• Edges of Light

    • January 17, 2011 6:51 am

    Dearest Readers,

    I quit the blog a while back to work on a new play I’m writing called GITA: God in the Army and I’m pleased to announce that I have finished the first draft. I’ve applied for a grant to workshop the piece in the spring and I’ll be performing a reading of it at a festival in May so momentum is most definitely gathering. Stay tuned.

    Yesterday I began to work on a new painting to give to a friend on her upcoming birthday and it’s been on my mind a lot since I put the brushes down. I often work from photographs I’ve taken and this one in particular is a close-up on a dark cloud with a luminous gold lining. I thought painting it would be a breeze.

    Not. Lemme tellya something: Clouds are not easy to paint!

    Because the cloud turned out to be more of an impression I’m thinking of adding some writing to the painting. Distract the viewer from the fact that the puffy puffs are a bit of a dog’s breakfast. I’m going to add, “every cloud has a” and then let the eye wander over to the edges of light.

    Those four little words have been running through my brain for the last 24 hours and so naturally I’ve found myself meditating on the entire proverb as well. “Every cloud has a silver lining.” Does it really?

    It does if we choose to see it. That’s the challenge we face as humans. Are we willing to see the good? Are we willing to find meaning in difficult circumstances? Are we willing to look beyond the darkness to where there are edges of light?

    It’s a choice. We don’t have to do anything. We can choose to see only hopelessness and futility if we like. And many of us do. Choosing the Light is diligent work. Maybe not for all of us. I’m always amazed when I meet people for whom joy is innate. But for me the conscious effort to see the positive and to find meaning in the day is just that. Conscious. Effort.

    It takes a certain amount of energy, commitment and determination to do this each day and you know what? I’m up for it. Because I’ve seen the proof written in the sky.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: I will make the effort to see the good in the bad, the beautiful in the ugly, the light in the dark. I will make meaning out of whatever I am given because there is always light behind the clouds.

    No Bull (Durham)

    • September 1, 2010 10:42 am

    Dearest Readers,

    “When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment, or the moment defines you.”

    Who said that? Abe Lincoln? Barack Obama? Susan B. Anthony?

    No, it was Kevin Costner, movie star.

    I came across this quote while I was preparing to do a speech for Toastmasters and I like it. The meaning is rich and it speaks to the choice that we all have to see the glass half empty or the glass half full.

    For example, Costner may be a multiple-Academy-Award-winning filmmaker but he’ll forever be remembered as the guy who made Waterworld. Does anyone remember that film as being anything other than a major bomb?

    But how would the Man Who Dances with Wolves remember it? Kevin himself, if we are to believe that he truly walks his talk, would probably choose to define the moment rather than have it define him.

    He might tell us that Waterworld made more than $242 million worldwide (and it “only” cost $175 million to make). He’d definitely tell us that it was nominated for multiple awards including an Oscar (okay, it was Best Sound but still…). By focusing on the positive, he would then be defining the moment rather than have it define him.

    During the speech I gave I shared a few stories from my past that I consider to be defining moments. Not because they were particularly glorious but because the circumstances surrounding each of them could easily have defined me, if I had let them. Instead, in each scenario, I made a decision to turn the circumstances around. I chose to see the positive.

    This kind of decision-making is being presented to all of us every day in myriad ways. It takes great courage to continue to define our moments rather than have them define us, to say “I did this” rather than “this happened to me.” Shifting our perception isn’t easy. We’re twisting the brain, so to speak. But by doing so we’re participating in our lives rather than passively going along for the ride.

    Just like Kevin Costner, Hollywood success story.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: How can I take a more active role in defining the big and small moments of my life? How can I see things in a more positive light? Today, rather than feeling like my moments are defining me, I will choose to define my moments by looking at the positive outcome rather than the negative.

    A Clean Page

    • August 17, 2010 11:09 am

    Dearest Readers,

    The other day I heard someone use a great metaphor for the trap of negative thinking. Imagine a clean, white piece of paper. Imagine a black dot is then printed on the page. What do you stare at?

    Sometimes I find myself staring at that black dot when all around me is purity and light. I just can’t take my focus off the blemish.

    Recently I did a performance of a spoken-word piece for a public audience and I asked a friend to record it for me so I could either post it on the website or on YouTube. A couple of days later I showed it to some friends who had been unable to see the piece live.

    After watching the clip I said, “Now that I hear it played back I realize that my delivery was too slow. When I’ve done it in the past it’s been much faster.”

    One friend agreed. “It needs to move along,” he said. The other friend didn’t think so. “I liked it,” she said. “I need to hear the words so I can process what I’m listening to.”

    Aside from the fact that this proves we performers can never please everyone, I became suddenly aware that I was again focusing on the black dot. I didn’t see what I had done, only what I hadn’t.

    This was not a profound revelation. I’ve been working on this for some time. The good news is that even though I focused on the black dot I didn’t beat the living daylights out of myself for what I’d done “wrong”. I simply observed it and committed to doing it differently next time.

    This is progress and progress is something to celebrate. It is vital to recognize these little victories in our lives as we move more and more into the White Space of self-forgiveness.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Am I too focused on the “black dots” in my life? Today I will shift my vision away from the blemishes and concentrate instead on Progress and Positivity.