Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.
— Anonymous
Look around you. What miracles do you see?
Last week, as the Chilean miners were successfully being brought out of the mine, Roger Ebert blogged on the nature of miracles. Mr. Ebert was raised a Catholic and was an altar boy in his day. In his post, What Do You Mean by a Miracle?, he pushes back, HARD, on the idea that events like the rescue of the miners are miracles. Because he was so well-educated by the nuns, Ebert gives us the Catholic definition of a miracle as an event that stands outside the laws of nature and occurs for one reason – to reveal and demonstrate the glory of God.
Now if you’re Catholic, you know that they use this definition in the literal sense. One of the problems with this idea, as Arthur C. Clarke points out, is that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Continue reading » I Believe in Miracles
Are you painting yourself invisible or struggling to be seen?
As a boy I believed I could make myself invisible. I’m not sure that I ever could, but I certainly had the ability to pass unnoticed.
— Terence Stamp
Can you see the man standing by the earth mover in the photo that heads this post? Look again very carefully, there by the wheel… STILL can’t see him? Try looking for his feet, just behind the shovel and in front of the wheel and then let your eyes travel up to his hat at the top of the lettering… Ahhhhhhhh. Now you see him, yes?
Amazingly, artist/photographer Liu Bolin wants to become invisible! He plans meticulously, and then with the help of assistants, he paints himself to blend into whatever scenery he plans to photograph.
I, on the other hand am not so sure I want to Continue reading » Can You See Me?
Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll.
— Anonymous
During our lives we all face adversities. Some of them are “imposed” on us by forces that we can’t control. Some are of our own making. I know it doesn’t always seem like it, but it really doesn’t matter what the source of the adversity is. The only thing that really matters is our ability to respond to adversity.
Here at BouncebackCafe.com our tag line is “Dedicated to finding useful, resilient solutions to life’s adversities.” Because we are always looking for new ways to respond to adversity, Ellie and I do a lot of research. This is something we both enjoy – finding and reading various perspectives on creating a life of accomplishment and joy.
Rediscovering a New Idea
One of the things that often strikes me (like “Duh, I coulda had a V8”) is that I’m always rediscovering something I’ve read or heard before. Today, it was Continue reading » How to Change Your Outlook
The kid on the board makes it look so EASY. I want more of that for myself… how about you?
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
— Warren Buffett
My post last week celebrated a really mundane personal accomplishment. And while I respect my exuberant and frivolous rejoicing (regardless of how silly it makes me feel) I also feel confused… I find myself asking: If I were to just adopt a more casual, laissez-faire attitude, would that make everything easier?
I like to think of myself as an optimist who prepares for possibilities. But I’m wondering if my creative optimism is still serving me well? Or have I inadvertently morphed into a pessimist? Should I shift drastically, adapt some, or just carry on as if nothing needs adjustment?
As I think about the kid’s ease on the surfboard and about my friend JD’s ease at doing his thing, I wonder: Is it really as easy as they make it look or have they simply practiced past Continue reading » More About “Looks Easy”
Photo credit: BouncebackCafe.com ©2010
We learn from history that we do not learn anything from history.
— Anonymous
With all of the turmoil of sorting through my parent’s stuff, closing up the house and moving Dad into a care facility, lately I’ve been focused on the past. I think that the past will teach us if we choose to learn. Unfortunately, mining the past for lessons can be a little like the old saw about the room full of horse manure: there has to be a pony in there somewhere.
The last time I was at my parent’s house I grabbed several sets of slides. For those of you who are too young to remember, slides were developed from slide film. Instead of printing the picture on photo paper, the image was developed and the film material was sliced up and mounted in a cardboard frame. Slides were much cheaper to process and had a special viewer which projected the image on a screen or a white wall.
Many years ago, I had purchased a Kodak Carousel projector. To see the slides, each one has to be Continue reading » Finding Lessons in Our Past
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