Faith

When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:

There will be something solid for you to stand upon,
or, you will be taught how to fly

–Patrick Overton from Learning Tree

Change is hard. Serious change is seriously hard.

And I’m in a season of change.

Being who I am, coming from where I come from, I struggle with faith and trust. But whether I believe it or not, I either found something solid to stand on or been taught to fly over and over again.

I don’t know how I will learn to trust. I don’t know how or if I’ll ever have faith in the process. I can only tell you that I’m getting pretty good at flying.

Any tricks? Tips? Ideas? How do you trust? How do you have faith?

]]> http://www.on-a-limb.com/2011/09/walk-to-the-edge-of-all-the-light/feed/ 4 http://www.on-a-limb.com/2011/04/perfection/ http://www.on-a-limb.com/2011/04/perfection/#comments Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:01:21 +0000 OGClaudia http://www.on-a-limb.com/?p=5739

“Do not seek perfection in a changing world.
Instead, perfect your love.”
–Jack Kornfield

My perfectionism is acting up again. I thought you might be struggling to. Here’s a thought for the day.

I don’t really care if people caused global climate change or if it’s a ‘natural phenomena’. The entire debate is stupid.

We are thoughtful, sentient beings capable of controlling our behavior. If we can reduce catastrophic global climate change, why wouldn’t we??

Tomorrow is the beginning of lent. As most of you know, my family was kicked out of the Catholic Church – and yet we still celebrated lent. I find lent to be a fabulous time to give up what is most toxic for me. I’ve given up people who don’t appreciate me. I’ve given up things that injure or hurt me. I’ve also given up alcohol, meat, candy or whatever.

This year, I’m going to attempt to give up Carbon.

Ok, I don’t know what that means either. But the folks at 350.org seem to have an idea. I’ve signed up for the Ecumenical Carbon Fast.

This is how they describe it: “Beginning Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent, participants will receive a daily email with the day’s suggested carbon-reducing activity.  When possible, this will include a quantitative measure of the carbon reduction resulting from the activity.”

You can sign up for it here.

Listen, the carbon fast might be stupid, but just thinking about giving up carbon is a lot better for the world than giving up chocolate.

Plus, I hate chocolate.

Will you join me? I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

“To give,” says Narayanan Krishnan.

Mr. Krishnan is of the Brahmin caste in India. They are the upper class in Indian society. As such, a Brahmin is not supposed to acknowledge, touch, or interact with people of a lesser caste.

And somehow, with centuries of culture weighing on his shoulders, Mr. Krishan feeds and nurtures the hungry.

This is a short, poignant, 2:25 minute video where Mr. Krishnan discusses how he uses his life.

What is the purpose of your life?

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t,
you’re right.”
Henry Ford

Happy Monday!

On Wednesaday, March 31,  10 year old Satori Lewis is going into surgery. Her entire spine, head to hip, will be fused together with two titanium rods going along either side of it. She has Muscular Atrophy (type II).

This is a major surgery.  Especially for a little girl.

Her mother has asked that people send Satori postcards. Sartori doesn’t know that her mother has set up a Facebook page and a website to recruit people to send a post card.

It’s not too late. Satori will be in the hospital for at least 7-10 days. You can make a huge impact on a little girl’s life.

All it takes is one small postcard.

Rose insisted on sending a card from her. I used my thumbs to put together a postcard with Rose’s picture on it. I also send one from Dinosaur National Monument. It was pretty easy.

I made a couple other cards to send in a couple days. I’m confident the husband will want to get involved. So there’s at least one from him.

Here’s the details :

• Satori Lewis will have surgery on March 31 and be in the hospital for 7-10 days.
• Mailing address : Satori Lewis, Surgery date 3-31-10, Davis 7 Pediatrics, UC Davis Children’s Hospital,,2315 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95817
• Blog address for more information.
• Facebook page for more information.

There’s still time and you have a thumb. Will you send a postcard?

This two minute video shares an interesting idea. What if you used a card to indicate that you had just given someone an anonymous act of kindness? These cute cards encourage that person to, in turn, do something nice for someone else. You could start a revolution in your own home town.

Unfortunately, they will only ship within Australia, but luckily there are a number of websites where you can print your own cards.

• Here you can print kindness quotes onto stickers which you can add to the backs of your letters or cards. You never know what might happen.
• On the One Act of Kindness site, you are able to print ‘One Act of Kindness’ Cards. These cards encourage reciprocity as well and a connection to the site.
• Chris Dumure designed these beautiful acts of kindness cards. They are available for you to print out at The Gift of Kindness site has posters and cards you can print out and use.

I’m not sure I would ever use a kindness card.  While I get the benefit of encouraging people to continue the kindness, it feels a little artificial to me. What about you? Would you add a card with your kind act?

Check out other simply kind posts: Remote Treechanger

This video will bring tears to your eyes. It did mine.

The man is Maurice Cheeks. He’s an assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And my guess is that he’d never met the girl before.

Kindness. It’s just not that hard.

“That best portion of a good man’s life,
his little, nameless, unremembered,
acts of kindness and of love”
–Wordsworth

]]> http://www.on-a-limb.com/2009/09/the-best-portion-of-life/feed/ 1 http://www.on-a-limb.com/2009/09/simply-kind-tuesdays-week-44-you-never-know-when-you-need-a-little-kindness/ http://www.on-a-limb.com/2009/09/simply-kind-tuesdays-week-44-you-never-know-when-you-need-a-little-kindness/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:01:06 +0000 On a Limb w Claudia http://www.on-a-limb.com/?p=3560

Once a year, when I got to my Optometrist, Dr. Sumner, I come face to face with my horrendous childhood. Our laughing visit always takes a downward turn when he puts the drops in and leaves the room. It’s time to dilate my eyes so he can look at my retina.

You see, the eyes record of every violent, abusive act. Like a stamp, every violent act imprints itself on the retina.

While I wait for my eyes to ‘dilate really wide,’ so he can see the folds, tears, holes and damage from my early life, I have to face myself and my past. When Dr. Sumner returns, I’m usually very sad.  I sniffle, wipe a few tears while he gets ready to look at my retina.

In the past, I’ve seen doctors who will look in my eyes and say, “What the hell happened to you?”

There I am, blinded, with my big dark eyes dilated, trying to explain my early life – schizophrenic mother, depressed father, alcoholic grandfather, and… and…

Dr. Sumner is much kinder than that. He usually smiles then says, “Let’s take a look.”

We go through the various lens and lights. He tells me what he’s doing. Then usually ends with:

“Everything’s still settled. That’s good. We’ll check again next year.”

Kindness.

You never know when you need it. And sometimes, the kindest thing is a good hearted man who doesn’t say the obvious.

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If you get a chance, please consider donating to provide school supplies for Iraqi kids. They deserve a chance. We can give it for less than the cost of a pizza.

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Visit other Simply Kind Tuesday blogs

Remote Treehugger

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