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The Rhythm of Life
Matthew Kelly

Some Words of Advice
tom walsh

The Best Day of My Life!
Charlie Badenhop

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No matter what accomplishments you achieve, somebody helps you.

Althea Gibson

We don't know who we are until
we see what we can do.

Martha Grimes

Sophia Loren

All the wonders you seek
are within yourself.

Sir Thomas Brown

As I reflect on the world in which we live, it isn't any wonder that I fell so blindly into the traps I did.

We live in a world obsessed with noise, speed, and activity.  We live in an age plagued by greed, lust, and violence and paralyzed by fear.  The climate of our age is seductive.  The effects are so gradual that we hardly notice them from day to day, but over time they are dramatic, even devastating.

We live in a troubled time, in many ways an age of confusion and crisis.  Not only in a personal sense, but also from a social and cultural perspective.  It is my belief that any adequate solutions to the challenges that face us in the world today must be both accessible and applicable to everyone, everywhere, regardless of age, color, creed, or culture.  Furthermore, the practicality of these solutions must impact and be deeply intertwined with people's day-to-day living.

My experience and reflection lead me to believe that one of our greatest challenges in the modern world is lifestyle.  In today's hectic world, we often push ourselves to the limit--sometimes forgetting that our bodies, hearts, minds and spirits all need time to refocus and recharge.  Striving for a balanced lifestyle--one that enables us to maintain a natural state--will ensure optimum health and well-being.

The rhythm of life is a passport to achieving this balance.

The rhythm of life is a way of life.  It is a lifestyle that integrates all of our legitimate needs--physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.

The rhythm of life is the perfect combination of rest, activity, and peace; it ennobles us to become the unique individuals we were created to be, enables us to excel in all we do, and empowers us with a certain clarity of mind and peace of heart.

The rhythm of life is the antidote for our busy age.

I believe life should be lived passionately and that the day-to-day drudgery that stifles the greatness of the human spirit should be avoided at all costs.  I do not despise simple daily tasks, but I believe their place is in building us up, not in tearing us down.

As we venture into this new millennium, the challenge life presents to us all is to develop a balance between activity and thought.  But, particularly, to fill our lives with action that springs forth from contemplation and an understanding of our essential purpose.

Look at the world.  Look at yourself.  Look at your lifestyle.  Ponder these things.  Our chaotic world and complex lives are crying out for a little order and simplicity.

Most people stumble through life believing that one day they will find the pace of life and variety of activity that will create the rhythm of life that is conducive to optimum health, happiness, efficiency, and contentment.  They will not.  The rhythm of life must be desired and created.

We make a thousand lifestyle choices every day.  Those decisions either create or destroy the natural rhythm of life.

Life is not a hundred-meter dash; it's a marathon.

There is more to life than increasing the speed.  Faster isn't always better, bigger isn't always better, louder isn't always better.  More isn't always the solution.  Life is not a competition to see who can collect the most expensive toys.  The best things in life are not things--and sometimes less is more.

Find your rhythm . . . and you will flood your life with passion, creativity, and energy.
   

Some Words of Advice

School starts today, so I'm going to be giving some words of advice to my high school students all day long.  Most of the students won't take that advice, of course, but I'll give it nonetheless.  And while the words will change from class to class, the gist of that advice is here:

Think for yourselves.  We teachers tend to present information as if it's the most important part of life, but it's not.  Take that information and do with it what you will--reject it, analyze it, react to it, accept it, love it.  And don't do what you do just because the person next to you is doing it.  Do what feels right to you.

Put the cell phone away.  When your mind is always on something else, when you're wondering who's calling you or texting you, your mind most definitely isn't on the lesson at hand.  Stay focused here, and you'll get much more out of what we do here.

Look at the material as a challenge, not as a dreadful task.  When you see your work as a challenge to be met, it can be much easier to rise to learn the material and make it a part of who you are.  It's all in your perspective.

Realize that whatever the teachers are giving to you to learn, they're giving it because it's proved to be beneficial and even necessary to many, many other people.  Whatever career field you choose to enter, you will need to know much of the stuff that is covered in school.  Don't reject it just because you don't see a need for it today or tomorrow.

Don't get caught up in the petty little crap that we see and hear so much about in high school.  If you become a part of that type of thing, you're dragging yourself down and losing the respect of many people.  You don't need to do that--it hurts you in the long run.

Don't try to give everything you've got to everything you do.  Choose well what you focus great amounts of energy on.  Some assignments are given just to review what you know.  Give the teacher just what he or she wants.  Other assignments are designed to help you to grow and challenge your current limits, helping you to expand past them.  Focus much energy on them.

The high school environment often seems to reward conformity.  Stand apart from that.  Be yourself.  Follow your likes, and avoid the things that you dislike.  Just because you're on the football team doesn't mean that you have to act like a "jock."  Just because you're on the chess team doesn't mean you're a geek.  Be you, and be proud of it.

There will be more over the course of the year, I'm sure.  But today is just the first day of a long journey, so there will be plenty of time to try to help the students to grow, to explore their own identities, and to give what they can and take what they need.

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Recently a friend went to a beautiful vacation resort.  Towering mountains, breathtaking scenery, and numerous trails for horseback riding and hiking.  He felt all set for a very special vacation, and as he went to bed his first night there he felt excited, only to wake up the next morning to a driving rainstorm that was certain to not go away for quite a while!

"Oh well," Andy thought, "Might as well sleep a bit longer."

He went down to breakfast at 10 a.m. and sat by a window as he watched the rain falling endlessly.  Just as he was finishing his meal he saw a man in the distance, slowly making his way towards the lodge.  The man was walking very slowly as he supported himself with two arm-brace crutches.

Andy sat transfixed, watching the man take one careful step after another, slowly making his way over the slippery terrain.

After about ten minutes time the man finally made his way to the lodge, and Andy jumped up to open the door and help him in.

"Good morning," Andy said.  "How are you doing?"

"Best day of my life!" the man said with great enthusiasm.  "How are you doing?"

Andy felt himself at a loss for words.  "Could be better," he said in a hesitating voice, "but I'm doing OK."

"What's the matter?  Don't you like the rain?" the man asked.

"The rain?" Andy said.  "I was counting on going horseback riding today, so I must say that the rain does not please me."

"I was counting on going horseback riding myself," the man said, "But walking in the rain is just as good if not better!"

Andy stood there and watched as the man slowly made his way through the lounge area.

"Wow," he thought, "this guy must know something I don't!"

Later in the day, as the rain continued to fall, Andy saw the man sitting in the lobby and asked if he could have a seat nearby.

"Sure," the man said.  "Happy to sit with you and have a chat."

And slowly the man's story unfolded.

Years ago he had been a champion equestrian, until one day he got thrown from a horse and was badly injured.  He was unconscious for more than a week, and then he slipped in and out of consciousness for another week.  Each time he became aware of himself lying in bed he was not sure if he was indeed still alive, or whether he was having the dream of a dead man.  Whenever he came to, he would lie there and listen for the voices of the staff and doctors who always came by the moment they realized he had regained consciousness.

"Every time I woke up and heard the staff," he said, "I was so happy to know I was still alive!  Every time I woke up I understood that to be alive at all is truly a miracle!"

"And I have kept that sense of miracle with me through the last fifty seven years.  Every morning when I first start to stir, and realize I am still alive, I am truly thankful.  I realize that today could be the last day of my life, and it can also be the best day of my life, if I make it so.

"You are still young," the man said to my sixty-year-old friend Andy. "Don't let the hardships and challenges of life drain away your sense of enthusiasm and wonder.  Even the happiest of lives has many struggles along the way.  Every morning that you DO wake up, rejoice in the fact that you are still alive, and be sure to assure yourself, Today is the best day of my life!"

Commentary

The basis of today's story is the same as much of what I write.  I have a conversation with a friend or client, not expecting that anything particularly special will occur, and then Zap!--my counterpart hits me with a bolt of wisdom.

Today's story unfolded when I met a long time friend in the afternoon of what seemed to me to be a very ordinary day.  I gave my friend a hug and asked "How are you doing?"  My friend replied, "Best day of my life!" and I was immediately somewhat surprised by his response, and very definitely inquisitive to know more.  My friend then proceeded to tell me the same basic story that I share with you above.

Since then, my friend and I have met a number of times.  When either one of us asks "How are you doing?" the other one of us will now invariably reply "Best day of my life!" and the story of the "disabled" man will pop into our consciousness and give us both cause to pause.

Often, we wind up talking about how this man has blessed us both, with his wisdom, courage, and spirit.  How the both of us are still very much beginners when it comes to truly appreciating the life that we DO have.

Simply being alive is an amazing gift that I often lose touch with, a gift that I often fail to receive.  Instead of being thankful for my life, I have a tendency to focus on what is missing, what I want that I don't have, the current difficulties I am facing.

The story of this courageous man also leads me back to an important understanding I have had in the past:  What happens to me during the course of my life--the trials and tribulations, the winning and the losing-- is not what is most important.  What is most important is how I react to what happens.  Do I take my disabilities and convert them into a reason to be thankful, an occasion to celebrate my life, like the man in the story?  Or do I use my hardships as a reason for feeling cheated, frustrated, or depressed?  The choice is always mine to make, regardless of whether or not I am "happy" about what has occurred.

How about you?  Do you have a disability or two that would serve you well to be thankful for?  If so, why wait any longer?  Today can be the best day of your life!

Charlie Badenhop's "Pure Heart, Simple Mind" Newsletter:  Serving a community of private individuals and professionals who have the desire to cultivate a life of clarity, compassion, and creativity. We warmly welcome our new subscribers.  http://www.seishindo.org/newsletter.html

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If I had a formula for bypassing
trouble, I would not pass it round.
Trouble creates a capacity to handle
it.  I don't embrace trouble; that's
as bad as treating it as an enemy.
But I do say meet it as a friend, for
you'll see a lot of it and had better
be on speaking terms with it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Arrow and the Song

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly as it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow