“Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.” – Clive Staples Lewis
The holiday season is the perfect time to practice the art of forgiveness. Bury the hatchets that have been stored in the cellar for so many months and/or years. Set your family or friends free from judgement and blame. In turn you’ll really be setting yourself free.
This week there will be no end to articles and blogs discussing “thankfulness” and the Thanksgiving season, so I’ll forgo the long wordy post and keep it simple. As much as the shirt above rings true in my heart (Probably more so during Thanksgiving which is accompanied by the rituals of food/football), the following speaks even louder.
Psalm 100:4-5 – “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures for ever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
Every year I find myself writhe with conviction on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I’ll re-read excerpts from his books and sermons, listen to his speeches and watch his interviews all the while my heart burns, my spirit dances, and my stomach ties knots. The guy ruins me. His rhetoric, his passion and influence flood out from my computer and wash over me with revelatory waves of dreams, ambitions and courage. I feel stronger just listening to him, and yet I can also feel so small.
Have you ever been around someone with an all-consuming passion? A passion that they were willing to spend their entire life pursuing, perfecting and promoting? I’m not describing people who merely talk about what they “love” or spend a lot of time doing something they enjoy. I mean people who live from a passion that sweeps you off your feet and carries you into their dream and vision. There are tons of passionate people, but few who can actually influence and lead people into their passion. These are the people that are changing the world. These are the people we fall in love with.
I have to ask myself the question, “What am I passionate about?” And whatever my answer is, it’s followed by another question, “Are you really?” I believe that if I’m really passionate about something, then I should be leading people into an encounter with that passion. I should be influencing people into that passion. I’m reminded of a quote that has stirred my heart for two years now:
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up men that will just build it. Instead, teach them the desire of the sea.” – Antione de Saint-Exupery (French Pilot)
In other words, don’t just pay people to follow you, but infect them with your passion so that they desire to follow you. That’s true leadership and true passion.
So what are you passionate about? Are you really?
Most people are familiar with the phrase “it is better to give than receive.” It’s cliché. I’m sure you probably heard it while at a charity event, religious function or maybe even from your 14-year-old daughter requesting funds so she can see the latest Twilight flick. The phrase has been so over used that it appears more as a marketing ploy than a proverb. Regardless of how it was first presented, have you ever taken the time to ponder whether or not it’s even true? Like can you actually give without ever receiving?
I don’t know that I have ever “just given” anything to anybody. Seriously. Every time I’ve given something, I’ve always received something in return. Just a couple weeks ago I gave away a jacket to a friend. He was stoked on the new threads. Did I receive anything from the transaction? Most Definitely. I got rid of a jacket I didn’t really want, which gave me more closet space, and at the shallowest level, I felt good about myself. It felt good blessing someone. Don’t judge me. Even Mother Theresa, who spent her whole life in poverty so she could serve the “untouchables” in Calcutta, said that she was the most selfish person in the world because of the joy she received from giving all that she had.
Receiving is part of the beauty of giving. When you give you are a part of a double blessing. First, you are the catalyst for blessing (the actually giving). Second, through the act of giving you receive blessing one way or another. That’s part of the reason why it truly is better to give than receive.
Don’t Be Lame
Going “green” gets a bad wrap sometimes. It’s often viewed as being cheap, thoughtless, and lame. Like the time my brother, who is a carpenter, used some leftover wood scraps to make stirring sticks for everyone in our family. Not everyone was thrilled over their gift because, to the untrained eye, it looked as if my brother just sanded a piece of wood and dubbed it “stirring stick” in a last ditch effort to create a gift. Maybe that was true, but I think my brother was actually being very conscious and considerate of the environment. He not only reused some of the scraps that were destined for compost, but he also didn’t bother wasting the paper to wrap the things. Yes, some might call that cheap, but I call it conscientious gift giving (Love you bro. I’m stilling using the stirring stick!).
