mind, body and spirit. We live, laugh, love, look, listen & learn from each other. |
new segment coming
MIRROR-MIRROR
ON THE WALL |
Our Weekly Personal Story Or Reflection
SEEDS IN MY HAND
(I am reflecting on a Previous Reflection)
The weather is quite peculiar of late. So am I, come to think of it. I have a peculiar relationship with time. We’re exploring each other. Nevertheless, a lovely day sprang through the wintry winds and I took advantage of it.
I went for a walk
around our lake
for a good think.
Ours is a lovely lake. Visitors enjoy it. They come a-plenty, camera-ready, in Spring and Summer and Fall. Models too, for their seasonal shots. And athletes.
It’s a private lake, actually, but why hog a good thing? It’s a well-designed lake with a winding athletic path – a mile or so. Lots of trees. Several springs shooting water up capturing rainbows.
Fishes. Turtles. Ducks of many kinds. Seasonal birds. Squirrels a-plenty. A friendly lot.
Not always so with people.
You know?
A question of trust.
Perhaps.
Let’s just say that.
I was wearing one of my hoodies and I was careful to put both hands in my pockets. I was probably smiling. No mirror to tell, but folks say I am always smiling. Sometimes I know I am, because a few folks would smile back. I like that. And, occasionally, for fun, when I come upon a frowner I’d make a point to frown right back. I know, I shouldn’t do that, but I like to have a little fun every now and then. Why not? My frown could frighten a mischievous cat.
There was a reason I had my hands in my pockets. You see, I walk a lot. A lot. A lot! You should try it. Often. And whenever I take my daily walk around the lake young ducks would come flying out of the lake to my feet, old drakes would come waddling out of the bushes, doves and pigeons would swoop down around me, and skittish squirrels would forgo their skittishness for a while. Oh, they so love me, I used to think. I was amazed. So, I’d feed them lots of little goodies. Guess you can say I was looking for love in all the wrong places. And the kiddy-cats started peeking.
I couldn’t help my amazement. And I didn’t leave it at that. Oh,no! I had to ask myself why they found me so attractive, so handsome, so have-to-be-with-him, that they’d come flying in from a distance. Did they have a sentry on guard looking out for me – you know – whistle when you see lover-boy coming.
Darn it! I should’ve left well alone. It wasn’t my drop-dead gorgeous features and my catwalk strut that were bringing in the posse, it was the bag of goodies in my hand. Darn it!
So I started leaving the bag behind. I noticed that the young whipper-snappers and flapper-flippers didn’t give me but a glance, but the old drakes would still come waddling towards me – if they weren’t too tired – and a few feisty squirrels would crane their necks from a tree. And I would feel bad that I didn’t walk with goodies for these ones that loved me regardless. But darn it, even these had in mind that I might have a little something in my hands. Nevertheless, because I didn’t want to disappoint them – such a softie that I am – I’d tuck away my empty hands.
Then this gorgeous spring day sprang through the wintry winds so I took to walking around the lake for a good think, hands in my hoodies.
Now there is an old man that comes by daily at a certain hour with bags and bags of goodies and the zoo would gather around him for a feast. This was not that hour.
A year or so ago I was so fascinated by the dedication of this man – pigeons on his head, squirrels in his pockets, ducks on his lap – I approached him to say hi. Let’s just say he looked at me with fear and trembling, so I never bothered him again, but I’d still wave or bow respectfully whenever I see him. Poor man, I used to think; is he OK?
Now on this peculiar day, hands in my pocket, I passed a mommy with her little girl who was stooped on the grass attempting to attract a duck that didn’t give a damn. I crossed our fancy bridge to the other side of the lake. There, a drake came waddling hurriedly toward me, but I had nothing to give, so I took my hands out of my hoodies and like a crazy proceeded with signs and sounds to apologize to the old duck for having to come so hurriedly to me for nothing. Just then I felt a shadow beside me. I turned and it was that very old man. Without saying anything to me the old man took my hand and he poured seeds into it. I smiled and the duck ate from my hand. A few seeds fell to the ground. The little girl came running over. She picked up the seeds and we both fed the duck, while her mother stood by with a frown.
So, you might ask: why am I telling you this story?
I have no earthly idea.
I reflect on what happened then knowing this now: some seeds fell on good ground. Some didn't.
I'll JUST KEEP
SOWING
SEARCH FOR THE GOOD STORIES
SEARCH THEM OUT
FIND THEM
HOLD ON TO THEM
THEY ARE EVERYWHERE
CREATE SHINY EYES
LOVED - NO QUESTIONS ASKED
Every Moment Is Precious
CHERISH EACH MOMENT
THANK YOU
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