WhisperZone - When Worlds Collide

The Virus of Me

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 22:28:41 -0600

God breathed life into you. Now what do you do with it?

Are you content to stay caught up in the dramas of your life, fighting to get yours and to hell with whoever gets in your way? If so, it's not surprising.

What's Cooking?

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 12:21:15 -0600

Life’s a giant stew that we’re all helping to cook. At least, it is by those who care what they eat. And right now, that stew isn’t tasting so good.

Few I talk to these days are happy with the state of affairs in our world. Standards of living are slipping with a middle class in jeopardy. Fears are being tweaked at every turn. Government is unresponsive to those in need, and seems to be more concerned with the interests of those with influence than the greater good of our nation or world. War is taking the lives of our youth, not to mention those of countless “insurgents” who fight against the will of the “imperialist infidels.”

Something’s Gotta Give

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:47:16 -0600

I’m mad as hell, and I just can’t take it any more.

When will all this senseless fighting stop? Of course, we don’t think it’s all stupid or senseless. Otherwise, why would we invest so much of ourselves in our conflicts?

Blowing in the Wind

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:11:17 -0500

by John Dennison

Fred Flintstone said it best. "WILMA!"

Wow. Thank God our house was built well. Because it seemed as if all hell was unleashed this past Monday. Her winds threatened to suck out our front door about midway through her fury. Luckily Shadow graciously relinquished her choke-collar so I could chain the door knobs together. The house across the street wasn't so lucky, as we discovered later.

Have you ever been through a hurricane? It’s not enough to keep one eye glued to the weather for a week, hoping against hope it will go somewhere else. It leaves you feeling really guilty, because you know if it doesn’t hit you, it’s going to hit someone else. That’s something I find very hard to do. And so beneath my breath I kept up this running dialogue with God that if it was to be our time, then so be it. Even while praying that it wasn’t.

Looking at Your World

Wed, 14 Sep 2005 23:00:00 -0500

Did you ever lose a filling, and spend all day probing the cavity with your tongue? It's almost impossible to leave it alone. That's the way I've been with what I'm seeing in our world.

And you know me. I just see things a little bit differently than everyone else.

Everywhere I look I see people going through the same old paces, caught in a rut until something comes along to shake them out of it. Like a death or serious illness. Or maybe a natural disaster that turns their life upside down, either directly or by tweaking their heartstrings with pictures of suffering plastered on the airwaves.

Carving Out a Place in Life

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:00:00 -0500

Hurricane Katrina cut a nasty swath through South Florida, but it was nothing compared to the devastation I'm seeing in New Orleans and southern Mississippi. What a mess!

Such stories of human tragedy seem to be coming more frequently. It wasn't so long since the tsunami rolled through coastal Southeast Asia. Not to mention the hurricanes of last year in Florida, terrible mudslides in California, wildfires in the West, and countless other events of human suffering. And that's not to mention the untold horrors we inflict upon each other.

I was thinking about all the dislocated people. People without homes. People without food or water. People without family, or at least the ability to know if they’re still alive. People without jobs to go back to, or money in the bank, or much of anything with which to rebuild their lives.

Chillin' in the Heat

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 23:00:00 -0500

I don't know about your part of the country, but it is HOT here in Florida. And it's not just the temperature. As a New York lawyer I spoke to this morning said about his visit to Naples last week, "It's like a sauna down there!"

These must be the dog-days of August if the best I can do is talk about the weather. To boot, I can't even feel good about wanting to kick back and hit the beach. With the kids in school two weeks now, it wouldn't be right to go play while they're hard at work.

So what's this got to do with you?

God’s turning up the heat on us all. And the weather is only a small part of it. The temperature's rising, and our world's starting to boil.

Cat Got Your Tongue?

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 23:00:00 -0500

Scuttlebutt says people are fed up. Sure took them long enough.

People think Starbucks is a place for coffee. Around here, it's a place local movers and shakers meet to hatch schemes to gather riches and power. And at the same time, air their views on life's problems.

It's too bad the rest of the world can't see things the same way.

Most of the time they huddle in one of two groups. Back-to-school moms were in one, exchanging celebratory laughter at finally having a moment's peace while they renewed old acquaintances. The other was an eclectic mix of high-achievers that gathers like courtesans around the throne of the Prince of Passion, who regales with opinions on everything under the sun.

Fighting to Be Heard

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 23:00:00 -0500

Where's the volume control? This noise is deafening.

So many voices are talking at each other. And so many voices are not being heard. And so we speak louder and louder, yet achieve so little success. What are we doing wrong?

At first I thought it was just me, that maybe I was having trouble saying what was on my mind. But now, I'm not so sure. Because the whole world sounds like it's talking, but no one seems to be listening.

I know we're talking. Our lips are moving. There are even words coming out of our mouths. But somehow we don't understand each other. Or worse, we don’t care what each other is saying.

You Want to Teach Me WHAT?

Wed, 25 May 2005 23:00:00 -0500

I don't know where I've been, but I must have fallen asleep somewhere back a ways. Because I just looked around and noticed all these people shouting we need to change our lives. And frankly, I didn't know things were so bad.

Armageddon's Coming -- Will You Sit This One Out?

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 17:12:26 -0600

A great war is brewing, and there will be hell to pay if we keep going on the way we are.

There, I said it. You don't know how long I've avoided hitting that nail on the head. Not that I didn't know it was there. Just that I didn't want to sound like an alarmist, or look like the guy who walks the streets with a sign board that shouts, “Judgment Day is here!”

I've always tried to move toward a higher vision, rather than away from pain. And that's the way I practiced law and went about sharing a new foundation on which to build better lives and a better world.

But I've come to the conclusion most don't want to see those things, much less understand the meaning of life or the challenges life brings. So I guess it's time for me to speak their language.

Trapped in a Maze

Wed, 19 Jan 2005 23:00:00 -0600

Did you ever feel like a rat trapped in a maze? Or wonder why life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? I know I did. And to be honest, it almost killed me.

My life was pretty good, even if it wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped it would be. After all, being a lawyer had some pretty good benefits. Meeting great people. Decent money and life style. And best of all, the chance to make a difference.

The problem was, as hard as I tried to convince myself that I had it all, it wasn’t enough. Something was eating away inside, but I was too caught up in all I had to do to even realize it. Or at least I wouldn’t admit it to myself.

Heart to Heart

Wed, 10 Nov 2004 23:00:00 -0600

How does one heart reach out to another? How does it break through the layers that we have built around them in order to connect to that common source of our being?

My friend, my name is John, and I offer you my heart. I extend an invitation to connect to mine, in hopes that you may one day allow me to connect to yours.

We live in such a cynical world. It's little wonder, considering all the craziness that swirls around us. Yet I feel – no, I know – that this life offers so much more than we allow ourselves to receive. Or even to give. The very possibility of that potential drives me to cut through the barriers with which we try to block out the pain that life can bring.

Popping the Balloon of Belief

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 23:00:00 -0500

I’m really excited. I just got a bigger soapbox, and I wanted to invite the rest of you to get up here on it with me.

You may remember I was recently talking about how beliefs are at the core of our conflicts, yet those beliefs are built upon less-than-complete information. What is known is not all there is – there’s always something more. Yet we try to explain what we think we know by constructing complex belief systems around them, and fight to defend them against those who believe another way. Our egos are so fragile that we’d rather fight than consider that the foundations of our thought and society might be built upon shifting sands.

Fighting the Good Fight

Fri, 09 Jul 2004 23:00:00 -0500

You work hard to make a difference for your family. You go to war each day to earn a buck, but you’re caught in a never-ending cycle of conflict. And worse, it’s everywhere you turn. Even at home. Day in and day out, it’s fight, fight, fight. What are you to do? Run away from it all? Give up, and let yourself be beat down? Or do you meet conflict with conflict?

If you're like many, you probably wonder why you put yourself through all this. The usual answer is there isn’t any other way. But there is!

You don't have to live with senseless fighting all the time. And you certainly don’t have to be prepared for attack around every turn, ready to strike at the slightest provocation. Yet that’s the way so many of us go about our business. And worse, it’s the way we deal with our loved ones.