If I Had a Hammer . . . What If You Already Do?

“The world is more malleable than you think, and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.” -Bono

A Glorious Day and All It Entails

Each year in mid-October, there’s a completely clear day where the setting sun outside my ninth floor window lights up the trees just to the north of our building, making all the glory of their fall colors come alive. While I’ve tried to take pictures of it, the photos never do it justice.

This year, for whatever reason, the clear, glorious day didn’t arrive. Two things got in the way.

First, many trees in our immediate area were bulldozed to make way for a retail development. Watching this large stand of trees, which had been home to deer and other wildlife, destroyed over the course of a few days was incredibly disheartening. Driving to work the morning after the first day of bulldozing, I saw a deer standing amid a pile of torn down trees eating leaves in what used to be its habitat. It was enough to nearly push me over the edge.

Secondly, for whatever reason, the remaining trees didn’t achieve the same incredible color scheme this year as in the past. The leaves looked more brown than they did yellow, orange, or red.

So what happened instead?

On a mid-October day this year, there was intermittent rain. Far from being clear, the sky was grey, with ominous clouds rolling through the area all day long.

Then in late afternoon, a rainbow appeared, and the clouds, now very low in the sky, started to give way in various parts of town. As they did, different parts of the city began to light up, revealing beautiful colors in groups of trees throughout the Kansas City area.

In a unique way, the day of glorious color this year became much more intriguing, not knowing which trees would next receive their flash of illumination, only to randomly surrender it to other trees miles away. What has been a beautiful scene became an interactive display of color and light this year. It was the most glorious October day yet.

Think about it.

We are finishing a calendar year many view as having stripped away tremendously important things to them (i.e., money, wealth, status), leaving a dismal landscape, with dim and daunting uncertainty about the year ahead. Sounds a lot like the view from outside my window, doesn’t it?

What’s the lesson? The glorious day I was anticipating and looking forward to didn’t happen. Instead, challenges and hindrances spoiled what was expected, yet worked to create something even more glorious.

I’m as big an advocate of living a challenge-free life as anyone. But what I take away is the reminder that challenges, trials, and difficulties are all part of the impetus for creating great things we perhaps couldn’t imagine without them. For all of us, let’s pray that we can take the challenges 2008 presented and those that 2009 holds and make it a truly wondrous year unlike any we’ve experienced before.

Merry Christmas, and blessings for the New Year!

Mike

Things to Do During the Holidays

• Turn off economic news through the end of the year, and maybe into 2009. Things won’t change based on whether you’re completely informed on interest rates and bailouts.


• Search for a long lost friend via the internet and contact them. Let them know you’ve missed them.


• Find 5 minutes in your hectic day. Stop and pray in thanksgiving and for help.


• If you can’t find 5 minutes to pray, do it while you’re doing something else.


• Ask people, “What’s a good thing that’s happened to you today?” Genuinely listen to what they have to say.


• Have dinner by candlelight with someone you love. It doesn’t have to be fancy; even fast food is better by candlelight.


• Let yourself off the hook and simply don’t do something you’re agonizing about doing. You’ll survive.


• Take some of the time you saved and do something nice and unexpected for someone else. They’ll love it.


• Work to be more understanding than you typically would be.


• Tell someone you’re sorry for what you’ve done.


• Inspire someone with your words or actions. Or at least tell them everything will be okay.


• Get home for the holidays.

You've Got Advice in the Mail

The email below arrived in my work inbox over the night.

A quick search shows it out on the Internet in various places. Yet, sometimes it's not enough that it's "out there." Something may have to stare you in the face when you most need it. I asked for some help for today, and this arrived in my inbox from someone I don't know.

It was exactly what I needed.

Thank you Lord!

Blessings,
Mike


From: ----- --- [mailto:------------@gmail.com]
Sent: Tue 12/4/2007 12:15 AM
To: Brown, Mike
Subject: RE: Be yourself..............Have a great day ahead


Be understanding to your perceived enemies.
Be loyal to your friends.
Be strong enough to face the world each day.
Be weak enough to know you cannot do everything alone.
Be generous to those who need your help.

Be frugal with that you need yourself.
Be wise enough to know that you do not know everything.
Be foolish enough to believe in miracles.
Be willing to share your joys.
Be willing to share the sorrows of others.

Be a leader when you see a path others have missed.
Be a follower when you are shrouded by the mists of uncertainty.
Be first to congratulate an opponent who succeeds.
Be last to criticize a colleague who fails.
Be sure where your next step will fall, so that you will not tumble.

Be sure of your final destination, in case you are going the wrong way.
Be loving to those who love you.
Be loving to those who do not love you; they may change.
Above all, Be yourself.
Just Be Yourself.

