Friday, May 25, 2018
QUOTE
Hi There !!
From my earliest days I wanted to know.
Why?
What?
Who?
When?
Where?
How?
My father used to call me
" Mr. District Attorney"
(after a popular radio drama of the 40's).
In my teens
I started collecting quotes
that helped me deal with
my life questions.
I'd write each one
on an index card
and kept pondering it
all during the day.
The quote was
a wisdom reserve
to be mined.
It gave insight into the mystery
and adventure of life,
sight into the depth,
the innerness of things.
Well, I still collect quotes
finding such wisdom
and guidance in them.
With your permission,
I'd like to share a few.
some with you.
Each day for the next week
please feel free
to select a quote
from the collection that follows here.
Consider writing the quote on a card
and having it with you all day.
May it be a wisdom reserve
to be mined,
and more importantly,
to be "souled."
Consider it,
ponder,
muse and meditate over it.
in the quiet moments of the day,
between activities,
in the shower, while driving,
making a cup of coffee.
As you do, consider
"What does The Spirit say
to my spirit through these words?"
QUOTES
"Live the life that wants to live in you."
Quaker Saying
"Enlightenment is intimacy with all things."
Jack Kornfield
"To reach Accord, just say, "Not Two !"
Seng-Ts' An
"We love what we attend."
Mwalimu Imara
"Until the heart becomes an open 'l Let'
it cannot be free."
Johnny Walsh
"Beauty is Truth, Truth is Beauty -
that is all you know on earth,
and all you need to know."
John Keats
"As long as you do not live totally in the body,
you do not live totally in the Self."
B. K. S. Iyengar
"How can you follow the course of your life
if you do not let it flow?"
Lao-Tzu
"When was the last time you sang?"
Question put to the sick
by a Native American
Medicine Man
"Another name for God is surprise."
Brother David Seindl-Rast
"And then the day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud was
more painful than the
risk to bloom."
Anasis Nin
" For the raindrop, joy is entering the river."
Ghalib
(Sufi Mystic)
"'Discernment is a process
of letting go of what we are not."
Thomas Keating
'Who sees all things in his own Self
and his own Self in all beings,
loses all fear."
The Isa Upanishad
"To see takes time."
Georgia O'Keefe
"Please remember,
it is what you are that heals,
not what you know."
Carl Jung
"A fish cannot drown in water.
A bird does not fall in air.
Each creature God made
must live in its own true nature."
Mechthild of Magdenburg
"You are that which you are seeking."
Francis of Assisi
If you have a quote to share, I would love to receive it.
johnfrankshares@gmail.com
Welcome to new participation from Iran.
We appreciate the privilege of being together.
Thanks to all for your good company.
God loves you and so do I.
You can quote me on that !!
John Frank
*****
PS:
Saw this on a local church signboard:
"Tweet as you wish to be tweeted."
*****
"frankly speaking" is posted online each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be book marked for easy access.
It is automatically available by email each Saturday.
The sign up is at the top right of the online version.
Past post are available at Blog Archives
at the bottom right of the online version.
*****
Friday, May 18, 2018
UBUNTU
Hi There !
So, summer is just about
to cross the state line.
Let's party !!
How about a major league,
blow out barbecue on Memorial Day?
Actually, I've already rented
a few lakeside fields
at the county park.
Orders are in for lots and lots of
really serious, awesome
food and drink.
Got a band, softball, horse shoes,
swimming, row boats, lounge chairs,
umbrellas, picnic tables,
all lined up.
We really need to get
kith 'n kin together
for a first class,
major feast,
a Family Feast.
You know, like one of those huge,
midwestern family reunions
they have every five or so years.
Everyone is in,
in from close up and in from far out,
be that geography, religion, politics,
income, and any other distance,
difference, or degree of separation.
Gotta reconnect, renew, refresh
tie in tight those family ties.
It'll take some stretch for sure,
but after all we really are family.
UBUNTU !!
That's a lot more than the name for an
open source software operating system
from our computer to The Cloud and
to all our internet connected things.
