#love – Page 3 – The Corrigan Encore

This is what happens

September 6, 2023 John Corrigan

I was at a work site earlier today and I heard a leader have a discussion with the technician at the site concerning some type of hardware. The leader was a new leader and did not understand why the hardware was set up the way it was and had called technician to change the hardware. A veteran employee noticed the technician working on the hardware and mentioned to the technician and the leader as to why the hardware was set up that way. The change was canceled by the leader and then the leader made a comment about the importance of communication.

Educators teach our children to look, listen and learn. There are 4 types of listening and they are 1. Deep listening 2. Full Listening 3. Critical Listening 4.therapeutic listening. Different situations require different types of listening.

At work I often find that I need to engage in deep listening occurs when the listener is trying to gain insight from the speakers perspective and involves paying close attention to the users verbal and nonverbal clues. Thinking about work more deeply, I would say that I use deep and full listening. Full listening Full listening involves paying careful attention to what the speaker is saying. When I am learning a new skill at work full listening is a very important tool.

Whether I need to use full, deep, critical or therapeutic the fact remains that listening is critical to success.

“The art of conversation lies in listening.”
Malcolm Forbes

So lets make a conscious effort to all become better listeners today, tomorrow and everyday forward

The ethics of it

September 5, 2023 John Corrigan

My mom took me and my three sisters to church at young ages. In church we went to service Sunday school and bible study. Our church like many churches in the United States taught me and my sister dogma using the scriptures. As I grew up I mistook dogma for data and faith for fact. Later in life with other perspectives I was able to tease out some of the data and definitely understood that all of my Christian belief is faith not fact.

I have been down somewhat of a rabbit hole with consideration in Christian data versus dogma and wondered how did the dogma for the Christian religion become part of the Christian religion.

The rabbit hole lead me to a profession I never knew existed and that is a Christian ethicist. I stole this exert from the Wikipedia page concerning Christian Ethicists “Christian ethicists use reason, philosophy, natural law, the social sciences, and the Bible to formulate modern interpretations of those principles; Christian ethics applies to all areas of personal and societal ethics.”

So for me the takeaway is that religious doctrine is being evaluated all the time and modified with data and knowledge. It is this growth that keeps religion relevant and usable in our lives and society. One major shift I see in religious doctrine is a shift away from homosexuality as a sin. Many denominations do not consider homosexuality as a sin and welcome the LGBTQ community into the fold as believers.

So at the churches build a doctrine for their believers to live by and to a certain extent each induvial builds a doctrine to live by. We build our doctrine by learning, listening and should include loving family, friends and living sentient beings.

If you find yourself at a crossroads where your church’s doctrine demands you do something that is not loving (like condemn someone who is homosexual) perhaps it is time to rethink that doctrine.

The willingness to change one’s mind in the light of new evidence is a sign of rationality not weakness.
Stuart Sutherland

There is nothing wring with change. The big question for change, dogma. laws and actions, should be why.

Why do I believe this doctrine?

What good is this accomplishing?

Is it good?

One major ethical question is always how do I want to be in this world? That one is huge for me when it comes to religious doctrine. I never want to be someone who would hurt or harm or do anything but love others.

Most people, when directly confronted by evidence that they are wrong, do not change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously. Even irrefutable evidence is rarely enough to pierce the mental armor of self-justification.
Carol Tavris

So my hope and prayer is this. I pray that me and all of humanity would be considerate of all life when they make moral and ethical decisions and doctrine.

In this corner…

August 25, 2023 John Corrigan

Another day came with another conference and another speaker. This time the speaker was at the lectern promoting his office. He runs the organizations Project management office and when his organization completes a project there is not change but transformation.

The speaker wanted the listeners to be aware of this fact because, according to him change is different than transformation. If you are rolling your eyes right now then, we are kindred spirits.

The definition for the word transformation has the word change in it. I understand what the speaker was doing but, I think he could have used better words for this concept. The idea was that change can be fleeting but transformation is forever and all encompassing but see even this is not really true. The only reason transformation was all encompassing was that his office implemented procedures to make it that way.

