Waves of Compassion

I updated the lyrics to the song "Waves of Compassion".
http://janejoanjohanna.blogspot.com/2005/03/waves-of-compassion_111072746470096826.html

I realized that the last verse was actually bringing in a new topic and I really don't want to do that so I have changed the last verse and I have dropped one chorus, too.

Brenda

Quote

"INFJs, like many other FJ types, find themselves caught between the desire to express their wealth of feelings and moral conclusions about the actions and attitudes of others, and the awareness of the consequences of unbridled candor."

INFJ - The Mystic

Profile by Sandra Krebs Hirsch and Jean Kummerow

INFJs are future oriented, and direct their insight and inspiration toward the understanding of themselves and thereby human nature. Their work mirrors their integrity, and it needs to reflect their inner ideals. Solitude and an opportunity to concentrate thoroughly on what counts most is important to them. INFJs prefer to quietly exert their influence. They have deeply felt compassion, and they desire harmony with others. INFJs understand the complexities existing within people and among them. They are at their best concentrating on their ideas, ideals, and inspirations.

Living

INFJ children have two sides. They can be very much involved in the world of people, as well as quiet, imaginative, and in their own world. They are usually gentle and abhor violence. As teenager, INFJs look for a small group of people who understand and appreciate them. Without this support, they can feel isolated from others. INFJs who do not find a supportive social group may find the teen years to be somewhat difficult for them because of peer pressure to be popular and activity oriented. They are not likely to enjoy large parties, but prefer intimate groups of close and long-standing friends.

Many INFJs who have the opportunity to gravitate toward higher education where they often find their niche. With their intellectual bent, they are led to endeavors that allow them to deal with theory and complexity. Professors often spot their intellectual inclination and encourage it.

INFJs often settle early into a career choice and diligently apply themselves to the career's requirements. This same diligent pattern applies when selecting other important things in their lives, such as where to live, who to marry, and what activities are worthy of their dedication.

INFJs have an internal picture of how they would like their work to contribute to the general good. If they are in an appropriate career area, INFJs may reap the rewards of their insight and hard work. Because of their future-focus, their people orientation, and their push toward task completion, they may rise to positions of responsibility.

Learning

INFJs have a strong love of learning, and they tend to do well academically. Through persistence, diligence, and conscientiousness, they complete their assignments on time. They are likely to enjoy research and will go great lengths to find answers.
INFJs enjoy investigating the possibilities and meanings beyond the actual facts and realities. Reading holds a particular fascination for them because it allows them to have quiet reflection time and engages their imagination. They also like the written word (and rely on it more than the spoken word) since it is usually better structured and more coherent with a ready-made framework.

INFJs write and communicate well because they want to formulate their ideas clearly. They place high regard on their reader and audience. They seek to communicate their ideals to others. When their ideals need to be championed, they speak up in an enthusiastic and impassioned way.

As students, INFJs prefer learning from teachers whom they both like and admire, and who give them personal attention. INFJs are often 'model' students. They are quiet and orderly, reflective and thoughtful, and sincerely want to please their teachers and learn the right thing. They learn best from others but want time to assimilate material by themselves.

INFJs will go beyond what has been presented and often mull material over in their minds. Occasionally they will discuss ruminations with others in order to learn even more. They particularly like the more conceptual and theoretical classes, therefore, higher education is comfortable to them.

Working

INFJs tend to be devoted to what they believe in and seek work where their needs, values, and ideals can be deeply engaged. They move on the wave of their inspirations and are determined to see that their values are worked out in their lives. They will work toward their goals individually and, when needed, will put together a team of other highly dedicated people like themselves. They are personal be with others, working with integrity and consistency, and they follow through on their commitments. INFJs, while concentrating on what is important to them, may ignore the political ramifications of their actions. They can be surprised by the necessity of being political and usually resent that aspect of organizational life. Being able to talk honestly and comfortably to people at work is much more important to them than 'playing games.'

INFJs orient themselves toward their goals using a personal, values-based framework. They do not 'advertise' their values and priorities because they believe in harmony and positive relationships. However, one would do well not to underestimate the amount of perseverance, energy, and time INFJs give to their priorities. What they do, they do with an almost religious intensity.

The INFJ external environment may be only partially organised. Their internal environment, by contrast, is anything but haphazard. Their ideas need to fit into a coherent whole that has the pieces in place. Organization of the internal world takes precedence over organization of external world.

INFJs prefer occupations that focus on the big picture, involve conceptual awareness, and lead to a better understanding of the spiritual, emotional, or future needs of people. They want their work to have impact and meaning and for it to bring them admiration and respect.

While INFJs can and do enter all occupations, some are more appealing to them than others. These include clergy, education consultant, English teacher, fine arts teacher, librarian, psychiatrist, psychologist, scientist, social worker, and other occupations that allow INFJs an opportunity to make their own creative contribution.

Leading

INFJs lead through their quiet yet persistent and determined effort toward long-range goals for themselves, others and their organizations. In working toward their vision, they win cooperation rather than demand it. INFJs work to make their insights real and are able to inspire others with their ideals. They use a low-key, soft, yet intense and determined course of action. When they do not directly lead others, they may still act as facilitators between people. In meetings, they focus on both people and new ideas.

