First Things First

Quote of the Week

Care

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

What does it mean to care?  Let me start by saying that the word care has become a very ambivalent word.  When someone says: "I will take care of him!" it is more likely an announcement of an impending attack than of a tender compassion.  And besides this ambivalence, the word care is most often used in a negative way.  "Do you want coffee or tea?"  "I don't care."  Do you want to stay home or go to a movie?"  "I don't care."  Do you want to walk or go by car?"  I don't care."  This expression of indifference toward choices in life has become commonplace.  And often it seems that not to care has become more acceptable than to care, and a carefree life-style more attractive than a careful one.

Real care is not ambiguous.  Real care excludes indifference and is the opposite of apathy.  The word "care" finds its roots in the Gothic "Kara" which means lament.  The basic meaning of care is: to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out with.  I am very much struck by this background of the word care because we tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward the weak, of the powerful toward the powerless, of the have's toward the have-not's.  And, in fact, we feel quite uncomfortable with an invitation to enter into someone's pain before doing something about it.

Quote of the Week

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare
to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know
if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams,
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own
sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have
become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine your own:
if you can dance with the wildness and let the ecstasy
fill you to the finger and toes without cautioning us
to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations
of being human.

Quote of the Week

Humility and Progress

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to
something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of progress
that it is made by passing through
some stage of instability -
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually -- let them grow,
let them shape themselves,
without undue haste.
Don't try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

Quote of the Week

To Build A House

Anonymous

Georges de La Tour (1593-1652),
St. Joseph the Carpenter

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire.  He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.  He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.  The carpenter said yes.  In time, however, it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work.  He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials.  It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

When the carpenter finished his work the employer came to inspect the house.  He handed the front-door key to the carpenter.  "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."  The carpenter was shocked!  What a shame!  If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.

Quote of the Week

A Parent's Love

Anonymous

Your children are watching.  They do as you do, not as you say.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately wanted to paint another one.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you feed a stray cat, and learned that  it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make my favorite cake for me and learned that little things can be the special things in life.

When you thought I wasn't looking I heard you say a prayer, and I knew there is a God I could always talk to and I learned to trust in God.

Quote of the Week

Dreams Deferred

by Langston Hughes

 
What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore --

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over --

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Quote of the Week

An Indian Version of the Twenty-Third Psalm

Chief Joseph (Hienmot Tooyalakekt, 1841-1904), Nez Perce

The Great Father above a shepherd Chief is.  I am His and with Him I want not.  He throws out to me a rope and the name of the rope is love and He draws me to where the grass is green and the water not dangerous, and I eat and lie down and am satisfied.  Sometimes my heart is very weak and falls down but he lifts me up again and draws me into a good road.  His name is WONDERFUL.

Sometime, it may be very soon, it may be a long, long time, He will draw me into a valley.  It is dark there, but I'll be afraid not, for it is in between those mountains that the Shepherd Chief will meet me and the hunger that I have in my heart all through this life will be satisfied.

Sometimes He makes the love rope into a whip, but afterwards he gives me a staff to lean upon.  He spreads a table before me with all kinds of foods.  He puts His hand upon my head and all the 'tired' is gone.  My cup He fills till it runs over.  What I tell is true.  I lie not.  These roads that are 'away ahead' will stay with me through this life and after; and afterwards I will go to live in the Big Tepee and sit down with the SHEPHERD CHIEF forever.

Quote of the Week

The Paradox of Our Age

Anonymous

Before the Shot, By Norman Rockwell

We have taller buildings,
but shorter tempers;
wider freeways,
but narrower viewpoints;
we spend more,
but have less;
we buy more,
but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses
and smaller families;
more conveniences,
but less time;

we have more degrees,
but less sense;
more knowledge,
but less judgment;
more experts,
but more problems;
more medicine,
but less wellness.

We drink too much,
smoke too much,
spend too recklessly,
laugh too little,
drive too fast,
get too angry too quickly,
stay up too late,
get up too tired,
read too seldom,
watch TV too much,
and pray too seldom.

Quote of the Week

Ain't Got No Family
by Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, 1996

No family stands here for me;
No family.

No one talks to me.
No one listens.
People talk at me
People order me
People disregard me
I fare no better with my family.
No family stands here for me;
No family.

No one cares if I live or die;
No one cares that
I've been rebuked and scorned.
And I've been talked about;
I've been called ugly:
I live ugly
I've been teased and taunted;
My soul feels dead.
No one cares if I live or die;
No family stands here for me:
No family.

Quote of the Week

The Golden Rule -- A Global Decree

The Golden Rule by Norman Rockwell

The Brahman -- "Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you"  (Mahabharate 5: 1517).

The Buddist -- "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful."  (Udana-Varga 5: 18).

The Confucianist -- "Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you."  (Analects 15: 23).

The Taoist -- "Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain and your neighbor's loss as your own loss." (Tai Shang Kan Ying P'ien).

The Zoroastrainist -- "That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself."  (Dadistan-i-dinik 94:).

The Muslim -- "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself."  (Sunnah).

The Hebrew -- "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowman."  (Talmud, Shabbat 31a).

The Christian -- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  (Matthew 7: 12).