LITMIR.BIZ

If compromise and disappointment have a home, it is midlife. Here, suffering is like breathing. Longing is like dreaming. Standing midstream in the abrasive forces of life, author N. Thomas Johnson-Medland has learned to wade through the erosion and entropy of failure and incompleteness. And yet, in spite of these massive forces attempting to wear down the very vitality that sustains life, he has come to abide in the fact that life is amazing, wonder-filled, and truly awesome. In this book, Johnson-Medland teaches us that our place in the cosmos is full of joy. Our island is hope. Our vision is beauty. Let these forces do their best to wear us smooth. For in them, we can find refinement and grace. Bathed in Abrasion invites us swim among the abrasive forces of life: wilderness, war, suffering, water–they are all a part of the poems of our lives. Watch for the meter of erosion and decay. Listen for the sound of sloughing off. For just as all things decay, they are also changing shape into a new becoming. Nothing is lost; everything belongs.

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The notion and phrase of «entering the stream» has long been an image for merger and union. Most often it is meant to sum up the idea of union with the Divine Principle or God. Less often, yet still common, it is used to image the union of ideas, bodies, and movements.
The sense that one thing folds into or flows into another and gets lost is still a major underpinning toward the belief that there is some «ah ha» moment in life where we are able to drift out of simple, commonplace existence and enter the field of ALL knowing. We believe that there can be and is a moment of merger (a born-again instant), an awakening to something outside of what it means to be singularly dual.
It is not by chance that the two sacramental rites within Christianity that have the deepest roots in the gathered community over time–reaching down into the loam of our existence–are Baptism and Eucharist. The first–the initiation rite–is about dissolving into God and His mercy and forgiveness. We enter into Him and the fullness of His Kingdom. We are overwhelmed by the waters and emerge a new creature. The second–the continuation rite–is about God dissolving into us. He enters us bringing the fullness of His Kingdom. We ingest God (depending upon your theology) in either image or fact and we emerge a new creature.
The poems that follow are about this «axis of consumption,» this «axis of dissolving» in our lives. We are swallowed up by God. We swallow up God.

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Along the Road-Tales from the Journey is a practical guide for patients and families going through some very serious and difficult issues. It is here to enable focus and meaning in a time that is fraught with confusion and pain. It is also for people who are not involved in hospice–people that recognize the value of keeping track of the journey for others to have «in case» they should suddenly be removed from the trail of life. It is for those who recognize the personal value in journaling their days for self-reflection and perspective. It is for those who know they are dying, and for those whose dying is «a long ways off.»
This workbook is a series of prompts that will help you notice the trail markers in your life and journey. It is a guidebook that you will write to show others the path you have taken. It is a place to reveal who you are so others may learn. So, go at it with a poetic relish for words and the telling.

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Men have been spit up onto shore by whales and great fish since the beginning of time. This has been going on for forever; perhaps, even longer than forever. This may be true. It may also be true that men have spit whales and great fish up onto shore since the beginning of time. This has also been going on or forever; perhaps, even longer than forever. Which of these happened first, I cannot say. Who knows; who can say? Regardless, before being spit up on land both men and fish sat idly by inside the bellies of their captors, ruminating on their fate-wondering what it all meant-what it all means. Men and fish and everything alive wonder about life, and how they fit into it and it into them; as much as they are able to wonder. Some men I have met seem to wonder less than some fish I have met. Who knows; who can say? Our lives are about wondering: wondering about our lives. Each and every living thing yearns toward growth. This longing is nothing but an eternal search, an eternal wondering about everything that is. At some point we lose the beginning into the end; and what came first is dissolved into the ongoing process. Fish then man, or man then fish, no one can say which came first. All we know is that we are held captive, we ruminate, and then we are spit out into a rebirth. Our mythic journeys as men are like this. Sometimes you cannot tell which came first, the idea that you are a man and that you should do a certain thing because of that; or the doing of a certain thing and then later realizing or deciding that you did it because you are a man. Which came first the fish or the man? You cannot be sure and when you think you have become sure, things shift.

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There are a lot of books about leadership out there. I wanted to stir the pot and make some suggestions that I have not heard yet. Leadership is not about sticking qualities all over yourself, like dozens of «yellow sticky notes»: «Today I will learn time management. Tomorrow I will develop integrity.» Mere information is not enough to change us. Data may lead to transformation, but it is not enough to transform us on its own. Leadership is not about «trends» and «buzzwords.» Leadership is about personhood. Personhood is where this transformation truly takes place. Leadership may perseverate into any one of these things (stickies, trends, information, data, and buzzwords), but it is ultimately and ideally about personhood. This may be a philosophical category that the church has left off discussing, but it meant a lot to the ancients. We need to stir some of their depth back into our existence. One's genuine ability to lead comes from one's genuine transformation into the kind of person that is needed for the particular form of leading at hand. Different traits will be called forth from the leader depending on the situation, place, time, and people. It is the person who is the leader and not the trait or characteristic that is the leader. «Being» is critical; not just «doing.» I think a lot of our current reading on leadership is simply about skill-sets. They are important discussions, but that is not all there is. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying you must be perfect to lead. If that were the case, I would not be able to write this book. What I am saying is that your identity is where your true leading comes from, and if you are in a transformational relationship with Jesus the chances are good that your person and identity will deepen over time.

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Space and time are not just terms and functions of the bigger/larger objects in our lives, but intricately woven into the cells that make up our spleen and the neurotransmitters that carry our sense of truth and integrity (or some other thing that carries that–which we have not yet figured out how to find or name just yet). The mercurial and hermetic principle that everything above operates on similar principles as the things below (inside as well as outside) holds true in this conversation, as we might expect. We impact where we are–in space and in time. Where we are in space and time impacts us as well. From a distance or a different vantage point, none of this seems true. Close up, and at other places, all of this seems true. This is what we can sustain when we are growing. All of this being said, I suppose the journey this collection is meant to set us on is the journey of exploration to see how we are woven into and among the where and when of who and what we are. Push and test the connections and the spaces in between to see how the one is or is not showing itself to be the other. Get a sense of what influences, and in which direction.

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Having grown up in the shadow of the Bomb and having provided supportive care to post-Cold War generations of children and their parents (both in crisis), I have seen a lot of distrust and instability in people–individually and in communities. I have seen how the shadow of impending doom can rewrite a way that people live. This distrust and instability is not a personal issue. It is a sign and symptom of having lived in a time when the imagination can harbor not simply notions of tribal decay and destruction, but the decay and destruction of all tribes, in all places, and throughout all future time. We can wipe out everything that exists within the realm of our planet–in an instant. This changes who people are. This changes how people grow and develop. The current earth crisis is large. It looms overhead and in our homes. It is more visible and prevalent than the crisis of the Bomb. Everything we pick up and discard is a reminder that we have a problem. In many ways this crisis is more severe than the Bomb. In this crisis everyone has a button they can push to bring destruction. We have more madmen to worry about. Everyone. Everyone has an impact on global ecologic and climate issues. Here are poets' songs on the beauty of the earth, lest we forget.

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"Duende is that place in us where the two halves of our life are conjoined. It is the place where we go down into the self and gather up that opposing force to our immediate nature. It involves the undoing of the 'pretending-everything-is-okay-mechanism' in us and it is an overall waking up to the forces of conflict in life and actually mustering a strength to make abiding choices. Many throughout time have likened this awaking process to dreams and forgetfulness and because of that it seeks to reveal itself in shadows and reflections." These are poems and images that evoke and provoke a sense of DUENDE.

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When we stand in the presence of the natural world of creation, something very powerful occurs. Our heart senses a raw and vital connection between ourselves and the handiwork of God revealed in the trees and rivers. Our eye catches some small detail and we are opened up to union with the world around us and to the Creator of that world. It does not take a magnificent vista; it could be a snowdrop or the sound of the wind. Our lives are informed by the wonder, the awe, and the radical amazement hidden in the beauty of the wild. We somehow grow in step with all that is about us. Looking deeply into the real life scenes of simple nature poems can illuminate a rhythm to our days that we might miss without the pause afforded in the whisper of ice on a branch. Explore the unity that is our lives in this series of meditations-this retreat into God.

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Cairns have decorated the landscapes of cultures throughout time. Piles of stone-one stone placed on top of another-are set in place all over the earth to recall battles, identify burial sites, mark trails, and spur hearts and minds to remember sacred, noble, and critical events. They are landmarks. They are sacramental presences in space and time. Our lives are littered with markers of meaning. They all reveal who we are, where we have been, and offer us a jumping off point for the future. In the true mystic tradition, everything straddles meaning and is potentially available to reveal the inner life, God Himself, and all that Is. My hope is that we will begin to look at the markers of meaning in our lives and notice how we store that meaning in our heart. My hope is that we will reconstruct our prayer life and the shape of our interior world, that we will recognize the impact things have on us and discriminate toward health. Our journey in this book will be more like an amble or a wandering. We will hop from pillar to post looking for meaning and attempting to infuse things with meaning. We will look at our practices and the practices of those from our shared human past. We will begin to notice that there is a hidden depth to how we live-one that reveals we live in layers or dimensions, not simple and flat lines.

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