July 30th, 2017

July 30th, 2017


Affirmation:  I will seek our people who empower me. And I also empower myself.

I am a forgiving and loving person.

I appreciate, love, and respect my body. I will honor what it needs to grow emotionally and physically.


Word of the Day: lotus-eater (n):

1. a person who leads a life of dreamy, indolent ease, indifferent to the busy world; daydreamer.

syncretism (n):

1. the combination of different forms of belief or practice.

2. the fusion of two or more originally difference inflectional forms.

stravage (v):

1. Scot., Irish, and North England. To wander aimlessly.

2. to saunter; stroll.

Who Says Words with My Mouth

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.

Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to

be doing?

I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere.

I am sure of that, and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.

When I get back around to that place, I'll be completely

sober. Meanwhile, I'm like a bird from another continent,

sitting in this aviary. The day is coming when I fly off,

but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?

Who says words with my mouth?

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?

I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip

of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks.

I didn't come here of my own accord,

and I can't leave that way.

Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.

I don't plan it. When I'm outside the saying of it,

I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

Shams Tabriz, if you would show your face

to me again, I could flee the imposition of this life.

Looking into the Creek

The way the soul is with the senses

and the mind, is like a creek.

When desire-weeds grow thick,

your intelligence cannot flow,

and soul-creatures stay hidden.

But sometimes a flooding comes

that runs so strong

it clears the clogged stream,

as though with God's hand.

No longer weeping and frustrated,

your being grows as powerful

as your wantings were before.

Laughing and satisfied,

that masterful current

lets soul-creatures appear.

You look down,

and it's lucid dreaming.

The gates made of light

swing open. You see in.

Love for Certain Work

Traveling is as refreshing for some

as staying at home is for others.

Solitude in a mountain place

fills with companionship for this one,

and weariness for that one.

This person loves being in charge

of the workings of a community.

This other one loves the ways

heated iron can be shaped with a hammer.

Each has been given a strong desire

for certain work, a love for those motions,

and all motion is love.

The way sticks and pieces of dead grass and leaves

shift about in the wind

and with the directions of rain and puddle-water

on the ground, those motions

are all following the love

they have been given.

_____

An Experiment (On Institutions And Invisible Rules)

Put five monkeys in a room. Hang a banana on a string from the ceiling in the middle of the room. Put a small ladder under the banana. Soon enough, a monkey will proceed to the ladder in order to get to the banana. As soon as the monkey touches the ladder, spray the four other monkeys with cold water.

Before long, another monkey will go towards the ladder. As soon as he touches the ladder, spray the other monkeys again. Shortly, whenever another monkey attempts to ascend the ladder, the other monkeys will try to prevent him from doing so.

Put your water spray away. Replace one monkey from the room with a new monkey. When this new monkey sees the banana, he will go towards the ladder in order to reach it. To this new monkey’s surprise and shock, the original monkeys will attack him and present him from touching the ladder. Pretty soon, the new monkey will learn that if he tries to climb the ladder, he will be assaulted.

Now, remove yet another of the original monkeys and replace it with a new monkey. This second newcomer will likewise be attacked in response to his attempt to climb the ladder. In fact, the first newcomer will partake in the punishment with gusto!

Go on to replace the third, the fourth, and the fifth of the original monkeys with new ones, and the same thing will happen: each newcomer will be attacked when he takes to the ladder and each newcomer will learn to assault others who attempt to take to the ladder.

After all of the original monkeys have been replaced, you are left with a roomful of monkeys who never experienced the cold water spray. Yet, none of them ever again attempts or even thinks about approaching the ladder in order to get to the banana.

Why?

Because as far as they know, that’s the way it’s always been done.

(adapted from a popular strategic management parable)