Reclaiming Transparency

A co-worker once said "Thank you for your transparency."  For a moment I thought it was a backhanded compliment.  Then I realized that she meant it in the modern usage our President refers to in transparent government.  So instead of the "You're so transparent!" insult of my adolescence she was affirming my ability to teach through sharing my process and my thinking.  It wasn't until later that I realized the more long-term gift she had given me: to re-claim previous insults as affirmations about my true self.

Like the GLBT community reclaiming the term "queer" in the 80's and 90's.  They decided it was only derogatory because they had given it that power.  If they reclaimed it as an all-encompassing term for anyone in this quite varied community as celebration of who they were they could decide it was positive.

What insults, judgments, or derogatory comments can you re-claim as affirmations?

Combine to Flip Your Meaning

To "take a sh*t" means to get rid of it.  To "give a sh*t" means to care.  And on the topic of caring: "care giving" and "care taking" both mean similar things- not opposite things; although taking and giving are opposites.  So suddenly when we put two words together they mean something else entirely or quite the opposite than the words on their own.

In what other areas in our lives can we put two concepts together and get something else entirely?  I'm talking abstractly here.  For instance you like change, so you're always leaving.  Pair that with a transporting job- bringing goods from one place to another.  Now you're always arriving somewhere and bringing something the people there need for life to stay consistent.

Hmmm, anything you've been viewing as a negative that  you could combine with something else that could make it positive?

Today's post is just a drawing.  What small object would you like to climb inside?

Ta-Da!

My 2-year-old niece dropped a stick in a dead potted plant and said "Ta-Da!"
I thought- what if we were all so proud and excited every time we did something?  Not that we would elevate every little thing we did to overblown proportions, but rather that we never did anything nonchalant and carelessly.  Sure one could argue that if every thing were special then nothing would be special, but if its true that giving more love creates more love to give then perhaps more pride and enthusiasm in our actions will beget more actions to be proud and excited about.

Ta Da!

"Cool!" I said as I jumped on the tree and snapped this photo.  "Yeah, too bad for the tree, though.  Sad.  Poor tree." My friend said.
"Why?" I asked.  "Because it's diseased; that's why it has so many bumps."
Oh.  I felt bad, sad for a moment.  Sorry that the tree was suffering.

But then, wait, no.  I don't believe it's feeling any pain.  And it's this "disease" that made me stop and take a moment with this tree.  It made me climb it, photograph it, notice it, care.

What sort of really cool aspects of me or you have we been told are "diseases"?  That really only become detrimental to us after someone has label them as such.  What makes our selves richer but that we have been believing makes our lives poorer just because of external judgments?

That friend went on to thank me for pointing out this tree because she walked and drove by it often but had scarcely noticed it.  I had been feeling juvenile for excitedly jumping on its splitting trunk to whip out my camera phone and try to capture it.  Not after her thanks.  Reminded me that I love being young at heart, getting distracted by things that catch my eye in the moment, jumping on stuff.  Jump on stuff and celebrate your "diseases".

First Post

The everyday things.  Someone stood this drift wood up on end.  I decided to photograph it from down low.  It made some friends stop and comment.  Which made my day.  In a week when I needed a day made.
It made me think about perspective.  I liked that the big pine tree in the distance was dwarfed by this small piece of driftwood.  I liked that a friend assumed it was a cactus in a desert.  I liked that it made my brief moment alone on the beach something to share- made it last longer- made it into a connection to others.  It's in sharing that we grow.  This dead driftwood made me grow.  Hmm.  Just everyday things.