UBUNTU !!
It is us connected fundamentally,
foundationally, essentially.
It is our human family's spiritual,
source software operating system.
The folks out in Silicon Valley
actually borrowed the term from
the beautifully connected people
of southern Africa.
How 'bout that?
UBUNTU !!
Quite literally and quite really means
" I AM BECAUSE WE ARE !"
Alone, I'm not.
Together we are.
Family.
Blood family.
World Family.
So, please stick with me, stay tuned.
Here's the list so far
of those invited to our
Memorial Day reaffirmation of our
WORLD FAMILY
-Donald Trump
-Pope Francis
-Queen Elizabeth
-Joe Biden
-Jerry Falwell, Jr
- Mark and Prisilla Chan Zuckenberg
-An undocumented family from Arizona
( don't want to name them )
-Steve Bannon
- Bob and Mary Zimmer - he works at the
U S Steel plant in Lorain, Ohio
- Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi -
he is a key ISIS leader
- Rob Bell
-"Judy" - she is twenty two year old
opioid addict from
the hills of West Virginia
- Johnny - he is a frightened,
fifteen year old gay teen
from a small town in Mississippi,
very much in the closet
-Sissy - she is a single, black mom
working at a distillery in Bardstown, Ky
-A New York City couple
( they requested not to be named ),
finance people, 1% -ers
-and of course all of us from
"frankly speaking" -
we come from forty seven
different nations at this point.
What a family we humans are
at heart, and that's our reference -
the heart of the matter!!
I mean, how cool,
how heart warming
it will be.
Imagine Queen Elizabeth,
a bit had from the wedding,
and Donald Trump,
freed from twittering
for the day,
munching away on
Grade A Angus burgers
( no McDonalds allowed )
and swapping tales
about the grandkids.
What bonding as young Johnny and Judy,
go row boating,
sharing their terrors,
being accepted and affirmed,
supported in their quests for freedom.
UBUNTU !!
"I AM BECAUSE WE ARE !"
Family Firm.
Steve Bannon and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
teamed up to play Jerry Falwell and Rob Bell
in a vigorous game of horse shoes
and finding out they all four
like sports and actually enjoy
each others' company.
Joe Biden couching both teams.
Alone is unnatural.
Together is human nature.
Pope Francis circulating
from group to group,
good father that he is,
and having the wealthy family
from NYC and the
undocumented family
from Arizona, as well as
Sissy from Kentucky,
join at his picnic table
for some great barbecue.
UBUNTU !!
Alone is lethal.
Together is dynamic.
The Zuckenbergers walking around
"Liking" everyone,
and folks happy to "Like" them.
Yes, our spiritual life is life
"All in the Family,"
in the very best sense of the term.
"We are because WE ARE."
See you on the 31st.
Together we'll serve up and savor
generous portions of family,
a Feast of Family,
our human family.
UBUNTU !!
Thank all of you for dealing me in.
Gratefully
"I am because we are."
John Frank
*****************************************************************************
If you wish, please enjoy the
Meditation Markers that follow
as you pray over
UBUNTU !!
" I AM BECAUSE WE ARE."
and what that means for your
spiritual life out here
on the street of every day living.
*****
"frankly speaking"
- is posted toward the end of the week.
- online access:
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be book marked
for easy reach
- automatic email available -
sign up top right of the online version.
- past posts available from
Blog Archive,
bottom right of online version.
***********************************************************************************
MEDITATION MARKERS
The Buddhists have
a powerful way of expressing
UBUNTU !!
May every creature abound
in well being and peace.
May every living being,
weak or strong,
the long and the small,
the short and the medium-sized,
the mean and the great.
May every living being,
seen or unseen,
those dwelling far off,
those living near by,
those already born,
those waiting to be born,
May all attain inward peace.
Let no one deceive another.
Let no one despise another
in any situation.
Let no one from antipathy
or hatred,
wish evil to anyone at all.
Just as a mother,
with her own life,
protects her only child from hurt,
so within yourself foster
a limitless concern
for every living creature.
