Tag Archives: learning

Soul Searching

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My soul has always held a deep fascination for me because I can never quite grasp the full concept of it. Therefore, I’m taking a six week course called Soul Keeping. It is based on a book by John Ortberg, pastor, writer, and speaker in Menlo Park, California.

Last night his video touched on a passage from Dallas Willard’s book, Renovation of the Heart:

“Our soul is like an inner stream of water, which gives strength, direction and harmony to every other element of our life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and exuberant in all we do because our soul itself is then profusely rooted in the vastness of God and his kingdom, including nature; and all else within us is enlivened and directed by that stream. Therefore we are in harmony with God, reality, and the rest of human nature and nature at large.”

I also learned that the four parts of a human being are soul, body, mind, will. The soul encompasses the other three parts and the course goes into each of these aspects of our being. I was aware of these four parts but unsure of their order.

This course promises to be a very good learning experience and may give me the answers to my soul searching.

 

Life is for Learning

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Here is something I found in one of my journals. Unfortunately I didn’t make note of the source, but think it is worth sharing.

Your life is a learning process–you can become wiser only by learning. Sometimes you might have to attract making a painful mistake to learn something important, but after the mistake, you have far greater wisdom. Wisdom cannot be bought with money–it can only be acquired by living life. With wisdom comes strength, courage, knowing, and an ever increasing peace.

This post is a duplicate of one titled About Wisdom posted on August 19, 2014. I didn’t do this intentionally, but I think I’ll let it stand, mainly because Solomon’s wisdom has been a recent topic.

 

 

Learn from the Best

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This quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe was in part responsible for me writing my book, My Precious Life. Procrastination had prolonged my beginning it until I read this quote for the umpteenth time, and along with the encouragement from my family, finally sat down and seized the very minute on December 26, 2012.

Here then is Goethe’s famous quote:

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute.

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Only engage and then the mind grows heated;

Begin and then the work will be completed.

I am pleased to say the work has been completed and My Precious Life is the result of finally seizing the minute.

I love learning from the best.

About Wisdom

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Your life is a learning process–you can become wiser only by learning. Sometimes you might have to attract making a painful mistake to learn something important, but after the mistake you have far greater wisdom. Wisdom cannot be bought with money; it can only be acquired by living life. With wisdom comes strength, courage, knowing, and an ever increasing peace.

I’m not sure where I read or heard this, but was obviously wise enough to make note of it.

Mrs. Conclusion Jumper

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I have a son who has an amazing sense of dry humor, a quick wit, and the ability to laugh you out of a somber mood with a mere turn of a phrase. There was a time, in his teenage years, that I took him to task for an imagined offense because my mind mistakenly raced ahead of his explanation of his whereabouts on a particular occasion.

When I apologized for misjudging the situation, he quietly said, “That’s okay, Mrs. Conclusion Jumper.” No animosity, no recrimination, not a tinge of resentment was forthcoming from his seventeen-year-old mouth; just “That’s okay, Mrs. Conclusion Jumper.” I’ve never forgotten that sentence, and it was a sentence in more ways than one–because I did jump to conclusions more often than I cared to admit. It was a life lesson.

How many times do we jump to conclusions, mistakenly taking something totally out of context, and in that very act, potentially destroying a lifelong relationship or friendship?

The wonderful thing about life is that it gives us so many chances to learn its lessons. It sends people to us like this dear son to point us in the right direction, to make us aware of our shortcomings, and to change our way of thinking and looking at things.

It is up to us to learn these lessons, wherever and from whomever they are coming. It is up to us to see that we just might have come to the wrong conclusion.

I would love to think that some who read this blog will get just a little bit of insight, but…I don’t want to jump to conclusions.

 

Living to Learn

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Do you love to learn? There is not a day goes by that I do not yearn to learn something new. Realizing that even pain is a chance to  gain an insight into life’s lessons, what I’ve learned over the past couple of days is to listen to my heart even more often, and to search it for clues as to what brings so much distress, both to ourselves and others.

What I learned (although it is really a re-learning) is we cannot control other people’s thoughts, nor how they choose to interpret life’s messages (and life offers so many messages), or if they even want to learn. How are we motivated to look at life and its challenges? By paying attention to what shows up on our blackboard, and not being too hasty to erase it without looking at all the angles (hypotenuse not included).

Of course, all this is in my humble opinion, but one thing that came out of this morning’s soul searching is the following new poem. It has been a while since a brand new poem has shown up on my pages, and here it is.

BUT WHEN WE DO

Is to love those more

who love us less,

the answer to

broken-heartedness?

Love heals all things,

the pain subsides,

though tears at times

still touch our eyes.

Help us Lord,

to learn from pain,

that we may not

cause hurt again.

But when we do,

may we be wise

and brave enough

to apologize.

.©2014

I’m learning that as life draws to a close, though we expect to live happily ever after in our winter years, the damn snowballs keep flying! And I’m too old to duck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is Anyone Listening?

