1. One should either find a way or make a way.

   2. Never let defeat have the last word.

   3. To aim is not enough, must hit.

   4.Winning is not everything but the effort to win is.

   5. Success is a destination, not a journey.

   6. Failure is an event, not a person.

   7. There is no substitute for hard work.

   8. Insincerity is manipulative.

   9. Take time to quiet.

  10. The secret of concentration is the secret of life.

  11. One must be on top of change lest change will be on top of that one.

  12. Human beings can do all things only when wills to do.

We have become obsessed with effectiveness which, according to Parker Palmer, means that we take on smaller tasks. For the bigger tasks, like love, mercy and peace we need a different measure. That measure is faithfulness.

From effectiveness to faithfulness from Center for Courage & Renewal on Vimeo.

“Cozy”

I sip in stillness

tea’s rare silent solitude

sweet, deep reverie

****

“Swift Transition”

Ev’ryone comes back!

reverie? no! upheaval

now, where was I, tea?

****

“GAH! (epilogue)”

sinking in too late

how did it and I become

so noisy, my fate

**blessed,

grateful **

“After a long and arduous journey a young Japanese man arrived deep in a forest where the teacher of his choice was living in a small house he had made. When the student arrived, the teacher was sweeping up fallen leaves.  Greeting his master, the young man received no greeting in return.  And to all his questions, there were no replies.  Realizing there was nothing he could do to get the teacher’s attention, the student went to another part of the same forest and built himself a house.  Years later, when he was sweeping up fallen leaves, he was enlightened.  He dropped everything, ran through the forest to his teacher, and said, “Thank you.”

– John Cage sharing an old Zen story in his book Silence

I am going to reblog a poem that I wrote for my daddy, but first a bit of his life story, I hope you enjoy it, his adventures in life were many, as were the heartaches and pain.

It is my father’s birthday, although I wish he were here with me, he would have been “110 years-old” He had just turned eight years old when his mother died, he went to live with his Native American grandmother, as his mother and father were divorced after his father left them sitting in an empty weathered house after he removed everything.

Unfortunately at the age of ten, his father came after him, he lived with his father, slept in the barn, ate on the back porch; treated as a farm laborer.  Not allowed to visit his beloved grandmother, he dreamed of running away.  When he was twelve, his father put him to…