“Live as if you were living already for the second time, and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now.”
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Welcome! Thanks for checking out my blog about music, worship, and trying to join God in his work to restore the world. I'm excited to share some ideas – in both directions. Let the conversation begin. . .
“Live as if you were living already for the second time, and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now.”
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
“The demand is liberation; the emphasis is connectedness; the corrective is suffering; the power is imagination; and the vocation is tikkun olam — the repair of the world.”
- Maria Harris, in her book Proclaim Jubilee: A Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century
“Remember that when we are present, we see that there really is a Divine plan, and that it is happening right now. Consciously participating in the miraculous unfolding of reality is the Holy Work, and it is the greatest source of satisfaction that we can have.” (Understanding the Enneagram, 56)
What stops you from being fully present in each moment? For me, there are two things: (1) My iPhone. Instead of thinking or praying as I walk to my next work meeting, I quick flip through Twitter world. Instead of fully engaging with Henry at the park, I half watch him play…half dominate the high-stakes tables of Texas Hold’em. It’s a problem. (2) Dreaming about the future. They say that you’re biggest strength can easily become your biggest weakness, and being futuristic is mine. I can be so caught up in the potential beauty and excitement of the future that the present feels cruelly boring. Or even more insidious, when the present feels overwhelming and threatens my idealism, the future is a safe place to hide. Once again, this can be quite a problem.
What about you? What stops you…AND what keeps you present in the moment?
“Learn from the fringe. It’s true for music, fashion, business, and the arts: the future starts on the fringe, not in the mainstream. As William Gibson once said, The future has already happened, it’s just unequally distributed. To see it coming, we have to pay attention…” (Gary Hamel)
“We seem to have focused so much on exuberant beginnings and victorious endings that we’ve forgotten about the slow, sometimes tortuous unraveling of God’s grace that takes place in the ‘middle places.’” (Sue Monk Kidd)
“We must be willing to be uncomfortable for a while if we wish to be released from whatever has bound us.” (Understanding the Enneagram)
“I want to be remembered as someone who used herself and anything she could touch to work for justice and freedom … I want to be remembered as one who tried.”
Dorothy Height, who died Tuesday, a founding matriarch of the American civil rights movement.