Author: Charlie Hedges

“Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.” Naomi Shihab Nye from, her poem Kindness

The older I get the more philosophical I seem to become. Wisdom, faith, and sensibility take over as supreme directives in my inner (and outer) life. However, like faith, philosophy that does not result in virtuous actions is dead.

The One Thing that Really Matters

And so I regularly ask myself, what is the ultimate purpose of my life? With a desire for simplicity in our complex world I have landed on The One Thing That Really Matters. Unsurprisingly, my conclusion is that love is the one thing that really matters. Even Jesus says that love sums up all the teachings of Scripture.

The tougher question that demands some kind of answer is “What is love?” “What does is look like and feel like?” After decades of careful thought on this subject I firmly believe that love in action is best demonstrated by Kindness. Kindness is indeed love in action.

How Kindness is “Love in Action”

In her weekly post, The Marginalian, Maria Popova writes extensively…

Nothing broadens the soul more than the touch of kindness, given or received, and nothing shrivels it more than a flinch of unkindness, given or received… Everyone loves the idea of kindness — loves thinking of themselves as a kind person — but somehow, the practice of it, the dailiness of it, has receded into the background of a [selfish] culture…

As Naomi Shihab Nye points out, the root of all kindness can be found in the degree of sorrow one has experienced. And you cannot be very human without experiencing sorrow and the more sorrow, the more empathy and with more empathy proceeds a need to both receive and give kindness to others.

Kindness: My One Primary Duty

In the last handful of years, kindness has become my primary daily duty. Do I fail? Yes. And far too commonly. But for the most part, I attempt to simply “Be Nice.” If only we, as a culture, take as our daily duty to “be nice,” what a different world we might live in.

One Simple Way to Change Your World

Be Nice!

Photo courtesy of PeopleImages at istockphoto

“There are three primary things that we must let go of. First is the compulsion to be successful. Second is the compulsion to be right—even, and especially, to be theological right… Finally, there is the compulsion to be powerful, to have everything under control. I am convinced that these are the three demons Jesus faced in the wilderness.” Richard Rohr

We depend upon so many false narratives to fill our longing hearts with meaning and contentment.

The Quest for More

In our mismanaged quest for “more,” we hunger for some sense of unique and important personal identity. Among those longings are the acquisition of success, certainty, and the power to control my life. Richard Rohr suggests we need to get rid of these three goals in order to be spiritually and psychologically whole. (more…)

Show Notes 

Lynette Eddy is the creator of the Open Heart Mindfulness approach to life. OHM is a mind management practice that provides steps to live a life well-lived.  

She earned a master’s degree in Social Work from The University of Nevada Reno and is founder of Eddy House which serves thousands of at risk and homeless youth in Northern Nevada.  

Lynette Eddy is the Founder of Eddy House in Reno, Nevada which serves homeless and at-risk youths with housing, food, and training in life skills. In fact, Eddy House has been declared by HUD (Dept of Housing and Urban Development) to be a National “Model” for serving at-risk youth!

Today Lynette and I will focus on the teachings of her new book, The Fight Inside: Winning the Battle Between Your Ego and True Spirit. 

With that, let’s welcome author, entrepreneur, and humanitarian, Lynette Eddy. 

LINKS

To learn more about Lynette Eddy please visit her website, www.lynetteeddy.com 

For more on Eddy House and how to donate go to www.eddyhouse.org

Check out this episode!

“Our times are desperate for meaning and belonging: There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility and our hearts to love life.” John O’Donohue

Spiritually speaking we are living in the oddest of times—at least in the West. Not only is church attendance on a rapid decline but even more lamentable is the increasing number of people with no interest in organized religion—where rules and restraints often seem to dominate. (more…)

“I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes…” Vanier

FROM UGANDA

For decades my role in business and personal life is to be a coach: life coach, business coach and yes, sports coach. My job is first to attempt to understand people—their hopes and challenges—and then to offer some kind of insight regarding self-understanding and ideas for next steps.

What is the Role of Coach, Friend, Mentor?

I think there is a misunderstanding about the role of a coach. A coach is not the “answer person,” not a good coach anyway. A coach is a partner-in-thought who can find some way to identify with another person and then discuss the nature of their life, their dreams, and their challenges. (more…)

Show Notes 

Hi All. 

I’ll tell you what… we have a great show for our listeners today. Our guest, informally known as the Master of Disaster, is socio-economist Dr Randall Bell who is an internationally recognized Trauma Specialist.

Dr Bell helps people survive, and even thrive, after experiencing a traumatic event, or series of traumatic events, in their lives.

I like this description I found on the back-cover of his book: “Today we see crime, abuse, alcoholism, drugs, anger, and anxiety everywhere. This, says Dr Bell, is the result of unresolved trauma. Ultimately, the quality of our lives depends on our ability to successfully process our heartbreaks and our catastrophes.”

On our show today, Dr Bell offers insights to help you to create a Game Plan for Post-Traumatic Thriving… which is also title of his latest book.  

LINKS

Please review Dr. Bell’s latest book Post-Traumatic Thriving.

Visit Dr. Bell’s Wikipedia page here.

Also check out even more about Dr. Bell here.

Check out this episode!

“God is mystery.” The Christian Mystics

Truly, we do not know exactly “how” God acts and we do not know God in the fullest because the mystery is just that: mystery. It is good that God cannot be defined, because if we could define God, he would no longer be God but merely a human invention.

And yet, we need some definition in order to trust and believe. So, we have the Person of the Christ as the human model of God and we have contemplation and prayer to guide us in some kind of ontological understanding of the Other, the Divine. (more…)

Show Notes 

On today’s show we continue with Part 2 on Mastering Mistake-Making with non-profit mistake-making guru John Pearson.

For those that missed last week, besides being a good friend, John Pearson is a board governance and management consultant from San Clemente, California who served for more than 30 years as a nonprofit ministry CEO of 3 significant organizations. 

John is also the author 10 books on board governance and leadership development, with an emphasis on leadership at the highest levels in an organization.

Please enjoy the podcast. John Pearson is a delight!

LINKS

For more on John Pearson please visit his website at 

https://www.managementbuckets.com/about

Check out this episode!

“Nothing can stop me now, ’cause I just don’t care anymore.” “Piggy” Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails

In a style typical of Trent Reznor, the singer/song-writer offers an important philosophical supposition in simple, everyday language: Nothing can stop me now cause I just don’t care anymore! I think Trent is suggesting that when find a way to no longer feel the need to control outcomes with people and life goals, we become free to act with courage and hope for best, and then wait for the results. (more…)

Show Notes  

Today I will be chatting with my good friend, John Pearson, who calls himself a master, but not like you might think. John calls himself a master of mistake-making. Yikes!

Just a bit on John Pearson… John is a board governance and management consultant from San Clemente, California.

He served more than 30 years as a nonprofit ministry CEO, 25 of those years as the CEO of three national/international associations, including The Willow Creek Association and Christian Management Association (now Christian Leadership Alliance).

John is also the author 10 books on board governance and leadership development, with an emphasis on leadership at the highest levels in an organization.

With that, let’s welcome author, CEO, consultant, and non-profit guru, John Pearson.

LINKS

For more on John Pearson visit his website at https://www.managementbuckets.com/about

Check out this episode!