Category Archives: Spiritual

The tough questions

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Photo credit:  OSU Special Collection and Archives

If winning isn’t everything, then why is the loser not congratulated?

If you can’t have your cake and eat it too, then how come some people are both attractive and smart?

If strong character is to be well-respected, then why are people with sturdy internal fortitude usually seen as extremists?

If love is all you need, then how come those who claim to love are still broken?

If we got here by a big bang, how come the people who study creativity seem to disbelieve in a creative genius behind this beautiful painting of life?

If women are so liberated, then how come I’m not sitting at home playing my piano, hosting parties and reading in the garden?

If beauty is only skin deep, then some of us will forever be destined as repulsive.

If creativity is not a career choice, then how come people still want to hear music while they work, visit art galleries at night and be inspired by beautiful things?

If it’s an ideal set in motion, can it become the real?

If dreamers are crazy, then how do we have light bulbs, airplanes and Mac computers?

Governed by pleasure

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vassar party

Photo Courtesy of The Flickr Commons of the Library of Virginia

Humanity loves pleasure.  It is innate in our being.  But at some point along our history as a culture- in America especially- we have become seekers of pleasure.  This is a terrible problem.  We are feverishly running toward something to numb us from pain.  We want to fill our lives and our schedules with things that make US happy.  We constantly think about the fun we will have at this and that or try to fill every evening with some enjoyable activity.  How often to we think “today, how may I serve the world?”  “how might I use a talent I have to bring someone to God or to make the world a better place?”

Pleasure seekers are sadly slaves to their own negative spirits.  They feel a need for something and strive to fill it with busy-ess and parties and people and drinking and gluttony.  They live for the weekend, because nothing good can come from working during the day.  The pleasure seekers push out anything that is uncomfortable or that may cause them to grow and learn in the process.

Letting pleasure drive us will ultimately undo us.  If all we ever do is follow what makes us happy, we will be led down various paths and follow various characters who look interesting at the time.  But with no focus and no direction toward developing a gift or reaching an ultimate goal will only lead us to chase ourselves and desires.

So I challenge you to sit outside yourself and look objectively at your heart.  Do you desire pleasure constantly?  Are you afraid of hurting or experiencing real emotions?  Do you constantly fill yourself with yourself?  Is the whole of your mental capacity existing of thoughts about what you would like to do and how you will get farther in your pursuits?  If it is, then it might be time to seriously evaluate your direction in life.  If you aren’t directed in a spiritual way, the realization that you can’t take it with you may eventually completely unravel you.

~lme

A Tale of the Moon

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Photo Courtesy of Nasa on the Commons

The earth does not rotate round the moon.  The moon dances around the Earth.  Because the moon knows her role.  Her place, her perfect suiting in time.  And she begins to understand true contentment.  She does not strive to be Jupiter or Pluto or even the Sun.  She allows the Sun to be itself and therefore the moon can revel in her illustrious moon-ness.  The moon doesn’t hop around to pluto’s moons to try them out nor does she decide to be for a time with Jupiter’s moons.  For should she do that, she would realize that all the insecurities she experiences or the difficulty of rotation is not so much different in their force fields as in her own.  She has seen the astroids who merely float around with no direction and decides that she will revel in who she is as the moon of the planet Earth.  She feels needed by the beings on Earth as they adore gazing up at her light each and every night.  She knows she produces the tides and other things that are needful in their own right.  She knows that no one else can fulfill the role which she has been given in the Heavens.  And because she knows who she is and is appreciated for who she is, she becomes truly blessed and contented.

~lme

What Fear can Teach Us

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Photo courtesy of : U.S. National Archives

Today, I listened to a Ted Talk by Karen Thompson Walker where she discussed the unconventional topic that our fears are shaped like stories.  She talks about how certain people have overactive imaginations… but what does this teach us about similarities between fear and the construct of story?

Our fears and our stories have similar construction.  They have characters, suspense and visuals.  In our fears, the main character is usually ourselves.  Our fears focus on question- what will happen next?  It’s just sometimes in an extreme way.  A story also involves some relation to time.  Humans are the only animals that do this- we project ourselves forward in time.  So when we fear something, we are usually moving into a forward moment.  Fears also show us how one specific event can effect all other events as in a complex narrative.

We should think of ourselves as the authors of our stories- but we should read our fears as well.  She also discusses the idea of productive paranoia.  This is when people who might fear something are actually able to translate that fear into action.  And sometimes our fears can even predict the future.

She also talks about what makes a good reader.  A good reader is both artistic and passionate, getting caught up in the story, but also possesses a coolness of judgment like a scientist.  We must have this ability to be overcome with emotion but have a sense of discernment about our minds.

I had never really thought about this concept that fears are like stories.  They are always circling and interwoven within some frightening story with many or few characters in our minds.  The story then can also be unraveled and changed in its course of direction then.  This can help us when we begin to get sucked into the undertow and succumb to our fears.