Leisure

Leisure-time pursuits for INFJs are often solitary or involve the company of others who are particularly important to them. Sitting around with dear friends discussing feelings can be very special to INFJs. INFJs are likely to have friends of long standing rather than make many new acquaintances. They may meet with their friends fairly consistently to share what is happening in their lives. It is sometimes difficult for others to break into this circle. These deep friendships are important, even though INFJs may not share much directly about themselves.

Loving

For INFJs, 'still waters run deep.' They tend to become attracted to someone special and prefer this one deep relationship over many superficial ones. The depth of involvement and feeling that the INFJ has toward loved ones is only partially communicated outward. At times, when alone, INFJs become truly in touch with the depth of the love they have for their partner. They may not openly demonstrate or even verbalize their intense feelings. INFJs often have an ideal standard of what love is. They hold to their ideal and are disappointed when, inevitably, their relationship and/or mate reveals flaws. INFJs enjoy sharing activities like a regular 'date,' revisiting the place where they first met their mates, or doing other symbolic things that help to continue and confirm the existence of the bond that they feel for their partner.

INFJs want to give love and to be loved. They enter into relationships just to be cared for, even when the person is not right for them and they suspect it. However, when they meet that special person, they are quick to get into the relationship and make it a serious one. They will end their other relationships in order to pursue their loved one. They become very focused, intense, and direct in that pursuit.

INFJs, when scorned, take it personally and retreat inward. They may obsess about the relationship and their role in its failure. One INFJ explained, 'people can do the most outrageous things, yet I blame myself for triggering their behaviour or not recognizing it. I see myself as responsible for relationships. Other people can dismiss them --- I'm not able to.' INFJs may blame themselves and experience a period of mourning. If they do not marshall their resources, externalized their feelings, and take risks to move on, they may experience a long periods of self-examination.

Profile by David Keirsey
-------------------------------------------------

INFJs focus on possibilities, think in terms of values and come easily to decisions. The small number of this type (1 percent) is regrettable, since INFJs have unusually strong drive to contribute to the welfare of others and genuinely enjoy helping their fellow men. This type has great depth of personality; they are themselves complicated, and can understand and deal with complex issues and people.

It is an INFJ who is likely to have visions of human events past, present, or future. If a person demonstrates an ability to understand psychic phenomena better than most others, this person is apt to be an INFJ. Characteristically, INFJs have strong empathic abilities and can be aware of another's emotions or intents even before that person is conscious of these. This can take the form of feeling the distress of illnesses of others to an extent which is difficult for other types. INFJs can intuit good and evil in others, although they seldom can tell how they came to know. Subsequent events tend to bear them out, however.

INFJs are usually good students, achievers who exhibit an unostentacious creativity. They take their work seriously and enjoy academic activity. They can exhibit qualities of over-perfectionism and put more into a task than perhaps is justified by the nature of the task. They generally will not be visible leaders, but will quietly exert influence behind the scenes.

INFJs are hard to get to know. They have an unusually rich inner life, but they are reserved and tend not to share their reactions except with those they trust. Because of their vulnerability through a strong facility to introject, INFJs can be hurt rather easily by others, which, perhaps, is at least one reason they tend to be private people. People who have known an INFJ for years may find sides emerging which come as a surprise. Not that INFJs are inconsistent; they are very consistent and value integrity. But they have convoluted, complex personalities which sometimes puzzle even them.

INFJs like to please others and tend to contribute their own best efforts in all situations. They prefer and enjoy agreeing with others, and find conflict disagreeable and destructive. What is known as ESP is likely found in an INFJ more than in any other types, although other types are capable of such phenomena. INFJs have vivid imaginations exercised both as memory and intuition, and this can amount to genius, resulting at times in an INFJ's being seen as mystical. This unfettered imagination often will enable this person to compose complex and often aesthetic works of art such as music, mathematical systems, poems, plays, and novels. In a sense, the INFJ is the most poetic of all the types. Just as the ENTJ cannot not lead, so must an INFJ intuit; this capability extends to people, things, and often events, taking the form of visions, episodes of foreknowledge, premonitions, auditory and visual images of things to come. INFJs can have uncanny communications with certain individuals at a distance.

Career

INFJs often select liberal arts as a college major and opt for occupations which involve interacting with people, but on a one-to-one basis. For example, the general practitioner in medicine might be an INFJ, or the psychiatrist or psychologist. As with all NF's, the ministry holds attraction, although the INFJ must develop an extraverted role here which requires a great deal of energy. INFJs may be attracted to writing as a profession, and often they use language which contains an unusual degree of imagery. They are masters of the metaphor, and both their verbal and written communications tend to be elegant and complex. Their great talent for language usually is directed toward people, describing people and writing to communicate with people in a personalized way. INFJs who write comment often that they write with a particular person in mind; writing to a faceless, abstract audience leaves them uninspired.

INFJs make outstanding individual therapists who have the ability to get in touch with the archetypes of their patients in a way some other types do not. The INFJs are also the most vulnerable of all the types to the eruption of their own archetypal material. As therapists, INFJs may choose counseling, clinical psychology, or psychiatry, or may choose to teach in these fields. Writing about these professions often intrigues an INFJ. Whatever their choice, they generally are successful in these fields because their great personal warmth, their enthusiasm, their insight, their depth of concentrations, their originality, and their organizational skills can all be brought into play.

At work as well as socially, INFJs are highly sensitive in their handling of others and tend to work well in an organizational structure. They have a capacity for working at jobs which require solitude and concentration, but also do well when in contact with people, providing the human interaction is not superficial. INFJs enjoy problem-solving and can understand and use human systems creatively and humanistically. As employees or employers, INFJs are concerned with people's feelings and are able to provide in themselves a barometer of the feelings of individuals and groups within the organizations. INFJs listen well and are willing and able to consult and cooperate with others. Once a decision is made, they work to implement it.

INFJs are generally good at public relations and themselves have good interpersonal relations. They value staff harmony and want an organization to run smoothly and pleasantly, themselves making every effort to contribute to that end. They are crushed by too much criticism and can have their feelings hurt rather easily. They respond to praise and use approval as a means of motivating others, just as they, the INFJs, are motivated by approval. If they are subject to a hostile, unfriendly working condition or to constant criticism, they tend to lose confidence, become unhappy and immobilized, and finally become physically ill.

Home

As mates, INFJs are usually devoted to their spouses, but may not always be open to physical approaches. They tend to be physically demonstrative at times, but wish to choose when, which is when they are in the mood. This maybe quite confusing to an extraverted mate. Often an INFJ's expressions of affection will be subtle, taking a humorous, unexpected turn. INFJs need and want harmony in their homes and find constant conflict, overt or covert, extremely destructive to their psyches. Their friendship circle is likely to be small, deep, and longstanding. As parents, INFJs usually are fiercely devoted. A female INFJ, particularly, is linked to her children in a way different from the other types: with almost a psychic symbiosis. This deep bond can create an over-dependency that can be unhealthy for both mother and child. At the same time, INFJs tend to be good friends with their children, while firm in discipline. They usually are concerned about the comfort of a home and most especially the comfort, physical health, and emotional well-being of both mates and children.

Midlife

At midlife an INFJ can best continue developing the thinking function in the form of logic and the pursuit of theory. The pleasure of taking a theoretical model and applying it to a situation may be a source of interest which an INFJ may have been neglecting. While continuing to pursue the person-to-person in feeling-type relationships, at midlife INFJs may want to get more involved in working with NT's, who offer a dimension not dominant in NF's and vice versa. Carefully providing for rest and taking care of physical health is vital to the INFJ at all times, and mandatory from midlife on.

Mates

The oracular INFJ may opt for the inventive ENTP, but also may go for a different kind of contrary, namely the ESTP. The ESTP and ENTP, to the casual observer, look pretty much alike. Charming, suave, urbane, humorous, witty, fantastically easy to approach, venturesome, even reckless. But one is out to invent, the other to promote; this is no small difference. It takes an inventor to make a mousetrap, it takes a promoter to make an enterprise. To succeed, the promoter has to be, in the best sense of the word, a con artist. He must be able to get people's confidence. Now why would a meaning-giver INFJ be intrigued by an entrepreneur ESTP? Because he wants to help the entrepreneur find his soul and his significance in the scheme of things. Similarly, why is the INFJ attracted to ENTP? Because he wishes to rescue this iconoclast from his seeming folly (and let's face it, most inventions are abortive, or still-born).

INFJ Creativity

Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self.
-Erich Fromm

INFJ creativity is realized in planning a route to accomplish a task that encourages developmental growth of the individuals engaged in the task's execution and those who are recipients of the end result. The plight of perfection hovers and motivates INFJs to make a personally fulfilling change to help each to benefit from his or her role in the process. Time is spent incubating on ideas and visions of reaching the goal. INFJs have a sense about what people need in order to grow and covertly matches tasks to people who need to learn from doing them. This is the source of INFJ creativity -- making something out of potential, even if sweat work is involved, and gently persuading and affirming the accomplishments and gifts of others in meaningful ways.

Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types in Organizations,by Marci Segal

INFJ Cartoon 

Famous INFJs:

Nathan, prophet of Israel

Eleanor Roosevelt

Max Perkins

Aristophanes

Chaucer

Goethe

Robert Burns, Scottish poet

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fanny Crosby, (blind) hymnist

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Fred McMurray (My Three Sons)

Shirley Temple Black, child actor, ambassador

Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader, martyr

James Reston, newspaper reporter

Shirley McClain (Sweet Charity, ...)

