Blog Archives

Digging Around

Image result for messy car seats

Digging Around –

This week I had to take three days of classes to qualify as a Certified car seat Technician. Part of the assessments required the students to install, uninstall, spot problems with seats installed by others and know which need to be replaced. It was three long days full of information and statistics.

One of the difficult tasks is sticking your fingers in places you can’t see when you’re searching for tethers, anchors and seat belt clips jammed in between the seats. Not every car is as clean as one would like and you never know what you might find when you’re digging around.

Last week, during therapy, my “talk doctor” told me we’d begin digging deeper in the coming months. We had reached a plateau and now it was time to turn over some fresh dirt. I agreed with her that it was time and needed. I’m not necessarily looking forward to the mental, emotional and spiritual energy required but I also know if you don’t look closer, feel around, poke harder, dig deeper there’s a chance you won’t find what you’re looking for.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

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Everywhere

Jun 10

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for wasp on wood

Everywhere –

This morning, sitting in church with my arm around my wife, I felt her stiffen up and begin looking nervous. I bent my head to her ear and asked; “What’s wrong?” “Wasp!” was her reply. I looked at the window behind us and there was the feared insect. My wife is allergic to any kind of sting and we did not have her Epi-pen. We hoped it would stay there and turned our attention back to the preacher. A few moments later the insect flew between us and landed on the top of a pew about 10 feet away. The woman sitting in front of us and directly behind the wasp saw it, took out a hymnal, and; “Whack!” No more bug, no more danger. We both breathed a sigh of relief.

Reflecting on the wasp’s last flight I am reminded that no matter the place or the time there is always and everywhere a danger lurking. Maybe it’s a sense of unworthiness, a reminder of a loved one gone too soon, a habit, a hurt, a hangup. We must be aware and empowered realizing we are not helpless. There is a difference between living life scared and living it vigilantly. Freedom comes from knowing your enemy not from having no enemies. The difference makes all the difference.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life, Mental Health

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Tags: # moments, #allergic, #attention, #beaware, #behind, #bentmyhead, #between, #blessings, #breathed, #danger, #difference, #differencemakesallthedifference, #directly, #empowered, #enemies, #Everywhere, #feared, #freedom, #gonetoosoon, #habit, #hangup, #hoped, #hurt, #knowingyourenemy, #livinglife, #lovedone, #lurking, #nervous, #nomoredanger, #place, #reflecting, #reminded, #scared, #senseofunworthiness, #sighofrelief, #stiffen, #tense, #thewannabesaint.com, #vigilantly, #Whack, #Whatswrong, @BrianLoging

Starting Over

Apr 29

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Starting Over –

I was speaking with a friend this week who struggles with anger. We were trying to figure out how to take a breath before responding to a situation or a person who triggers his angry responses. We talked about tricks and tips to get him to breathe in fully and exhale before whatever words were forming on his tongue. I told him; “At that moment think, see with your mind what the consequences of your words are going to be.” It’s the discipline of ‘the space in between.’ The greater the space in between the stimuli and the response the better. Take time to think, to breathe, there is healing, understanding, awareness, and acceptance in that moment. Use it.”

With each breath is a new beginning, a starting over, an opportunity to live and give life.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Relationships

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Tags: # understanding, #acceptance, #anger, #angryresponses, #awareness, #before, #better, #between, #blessings, #consequences, #discipline, #figureout, #forming, #friend, #fully, #givelife, #greater, #healing, #live, #newbeginning, #opportunity, #over, #person, #remember, #responding, #response, #see, #situation, #space, #starting, #StartingOver, #stimuli, #struggles, #Thespaceinbetween, #thewannabesaint.com, #think, #time, #tongue, #tricksandtips, #triggers, #words, @BrianLoging, breath, breathe, exhale, Mind, moment

Protests

Mar 15

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for walk out protest

Protests –

Yesterday, almost one million students across the United States of America, walked out en masse to protest school shooting and the inability of adults to agree upon how to make our schools safer.

