Last week I spent eight days at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. The General Convention is a gathering of Episcopal leaders from every state in the United States, plus Haiti, Ecuador, Europe, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and several other countries. It is held every three years and it is equal parts budget setting, policy and practice setting, and a giant “family” reunion. This year 6,000 people gathered in Indianapolis and our Living Compass team was there the entire time to introduce people to the wide range of faith and wellness resources we have to offer. Being at General Convention was one of the most uplifting and energizing experiences I have had in a long time. During the eight days I was there I spoke with close to a thousand people from a wide variety of settings. I talked with people from the country of Haiti, a small fishing village in Alaska, France, New York City, Bean Blossom, Indiana, the Diocese of Navajoland and many others. Each of these people were coming to find out about Living Compass, but before I would share any information with them I always asked them to tell me about their local congregation or ministry context, and to tell me about what they do there. You see, I love to listen to people's stories. And so, one by one, I heard first hand stories of people making a difference by bringing hope and healing to people who need it in their part of the world. During my time at General Convention, my only regret, was that I was not able to enjoy one of my favorite summer time passions: cycling. Not only was I not able to ride my bike for eight days, but I was so busy that I was unable to watch the biggest annual event in cycling, the Tour de France. As I write this column though, all is well again. I am back in Wisconsin, again getting long rides in on my bike, and watching nightly highlights of the Tour de France. If you have never watched the Tour, I encourage you to do so before it ends this coming Sunday, July 22nd. If you watch, even for just a few minutes, you will witness a fascinating strategic phenomenon in bike racing known as the peloton. The peloton (from French, meaning “little ball” or “platoon”) is the large pack of riders who ride together to save energy by riding extremely close, usually behind, each other. Riders take turns “pulling” in the front of the peloton to reduce the efforts for others. The reduction in drag experienced by the racers, and therefore the effort needed is dramatic; in a large group it can be as much as 40%. Another way of saying this is that riding a bike solo, away from a pack of other riders, can require 30%-50% more effort. As I reflect on both biking and my uplifting time at General Convention last week, I realize that while I was unable to ride my bike while there, I was indeed riding in a peloton. Each of us took turns drafting off each other's stories of where and how the Spirit is making a difference in our lives. It was a powerful reminder that while there are times when we need to ride solo in life, our wholeness and wellness is most clearly nurtured, sustained, and inspired in community. Think about the most important pelotons in your life right now. Are you faithful in your commitment to keep those pelotons strong? Do you take your turn “pulling” at the front of the group? Are you comfortable acknowledging your need to ride in a peloton, or do you do too much solo riding in your life? Pelotons come in many forms and they are all important: families, partners, friends, faith communities, book groups, work teams, sports teams, retirement communities, schools, neighborhoods, and yes, even national church conventions of 6,000 people. I'm already looking forward to 2015 in Salt Lake City when the General Convention/Episcopal Peloton rides again! In the meantime, may we all be uplifted by the smaller, local pelotons we are blessed to ride in every day.
It's All About The Application
Living Compass is excited to announce that we have just released a new “app” for smartphones and tablets. The app, or application, is called “Living Well With Living Compass” and it is available for free in the app store for your mobile device (iPhone, iPad, and Android). Our app includes a variety of wellness resources, our Living Compass Self-Assessment, and a tool to help users create and track wellness action steps. In addition to a public cheering section, a place within the app where users can share intentions, successes, and cheer each other on, there is also the opportunity to create your own personal “cheering section” where you can invite and connect with friends and family who are also working on their wellness steps. We invite you to download it and try it out. We will update the app regularly as we to work to make it a powerful tool for those seeking to create an abundant life, and would appreciate your feedback which you can give us through the app. Like everything with Living Compass, this is a team effort.
Releasing our application has given me an opportunity to reflect upon the word application. It is a fascinating word that has great relevance to wellness and wholeness.
It seems to me the essence of living well involves both having the knowledge of what choices create wellness and wholeness, and then applying that wisdom on a daily basis. I know that when I find myself stressed and out of balance, it is not because I don't know how to handle or avoid stress better, but because I am not currently applying what I already know.
An analogy might be helpful. Imagine you go to the beach on a sunny day. You know it is wise to protect your exposed skin by using sunscreen and so you buy a bottle and plan to put in on as soon as you arrive at the beach. Once you get there though, you get caught up in the excitement and forget to apply the sunscreen. You have a great day at the beach, but arrive home sunburned and concerned about the harm you have done to your skin. The problem was not that you didn't know what to do; the problem is that you literally forgot to apply what you knew was good for you.
Applying this knowledge to my own life, I know that taking time each day to nurture both my spiritual well-being and my physical well-being helps me to be centered and balanced throughout the day. Fifteen minutes of prayer and/or spiritual reading and forty-five minutes of exercise makes a world of difference in the way I feel. Just as importantly, it makes such a difference in the kind of energy I bring to my interactions with others throughout the day. When I forget to “apply” the wisdom of caring for my spiritual and physical well-being, my wellness suffers and this, in turn, affects the wellness of others around me, too.
