We Must Be the Change

As the disparities between poor and rich, black and white, uneducated and educated increase, so does the civil unrest brewing in the underbelly of this amazing country we call home. I usually steer clear of political statements and other pronouncements about the many changes we need to effect in the United States because as a successful immigrant of color with a background of poverty, I was afforded opportunities to achieve that I might not have had otherwise. Nevertheless, today’s headlines engendered a deep sadness inside my soul. We keep reading about gun violence and violence overall but today it is about the systemic brutality and violence of those who are supposed to be protecting us and the unjust and frankly racist underpinnings of excessive force that seems to disproportionately affect persons of color, in particular, African Americans and so often seems to end in death… Once is an anomaly, even twice might be by chance, but the evidence clearly demonstrates there is an extremely high incidence of arrests and excessive use of force for anyone who dares ask the question, “What did I do wrong?”

I have experienced racism and prejudice in my own life (being perceived at various times and places as Latino, Filipino, Black, Mulatto, Chinese, Brazilian, etc.)  but never to the extent that I have seen perpetrated against one of the kindest, most law abiding persons I know (my spouse) who happens to be Black. Imagine driving home from work from a late shift at the hospital and being pulled over by a police car (for no reason other than suspicion and driving Black too late at night), pulled out of your vehicle, accused of drug possession, handcuffed and arrested, thrown in jail and miraculously being released in about 6 hours with no apology, no reasons or explanations given, no charges, no prosecution… The sheer terror of such an ordeal is sufficient to shake you to your core. To add insult to injury,  you have to hire a lawyer and pay thousands of dollars to have this illegal arrest expunged from your record. Luckily, Marvin survived this ordeal with law enforcement and is alive to tell the story. Unfortunately, this and other experiences (from being informed “the position you applied for has been filled” when he appears for the interview to being tailed in a retail store by security) have reshaped him as a person. He continues in his kind and gentle ways but there is joy that has been stolen from him and an optimism that has been replaced with the harsh reality of the world.

As Christian people who follow a Savior who sought justice for the meek, the diseased, the shunned, the alienated and the poor, what should we be doing to stem the violence and unjust actions of our society? We are called to speak out for those who can’t speak, to stand for those who can’t get up, to place ourselves in the gap for those who can’t cross over. I believe that we are heading for disaster if we do not, in love and compassion, speak out, stand up and place ourselves in the gap for those whose very lives are being threatened. Otherwise the violence will continue to escalate. It is only through our loving actions that this place we call home can be transformed. Are you willing to speak out, stand up and place yourself in that gap? This is not a call to arms for that is what got us here in the first place. It is a call to consciousness. An awakening and awareness that the suffering and pain out there is real and we all have a responsibility to create a world in which love and caring trump greed and violence. Peace.

For those of us who work a Monday through Friday schedule, Saturday mornings are like heaven. No alarm buzzing, no hastily getting dressed, no urgency, no dread of what the day will bring… If played well, Saturday mornings truly are like heaven on earth. Unrushed, relaxed and unimaginably peaceful – there’s time to contemplate life over a nice cup of hot tea, focus on your breathing, and even to write a few free flowing creative thoughts… Saturday mornings are like heaven on earth.

Contrast your Monday morning with your Saturday morning experience and I bet you will note a host of differences. However, if these two dawnings are more alike than different and you are on the Mon-Fri work schedule, you might want to check yourself… Workaholism is an addiction that might not kill you, but could very well prevent you from living the full and joyful life you see others around you creating. Yes, I said “creating”. Though appearances might lead you to believe that life just happens, my contention is that each of our lives is shaped and created by us! I sometimes ask my friends who cram their lives so full of tasks and activities, “What are you trying to avoid – what are you fleeing from?” You see, we all need to take time for ourselves, to reboot, to re-energize, to re-assess, to be. I often joke around with my loved ones when I say, “You wake up, go to work, rinse, repeat, then you die.” I don’t buy a word of it. I say it as a joke that is in utter and complete opposition to what I believe. Saturday mornings are like heaven on earth – let it be so.

So what are you doing this Saturday morning?

