Whatever you focus upon, increases.

"'The situation in which you find yourself is fraught with difficulty and challenges, yes, indeed. It is also piled high with opportunities that offer amazing possibilities and potential benefits.' Jones paused to ponder a thought, narrowed his eyes, then said, 'Here, for you, young man, is a law of the universe - one of many, to be sure, but one that is especially applicable to your life at the present moment. Remember, whatever you focus upon, increases.'

I frowned, trying to grasp the meaning of his words. Fortunately, Jones didn't leave me guessing too long.

'When you focus on the things you desperately want and often think you need to be happy,' he went on to explain, 'you'll find those needs and wants (and the associated stress) increasing dramatically. If you concentrate your thoughts on what you don't have, you will soon be concentrating on other things that you had forgotten that you don't have - and you'll feel even worse! If you set your mind on loss and/or lack, you are most likely to lose and/or be left wanting. But a grateful perspective brings even more experiences of happiness and abundance (reasons to be grateful) into a person's life. We continue to receive what we are aware that we already have. When we think we don't have something we desperately need, we want and want and want, and we never seem to get or have enough of it, no matter how much comes our way.'"

-- Jones and young Andy, in Andy Andrews' book, The Noticer

Well, here's what I have: a Creator who absolutely adores me (and loves to show it, and does it so well), a healthy life of purpose and wonder (along with frequent daily experiences of all of its fullness and magnificence), the love of an awesome woman and four amazing children, extended family who see me and accept me as I am (with all of my relatively recent extravagant expressions of eccentricity and quirkiness - my fully exposed "Merlinesque nature"), a handful of "best friends" (in the most extravagant usage of the term), along with many extraordinary relationships with people who truly matter to me, meaningful work (it's a stretch to call it that - it's more like play) that I truly love and that matters, just enough of everything I truly need, and no more, because that would only lead me to more want. With an appreciative awareness of all that I have, I will never want for anything. When I forget, I will. After this amazing trip, I intend not to forget, and to guard my mind diligently to keep on the lookout for distractions and delusions. And, as if I needed any further reminding of the beauty of His creation, He had this amazing creature of radical metamorphosis fly right up the beach to me and land on the sand at my feet, as if to say, "Transformation of every experience, feeling, thought, and action is all up to you, my child. I make it possible through the Grand Design of things, but, unlike what happens naturally for the butterfly, you must choose it." I believe Him, and He believes in me.

First, here's where I chose to go on the lake with my little kayak with a beach chair strapped on:



and here's where I was sitting when it happened - the visitation - (along with "how I got there"):



and here's my "fine little friend" who came to visit and spread his wings for me, right at my feet:



On this trip, on this day, in this remote and beautiful spot, I was totally focused on appreciating the beauty of God's awesome creativity. Amazingly, I truly believe that this is the only reason I even noticed my stunningly beautiful visitor, who would've surely eluded me had I been totally focused on my problems and worries, or what's wrong with the world, ... even though this particular character was not easy to miss. :-)

"Our humanity is by no means so materialistic as foolish talk is continuously asserting it to be. I am convinced that there is far more in people than ever comes to the surface of the world. Just as the water of the stream we see is small in amount compared with what men and women bear locked in their hearts... To unbind what is bound, to bring the underground waters bubbling to the surface, mankind is waiting and longing for such as can do that... We ourselves must try to be that water which finds its way up; we must become a spring at which men can thoroughly quench their thirst for gratitude."

-- Albert Schweitzer



For eight days of pure and blissful solitude, I focused everything on God's creativity, and His majesty seemed to increase exponentially. I now get to bring that same focus where it might seem harder to see majesty, at least with the eyes in my head, but certainly not if I use the eyes in my heart, and, in the end, it all depends on what I focus my attention on. And where I choose is to focus that attention is on the sheer magnificence and majesty of His creation of ... me and you.

