By Gene Monterastelli
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Part 1
Today is cooler, in the mid 80s, and rain is falling softly, muting the smell of pollution and traffic. There is a gentle sea breeze.
I grew up in the desert. I am happy to have a break from the heat and I always love rain.
It is raining in Tacloban…and for many that is very bad thing.
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It is the end of Day 3 here in the City of Tacloban, Philippines. We spent the day doing much of what we did on day 2. I was able to find my way to the early morning mass before we started our training at 9am.
I always find it interesting to see the theological and spiritual lens people use to respond to a tragedy. In these moments we are asking, “Why does a loving God allow bad things to happen?”
On Sunday morning I attended mass at Sto Niños parish, a short walk from our hotel. As you can see from the photos below, the parish did not fare well in the storm.
The gospel from this Sunday was the Emmaus story. Three days after the crucifixion of Jesus two of his disciples are walking along the road. A stranger approaches them and asks what they are talking about. They recount the past three days. The death. The missing body. The stories of angels saying he is risen.
Over dinner the stranger breaks and blesses bread. In that moment the disciples’ eyes are opened and see it is Jesus resurrected.
The homily was about 40% in English, but this is what I caught.
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Today we spent the day teaching a number of professionals (teachers, nurses, counselors, etc.) with three clear aims:
There are lots of things I could share from today, but I am going to hold off and simply share their words. Warning: These include some graphic descriptions of what happened.
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For this generation we will never be the same.
Tacloban’s vice-mayor addressed the group, thanking them for taking the time to lean a tool to help others.
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Here is a quick update from the trip so far. Much more coming later in the weekend.
To say the least, I don’t know which way is up. I left my apartment at 11am on Wednesday (Eastern time) and arrived in Tacloban at 6am on Friday (local time).
It is such an easy thing to complain about international travel. Long flights, long lines, and irrational immigration rules. In the end, in less that 36 hours I am literally on the other side of the world.
Regardless of hassle that is a truly amazing thing.
Travel side note 1: You know a flight is long when you have eaten three meals, listened to two podcasts, and watched 4 movies only to realize you have two more hours on this flight and two flights to go.
Travel side note 2: Every part of travel should be as efficient, as friendly, and as cute as security at Tokyo airport. The way they dealt with people who didn’t speak English or Japanese made me giggle with delight.
by Gene 3 Comments
Part 1.
It happens all the time.
We find a band that we love. No one else knows about them. Six weeks later they are on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and being played non-stop on MTV (if MTV still did the music thing).
We feel a little cheated. Like something that was ours, that was personal, was stolen away from us when it went mainstream. It feels less pure and ruined.
I kinda have that feeling about Pope Francis.
In 2005 when Pope John Paul II died many of my catholic friends asked me who I thought would be the next pope.
My typical response was, “I have no idea how all of that works, but there is this cardinal in Argentina who I really like. He rides the bus. He lives in a simple one bedroom apartment and cooks his own food. How neat would it be if someone like that was the next pope.”
I didn’t think it was a reasonable thought. I didn’t think it was something that was going to happen.
It was just a beautiful thought to have.
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by Gene
part 1:
I have been on twitter for way too long. (@genedavid) Since November 2008.
I really love it.
I love the brevity. I love the ability to create conversations with friends all over the world. I love the access to information. I love the friends I have made. (Yes, I have made real life friends on twitter with whom I have spent time with in their meat suit form, not just digital form.)
My hackles always rise (whatever hackles are) when people say, “Twitter is dumb. I don’t want to know when you are at Starbucks and I don’t want to see pictures of your lunch.”
To me that feels like complaining about email because it is impersonal.
Twitter has made my life better!
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by Gene
In February of last year my life changed. I walked into jail for the first time. (Please note that I left 2 hours later. I was only there as a guest.)
I was asked to help teach the Advanced Anger Management class to a group of inmates who were looking to change their lives. The last year has been nothing short of amazing. The men I have been bless to work with have been open, honest, and willing to look at the poor choices they have made. They want a better life for themselves and for their loved ones.
As wonderful as the class is we only have a limited amount of time and can’t reach everyone who wants the help. To that end I am creating a book that will give more comprehensive explanation of the tools we teach in class and we will be able to get the book to both men and women who can’t get into the class.
The cool thing about the tools in the book is that they aren’t just for anger and not just for inmates. They are tools that anyone can use for a whole array of emotional issues. (Even someone like you. Not that you need help with something like that.)
If the project gets fully funded on the first printing alone we will be able to get this tool set into hundreds of inmates hands (both male and female).
I would love it if you would help.
You can do that two ways:
1) You can help get the book funded by preordering a physical copy or pdf copy. Like I said above, this is a tool set that anyone can use. I use these tools daily for myself and with my own clients. It will be a double win for you. You will get something you can use and you will insure the tools get into the hands of hundreds of inmates. (There also many other types of perks and level at which you can support the project.) If just 235 people get the pdf or 140 get the physical book the project will be funded.
You can read more about the project and support it here: http://www.indiegogo.com/angerbook
2) You can help spread the word. I am not asking you to spam your entire address book. If you know someone who has a heart for this type of work please pass the information along. If you would like to tweet about it or put up a facebook status about the project that would be great.
