Emotional Bankruptcy~~Eclipse of the Heart~~How to Recover
September 5, 2008
Have you ever declared emotional bankruptcy?
Have you ever known someone whose cynicism caused them to claim total eclipse of the heart?
Without a doubt, we can crash our heart on life’s curves, and repairs can take some time, but to become permanently emotionally unavailable, to proclaim, “I’m broke,” or “I’m broken,” deprives us of opportunities to experience love in new, delightful, fulfilling ways and forms, from the most unexpected sources~~that may be just the “deposit of love” that our broken hearts needed to get back in the black.
With your patience, I’d like to offer this autobiographical situation as an illustration:
A few months ago, while driving my car through an intersection, another driver ignored the traffic signals and drover right into me, causing my neck to whip right and then left, bashing the left side of my head on my car’s door frame. A concussion resulted, effecting my hard earned mathmatical skills and my lifetime of musicianship. Soon after the accident, I discovered that I could no longer perform simple math, much less advanced algebra. An even more devastating moment occured when I sat down at the piano to read a new piece of music and found that music was now a foreign language to me. When I tried to execute compositions I had been playing for longer than memory served–that my fingers had known on their own, I learned that even the memory of my fingers had been damaged. Music had been ninety percent of my life since I was a toddler, and my livelihood since age twelve.
While I couldn’t expect to make my living as a musician for a while, I turned to other skills for income and began lovingly retraining my brain. At first, crosswords were like Greek to me but I conistently applied myself to working them in order to cause my mental synapses to fire; everyday, I turned my attention to redeveloping my musical abilities, whether it was singing, playing the piano, or playing the marimba; everyday, I apply new patience to working out mathmatical problems, and find creative ways of enticing both hemispheres of my brain to remember, to use unused cells, and develop new neuro-pathways. [for more on how the brain works, read Jill Bolte Taylor's book, Stroke of Insight. www.mystrokeofinsight.com]
My result thusfar, of not declaring musical bankruptcy or wallowing in despair over losing a lifetime of personal and financial investment? In the process of renewing my musical abilities, hiking and climbing have provided strength and coordination; in learning to ride and care for horses–I’ve developed relationships with these creatures who always daunted me before; writing and blogging provide hours of entertainment, pleasure and income; nature has revitalized my senses and my joy; AND I’ve developed the ability to accompany my singing on the marimba! A small trio wanting to be a quartet heard my voice and invited me to join their ranks. Needing some way to learn the music, I picked up my mallets and began picking out the tune and in a few days, I was singing and playing a simple melody. While no one would pay to hear me, this progress is priceless to me and I’ve found a group of musicians that I actually add to!
How much I’ll ever regain? Unknown. How much I’ve gained? Immeasurable. How much is yet to come? Infinite possibilities.
If I had declared myself musically broke or broken, I would have deprived myself of untold opportunities to experience love, music, life, people, nature, animals and even myself in new, delightful, fulfilling ways and forms, in the most unexpected ways~~that were just the “deposit” that my broken heart and life needed to get back in the black. Instead of getting smaller, my life is greatly enlarged.
No deposits, no withdrawals can be made on an account that’s been closed.~~A.
A spoon never tastes the soup…and we can miss out on tasting life if we don’t become porous…[Dr. Jim Rigby in http://itsawonderfulife.wordpress.com As Great As We Are...God Loves Other People Too!]
When we’re broken, to declare “bankruptcy” closes our account. While no withdrawals can be made, neither can deposits be applied or interest earned. Being broken calls us to enormous courage that begins simply, with the willingness to have courage…to take the very next breath, the very next thought and the very next step. {for more on willingness, read Carol Creel’s stories at www.lifeworks-marketing.com]
If you’re a soul feeling broken beyond repair, I hope that in this, you find the encouragement to be willing to keep some little part of your empty, broken heart open to being repaired and refilled. Especially when you feel that you have nothing to give, find something that you can give, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant, knowing that in your willingness, in your giving, you’ll find the courage and you’ll find the gift.~~Ashtora, 2008
[for more on hope and healing read Anna Miller's book, Mania. Madness. Miracles. www.thedepressionproject.com]
[for more on love and wisdom, listen to Dr. Jim Rigby's podcasts from www.staopen.com]
To All Who Have Ever Failed, Remember, Nothing Great…
September 2, 2008
This moment is dedicated to Senator John Edwards, whose words in the face of disappointment have provided great inspiration for me in times past; though since, has experienced his own personal disillusionment. May you and all of us who have ever “failed,” find comfort, encouragement, and renewed determination in the moment it takes to read these words. Ash
Think only for a moment, how you felt in the presence of the your “failures” and those of the ones we look to for leadership. When we failed our own moral imperatives; when we didn’t set the example we hoped to; when we didn’t accomplish exactly what we set out to; when those we trusted to show us that what we couldn’t do could be done, disappointed; take a moment for compassion and remember these words from Dr. Jim Rigby, visionary, story teller and activist from Austin, Texas:
Nothing great was ever accomplished in a single lifetime. We must emblazon those words in our hearts. The struggle is always worth it. For, if we do not improve our own time we have made possible some future happiness. If all around us is hopeless it is the perfect time to begin loosening the soil for future planters. The more hopeless the political situation, the more important are those who live and teach the principles of human decency.~~Dr. Jim Rigby
To all who struggle, all who fail, all who triumph, all who despair, all who repair…even when it doesn’t feel like it, it’s always worth it. Every heartache, every tear, every triumph and every joy prepares us and our posterity for the greatness to come. Now, is your perfect time.~~Ashtora
If you’d like to write Dr. Jim Rigby, his email is jrigby0000@aol.com
If you’d like to write me, my email is izee4mee@hotmail.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
If we do not find our roots in nature, we will perish as a species…If we do not return to these roots, our children will live in a poisonous world.~~Dr. James Rigby, Small Things, 2008
Speaker, Dr. Jim Rigby, though a minister and pastor of a Presbyterian Church, in Austin, Texas, says he loves Tao scripture, that it helps him to understand what Jesus was saying, so much more deeply.
Though Jesus uses images from nature frequently, Jesus spoke mystically insists Rigby.
It’s very, very important not to take the Bible literally, because you cannot understand the mystical and also be literal.”~~Dr. Jim Rigby, Small Things, 2008
With his passion for humanity resonating in every word, Dr. Rigby pleas with us to find the truths of our own being, to learn:
…we are not the frightened little creatures we think we are…we need to know and feel from the inside out that we are children of nature…we are the world…as natural as a tree.~~Rigby, Small Things, 2008
Rev. Rigby also urges us to “let life support us,” “let the mountain lift us up,” “to integrate every human activity within the balanace of nature,” proclaiming that “there’s only one Balance.”
Rigby reveals that every day, some Bush activity takes his breath away; but, leaves us with this encouragement:
When we look at life organically, no matter how bleak the present [moment] may seem, we always have a seed we can plant for the future.~~Rigby, Small Things, 2008
You may find this podcast, that invites us to wake up to our Unity with All of Life, to open to the depth of life, and to realize we are the One, worth listening to, over and over again. ~~Ashtora, 2008
Thank you Rev. Rigby for your passionate love for humanity and all of nature…for helping us to recognize our unity…to recognize the great in the small.
Visit http://www.staopen.com/podcast/index.php in order to select other podcasts by Dr. James Rigby or others who have spoken at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX.
Dr. Robert Jensen, author of “Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity,” will be on hand to answer questions after Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar’s Third Coast Activist Film Night showing of Chyng Sun’s “The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationships,” exploring questions such as “What is the price?” and “Could it be all about money and power?” on Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 7:00 pm.