Display a heart of boundless love
for all of the world
in all its height and depth
and broad extent.
Love unrestrained,
without hate
or enmity.
Then as you stand
or walk, sit or lie,
until overcome by drowsiness,
devote your mind entirely to this:
It is known as living
the life divine.
(As quoted in the Unitarian
Universalist Hymnal, #597)
How can the various qualities
named here be lived out
in my real, daily life?
Detail as many as you can, eg.
how can I
"Display a heart of boundless love..."?
****
"I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you should love
one another."
Jesus
John 13:34
What kind of love does Jesus
have for us?
Be specific.
What does loving others like that
look like in my world and day,
my attitudes and actions?
Be specific.
*****
"For as in one body
we have many members,
and not all the members
have the same function,
so we, who are many,
are one body in Christ,
and individually we are
members one of another."
Romans 12: 4-5
What are some of my "functions"
in the Body of Christ?
How am I with experiencing
unity in diversity?
Specifically and really.
"...we ...are one body in Christ."
How do I embody Christ,
individually and
at the same time corporately?
Specifically and really.
*****
HOW TO RESPECT OTHER RELIGIONS
EDUCATE YOURSELF
BE AMAZED-OR EVEN
CONVERTED- INTO
A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF
BE PATIENT-DON"T FORM
OPINIONS TOO SOON
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
KEEP YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR HANDY
ASK QUESTIONS - LISTEN
SAY " I DON'T UNDERSTAND YET"
EXPERIENCE HOW OTHERS WORSHIP
HONOR CONVICTIONS- DON'T TRY
TO REMAKE PEOPLE IN YOUR OWN IMAGE
EAT TOGETHER, PLAY TOGETHER,
AND HOLD EACH OTHER'S BABIES
EMBRACE MYSTERY
DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU
SALT*
saltproject .org
"Be a lamp,
a lifeboat,
a ladder.
Help someone's soul heal.
Walk out of your house
like a sheperd."
Rumi
Please take each metaphor
that Rumi uses.
How can I translate the metaphor
into attitude and action?
*************************************************************************************
Friday, May 11, 2018
ARTIST
Hi There !
So, I'll just bet you're an artist,
and a really good one at that,
but you're simply not telling anyone,
even yourself, right?
OK, OK. I can almost hear
a hurried, definitive
"Oh no! No way, Not me!"
Well, I'll still bet you're really a gifted artist.
That's because our whole spiritual life is
a work of art, a work of creating and crafting
aliveness and beauty,
the art of the divine
that's not at all out of this world:
: - deep sharing with our lover
- advocating for environmental responsibility
- being a fascinating story teller
- raising kids
- allowing ourselves to free fall into
the ocean of Love we call God
- looking out for the lonely and lost
- being a community organizer
- singing in the choir, car, shower
- developing a community garden
- cultivating a contemplative soul manner
- mentoring
- going on a spiritual retreat
- planning a family vacation
- taking an inner city child with you
on that vacation
- supporting social justice concerns
- corresponding with a prisoner
- cultivating friendships
- hosting dinner parties and barbecues
- doing regular and substantive spiritual reading
- sharing a hearty sense of humor
- resisting media obsessions
- having quiet Soul Time each day
- finding or founding a
Soul Share Community
- being politically astute and active
- keeping a spiritual journal
- and limitless more ways
to be an artist,
creating and crafting
aliveness and beauty.
Happily, we find ourselves alive in
the dynamic energy field we call God.
We get to create with the Creator.
Each of us doing so
with our unique spirits, hearts,
minds, eyes, hand, ears, touch -
our special life giving art gifts.
Most of all, though,
our art enlivens
by our very being -
our being in Being -
exuberantly,
rambunctiously alive.
Donna J. Stone tellingly highlights
the art of being alive:
The most visible creators I know of are
those artists whose medium is life itself,
the ones who express the impossible -
without brush, hammer, clay or guitar.
They neither paint nor sculpt -
their medium is being.
Whatever their presence touches
has increased life.
