Thoughts Revisited
Girls Just want to have fun....
I drove through one of the tourist parts of town. This was Miami on a rainy day. An old tune, or at least one line of an old song rang in my mind. Girls just want to have fun. Isn't it so true. Not just girls but, don't we all want to have fun? However you define it or even if you haven't defined it and you amble around searching for that place called fun. Sure, we enjoy laughing and all the other sensations that we call fun, but even more than that I believe we seek a life of peace. A life with significant moments that lack negative disturbance, a moment in a place and time where we experience happiness.
Don't we want to have peace! Don't we want a life where we can have, nothing missing, nothing lacking and nothing broken in our lives? So, what will fill our life baskets? When the day is done, what will we find collected along the way. As I drive, there are so many things, billboards, store signs, and marquis begging to be added to my basket. Billboards full of faces that seem so happy, smiling faces, having fun. Maybe its a new cell phone, maybe its that "mellow," rum, that car, or better yet, there is a sign on the side of a condo that says, "If you lived here, you could be home now!" Everything seems to shout to me, if you don't have or experience this....you don't have peace, you don't have completion.
We just want to have a fulfilled life. We just want to live in this life and experience peace, whether it is that high energy adrenaline ski diving peace for some, or the mellow music lounging peace for others. We want it all to come together and agree. The meeting of purpose with action, the congruence of reason for living with our actual existence.
How do we find our own peaceful existence? It won't happen in a vacuum. It will not happen in the noise of society, especially in the midst of frantic searching people. People trying everything and anything and speaking their truth as opposed to the truth. This month I want to challenge you to consider your purpose. Why on earth are you here? Once you have answered that question then answer this, :How on earth are you being?" This month's focus is, "Being the all, that you can be!" Please to send me your thoughts, and have fun doing it!
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Vernon Martin Coaching
For more information about coaching or to find out how to design a better future for you or your team, please contact us by emailing: Vernon@VernonMartinCoaching.com
© 2010 Vernon Martin Coaching. All rights reserved.
Daily
I enter each day…reaching for the hope that will carry me through…
I will not pretend that answers flood my mind…
In fact there are times when I have searched a barren container for journey’s trail…
But somehow whether barren or full, I find at least a morsel and promise…
Some look at me and assume my battle and judge my strength…
Perhaps never knowing my foundation or the pillars set around me…
They will pull me to rise if I could not stand…
I enter each day…with a resolve; never the less, never, never the less…
I will not pretend that answers flood my mind or genius finds its way…
But if I wait and listen, wisdom will set the course…
If I give opportunity the moment; a chance to hear God’s voice…
I’ll be given clear vision and the ability for the right choice.
Vernon Martin ©2009 All rights Reserved
2009
The Power of People
This is the second week completed that I am working full time after recuperating from my last hospitalization. Even with certain setbacks and frustrations I am able to believe in blessings. I am able to have faith that God will indeed see me through. For some, this faith talk seems foreign, but for me it is essential to my journey, essential to my stepping forward out of the muck and mire. There were some that thought that I had thrown in the towel even as I was trying to pull myself back into the ring. I suppose that reveals the absolute ineffectiveness of me trying to come back on my own.
I remember a dream I had many years ago. I stood at the foot of a staircase and attempted to walk up to the next level, but many people looking down were yelling at me. Some were strangers; others were friends, and family. I could not single out one voice, they were all saying different things, but they were all telling me that I could not make it up to the next level. I found myself pressured back down until I lay down at the foot of the staircase. The weight of the voices was so heavy, I could not stand up. Finally, I tried and there was a hand that helped me up step by step. I have had to refer back to that dream at some critical times.
Many of us have those negative voices in our lives. Some of the negative messages are from many years past and some are recent, maybe even now. I have to be the gate keeper in my life and determine what messages I will hear and what messages will fall dead before they even reach my ears. It’s not easy to be the gate keeper, because you have to sift through the rubble to find the rubies. In the dream I had to step each step purposely and I had to rely on the helping hand, God’s guidance. Although the dream had faces that I recognized, the real negative messages that matter are from within. These are the ones that have to be addressed and quieted.