Please let me know if you have any questions or would like some more information.
by Gene
I am working on a new project that to be honest I don’t fully know what it is going to turn into yet…but this is what it is rooted in:
I am really interested in the reasons why people don’t take action. Most of the time we know what we want and we know what steps we need to take.
For some reason we just don’t take steps or we take haft hearted steps that are certain to fail.
Simply (and probably over simply) this is rooted in fear. I am on personal quest to understand fear better and find ways to transform these fears.
Could you please do me a favor and list some of your fears below. They could be obvious as
or as subtle
You can share in terms of relationships, work, health, spiritual path, how you see your self, and how others see you.
Below you will find 5 large spaces to type your fears. Please only put one fear in each blank. If you would like to add more then 5 simple reload the page after hitting the submit button and add more.
ALSO, please do me a favor share the link to this survey with your friends, family, coworkers, people on your mailing list, and even you archenemies. You can share it of facebook, twitter, skywriting, bumper stickers, or tattoos.
Here is a short link you can share: http://bit.ly/voWW6O
[Note: I wrote this post for Tapping Q&A Jan 5, 2010]
Recently I heard a really interesting interview with author Nick Hornby conducted by Jesse Thorn of the radio program “The Sound of Young America”. Hornby was being interviewed about his newest book “Juliet, Naked”.
During the interview Thorn asked about the new movie “An Education” which Hornby wrote the screenplay for. Thorn commented that his wife had said, “An Education was obviously something that had been written by Hornby because it is not about people trying to be better, but instead people becoming comfortable with who they are.”
That is a really interesting thought…Not improving, but becoming comfortable with who we are.
If you were to walk into a bookstore to find books on the types of things we talked about EFT/Tapping Q & A it would be in the self-improvement section.
That is an interesting title…Self-Improvement.
It implies that there is something wrong with us.
I am not saying that I am perfect, but on some level I am perfect.
There is a part of me that is perfect and eternal. I struggle in this world because I forget who I am.
It is good that we strive for better. It is good that we strive to be all that we can be, but I think we are doing ourselves a profound disservice by thinking we always in need of improving.
Much of the peace I have found in the world has come from becoming comfortable with who I am.
Blessing who I am.
Loving who I am.
When I am able to do these things then I am able to be everything I am and appreciated everything that the world is. It is from this place of being myself, not improving myself that I am able to find and appreciate the richness of life. Here is where I find joy, happiness, and blessing.
So I have started tapping to something like this:
I have been made perfectly…this does not mean I do everything perfectly…this does not mean that I can’t strive for more and better…it simply means that at my core…at my essence I am perfect…when I am able to recognize the part of me that is perfect then I am able to become in this moment everything I am made to be…I can recognize the part of me that is perfect and not be complacent…I can recognize the part of me that is beautiful and still grow…I can see the blessings in my life and be open to more…I am no longer going to strive for self improvement…I am going to strive to become who I am in every moment…I don’t need to improve who I am…I desire to be who I am made to be more fully…I am made for love…I am made for connection…I am made to be who I am in this moment…I am not made to be what other think I should be…I am not made to be what others want me to be…the does not mean I am complacent…this does not mean I am stagnate…this means that I am striving to live who I am fully in each moment…I will not do this perfectly…but I am going to strive for this…when I strive to be who I am fully then I will recognize the grace of the moment…I will be filled with joy in the moment…I will be who I truly am
by Gene
In honor of the solemnity today, here is a prayer I say each morning. I’m sure you will recognize the first part.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.
Humble mother; help me to recognize my achievement and be humble enough to see myself as co-creator
Gentle mother; help me to be gentle and charitable with others and especially gentle with myself
Helper, help me to be open to be help to others. Help me to be open to the help I need graciously.
Full of grace, help me to move through my day and all my interactions with grace and ease.
Fountain of beauty, help me to recognize beauty in the world today and to see god’s hand in that beauty.
Model of virtue, help me to remember that my words and actions are serving as a model to others, even when I am not trying to so.
Transformed, help me to be transformed into the new creation I am called to be
Cause of our joy, help me to see joy in big and small places and help me to be joy to the joyless.
Champion of God’s people, help me to the champion for those who have no advocate.
Queen of love, teach me to be love.
Queen of mercy, teach me to accept mercy.
Queen of peace, teach me to know peace.
Mother most pure; may I be of pure heart, mind, intention, and action in all that I do today.
Mother of good counsel; let me seek wise counsel. Let me offer unbiased and unselfish counsel.
Gentle in mercy; help me to not be jaded and recognize mercy in the world.
Mirror of justice; help me to be the justice for those who aren’t able to seek justice
Shrine of the Spirit; help me to be the reflection of Christ’s love
Refuge of sinners; Let my smile offer a kind refuse for the heart broken.
Our Lady of Confidence, help me to be confident inside my own skin, knowing I am enough and worthy of god’s love.
Tabernacle of the Lord, help to to recognize that I am a worthy tabernacle.
Temple of the Most Holy Trinity, help me to see the father’s love, know the son’s lessons, and be guided by the spirit’s inspiration.