I Love Leftovers!

The opposite of a scarcity mentality is an abundancy mentality. With an abundancy mentality we say: "There is enough for everyone, more than enough: food, knowledge, love ... everything." With this mind-set we give away whatever we have, to whomever we meet. When we see hungry people we give them food. When we meet ignorant people we share our knowledge; when we encounter people in need of love, we offer them friendship and affection and hospitality and introduce them to our family and friends.

When we live with this mind-set, we will see the miracle that what we give away multiplies: food, knowledge, love ... everything. There will even be many leftovers.

Henri Nouwen

A new language

"During these years the Church has fought for self-preservation as though it were an end in itself, and has thereby lost its chance to speak a word of reconciliation to mankind and the world at large. So our traditional language must perforce become powerless and remain silent, and our Christianity today will be confined to praying and doing right by our fellow men.

Christian thinking, speaking and organization must be reborn out of this praying and action ... It will be a new language, the language of a new righteousness and truth, which proclaims the peace of God with humankind and the advent of his kingdom," - Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

via

Be more curious

At the end of last year I began to ponder and pray about some way to encourage Keith, Alinea & Jacob in the new year. I created an small art piece around each of these and this is the one that I made for Keith. I was reading my friend Mike's blog today Waving or Drowning and he had this video of the inspirational Seth Godin talking about curiosity - it is spectacular. Wanted to link the two here on my blog. Thanks Mike!

'curiosity' from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

The Story of Stuff

I have watched two videos lately that have revealed to me that I've been living in a lot of ignorance with some of the choices I've been making in regard to the things I buy and the things I use. The first was a video from TED by James Howard Kunstler's, The Death of Suburbia where he tells about civic space and how we've depleted our communities of the ability to sustain a local culture. Jordon Cooper linked to it and it was fascinating. (be forewarned that the presentation is rife with swearing). He ends the presentation at TED with a challenge that hasn't let me go. "Please stop referring to yourselves as consumers, citizens have responsibilities."



This has given me much to think about and folds into this next video from Free Range Studios called "The Story of Stuff" - it is so important and interesting. It has filled in the gaps for me of the ignorance I live with every day.

Here's the way the website describes it:

The Story of Stuff - From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

How 'bout you - do you want to be a citizen or a consumer? I'm really giving my consumptive ways a thorough going over.

Hat tip to Melvin Bray at Useful Perhaps

Kingdom people

I hope you've met at least one Kingdom person in your life. They are surrendered people. You sense that life is OK at their core. They have given control to Another and are at peace. A Kingdom person lives for what matters, for life in its deepest sense. There's a kind of gentle absolutism about their life-style, a kind of calm freedom. Kingdom people feel like grounded yet spacious people. Whatever they are after, they already seem to be enjoying it - and seeing it in unlikely places. Kingdom people make you want to be like them.... Kingdom people are anchored by their awareness of God's love deep within.

Richard Rohr

via

This is the truth

Found at Vanguard Church blog where Bob found it from Granger Community Church - it really does turn things upside down.

Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort,
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger,
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears,
To shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness,
To believe that you can make a difference in this world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Amen.

Converted every day

I LOVE this:

Be converted to love every day.
Change all your energies,
all your potential,
into selfless gifts for the other person.
Then you yourself will be changed from within
and through you
God's kingdom will break into the world.

Anonymous - Source: Rule for a New Brother

via inward/outward

I woke up to this in my inbox this morning. In recovery I choose to live "one day at a time". How better to do that than to make a choice to be converted to love every new day? One day at a time. Beautiful.

Thy kingdom come.