Stuck... A book

I was in Saskatoon the other week for a workshop and picked up a book at the airport to while away the hours before my flight. The book grabbed my attention both for it's title and it's cover photo... "Stuck: Why we can't (or won't) move on"

And a bee stuck on a lollipop... Hmmm.... sounds kind of RTS'y... so let's give it a whirl! (cover photo from http://www.chapters.ca/... in case you're wondering!)

The premise of the book is simple... that we get stuck with things... or in things... There's only 6 chapters... Stuck in the Past, Stuck in the Present, Stuck on Habits, Stuck on Trauma, Stuck on Others, Stuck on Work. Hmm, that seems to cover a lot of people!! Some of us stuck on one thing... some of us stuck on more than one... and some of us stuck on all of them!

I guess the question the book invites us to look at is... what are you stuck with/on/in?? We're all stuck with something... What is it for you? I'm going to scamper through the 6 chapters in 6 blogs, just to give you a sense of what the book suggests... Take a look and see what you think!

Sun and Moon

Have you ever looked up at the sky and noticed that the sun and moon look to be the same size? We... in with our modern science... know that they aren't, but... when you look at them with the naked eye, they do look very similar... particularly if you have a solar eclipse! How does that happen? How is it that the moon is just the right size, and the sun is just the right size... and the distances between the earth and the moon and the sun are all just the right distance, for it all to come together? Kind of cool I think! It turns out that the sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon, but the sun is also about 400 times farther away so... it all works out to... looking the same size. Except, not really. The moon has an ellipitcal orbit around the earth, so sometimes it looks a bit smaller and sometimes a bit bigger, and so sometimes we see more of the sun's corona than at others. Think of all the scientific knowledge we've gained about the sun because we can see solar flares and the corona during an eclipse... Also interesting to note that the moon's orbit is slowly getting bigger (about an inch/year) around the earth, so it's getting slightly farther away. Millions of years ago, the moon would have appeared bigger... and there'd be no solar activity visible... A few million years from now, the moon will appear smaller than the sun... and not total eclipse... Coincidence?? What would your world, our mythology have looked like if we had had a moon that appeared much larger than the sun... or much smaller than the sun? Or if we had had multiple moons? I don't know... just thinking it's kind of cool!

Birds

Last month I was up in NW BC, driving from PG to Terrace. It was nice an sunny and the snow was mostly gone. The road was wet in many spots and there were flocks of little birds collecting on the highway, pecking away at puddles... Not sure if they were drinking water or have a salty drink! Anyhow... They were pretty kamikaze about it all... Maybe they were just playing a game of chicken. I could almost hear the one of them yell out "car!!"... and then they would wait until the last possible moment and then fly up in the air... Needless to say, my truck ended up wearing several of them as grill and hood ornaments. Not nice!!! So I ended up honking when I'd see a flock of them on the road. That definitely helped, but even then.... some were just a bit ditzy and still managed to zig when they should have zagged!! It was quite sad actually, driving along and seeing little bird carcasses all along the highway... poor little guys... Maybe it's a bird boot-camp thing?? Survival of the fittest/smartest/quickest??

Iceland

It's kind of cute when all of a sudden geology becomes front page news... for days and days and days! This little volcano in Iceland is causing quite a stir and it will be interesting to see how we handle it. There was talk on the news of an Icelandic volcano that erupted in the 1700's and if it erupted to the same extent today, we'd be looking at no air travel in the northern hemisphere for a year... Now, that would be devastating... I'm thinking of all the air cargo that is sitting around... fresh flowers waiting to go to England... mangos and pineapples waiting to get sent over... mail!!! Parcels... It's interesting to see how people are coping with ferries, buses, trains, boats... anything that doesn't fly through the air. Who knew little backwater Iceland would have such an influence on the world!!

Spare Tire

Nope, not that spare tire either!! These are my summer tires for my truck... which are going on today... finally! In previous years, somehow I've always been away at the crucial end of April period and have gotten around to taking off the winter tires in May... or June!!! Anyhow, today's the day and I am off to KalTire at 7:30 am for a "first-come, first-serve" free-for-all... So, we'll see how it goes... Starbucks doesn't open til 9:30 am, but I'm sure I'll get some blogs posted during the waiting time! I've been wondering if... in the long run... it would have been cheaper to have gotten spare rims for the winter tires... Paying $100 to change over the tires from summer to winter and back from winter to summer is... $200/year? And over 14 years that is... $2800... How much do rims cost?? $700 each?? Probably less... Hmmm.... something to consider next time...

