breakthrough

last night, a friend i’m working on a project with said to me you’re the “#1 most organized person i know.”

i’m coming to realize that have a keen awareness of how to organize systems. i think i’ve already written about this once this year.

as i walked to the train this morning, i had a revelation that doing organizing work is how i should economically support myself. it comes to me SO naturally. even in the past few weeks, i’ve given away several pieces of advice that have been helpful to friends. of course, i will continue to do that and i think i’ll start planning how to earn income with those same skills.

after some calendar coaching, one of the guys i mentor said “can’t wait to talk– really trying to stick to calendar. it is amazing to track what i actually do every day. thank you, lawrence.”

erin g-h said “#1 most organized person i know”

cyndi asked “how do you keep up with all these tools and always have exactly the right tool for the right purpose?”

jonathan asked for advice in the future on personal budgeting systems.

maybe i should start a consulting firm.

who belongs?

today, i’m wondering about how to expand our (america’s) understanding of who belongs.

i’m getting ready to write a blog post for mlk jr day and the focus will be his letter from a birmingham jail. this letter means a lot to me because of .

“I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.“ - Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 16 april 1963

the connection between this analogy and john a. powell’s ideas about belonging seems particularly critical to me right now. as i think about donald trump’s bid for the presidency, i wonder how to encourage people against (and for) him to see each other. he is incredible at finding a single or group of people to victimize. how can belonging counter that? how can our shared identities help bind us even as we are different?

systems

today a friend requested some help budgeting. he has seen my detailed attention to my evolving budgeting systems over the years. from manual spreadsheets in excel to mint and now simple.

i am proud of the way i find ways to analyze a system, identify what’s needed, and then find a long-term solution. and i’ve found that the best solutions require a small amount of regular (up to daily) maintenance to achieve the goal.

this approach to systems reminds me of some off-hand my friend, nadeem, gave to a student at party. the student asked nadeem how to make a meaningful change. nadeem’s response: do something for five minutes a day for a long time. the kid responded: wait, but shouldn’t i do it for a few hours a week? nadeem: no no no, that’s way too much. if you can do five minutes a day, see how you like it. if it works, you’ll keep it up and do more. small, sustained acts over time is how we actually effect change.

i concur.

see poem: http://www.grahameb.com/pinkola_estes.htm

i love therapy (so far)

since getting my own health insurance (and what seems to be good insurance at that), I’ve been really exploring therapy. I started seeing someone for myself in Sept and my partner and I have been seeing a couples therapist since late December 2015.

it boggles the mind that therapy isn’t something everyone has as a part of their regular health programs. we see dentists and physicians and all sorts of other physical doctors. and then  we scorn those who have the (in)saneness to see a specialist for arguably our most important organ.

it’s bizarre, really. but then again, america is a pretty bizarre place.

for me, most of the value of a therapist comes from having an external perspective on my life situations. no matter how skilled you are, you can’t fight a fire from inside your house. ok well, you can but it’s easier from the outside. talk therapy is amazing to me because I get to experience the deep listening I was trained to do as a mentor (thanks, rashad and the Tallahassee youth group crew).

and on top of that, it feels invaluable to have a trained specialist listening to my stories evolve over time. and his experience over time in recommending and teaching specific skills, strategies, and tools and then observing and learning from those cases… the value just feels endless.

and the american in me says “well it’s just too expensive to give everyone in the county therapy.” and then I look at that sentence and think “and that’s why america is crazy.”

on the separation of church and self

yesterday, i read a piece on why millenials are leaving (or have already left) the church. the angle on the piece was why making church hip(ster) and more ‘relevant’ wasn’t going to bring young folks back. millenials are seeking meaning and no amount of smoke and lights can cover an inauthentic institution.

and then today i was reading john a. powell’s racing to justice and i found an interesting parallel. the chapter is on the symbiotic relationship between spiritual practice and social justice. he opens the chapter with an explanation of how most people who come to religion via a western perspective believe the connection between spirituality and social justice is one way. that is, spiritual practice should inform one’s social justice work. but he then goes on to explain that many of our most impactful social justice leaders (gandhi, mlk jr.) had spiritual practices that were informed by their drive to alleviate suffering.

he then discusses the lack of distinction between the secular and the spiritual in non-western religions. and then discusses how the overemphasized (individualized) western notions of faith screws things up.

i feel that.