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise… This morning I sit in awe of God’s wonder. Not because of all He has done for me (which is colossal), but simply because of the sheer vastness of His glory. Forgive my use of the masculine form as I refer to God – this is a convention I grew up with. I am keenly aware that God is male and female or maybe neither or a combination of both or maybe He/She doesn’t need to worry about all that, maybe God just is…

This morning, I marvel at His creation. I watched as individual lives drove past me during my daily commute – each living a separate but totally connected existence with me and you on this plane we call earth. We affect each other in so many ways without ever meeting. A total stranger can change our lives in an instant for both good and bad… I think God set it up that way purposefully. Because it’s not just our individual lives that matter to God (and they deeply do – I know this through lived experience) but it’s also about us as a collective. Once many years ago, I had a dream in which God revealed to me a singular truth about life. He told me, it’s all about your relationships… Your relationship with Me and your relationship with humanity. And this has been proven to be a time tested truism for me.

But let’s get back to my wonder of God… As I look out at God’s creation, trees my age and older, each passing through time much like I do, growing taller, sprouting and dropping leaves, shivering in the cold of winter, thirsty when it’s dry – and the thought (and my belief) that God actually intimately knows us all to the dropping of a single leaf in autumn engenders wonder in my soul and a deep gratitude for this care. Imagine God’s omnipotence over 3 trillion trees (you can estimate in your mind how many leaves we are talking about here), 7.4 billion intertwined human lives, not to mention “the birds and the bees and the fishes in the sea and the moon up above, and a thing called love… “. It is in a single word awesome.

As I was driving into work today listening to my Deepak and Oprah meditation on living with passion while simultaneously thanking God for this fantastic life, I realized that as I slowed myself down mentally and (in my car) physically, I was actually making more and faster progress toward my goal, which was to arrive safely to work.

I have spent most of my life believing that being quick and agile is so much better than being slow… I often get frustrated with my spouse because he is on the opposite end of the spectrum (according to my standards) with regards to speed in getting things done. I often wonder in my mind (and do my best not to say it out loud), “How can anything be accomplished if you go so slow?!”

During my drive to work this morning I had a fundamental and possibly life-changing shift in perspective. The more relaxed I became about my daily experience of driving to work, the more it seemed that traffic just flowed. Lights turned green. My lane kept moving with few to no holdups. And I drove into the parking lot earlier than usual… How could that be? I hadn’t been hurrying as usual. I wasn’t passing other cars at 80 miles per hour. I didn’t become impatient with the driver in front of me who was going slow in the fast lane (oops, I wasn’t in the fast lane so there was no need to even go there). I maintained a steady, slightly above the speed limit, pace. I was breathing in the cool morning air with my convertible top down and “enjoying the ride”… and I still arrived early.

So today I learned that:

When I stop hurrying, I get there faster.

Though my morning commute was the basis for this grand insight, there is a much greater message here that I hope will impact my life (and yours) going forward. Think of all the times that you are hurrying trying to get somewhere or get something done. If you’re driving, you will hit every red light, encounter multitudes of pedestrians crossing in front of you, find slow drivers in your lane and a host of other time impediments – every single time you are in a hurry… If you’re in the kitchen cooking and trying to get something done quickly, you always ending up dropping something that makes a big mess, forgetting an essential ingredient, cutting yourself, or burning a wrist on the oven door… every single time you’re in a hurry. Today’s advice: Stop hurrying and you’ll get there faster.

I could drudge up all the old saying like “stop and smell the roses” or “life is about the journey not the destination”. There are a host of such sayings and today, I FINALLY got the message. But I can distill them all down to one short phrase: WHEN I STOP HURRYING, I GET THERE FASTER.  Love and peace be with you!

We all come to a place in our lives where we ask the question, “What is my purpose?”. Often we spend time meditating and praying, ruminating with friends on the topic, wondering if we will ever “discover” that all elusive “purpose” that will give us satisfaction, completion, joy, comfort, that which will help us avoid that feeling of uselessness and banality. For none of us wants to feel ordinary, right?

I contend (and Oprah and Deepak Chopra agree – in fact, they proposed this to me– digitally, and I am choosing to embrace it) that

I AM MY PURPOSE.

