The things that we dedicate ourselves to… how do we go about them? Passionately? Frantically? Avoiding commitment and conflict? Relationally? While condescending from the moral high ground? With faith, hope, and love? How we go about what we do means a great deal.
Author Archives: Paul Mitchell
Missing the Meaning
It is possible to have an experience that means to teach us – be it something wonderful or something difficult – and to miss its meaning. Maybe our attention is fragmented or stretched too thin. Maybe we willfully resist the lesson. We should not be surprised if life keeps offering us this lesson because weContinue reading “Missing the Meaning”
Half of Community
“Half of community is showing up,” a mentor once reminded me. I think that is right. Our presence matters. We cannot make the next important connection if we do not show up.
Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Fix
When we feel threatened, our brains click over to fight or flight or freeze mode. We attack, run, or seize up. And this does not help us address the “threat” intelligently. Ok, we have heard this before. But there are two more (tricky) manifestations of this that also counterproductive, but less obviously so. (1) FAWN:Continue reading “Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Fix”
Leading for Lent – Part 2
Two weeks ago, I wondered about what it would look like to take on the discomfort of leading, of gathering a group around a purpose, for Lent. This bit from chapter one of The Art of Gathering nicely focuses the challenge for our times.
Leading for Lent
I’ve heard that action is the antidote to anxiety. Recently, I’ve been wondering if it is not a little more specific.
What if agency, exercising intention and leadership in an uncertain situation, is in fact the way that uncertainty becomes less intimidating and more manageable?
And in situations where we seem to have no agency, we can learn to see that we do have a quite powerful opportunity: the possibility of gathering people together. More than we know, we are capable of convening a meaningful gathering serving a need of people we live, work, or pray with.
(I’ve recently picked up this book again to get better at this skill.)
Committing to convene a group of folks who need you is a cool thing to do for the liturgical season that started this Wednesday.
That is, what if we chose to lead for Lent?
Too Expensive
Even if we were given a smartphone for free, it may still be the most expensive thing we own.
Our most precious resources are our time and attention. Smartphones manipulate these two resources in ways that we do not see or even realize.
“Here are all the things to buy,” says the phone, “that will never satisfy. Here is all the curated outrage and anxiety… and here is unlimited access to work (even compelling work!) at all hours at the day or night.”
Unless we take measures to stop it, these things will distract us so thoroughly that we no longer know what we want to want.
Wanting What We Want to Want
What, in our lives, do we want to want?
Do we want those things / that life now and consistently?
If not, what is keeping us from wanting what we want to want?
What is the 15% we can choose today to move toward that desired life?
Don’t Erase Mine!
Last week at Sunday School, as our son’s class prepared for First Reconciliation, the instructors invited the students into a simple and illustrative activity.
There was a big heart drawn on the board, and the students were invited to fill it with habits and attachments that are not of God.
The point was to show that the sacrament clears our hearts of these things, so that in our hearts might grow the fruits of the Spirit.
When the instructor started erasing the words and narrating the metaphor, one rather exuberant young colleague jumped up and yelled, in full seriousness: “Don’t erase mine!!”
This is, of course, hilarious and the perfect reaction to illustrate why we need to be invited to the sacrament. We want this freedom from sin… buuuut maybe not yet.
Let’s pray for the grace to act with the Spirit now and not later.
Show Your Work
Through our schooling, our teachers reminded us to show our work. They invited us to make sure our thinking was sound and clear when making an argument, demonstrating a proof, or solving a problem.
Cognitive distortions abound and so teachers who do this well are priceless.
Leaders (that is to say, all of us) need to make a habit of showing our work. As we confront the realities of our day, let’s show our work and invite others to do the same.
Paul's Blog 