The truth is we have to work at life and doing the best we can everyday. We cannot just make a few changes and transform into something wonderful or good

What’s tough is being good every day.

— Willie Mays

Knowing that change is not permanent brings with it good and bad news. Bad news is that you will always be an addict. People in recovery can attest to this fact. The idea of once an addict always an addict has little to do with science and more to do with a personality trait or an outlook on life.

Understanding that one can engage at anytime in addictive and destructive traits helps some people take some control of their day. For the one who believes they are always an addict everyday represents a choice and that is a pretty big source of power.

“Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.”

– Mark Twain

There is very little that we can control however we can control us and our choices and when we do it will be hard (like everyday) but, with the right choices life can be and is beautiful

Set them then set them again then…

August 18, 2023 John Corrigan

Welcome to Friday. If you are reading this post on the day I publish it and are not a day ahead or behind time zone wise, it is indeed Friday. If it is not Friday for you imagine that it is.

For two years now I have purchased a Legend weekly planner. The legend planner lets me create weekly goals, monthly goals, quarterly goals, and yearly goals. at the end of each work week (Friday) I take time to reflect on what goals were recorded and accomplished (in the planner these are called wins). Often my recorded goals get derailed. The goals are important and need to get done so I roll them over to next week with notes on why they weren’t accomplished.

Even if I don’t reach all my goals, I’ve gone higher than I would have if I hadn’t set any
Danielle Fotopoulis

Failure to reach goals is not a reason to abandon goals. As long as your failure is not a failure to try failure is acceptable.

The reality is: Sometimes you lose. And you’re never too good to lose. You’re never too big to lose. You’re never too smart to lose. It happens. And it happens when it needs to happen. And you need to embrace those things.
Beyoncé

Prior to using a Legend planner I used small notebooks and even a waiters pad to write daily and weekly goals down and I have always rolled goals over to the next day or week. Sometimes my goals have changed and morphed based on my situations and the world.

My goals have changed often however I have never changed the overall goal. I have always tried to be a better me.

Two things

August 17, 2023 John Corrigan

Yesterday evening, I was finishing up my work for the day at a site. As I was walking through the hall I noticed a bulletin board on the wall. The board had a rainbow and the words “be a RAINBOW in someone else’s cloud” written on it.

On the way home from this site I noticed some pretty dark clouds forming and I felt what I often do when I see the clouds like that a little foreboding then a little excitement. Storms are chaotic that way. Of course when asked everybody will say they want sunny and 70 weather its amazing and bucolic even. But storms come and they are in their own right pretty incredible.

Two songs came to mind when I thought about the bulletin board and the storm clouds. One was an REO speed wagon song called Riding out the storm. In the song riding out the storm, the band sings about times in life that seem like storms will come and it will be ok we will be ok if we just ride them out.

I also thought about A Doors song called, Riders on the Storm. In the song Riders on the storm the band sings about a chaotic life and what it is like to navigate this with help from friends and loved ones (kind of like being a rainbow). This is what I thought the Doors song was about however I did two things and went down a rabbit hole with the lyrics from this Doors song and totally forgot about the lyrics from verse one in the song. In my defense the song starts with the chorus so verse 1 was easily forgettable for me.

Verse 1

There’s a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin’ like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If you give this man a ride
Sweet family will die
Killer on the road

Pretty dark right? I totally forgot about this part of the songs lyrics. I have found myself doing this often in songs and literature I read where I do not remember the all the parts. SO art is of course subjective and in a gestalt manner I find the song by the doors Riders on the Storm to be uplifting and what I said before. I am not going to try and dissect the song anymore because I don’t want to get any darker and part of me thinks that the writers of Riders on the Storm may have just dropped acid before writing the lyrics. The song was written by The Doors.

So enjoy the song that is both uplifting and a little dark as well as this trippy video and be some ones rainbow or girl that can save everyone be a rainbow.

Somewhere that is not here

August 11, 2023 John Corrigan

The rain had just started and was not in full swing. I have never been a fan of wearing wet clothes as such I put on my rain jacket. One of my colleagues saw this and asked why I was putting on the jacket. I let him know that I was not a fan of rain. He told me that perhaps I could imagine that I was dry and on a beach with sunny 70 degree weather and maybe the rain would not affect me as much.

I am a fan of visualization just as much as the next guy but I choose to wear the jacket.

Visualization is a powerful tool when it comes to dealing with anxiety and accomplishing goals.

Through visualization we can make our minds believe that we are not experiencing some trauma and actually put ourselves into a calm state.

Through visualization we can see our desired outcome and the steps it takes to get there.

To use visualization imagination is required and often as adults we tend to frown on imaginative folks.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.
George Bernard Shaw

It is a tragedy that we belittle those who have and use their imagination. Lets work hard today to not belittle anyone especially those using their imagination or stop from using our imaginations

Kintsu.. who what?

August 10, 2023 John Corrigan

Kintsugi is an Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using gold as the material for repairing the cracks. The philosophy behind Kintsugi is very similar in nature to wabi-sabi , which is embracing the imperfect.

There is a great song written by Trains lead singer Patrick Monahan and performed by Train and Ashley Monroe called Bruises.

The song deals with embracing our flaws as part of who we are. It can be tempting to cover up imperfections but it will not work. People can spot fake people a mile away.

It’s all right to make mistakes, you’re only humanInside everybody’s hiding something.
Dido Armstrong

Its important to put forth your “real self” flaws and all to the world, especially our family and friends. If your relationships are loving ones the family and friends will not only accept you flaws and all they will celebrate you with gold, flaws and all and, if they don’t they will eventually come around.

This is by no means a recommendation to hurt someone. It is ok to celebrate your flaws however it is never ok to break another person. Never

Thanks Amazon and Apple and Planet Fitness

August 7, 2023 John Corrigan

Describe one habit that brings you joy.

My feet are moving in a pattern that can best be described as the machine I am standing on and, that is elliptical. My feet are moving in an elliptical pattern. I am not moving through the earth but my imagination is soaring. In front of me on the elliptical I am looking at the kindle app on my Ipad.

One of my favorite things to do that I have made a habit is reading. I love to read books especially fiction ones. A good story can move us from where we are to an unknown world and I love that.

Reading is good for us, it improves our memories, empathy, and communication skills. I highly recommend reading as a fun healthy habit for everyone.

Get out there and there and there

August 3, 2023 John Corrigan

Did you know that Mark Twain was part of a confederate militia? For anyone who doesn’t know the confederates were part of the confederacy in the United States. The Confederacy was a racist part of the United States that fought a civil war so that they could keep slaves.

At the end and even middle of his life Mark Twain was far from racist. Twain wrote Huck FInn.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime
Mark Twain

I encourage everyone to see all of the world they can. Humans were made to wander and explore and interact with life all over the world.

Get out there and take the world trips you have planned you will be a better person for it!

A sentient being

August 2, 2023 John Corrigan

The idea of being sentient to me has become a barometer for life. If a form of life is sentient than I believe that is life worth protecting. It was this type of thinking that caused me to change my diet. Right now my family and I are eating plant based protein because of the fact that many of the animals used for protein are sentient beings.

There are strangely enough, many situations that you may find yourself in that require the need to define life and this definition I created for my self has helped me navigate.

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Cider House Rules, is a great movie and I watched the movie but did not read the book (I know shame on me, I do intend to read the book someday). The movie is a classic and should be watched by all. In the movie a young man learns that rules written by those in charge may work in theory but not application.

You are living your life and you should learn what is right and wrong for yourself and not really on others to tell you. Learning right from wrong for yourself is called ethics and it is confusing and hard sometimes and there is nothing wrong with seeking help, however at the end of the day you must decide what is right or wrong