Piers Anthony, author ("Xanth" series)

Michael Landon (Little House on the Prairie)

Tom Selleck

John Katz, critic, author

Paul Stookey (Peter, Paul and Mary)

U. S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL)

Billy Crystal

Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury)

Nelson Mandela

Mel Gibson

Carrie Fisher

Nicole Kidman

Jamie Foxx

Tori May

U.S. Presidents:

• Martin Van Buren
• James Earl "Jimmy" Carter
  

Introverted iNtuiting Feeling Judgingby Marina Margaret Heiss

INFJs are distinguished by both their complexity of character and the unusual range and depth of their talents. Strongly humanitarian in outlook, INFJs tend to be idealists, and because of their J preference for closure and completion, they are generally "doers" as well as dreamers. This rare combination of vision and practicality often results in INFJs taking a disproportionate amount of responsibility in the various causes to which so many of them seem to be drawn.

INFJs are deeply concerned about their relations with individuals as well as the state of humanity at large. They are, in fact, sometimes mistaken for extroverts because they appear so outgoing and are so genuinely interested in people -- a product of the Feeling function they most readily show to the world. On the contrary, INFJs are true introverts, who can only be emotionally intimate and fulfilled with a chosen few from among their long-term friends, family, or obvious "soul mates." While instinctively courting the personal and organizational demands continually made upon them by others, at intervals INFJs will suddenly withdraw into themselves, sometimes shutting out even their intimates. This apparent paradox is a necessary escape valve for them, providing both time to rebuild their depleted resources and a filter to prevent the emotional overload to which they are so susceptible as inherent "givers." As a pattern of behavior, it is perhaps the most confusing aspect of the enigmatic INFJ character to outsiders, and hence the most often misunderstood -- particularly by those who have little experience with this rare type.

Due in part to the unique perspective produced by this alternation between detachment and involvement in the lives of the people around them, INFJs may well have the clearest insights of all the types into the motivations of others, for good and for evil. The most important contributing factor to this uncanny gift, however, are the empathic abilities often found in Fs, which seem to be especially heightened in the INFJ type (possibly by the dominance of the introverted N function).

This empathy can serve as a classic example of the two-edged nature of certain INFJ talents, as it can be strong enough to cause discomfort or pain in negative or stressful situations. More explicit inner conflicts are also not uncommon in INFJs; it is possible to speculate that the causes for some of these may lie in the specific combinations of preferences which define this complex type. For instance, there can sometimes be a "tug-of-war" between NF vision and idealism and the J practicality that urges compromise for the sake of achieving the highest priority goals. And the I and J combination, while perhaps enhancing self-awareness, may make it difficult for INFJs to articulate their deepest and most convoluted feelings.

Usually self-expression comes more easily to INFJs on paper, as they tend to have strong writing skills. Since in addition they often possess a strong personal charisma, INFJs are generally well-suited to the "inspirational" professions such as teaching (especially in higher education) and religious leadership. Psychology and counseling are other obvious choices, but overall, INFJs can be exceptionally difficult to pigeonhole by their career paths. Perhaps the best example of this occurs in the technical fields. Many INFJs perceive themselves at a disadvantage when dealing with the mystique and formality of "hard logic", and in academic terms this may cause a tendency to gravitate towards the liberal arts rather than the sciences. However, the significant minority of INFJs who do pursue studies and careers in the latter areas tend to be as successful as their T counterparts, as it is *iNtuition* -- the dominant function for the INFJ type -- which governs the ability to understand abstract theory and implement it creatively.

In their own way, INFJs are just as much "systems builders" as are INTJs; the difference lies in that most INFJ "systems" are founded on human beings and human values, rather than information and technology. Their systems may for these reasons be conceptually "blurrier" than analogous NT ones, harder to measure in strict numerical terms, and easier to take for granted -- yet it is these same underlying reasons which make the resulting contributions to society so vital and profound.

Copyright © 1996-2005 by Marina Margaret Heiss and Joe Butt
http://www.typelogic.com/infj.html

Careers for INFJ Personality Types

Whether you're a young adult trying to find your place in the world, or a not-so-young adult trying to find out if you're moving along the right path, it's important to understand yourself and the personality traits which will impact your likeliness to succeed or fail at various careers. It's equally important to understand what is really important to you. When armed with an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, and an awareness of what you truly value, you are in an excellent position to pick a career which you will find rewarding.

INFJs generally have the following traits:

• Intuitively understand people and situations
• Idealistic
• Highly principled
• Complex and deep
• Natural leaders
• Sensitive and compassionate towards people
• Service-oriented
• Future-oriented
• Value deep, authentic relationships
• Reserved about expressing their true selves
• Dislike dealing with details unless they enhance or promote their vision
• Constantly seeking meaning and purpose in everything
• Creative and visionary
• Intense and tightly-wound
• Can work logically and rationally - use their intuition to understand the goal and work backwards towards it

The INFJ is a special individual who needs more out of a career than a job. They need to feel as if everything they do in their lives is in sync with their strong value systems - with what they believe to be right. Accordingly, the INFJ should choose a career in which they're able to live their daily lives in accordance with their deeply-held principles, and which supports them in their life quest to be doing something meaningful. Since INFJs have such strong value systems, and persistent intuitive visions which lend them a sense of "knowing", they do best in positions in which they are leaders, rather than followers. Although they can happily follow individuals who are leading in a direction which the INFJ fully supports, they will very unhappy following in any other situation.

The following list of professions is built on our impressions of careers which would be especially suitable for an INFJ. It is meant to be a starting place, rather than an exhaustive list. There are no guarantees that any or all of the careers listed here would be appropriate for you, or that your best career match is among those listed.

Possible Career Paths for the INFJ:

• Clergy / Religious Work
• Teachers
• Medical Doctors / Dentists
• Alternative Health Care Practitioners, i.e. Chiropractor, Reflexologist
• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Counselors and Social Workers
• Musicians and Artists
• Photographers
• Child Care / Early Childhood Development

Portrait of an INFJ - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging(Introverted Intuition with Extraverted Feeling)

The Protector

As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.

INFJs place great importance on havings things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it. Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff at, and the INFJ themself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it. They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive.

But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.

Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubborness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right. In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals.

INFJ is a natural nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.

In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.

The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement.
Jungian functional preference ordering:

• Dominant: Introverted Intuition
• Auxilliary: Extraverted Feeling
• Tertiary: Introverted Thinking
• Inferior: Extraverted Sensing
  

Thoughts about Singing

I have always loved to sing but I found myself always searching for songs that had meaning for me. I would search and search... and I would find interesting songs and learn about interesting song writers... but I only recently realized that those songs that I was searching for needed to come from me.

Innovation and Creativity

All ideas are precious and should be sheltered and allowed to mature in their own time.

In order to be innovative you need to have an avenue, or a freedom, to express and nurture your creativity. Freedom to express your creativity means that you are free to let all creative ideas come through you without judgment by you or anyone else.

It is only after you record your ideas that you sort through them to decide;

• Which ideas to act on now
• Which ideas seem useful but will be saved for later
• Which ideas to toss
• And my favorite....Which ideas do not seem to be readily useful but are still intriguing to you. You don't want to lose these ideas so file them away in a special place, your "idea box".

Look back through your "idea box" periodically. Ideas that seemed to have no use or purpose when they first presented themselves may suddenly become perfect for your current needs.

Librarian's Picks: One-Word Wonders

by Steve Inskeep
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4556632

National Public Radio Morning Edition, March 23, 2005 ·

Readers of history have become accustomed to their favorite books having a certain heft to them. But the trend of micro-histories, books that explore a specific -- sometimes absurdly so -- subject in depth, is threatening to leave weighty tomes on bookstore shelves.

From cod to pencils -- or even screwdrivers -- writers are taking an historical approach to subjects that are often overlooked in modern life. But at their best, the books that result can shed light on obscure topics, or provide a new way of looking at history itself. Librarian Nancy Pearl is the author of a book of recommended reading, and the model for a librarian action figure.

1. Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life, by Toby Cecchini
2. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, by Mark Kurlansky
3. Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, by Henry Petroski
4. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
5. E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis
6. One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw Witold Rybczynski
7. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
8. Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky

Page 1 of 1 NPR : Librarian's Picks: One-Word Wonders

3/23/2005

Can Imagination Save Us? By Susan Griffin

Can Imagination Save Us? Even when stark realism brings us to the edge, our free minds can create hope.

By Susan Griffin

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16020.html

Even in the grimmest of circumstances, a shift in perspective can create startling change.

I am thinking of a story I heard a few years ago from my friend Odette, a writer and a survivor of the holocaust. Along with many others who crowd the bed of a large truck, she tells me, the surrealist poet Robert Desnos is being taken away from the barracks of the concentration camp where he has been held prisoner. Leaving the barracks, the mood is somber; everyone knows the truck is headed for the gas chambers. And when the truck arrives no one can speak at all; even the guards fall silent. But this silence is soon interrupted by an energetic man, who jumps into the line and grabs one of the condemned. Improbable as it is, Odette told me, Desnos reads the man's palm.

Oh, he says, I see you have a very long lifeline. And you are going to have three children. He is exuberant. And his excitement is contagious. First one man, then another, offers up his hand, and the prediction is for longevity, more children, abundant joy.

As Desnos reads more palms, not only does the mood of the prisoners change but that of the guards too. How can one explain it? Perhaps the element of surprise has planted a shadow of doubt in their minds. If they told themselves these deaths were inevitable, this no longer seems inarguable. They are in any case so disoriented by this sudden change of mood among those they are about to kill that they are unable to go through with the executions. So all the men, along with Desnos, are packed back onto the truck and taken back to the barracks. Desnos has saved his own life and the lives of others by using his imagination. Because I am seized by the same despair as my contemporaries, for several days this story poses a question in my mind. Can the imagination save us? Robert Desnos was famous for his belief in the imagination. He believed it could transform society. And what a wild leap this was, at the mouth of the gas chambers, to imagine a long life! In his mind he simply stepped outside the world as it was created by the SS.

In the interest of realism, this story must be accompanied by another. did not survive the camps. He died of typhus a few days after the liberation. His death was one among millions, men, women, and children who died despite countless creative acts of survival and the deepest longings to live.

