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Are you a MOST or a SOME?

Most read books.  Some write them.

Most attend conferences.  Some create them.

Most fake intimacy.  Some live intimately.

Most love great design.  Some design.

Most listen to great music.  Some write great music.

Most point out problems.  Some solve them.

Most admire beautiful art.  Some create it.

Most receive generously.  Some give generously.

Most imagine what should've been.  Some imagine what can be.

Most criticize.  Some create.

Are you a "MOST" or a "SOME"?

Let's stop being afraid of those blank canvases that stare us down and scare the hell out of us.......and let's create.

Can't wait!

The Orchard's BBQ & Baptism.

Sunday, August 8th.  Mark your calendar now!

Wanna help make this another great BBQ & Baptism?  Details here.

Song: "Grace Already Won" by Carlos Whittaker.  Buy it here.

A Joyful Mind

Can't resist posting this...

In The Naked Now, Richard Rohr asks, "What might a joyful mind be?"  A few of his answers:

When your mind does not need to be right.

When you no longer need to compare yourself with others.

When your mind can be creative, but without needing anyone to know.

When you can live in contentment with whatever the moment offers.

When your mind does not need to be in charge, but can serve the moment with gracious and affirming information.

When your mind follows the intelligent lead of your heart.

When your mind is curious and interested, not suspicious and interrogating.

When you do not need to humiliate, critique, or defeat those who have hurt you - not even in your mind.

When your mind can think well of itself, but without needing to.

When your mind can accept yourself as you are, warts and all.

When your mind can find truth on both sides.

When your mind fills the gaps with "the benefit of the doubt" for both friend and enemy.

When your mind can critique and also detach from that critique.

When your mind can wait, listen, and learn.

When your mind can admit it was wrong and change.

When your mind can stop judging and critiquing itself.

When your mind can find God in all things.

May it be.  Amen.

Apologizing Well

Apologizing has become somewhat of a lost art, don't you think?  And to a large degree it's understandable because no one likes to admit failure - it's humiliating and when done well, there's no room for pride to stick around.  Which is why it's so hard to do!  Yet.....you know this as well as I do...apologizing well is one of the most powerful gestures we could ever show another human being. 

So here's five quick thoughts on how to do it well.

1.  Acknowledge your failure.

"I have failed you.  I've let you down.  I have done wrong."

2.  Acknowledge the impact of the failure.

"I have failed you....and as a result, I know I've caused you a lot of pain....I've put you in a very precarious position.....I have hurt you."

What NOT to say: "I'm sorry you were offended by what I did."  NO. That sucks.  Take responsibility.

3.  Tell them you're sorry.

"I've failed you....and I know it has caused you a lot of pain....and I just want you to know that I am truly sorry."

4.  Commit to change.

"....and I'll do whatever I can to make sure that never happens again."

5.  Shut the #*($&! up.

This is where we get into trouble.  Because the tendency is to add on:

"I'm sorry....it's just that..."

"I'm sorry....but I didn't mean it!"

"I'm sorry...it's just that you..."

No.  Don't make excuses.  Don't complicate it.  Don't qualify it. 

Fathers of the Second Chance

This is powerful.  A USA Today article about fathers in prison trying to be better Dads. Thanks to Dave Gibbons & Mike Foster for pointing me towards it.

Nurturing Creativity

Just watched this talk that Elizabeth Gilbert gave at TED last year.  It's beautiful and extremely freeing to any of us called to contribute on the canvas of creativity.

What Every Good Leader Knows

Been reading Richard Rohr's latest book, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. It's truly been one of the most soul-refreshing books I've read in a while. 

Rohr offers some great leadership reminders in chapter 21: "What Every Good Leader Knows".  There are too many for me to share, but here are a few that I've really resonated with. 

Good leaders are:

• Seers of alternatives.

• Move forward by influencing events and inspiring people more than by ordering or demanding.

• Learn to study, discern, and search together with their people for solutions.
  

• Know that total dilemmas are very few.  We create many dilemmas because we are internally stuck, attached, fearful, overidentified with our position, needy of winning the case, or unable to entertain even the partial truth that the other opinion might be offering. 

• Search for the middle ground where the most people can find meaning; they work for win/win situations. (This is hard to do if you assume you are the higher, the more responsible, the in-charge, the senior, the more competent - or once you have made a harsh judgment about the other.)

• Know that the rule of law and obedience can inform you only about what is illegal or immoral; it cannot itself lead you to God, truth, goodness, or beauty. (Romans 3:20 and 7:7)

• Know that when done well, compromise and consensus-seeking is not a way of abdicating essential values, but very often a way of seeking - and finding - other values, especially community-building, along with giving more people a personal investment in the outcome.

• Know that wisdom is "the art of the possible."  The key question is no longer "How can I problem-solve now, and get this off my plate?"  It is "How can this situation achieve good for the largest number and for the next generations?"

• Increase both freedom and ownership among the group - not just subservience, which will ultimately sabotage the work anyway.

• Let people know the why of a decision, and show how that is consistent with the group's values.

Some great thoughts & reminders. 

Leaders - which ones resonate with you the most?

The most beautiful thing...

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the source of all true art and science.  He to whom this "emotion" is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder, or stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.  His eyes are closed.

Albert Einstein