another perspective

for haiti

phyllisalyse — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:06:14 +0000

Why? All tragedy is senseless against the backdrop of an omnipotent God. Yet, we seek to understand. We continue to ask, why? Why would God cause this? What could possibly be the purpose in such tragedy? We cannot know God’s good purpose in such horror. We cannot guess what He is doing but we can remember who He is. We can believe that He is the same today as he was yesterday. His love, His mercy and His protection still abound.

photo credit: UN Photo/Logan Abassi

What can one do in the face of such atrocity? Open our hearts and minds to the reality of the devastation. Acknowledge the loss for what it truly is so that we may connect with our hearts and minds. Be informed. Be engaged. Act. It is so easy to become overwhelmed by such epic tragedy that we do nothing. In the words of Mother Theresa, ‘we can do no great things, only small things with great love’. Donate $5 or more to charities providing relief to Haiti. Find local opportunities to support Haiti.

photo credit: UN Photo/Marco Dormino

Today, and for as long as we choose to remember, we are all Haitian. Not only is the world watching but we are moving. Moving in prayer, Moving our money, Moving our people. Haiti is not alone and her people will not be forgotten.

national cathedral – a service of prayer for haiti

phyllisalyse — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:49:08 +0000

photo credit: associated press

Last night, the Washington National Cathedral held a service of prayer for the people of Haiti. The presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, The Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts Schori, gave a beautiful homily. Dr. Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the UN, read from the Book of Isaiah. Haitian Ambassador, Raymond Alcide Joseph shared gracious remarks. Below are the prayers of the people from the service:

God of infinite mercy,
who calls forth order out of chaos,
peace out of turmoil, calm out of fear,
we come before you aching and tender
crying out for Haiti and her people, saying,
We lift our prayers to you, O God;
You are the hope of all Creation.

We pray for Haiti, land of mountains and sea,
where the very earth has shifted.
May her tremors cease. May her tumult end.
We pray for her people, shattered yet courageous,
frightened yet bold, destitute and longing for relief.
May their voice be heard. May their need be met.
We lift our prayers to you, O God;
You are the hope of all Creation.

We pray for the injured, broken and lost:
thirsting for clean water, hungry for food,
stripped of shelter, desperate for medical care;
they look to the world for hope.
May their dry mouths find drink,
their empty bellies find food,
their families find cover,
and their bodies find health.
We lift our prayers to you, O God;
You are the hope of all Creation.

We pray for rescuers, those who do the work of recovery,
laboring in the midst of agony;
for healers, doctors, nurses,
and all who tend those wounded in body, mind, or spirit.
May their hands be steady.
May their resolve be sure.
May their work be filled with grace.
We lift our prayers to you, O God;
You are the hope of all Creation.

We pray for the dying and those who have died,
whose frail bodies now line the city streets.
May mercy be abundant.
May death have dignity.
May they never be forgotten.
We lift our prayers to you, O God;
You are the hope of all Creation.

We pray for the global community,
grieving and responding in love.
May our action be swift.
May our purpose be certain. May our devotion endure.
We lift our prayers to you, O God;
You are the hope of all Creation.

We pray for the days to come, the future,
and the promise of what lies ahead.
May new roads be paved; new industry be born;
new fortunes rise; and new friendships sustained.
We lift our prayers to you, O God;
You are the hope of all Creation.

michelle obama :: false attacks

phyllisalyse — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:04:08 +0000

“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.”

narrowest house in nyc

phyllisalyse — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:55:59 +0000

the most narrow house in all of nyc is back on the market. the skinniest house in manhattan is only 9.5ft wide for a total of 990 square feet of living space. previously home to margaret mead, cary grant and john barrymore – it could now be yours for $2.75M.

fewer, better things

phyllisalyse — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:40:03 +0000

i fell in love with this clever advertisement by De Beers. i clipped it from the new york times on 28 november 2008 and it hangs above my desk at home. a reminder to value value. and that true value is determined by personal assessment. ask yourself, does it bring me pleasure? does it perform a necessary function? is it redundant? can it easily be replaced? if we limited ourselves to value – how few things would we actually possess.

what are you holding onto that doesn’t mean a thing?

bookshelves by color

phyllisalyse — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:48:46 +0000

i love the idea of minimalism but the overall effect is usually too sterile for my taste. one of the most difficult collections for me to edit is my books. i’ve tried organizing my bookshelves by theme and by size but each method still seemed too busy. on a whim, i organized my books by color and it made all the difference in the world. it’s easy on the eye yet still allows for texture and interest.

how have you organized your books?

identifying resources

phyllisalyse — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:44:15 +0000

Keeping Small is a discipline that forces you to protect your most valuable resources. when asked to consider what your most valuable resources actually are the most common answers are time and money. part of my need to keep small is to protect two other precious resources: energy and attention.

over the past few months, i have found that some of my most compelling behaviors and attitudes are an attempt to control both energy and attention. clutter is really a way to keep my attention on different things. if I leave sticky notes around my desk and keep important papers outside of their file folders atop my table – it will keep my attention and I won’t forget. once you determine your most precious personal resources, it makes them a lot easier to manage.

what are your most precious resources?

naming your fears

phyllisalyse — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:05:24 +0000

of course the law of attraction says that you shouldn’t focus on the things that you don’t want – only on those things that you do want. but there is a compelling argument to be made for the value of naming your fears. naming the worst case scenario – knowing what you’re scared of can set you free. tim ferriss suggests via the philosophies of lucius seneca – living out your worst case scenario to eliminate the fear. through naming and embracing your fears you can let them go.

it’s mid-year; i’m celebrating my unbirthday on july 21 and it’s time to set some new goals. more important than setting new goals, i need to reorganize my thoughts and actions to meet them.

an excursion into bodilessness

phyllisalyse — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:39:25 +0000

the last three thousand years of mankind have been an excursion into ideals, bodilessness, and tragedy and now that the excursion is over… we have to go back, a long way, before the idealist conceptions began, before plato, before the tragic idea of life arose to get onto our feet again. for the gospel of salvation through the ideals and escape from the body coincided with the tragic conception of human life. salvation and tragedy are the same thing, and they are now both beside the point.
-D.H. Lawrence

our bodies were our first gift. present before we drew even our first breath and they remain even after our last. yet somehow i think we have separated ourselves from the very divinity of our flesh.i do think we have somehow managed to find a way to completely separate ourselves from both the materiality and divinity of the body. perhaps, because we inhabit them constantly, can’t know life without them, that we take them for granted. there is the obvious neglect – poor food choices, infrequent exercise, improper hygiene, etc… but what about pleasure? what about desire? what about purpose? what is the role of the body in the creator’s plan? when we find our way to heaven – will God shake his head as he recounts how we used it?

sacred moments

phyllisalyse — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:49:05 +0000

The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments… We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things.

-Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath