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Put
Yourself in the Picture
March
11, 2002.
Charlotte,
NC - Naomi and I are on the last leg of a workshop tour on
the East Coast, completing successful FYSP sessions at the
Centers of Positive Living in St. Augustine, FL, Asheville,
NC, and Center for Positive Living in Charlotte, NC. Our theme
this trip: "Take Your Self Off the Shelf",
presaging our next Turning Point Retreat in May: Re-Membering
the Self.
Wherever
we go, our participants enthusiastically welcome us and LMA's
life enhancing message. Each of us is an instrument of the
universal mind, a unique agent of change and growth, and as
such we require a clear instruction manual and regular maintenance
in order to function at the highest level. We can all use
a mission "lube job" from time to time.
We
all need the time for reflection to attain a clear self-concept,
to place our self in the most positive context to express
our gifts and serve others. This approach, reflected in our
Fulfill Your Soul's Purpose book, workbook and tapes, emphasizes
the use of inventories of our particular passions, gifts,
behavior style, and a rigorous self-examination of the blocks,
boundaries and obstacles which prevent us from moving forward
on our mission path.
Na
and I find travel, "taking our show on the road",
an invaluable source of information and energy to propel us
forward in our Life Mission Work. What gives YOU energy and
passion? In what contexts do you find yourself humming like
a fine-tuned machine?
What places and people call to you? Connect the dots. These
are all clues to your special "divine assignment",
the contribution you and you alone can make at this critical
time in our collective history.
Rant
And Rave - The Burden/Power Of Childlessness - Especially
For Single Women
One
of the most telling clues we cite in our presentations is
the irritation factor. What bugs you? What societal trends,
attitudes and news stories provoke you, to the point of dragging
out a soapbox, or even better, writing a letter to the editor?
(a practice we highly recommend). Divine irritation is the
organism in the oyster which stimulates a pearl.
Naomi,
whose mission as a musician/author is to create a sound world
through her words and music, is particularly irritated by
noise pollution, leaf blowers, loud cars and boom boxes.
For
me, a disturbing and irritating trend in our technologically
advanced society is reproductive technology - the increasing
and unexamined use of sperm banks, in-vitro fertilization
and the like to beget children. More importantly, I feel compelled
to question the underlying attitudes and assumptions which
I would group under the rubric of "child-as-product".
I
can only think that this trend leads to an ever more detached
style of parenting, and therefore higher levels of anomie,
the sense of being disconnected in this world, which can lead
to untold pathology and social dislocation.
In
my clinical experience, women who feel they must bear a child,
damn the financial and emotional cost, are seldom thinking
of the child's welfare. Rather, they are acting blindly on
their own unreflected narcissistic needs.
Likewise
the anonymous sperm donors who squirt their progeny into a
tube, abandon the essential and hard work of fathering the
product of that technology. It is one thing for an intact
couple with a loving home to use this technology to become
parents, another for a woman to select an unknown or absent
donor to father her child. At the risk of offending some feminist
friends, I must confess that I am less than wildly enthusiastic
about single motherhood, this "I can have it all"
brand of feminism.
We
are all a combination of male/female genetic material. Doesn't
it stand to reason that a child will benefit from two involved
models of that DNA in the home? Of course, children are given
up for adoption and any two loving parents beats a foster
home. But even adopted children in a perfectly loving home
often seek to unlock closed case files to find the parents
who begat them. They are seeking their lost history. If we
lose our history, we lose invaluable information, which helps
us understand our origins, our "stuff" and how creatively
that "stuff" has been expressed and can be applied
in the future. Why aim for less-than-ideal? Life throws us
enough curves without built-in handicaps.
The
Mother Gene is a powerful force in us women. In a blind drive
to motherhood I see an unconscious female aggression. Perhaps
a remedy is a conscious valuing of the choice of childlessness.
Many childless women have made tremendous contributions to
our world, tapping into their unused maternal energy to mother
the family of humankind in a broader or higher plane. Examples:
Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Gloria Steinem, Jane Addams,
Marie Curie and Susan B. Anthony. Or how about Sue Carroll
Moore and Naomi Stephan? Unfulfilled old maids we ain't.
If
you are a single woman considering motherhood, question your
intention. Do you feel you are worthless as a woman unless
you bear children? Do you feel that this is the only way you
can make a contribution to society? There are gifts differing,
as it says in Corinthians. Mother yourself, mother and express
those unique gifts.
