What Is Your Profession?

It seems that recently, I am running into more and more people who are tired of the “rat race” that is American life.  More people seem to be getting disillusioned with the idea that for the rest of their lives they are going to have to sell their time for money often doing things that they have little to no interest in.  Some of them are responding by starting their own businesses. Some are responding by taking more time off to be with their loved one and cultivating a que sera sera mindset. And some are spending more time doing creative endeavors in order to cultivate their talents.  The happiest people I know are people who have somehow managed to do all three at once. And the saddest are those people who have already given up and are just burying their heads until they get laid off or die. Then there are people like me who are stumbling their way through this life picking up clues as I go and shifting as necessary. Then of course there are also those people who just love making money for money’s sake.  They’ll be fine no matter what because frankly they aren’t thinking about any of this stuff I am talking about anyway, so there’s no conflict and they will always do whatever they have to do to survive–by hook or by crook.

Click for more images

So, If you watched the video, you know that the point I am trying to make in this post is that we become what we profess. While many of us think of our “profession” as our job, it more accurately has to do with the vows we make in life with our words, work, deeds, and our very being.  Even though most of us Americans seem to define ourselves by our jobs, very few of us give much thought to the fact that often we cease to be people, and rather, become extensions of our jobs. In essence we are slaves. Sure, you could say that we are free, but if we were really free we would know that we have a choice about whether or not or at least how we would like to participate in this people project that is our country.  But really how many of us feel free?  If we were free, we would profess that above other things.  And more of us would allow ourselves to cultivate the God given talents and gifts that each of us have.  But instead, most of us just do what we are advised to do by external sources.  We become such a big part of the production line that even our desires are manufactured.  I’m convinced that most of us don’t even really want the things we think we want or even like the things we say we like.  We have just been professing the status quo so much that we can’t tell what we really feel or desire. Maybe I’m wrong, but if I’m not and you want to shift, what can we do about it?  Well I think it all starts with imagination. Creating a world from within and then professing it without.

Recently I got to learn more about one of the parents from the bus stop where I drop off my daughter in the morning.  She happens to be an artist.  In our brief conversations, I was able to learn a little about the different types of art she does.  Her art is very eclectic and very thought provoking.  What really amazed me was that her work invited me into spaces I had never seen, because she created art that I would have never conceived of like the one above.  When I saw this picture and some of her other work, I felt this sense of relief.  I was just happy to see so many out of the box works.  It reminded me that within each of us is this infinite resource of creativity and imagination.  I look at my daughter and hr friends and remember that it is something that we are all born with and as youths we profess the limitless nature of our being.  But then one day we start professing that we are this or that and then the more we say it the more we become it.  After a while we forget how much more we are.  We profess, “I am a teacher, a parent, a divorcee, a home owner, a vacationer, a Pats Fan… yadda yadda yadda.”  And that’s it.  That’s all we seem to be.  But that’s not all we are. We are so much more.

Because I choose to experience myself as more, I am professing it to others that they are more.  I’m at the point where I don’t even care if anyone is listening. I am just going to profess it because I know that I will become whatever I profess–that is I will become the vows I make through my words, works, deeds, and very being.  I also know that if I hang out with other who are professing that they are more than the work they do or the roles they play, then this awareness will be even more established in me.  Does that make sense?  Well if so, reach out.  With all these forms of communication, there’s no excuse for more people willing to make this profession not connecting.

Post Traumatic Growth Syndrome

I’m sure most of you have heard the saying, “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”  I know it was something I told myself many times in my life and it is advice that I used to offer up to others who I thought could handle it.  However, what I found, was that many people did not really want to hear that while they were still feeling the sting of whatever wounded them. I once had a person tell me just how much they hated it when people said that.  In his opinion, a more accurate statement was “What doesn’t kill you messes you up so bad that you sometimes wish that it did kill you.” Now at the time, I would have been more inclined to try and talk him out of that belief as a rule.  But as I got older and engaged with more and more wounded people, I came to understand why that, now cliche, response to other people’s pain doesn’t really have the effect it once had.  When it seems like life is throwing one thing at you after the other and all you can throw back are cliches, giving in and tuning out can seem like the best strategy for avoiding the pain of disappointment. Still, I do not recommend that people throw in the towel.  I recommend getting back in there, because as they taught in the class I recently experienced, you can either be on the winning teaming or the learning team, but no one has to lose. That is something I try to share every way I can.  I love sharing with people other possibilities for how we can engage our experiences. I grab on to metaphors like like a climber looking for holds on a rock face.   That’s why I am so excited to share the concept of “going Hydra” with you.