They see and don't have to draw.
They are the artists of being alive.
(Quoted in The Artists of Being Alive,
by Nancy Zapolski, PhD ).
****
A suggested practice for reflection
and prayer over the next week:
ask
- how can I relax more in Being,
free fall into the ocean of Love that is God?
- what has to go so that can come?
- what has to come so that can stay?
- what realization and practice
would help on a day to day basis?
let me
- jot down five ways I can be part
of creating and crafting
aliveness and beauty
where I live,
how I live.
- in prayerful reflection recall, re-feel,
three people whose touch
increased my aliveness
and be happy and grateful
in that reflection.
- respond to what
The Spirit speaks
to my spirit when I hear
the words of Jesus:
"I have come that you
might have life and
have it to the full"
(John 10:10)
****
Please do invite family, friends, colleagues
to check out "frankly speaking"
-by your word of mouth,
- your postings
on Facebook and other media.
"frankly speaking" is posted
toward the end of the week,
- It can be bookmarked
for easy access,
- It is available online at
johnfrankshares.blobspot.com
- And is also available automatically
each week by email.
Please see the sign up,
top right of the online posting.
- Past postings are available at the
Blog Archive,
bottom right of the online version.
Thanks!!
Happily quite a few new people
have recently joined us
in our weekly gathering here.
How good to now have participation
now from Hong Kong.
Welcome and thank you
for your welcome!
****
God has given use free run of
His Creation Studio
and invites us in all sorts
of ways to be a
Life Artist.
"YES!!!"
Holding each
and all in
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
********************************************************************************
Friday, May 4, 2018
SIMPLE
Hi There !
So, here's the scoop.
Be the first to know.
It's not salacious enough for the
National Inquirer,
but I do need to fess up to you.
For four days, four long days,
I've tried to write
a piece for you on
Simplicity.
It simply hasn't worked!!
That may say something about simplicity.
It sure says something about me!!
So here's the best I can do right now.
Simplicity isn't all that simple.
That's especially true in
our time and place.
For most of history
life was simple, but hard.
Today life is complex and hard.
The current of our culture
runs hard and fast
with complexity upon complexity.
We live in an epoch flooded
with countless technologies and systems
subtly in the service of materialism.
The theme song is
More.
"More is better,"
and all the more so if
More
increases by geometric progressions.
Our psyches, our souls, our society
are so speeded up in the pursuit of
More
that we get separated from each other
and our true selves,
blur out clear channel connect to
The Ground of our Being
as we zip along on the surface of things.
So, how about you?
How goes living in this epoch of
technologies and systems
with all their complexities
work out for you?
What effect have they had
on your spirituality out here
on the street of everyday living?
I'd be surprised big time
if it wasn't quite a lot.
They are now the ground we walk on,
the air we now breathe.
They effect us more than the weather.
For all the stress involved, though,
the technologies and systems
of our times carry much good.
They can:
- get you from New York to London in 7.5 hours
- get the laundry washed and dried
- get us in "text touch"
- get us strawberries out of season
- get us warm in the cold,
and cool in the heat
- get us credit "carded"
- get us inter "netted" and face "booked"
- get you a new knee,
or do a repair on
all sorts of body parts
- get a pizza delivered at two in the morning
- get us endless data, information,
and entertainment instantly.
Yet, our technologies and systems
segment, suppress, stultify, stymie
and stress us.
- we work in one place
and reside in another,
the two often connected
by a torturous commute
- on the way, many drop off
the kids at a third place
for others to raise
- many work in cell blocks
of cubical and relational confinement
- for others it is isolated work stations,
assembly line posts, delivery vehicles
- being inter "netted' and face "booked,"
our privacy is striped naked,
bared to all, all in all
- medical attention is
depersonalized and mechanized
- many of the elderly are cloistered
in colonies of isolation and loneliness
- when the power goes down
just about every thing stalls and stops
- we walk by each other on crowed streets
ear budded in solitary confinement
- to rent a car or have a medical procedure
we blindly sign pages of
incomprehensible legalize
- there are programs, protocols, procedures,
forms, regulations that never heard of simplicity
- we Tweeter, Instagram, face time, text, SnapChat
incessantly, and for too many, addictively
- there's an app for just about everything
except tying your shoes
(of course, how many people
ware shoes that need to be tied anymore ?)
- work and recreation are paced
like a high speed machine
- we are data drowned and
information force fed
Our psyches and souls get
distracted, scrambled, stressed,
kept at a superficial level.
Society gets segmented, and lonely.
To survive,
and hopefully flourish,
in this high speed ride
to distraction and social fraction,
restricted to the surface of stimulation,
we simply must simplify.
We simply must simplify
speed, space, "stuff" and style.
We need to simplify at soul level
and all the way out to
attitude and function.
and do so for sanity and society's sake.
It takes smarts and courage
to be counter cultural
while functioning in our
hyped up technological and
systematized society.
Our very sacred selves
and our very sacred society
depend on rebalancing simplicity.
Otherwise we are tipped on the hurried surface,
distanced from our Center and Source,
our deepest selves orphaned and abandoned.
We become technological and
systems paced and powered robots.
To simplify we go deep and real to our
Source and Center - God,
or whatever you choose to call
Fundamental Being,
Fullness of Reality,
Existence Itself,
The Energy of the Cosmos,
Being.
Our being and doing evolve from
that underlying, all pervasive
Being and base,
the font of existence.
To get our bearings and balance,
to simplify for full living,
we need to
"Return to the Source."
Speaking of that Source,
Thomas Aquinas said
"Deus est simplex,"
"God is simple."
That means:
- no moving parts
to complicate, collide,
or break down
- unitive
- whole
- solid state
- an integrity
- A Oneness
Sensitive to our Source,
consciously centered there,
we live out our lives
simply and sanely
from right there,
not in whip lash reaction to complex,
surface simulation.
So growing detangles
the complexity holding captive
our heads and hearts,
frees us from a hell bent pace
and a maddening manner of
robot-like living,
one restricted to surface existence.
Where and how we live,
our pace and life style,
our financial choices,
our time to muse and schmooze,
addressing issues of social justice,
caring for the elements,
hugging babies,
having time and energy for a lover,
getting lost in a meadow, symphony, good book,
being Spirit feed and free,
all these open up and bloom to beauty
like a Spring garden.
It takes some time and sorting out.
Otherwise, we are "taken out"!!
So, for the next week
let's take time each day
detoxing, sensitizing to simplicity,
allowing God's Simplicity,
Integrity, Wholeness to be ours.
The Meditation Markers that follow
are offered to support that refreshment.
Let's be wise enough to catch ourselves.
If we don't, it'll be Artificial Intelligence
and artificial too much else
from here on out,
and out we will be!!
***
.
A warm welcome to those new
to our weekly sharing here.
We are blessed this week
with new connections
in the United Arab Emirates,
Columbia, Portugal and Oman.
How good to be together here.
Thank you for your company.
"frankly speaking
is available here online at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
and can be bookmarked for easy access.
It is also available for automatic delivery
by email. Please see the top right
of the online posting.
Past posts are available from
Blog Archive
located at the bottom right of the online version.
New posts go up toward the end of the week.
Ever good wish and abundance of blessings.
To borrow from the dear Shakers,
" Tis a gift to be simple..."
Holding you in
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*************************************************************************
MEDITATION MARKERS
We find a place of Sanctuary.
We go there each of the next seven days.
We dedicate time to be stilled and centered.
We slowly savor each of the sharings for that day.
We then go back over them, selecting the one (s)
that most speak to our spirit.
We consider:
- what is being shared here?
- how am I/am I not experiencing that?
- how can it happen freely and fully
in my spirit and in the practicalities
of my every day life?
- what new attitudes and behaviors
will free me for that?
- what one practice will I embrace today
to facilitate that?
We spend our concluding time being quietly grateful in God's Simplicity.
****
.
"Tis a gift to be simple,"
THE GIFT OF SIMPLICITY
DAY ONE
- " Childhood means simplicity.
Look at the world
with the child's eye."
Kailash Satyarthi
- " In character, in manner, in style, in all things,
the supreme excellence is simplicity."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- "Live simply, so that others may simply live."
Mother Theresa
- " If you can't explain it to a six year old,
you don't understand it yourself."
Albert Einstein
- "I have just three things to teach you:
simplicity, patience, compassion."
Lao Tzu
DAY TWO
- "Pure, holy simplicity
confounds all the wisdom of this world
and the wisdom of the flesh."
Francis of Assisi
- "Simplicity is not an object in art,
but one achieves simplicity
despite one's self
by entering into
the real sense of things."
Constaintin Brancusi
- "Possessions, outward success,
publicity, luxury...to me these
have always been contemptible.
I believe that a simple and
unassuming manner of life
is best for everyone,
best for both the body
and the mind."
Albert Einstein
- "Reduce the complexity of life
by eliminating the needless wants of life,
the labors of life reduce themselves."
Edwin Way Teale
- " Have nothing in your houses
that you do not know to be useful
or believe to be beautiful."
Hans Hofmann
DAY THREE
- "How many undervalue
the power of simplicity!
But it is the real key to the heart."
William Wordsworth
- "All the masters tell us that
the reality of life -
which our noisy waking consciousness
prevents us from hearing -
speaks to us chiefly in silence."
Karfried Graf Durckheim
- "Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being."
Lao Tzu
- "The heart at rest sees
a feast in everything."
Hindu Proverb
- " The ability to simplify means
to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak."
Hans Hofman
DAY FOUR
- "Find ecstasy in life;
the mere sense of living
is joy enough."
Emily Dickinson
- "To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable,
wealthy, not rich;
to study hard, think quietly,
talk gently, act frankly;
to listen to stars and birds,
babes and sages
with open heart;
to bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely,
await occasions,
hurry never;
in a word,
to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious,
grow through the common.
This is to be my symphony,
William Ellery/Henry Channing
- "Truth is ever to be found
in simplicity,
and not in the multiplicity
and confusion of things."
Issac Newton
DAY FIVE
- "Besides the noble art
of getting things done,
there is the noble art
of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists
in the elimination of non-essentials."
Lin Yutang
- "Fools ignore complexity.
Pragmatists suffer it.
Some can avoid it.
Geniuses remove it."
Alan Perlis
- " Simplicity is not about deprivation.
Simplicity is about
a greater appreciation
for things that really matter."
Anonymous
- " Simplicity is not style,
it is a state of harmony."
Naoto Fukasawa
- " Simplicity is making
the journey of this life
with just enough baggage."
Charles Dudley
DAY SIX
- "There is no greatness
where there is no simplicity,
goodness and truth."
Leo Tolstoy
- "My encouragement :
delete the energy vampires
from your life,
clean out all complexity,
build a team around you
that frees you to fly,
remove anything toxic,
and cherish simplicity,
because that's where genius lives.'
Robin S. Sharma
- "There is a beauty and clarity
that comes from simplicity
that we sometimes
do not appreciate in our thirst
for for intricate solutions."
Dieter F. Uchtdorf
- "When you remove layers,
simplicity and speed happen."
Ginni Rometty
- "Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity,
reduce selfishness, have few desires."
Lao Tzu
DAY SEVEN
- "Fear less, hope more, eat less, chew more,
whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more,
love more, and all good things will be yours."
Swedish Proverb
- "Beauty of style and harmony
and grace and good rythm
depend on simplicity."
Plato
- "Three Rules of Work:
Out of clutter find simplicity;
From discord find harmony;
In the middle of difficulty
lies opportunity."
Albert Einstein
- Shaker Hymn
Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free
'Tis a gift to come down where I ought to be
And when I am in the place just right
I will be in the valley of love and delight
When true simplicity is gained
To bow and bend I will not be ashamed
To turn, to turn will be my delight
'Til by turning, turning, I come round right.
************************************************************************************