THE
HEALTH CARE DEBACLE,
A CATASTROPHE IN THE MAKING
Beyond
irritating to me is the mess we have made of our
once proud health care system. As Martha Ezzard says in her
excellent editorial for the Cox News Service, "Billions
of dollars
for homeland security and not a dime for hospital emergency
rooms". Emergency rooms across the country are closing
down,
patients in critical need find themselves on an ambulance
tour seeking an emergency room which isn't full to overflowing,
often with patients who have no medical insurance and seek
the ER for primary treatment. Several years ago, my mother
with a potentially fatal pneumonia and in her 80's, was forced
to wait eight hours on a drafty gurney in the hall for emergency
treatment, sans triage, while the ER staff treated a host
of gunshot and stab wounds. Emergency room docs are quitting
by the droves, unable to afford the increasing cost of malpractice
insurance.
But
that's barely scratching the surface of our health care woes.
Millions remained uninsured. HMO's are going out of business
right and left, in spite of heavy bottom line talk and their
fancy formularies, leaving hapless subscribers to fend for
themselves. Insurance companies hike up rates, and refuse
patients with "prior conditions". Employees feel
stuck to job and location, afraid to lose health coverage.
The incremental loss of life and suffering from this situation,
if fully accounted, would outstrip WTC by far.
It
is easy to blame politicians for this abominable situation.
But I fear the problem is much deeper. Let's look at the entrenched
apathy and a national mindset which allowed this disastrous
"privatization" to dismantle our health care system,
to bury overburdened healthcare professionals in tedious,
ever expanding paperwork, fragmenting availability and continuity
of care. Physicians, afraid of "socialized medicine"
betray their sacred Hippocratic Oath to keep the bucks coming
from the healthcare "industry", whose only interest
is fat corporate profits. My Dad, a physician, should be turning
over in his grave by now. I say that this version of "capitalized
medicine" is indecent, anti-freedom of movement and anti-democratic,
hence anti-American.
The
remedy? A single payer system. A national health care card
which permits the user access to the same level of care, wherever
they move or travel within the United States. A computer chip
on this card summarizing the patient's health history, including
current medication, allergies, blood type, etc. Just imagine.
It shouldn't be so hard to do. The good news is: there are
inklings of just this system beginning.
December
8. 2001
Your
sine qua non
In
these days of job layoffs, setbacks, economic hardships and
other difficult situations, it is important to keep your eye
on the mark. What is the thing which gives your life meaning?
I call it the sine qua non, (Latin for “without which
not”, or “an indispensable condition”), which
means the thing in your life without which nothing else matters.
What
is your sine qua non? Be specific! Is it words, colors, music,
photography, foreign languages, toy cars? Whatever it is,
give it energy, even if you can only manage five minutes a
day. You will see that giving energy to a passion creates
a force field which attracts other good energies into your
life.
Once,
when I had no place of my own and had to search for someone
to take me in, because my landlord closed down the apartment
complex we lived in, I made a promise to myself to focus on
my love of music, no matter what. I played, sang, listened
and gave energy to the kind of music I love. IT PULLED ME
THROUGH. The next year, my very first composition was performed
and recorded for a CD.
Try
the five minutes a day approach and let me know about the
magical things that happen to you.
Naomi
November
03. 2001.
From
a October 7th epistle, posted to our clients October 11:
Hotel
Amsterdam, Düsseldorf:
Dear
Life Mission Associates:
During
a sleepless night, full of anxiety and tears at the news of
the U.S. Military action in Afghanistan, both Naomi and I,
on our research tour in Germany, hasten to reassure you of
our safety and deepening conviction that a life of clear purpose
is the best defense against external chaos. So, Spirit willing,
we will return home at the end of the month fortified in our
resolve to continue LMA's important work, nurturing your growth
into greater clarity and dimension.
As
the world stands poised on the brink of a new and terrible
war, we must all guard against falling into despair about
out particular path in life. Whatever was important to you
before Sept. 11, if you were on target with your life, must
be even more important to you now. For example, if you were
writing poetry, keep on doing that poetry. Let every moment
count. I am reminded of Beethoven composing his Eroica Symphony
amidst the bombs blasting in Vienna. In the words of John
Donne, “Let me not Carrion Comfort, feed on thee . .
.”
I
believe it is impossible to fight terror with terror. That
is both a logical and emotional absurdity. Instead, we must
wage peace and creativity. And in our prayers, let us ask
for Courage, Compassion, Creativity and Competence, and hold
the bleeding and bandaged world, in all its suffering and
delusion, close to love. The only holy war to be waged is
against our own indifference.
Let
us hear from you. As we head on to our next stop from Düsseldorf
to the Frankfurter Book Fair, where we seek a publisher for
a new updated version of Fulfill Your Soul’s Purpose
especially for the German market, and encompassing the events
of the day.
The
tentative title: “Auf der Suche nach der Lebensaufgabe:
wie man sinnvoll in einer sinnlosen Welt weiter kommt.”
(loose translation: In search of a life mission, how one goes
forward sensibly in a world without sense).
Dona
nobis pacem, Sue & Naomi!
Epistle,
Part II.
So
now were are back in the USA, in our beautiful Ojai Valley,
absorbing the events of our month long sojourn, which included
the Frankfurt Book Fair, reconnecting with friends in Düsseldorf
and Berlin, researching sites for my upcoming One Person theater
piece on the life of Robert Schumann in Leipzig, Zwickau and
other obscure places in what was formerly East Germany, a
tour of Manhattan, and a workshop in New Jersey. It was a
joyous and strenuous trip. Akin to Ordeal Therapy, traveling
strips us of routine and normalcy, thereby refreshing our
soul and our senses. We feel like the squirrel having come
home with a check full of nut wisdom to chew, swallow and
digest.
Some
of what we learned, saw, heard and experienced was:
An
unusually warm October in Europe. We expected rain and cold,
instead we sweated in the warm clothes we so carefully included.
A
warm and vibrant welcome came from all those on our path:
Gunter, Hans & Inge, Dagmar & Ita, George & Jennifer,
Fran & Tom, all the participants in our workshop at the
Church of Religious Science in Morristown, N.J., we gained
so much from our visit with you, huge doses of self-confidence
and love. Because it strengthens us to affirm our friendships,
and our mission path, no matter how far and wide we have to
go.
Wonderful
music, a piano concert by pianist Professor Josef De Beenhouwen,
who raced 10 hours from Antwerp, Belgium to play for us, in
the recently opened Schumann house on Inselstrasse in Leipzig,
two services at St. Thomaskirche, where Bach composed and
conducted some of his most passionate music; our own “musizieren,”
as the Germans call it, making music in your own home, with
friends Hans and Inge.
Na
particularly loved the Nikolaikirche, a center of revolution
harboring dissidents and freedom-loving people who huddled
there in the dark days just before the wall came down in 1989.
Nikolai’s magnificent organ, in the church once under
Bach’s musical direction, gave solace and rest to the
weary as they sought serenity and comfort at the weekly late
Saturday afternoon concert. She sat next to a man with a shaven
head and earrings, bowing his head on his arms, and across
from her was a mother and her three daughters, with exactly
the same pointed noses, and a young woman resting her head
on the pew. She felt a real kinship with those people.
In
Eisenach, the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach, we were
struck by a quote from another famous former resident, Martin
Luther, in front of the school he attended. “And if the
world were to go under, I would still plant my little apple
tree.”
Wherever
we went people were stirred deeply by the events of Sept.
11 and thereafter. Nobody was happy that the US was going
back to war. My friend Inge, who obviously thinks I can solve
all manners of problem and of any proportion, asked me “But
what can we do to end the war?” “Do?” I answered
“Nothing. Pray. And cultivate your garden.” Well
actually, I suggested a good deal more than that, but cultivating
my particular garden includes cultivating friends of different
nationalities. Traveling is for me a worldly embrace. And
ever more true I found LMA’s teaching, that which keeps
balance in chaotic circumstances is a firmly held sense of
purpose: one’s own innate, inner gyroscope.
In
Germany, we found USA imports: McDonald’s everywhere,
vying with cathedrals for airspace. Graffiti (klunky) in every
dorf. Speed traps. Massive rebuilding in Berlin, towers of
a frightening degree of glitz. Good postmodern architecture
in Leipzig.
Germans
still say “Auf Wiedersehen” when leaving a shop
or restaurant.
Great
German cuisine, as always great beer, and great soups!
In
Leipzig, we visited a museum of psychiatry, where Herr Fisher,
the museum director, informed us that the East Germans are
far from recovering, 10 years after the “Wende”,
(German for “ turning point”). They have experienced
oppression all their lives, it’s not much different now,
they feel oppressed by the West Germans, the carpetbaggers,
and the petty officials from the commie regime who grabbed
up all the available positions in the new government bureaucracy.
There is a lot of joblessness. We will keep in touch with
Herr Fisher.
We
see that east is still east, and west is still west there
is much residual hostility and distance between them.
Manhattan.
We traveled to the edge of New Jersey by train. The day was
chilly, brisk, bright. A high point was coming into Manhattan,
by Ferry. A friendly native boat traveler agreed, none of
us would ever be the same after Sept. 11. He still thinks
Manhattan is the greatest place on earth. And yes it is, in
spite of gaping holes in the skyline. Putting my feet down
and feeling as if I could take the whole city in my embrace,
The magnificent skyscrapers, the shadowy canyons with the
flow of thoughtful, scurrying pedestrians (much sparser than
usual, Jennifer reports), each with their own particular mission
of the day. Our mission was to get as close to Ground Zero
as we could, to smell, touch and feel the vicinity. Memorials
all over, taped to fences and walls. Many people crying, some
gaping, some still in thought, some taking pictures, an old
street fiddler rendering God Bless America. Others watched
the workers with a crane on a small closed circuit t.v. monitor.
And
later, a loud, overamped and hysterical performance of RENT.
We walked out.
The
trip culminated the next day on a high point, our Fulfill
Your Soul’s Purpose workshop at the aforementioned Church
of Religious Science in Morristown, New Jersey. What a wonderful,
bright group of people!
It
was a great trip, with a sense of time expanding (one of Naomi’s
most famous clues for being on the right path), and a deep
draught of the true timelessness of loving friendship.
Sue
(with additions and editing by Naomi)
Life
Mission Associates September Retreat an International Success
(From
and article in the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce News, October
3, 2001)
Life
Mission Associates’ Sue Carroll Moore and Naomi Stephan
hosted their second weekend intensive retreat, September 21-23.
It was attended by a rainbow mix of people from around the
world: France, the Phillipians, Canada, Santa Fe, NM. Chicago,
Long Beach and other California cities. “Many associations
canceled conferences, because of the events of Sept. 11, but
our enrollment was up,” Naomi reported. “Now more
than ever, we feel it is important to live in the moment,
and make every second count by doing what you love. We are
proud that our people braved long waits in airports and heavy
traffic to get to Ojai by any means.”
Armed
with resolve and pluck, participants plunged vigorously into
group discussions, individual exercises and small group projects,
all designed to dossier each person’s unique mission
on this planet. Karin Jensen’s refreshments and a gourmet
Sunday brunch provided soul food for the new millennium. Saturday
night, LMA hosted an evening salon, featuring participant’s
special talents, singing, poetry, storytelling and piano.
Italian wine and French cheese added further flavor to the
evening.
Ojai
plays an important role in our retreats. The quiet of Ojai
and panoramic mountain views revitalize and refresh the bruised,
urbanized spirit. Participants spent time outdoors, completed
their exercises to the sound of birds and a fountain. Some
took trolley rides, others combed the excellent shops and
restaurants of Ojai, others hiked, and still others tacked
on an extra day on Monday to enjoy the area.
In
preparation for this international event, we found two remaining
UN flags at the Flag Company of Santa Barbara. The flag is
proudly displayed at LMA headquarters. At the conclusion of
the workshop, participants were honored by the photograph
in front of this flag, symbolizing the family of all people
on earth, as well as memorializing the deaths of thousands,
from 80 different nations, who perished on September 11.
“My life has changed forever, and you helped me prepare
for it.” said one participant.
WHO
SAYS?
Who
says you can’t do your dream? Are all the songs that
so deeply move us, about our dreams coming true, merely misguided
fantasies?
We
at LMA say that you can do your dream, if the dream
comes from a heartfelt place, no matter your circumstances
or conditions.
This
week, when we picked up our cat Angel at the vet. Carolyn,
the very gracious & helpful assistant, mentioned she saw
an article about LMA in the Ojai Chamber News. She was eager
to confide her “mission secret” that she had always
wanted to be a vet. Instead, after a few detours, she’s
a vet’s assistant, doing a wonderful job handling pets
and their worried owners. Carolyn is doing a form of her dream.
And the detours along the way were fun, she said--she was
a Hair Stylist in another reincarnation, “an artistic
detour”. Wow! I said to myself. Carolyn is indeed fulfilling
her true mission, and she feels “right” about the
place she’s in. She’s a happy woman.
People
come to us for help in fulfilling their dreams. Identifying
the dream is usually easy. But people can be crystal clear
about what they want to do, and still let circumstances or
conditions, parents, pets, peers, or yadda yadda get in the
way.
We
Say: Not much can get in your way if you have a gift plus
a true understanding of the gift and a Sense Of Purpose.
Look
at Steven Hawkins, writing books on physics letter by letter,
15 words an hour. Or how about Art Berg, who founded ESpeakers.com.
His story teaches us not to let the adversities of life stop
us, but to turn those very adversities into a spur to success.
Born
an achiever, a superb athlete, Art owned a tennis court construction
business when a car accident rendered him quadriplegic. Suffering
tremendous pain and dismay at the reversal of his fortune,
he might have given up, if it were not for the love and support
of his fiance and family, who counseled him, don’t quit,
don’t give up, don’t give in.
He
began to see his accident as a detour and a challenge - and
to dream new dreams that would take his current condition
and circumstances into account. He decided, like my partner
Naomi, to become a motivational speaker.
Art
made an important decision: he discovered he was in control
of his happiness. He could be either happy or sad with his
circumstances. But he preferred to be happy. The doctors found
Art overly euphoric. They told him he was in denial. But he
persevered in his rehabilitation, married his childhood sweetheart,
and eventually formed his own company linking motivational
speakers with speakers bureaus via software.
Stories
of unlikely successes abound in the news media, if you look
past the dreary so-called real “bad” news.
Take
the little girl in Florida, born without arms, who did not
allow this to deter her. She won a trophy in Karate.
Or
the English orchestra conductor with a severe spinal chord
misalignment who learned to conduct sitting down. He did not
give up on his dream of being a musician.
Or
the Thalidomide baby who dreamed of performing opera and went
on to a brilliant opera career in Germany. These people kept
their eye on the prize, and did what many people told them
they couldn’t do. They said, Who Says? Keep your
eyes and your heart open and you’ll see people doing
their impossible dream in every walk of life.
Questions
For Our Internet Friends: What are the prizes you have
won in life? What adversities have you faced, and what are
the lessons learned? We’d love to publish your Life Mission
stories and what you overcame to go for the prize. Contact
us at info@LifeMissionAssociates.com.
back
to top
Stories
of Life Missionaries in the News or Don’t
tell me I can’t!
Kristina
Mielke-Van Loben Sel - The Youngest Woman Winemaker in Washington
State
Kristina went against the odds when she and her husband moved
to Spokane to take over her parents’ winery, Arbor Crest.
Kristina’s background (a degree from UCDavis in fermentation
science, and work as an associate winemaker for Ferrari-Carona
Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma) was invaluable. Nevertheless
hers was a risky and courageous move. She is one of five woman
winemakers of 162 in Washington State. In vino veritas. Is
wine a comfort and joy in life? Does it promote togetherness
and conviviality? Many believe so.
Joyce
Carlo - Knitter
Joyce Carlo, of Portland, Oregon, makes a living knitting.
Not that she is in it for the money. She can’t help herself.
She has been involved in knitting and crocheting since she
was Age 9, when she picked up the rhythm and sound of knitting
at her grandmother’s feet. “It is my object in my
life,” she says, “to make people happy with this
beauty.”
Lawrence
Satin - Cardiologist/Opera Singer, age 62
“It does sound trite, but if you follow your own passions,
you’ll be surprised what you can accomplish.” Satin was discouraged
from an opera career by his “practical” father, instead went
on become a nuclear cardiologist in the Washington, D.C. area.
One day, Satin sang along with vocal group he invited into
his home through a silent auction, and they were surprised
at the quality of his tenor voice. He began taking lessons,
has given concerts in his home and recently traveled to Italy
with an ensemble for the Amalfi Coast Music Festival, which
he describes as a sort of “opera boot camp”. He practices
daily with rigor, studies Italian, and in every way demonstrates
that it is never too late to take up a forgotten dream. “Sometimes
when I’m not doing so well, I worry that I’m too old. But
my voice teacher (Chrissellene G. Petropoulos) says that’s
absolute nonsense, she says I still have room to improve,
that age itself is not a deterrent.” Reported in the Washington
Post.
LMA:
Congratulations Larry and Chris! Sometimes the greatest deterrents
to fulfilling our mission are self-doubt, fear and nay-sayers
(and we wouldn’t believe them if we didn’t doubt ourselves.)
Read on.
Ann
Vargas - Hair stylist/Mountain Climber, age 45
“Hair stylist Ana Vargas rejected a doctor’s advice, overcame
self-doubt and did the unexpected--she set out to climb Mt.
Kilimanjaro.” Ana not only overcame an inherited blood condition
(thalasemia), but physical inertia with the encouragement
of Bill Creasy, a UCLA English professor who conducts adventure
trips. Quite a change from her routine as a workaholic salon
owner, “who considered her main sport bookkeeping.” Reported
by Bill Dwyre, Sports Editor, in the L.A.Times
LMA:
There are many fine Life Missionaries doing our work to help
others free themselves from unhealthy, restricted or limiting
thought, to stretch themselves along surprising new dimensions.
Imagine Ana’s inspiring view from Kilimanjaro, which will
sustain her through hours of tough, on-your-feet work with
customers. And Larry’s beautiful voice encouraging his patients
enduring the tread-mill stress test.
back
to top
September
13. 2001.
Dear
Friends of LMA:
“God
Bless America” I heard from the TV as I began this editorial,
on September 11, 2001, the first day of Armageddon. We hear
from every side a resounding call to arms to find the culprits
who immolated themselves and a bunch of innocent others. My
mind, like many other minds, is boggled, I stagger through
the day, between tears, and my usual tactic: put one foot
in front of the other. The gruesome, and hideous images, the
new face of war, has finally hit our shores. Brightness collapses
in granite and dust.
For
those of us far from the epicenter of this disaster, the terror
still comes close. There is a big new hole in the American
Psyche. For me, this disaster, a disaster of the human kind,
is a call to arms, not for revenge, but to be clear about
our purpose on this earth.
I
do love America, and America is definitely under siege. The
events of this week (the bombing of the Pentagon and the World
Trade Center Towers) leave me sorrowful and contemplative,
and often, sitting on my arse.
We
have been grounded. The adolescent, big-time spenders, the
omnipotent, happy-go-lucky beer-guzzling bunch. We cared more
about football (and video games and T.V. and baseball and
a bunch of bloated frivolous pastimes) than protecting America’s
corridors and borders, and left the security of our travelers
up in the air. We have cared more about the bottom line than
universal health care.
On
these days, full of wrath and brimstone, I find it hard to
keep my head straight about what my business on earth is all
about.
If
I were in a plane headed for my certain death, would I be
square with myself? Am I square with my purpose? I hope so,
that’s what keeps me moving forward (which is the etymological
meaning of purpose, by the way). I press on toward the goal
for the prize, (as stated in Phillipians) helping others realize
a mission full of love for self and others, no matter what
odds and circumstances they face.
My
motto from Northwestern: quae cum que sunt vera, or “whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
are lovely, whatsoever things are gracious, if there is any
excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on
these things” (a combination of the King James and the
RSV).
This
truth, I believe, this sense of mission, is the inner gyroscope
which keeps us balanced. I hope I could face such terrifying
moments as our dearest friends have just experienced, not
without pain, but with some measure of serenity.
We
are sad. We are shocked. How do we go on? How do we proceed
in the face of national catastrophe? Looking up the meaning
of the word Catastrophe, I find that:
CATASTROPHE:
Derives from strap, a variation of strop, a thong, usually
of leather, to hold things together. Related to strophe. Hence
the first stanza of a choral ode. Cata: means down. Hence
a conclusion of a tragedy, a great misfortune. A literal overturning.
Also means, A TURNING POINT. The movement of the chorus in
the Greek Tragedy in turning from one side of the orchestra
to the other.
It’s pretty clear: America has just reached a turning
point. We must rethink ourselves now, pull back the pieces
and the fragments, pull ourselves together. But guaranteed,
this new picture cannot, should not be the same. How about
creating a better system of ground transportation? How about
reinstituting regulation of the airlines? How about protecting
our borders?
How
have you dealt with catastrophe in your life? With huge setbacks?
And major personal limitations? The stories of a thousand
heroic survivors of this American catastrophe should inspire
and encourage you. The police, the firemen, the doctors in
the street in emergent and extreme conditions maintained calm
and focus because they well understand their mission: to save
life and alleviate suffering. A fireman, on the Larry King
show, though terrified and scarred from this experience, when
asked if he would return to his job, said of course, because
he would always be a fireman, because
that’s who he was. Would you feel the same about your
job?
Those
of us who serve in different places and venues must shake
off sorrow and grief and keep on keeping on, hopefully with
more depth of understanding and compassion for all, and resolve
to keep our eye on our particular prize. We can give only
so much blood. Now we must give of ourselves, our particular
gift.
We
at LMA like to share your stories, and those of others who
are fulfilling a mission of love, a unique service to others,
no matter how great or humble, often going against odds, tradition
or adversity.
WHO
SAYS?
Who
says you can’t do your dream? Are all the songs that
so deeply move us, about our dreams coming true, merely misguided
fantasies?
We
at LMA say that you can do your dream, if the dream
comes from a heartfelt place, no matter your circumstances
or conditions.
This
week, when we picked up our cat Angel at the vet. Carolyn,
the very gracious & helpful assistant, mentioned she saw
an article about LMA in the Ojai Chamber News. She was eager
to confide her “mission secret” that she had always
wanted to be a vet. Instead, after a few detours, she’s
a vet’s assistant, doing a wonderful job handling pets
and their worried owners. Carolyn is doing a form of her dream.
And the detours along the way were fun, she said--she was
a Hair Stylist in another reincarnation, “an artistic
detour”. Wow! I said to myself. Carolyn is indeed fulfilling
her true mission, and she feels “right” about the
place she’s in. She’s a happy woman.
People
come to us for help in fulfilling their dreams. Identifying
the dream is usually easy. But people can be crystal clear
about what they want to do, and still let circumstances or
conditions, parents, pets, peers, or yadda yadda get in the
way.
We
Say: Not much can get in your way if you have a gift plus
a true understanding of the gift and a Sense Of Purpose.
Look
at Steven Hawkins, writing books on physics letter by letter,
15 words an hour. Or how about Art Berg, who founded ESpeakers.com.
His story teaches us not to let the adversities of life stop
us, but to turn those very adversities into a spur to success.
Born
an achiever, a superb athlete, Art owned a tennis court construction
business when a car accident rendered him quadriplegic. Suffering
tremendous pain and dismay at the reversal of his fortune,
he might have given up, if it were not for the love and support
of his fiance and family, who counseled him, don’t quit,
don’t give up, don’t give in.
He
began to see his accident as a detour and a challenge - and
to dream new dreams that would take his current condition
and circumstances into account. He decided, like my partner
Naomi, to become a motivational speaker.
Art
made an important decision: he discovered he was in control
of his happiness. He could be either happy or sad with his
circumstances. But he preferred to be happy. The doctors found
Art overly euphoric. They told him he was in denial. But he
persevered in his rehabilitation, married his childhood sweetheart,
and eventually formed his own company linking motivational
speakers with speakers bureaus via software.
Stories
of unlikely successes abound in the news media, if you look
past the dreary so-called real “bad” news.
Take
the little girl in Florida, born without arms, who did not
allow this to deter her. She won a trophy in Karate.
Or
the English orchestra conductor with a severe spinal chord
misalignment who learned to conduct sitting down. He did not
give up on his dream of being a musician.
Or
the Thalidomide baby who dreamed of performing opera and went
on to a brilliant opera career in Germany. These people kept
their eye on the prize, and did what many people told them
they couldn’t do. They said, Who Says? Keep your
eyes and your heart open and you’ll see people doing
their impossible dream in every walk of life.
Questions
For Our Internet Friends: What are the prizes you have
won in life? What adversities have you faced, and what are
the lessons learned? We’d love to publish your Life Mission
stories and what you overcame to go for the prize. Contact
us at info@LifeMissionAssociates.com.
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