There were two types of protests that were happening. One was #walkout which encouraged students to leave their school classrooms and #walkup which encouraged these young adults to find someone who seemed to exist “on the edges” and talk with them eat lunch and begin a conversation that hopefully would develop into a relationship. I supported the #walkout and the #walkup protests and thought both had merit and could change lives. Neither was a perfect way of protesting but each one was worth doing.

However, I noticed that many folks were for one or the other. Not many looked for balance in the two approaches. Students were either labeled #walkup or #walkout. It seemed not much conversation was happening between the quickly diverging groups. This made me sad. The reason the students were protesting is that adults can’t talk to one another, find a compromise, work together on behalf of our nation’s youngest and brightest. Now, it was happening again.

I am sick of litmus tests that divide us as a nation, community, and families. I am tired of people not being able to listen to one another even if we do not agree with the other. There is almost always a middle way where we remember we’re all human, deserving of respect and kindness instead of disdain and meanness. Perhaps one day we will realize we have more in common than what we allow to tear us apart.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: ##enmasse, #able, #across, #adults, #again, #agree, #allow, #apart, #approaches, #balance, #begin, #behalf, #between, #blessings, #brightest, #change, #classrooms, #common, #compromise, #conversation, #deserving, #develop, #disdain, #diverging, #eatlunch, #encouraged, #exist, #families, #find, #groups, #happening, #hopefully, #human, #inability, #instead, #kindness, #labeled, #leave, #litmus, #lives, #looked, #meanness, #merit, #middleway, #nation, #nation's, #noticed, #onemillion, #ontheedges, #perfect, #protest, #protesting, #protests, #quickly, #realize, #reason, #remember, #respect, #sad, #safer, #school, #schoolshootings, #seemed, #shootings, #sick, #students, #supported, #tear, #tests, #thewannabesaint.com, #types, #UnitedStatesofAmerica, #walkout, #walkup, #worktogether, #worth, #youngadults, #youngest, @BrianLoging, Community, Listen, Relationship, Talk

Tethered

Feb 11

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for long black grey scarf

Tethered –

This morning in church we were finishing a song and the song leader asked us to be seated. Beth had on a beautiful gray, black and white scarf wrapped around her neck and as we were sitting it ended up between the person and seat back of the pew in front of us. Beth was sitting and all a sudden the scarf now pressed into the pew by the woman couldn’t sit back she was stuck, tethered to someone we didn’t know. The situation was absurd and funny and we both got the giggles. I reached over to pull it from between the woman and pew and realized there was a lot of scarf to retrieve. Luckily, we weren’t seated for long and we stood back up expecting the woman to do the same. Unfortunately, she didn’t. Argh! Beth then began to pull the scarf little by little until, finally, she had freed herself and was careful not to lean too far forward again.

In life, there are times we find ourselves tethered to someone or a group that chokes the life out of us. We might not notice it at first but sooner or later we find we must be free or suffer. Cutting the cord, letting go, escaping from a toxic relationship is hard but it is better than the life being pulled out of us.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #absurd, #Argh, #around, #asked, #back, #beautiful, #better, #between, #blessings, #careful, #chokes, #cord, #Cutting, #ended, #escaping, #expecting, #far, #find, #finishing, #first, #forward, #freed, #front, #funny, #giggles, #hard, #later, #lean, #lettinggo, #life, #littlebylittle, #long, #morning, #neck, #notice, #over, #pressed, #pull, #pulled, #reached, #realized, #retrieve, #seated, #sit, #Sitting, #situation, #sooner, #stood, #stuck, #sudden, #suffer, #Tethered, #toxic, #unfortunately, #up, #wrapped, church, Free, Relationship

Non-Action

Jan 15

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Non-Action–

Today was busy! I know for some it was a holiday but my schedule was stuffed! The day started early and it felt like a sprint to the end of it. I don’t mind busy days most of the time because it keeps the time moving and there’s no boredom to fight off.

