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Thursday, June 20, 2019

I can do...

I can do... 

A Poem by Flavia Wolfe


I can jump
I can run
I can walk, but it's not as much Fun

I can laugh
I can cry
I only wish that I could fly

I can dance
I can play
I can sleep after such a great day, thank you for this day

I can smile
I can listen
I can hear the sounds of the ocean, God's peace overwhelms me

* by Flavia Wolfe 1981-2018


Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!
Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)
Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Love Is...

1 Corinthians 13
4Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. 5It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. 6It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never ends. 


Love is patient

Love is kind

Love is not envious.

Love does not brag

Love is not puffed up

Love is not rude

Love is not self-serving

Love is not easily angered or resentful

Love is not glad about injustice but rejoices in the truth.

Love bears all things

Love believes all things

Love hopes all things

Love endures all things

Love never ends.









Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!
Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)
Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Game Over, a short story

Game Over, a short story:

You walk through the hallway into a room, it's well lit, empty, except for a table in the center.

On the table is a pristine chess board. There are two chairs.

She walks in, she's beautiful! Her smile and laughter are contagious. She takes her seat, stares you in the eye, and without saying a word invites you to take a seat.

You play many games. Talk about dreams. Day after day, you both return. Your appreciation deepens for her.

You label the door to this room "My Pleasure".

One day, as you're making your move, you look up with a smirk "gotcha now"... And she's gone.

You don't know when she left the table, but she's not even in the room. You get up, search the hallways, other rooms, she's nowhere. A few days go by and everytime you return to the room, it's empty.

Desperate, you continue to return day after day, in vain hope of another match.

Then a week later, she's there again, at the table, smiling, inviting you to play. No explanation of why she left, she doesn't even acknowledge she was missing. She just makes her first move. You play for a few hours and look up- She's gone. Again. Without warning or word.

This repeats several times...over several weeks.

Eventually, you return to find her at the table, but your seat is occupied, and she doesn't even acknowledge your presence.

After a month, you return to the room, and she's there. At the table. Smiling. Inviting you to play.

You hesitate, but take your seat... Before the game fully begins, you look up, and she's gone. Again. Without warning or word.

You wipe the entire game off the table in a fit of rage. Then stand there crying. Leaving a tear stained note "goodbye" on the table, you walk out the door.

Then you lock it.

Seal it.

And throw away the key.

You burn all the memorabilia you'd collected, except one photo. You place that photo of your replacement, the one who took your seat, on the door, as a reminder to never return.

You change the label on the door from "My Pleasure" to "My Pain", then you walk away.

Never again will you return to this room.

Game Over.

PS...

... He still goes back. Every hour on the hour. He pushes aside the sign that reads "My Pain", and the photo of his replacement. He peeks through the window praying she'll be sitting at the table... But she isn't. She never is.

Someday he'll stop going back every hour, and maybe only once a day. Then eventually once a week. Maybe someday he'll make it a month without checking to see if she ever returned...

But she left. She's not coming back. She left him a note that said "Make sure you know I want you in my life"... But the note is all he got. She never returns. He is sure she felt like it was true, but her actions and lack of presence made it clear she didn't mean it. If she meant it, she'd be there.

But he still keeps checking, sees she's still not there, cries for a few minutes, several times a day, and walks back down the hallway...

He may never play chess again, because of her... But he might, in time... Time will tell.

Game Over

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Be an Eagle/Hawk: How observing the flight of a bird correlates to fighting depression.


But those who wait for the Lord’s help find renewed strength;
they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings,
they run without growing weary,
they walk without getting tired.


Photo by Rachel Pfuetzner on Unsplash


Three ways an eagle stays in the air


This morning on my walk, I had the opportunity to watch a bird hunting (eagle or hawk, not sure). I watched for a good 5-10 minutes. You know what I never saw? Flapping wings. He was up there just soaring on the high mountain winds and looking for his prey. His wings were fully extended the entire time, he'd fly with the wind and gain momentum and then turn against the wind and rise up higher, all without flapping his wings.

As I pondered this, here is what I felt I heard:

He was designed to do that. His wings aren't tired from holding them out against the wind, they lock in that way and he can do that for hours, as long as the wing sustains him. He only flaps his wings to get up into the air, once there, he soars.

Flapping Wings & Pruning


Just like this eagle/hawk, we sometimes need to exert effort in our rise to overcome the obstacles that keep us grounded. We may have to put in a lot of effort to get off the ground. This means that when you wake up with depression trying to drag you down, thoughts attacking you, tears falling because you know the thoughts aren't true but your heart still believes them...

It's time to get up anyway. Get out of bed, get dressed, and go for a walk (or whatever feeds your soul). You have to tell those thoughts they have no authority over you (I mean it, out loud, tell them no!). You have to get your body moving because it has a physical place to play in the biochemical processes that lead to depression. You may have to do a lot of flapping that morning when leaving the nest.

Sometimes Eagles have to tear out all their feathers and grow new ones to be in tip-top shape. You may have to tear out and tear down the thoughts that have kept you bound. This may mean taking it to solid friends who will challenge these thoughts, a counselor, a pastor, whoever you need to. Take them before God and ask Him to reveal the lies you've believed and the Truth you need to see and own.

Soaring


Once you are in the air (past that moment of depression), you will find that it's much easier to stay in the air. You were made to soar in life. It's what you were designed and equipped to do.

You find your days just go better when your thoughts are aligned with God's. You find you're less moody and irritable. You find you are more joyful and peaceful which attracts others to you naturally.

But what really matters, is now that you are freely soaring, you are free to ignore all the effort that got you there, and you can just focus on the things in front of you. You can now be "present" or "in the moment" more often. Your natural giftings and talents come out. You aren't even trying. That eagle/hawk wasn't worried about his flight. He wasn't even aware of what it took to stay in the air. He just had his eye out for the next opportunity.

Opportunities to influence will pass you by when you are so focused on yourself that you can't see anything else.

Opportunities to influence others happen without you trying to find them when you are free. You aren't paying attention to yourself, you are free to see the world around you, observe, you are ready for anything that may come your way and you recognize it for what it is when it comes. You are also moving as your soar, not stationary, so you happen across more opportunities.


Using the Wind


Something else I noticed. The eagle/hawk didn't get beaten down by the high winds on that mountain. He used them to his advantage. The very thing working against you can now be the tool you use. It's the weights in your spiritual gym. It's the resistance bands in your workout. It's the only as the winds come against you that you can let them pass over you and use that momentum and the law of lift to rise up higher and higher. Now that you are free of all that effort, you do it without flapping your wings, it comes naturally to you.


Go be an eagle/hawk!


1a. Flap your wings: use the tools that God's given you to take authority over your inner life and choose new thoughts.

1b. Clean your feathers: uproot, pull out, and tear down any thoughts that are lodged in your heart that do not represent your best self, the one you were created and designed to be.

2. Soar: Now that you've gotten up, you are free to stop paying attention to yourself at all. Look for opportunities as they arise. Keep moving. You never know what you'll find around the corner.

3. Use Resistance: when things come against you, use that to your advantage. Let that be your gym. Let that give you lift. Let the attempt of the enemy to tank your morning be the very thing you use to get up and have another victory for yourself, and the very thing that drives you to your opportunity to do it for someone else.




Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!
Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)
Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com & Topos.Consulting

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ

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