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Yesterday I posted a blog about a friend of mine who is dying of cancer. I described her plight and asked for prayer. Guess what? The blog received 0 comments and 0 likes….with two exceptions; one via email from a friend who said this:

WOW, that was powerful! I found this blog especially
poignant…….You have really missed your calling! I get far more
out of your blogs than going to church and listening to a sometimes
boring sermon. You have really had a positive influence on my life.
So, maybe you should continue on with what you are doing and get the
word out there to people like me. I am serious about this! Keep up
the good work.
Your forever grateful friend….Sandy F.

And this from a friend on Facebook: My prayers were given…God bless her! Gail J.

For them, I will continue blogging.

Other than that….Nothing. Zero. Zilch.

So I’m wondering…what are we doing with all these messages coming our way? Reading them and saying…”Oh, that’s nice” or “What a load of crap!” OR thinking, “that’s not my problem, I have other things to write about.” Is anything getting through to us?

That ZERO day almost caused me to give up on my goal of one hundred blogs in one hundred days. But thank God, Jesus did not give up on me because he was too busy doing other things or thinking of other people, or attending His own agenda. So I won’t give up either.

King Solomon said in Proverbs 1: 5–let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance–

My friend is still dying of cancer, and I am still asking for prayers–please and thank you–is anyone listening?

 

 

 

Advice Well Taken

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On July 5th, I posted “Some Good Advice”. It seemed to be a bit of a flop. Always curious as to the “why” of things, I wondered if a different title and some serious editing would change the results; so here is my first reblog….

The first time I was asked to prepare and present a prayer to our congregation a few years ago, my knees knocked, my voice trembled–no–shook, and my mouth was so dry the words seemed to stick to the roof of it.

Once, I was asked to write a poem and read it aloud to over two hundred and fifty people. The thought terrified me, but it was for our Pastor’s tenth anniversary, and rather than disappoint, I pushed through the same fear and symptoms as the first time.

At some point I came across the following advice taken from different sources, and it eased my speaking burden somewhat. It also appeared to put a new slant on my writing; I found words seemed to come much easier. I’d like to share it with others who may sometimes feel the fear of facing an audience with their own written word.

ON SPEAKING/WRITING–

Polish and elegance can sometimes leave an audience quite cold. Experience and sincerity never fail to move them. We can never bring to anyone else an experience which we have not had ourselves.

We must always be willing to learn about ourselves. The last thing that most of us know is ourselves. It takes humility to know oneself.

Ask God for a calm spirit and the right words to say.

Unlock your inner strength; talk of those things that will make people the better for listening to you (R.W. Trine)

God gave you a message to share…don’t keep it to yourself. (Our Daily Bread) (I think!)

The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary. (Isaiah, 50:4)

I am the Lord your God…I have put my words in your mouth…(Isaiah, 51:15,16)

Even as the Lord was preparing you to serve in his church, he was preparing others to be in a position to receive what you have to give them. He has paved the way for your ministry to be effective. In other words, others need what the Holy Spirit prompts you to prepare and give them. (Relying on the Holy Spirit…Charles Stanley, page 90).

Looking back, I can see how all of this advice worked for me in three talks I gave: Not to Worry, The Way I See It, and one about My Precious Life, before it was published.

Was it advice well taken? I think so.

 

 

 

Great Quotes by Great People

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Over the years I have collected many quotes from many sources, and I’d like to share a few today. Quotes are a wonderful way to spice up our minds, especially when they come from the hearts and minds of great people. (My comments are in parenthesis).

Let me start with this one from Confusius:

I hear, I forget…I see, I remember…I do, I understand.  (This has always made sense to me.)

Imagination is more important than knowledge…Albert Einstein.  (More than one knowledgable person will dispute this.)

Our doubts are our traitors…William Shakespeare. (I don’t doubt this!)

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?…Robert Browning. (Can you feel yourself reaching?)

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear…Zen Proverb. (This has actually happened for me.)

Do more than touch, feel. Do more than look, observe. Do more than hear, listen. Do more than listen, understand. Do more than speak, say something…John Harson Rhoades. (Try this, it really awakens the senses.)

You must enjoy the moment rather than waste it with feelings of wanting, wanting, more, more. It is very necessary to be content or you spoil the time you have…Gina Lollobrigida. (Being content in a moment without the the immediate need for another, is sublime.)

“Be still and know that I am God…” God. (This is only one of His many.)

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! What you think you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Only engage and then the mind grows heated. Begin and then the work will be completed…Johann Wolfgang Goethe. (This one is responsible for my forthcoming book…I began and now it is completed.)

Let there be spaces in your togetherness for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow…Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet). (This has been one of my favorites for years, and can be great advice for relationships.)

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away…William David Thoreau. (I wonder if this is why I particularly love the drums.)

When you are yourself, expressing who you are and giving the gift or talent that you were born to give, that is how you spread the greatest amount of love and peace in the world. That is your special, unique way of making a difference…Robert Allen. (Would that we could all make a difference. Once again, imagine if we try.)

More tomorrow….