Regards
------------
Photographer
City Magazine
Roanoke VA
USA

My Thanksgiving

It started just shy of 7 a.m. on Tuesday, November 24, 1998.

It ended just shy of 7 a.m. on Wednesday, November 25, 1998.

Ten years ago, during this 24 hour period, my sacramental return to the Catholic Church unfolded.

After being away 11 years, those 24 hours changed me forever, literally. I entered it one way, and left it profoundly transformed into a new person - one who thought differently, spoke differently, and ultimately, through the grace of God, acted differently.

And none of it had anything to do with me. It was all God’s grace.

My thanks are to God, my parents for praying for me, my wife for her conversion, Fathers Bill and Paul for their ministry, and the wonderful people at 6:30 a.m. daily mass at St. Ann's parish all these years for the ongoing demonstration of their faith.

November 25. It’s my second birthday, and I’m honored to share it with my good friend Dale. I’ll never have a more memorable day in my life.

Blessings and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mike

Don’t Hide Your Talents

Today’s gospel focused on two servants who applied and grew the talents that they’d been given, and one that didn’t. One of its messages is to look at and share your blessings and graces for the benefit of others.

Think about all the blessings and graces you’ve received. Take a few moments to list them.

Go back through the list and select at least a few that you’d consider to be hidden, i.e. you haven’t necessarily developed or shared them with others. Concentrate on how you can start to unhide them and incorporate them in ways that will help others.

This season, make sure to unwrap and unhide some talents to help others.

Concession Speeches

It’s fascinating that in so many instances, concession speeches tend to be when political candidates come across as most personal and what may most be like their true selves. You can’t help but wonder why the tone displayed in a concession speech so rarely surfaces during an election.

It would be interesting to see the fate of a candidate running a campaign whose tone was conciliatory, bridge building, humble, and grateful in nature. Would that connect with people or would the candidate get chewed up and spit out in the fields of Iowa?

We’ll likely never know. And that’s truly a loss for this country and its people.

Q. What Should We Do? A. Read & Live these Verses

This is an excerpt from the second chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Philippians (verses 3 & 4). It was the first reading at Mass today:

"Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but (also) everyone for those of others." - Philippians 2:3-4

Next Tuesday will include this excerpt from the letter to Titus, my favorite Bible verse. It's only read every two years on the 32nd Tuesday in Ordinary time. Unfortunately, I'll be away and won't be able to be the lector for that Tuesday Mass. So, I share it with you here:

"...show(ing) yourself as a model of good deeds in every respect, with integrity in your teaching, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be criticized, so that the opponent will be put to shame without anything bad to say about us." - Titus 2:7-8

Guardian Angels

October 2nd is the memorial of the Guardian Angels in the Catholic Church. That day our priest at mass narrowly avoided a serious collision later by slamming on his brakes at just the right time. He later tied this act to his homily to us that day about paying attention to when our guardian angels are protecting us.

The week after, I received a chain email from a friend about how “angels” are placed in our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. At the end, it asked people to forward it (which I didn’t do), respond to the sender (which I did do), and expect something wonderful to happen the next day at 11:04 a.m. (which I sort of did skeptically). The following evening before heading home, I thought back through the day, checked my email, and confirmed that nothing happened at 11:04 a.m. that was exceptional.

The next morning, one of my true guardian angels returned from a conference in Las Vegas where he unexpectedly attended a presentation by a well-know business person and entrepreneur. Based on the speech, he talked with the speaker afterward and told him that the two of us need to get together in some way because of our shared perspectives on innovation. After excitedly telling me about this, I asked him when he wound up in the presentation the day before. The answer . . . just after 9 a.m., Pacific Daylight Time. Or just after 11 a.m. in the Kansas City area, where I was.

I relayed this story to the angel chain letter friend at dinner the other night. And within a day or so, she introduced and recommended me for a research conference-related role with a national association that’s laden with opportunity. I told her, she’s my “Fairy Godmother of Research!”

The point of all this is that no matter what you call them – friends, angels or fairy godmothers – ALWAYS give thanks for the blessing of wonderful people in your life who care about you!

That’s one chain not to break!

Blessings,
Mike

The Invisible Hand of God

Talking with a friend the other day about the economy, we discussed God's hand in it, and the greater good that may come from today's challenges. Consider that in a society where . . .

• So many people are overweight, restaurants and food manufacturers have cut back portions to help manage costs.
• So many people suffer from physical maladies through lack of physical fitness, gas prices have caused more people to walk or bicycle.
• So many people are focused on increasing their material possessions, the credit, housing, and employment situations are creating a sense of sacrificing things and reassessing what's most important.

My friend's advice was to keep praying. That's great advice!