On the other hand, my wife had a holiday. Today is Martin Luther King day and she was able to sleep in, keep her PJs on and enjoy a wonderful day of doing nothing, purposefully. She’s been incredibly busy since November of last year and a day home, without me!, and zilch on her schedule was what she needed.

There is a thin line between balancing a healthy life or action and inaction. Our chaotic world and its need for non-stop entertainment, to-do lists, places to go, things to experience, can set a pace where eventually we burn out, fall apart, or both. We need to know when to stop, take our foot off the gas and be still; not just emotionally and mentally but physically.

Knowing, sensing, its time for a break, a rest, a lazy day is an important sense to develop and put into practice.

blessings,
BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Mindfulness

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Tags: #able, #action, #Balancing, #bestill, #between, #blessings, #boredom, #break, #burnout, #busy, #chaotic, #day, #days, #develop, #doing, #early, #emotionally, #end, #enjoy, #eventually, #experience, #fallapart, #fight, #gas, #healthy, #important, #inaction, #incredibly, #King, #knowing, #lazy, #life, #lists, #Luther, #Martin, #martinlutherkingday, #mentally, #MLK, #moving, #need, #needed, #Non-Action, #non-stop, #nothing, #November, #otherhand, #pace, #physically, #practice, #purposefully, #rest, #schedule, #sense, #sensing, #sleep, #sprint, #started, #stop, #stuffed, #thinline, #time, #to-do, #today, #wonderful, #year, #zilch, entertainment, Holiday, Home, Mind, World

Flashback

Dec 23

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Flashback –

Today, while working out, I began to think of someone I haven’t thought of in a long time. It was a song that started the flashback. The memories began emerging and it wasn’t long before I began to feel the emotions, experience the memories and time melted away. It was almost as if I was back in the place, with the person and struggling. This person and I had a difficult relationship. There are times when two people don’t mesh. Sometimes there are reasons other times there are not. The pairing produces negative results, hurt feelings, harmful actions, and regrets.

I was thankful my anxiety didn’t take me too far down the road. There are times when my anxiety disorder goes into high gear and I can’t turn my thoughts off. They keep coming and it seems I am at their mercy. Today, the flashback was only a few moments and I was able to move on.

Though unexpected and unwanted the flashback was a good reminder that I have put a lot of distance between what was then and what is now. Most of the pain has vanished, the hurt feelings healed, the memories and experiences seen differently. The person is no longer my adversary but a fellow sojourner trying to find their way home on another path.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Mindfulness

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Tags: ##struggling, #able, #actions, #anxiety, #anxietydisorder, #between, #blessings, #difficult, #distance, #emerging, #emotions, #enemy, #experience, #experiences, #feel, #fellow, #few, #find, #Flashback, #good, #harmful, #healed, #home. #path, #hurt, #light, #long, #longer, #melted, #memories, #mercy, #mesh, #moveon, #now, #Off, #pain, #pairing, #person, #produces, #reasons, #regrets, #reminder, #results, #sojourner, #started, #thankful, #think, #time, #today, #toofar, #unexpected, #unwanted, #vanished, #way, #whatis, #whatwas, #workingout, Negative, Relationship, Thought, Thoughts

Help

Dec 14

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for buddhist thought of the day

Help –

It happened several weeks ago but has happened before many times and chances are will happen again. A stranger, someone we don’t know and not sure we want to, approaches us and asks us for assistance. This last time it was at a gas station when a long, matted hair, holes in his shirt and pants man, with a gas can in his hand asked me to buy him some gas. I always feel vulnerable and suspicious when anything similar to this happens and try to take a look around without being obvious. I was almost finished filling my tank and told him to set his canister down and proceeded to give him enough to almost fill it. When I finished he said; “Thank you,” took the container and went back to where he and another person were sitting. I opened the front door, sat in the driver’s seat and told the story to Beth who had watched from inside our car.

It’s been a rule of mine for as long as I can remember to not ask or demand from someone what they will do with money, gas or whatever when I give it to them. I understand some people take advantage of others and use people’s generosity for nefarious purposes. I know others need genuine help. I also believe in serving angels unaware and there’s no doubt I can’t tell the difference between the three. When I give it is a letting go of the abundance I sometimes have and allow others to use it as they deem necessary.

Assisting another in need is often vague. However, giving to another isn’t about how they use the gift but having a heart that’s willing to help.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #abundance, #advantage, #again, #allow, #almost, #angels, #another, #approaches, #asked, #asks, #assistance, #assisting, #before, #believe, #between, #blessings, #buy, #canister, #chances, #container, #deem, #demand, #difference, #doubt, #down, #enough, #feel, #fill, #filling, #finished, #gas, #generosity, #genuine, #gift, #give, #hair, #hand, #happened, #heart, #help, #helping, #holes, #inside, #lettinggo, #long, #matted, #money, #necessary, #need, #nefarious, #notask, #obvious, #often, #pants, #person, #proceeded, #purposes, #remember, #rule, #serving, #shirt, #similar, #story, #stranger, #suspicious, #Thank you, #times, #try, #unaware, #understand, #use, #vague, #vulnerable, #watched, #willing

Stop!

Nov 16

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for ambulance lights flashing no siren

Stop–

Yesterday on my way to a meeting I rounded a curve and noticed vehicles pulling over to the side of the road. I slowed down, wondering what was happening when I heard the unmistakable sound of an emergency vehicle siren. Then I saw the ambulance. He passed in the opposite lane before I could find a spot to pull over. After it was out of sight; “poof” everything went back to normal. Everyone went on with their lives.

Except. Except for the person or people, the ambulance was rushing to get to. Could be something small or life-changing. There’s no way of knowing. A person said to me one day; “When I see or hear an emergency vehicle I pray for whom it is intended.” I liked this practice. I’ve tried making it a regular discipline but often forget.

Today, a friend of mine was rushed to the hospital via an ambulance. I’ve been praying for him all day long. The difference between the two scenarios? One ambulance had a person I loved the one yesterday, no one I knew.

Perhaps, if I remembered how connected all of us on this small planet really is I’d care more, pray more and love more.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Relationships

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Tags: ##opposite, #ambulance, #between, #blessings, #care, #connected, #difference, #discipline, #emergency, #Except, #forget, #friend, #hear, #hospital, #intended, #knowing, #life-changing, #lives, #loved, #more, #normal, #person, #planet, #practice, #pray, #praying, #regular, #remembered, #rushed, #rushing, #see, #siren, #small, #vehicle, #way, love, People

Reacting

Oct 29

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Reacting –

What are you reacting to? Such a wonderful and powerful question.

We live in a reactive world. Opinions, biases, judgments, loyalties, choosing sides, seems to be what everyone around us is doing. We don’t have to ask for someone’s thoughts on a matter before they tell it to us anyway. Social media is a primary culprit but I’ve heard stories of this happening in restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores. People can’t shut up or stop typing. It is a wonder anyone can find interior peace when the exterior world bombards our ears with a cacophony of noise and words.

“The space in between” is a difficult discipline which needs broader acceptance. Basically, it teaches that between the incident and the comment is the moment to choose our response. Between the action and the reaction, we have the ability to make the situation better, the same, or worse. In the immediate time following an experience we have the ability to make it more or less unstable.

Reacting, choosing, deciding, what our reaction to a stimulus will determine our destiny. Will we be thoughtlessly reactive, speak without considering, act without thinking about the outcome? Or, will we remember the “space in between” and so grace, kindness, and love?

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Wisdom

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Tags: #ability, #acceptance, #act, #action, #better, #between, #biases, #bombards, #broader, #cacophony, #Choose, #choosing, #choosingsides, #comment, #considering, #culprit, #deciding, #decision, #destiny, #determine, #difficult, #discipline, #experience, #exterior, #gasstations, #grace, #grocerystores, #immediate, #incident, #interior, #judgments, #kindness, #loyalties, #matter, #opinions, #outcome, #primary, #Reacting, #reaction, #reactive, #remember, #response, #restaurants, #ShutUp, #situation, #socialmedia, #space, #spaceinbetween, #speak, #stimulus, #stoptyping, #teaches, #thinking, #thoughtlessly, #time, #unstable, #wonder, #words, love, Noise, Peace, Stories, Thoughts, World

One Thought

Sep 28

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

One Thought –

Yesterday, a friend wrote on her Facebook page, to make sure you spell check political posts before putting them out there for the world to see. I commented snarkily; “How about not posting them at all?” To be honest, I grow tired of the division the current administration and media seems to thrive on and more tired of friends and family, people I love, choosing sides against one another.

