Finding good anywhere, sharing it everywhere
What lessons, what lessons? There are always new things to learn, old things to remember.
When doing inventory work, here are the basics you should have, beyond your digital or paper reference:
1/ pen
2/ marker
3/ blade (to open the box).
4/ packing tape, tape gun (to close said box).
Be methodical; always methodical. Don’t rush. Take your time.
Things may not be obvious. Items may not be where you expect them.
Stay with the count. And remain humble.
“Do or do not, there is no try.” So Yoda said to Luke Skywalker during his initial Jedi training.
Silly language from a muppet character in a sci-fi movie? Maybe. But there’s also some essential wisdom to be had.
I know first hand.
“I’ll try…” has been a central tenet of my effort just about all my life. Born from self-doubt and plenty of trial and error, I’ve learned it doesn’t always go as intended.
The key point is: take action that has the intent to accomplish the given objective, the given set of tasks. Dare you even be audacious, and strive to be completely successful in the effort..
DO SO.
Quoting James Martin, S.J., as we remember these brave men and women who were murdered 30 years ago this weekend, because they stood for social justice, social change for the people.
“These men and women paid the ultimate price for standing with the poor and marginalized in the name of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:30). AMDG
— Read on :
On November 16, 1989, Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J., Segundo Montes, S.J., Juan Ramón Moreno, S.J., Joaquín López y López, S.J., Amando López, S.J. and Elba Ramos, a housekeeper for one of the local Jesuit community’s, and her 15 year-old daughter Celina Ramos, were murdered at the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador.
The lives and loss of these martyrs have significantly influenced the Ignatian family in the United States and throughout the world. Jesuit institutions have re-defined what it is to be universities, high schools, parishes, etc. in light of the martyrs, discerning new ways of addressing issues of social justice locally and abroad. Across the Ignatian family new ways of proceeding have developed over the course of twenty-five years. ISN is a direct product of the spirit of the martyrs, forming in response to their tragic deaths at the hands of many individuals who received training at the former U.S. Army School of the Americas.
Lucky for the little things. Lucky to be married to a great human, smart and patient and beautiful and thoughtful. Eleven years married, a mark we just passed.
And so we’ve got a little gettaway planned. Nothing fancy, but it happens to be my favorite format: short escape to a place not far away, but quite different than the usual, all the same. In the shadows, to the north, looms gray-green San Pedro Mountain and inland hulks pristine Montara Mountain.
And it’s a chance to be just the two of us, rather than we five as we usually are, when we’re with our three kids too. Lucky to have this little escape.
An overnight on the coast, a couple hikes, a nice dinner, just the two of us, so fortunate, so blessed.
A gettaway, what a nice treat.
This day feels light. Fridays often do.
Weird really, it’s just another day. But it feels lighter some how, more relaxed, more at ease.
The routine much the same, still plenty to do. A busy day on the calendar, and still somehow not the same.
So I’ll leave it right there, rather than drilling on down. I’ll leave it right there and not overthink. I’ll just be grateful for that little bit of magic,that easy feeling to start the day.
But what I will do is this: I’ll try a little harder to make it an extra good today; for myself and for those around me, a little extra good. An extra smile, some extra effort, extra kind of given the chance.
A little more magic if you please. Yes. Yes! YES.
You’ll need 44 minutes, but it will be well worth it, to listen to this podcast…to understand Islam today.
