On the sixth and last day of my lecture series at Eliot Institute, "Your Life Symphony," I drew together the varied strands of the week's theme. Here were the day's offerings of music and readings …
"Our
lives can full of despair, failure and disappointment; living life as a
symphony demands that we understand life’s individual movements as not having
the final word, but that we take our lives as a whole — it involves
transcending life’s disappointments to live for whatever it is that is our
personal testament." — Stefan Jonasson
On the fifth day of my lecture series at Eliot Institute, "Your Life Symphony," I addressed the theme "Cheerful Courage: Living With Confidence." Here were the day's offerings of music and readings …
Cheerful Courage: Living With Confidence
"Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba
From The
Well-Ordered Life by C.R. Skinner
Philosophers and religious teachers have believed that underneath the surface storms of life it is possible to find “the deeper life ofunshaken composure.”As the fiercest hurricane cannot reach to the
ocean depths, so the most violent disturbances do not necessarily reach the
area of calm and poise which is at the center of a strong personality.A quiet dignity is native to the soul. …If we let misfortune rob us of an ordered
life, it is largely our own fault, due to our attitude toward the
misfortune.It is possible to face
shattering experiences without being shattered, and it is possible to go to
pieces because of the most trivial experience.
There are men [and women] who have known a full measure of human suffering and yet remained unswerved and unsurrendered.
There are others who crumble under the slightest blow; because of an
unhappy experience they let their lives disintegrate. The difference between being broken and
living a spiritually well ordered life cannot be explained in terms of what
happens to us. Things and events do not
break us. We go to pieces because we
bring to life a breakable philosophy. If we bring to crises an habitual attitude of quiet thinking and unfrightened adequacy, we can meet the most devastating experiences and still maintain our integrity.
"The way we live and your schools are much different now, so many changes have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and havecourage when things go wrong." — Laura Ingalls Wilder
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960
"Happy" From Tehran ...
"Cheerfulness,
it would appear, is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things
within, as on the state of things without and around us." — Charlotte Brontë
"Where's Your Sacred Place?" by Stefan M. Jonasson:
Many years ago now, I led a workshop for the leadership of one our historic flagship congregations where, for a social icebreaker, I asked participants to share four things about themselves: their name, their fantasy dinner companion, some gift or talent they possessed that others might not be aware of and, finally, what for them was their “sacred place.”
We came around to one man, a distinguished professor at an ivy league
college, who said that his sacred place was his car. Now, to hear a man describe his car as his
“sacred place” will hardly come as a surprise.
What was surprising was his explanation.
He said, “After a long day at the school, with lectures and departmental
meetings, mentoring students and grading papers, overseeing research projects
and preparing articles for publication, I actually like getting stuck in
rush hour traffic on the commute home.
There’s nothing I can do about it, so I turn up the volume on the jazz
radio station I like to listen to and turn my thoughts to those things beyond
my profession that interest me. It’s
amidst the congestion of freeway traffic, sitting in the comfortable and familiar
surroundings of my car, that I’ve come to know myself. I daresay I’ve had some of my most spiritual
moments behind the wheel of my car.”
From Is Life
Worth Living? by William James:
It
is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at
all.And often enough our faith
beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result
come true.Suppose, for instance, that
you are climbing a mountain, and have worked yourself into a position from
which the only escape is a terrible leap.Have faith that you can successfully make it, and your feet are nerved
to its accomplishment.But mistrust
yourself, and you will hesitate so long that, at last, all unstrung and
trembling, and launching yourself in a moment of despair, you roll in the
abyss.In such a case … the part of
wisdom as well as of courage is to believe what is in the line of your needs, for
only by such belief is the need fulfilled.Refuse to believe, and you shall indeed be right, for you shall
irretrievably perish.But believe, and
again you shall be right, for you shall save yourself. …
These
then are my last words to you: Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your
belief will help create the fact.
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel ...
On the fourth day of my lecture series at Eliot Institute, "Your Life Symphony," I addressed the theme "Open-Heart Listening: The Power of Presence." Here were the day's offerings of music and readings …
"Tonight
You Belong To Me" — Benjamin J. Ames and His 4 Year Old
"Misunderstood"
— A Holiday Season Parable
"Life is full of oracles, sources of delight and
instruction which can lift it with a fine inspiration. But in order to profit by the oracles we must
listen to them, and not to the noise of the streets." — Julia Ward Howe
(1819-1910)
“We listen too much to the telephone and we
listen too little to nature. The wind is one of my sounds. A lonely sound,
perhaps, but soothing. Everybody should have his personal sounds to listen for
— sounds that will make him exhilarated and alive, or quiet and calm. ... As a
matter of fact, one of the greatest sounds of them all — and to me it is a
sound — is utter, complete silence.” — Andre Kostelanetz (1901-1980), Conductor
“Rest
is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees, listening
to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the blue sky,
is by no means a waste of time.” — Lord
Avebury (1834-1913)
"The
Wind" by Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens)
"Listening
is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us
are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us
unfold and expand." — Karl Menninger (1893-1990)
“Love
and trust, in the space between what’s said and what’s heard in our life, can
make all the difference in this world.” — Fred Rogers (1928-2003)