Always provocative, educational, and worth a listen, Dr. Jensen’s books are each one, a labor of love, aimed toward elevating humanity to its highest potential. ~~Ashtora, 2008 http://ashtorspeaks.wordpress.com
Perhaps, Dr. Robert Jensen like Dr. Jim Rigby, Radical Forgiveness Coach, Carol Creel, and Anna Miller, founder of The Depression Project and author of “Madness. Mania. Miracles.” suspects more than most, what Love Is and what Love Is Not… For more on “The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationships,”visit: http://itsawonderfulife.wordpress.com.~~Ashtora
\”The Empty Vessel Never Filled,\” by Dr. Jim Rigby
I promised you pages on the people, places, things, and experiences that have made my life wonderful; so, may I start at the TOP? Here’s Dr. Jim Rigby of Austin, Texas, teaching on what he calls, “The Empty Vessel Never Filled,” but I call it, “Finding the Eternal in the Temporal.”
This podcast is his most recent scholarly presentation, given live before a mixed audience of Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Pantheists, Buddhists, Taoists, and persons of just about any religious or anti-religious perspective. Worth bearing in mind, perhaps, is the fact that his audience assembled themselves in a small building, located in Austin’s northern Wells Branch suburb, called St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, where justice advocate and often controversial Dr. Rigby has taught for more than twenty years, for the specific purpose of hearing him [Reverend Dr. Jim Rigby] speak his mind on his topic of choice.
His teachings have oftentimes ignited harsh criticism from theologians, traditional religious figures, the Presbyterian Synod, Mission Presbytery, legal zealots, anti-gay activists and even members and former members of the church itself.
In this particular podcast, Jim dares to merge Taoist teachings with Christian teachings into one that has the power to continuously inform and transform our lives, providing richness and presentness:
http://www.staopen.com/podcast/index.php
To hear Dr. Rigby’s views on Taoism and Christianity, click on the above podcast link and choose from the index of topics, “The Empty Vessel Never Filled.” Your comments are invited. I look forward to hearing from you.–It’s a Wonder-ful Life! Ash
itsawonderfulife
Economics USA: The Crumbling of an Empire~~Our Time Has Come
September 25, 2008
We’ve known wealth. We’ve known power. We’ve known comfort. We’ve known ease. We’ve lived the illusion. Living the illusion cost us more than we ever took the time to evaluate. It cost us more than -dollars and cents. Living in a super-inflated economy took its toll in relationships, in ethics, in priorities, in values and in character.
Many have warned us that our economy was on a collision course. Two of my dear friends, Dr. Robert Jensen and Dr. Jim Rigby have long been describing this unavoidable occurence, when no legislation Congress can forge will circumvent the inevitable. In Jensen’s book, Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity, he writes encouragingly of Maintaining political, intellectual, and ethical hope in the heart of the world’s most powerful nation. Now that this Empire, this illusion can no longer be sustained, we the people have the enormous gift of being able to come together on solid ground~~claiming our humanity. We have the opportunities to once again create time for our families and our neighbors…to take turns lending a helping hand. We can use our two hands, our minds, our hearts, our backs to shoulder the labors ahead of us together. We can learn anew to live closer to the earth, use less, replace more…our time has come. To paraphrase the recent words of Dr. Jim Rigby,
Now, more than perhaps ever in our lifetimes, we can appreciate all of the genuine abundance that we truly live with. We can savor the breath that gives us life. We can cherish the life that surrounds and sustains us. Without a doubt, we will have less in that we no longer can delude ourselves or the world; yet, undeniably, we will have more. Each and every day will bring new riches that money and inflation cannot buy at any price.
I look forward to working with each and everyone of my neighbors, regardless of race, creed, or sexual orientation in life sustaining, community building endeavors.
Our time has come; the perfect time for relocating~~for moving from the penthouses of our heads into the rich wilderness of our hearts. This is the perfect time to live abundant lives of compassion, recognizing the worth of every creature, of every individual, of every nation. Now is the time to “beat our swords in plowshares,” to mine our vast resources of courage, strength and determination in order to live not the illusion, but a life worth tasting.
For more from this author, visit http://itsawonderfulife.wordpress.com and http://ashtoraspeaks.wordpress.com.
For more perspectives like this, write Dr. Jim Rigby at jrigby0000@aol.com, visit Carol Creel at www.lifeworks-marketing.com. You can also email Ashtora, izee4mee@hotmail.com.