No need to search my soul. No more anguished pleas to God to show it to me. By my very creation and by virtue of God’s love and mercy, I truly AM my purpose. I embody it in all I do. I live it with every breath I take. I feel it by my touch and being touched, through loving and being loved. Through every tear I shed and every burst of laughter that springs forth from my mouth I am showing my purpose. So I am stopping with the self judgment and self doubt. I am putting away my soul sleuthing tools. I am venturing out today and living my purpose, loving my purpose and being my purpose. How’s that sound?

Here I am. With these 3 simple words I proclaim my existence. Cogito ergo sum. I think therefore I exist. Wow, I have to think, too? That’s asking a lot! There are times that I just want to be – not often, mind you –  for I am by every definition a doer, constantly on the move, ever hurrying, in production, using my time wisely – that’s what I’m usually all about. But in those moments in which existential angst and my own mortality catch up with me, I am truly ready to just be. Taking the Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra 21 day meditation is just the beginning of the journey. I’m also learning about reading auras and I’m about ready to take up my Tarot cards again… Nothing wrong with trying to find some insights into the future, right? Striving to remember to accept the incredible gift of being here is a challenge even though by identifying it as a challenge it challenges its very precept… Life and living, an incredible gift indeed.

Sometimes coasting is okay… That’s what I tell myself to rationalize these periods in life that are neither hot nor cold, neither vibrant nor boring, just life. I thought it a befitting title since we are in a very big election year that closes out two terms of our first African American president whom many refuse to give the credit he deserves. Now that’s passion and commitment. For my life in the MidTerm, it’s more about finding my stride again. Getting myself motivated and moving in a way that feels right; waking up with wonder and joy and falling asleep with contentment and gratitude. It’s about the passion I wrote about two years ago. It’s certainly in there somewhere, definitely not lost, but pulling it back up to the surface feels so difficult, a Sisyphean task. Woe is me who in Camus’ estimation may have slipped into the role of the absurd hero. Solitary and alone daily repeating my inconsequential existence – living Groundhog Day over and over again… But Bill Murray got smart. He mastered his skills and talents as he repeated his day, making corrections, avoiding mistakes, and improving the quality of his interactions to ultimately overcome his self-defeating character. My iPhone rings at 6:15 a.m. every (weekday) morning and I often feel the dread of another day of repetition, another day of the grind, another day pushing the rock up the hill. On the good days, I am able to take stock of the privileged and richly blessed vie en rose I lead. On the bad days, I’m just shoving the rock up the hill with the [bad] attitude that goes along with it. I’m voting for nothing but good days from now on.

It’s that moment when job meets work meets occupation meets profession meets passion meets life… The change happens gradually. That first job was truly a job–making 10 tacos for a dollar at Taco Time earning $3.25 an hour. It was fun. I worked with friends. But it was a job. When I was done with the night shift, I was DONE. Throughout my undergraduate years, I dreamed big about all the possibilities that would become available when I completed my studies. I studied earnestly. And I still held down a job and it was work. I had not yet moved to an occupation… In actuality, I’m not really sure when my work became an occupation. But I do know when my occupation became a profession and most importantly, when my profession became my passion. I had an inkling that my passion had been ignited when under the shower head, I would have an epiphany related to solving a problem in my profession. I recognized passion when I engaged in discussions with colleagues around revolutionizing our field. Finally, I didn’t even know that this thing called work could be so enjoyable, life-consuming, collegial, spirited, and expansive. What an amazing place to find myself.

It’s happening. Half a year ago, the miracles never stopped or perhaps my ability to see and acknowledge them was so much more finely honed that daily I reveled in anticipation of this wondrous phenomenon. So how does one recapture the wonder? I’m searching my soul for answers. Granted the search is fleeting and my focus is somewhat diffuse–ah, I get it… When the comfort sets in, the challenges are not so grand, and life becomes somewhat easier we slip into a waking slumber that causes us to take for granted life’s awesomeness. I pledge to open my eyes, spirit, and soul to consciously see and experience that which I lost track of. Let the miraculous times roll!