Ok, so maybe some people are being cheap and just calling it “green” to appear cool and sexy. I think for the most part, people can tell if someone is genuine or just posing. Try not posing this year, and try being intentional about how you do the Holidays. This
year go back to the basics by practicing the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle . Going back to the basics is a great way to simplify the holidays as well as gauge your awareness regarding waste generation. Here’s a few easy things you can do to trim your holiday waistline and help get you going in the right direction:
REDUCE
REUSE
RECYCLE
The main point is to reduce the amount of waste the Holidays generate, and I’m sure we can all agree that less waste is a good thing.
Happy Holidays.
Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year. It’s estimated that 52% of the American adult population (age 18+) drink some type of coffee beverage on a daily basis, averaging about 3.2 cups per day. If you’re like many Americans you purchase a “cup of joe” on the way in to work. If you do the math, as well as the trash, it all adds up.
Depending on what type of coffee beverage you drink, you’re likely paying upwards to $5.00 a day for 5 days a week at 52 weeks a year. This roughly comes out to $1,300 a year. Using the same math, we can calculate that 260 cups are tossed in the trash or nearly 3 pounds of waste per person. That’s a lot of waste when you consider amount of regular daily coffee drinkers there are!
What you can do:
Bring your own cup to the coffee shop next time you go. Not only will you get a discount at most coffee shops, you’ll reduce the amount of waste going into our landfill. Now go get caffeinated!
I’m once again realizing just how far we have to go before people become more conscience of their actions. Especially, how their actions affect the natural environment. I’m not even talking about getting people to understand what their carbon footprint is, who Waxman and Markey are, or what the life cycle analysis of a plastic bottle is. I’m really just talking about trash. Litter. Waste. Garbage. Discards.
It was only several weeks ago when I was standing on my porch watching the sun set behind the western sky. The world was bursting with an array of colors. First orange, then pink, and finally purple. There was a nice cool onshore breeze that brought a sense of calm to the neighborhood. I closed my eyes, took a long deep breath, and listened to the sounds of rustling trees. It was a nice way to end a long day. However, as soon as I opened my eyes, the peaceful moment was quickly shattered by a guy chucking his fast food cup and wrappers out the window of his moving car.
“Seriously,” I thought, ” did that actually just happen?”
Yes. Yes it did.
I thought that kind of stuff only happens in movies or in third world countries. I didn’t think it happened in California where we are a supposed leader of all things green and environmentally cool. Could we not be as cool as I think (nah, we’re pretty cool)?
I’ve done a ton of litter pick-ups, beach clean-ups, and all the other kind of “-ups.” It never ceases to amaze me how much garbage I find. It makes me ask the question, “why?” Do people really think trash just “goes-away” and so they justify littering? Do they think the world is their trash can? Or is it accidental littering (i.e. wind blowing garbage cans, seagulls dumpster diving, ect.)? I’m sure it’s a combination, it’s just crazy to me that some people are apathetic to such a non-controversial issue. I think we can all agree that trash is unsightly, a nuisance, and not compatible with the environment. I don’t see that being controversial in any way. So what gives?
I don’t know all the psychology around littering but I think that out of all the issues related to it, cigarette butts are the most fascinating. Cigarette butts acount for roughly 25% of the nations litter. Think about that. 25%. If all the litter in the country was put on a huge scale, one quarter of the weight would be pure cigarette butts. That’s a ton of butts! Well, that’s more like thousands of tons of butts!
For some reason people think cigrettes are acceptable litter. The New York times did a recent article about this last May. In that article, it talks about how some people believe that cigrette butts are a “more natural” form of litter (Did they just say natural litter? Wow). I’ve seen this first hand as butts are the most common form of litter found in every clean-up I’ve participated in. The truth is butts are, for the most part, not natural or biodegradable . The filter is usually what is discarded and that is primarily made of plastic.
Check it out for yourself. Next time you’re at an intersection, on the beach or downtown, take a look around. 9 times of out 10 you’ll find a couple cigarette butts. You can also consider this – there are an estimated 1.2 billion regular smokers in the world. I’m hoping that there are more educated smokers than not, but even if each one of them threw only one butt out a day, we’re looking at 430 billion butts a year!
So if you’re a smoker, or have a friend that does, make sure to encourage them to throw their butts in the trash. If we only did that, 25 % of the nations litter would be gone. Amazing to ponder.
What’s even crazier is what this woman is doing down in Chile:
