Everyman's Journal 2011, #3

© 2011 Rev. David Seacord

January 4, 2011

As a creative creature of habit, I arose yesterday morning to check my email, and was somewhat disappointed to find that there was no Everyman's Journal waiting to be read. I wondered why for a moment (just kidding) and then re-booted, and went on with my day. But as an 'early warning signal', that 'somewhat disappointed' feeling informed me that (even though the reason I missed a day was valid) I did not wish to become 'too lax' with publication irregularities, lest I become a lazy, 'convenience-determined' writer. It is, like an early art mentor told me (as if telling me a great secret, which he was....), "David, you have to push, push way way way past 'having fun' (while painting).... push beyond even all the natural talent that you have.... push until it ishard work. That is what it takes to be a really great Artist!"

I have recognized that such Mastery is a attitude and a discipline, and that it is transferrable from wherever it was learned, to anything else one chooses to master also. It is an attitude summed up by Ruiz in his fourth agreement: Always do your best.

Each of us doing this---our best, whatever that is ---while we are actually in this world--- is what I see it is going to take to keep having this world. I am not so much speaking spiritually, but more literally. Of course, that includes spirituality, but I am OK with it (spirituality) as a 'behind the scenes' thing, as a context that gives a foundation to everything....

'Sourcing' this conversation is the 'communing/shared thinking' that occurred between a local benefactor and myself as I labored this afternoon salvaging (tearing apart) an old wood-framed plywood storage shed that he was giving me (for the reusable lumber, which I will use to build another storage shed to protect my paintings). He was simply a generous, fairly well-off retired businessman from colder climates who I had met through responding to his want ad (to sell the shed). He hung around and made himself useful with an occasional helping hand as I worked, and we talked about a lot of things---- superficially at first for a while--- but as 'safety was established', truer truths were told too.

He told me about the most admirable and wisest man he had ever known, a man who had impacted the lives of many people in his community by generously offering his practical counsel for free. The man had had a clarity that could simplify a situation to its essence, and cut out mental confusion. My benefactor (Phil) spoke of a friend who was about to start a business in an expensive rental. The wise man told him "Don't do that, rent is throwing money away. Look over there, a block away... see that old warehouse? I bet you could buy it for a few thousand dollars". I was then told how this business, started in that converted warehouse, grew into great prosperity, but the wise man, when later offered a thank you payment, just said "Pay me back by passing it on".

Phil appreciated what he was seeing me do, recycling his old shed. I understood when he decided to give me it instead of charge me for it that he was 'passing it on'. We shared how we both were sometimes disturbed by all the excess our society creates, how he (Phil) hated to waste things, even though he confessed that he did, way too often. It had become so inconvenient and unprofitable not to, he said. Yes, I said, I saw that, and then shared how I saw it as a spiritual thing too.... that that feeling of desiring to not waste the resources of this world was the essence of the stewardship of this planet we humans have been given calling to be felt and practiced, and even beyond that, it was a symptom of our disease of believing in our separation from one another... like what I do will somehow not affect anyone else. I admit I kinda lost him there, but that was OK. The labors we were sharing physically kept the wholeness integrated....

Then he told me about something that caused me to hurt freshly....

In our conversation, I had for some reason mentioned the Texas-sized ocean dead-zone in the mid-Pacific where all our floating plastic garbage eventually ends up... That got Phil talking about cruises, which he said he'd never particularly liked, but he'd been 'roped into one' not so long ago. He told me that he had watched, very late at night when all the normal passengers were sleeping, how the ship dealt with their garbage.... by opening up a big door at the back of the ship and dumping it all into to sea.

"You mean the sewage effluent?" I asked. "Oh no, not just that" he said. "Everything. Everything from everywhere on the ship... garbage bags, dumpsters full of it... just dumped into the ocean. Every night. And there are thousands of ships doing it....".

I hurt to hear this.... Still? Today? I was left with the question "What can I do? Actually, I saw a better question was "What can I do that would work?" Then I remembered those ocean liners... those huge ships.... that the rudder (that they use to steer with) is huge too... so huge that it is not mechanically possible to simply 'turn it'. There is just too much water in the way. So how the Captain steers the ship is to (instead) turn what is called 'a trim tab'. It's a much smaller little rudder located at the bottom outer edge of the main rudder. That rudder is small enough it can be turned. And once it is turned, it gets the main big rudder slowly turning too. That's how it is done. That is what works to turn a big huge ship...

I see us all as trim tabs. By at all times 'doing our best', the way we live and the example of integrity that provides offers a new view of life and what is possible. It is a view that most people, once they taste it, can recognize as sane. It is a view that calls us to accept the often-sickly pieces of life around us as other part of ourselves, and as our opportunity to extend healing to that part from the quietness within our heart core, and to share with those who are becoming ready to hear, the songs and conversations of another clearly possible Reality.... accessible by the simple nano-shift to selflessness.

For us to sing those songs authentically, I see I/we must have my/our feet in two worlds, exactly as ACIM describes our Guide, who sees both what is false, AND what is true, and is never confused (but never judgmental either). Thus by forgiving the unforgivable, we are the living bridges between all impossible opposites. Thus we each find our truest path, and fulfill for life our individual unique promise.

Namaste,

David

____________________________

"The Four Agreements

1. Be impeccable with your word.

2. Don’t take anything personally.

3. Don’t make assumptions.

4. Always do your best. "

Don Miguel Ruiz