In considering what is possible for the future one must be careful not to slide into denial. Imagination can so easily be trapped by the wish to escape painful facts and unbearable conclusions. The New Age idea that one can wish oneself out of any circumstance, disease, or bad fortune is not only sadly disrespectful toward suffering, it is also, in the end, dangerous if escape replaces awareness.

But there are other dangers. What is called "realism" can lead to a kind of paralysis of action and a state of mind that has relinquished desire altogether. Especially now, when the political terrain seems so unnavigable, the impulse is toward cynicism. For months before the World Conference of Women met in Beijing, an informal debate circulated among women in the United States. Alongside the serious questions of China's violations of human rights, another question was posed. Why should we meet at all? What good will it do?

What is required now is balance. In the paucity of clear promise, one must somehow walk a tightrope, stepping lightly on a thin line drawn between cynicism and escape, planting the feet with awareness but preserving all the while enough playfulness to meet fear. For those who went to the conference in Beijing, though, something momentous occurred. In the creation of a different arena, defined in different ways by women from all over the world, another possible world began to exist, if even temporarily, and this has nurtured desire and imagination.

One might say that human societies have two boundaries. One boundary is drawn by the requirements of the natural world and the other by the collective imagination. The dominant philosophies of Western societies have pitted imagination against nature. The effects of this dualism upon nature are devastatingly clear. But the effects on the human imagination are also terrible. Dividing the mind from the body, sensuality, experience creates small and tortured thought from which frenetic, soulless, and destructive societies have been born.

In the harsh world of the concentration camp, whose regime was designed to crush both body and spirit, how was it possible for Desnos to keep the larger possibilities of life alive in his mind? I find the thread of an answer in the lines of one of his poems:

Having said having done
What pleases me
I go right I go left
And I love the marigold.

A longer version of this essay, 'To Love the Marigold,' appeared in 'The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear', edited by Paul Rogat Loeb which was named the #3 political book of Fall 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. The essay also appeared earlier in Utne Reader. Susan Griffin's newest book is The Book of the Courtesans (Broadway Books, 2002).

Interesting Links

• The Artist's Way: http://www.artistsway.com/
• The Artist's Way - Art, Passion, Community: http://www.creativity-is.biz/
• The New World Library - Books about developing creativity: http://www.newworldlibrary.com/showproducts.cfm?Step=1&FullCat=18
• New Demensions World Broadcasting Network - http://www.newdimensions.org/
• Internet Sacred Text Archive - http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm

Safety Pins

Sometimes my emotions are held together with safety pins.

Safety pins are good because they hold together seams that have developed small holes that might cause the seam to rip out all together if those safety pins weren't placed there.

It's not wise to try to sew up those seams while they are still being stressed because they would only pop open again.

Safety pins are a much better alternative because they allow the seam to be kind of leaky but still hold together. The leaks allow emotions to express themselves in small amounts here and there, while still keeping those seams together until its the right time to sew them back up again.

A Few of My Whimsey Dolls

Whimsies

These guys and gals make me smile!
http://americancharacterwhimsies.americancharacterwhimsies.com/

Waves of Compassion

Brenda Kerr, 2005

While watching the Science channel the other day I viewed a program about wave theory. They demonstrated how one wave source can go through two different slots. Some of the resulting waves cancel each other out but some waves (the ones that meet at the high point of the wave) combine to amplify each other and become one….

Also at that time I was reading a book, I came across the author’s comments on Jesus’ spiritual revolution to change thought. He mentioned that “Great numbers [of people] are not required to change the world order. Even as it takes only a pinch of salt to change the taste of a pot of stew, so a handful of dedicated disciples can change the consciousness of the entire world.”

It struck me that ideas spread by a handful of people are like waves. They can emanate from one source and go off through many doors (people). When the ideas (waves) converge on other people at the wave’s high point, the point with the most energy, the point where the ideas are backed with conviction and passion, the ideas (waves) join together with those of the receptive person to become one powerful idea (wave) and then move on to the next door and the process continues….

Well anyway….after all of that thinking I decided that I would try to write a song about using waves to spread ideas….

Verse 1.
[Start] waves of compassion
[Throughout] civilization
[It] only takes a few,
To send the waves through.

Don’t make the assumption
that you can’t do something
so spread the waves around
that love should abound.

(Chorus)
[The] world has become a much smaller place,
[It’s much] easier to talk to each other
[If you] sit quietly, [and] listen you’ll find,
[that we’re] much more like one another.

Verse 2.
Your passionate conviction
Will cause them to listen
and then it will start
to open their hearts

They will take up the passion
and therefore, take action
to spread the wave around
until the world responds.

(Chorus)
Justified violence will become part of the past,
Permanent friendships will be built that will last,
All lives will be better than they’d been in the past,
When we start treasuring the lives of others.

Verse 3
They will change their perspective,
Peace will be their objective,
not just for you and me,
but for all humanity.

They'll create legislation,
That protects the world’s nations
from what’s happening now,
to protect the people now.

Promised Land (Versions 2, 3, & 1)

---------------------------------

The Promised Land
(Version 2)
Brenda Kerr, 2004

Check out the >> chorus melody line

Chorus:
[We’ve got to]
Find our own, Promised Land,
our personal, E-den,
Not somewhere else, but here and now,
our personal path to God.

1. We are taught that we, should believe
Certain ways without questioning
Traditions passed, down through the years,
Traditions of our God.

2. But Each Generation, chal-len-ges,
the previous one’s, i-de-as
And then adapts, to current times
Traditions of our God.

Chorus:
[We’ve got to]
Find our own, Promised Land,
our personal, E-den,
Not somewhere else, but here and now,
our personal path to God.

3. And so it goes, throughout the years
interpreting, stories we hear,
Understand-ing, faithfully,
Traditions of our God

4. We teach our children, what we know,
in hopes that they, will love him so and
Generations, pass them on,
traditions of our God.

Chorus:
[We’ve got to]
Find our own, Promised Land,
our personal, E-den,
Not somewhere else, but here and now,
our personal path to God.

--------------------------------------
The Promised Land
(Version 3)
Brenda Kerr, 2005

Chorus:
[We’ve got to]
Find our own, Promised Land,
our personal, Eden,
Not somewhere else, but here and now,
our personal path to God.

1. We are taught that we, should believe
Certain ways without questioning
Traditions passed, down through the years,
Traditions about our God

2. But Each Generation, challenges,
the ideas from the one before,
And then adapts, to current times
Traditions surrounding our God.

Chorus:
[We’ve got to]
Find our own, Promised Land,
our personal, Eden,
Not somewhere else, but here and now,
our personal path to God.

3. And so it goes, throughout the years
interpreting, the stories we hear,
Understanding these lessons, faithfully,
Lessons delivered by God

4. We teach our children, the lessons we’ve learned,
in hopes that they do the same
the compassionate lessons of generations,
Generations guided by God.

Chorus:
[We’ve got to]
Find our own, Promised Land,
our personal, Eden,
Not somewhere else, but here and now,
our personal path to God.

------------------------------

The Promised Land
(Version 1 Revised)
Brenda Kerr, 2004

Chorus:
[We’ve got to]
Find our own, Promised Land,
our personal, E-den,
Not somewhere else, but here and now,
our personal path to God.

1. What we’re looking for, is here now,
but our hearts and minds may not feel it.
It’s our personal path, unique just to us,
It’s the start of our spiritual journey

2. It’s like reading a book, a mystery,
that draws us in more and more,
and the book never ends, but keeps calling us back,
opening our eyes and our hearts and our souls.

[bridge]
Palestine, Canaan, Holy Land, Eden,
Paradise, Heaven, Eternal Home, Kingdom
Many names, many times, what they didn’t realize,
[Is that it’s] always been, here for us to find,
when we are open to God.

Chorus:
[We’ve got to]
Find our own, Promised Land,
our personal, E-den,
Not somewhere else,
but here and now,
our personal path to God.

Find Your Own Promised Land (Thoughts)

Promised Land
Brenda Kerr, 2004

[You’ve got to]
Find your own, Promised Land,
Your personal Eden,
It’s here now, Not somewhere else,
Your personal path to God.
-----------------------------------------------

The above words are from a chorus to a song that has been running through my mind in the last few months.

Promised Land – It is what is intended for you and your unique personality and gifts.

Your personal Eden – Your safe place, your personal peace. It doesn’t have to be a place. It can be peacefulness, a sense of being at peace with who you are. `

The Promised Land and your Eden are always there (here) for you to find. You don’t need to wait to find it. It’s not something you need to wait for … like later in life… you just open yourself to it.

Your personal path to God (peace) – The creative peace, strength, energy that is part of you but that you deny or don’t allow to surface.

Sometimes we follow paths in directions away from where our heart and gifts want to take us. We may be pulled from our true path by the need for money, the need to care for family members, our lack of confidence, our inability to recognize our true path, or our inability to let ourselves believe in the value of this path. Someone important to us may be steering us away from this path because he/she does not value its potential to enrich our lives.

Just War Theory is Obsolete

Think Again
Joan Chittister, OSB
Just War Theory Is Obsolete Since Augustine developed just war theory, the nature of weapons and nations has changed. Even children see how futile war is.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/159/story_15995_1.html

A Path to Peace—Rooted in Justice

When peace is used in the context of security to reinforce the powerful at the expense of the weak, it is a mockery.
By Omid Safi
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/162/story_16208_1.html

Brenda's Thoughts

All of the songs that I have posted so far have been religious or spiritual in nature. I suppose this is because (1) my main musical outlet is church choir and (2) I am intrigued with the history of religion, why we are religious, my own spirituality, the interesting spiritual views of members of the Lutheran church that I attend.

Discover the Nature of our Particular Genius...

We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other peoples' models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open.

Shakti Gawain

(Quote found in "the Artist's Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julie Cameron)

Jesus’ Lessons

Brenda Kerr, 2004
(This was my first attempt at writing a song. I was reading books about the history of religion when I wrote Jesus' Lessons. I am very intrigued with how religions develop, how the new testiment was put together, how people who follow Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions view their "bible" stories.)

Chorus
Jesus’ lessons, spiritual gold,
[Are the] greatest stories, ever told.
Parables, and sayings that teach,
New wisdom and compassion, ideals we should reach.

Verse 1
He saw what was hap'ning a world divided,
The pure would receive what God provided.
He knew this division was not God's intent.
To change this direction was why he was sent.

And he told the people about new ways,
how everyday wisdom had gone astray.
What God really wanted was us to love one another,
to have undying compassion for our sisters and brothers.

Bridge:
You see purity divides, and excludes,
but compassion unites, and includes,
justification by works, had been the law,
but redemption is through the grace of God.

And he told the people about new ways,
how everyday wisdom had gone astray.

Chorus 2
Told stories over and over, many a times,
and changed for occasion and for the time.
They helped people to remember and share what they heard.
Share the new wisdom, share God's word.

Verse 2
These wonderful stories still draw us in.
They invite us, they inspire us to follow him.
He repeated his stories at each event.
He changed the specifics but not what he meant.

He taught compassion and redemption through grace,
the old laws and ways to be replaced.
And he told the people about new ways,
how everyday wisdom had gone astray.

These wonderful stories still draw us in,
they invite us, they inspire us to follow him.

Ending Chorus
Jesus’ lessons spiritual gold,
Are the greatest stories, ever told.

Religious Child / Spiritual Adult

To move from being a religious child to a spiritual adult means moving from understanding concrete representations, stories or sayings, of ideals being taught, to interpreting the metaphorical meaning of those same concrete representations.

Awakenings

Brenda Kerr, 2004

Work and power is not everything.
It’s really about relationships.

Religion is not everything
It’s really about awaking the spirit within you.

Traditional belief is not everything.
It’s really about personal knowledge and spirituality,
arrived at through your own searching,
not by blindly accepting what others tell you.

Your Thought Is Your Life

These paragraphs were taken from Chapter 7 (page 73 and 74) of Discover the Power Within You, A Guide to the Unexplored Depths Within by Eric Butterworth. Published by HarperCollins Publishers.

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God's greatest gift to man [human-kind] is the power of thought, through which [humans] he can incorporate into [their] his consciousness the mind of God. Charles Fillmore

We are living in an age of discovery....It is estimated that man's [humankind's] total body of knowledge doubled between 1775 and 1958, and it is now thought to be doubling every five years.

This is a tribute to man's [human] curiousity and his [its] relentless quest for understanding. But it is important to recognize that discoveries in the world around us are really self-discoveries. We do not create the growing body of knowledge. [Humans are] Man is simply gaining insights into that which has always been. Nothing has really changed in the nature of the Universe in the past two thousand years, but we have opened our eyes to see things more completely.

Locked within the superconsciousness of [humans] man are the answers to all the problems and the secrets of all the mysteries that [humankind] mankind will ever face. [Humans are] Man is (a) thinking being[s]. The very word "man" comes from an ancient Sanskrit word which literally means "to think." Through thinking, [humans have] man has the possibility of knowing God and expressing the wisdom of Divine Mind. [Humans are] Man is the greatest concentration of divine energies in the Universe. [Humans are] He is the greatest natural resource. And the world of possibilities within [humankind] man is still the great frontier.

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(I find these paragraphs very inspiring except that I would like to change the word "man" to human or humankind. When I read the word "man" I feel like the passage is not really talking to me personally.)

---------------------------------------------------------

These paragraphs remind me of Stephen Hawking and all that he has accomplished just by "thinking". http://www.hawking.org.uk/text/index.html

The Elusive Johanna (with alternative endings)

This is the poem that started all of this .......

The Elusive Johanna

Sisters Jane and Joan were the best of friends
but lived their lives from different ends.
Jane made lists, and checked them twice,
a stickler for details and always precise.

Joan’s life was organized in stacks and piles,
her mind full of ideas too many to file.
Jane was all work and Joan all play,
Joan daydreamed away large parts of the day

Joan needed Jane to organize her life,
to keep her on track, to give her advise.
Jane needed Joan to give her life meaning,
to help her to see her reason for being.

Through most of their lives one or the other,
Took the lead and the other would follow.
But as the years rolled along,
both of these lives became equally strong.

The two lives began to synchronize,
and occasionally emerged to their surprise.
Johanna, the artist with organizational skills,
in touch with her emotions, in touch with her will.

Johanna would stay as long as she could,
and hoped to someday stay for good,
but she would disappear as fast as she came,
when her life became unbalanced again.

-----------------------------------------------------
[Original Title: The Evolution of Johanna]

[Original Ending]

Through most of their lives, one or the other,
took the lead, and the other would follow.
But as the years rolled along,
both of these lives became equally strong.

The two lives began to synchronize,
and then emerged to their surprise......

Johanna, the artist with organizational skills,
in touch with her emotions, in touch with her will.
Her confidence building, she now pursues,
that which she longed for, all her life through.