Once again, my absolute favorite Bible verse, Mark 11:24:

Pray for what you need, ... believe you have received it, ... and it is yours.

I remember when Anne sent me this song (video link below), as an expression of her appreciation of my calling and its many challenges, and then she sent me on this trip as a way to claim that the answer is YES!!!!!!!!!!, and thank you, Baby!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88h-u090UA8

Proof of hope ... and a life truly worth living, or
... in case you don't think you matter, think again

Thanks, everyone for the hearty welcome home I got from so many of you yesterday, and the many meaningful responses to my inquiry into how you're doing. I feel very loved and valued by my community, along with a real sense of our growth and maturing, both as individuals and as community. It is truly awesome to see God so powerfully at work in our lives.

As I finished the book, The Noticer, by Andy Andrews, during my time away, and then basked in the beauty of my life and the world, I recognized the whole point of my existence - that I am, indeed, another example of God's proof of hope, and am so glad to share Jones' perspective on it - in fact, it is my life's work to do so. This is Jones talking to Willow, a 75-year-old widow (like my Mother),



who sometimes talks like she thinks her life might just be over now, that there is nothing more of purpose and substance, nothing worthwhile to live for anymore, and how wrong she is about that, for she is a true miracle, and God has huge plans for her, if she will allow it.

This is a little long, but just look at it as a nice long, relaxing walk in the woods with a friend,



and it's really just a teaser for another really good little book, and, if YOU don't think you really matter, this is an invitation to please think again:

"'Would you like logical proof that things can and will continue to get better, if you so allow and choose?' Jones asked.

'Oh, come on,' Willow scoffed. Does proof like that really exist?'

'Of course it does,' Jones answered earnestly. 'Many of life's treasures remain hidden from us simply because we never genuinely search for them. Often we do not ask the proper questions that might lead us to the answer to all of our challenges. We are so caught up in fear and regret that hope seems a foolish endeavor. Proof of hope, however, is not only possible; it is a frequently overlooked law of the universe.'

'Okay,' Willow relented. 'You have my attention.'

'First, Jones began, looking down at his weather-beaten hands, 'even during trying times, it is important to understand that such times are a normal part of life's ebb and flow - nothing at all to be alarmed about. After all, every one of us is always in a crisis, coming out of a crisis, or headed for a crisis. Crisis? There's no such thing, really. That's just part of being on this planet.' Then, suddenly turning to face her, Jones said, 'Now take a deep breath.'

'Excuse me?' she said.

'Come on, now ... a big one. A big, deeeeeep breath.'

As Willow's shoulders rose and then fell, she looked at Jones questioningly.

'What does that tell you?' he said when she had exhaled.

'Well ... uhhh ... that the air is clean.'

'No, no,' Jones said enthusiastically. 'More basic. Give me a literal view. What is the fundamental thing we know about people who can breathe?'

'That they are alive?'

'Correct!' Jones exulted. 'That they are alive! Therefore, what might we ascertain from the fact that you can breathe?'

'That I am alive?' Willow said, a bit more certain this time of her answer.

'That is correct,' Jones said. 'And with that realization, we have the beginning of a chain of simple, unvarnished truths about your existence on this earth. Your very breath provides authentic and infallible absolutes that cannot be disputed. Here, my friend, even during what you may consider one of the worst times of your life, is proof of hope. Incidentally, this proof is genuine regardless of a person's age, physical condition, financial situation, color, gender, emotional state, or belief (My Dad proved this as he was dying of Pulminary Fibrosis over five years ago, as he was losing his breath, but never more conscious of the gift it was.). Now listen closely ...

'If you are breathing, you are still alive. If you are alive, then you are still here, physically, on this planet. If you are still here, then you have not completed what you were put on earth to do. If you have not completed what you were put on earth to do ... that means your very purpose for being alive has not yet been fulfilled. If your purpose has not yet been fulfilled, then the most important part of your life has not yet been lived. And if the most important part of your life has not yet been lived ...' Jones paused, waiting for Willow to follow his thought to conclusion.

'That is my proof of hope,' Willow said softly.

'Yes, it is,' Jones agreed. 'If the most important part of your life is ahead of you, then, even during the very worst times, one can be assured that there is more laughter ahead, more success to look forward to, more children of all ages to teach and help, more friends to touch and influence. There is proof of hope ... for more of everything.'

They were silent for a time before Willow spoke again. 'Where do I begin? How do I start?' she said quietly. 'Don't misunderstand me, Jones. I am old, but not hard-headed. I am convinced' - she smiled shyly - 'and excited. I'd like to accomplish something, even though I know it won't be a big thing. It would be nice to know I am at least making a tiny difference.'

Jones pursed his lips and looked at Willow warily. 'How would you react,' he said, 'if I disagreed with you twice in one day?'

Taken by surprise, the old woman opened her eyes wide. 'What did I say this time?' she asked in disbelief.

Jones took a breath and blew it out noisily. Shaking his head, he said, 'That part about a tiny difference?'

'Yes? What was wrong with that? Surely, I can make a tiny difference!'

Shaking his head, Jones said, 'Sorry, but I've never known a single person who ever made a tiny difference by what they did or did not do. I am not even convinced it is possible. So, you will have to settle for making a huge difference.'

Intrigued, Willow cocked her head. 'Go on ...'

'While it is true that most people never see or understand the difference they make in the world and other people's lives, or sometimes they only imagine their actions and words having a tiny effect, every single action a person takes or word of encouragement he or she offers has huge and far-reaching consequences.

'A moment ago, you and I were talking about particular people who had accomplished great things mduring the latter years of their lives. But do you know the name Norman Bourlag?' Willow shook her head. 'Well, Norman Bourlag was ninety-one when he was informed that he had been personally responsible for saving the lives of approximately two billion people.'

'Two billion people?' Willow exclaimed. 'How is that even possible?'

'Norman Bourlag was the man who hybridized corn and wheat for arid climates,' Jones answered. 'The Nobel
committee, the Fulbright Scholars, and many other experts calculated that all across the world - in Central and South America, across Europe and Asia, throughout the plains of Siberia, and America's own desert Southwest - Bourlag's work has saved from famine over two billion people ... and the number is increasing every day.

'Incredible,' Willow said.

'Yes,' Jones agreed. 'Isn't it? But the most incredible part of the story is that Bourlag, for all the credit he has received ...' Jones glanced around as if to prevent someone from heaqring what he was about to say, 'for all the credit he's received, Bourlag was not the person who saved the two billion people.'

'What?'

'That's right,' Jones confirmed. 'I believe it was a man named Henry Wallace. He was vice president of the United States under Roosevelt.'

'I thought Truman was vice president under Roosevelt,' Willow said suspiciously.

'He was,' Jones agreed, 'but remember, Roosevelt served four terms. His first two terms, John Nance served as vice president; his fourth term, Truman; but it was during Roosevelt's third term that his vice president was a former secretary of agriculture named Henry Wallace. While Wallace was vice president of the United States, he used the power of his office to create a station in Mexico whose sole purpose was to somehow hybridize corn and wheat for arid climates ... and he hired a young man named Norman Bourlag to run it. So, while Norman Bourlag won the Nobel Prize ... it was really Henry Wallace whose initial act was responsible for saving the two billion lives.'

'I never knew,' Willow said. 'Why, I don't even remember the man.'|

'That's OK,' Jones replied. 'Now that I think about it, maybe it wasn't Henry Wallace who should've gotten credit anyway ...'

Willow appeared startled. 'Now why would you say that?' she asked.

Jones dropped his eyes to the ground and rubbed his chin, as if deep in thought. 'Maybe it was George Washington Carver who saved the two billion lives.' Then, his head popping up again, he said, 'You remember him, don't you?'

'What people don't know about George Washington Carver is that while he was nineteen and a student at Iowa State University, he had a dairy sciences professor who allowed his own six-year-old boy to go on botanical expeditions every weekend with this brilliant student. George Washington Carver took that little tot and directed his life. And it was Carver who gave six-year-old Henry Wallace a vision about his future and what he could do with plants to help humanity.'

Jones shook his head in wonder. 'It is amazing, isn't it?' he said, 'that Carver could spend all that time with the peanut? Hours and months and years of hard work. I mean, the man developed two hundred and sixty-six products from the peanut - that we still use today. And then there's the sweet potato. Eighty-eight uses he developed from it.' Jones leaned forward, hands on his knees. 'He also wrote an agricultural tract and promoted the idea of what he called a 'victory garden.'

Willow smiled. 'I remember victory gardens. We had one.'

'Yes. So did most people,' Jones said. 'Victory gardens - even in the middle of major cities - fed a significant portion of our population during World War II.

'But with all the time and effort and years that Carver spent on things like peanuts and sweet potatoes and victory gardens, isn't it amazing that a few afternoons with a six-year-old boy named Henry Wallace turned out to make an even bigger difference!'

'Truly,' Willow said with awe in her voice. 'So it was George Washington Carver whose actions saved all those people.'

'Ahhh ..., Jones shook his head. 'Not really.'

'It had to be the farmer from Diamond, Missouri.' Jones grinned as Willow threw up her hands.

'There was this farmer in Diamond, Missouri, named Moses,' Jones continued, 'who had a wife named Susan. They lived in a slave state but didn't believe in slavery. Well, that was a problem for those crazy people who rode through farms at night, terorizing what they called sympathizers. And one cold winter night, Quantrill's Raiders attacked Moses' and Susan's farm. They burned down the barn, shot several people, and dragged off a woman named Mary Washington ... who refused to let go of her infant son, George.

'Now, Mary Washington was Susan's best friend, so Moses sent word out immediately, trying to arrange a meeting with those cut-throats, trying to do something to get Mary and her baby back. Within a few days, he had the meeting set; and so, on a cold January night, Moses took a black horse and went several hours north to a crossroads in Kansas.

'There, he met four of Quantrill's men, who had arrived on horseback, carrying torches, wearing flour sacks with eyeholes cut out over their heads. And Moses traded his only horse for what they threw him in a burlap bag.

'As they thundered off, Moses fell to his knees. There, in the freezing dark, with his breath's vapor blowing hard and white from his mouth, Moses brought out of that burlap bag a cold, naked, almost dead baby boy. And he opened up his jacket and he opened up his shirts and placed that baby next to his warm skin. Moses fastened that child in under his clothes and walked that baby out into his freedom! Talking to that child every step of the way - telling the baby he would take care of him and raise him as his own ... promising to educate him to honor Mary, his mother, who he knew was already dead.'

Jones looked intently at Willow who stared back in wonder. 'That was the night,' he said softly, 'that the farmer told that baby he would give him his name. And that is how Moses and Susan Carver came to raise that little baby, George Washington ... Carver.

'So there. It was obviously the farmer from Diamond, Missouri, who really saved those two billion people, right?'

They sat quietly for a moment until Jones raised his finger as if an idea had just come to him. Teasing, he said, 'Unless maybe ...' But then, seeing the tears in Willow's eyes, he said, 'So you see, madam, we could continue this line of reasoning all evening, way back into history. For the truth is, who knows who it really was whose single action saved the two billion people? How far back could we go?' Jones reached over and took Willow's hand. 'And how far into the future could we go, dear lady, to show how many lives you will touch, if you choose to? There are generations yet unborn, whose very lives will be shifted and shaped by the moves you make, and don't make, and the actions you take, and don't take ... tonight. And tomorrow. And tomorrow night. And the next day. And the next.

'No matter your age, physical condition, financial situation, color, gender, emotional state, or belief ... everything you do or don't do, every move you make or don't make, matters to all of us - and forever.'

'Thank you,' Willow said faintly. 'Thank you.'

'And thank you, young lady,' Jones said as he stood. 'Thank you for the opportunity to spend a few moments with you and rest in such a beautiful spot.' He began walking slowly westward, toward the canal. 'Let's not rest too long, though,' Willow heard him say as the evening darkness took him from her sight. 'Time is precious, and you have much to do.'"

-- Andy Andrews, in "The Noticer"

Well, it sure was a nice rest, indeed, and I soaked up every single minute of it. And now it's time to get back to it - the dedicated calling and purpose of my life. I have much to do when it comes to offering encouragement, hope, love, and a little bit of healthy perspective regarding our unlimited possibilities, both as individuals and as families and communities of all kinds, and there are so many lives - present and future - at stake in all this. When I am awake and aware, I see that my every gesture, step, thought, and word is hugely important to the future generations of mankind, and yet I don't have to take any of that too seriously, where I might lose my grip on how much He loves me, no matter what I do or say.

It can sure feel like a long, rugged, often uphill path, this road of life, with lots of rocks and roots in the way to trip us up, and yet a Gentle Breeze and Guiding Light beyond that beckons, and we are invited to follow ...



and it leads us to still waters at the end of each day, where we find true rest and refreshment...



(These last few lines were just a fun way to share a few more pictures from the trip.)

Here I am, having returned rested and triumphant!

Here I am, folks, having returned from the wilderness. Rested, oh my God, yes! It was so perfectly peaceful a time. There are no words. This picture says it all, I think. It shows what I felt like on my first day away in New Hampshire.



In case you're wondering where I was laying my head, it's on top of this huge rock near the lake house:



And here was my view when I opened my eyes up there:



It made me want to look up into this beautiful sky all day in great appreciation:



Why triumphant? Because I fully had this trip; it didn't have me. It was completely mine, completely possessed by me, for me, through God's grace. Because I experienced something very special, unique, beautiful, lovely, indescribable, magical, extraordinary - how about that, it spells SUBLIME! What a perfect word to describe it! I had a richly sublime experience. I can honestly say that this was my first vacation EVER where I felt completely relaxed, at home, and deserving - not because of anything I've done or tried to do to earn it, but simply because of "who I am," that being "His child," who He adores, inherently deserving as such. I had the experience of a lifetime - a FIRST - and it left me feeling and saying AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I can't thank Anne enough for the total freedom of this experience. She was incredibly supportive through the whole thing, and she had to take on plenty of extra household and parenting responsibility in my absence, and she did so without a word of resentment - nothing but love and support. And I can't thank her parents enough for letting me use their beautiful lake house for such a self-indulgent reason. It was the perfect place. And I left a very light and natural footprint in NH, as you can see (or maybe you can't, since it's only blades of grass).



I am home now, blissfully refreshed, and that is a big statement. I went to be with Him in the glory of His creation, and how glorious it was, and it all worked out beautifully, and now I'm home, and I can really BE home when I remember who and Whose I am, and He just gave me a bountiful, powerful dose. And it's really good to be back! It was very cool to be invisible and to blend into the scenery, and now it's good to be back where I feel known and loved, knowing now for certain that I am known and loved perfectly in both places - in fact, wherever I AM, when I remember. That's a new one for me. Whatever pain and joy life may bring - whether mine or belonging to others with whom I'm walking - I'm always free to live the mountaintop experience and to see the whole terrain.



I feel ecstatically rejuvenated, perfectly pampered, overwhelmingly appreciative. This feels like a good place from which to re-engage the life of my calling. So, here we go.

And yes, I'm curious, folks, what was it like to be "unbombarded" by daily messages from me for almost two weeks? What was it like to not see me around town so much? I'm just interested in knowing what's been happening with you while I've been gone. Anything you'd like to share?