(dis)placed

i've made meaningful headway
but i cannot stay
all the way.
so i want out
to move on.


but they act as if
i am being stupid,
for letting go
of a position
they'd fight to death
to keep.

[via life happens]

The thoughts that would have not otherwise occurred, bring doubt to the mind. The doubt that came to the mind, tested the fragility of relationships. The fragility of relationships is what leads to the cracks in trust.

[via English, August]

I do not lack for anything. All the tools are ready, dusted and clean. They await my procrastinating soul to just sit straight and push the boat along the stream of a new life, fresh and personal.

[via Mottled Memories]

The Wittenburg Door (formerly The Door Magazine)

Including the article Remembering Mike Yaconnelli by John Carney, an interview of Martin Marty by Ralph Asher, a new cartoon by Which Circle? and some things to reform by Ole Anthony.

In a time like ours, where fear takes on an apocalyptic dimension, it is extremely tempting to join a small group that calls non-members useless, dangerous, or evil and offers a unique sense of belonging to those who follow the rules.

But whether through distance or closeness, fear prevents us from forming an intimate community in which we can grow together, everyone in his or her own way. When fear separates or joins us, we can no longer confess to each other our sins, our brokeness, and our wounds. How, then, can we forgive each other and come to reconcilliation? Distance allows us to ignore the other as having no signficance in our lives, and closeness offers us an excuse for never expressing or confessing our feelings of being hurt.

---Henri Nouwen

From Parking Lot in the post About Seeing, Part 5:

A “what if” question is tasty, and demonstrates exactly an important power of “seeing:” once you see a desired future, you can’t put it back in the bottle. As Thomas King says about stories of transformation, you can do a lot of things, but you can’t say you didn’t hear it. Jonathan Schell, in The Unconquerable World, argues that this quality of real vision is what makes the democratic impulse so strong in people: once participatory democracy is unleashed on the world, it cannot be refuted. Taste freedom or inspiration once, and it’s hard to deny its full emergence.

“What if” questions bring the sophisticated process of seeing to a very practical point. I find that increasingly, my work is about helping people shift from one place to another. Any kind of transformation process requires this kind of forward viewing in order to provide some idea of where we are going. So I am finding “what if” questions, and the accompanying challenge to individuals - passion AND responsibility, remember - to see themselves in that new future to be useful in just about every context, be it planning, consultation, community building or organizational development.

Today, most of us live in a shattered world. A world of disconnected bits and pieces, so it is no longer easy to recognize our place. And when we can't see the connections, we fail to recognize causal relationships and therefore feel no responsibility.

-- David Suzuki in Planet S, emphasis mine

We must develop habits that will enable us to remember.

-- from The Long and Short of it: Ten Questions for an Aid Worker via beyond magazine

[Thanks Jordon Cooper for the link!]

Why Not?

Did you ever notice that nobody contemplates theodicies when things are good?
("Why, God, Why? I have terrific friends and plentiful food. How could this happen? How long, O Lord?")

At the same time, to ask the deeper questions of "why" aren't inappropriate for this time for the very reason that those who are suffering are asking those questions....Certainly we need to meet basic physical needs. Yet, as most any chaplain or disaster response professional will tell you, the emotional and spiritual scars are as great as the physical needs. To begin to ask "why" questions allows those of us to help those who suffer in processing their sense of abandonment.

[via Only Wonder Understands]