Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Fourfold Fitness

The soul’s topography won’t fit within the languages of tongue or pen. It’s like trying to capture the vastness and detail of a natural landscape in the frame of a photograph.

But knowing the terrain of our own depths is necessary for fully engaged living. Some people have an innate knack for soul navigation; others need a map and compass.

I use a four by four grid, where the intersections create “intention zones” integral to my joie de vivre. The four components of my humanness are: Physical, Emotional, Cognitive, and Spiritual. The four key attributes of fitness (IMHO) are: Strength, Flexibility, Endurance, and Balance.

The next few soul-friending posts will describe some of my intention zones. I hope there will be ideas and inspirations for you. However, I hasten to underscore that it’s just a map I’ve sketched to help make sense of my personal topography; it’s not intended to be comprehensive, absolute, or directly transferable. But maybe it’ll provoke you to undertake your own “depth cartography”.



Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

trust

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
Confucius

This is as deep a truth as there is. To be deceived is among the worst of human experiences; but distrust withers friendship, and we need friendship in order to become fully human.

Friendship brings longevity and joy to our loves: marriage blooms in it. In friendship, family connectedness can thrive without throttling.

Friendship freely says, "I'd rather risk being a fool than hoard my heart behind fortress walls."

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

circus ride

The best circus rides are the ones that feel terrifyingly out of control, but are not -- the ones that have been engineered to be completely safe while simulating the sensation of impending disaster. We’ll pay good money for the thrill of careening toward annihilation, as long as the ride comes with a guarantee that all will turn out okay in the end.

Life doesn’t come with that sort of guarantee, of course. But according to Jesus, there is an Author who weaves our crazy fragments into a meaningful narrative. I need for this to be true. Daily, I re-surrender to the trueness of it.

Sometimes my world accelerates into the red zone, when my beliefs, my dreams, and my loves quake on the verge of disintegration. At those moments, I remind myself that all things fall into the hands of God -- nothing slips between those fingers, or spills over the edges. All things constellate meaningfully within the Creator’s cupped hands. And it will turn out okay in the end.