 

Five heads are better than one.

Going Hydra is a concept that Marshall shared with us in the Money and You program I recently attended.  Essentially, the concept comes down to the idea conceptualized in the mythical dragon known as the Hydra–a creature that would grow another head every time one was cut off.  What powerful imagery. Imagine how the Hydra must feel when some would be hero comes to chop off its head.  If I were an actual hydra I would just laugh my head off when some armored person came at me swinging a sword trying to take me out. And guess what, I would have even more heads.  My attitude would probably be something like, “Cut off my head.  I want you to.”

All joking aside, this concept is powerful and is beyond the idea of what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  For one thing, the hydra knows in advance that it never has to worry about losing its head. Never.  What would it be like if we all lived our lives with the absolute knowing that we couldn’t lose.  I imagine if more of us lived from that space, then our lives would be consistently primed for growth.  Which leads us to the idea mentioned in the title–Post Traumatic Growth Syndrome. Now, I googled PTGS, and it is not a foreign concept.  Even though the first time I ever heard of it expressed that way was in Marshall’s class,  the concept has always been around.  In fact for those of us who work out, we experience it every time we go to the gym.  In fact, seen a certain way, it is why we go the gym in the first place.  Working out is nothing less than growing through struggling.  The only difference is that it is controlled, so it gives us the psychological boost of knowing that we can stop the struggling whenever we desire to.  But that is exactly why the idea of “Going Hydra” is so powerful.  If one goes Hydra, that is accepts as fact that they can grow from every challenge, then much of our day to day struggles would instantly transform into opportunities.

As I mentioned in the video above on my way home from the program, it was literally one thing after the other that was coming at me.  Now of course these things are relatively small when you look at what some people are experiencing–such as the floods in CO, where the course was held.  But think about how often it is the little things that take us over the edge.  What if we could just look at those little nuisances as opportunities to grow a little at a time?  How awesome would it be to not be phased by the little things that get us like people taking your parking spot, our food coming to us cold, or someone being late. What if they were all just practice for the big game of life.  Then all of a sudden those little nuisances become little sparks of grace.  A little change of perspective goes a long way.  Who knows, soon you may find yourself looking forward to those little things that actually can help us become better bit by bit.

WARNING–The above concepts aren’t to say that anyone should get all sadomasochist and start looking for painful situations and/or inflicting them on others in the name of helping them to grow.  This is just about taking the inconveniences in life and turning them into opportunities.  Like Bill Allen, Marshall’s teaching partner says, the road to success is paved with inconvenience. And as David Neenan, the other co-facilitator taught, failure is a prerequisite for innovation.

 

Magnificence is our birthright!

Dear Money, (Money and Me)

Dear Money,

First of all I just want to thank you for always showing up when I need you. Ever since I went out on my own, I have never really had to chase you down or beg for you.  I have always been able to pay my bills and do some of the things  I enjoy because you were always near.  Even when other people tried to get between us, we still managed to fix things.  I respect you and I know that no matter what people say about you ultimately you aren’t bad.  That’s why it is hard for me to listen to people tell lies about you.  They say you think you are God or that you prostitute yourself.  They say you put yourself out there in a negative way and cause people to fight over you, but I know it is not the truth.  The more accurate thing is that you are often kidnapped and violated by people who don’t understand you.  They think that you are playing hard to get and so they come after you aggressively with the intent to dominate you.  The truth is that you are nothing like that.  But people treat you like a trophy and don’t respect you.  I know that you want nothing more than to be a part of honest relationships that are based on mutual respect and not on low self esteem, lies, and manipulation.  I know that you just want to be expressed at the highest ideal.  I also know that you are abundant.  You are not in short supply.  You flow like a might river, but people who fear lack dam you up and cut off your tributaries.  There are places that you want to go, but they want to regulate you because they think they can control others by controlling you.  It is really sad.  That’s why I don’t get into those types of conversations with people.

