Monday, January 31, 2005

Your Sacred Life

Abraham Maslow said, "The great lesson is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbor's, friends, and family, in one's back yard."

I don't know about you but I often look to find things sacred to appear like an especially holy soul, a quiet meadow with golden sunlight, a church filled with clouds of incense, a meditating monk, a once in a lifetime feeling of oneness with God. But we are hardly ever in the perfect space, mentally or physically. Life has a way of wearing us down, the daily grind. I've started to know and appreciate the holiness, the sacred in my day to day existence.

I woke up the other night to the sound of my son calling out in fear, caused by a bad dream. I groaned as I got up and padded cross the carpet of my bedroom, trying to proceed quietly so as not to disturb my sleeping loved one. As I entered my son's room his figure rose from the middle of a tangle of blankets and his arms reached out to me as he said, "hold me Dad!" At that moment I was struck with an explosion of love and a sense of oneness with the world. This exquisite being, my son, was allowing me to be the one to calm his fears, the one to hold his hand, the one to make a difference. What a responsibility, what an honor.

When I truly stop and let down the walls of fear, the years of accumulated stress, the thoughts that I'll never be who I want to be, or I'll never have what I think I need to have, I begin to appreciate the gift I've been given. The gift is the experience of life. The gift is seeing the actions of God in others, seeing the eyes of God in others. When I'm centered and contemplative I see God in the littliest of things.

"Thank you Dad," my son said to me, and he nestled down in his blankets holding his Panda bear in a warm embrace. I kissed him gently on the head and he was fast asleep. As I made my way back to bed, joining the warm curve of my love, I thanked God for the many blessings in my life. I am surrounded by the sacred.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

You Are Powerful

A quick realization . . . You are in absolute control over how you feel. If you feel tired, put upon, depressed because of something in life that you feel you have no control over . . . Just choose it! I'm serious. If you look at a lot of things in life that you complain about, relationships, money, jobs etc., if you simply own the fact that it's yours and you chose it, the complaint goes away.

I have an aspect of my job that I wrote about in a previous blog that until recently has driven me crazy. It's doing the early morning weathercast at the station. For about 2 1/2 hours I do the same thing over and over and over again. It's like the movie Groundhog Day. Each day was dragging and I was bored. It turned around when I chose it! I simply accepted that it's a part of my awesome job, and that I was in control of my life and this was a part of my life that I choose fully. I now have a blast with it. I banter with our meteorologist during breaks and otherwise entertain myself, challenge myself, and I find the job I do is more fun. I also am doing a better job at it.

So choose what you do! And what you don't choose? Choose to change it!

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Is it safe to eat beef anymore?

I used to love a good slice of roast beef, a tasty steak or a juicy hamburger. But about a year ago I watched a video of how cows are slaughtered and processed and my wife Tricia and I decided enough is enough. We torture our cows to death and they are processed in horrible, potentially disease ridden places. It is only a matter of years before people start showing signs of mad cow. I think the danger is upon us already. I just came accross an article that pretty much states the case for why I don't eat beef, or most any meat for that matter, for health and ethical reasons.

Also, as a society we spend way too much money raising cattle to supply the ridiculous notion that we need the protein that meat supplies to survive. It doesn't take much sustenance for us as a species to survive in a healthy manner. We eat way too much, the portions are huge and our body is sloughing off most of what we shove in. Frankly it's disgusting.

Here are some statistics I found to think about.

Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million.

Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced
their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million.

Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 80.

Percentage of oats grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 95.

How frequently a child dies as a result of malnutrition: every 2.3 seconds.

Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on an acre: 40,000.

Pounds of beef produced on an acre: 250.

Percentage of U.S. farmland devoted to beef production: 56.

Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce a pound of beef: 16.

What good is meat for the body? ZERO! Contrary to popular belief, meat is not the type of protein that the body needs or utilizes.