To hear the talk in its entirety, check it out here: http://www.ted.com/talks/karen_thompson_walker_what_fear_can_teach_us.html

Have a great tuesday 🙂

~lme

Karen Thompson Walker

Elsewhere Seeker

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Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress flickr page

I am an Elsewhere seeker

I’ve nearly always been that way

contentment don’t come easy

even when I’ve lived good days

But maybe I keep looking

because Earth wasn’t meant to hold me

so the elsewhere that I’m seeking

is a place I’ve yet to see

~lme

keep your sights set higher than what you can merely see.  Go out. do good.

Thistle Blues

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Photo Courtesy: The U.S. National Archives’ Photostream

Thistle blues… 

Verse 1.

The worldaround pretends to know

They tried to spoonfeed it

Down my throat

But I know lies

Are bitter weeds

The poisonsunk

Down to my feet

Not even those

Who seem like little lambs

are good as gold

you can’t seeshadows where they stand

but I’m so broke

because oflove

the holes don’t heal

just callus up

Chorus:

I know you had your reasons

Still I feltbetrayed

Even though you left the light

Where I made myself stay

If you wanted

the friendship that we had

I’d want a two way street

Promise something back

Verse 2.

You better be pretty

And look just like this

Or else you can’t make it

And you never will be his

But I know lies

Are anything but sweet

I don’t think I’ll listen

stomp them lies

beneath my feet

Bridge:

Stomp those lies

Way down down

Stomp those lies

Where they match the dirty ground

Stomp those lies

Beneath your feet

Stomp those lies

because

they don’t mean anything

~lme

Sacrificial Giving

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Photo courtesy of New South Wales Library

I’m not sure we (self included) really understand the concept of sacrifice.  It’s supposed to hurt us, pain us, cause us to ache.  So why don’t we feel that?  Probably because oftentimes we’ve never hurt for much in our lives or had really “consider the cost” when purchasing something or saving for material goods.

Sacrifice requires that we give up something very dear to us.  But often sacrifice, to me, has usually been whatever I felt I could give or what was comfortable to me.  But that is not how sacrifice works.  David said in the OT, “I won’t give to the Lord what costs me nothing.”  Are we that bold to speak such words of conviction?  Affection requires little, while love demands sacrifice.  Do I love God enough to say I trust Him? Think long and seriously before you answer that…. And when he says, I gave you a gift, and I want it back now (whatever capacity it be in), do I say no way or Your Will be done.  And sometimes it is like pulling teeth to get us out of ourselves to see the light of self-sacrifice.  My friends, what is required of you will be something you love so dearly that your tender, aching fingers are clenching it so tightly while you are begging God not to take it from you.  You may spend moments or nights in tears asking why, why He has taken what you loved?  The truest form of a trusting heart is one that is able to eventually say “take it Lord if you see fit.”  Have I gotten there?  Not yet.  Speaking to other musicians out there, it’s amazing how tightly we cling to something we want to define our being.  We’re selfish.  We’re whining babies.  And we want the glory all to ourselves.   This is a huge part of our walk with God- that we learn that it isn’t about us, the world doesn’t revolve around our wants and desires (contrary to popular American culture) and that love isn’t some fanciful, whimsical anthropology ad, facebook album or advertisement like we are spoonfed to believe.  True love doesn’t always look pristine.  It’s gritty.  It’s getting your hands in the dirty with others’ residue.  It’s sticking your neck out for someone.  It’s rubbing elbows with the less fortunate of society.  It’s being uncool to show kindness.  It’s sacrifice of self and more than you ever thought it would be when you agreed to follow Him years ago.

~lme

Get somewhere

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Photo credit: Geodesic

How to get somewhere in life.  Not that I have it all figured out…

  1. Narrow your search.  Your mom was right.  You can be anything… but you can’t be everything.  Focus your energy.  Figure out what you’re good at and let that be some of the fire in your career endeavors.  I realized that as a bounced like a pinball from hobby to hobby and activity to activity, I was getting nowhere in my professional life.  Once I narrowed that and began to work more often in specific areas, I felt I was starting to see some positive results.  They don’t come overnight, but once you invest several years, you can look back and see that you have made some movement in the right direction.
  2. Let Confidence always be combined with humility.  These two characteristics sum up how our attitude should be in the music industry.  I don’t care whether you’re a performer or a manager or a promoter or a studio musician.  We must all learn how to combine this sense of confidence and boldness in our talents without the air that we are better than others or in some way higher.  Never be considered more of a taker than a giver.  If you only come to people when you need something without first developing a relationship with them, they can smell your false nature stench.  Don’t be that person.  Or do.. but know that it will get you fewer true friends, fans and collaborators.
  3. Don’t expect perfection.  Laugh when you are ridiculous and accept that you are imperfect.  Always try to work each day to be better, but also don’t let failure ruin you.  Because you’ll fail a lot.  Well, I mean, if you try anything.  But if you don’t, you’ll never fail.  You will also become disappointed in situations and people, so don’t let it become the end of the world when it happens.  Something I am trying to work on is to not let my emotions be driven by the situation in which I find myself.  I must learn to cultivate a core character that is able to withstand many different situations and trials, not letting others dictate my emotions.  Do I fail at this still?  Yep, so much.  But it’s one of my goals this year.  Two months in- and I can see some tiny progress.  Being aware is at least part of that battle of change.

So take a breath, center yourself, narrow your search, marry your confidence with humility and don’t expect perfection. Happy Monday.

lme