All they see is dollar signs.

When people treat you like you are just and end in itself I get uncomfortable.  I feel the same type of discomfort that I would feel if I heard someone telling me how they only cared about one thing in their relationship with another human being.  What is the difference between only seeing dollars signs when they think of what they would do to get to you and only looking at a person’s physical attributes when they try to get in a relationship with them?  I don’t see much of a difference.  Of course this not to say that this type of attraction is in and of itself distasteful.  I don’t think that.   Attractions exist for a reason too.  It is just that it is not the end all be all.  For example, if I wanted to go on a trip that costs $1700 and then I found a writing gig that paid $1700 of course I would get excited about the dollars signs.  But if someone told me that I could make $1700 by robbing someone or selling a faulty product to some unsuspecting person, then I cannot let the dollar signs cause me to go that route.  Money, I know you know what I mean and I trust that you would not like for me to go that route because I believe you hate being used that way.  What I believe is that you love it when we do honest work that provides honest value to people who appreciate what we offer.  And I believe that you help encourage us by showing up very easily when we are in the flow.  That has been my experience with you and that is what I will continue to trust.  I hope you don’t prove me wrong.

As you know, I am taking this class this weekend called Money and You with Marshall Thurber.  Part of the reason that I am taking this class is because when I asked Marshall some advice on how I could better monetize my talents so that I could do more of what I love, he told me to come to his class.  The other part is because even though you and I have a respectable relationship, it could be better.  We can play more.  We could have more fun if we spent more time together.  I know that. I want to take our relationship to the next level. What I’m hoping is that at this class I will be surrounded by people who really know how to treat you.  People who understand how I feel about you.  You know how it is when you are considering getting into a committed relationship, but everyone else seems to be so miserable in theirs that you just hold off declaring that commitment.  That’s where I am.  But I don’t think it has to be that way.  You’ve been good to me.  You’ve treated me fairly. Even when I was selling cars you were there for me making sure that I could pay all of my bills in advance just in case later months were lean.  I don’t care about what other people say or how they use you.  I’m going to do good by you.  Let’s be full partners.  I won’t simply use you and I don’t expect to be used by you.  I know that we’ve done a lot of good together.  Let’s do more.

Respectfully,

Pedro S. Silva II

 

 

How’d I Get So Rich?

What life is all about!

Yesterday when I was on facebook, I saw this post that showed this huge stack of hundred dollar bills that came with a prayer that said that if people wrote the word “Amen” in the comments, then in Jesus’ name, the person would receive a stack of money like the one in the image.  Hundreds of people of course wrote “Amen”.  As I looked at the post, I felt myself getting bothered. At first I tried to talk myself out of writing a comment.  I thought about the conversations that I have had with people in the past who are convinced that I have something against money.  I could hear their voices trying to convince me that there is no contradiction between being “spiritual” and rich and that Jesus even wants us to be rich because, after all, “Didn’t he say that he wants us to live life more abundantly?”  Yadda yadda yadda.  Just thinking about those conversations almost kept me from posting what I was feeling, but in the end, rather than say “Amen” I wrote, “I forgot Jesus was all about the Benjamins.  Dear Jesus, thank you for the Benjamins.  Your death was worth every penny.”  I can imagine some of the people who are looking for Jesus to hook them up with a fat stack of hundreds getting bothered with me and my obvious lack of faith.  I’m the most annoying kind of Christian–the ones who believe that Jesus’ kingdom wasn’t of this world.  I don’t think he gives a dime if we’re rich or not.  I do think that he supports justice which includes economic justice when it comes to application of faith.  And I don’t think anyone in a relationship with his teachings would say otherwise.  The story of Zacchaeus demonstrates that.  When Zacc stopped being a cheat and promised to restore economic justice in his realm of influence, Jesus responded with saying “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Let me say right here that I don’t have anything against money. In the passages after the Zacchaeus story Jesus taught about some servants who were trusted with their masters money and were expected to use it wisely.  The ones who invested wisely were trusted with more and the one who just held on to it for fear of losing the money was condemned.  Then Jesus said one of his most mysterious sayings which was, “For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”  Sounds pretty unfair huh?  Well, it depends on how you look at it.  To me, money is like leaves on a tree.  You plant a seed. You give it water and care and make sure it has access to the sun and nature does the rest.  It is that simple.  What people call abundance is just the natural state of the universe.  Maybe you’ve heard the principle, “You reap what you sow.”  It’s not just a warning for jerks to watch their backs.  It is the universal fact that abundance is everywhere and everyone has equal access to it.  So with that particular mystery statement, I hear Jesus saying that growth is the way life simply is.  What you put out there grows.  If you put lack out there, that grows too.  It’s an indiscriminate fact and it is impersonal.  That’s why there are a lot of materially wealthy jerks out there. So my issue isn’t with money.

My issue is actually with the limited belief that money is the only form of abundance.  I get annoyed with the idea that so many people have made it their reason for living that they are not even living at all.  Now, lifelessness is actually what’s spreading because that is what many people plant when they only look for money as a sign of a life of value. But hey it is their choice.  Where I take it personally is that I have made the choice to let life be my reason for living, but all of my life people have been trying to convince me that I need to buy into their choice to see the value of our lives in dollar signs.  The fact is that I don’t care if other people make their lives about money and acquisition. I’m sure that it is awesome for some of them.  You can do a lot with money.  It’s like a passport that can get you into certain places.  But it’s not the only way in, and frankly some of the places that it can get you into, I have no interest in going.

Obviously I use money.  I eat food.  I travel.  I pay bills and taxes. I give gifts and make donations.  Money is a tool and I use it as I need to.  But I have made the choice not to be used by it.  So far I have been blessed in life.  I have never had to ask anyone to pay any of my bills.  And even since I was in high school, I have been able to give away and loan money to others–sometimes to people who make a lot more than I do.  Living my life the way I have, I have even spawned rumors that I secretly won the lottery or that my father was rich and gave me money all of my life.  Not true by the way.  The fact is that by most standards I am poor.  I really have very little in the way of material things, but I have what I need and do what I feel like doing.  For example when I felt inspired to go to seminary, I went.  It didn’t make sense to the world for me to leave a corporate job when I just had a child, but I felt called so I just said to God, “If this is a real calling you will provide a way.  I’ll fill out the applications and do the paperwork.  Just remember that I have a wife and child who rely on my job and they need to be taken care of too.”  The short story is that I went to school for free and we were able to pay our bills despite me going down to part time so that I could keep my scholarship which required that I be a full-time student.  Where did the money come from?  It fell like manna from heaven.  Why? Because I am unimaginably wealthy by association. I am God’s child and I know it.  I don’t need a DNA test to show me. God knows what I need before I do (Matt 6). But not just me obviously–all of life.  And not just Christians by the way–all of life.

Was it worth it?

So when I see people living their lives like some of us are more of God’s children than others it frankly annoys me.  Anything that we use to validate our existence like money, sex, or approval of others disturbs me, because it’s a lie.  Jesus didn’t die so people could get a stack of Benjamins so they can get blessed with a phat ride and Versace.  Sure people getting that stuff doesn’t make them less of God’s child. But like I said, Jesus doesn’t give a crap about that.  He wants us to be free indeed.  So if he saw that our desires for a fat stack of cash was turning us from the freedom he offers, he’d probably say to give it up.  And if you were rich and that was what was keeping you from experiencing the greater abundance that he offers then he’d probably say what he said to the rich young ruler who said he wanted the life Jesus offered, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” That should sound familiar to Christians who think Jesus is sitting around hoping all of his followers win the lotto.  No, I don’t have anything against it because I don’t think it’s spiritual to be rich.  It’s just a lie.  Notice that Jesus said to the rich ruler “YOU STILL LACK!!!”  The life Jesus teaches about is so abundant that there is no lack of any kind–not even death can touch it.  He was willing to die not for material abundance, but so that we can all see who we really are–heirs of eternity.  It’s a reality that makes what’s in the picture above look like loose change in the basement couch of the Universe.  

If you want to explore what I mean let’s chat.