Rearend

No not that kind of rearend!! Or at least not on me... on my truck. On March 5, I was rear-ended by someone coming around a corner too fast and not paying enough attention as I was stopped in traffic. My truck was vaguely drivable, but the entire back hatch and bumper were caved in. Surprisingly the window of the hatch and the taillights were OK... And so I was introduced to the great world of accident claims. This is my first experience! Suffice to say... it's not a lot of fun. After a bit of back and forth and dire predictions that my truck would be a write-off (14 years old after all)... the good news is my truck is well cared for and Toyota's do retain their value... so my truck is fixed... Mind you, the hatch is now a bright Ruby Red... while the rest of the truck is a very muted red (fading will do that). As for me, my neck was turned at the time of the crunch because I could see the lady coming in the rear-view mirror. So I've had the pleasure of Physiotherapy and Acupuncture... Not doing too bad... And acupuncture is not at all what I thought it would be like... Plus, there is classical acupuncture and IMS acupuncture (Intra-Muscular Stimulation). The classical doesn't hurt at all... whereas the IMS gets your muscle to twitch and is painful/uncomfortable in a weird/indescribable way! Anyhow, I could go into a whole "why me? what does this mean? what lesson am I supposed to learn?"... but, it is what it is... Maybe the lesson wasn't for me? Maybe it was for the other driver?  (Who, in Calgary is 100% at fault for rearending...) Not sure...

Throw Out 50 Things

I picked up a book in Chapters the other day called "Throw out 50 Things". It's one of those decluttering books, but a real one! Some of the declutter books just help you to organize your clutter and hide it. This one actually helps you to pitch stuff. And by "throw out" we're not talking "garbage"... but giving stuff away as well. She challenges the reader to throw out 50 things in a two week period... Which doesn't seem too daunting until you understand that duplicates count as one thing!! So I can get rid of some books, but "books" is one thing! Whether it's 20 books or 2 books... that only counts as one thing! Eeek... She also encourages us to get rid of attitudes, judgements, believes that are weighing us down and keeping us stuck. Because there is a connection between physical clutter and mental clutter. No kidding!! There's even a website where you can keep a running total of the things you are getting rid of... and even upload pictures! It is spring after all... a great time to do spring cleaning and pitch those things that you no longer love... or need... or that are weighing you down...
http://www.throwoutfiftythings.com/

The Hiding Instinct

There's something inside of us that wants to hide whenever we experience something that we think scares us or threatens us... or might be bad for us... Call it dishonesty, call it pretense/pretending, call it acting, call it avoidance... call it distraction... We all go there... Somebody says something and we go through a really rapid little logical acrobatic move and figure out whether or not we're going to be honest and up front... or whether we're going to equivocate and hide... Or if someone accuses us of something... says we did something... and we try to figure out whether or not we'll be punished if we fess up to it. It's left over from our childhood maybe?? Or perhaps it's more ancient than that... Think of Adam and Eve... Adam says "she gave it to me... not my fault"... Eve says "the snake made me do it... not my fault"... Something in us shies away from owning responsibility for stuff...

And organizations can live this too... Right now, it's the Catholic Church on the sex abuse scandal. Interesting that the first instinct of the Church is to deny, to hide, to avoid... That's why abusive priests were passed around from parish to parish, from diocese to diocese like a box of bad chocolates. It's the first instinct... to hide, to avoid... but it gets the situation nowhere. Right now Benedict is not addressing the issue, but spokespeople are calling the accusations "gossip" and saying that the people in the pews are not being swayed by it... Really? I mean... really??

Triduum

The Easter Triduum is upon us again. Celebrating these holy three days, we could begin to think that the Triduum is something that happened in the past (historically), something we have to look forward to in our future (our own death and resurrection), but does it really show up in our present?


The truth is, each and every day, we are living the Triduum. Each and every day we are suffering, dying and rising to new life. Maybe not as dramatically as Jesus… but pretty significant for us! Each and every day we are called to wrestle wit the things in our lives that are not life-giving, the things that keep us separated and apart from who we really are. The things that separate us from each and other and from God. We wrestle with our pride, our anger, our ego, our fear. And each and every day, we are called to let go of that stuff… to let go and in that letting go there is a death that occurs. In letting go of our fear in this one small area, we allow that fear to die… in order that we might live. We let go of our anger and allow our desire for revenge or resentment to die. We let go of our pride and let our own selfishness die. Not always a pretty process to be sure… but one that is necessary for each and every one of us. We carry an awful lot of stuff that doesn’t serve us well, but it’s stuff that we’ve carried for a long time… because… well… because we’ve carried it for a long time, so it must be important! Maybe… maybe not…

In wrestling with the stuff that is holding us back, that is preventing us from living our lives fully and freely, we get clear on what we need to let go… and in that letting go of the old, we create space within ourselves for something else to show up. If Jesus had held onto his old life, held onto his wishes and plans… there would have been no space for something else… for a new and glorious life to appear.

We too are called to create space in our lives, in our hearts, in our spirits for something else to show up. If we wrestle with resentment and anger, but can let go of that… we create space for something else to show up… maybe some forgiveness and compassion and love. If we wrestle wit hour prejudice and racism… but can let that go, we create space for something else to show up… maybe some acceptance and diversity.

I mean sure, we can all stay in the stuff that we’ve carried around for so long, the fear and the anger and the prejudice, but really… is that very fulfilling and life-giving?? Jesus could have hung around on this earth for a few more years and avoided the cross… but really, would that have been very fulfilling and life-giving?

So, I guess the question on this Easter weekend is… what are you wrestling with? What are you being called to let go of? What are you being called to die to? And what is within you that is crying… yearning… demanding to be born? And not just this weekend… but in the coming days and weeks. Oh sure, you can live your life the way you’ve always lived it… just take a look and see if that’s been working for you… Jesus took a leap into the unknown… are you ready and willing to do the same?