So, why would you eat meat? There can only be one possible reason left to eat meat, and that would be taste! Let me ask you this question! In a world that is so rampid with disease and where one in every three people will get cancer, why would you want to eat something just for the taste when it can do your body not much good at all, and in fact will do more harm then good? For me the answer is simple!
"I don't!"

Think about cutting down the amount of meat you eat. Think about not eating beef at all anymore. It may just save your life.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. -- Mohandas Gandhi

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Get in the Game of Life!

Something I've been dwelling on for awhile, actually struggling with, is the disparity of living conditions in the world.

I was sitting down to breakfast not long ago with my wife and came across an article about Rwanda and the horrible ethnic genocide that's continuing there. I was just overwhelmed with a sense of grief and horror. How could that be happening on the planet while I'm sitting warm and safe in my kitchen eating a bagel with cream cheese? I was really struck with the overwhelming thought that until I accept the fact that on some level I'm just as responsible for the genocide as the person with the gun or machete it will always be. Until I own that horrible part of myself and humanity it's going to continue. Until I take steps to further myself, my neighbor, my community, it will always happen.

Martin Luther King said, "I cannot be who I ought to be until you are who you ought to be." How true. What a monumental statement. He was a person who shifted his focus of life from I to ALL. He lived his life out of possibility. The possibility that all humankind could be equal. So he made declarations that called him forth into action. He made declarations that transcended who his past declared him to be. He created possibilities that literally gave him the steps he needed to take in life to make those possibilites real. Those possibilites were too big and too threatening for some so he was killed.

So the challenge I'm taking on is to be courageous in life. To make declarations so bold that I am called forth to be so much bigger than myself. I'm going to use the time I have left on this planet to make a difference: with my son, with my wife, with my friends, with my community, country and world. I will be in action everyday to end war, end genocide, and help make our planet heaven on earth.

To sit idly by and watch TV, read the paper and comment offhandedly how terrible it all is, is to do nothing. We are so tempted to view it as a movie, a car wreck, with fascination and maybe a little sympathy. We need to own each others humanity. We need to realize that we are all one of the same family. My heart and soul breaks for the families lost, seperated and broken from the tsunami. I pray everyday for them, for us and for me. For we are all one.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Worldwide Changes About to Occur?

Here I am, It's 4:30am and I am sitting, waiting to punch us on air, direct and assist the morning meteorologist to dispense weather info to the masses of Lawrence and surrounding communities. I have the routine down pat, I do it with purpose but in a rote sort of way. It's a part of my job that I don't relish but it is a neccesity for the station and one us 5 directors all share. But setting here doing this with so much else going on in the world is difficult for me. How to not be overwhelmed at the changes, the happenings, the injustices and the suffering?

The war, the tsunami, the flooding in Europe, the flooding in California, the ice shelf's increasing self annihalation, the slowing of the oceans' currents, the individual atrocities that bombard us every single day on the airwaves. They seem to be coming to a head. The earth is starting to fight back at our disregard. God is starting to teach us in bigger and bigger ways.

I've always been one to listen to the messages God sends me. Or at least be aware of the fact that God can and does talk to us in little ways. When one is open to it you start to notice some sort of guidance, nudges and sometimes pushes to go in a certain direction. I've always shared with friends that sometimes when God is trying to teach you a specific thing you'll start to notice a repeated pattern, happening or thought that occurs over and over and over until you finally get it. When you don't get it God sometimes deals you a haymaker upside the head. This might appear as a car wreck, a blown knee, a broken marriage or the death of a loved one. I'm not saying God does these things to us, or others willy nilly without our acceptance. All of us on always agree on what happens to us. We create our own reality and our soul always . . . ALWAYS knows best. It is through the soul that God talks to us and guides us in ways miraculous.

What does all this have to do with what is going on in the world right now? Everything! God is dealing us all a haymaker! We have all agreed on a mass, worldwide scale to have the craziness, horror, terrifying conditions rain down on us. We have crossed a threshold that we'll be hard pressed to back away from. Are you ready?