Social media can be a great way to keep in contact with folks down the block and across the nation and world. It can be immensely helpful by giving people an opportunity to supply aid when natural disasters strike and notifying users around the world of prayer needs. I use social media for all of these things plus writing my blog. However, over the last year, there has been a noticeable trend towards nasty, mean and downright hateful posts and replies.

When I counsel men and couples on getting along with each other one of the disciplines I teach is the; “The Space in Between.” It is the understanding that between the action and reaction is a space. In this space, we decide how we are going to react and which consequences will come as a result. “The greater the space in between the better the chance of a good decision with positive outcomes. The shorter the space in between the better chance of making a bad decision with negative outcomes.”

When it comes to social media I wonder if we shouldn’t reflect on the question; “Will this help? Build up? Bring people closer?”

“No one regrets a harsh word unspoken.” -#Wisdom #Proverb

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Contemplative

1 Comment

Tags: # understanding, #action, #bad, #better, #between, #Buildup, #chance, #closer, #consequences, #counsel, #couples, #decide, #decision, #disciplines, #downright, #good, #greater, #harsh, #hateful, #help, #mean, #media, #men, #nasty, #noticeable, #outcomes, #positive, #posts, #questions, #react, #reaction, #Reflect, #regrets, #replies, #result, #shorter, #social, #space, #teach, #Thespaceinbetween, #trend, #unspoken, #wisdom, #wonder, Negative, proverb

Bullets and in Between

Jun 17

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Bullets and Breaks –

I saw my first bullet hole in a human body this week. Well, what it looks like with a thin bandage over it anyway. The leg and the hole belonged to one of the men I teach in my incarcerated father’s class. I had noticed last week he was limping and when he came in on Wednesday I asked how he was doing and what had happened. I had no idea the story which would be told.

The tale included drugs, friends pulling guns on one another, a high-speed car chase, resisting arrest, guns on all sides and finally an arrest and a charge of nine felonies. Whew! By the time he finished I was worn out! The most important detail he shared was before everything fell apart, when he was sitting on the couch with a friend and things began to escalate, he said; “If I would’ve stopped for thirty seconds and thought about what I was doing. If I would have just walked away, none of this would have happened.”

Although there was much in his story I couldn’t relate to I certainly know the harm of acting in haste, not taking time to think before I said or did something harmful, in the heat of the moment, only to regret it soon after. The difficulty is that once we do anything good, bad, positive, or negative the consequence will follow. We can’t take it back. “When we pick up one end of the stick, we pick up the other.”

One of the most difficult yet important disciplines wisdom teaches is the; “space in the middle.” It is that place between the event, the action and our response, our reaction. Usually the less space we allow the higher possibility of making a bad decision and dealing with the results of our choices.

The young man with the bullet hole in his leg is looking at a long sentence in the state penitentiary. I hope that he, all the students and their teacher will learn and put into practice the lesson of; “the space in between.”

blessings,
@BrianLoging
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Lent

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Tags: #action, #bad, #between, #choices, #decision, #difficult, #disciplines, #event, #greater, #higher, #important, #middle, #possibility, #reaction, #response, #results, #space, #teaches, #wisdom

TheWannabeSaint.com

…..a place for sojourners on this spiritual path called life

Blog Archives

Digging Around

Everywhere

Starting Over

Protests

Tethered

Non-Action

Flashback

Help

Stop!

Reacting

Bullets and in Between

Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

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…..a place for sojourners on this spiritual path called life

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