Leonardo da Vinci was right when he said, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply.” Most of us already know what practices and daily choices will enhance our spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical wellness. Just like taking that bottle of sunscreen to the beach, we have to remember to apply the wisdom we already possess. It does us no good to carry that wisdom around in our backpack, forgetting to apply it to our lives.
So in honor of the release of our new app, it's good to remember that when it comes to wellness and wholeness, it really is all about the application! Download our free app, “Living Well with Living Compass”, today --it won't protect your skin from the sun, but it is a tool that will help you apply what you already know to other important areas of wellness in you life.
Growing Wellness
Have you ever had the experience where you discovered something wonderful that is brand new to you, but you soon find out that the rest of the world has known about this for a very long time? I am currently having that experience right now as I have discovered one of the greatest of summer activities that has been enjoyed by people around the world for generations. Yes, my friends, I have discovered the utter joy and delight of planting and growing a vegetable garden. Who knew that planting a vegetable garden could be so much fun? Well, apparently just about everyone with whom I have been sharing my enthusiasm for my new found hobby. Most people, I'm finding, are either growing a vegetable garden right now and many having done so for years, or at some point in their lives enjoyed having a garden. I may be late to the party, but I'm glad I found it and I'm glad I'm here!
I hope you will forgive me if in my new found passion for gardening I write more than just one column about the many connections between wellness and gardening. I just never new how many lessons there are to be gained from gardening. I guess it should not be surprising that this is the case. After all, many of the sacred texts of the world's great religions contain numerous agricultural, nature-based images and stories to illustrate spiritual truths.
My wife and I planted our first vegetable garden five weeks ago, with the help of our daughter and future son-in-law. Okay, truth be told, they planted it and we helped. They are both experts in the area of farming and gardening and so, knowing that we were interested in having a garden but were unsure of where to start, they gave us the wonderful present of a raised vegetable garden. They figured out the perfect balance of nutrients for the soil and also purchased all the right seeds and plants. And in five weeks we are already eating the freshest arugula and red leaf lettuce I have ever tasted. Pictured above is a photo taken of the arugula we had for dinner last night.
The first connection between wellness and gardening that I would like to share is something very simple; wellness and gardening are similar in that they both have to be created. You can not purchase a garden, nor can you purchase wellness. Neither comes ready-made. Each of them must be created over time with planning, patience, and perseverance.
In creating our new garden we had do all kinds of planning; planning where the garden would go, figuring what size garden we wanted, figuring how much lumber, dirt and nutrients were needed, determining what kinds of plants to plant and then when would be the best time to do the planting. Then came the patience. After all the hard work of building and planting the garden we had to wait for things to come up and now we continue to wait for the plants to mature and ripen. As for perseverance, we continue to water, thin seedlings, and pull out weeds on a regular basis--all so our garden has the best chance of being successful.
This same kind of work is necessary for both personal wellness and family wellness. Our personal wellness is largely determined by the sum total of the day to day choices we make. Wellness between a couple, wellness between a parent and a child, and wellness between any two family members has to be planted and grown over time. Wellness in relationships does not appear all at once, but rather it appears and blooms over time with planning, patience, and perseverance. Like a garden, we plant and grow our relationships one day at a time. Then we must also water, thin and weed on a regular basis so that our relationships have the best chance of being healthy and life giving. All of the intentionality, patience and perseverance will pay off in our families much like the bounty of fall shows gardeners that their hard work over the summer was worth it!
I would love to hear what you are growing in your garden this summer--whether its your vegetable garden, or the garden of your own personal or family life. Whatever you are growing, I wish you plenty of sunshine, good nutrients, and a fruitful harvest.
Dadisms: Happy Father's Day!
After I wrote my column about “Momisms” for Mother's Day, several people asked me to do the same for “Dadisms” and Father's Day. So what follows is a list of some common Dadisms, those wise, pithy statements that father's often say to their children. And because this is a column about personal and family wellness, I offer a brief reflection on each Dadism and the life lesson it provides us related to personal and family wellness. The Dadism appears in quotes, followed by the reflection in italics.
- “A little dirt never hurt anyone.” This would be said when a fork, or a plate, or a piece of food dropped on the ground or floor. There are perhaps two important lessons here: You are tougher and stronger than you think you are, and things don't have to be perfect to be good.
- “Rub a little dirt on it and you'll be fine.” What is it with fathers and dirt? The lesson here again is that we are not as fragile as we might think. When we get hurt, or when we hurt each other, the hurt will pass. This saying could also be a way to distract a child from what's hurting them. Rubbing dirt on a sprained ankle won't make it better, but it might help a child to stop thinking so much about their ankle.
- “Don't forget to check the oil.” Fathers and cars tend to go hand in hand. This saying reminds us about the importance of preventative actions in maintaining wellness. Checking the “oil” of our physical wellness means getting regular check-ups and addressing problems as soon as they arise. Checking the “oil” in our family relationships means being proactive about keeping those relationships strong, and thus avoiding more “expensive repairs” down the road.
