5 Enriching Virtues

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FLIGHT OF THE
FUSED MONKEYS

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Even ladders need a brace and firm foundation.

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If you are not mindful you will inhabit someone else's dream.

A mindless boy can set his life aside and when he is a man forget where he had set it and spend an awful time searching every which way to find it, for if he doesn't search for it he will regret it, and if he doesn't find it he will hate himself for it.

Nothing on earth exists then to console him.

living water

I am made in the image of God, not your image of God.

Pastoral Quotes

Gratitude - A Common Good for All

This Christ who comes in this season is a Christ that is enveloping each and every one of us to that sense of what that Coimmon Good would look like.

A Common Good of that gratitude that turns the world upside down.

This Common Good that reminds and encourages us, blesses us, perhaps, to prepare a table for all of God's people.

That is a cool thing shared.

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Practical Wisdom

By and large, there is no grit, no courage, no bravery, required of a tiger hunting a mouse in open field, but for a cunning rat that cat may well need tenacity. Tenacity isn't earned overnight.

Welcome to gen-u enriching values, Episode 3, curated by your host Neville DeAngelou, a dynamic exploration and implementation of FIVE practical virtues that fortify as well as enhance personal and communal health, wealth and happiness, each actuated toward wholeness of being.

Along our remarkable journey of life and learning we relish actionable discoveries, particularly those that uplift and inspire the "best" from all of us, promote harmony, expand opportunities, exemplify beauty, and reveal wonder, in other words, whatever advances our practice of genuine love through all of its fertile dimensions!

Fortitude - muscles ripped for the toughness required in a brutal world - is vital to creators designing marked and memorable journeys through historic times. A slug in a seashell may well be fortified - temporarily - from a hovering hawk. That slug, nevertheless, remains every bit as fragile as a cow in the clouds, each eternally dispossesed of fortitude, no matter their feed. No amount of bravado, no amount of machismo, no amount of brash, gruff, loud, bullying, offense or posturing, no fort, no bulwark. no season of bending to torment's will, can ever be amalgamized into fortitude's fibre. Fortitude is that fibrous steel without which every other super strength remains unstable. It is a superforce birthed in the gut and groomed in the soul. You'll see. Prudence and fortitude are intertwined - of necessity! Proud bastions of lives worth their legacies, they are. Invaluable for all times. Enriching virtues. We need them. What have you found?

ah, the sweet pleasure of an exhausting day knowing
- you accomplished being & doing the best you could -

Super Power infusion

Fight like a god. This took me a serious moment. More, actually. Considering. In fact, it took me two days of patterned moments sifting and sorting. Reflecting. Yes . . . fight . . . like a god.

Fight - like a god? Emphatically. I was just about coming to grips with the magnitude of this directive when my vision corrected and the truth turned up: FIGHT - like a girl. Huh?

Ah! Indeed! Something awakes me. Ha-ha-ha! Wouldn't you know it? It's a beauty. Who else thinks truth is beatuiful? A darn fine beauty at that!

But what is this fight? Time to investigate. In that light, let's first consider three readily recognizable core elements of fortitude:

See these as fortitude's rectus abdominis muscles - life's physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social six pack. M-hm. How are you doing so far? Brace for it.

We need all three muscles paired, ripped and functional, and yet they will do little more than aesthetic good without a backbone, without a spine - that which one stands for, that which connects intention to action, that which motors heart and mind through to solid achievement, vis-a-vis:

• vision
• values
• goal

Now let us consider three bracing elements of fortitude:

See these as fortitude's multifidus & transversus abdominus muscles.

All in all, front and back working together, these muscle groups are the foundation of core strength - FORTITUDE we call it - a superforce, an enriching virtue.

In other words, we (you and I) ain't gettin nowhere worth our salt without these six precious fellows: grit, groundedness, guts, tenacity, resilience and patience.

Each requires isolated exercise and wholesome replenishment. They require attention. They are co-dependent - Ooops - but attended to they are superbly loyal to our cause, our course, our completion. Let's test them. I did. And I've got more work to do.

Your turn.

So, how would you go about verifying the true strength of your inalienable capacity and earned capabilities? How could you be sure you are being empowered by this superforce? Life is a marathon. How about your current mission, your immediate goal: is that a sprint? What is your strategy? How are you pressing through, turning your vision into reality?

We (you and I) are advised to exercise fortitude, beginning with our small moments, our ready moments, our right now! What would you advise be done differently (beginning even now) to experience our muscles flexing, strengthening us along our course to our vision realized, bolstering us up over obstacles, bracing us against unexpected torrents? And how is that working out for you in your current pursuit, whatever that pursuit, knowing you are so darn tough you can hardly believe it?

Hollis is bright, steady, consistent, a beautiful person of unique pedigree committed to achieving her goals even through this very tough season of her life.

Her father passed. Her brother resides overseas. Her mother got cancer. This cancer turned aggressive and took her mother home. As her mother's caretaker, Hollis remained steady, committed and consistent, pressing forward, mothering her mother through to her passing.

As her private coach (even as it is with each of my clients, athletes, entrepreneurs and students who are in pursuit of transformation, growth, development, solutions, guidance, achievement, or for whatever other purpose I am entrusted to serve as coach), beyond individual mission (which stands first and foremost professionally), beyond bonds which integrity upholds, I am deliberately disposed as much to being a brother and a confidant to each, and a collaborator with some, and to all an I-am-here-for-you, we are in this together. However, in times like these, sensitive to my own vulnerabilities, I wobble, fully aware I have no answer. Just a presence. But no answer.

None was required! (Phewy!)

I felt helpless.

I recieved a 'thank you' note from Hollis. Then all of a sudden, for so it seemed to me, I became aware at each of our succeeding sessions how much tougher, determined, and productive she had become. Something was released. She acknowledged it too. In light of her occasional tendency to judge herself far too harshly, she said, okay, as if to say, you said I could, let's see, surrendering to renewed confidence.

I loved it. I wanted her to know I believe in her, so she would believe in herself.

Then this week - Tuesday - something happened. You must know that Hollis dresses impecably - like a model - nothing overdone, nothing under done - everything classic - and this week she turned up (just as impeccable) but with these words written across her blouse. "FIGHT like a god."

I made no remark, not sure (knowing her the way I do) what that could mean. I said nothing. Our session ended. And she was awesome. Then I pondered, for as you know we are in the midst of exploring this week's higlighted virtue - fortitude.

I was reflecting on historical figures I consider fine examplars of fortitude - Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Helen Keller - then began considering, beyond their inspiration, what constituted evidence of fortitude.

That done, I began searching my mind for people in my own life - especially through my formative years - who were or are fine examplars of fortitude.

Hmm?

Wednesday, Hollis inquired if there was any possibility I could schedule another session with her despite her last-minute request. I found a way. I said, yes!

And there she was!

The same outfit: the very blouse.

I took note of it, because of its overnight impact.

I had to look again, wondering if this was indeed the same blouse, for this time I saw it differently: FIGHT like a girl. And I burst out laughing,

Naturally I had to explain what my sudden - out-of-the-blues - laughter was all about. So I told her the story of her blouse's impact on me, and of my mistake, that what I thought I saw was, Fight like a god, and about how much it caused me to wonder how a god might fight, and why a god might fight, and who a god might fight, and what all of that would mean to my encounters through life, AND that it was not my 'see-ing' mistake that provoked my loud laughter; it was the sheer beauty of the truth - in my mind - of what I now see on her blouse: Fight like a girl.

And I explained.

You see, on Tuesday night I was able to reflect upon my 'boy-years' about a fine assortment of men - loud, masculine, note-worthy, brilliant, accomplished men - all of whom have had direct and superbly enabling impacts on my life and for which I remain grateful, men who could fortify a city if required or construct admirable places of comfort and refuge if need be, but not a damn one of them (barring a relative boy who grew alongside into a close friend) could I on reflection associate with this superforce: fortitude. But I could darn well name ten women (my mother and grandmother included) for whom I could vouch any day at the throne of grace as supreme examplars of fortitude. What about you?

"You see, it makes all the sense to me now: fight - like a girl.; you fight like a god."

Hollis smiled.

I told her I will share this in this blog.

You go, girl! Thank you.

Now how about us? What is our fight? For what must you stand intestinally strong and not run for refuge or hide? What toughness does your world require of you? What in your push calls upon your abdominal muscles and spine to not fail our communal purpose? And what if it did? What have you found about this superforce?

instructive - experiencing daily habits

Life: it is a dance. It gets better with practice; its music is in your heart and in your soul and in your blood and in your bones. Life; it is a dance. You have a partner. It is your spirit. You can have a party if you want; you ought to choose who should be invited to it, for life - your life - is a dance that get's better with practice, unless you choose to stop the music or so crowd your place there is no space to move within it. Life; it is a dance. It gets better with practice.

Legacy: "Choose not to be the fool, except, that is, when it comes in handy; being then smart, timely and pleasurable, confounding the haughty. Here is my advice: choose wisely, but rather choose wrongly than have a choice thrusted upon you, except by trust, and then, when and only if you are incapicated from choosing wisely for yourself. Here too is my advice: when you are not tired or hungry inquire whether a fish that has never known the sea knows it is in a bowl and a fish that has never known a bowl knows it is in the sea. Your answers hide a surprisingly sweet secret. Find it and use it." (Lee, Flight Of The Fused Monkey)

Smile. Live. Love. Laugh. Look. Listen. Learn. Be awesome. You are powerful beyond measure. You are not alone. You can do all things. I am you. You are me. We are one. Keep Sharing.

Who Do You Want To Be?

What is holding you back?

Reality: There is a thing called phantom pain. For example, a person may feel pain in a leg even though that person doesn't have that leg anymore. To that person this pain is real. Persons may be carrying around phantom burdens that have been long gone - removed - but they are still fetching the load. It is advisable to get a new reality. Unburden the load. Take off the bridle and blinders and look around for a moment or two. Look again. Take new stock. See.

Practice: Believe. Get good advice. Surround yourself with authentic people for whom you are an authentic benefit and who would benefit you. Decide. Take action. God is not holding you back from being the best you could be, but if you believe God is holding you back then God is holding you back. Just hang in there.

Breathe.
We are accompanied.
Balance - Focus - Rhythm

Dare to lead your life. Check this out - Be the best you can be!

Every new era is marked by a challenge that reveals the true nature of its character, its soul, its heart, our very being; a challenge so pervasive, so corrosive, so corrupting, it indulges our need for respite; a challenge that demands a new breed - A Breed Beyond The Hero.

Something To Consider

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You are

What POWER!