Daily Signet

Flowing in you is the blood of ancestors who survived and even figured out how to thrive in all sorts of unimaginable circumstances.  Feel your biological inheritance. You had two parents, each had two parents, each had two parents and so on; thousands and thousands of people, back as far as time. In an unbroken line to you, your people survived flood, famine, drought, pestilence and plague. In an unbroken line to you, your people survived war, starvation, pogrom, pillage, torture, disease and slavery. In an unbroken line to you, your people did those same things to others. In that unbroken line to you, your people survived long enough to beget those who begot you. And your people passed on to you an inheritance of great power, determination, endurance, resilience and courage.

Beating in you also is the mind, heart and spirit of people who survived and thrived in all sorts of unimaginable circumstances.  Feel the inheritance of your spirit; from your physical ancestors and from all the other people who fed the minds and hearts and spirits of strangers, who helped your ancestors rise out of the ashes of countless disasters, who kept alive a chain of potential greatness—to you. Those also are your true ancestors; that also is the legacy of ‘your people.’  

Your inheritance—your body, mind, heart and spirit—has poured through countless lives and surges in every fiber of you. Your sacred task and opportunity on earth—in the face of the disasters that fall on all people—is to be undaunted, to survive, to thrive—to live your potential greatness.    

Benjamin Leichtling

Daily Signet

In the world of art, it may at first seem as if all the colors may have been painted, all the steps danced, all the notes played. Yet, upon closer inspection, each painting, dance, song is different. For just like the routine activities of our daily lives, the creativity is not in the things themselves. Instead, each artist has the miraculous potential to take those same old, used parts and from them, to create something new. In the same way, each and every human being, has the potential to dip from the same pool of wisdom, truth and love and to retell, reorder, and thus renew the life and power of the Beloved Spirit. But whatever creative endeavor we take on, even in our daily life, we must be open to hearing that voice, having the right movement be revealed, and acting upon what we are called to do. While I like to imagine these spiritual inspirations come through quiet meditation, often it requires one to persevere through long periods of ambiguity and the courage to take risks. I can see this fact clearly and understand it as necessary when observing choreographers and dancers I work with in the studio, yet I am so impatient when faced with similar processes in my own life. Franz Kafka says of this, “If we knew we were on the right road having to leave it would mean endless despair. But we are on a road that only leads to a second one and then to a third one and so forth. And the real highway will not be sighted for a long, long time, perhaps never. So we drift in doubt. But also in an unbelievable beautiful diversity. Thus the accomplishment of hopes always remains an unexpected miracle. But in compensation, the miracle remains forever possible.”                                                                               

Alexis Drabek

On This Day…

Booker T. Washington born 1856 in Alabama, died 1915: educator, author, orator and advisor to U. S. presidents.

Works: Up From Slavery, Character Building, The Negro Problem

Quotes: “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has overcome.” “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him and to let him know that you trust him.”

Daily Signet

The Ramayana says that in order to rescue the beloved Sita held prisoner on an island 100 yoganas across the sea, the monkey Hanuman, “thinking that he was Garuda himself, jumped with great force.”  We must think as big as Hanuman, who was, let’s face it, just a monkey— but this monkey thought as big as the great-winged Garuda, brother of Varuna, god of the netherworld.  Furthermore, the leap was not without its challenges; there was the mountain that rose out of the sea to offer Hanuman a place to rest—but, Hanuman could not be distracted by kindness. There were obstacles even mid-leap; Hanuman had to find creative ways to outwit Surasa, the mother of serpents, as well as the ravenous Simhika who wished to devour him in the air. In each case, Hanuman lived within the givens but creatively conformed to what had to be done.  

While magnificent leaps of a hundred yojanas most certainly come with hazards, still sometimes we have to make the leap. Sometimes when you are tapped on the shoulder, and told “you’re it” means you must now take the lead and rescue your beloved Sita and take the big leap of a hundred yojanas. Which is to say, you must make the impossible possible, and become a new creature and cross the chasm—the great ocean of sameness and everybody-elseness— and land on the island where the narcissistic gods have held hostage what is most important.  Sometimes when you are told, “you’re it” which is to say, to incarnate Christuman—it means you must stretch as far and wide and higher and taller than you ever wanted to be or thought you could be and give up being just “little ol’ you”—and, thinking you are Hanuman himself, jump with great force. And in the leap with all its challenges and obstacles—create the impossible. 

Benjamin H. Martin

On This Day…

Maya Angelou born 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri, died 2014: author, poet, dancer, civil rights activist.
Works: A series of autobiographical volumes, many collections of poetry
Quotes: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

Daily Signet

Given the experiences and intensity of his many meditative mountain retreats, certainly Muhammad had displayed the potential to become a visionary spiritual leader. Nonetheless, the Prophet had a predicament when he was instructed by Gabriel to read—for he did not know how to read.

And yet, once he heard the words he was instructed to read, Muhammed knew and understood his purpose. With spirit and dedication, Muhammad took the challenge and begat Islam.

Without desire transformed into action, there can be no fulfillment of the potential. Muhammad had the potential; Gabriel sparked the desire and offered the tool. Muhammad then had to accept the challenge and master it. Man is potential, desire is the fire from God, but the culmination is in putting the two together and taking creative action.                                

Earl J. Behnke

On This Day…

St. Mary of Egypt: 4C penitent and wilderness hermit known for her miracles

Washington Irving born 1783 in Manhattan, New York, died 1859: author, essayist, biographer, historian, diplomat.

Works: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Biography of Muhammad, Tales of the Alhambra

Quotes: “Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.” “A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.” “Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.”

Daily Signet

You—your inner universe and your outer world—are your greatest creation. Paraphrasing Nehru, your birth – time and place and circumstances—is the hand you are dealt.  How you play that hand is your creation. Create—not merely with paint or marble or steel—create with the star furnace in every quark of every atom of every cell of the gift that is you.  Play with all God’s gifts to you—play with joy, play with love. Abandon yourself to play with God.

William M. Boast

On This Day…

Emile Zola born 1840 in Paris, died 1902: novelist, playwright, journalist.

Works:  Nana, Germinal, Au Bonheur

Quotes: “There are two men inside the artist; the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.”