- “Keep your hands on the wheel.” Here we have another car-related Dadism. The lesson here is to eliminate distractions and pay attention to what we are doing. We cannot control the surprises that come up while driving or living, but we will have fewer accidents if we keep focused on the road ahead.
- “Go ask your mother.” Dad may have just been passing the buck with this one, but he also may have been teaching us the important lesson that in families we need to work and make decisions together because we are all interconnected. Dad also could have been modeling that when you don't know something, it's okay to seek someone out who knows more than you do.
- “We're not lost, I just don't know where we are temporarily.” This one could go either way. It could be seen as an example of denial and not being willing to face the truth, or it could be seen as a humorous way to put a positive, hopeful spin on a difficult situation. This is a great attitude to have when you are experiencing a conflict with someone you love--you are not lost, you are just temporarily off course and will soon find your way again.
- “Shake it off.” The message here is twofold--it provides advice and hope. The advice is based on the premise that your current troubles or challenges are on the surface and you have the ability to shake them off before they settle in more deeply. The hope implied is that you can in fact do this, you will be able to shake off the challenges you are currently facing.
- “Keep your eye on the ball.” The wisdom here is all about the importance of being focussed. The life lesson here is to “keep the main thing the main thing.” Keep your focus on character and on the wisdom of the soul--avoid being distracted by the whims of the ego.
- “I'm so happy for you,” or “I'm so proud of you,” or “I love you.” Some fathers were raised in a time when fathers didn't come right out and say, “I love you,” so instead they would say, “I'm so happy for you,” or “I'm so proud of you.” However it was said or expressed, it meant the world to us!
A special thanks to our fathers for teaching us so much about personal and family wellness!
And to all the men in our lives, who bless us with their wisdom, love, and guidance, Happy Father's Day.
***Do you have a favorite Dadism that I left out? Please feel free to email it to me and I'll add it to my collection for next yeare.
The Road Less Traveled
I recently ran two half-marathons. The first had 2 participants and the second had 4,500 participants. I should also probably mention that I ran these two half-marathons back-to-back on the same morning. Please allow me to explain. For the last sixteen years I have looked forward to running the Madison Marathon in Madison, Wisconsin, a race that is always run the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. My wife, Holly, runs the half marathon and, because we both graduated from the University of Wisconsin, it provides us a great reason each year to return to a place we love.
This year I had another reason to be excited about the Madison Marathon. I was going to be running it with my nephew, Dave. This race would be his second marathon and I knew he had been training hard for six months to get ready. I, on the other hand, had not put the time and miles in to my training that I usually do when training for a marathon due to an especially busy work schedule. So my plan was to run the first few miles with Dave and then let him go on ahead as I slowed down to make sure I would be able to finish, fully expecting that I might have to walk part of the way.
Dave, who lives an hour and half south of me in Illinois, and I talked regularly over the last month as we prepared for race day. Our plan for race day was set. What we didn't ever consider, and therefore certainly did not plan for, was that the marathon would be cancelled 36 hours before it was due to start. But that's exactly what happened. Friday afternoon, the race officials announced that the full marathon would be cancelled due to a projected high temperature of 95 degrees. The half-marathon would still be run as scheduled at 7:00 AM on Sunday morning, because the shorter race (compared to a full marathon) would allow the runners to finish before the high temperatures set in. The two thousand runners that were scheduled to run the full marathon were encouraged to join the half-marathon runners and to be content with the shorter distance that day.
I was upset for myself about the cancellation 36 hours before the race, but I was especially upset for my nephew because he had put in so many hours and miles into training for this event. Dave and I spoke on the phone and it wasn't long though before we came up with a plan that would allow us both to still run a full marathon, albeit in a rather unorthodox manner.
On Sunday morning Dave and I arose at 3:45 AM. Just over an hour later the two of us departed from our hotel on the Madison capitol square, off to run our own half-marathon before the official half-marathon would begin. The first pre-dawn miles were amazing. We saw more deer than people as we wound our way along the Capitol City Trail. As the sun rose we began to see and hear numerous sandhill cranes. Given that it was Sunday morning, I turned to Dave at one point and said, “Now this is going to church!” It was truly one of the most special, sacred running experiences I have ever enjoyed.
We arrived at the starting line of the official half-marathon two minutes before the gun went off. The quiet and solitude of our early morning run was gone as we were now being joined by 4,500 other runners! Dave and my wife went on to have great runs. I struggled and had to walk much of the last several miles. I had used up my best energy running with Dave in our first half-marathon.
Even though I walked through many of the last several miles of the race, I still had a smile on my face because I kept thinking about “going to church” earlier that morning. When I finally crossed the finish line, I knew I had completed a full marathon that I would never forget.
And did I mention that the Sunday that we ran our back to back half-marathons just happened to be Pentecost Sunday? This day for me was a reminder that the Spirit continues to show up in ways that we can neither expect nor predict.
My nephew Dave writes a blog and has written a great column about his experience of our non-traditional marathon--complete with photos! I encourage you to read it--you can find his column at http://warriordave.com/2012/plan-b