The power of the voices from others, negative or positive, diminishes when it is confronted by our self talk. Those messages we give to ourselves create our moods, attitudes, and actions. I know that I am here on this earth for a purpose. I see that purpose much broader and important than anything that I have accomplished. I tried to explain this to a friend a couple of years ago and they tried to bring me back to earth, back to the foot of that staircase. They meant well, but they were putting limits on my destiny. I watched from a far distance as a national example of this played in the homes of America. Some black guy with an African name actually considered running for president. I along with many others thought about that crazy idea. Many people around me joined in and supported a logical conclusion that said his goal was ambitious but impossible. But this guy told himself that he could be president. I can only guess that friends, that meant well, tried to get him to stop such foolish talking. Obama believed and after the first primary, I believed, and later we all knew (even though some are in denial), he was president. What will I tell me about me, shall I believe the doubters or even those that might be threatened by my progress? I was created for greatness; my life is prepared to be blessed so I can be a blessing to others and I need to find the people saying the same thing. Anything that I have accomplished so far will seem very basic compared to that which is to come. This will be my path because I am committed to letting God do the driving and give the promotions. Wherever I am allowed to progress, that place will prosper!
There are many stuck in a revolving mediocrity because they have not pushed out of the comfort zone. This has not done anyone a favor. Even people that are comfortable with your status are missing out because they are not benefitting from your best. As a great writing puts it, “Your playing small does not serve the world…,” this is a call for us to push to excellence. Find the most effective way for you to contribute and give it all. Imagine an organization built with these principles, it would have everyone operating according to strengths instead of paralyzed by weaknesses. Before the organization can operate this way, individuals must start walking this way and believe. The power of people is the power of individuals, together…who we are alone will determine our effectiveness together.
The End
Vernon Martin © 2009 All Rights Reserved (November)
Vernon Martin Coaching
For more information about coaching or to find out how to design a better future for you or your team, please contact us by emailing: Vernon@VernonMartinCoaching.com
The Path of Forward
I have a little time to consider which way matters most to me. My decision will shape my future. I understand that there are defining moments in life. Moments that will shape or break a person. I think I have had a few of those this year. I was put into a fighting position when I fought against a hospital administration for the proper care and dignity of my wife when she was in their care. A fight which is far from over, but I argued and demanded respect with no acceptance of less. My health has been challenged twice, once by diabetes and once by infection, the latter being a life threatening experience. Now, faced with many financial hurdles to leap, I must map out the road to my future. The first step to designing that map was the decision to let God drive. Whether manifested through His voice, family, friend, jawbone, or burning bush, He will drive.
I would tell you that I am extremely happy, but that would require explanation and I am not ready to explain, except to say that God can bless you with a blessing that will fill your life and overflow onto those around you. This becomes a topic of leadership because we must be able to lead out of the ashes. Many are able to lead an organization that is established in forward motion but where is leadership for the organization or individual that is stopped, going backwards, or getting started? This is my defining moment. This will demonstrate a decision for greatness or settling for mediocrity. Greatness is my goal. “Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world!” If the goal has been set as greatness and God is driving, how can we miss the target? End.
Vernon Martin © 2009 (October 17, 2009)
Resting is not as easy as it sounds. There is so much world that wants to come in. People, places and things are the battle field that seeks to disturb the peace. The mind, ever wandering, will put all kinds of thoughts on the movie screen of the mind. This is my recovery…done one day at a time and accepting life’s battles, one at a time also. Inspired by words and encouragement from a friend, I was reminded that I am in God’s timing. So I continue my commitment to my friends and family and I do not rush back into action, I heal. I will be ready for life…ready to rejoice and to be glad!!! 10/2009
Love Power and a Sound Mind
God has not given me the spirit of fear…
But my mind is sometimes clouded…
Exaggerated shadows cast against the wall…
Night time visions, moon lit night and sounds that won’t let me sleep…
The battles I fought, veins pumping faith and the Word from beneath my nostrils…
Wasn’t I victorious? Didn’t I defeat both lion and bear…?
Who am I, but still the one that is fearfully and wonderfully made…?
Quiet, there are angels afoot…
Nine foot and ten foot, standing around…
There are also strangers, angels, I am not aware…
But, I am not alone…I lie down and rest…
My body needing healing, my mind needing renewal…
My sword needs sharpened, my shield to be ready, and my feet must be soundly shod…
God has not given me the spirit of fear…
I have been given, Love, Power, and a Sound Mind!!!
My sword sparks fire against the wind…
I am healing…
My eyes narrow their vision, and my lungs fill with air…
Not yet…I am healing…not yet my mind being renewed…
Angels encamped all around me and the enemy being held at bay…
My legs regaining strength, arms stretching their reach…
I am the soaring eagle, yet become the lion guard…
I am definitely not alone…
I can feel the ground tremble and shaking; see magnificent a glorious light…
Humbled by His righteousness, brought to my knees praising and worshiping His sight…
I am appointed for this journey, and anointed for this task…
Therefore commissioned I continue the healing, being ready to represent His name…
Healed, renewed and renewing…I am not alone…
Ready for my journey, I am not alone…
For God did not give me, the spirit of fear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Vernon Martin © 2009
Without Walls
If ever there were a time to be motivated, if ever there were a time to exercise leadership, it is now. That’s why I am glad that I don’t have to depend on myself for the energy or strength. I suppose that my testimony will include the fact that my, “self,” is on a journey and responds with fear, hesitation, and all the other things that can hinder progress, but, I am operating on faith and sometimes those very things meant to hinder, might be used for good or turned into a good resolution. I am standing on the Word, “Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world,” and this acknowledges that there is something in me, and that something is so great that it exceeds the thing (man) that is outside of me. The thing (man) that is outside of me is responsible for all the hindrances, including feelings that obstruct me. Another, “Word,” that I stand on is, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.” Which means that no weapon formed against me shall be successful against me.
I talked to a friend of mine that talked about the recent ability to see me vulnerable. I don’t suppose to anyone that I don’t stumble here and there missing the shoulder that used to accompany me for 27 years (my wife Betty). There are spaces, so many spaces to fill which also accompany thoughts about what extent my mark will be made in this earth and reflection that asks, “What has been accomplished thus far…?” I appreciate the noticing and reminding me that I am human, and I am so, so human. I am smiling because this is life and life is worth living, life is worth experiencing, and experiences are worth creating. So, what does it take to be, “all,” you can be? Faith and creativity work for me. May that which helps me do great things be without hindrance, but let those around me know that I am human so they may also know, they can do it too.
For those that do not know, 2009 has been a trial bearing year for me. Betty, my wife of 27 years died in March and I have been in the recovery process. Depending on who you talk to, I am at varying stages of recovery. Along with that, I have been in battle with diabetes and infections. All this has sort of built up to a near death experience where I ended up in a hospital via fire rescue. I don’t remember the first 24 hours well, but I knew at some point, I was asked who the president was and I had real difficulty remembering. Now, I am recuperating and following doctor’s orders. I have had a few interventions where family and friends have confronted me on not taking care of myself and not considering the effect of me on them. Love has outpoured from all over and many, many people are offering help and support. I have to stop and ask at times, who am I that I should receive such love.
I am trying to sort it all out, so bare with me as I stumble through a few writings and get my focus clear. One thing I know, it will be God’s will over me and I am a willing servant. Below are samples of some of my processing thoughts. Stay tuned for more:
Guided by the Light”
I don’t always know every turn of the path
It coils and turns and new visions meet old thoughts and collide,
We are changed by little revelations almost every day…
The philosophers create modified explanations for yesterday’s mistakes…
But there is a way unchanged where one Word remains true…
No swaying for the tests of the times…
No worry or wrangling of the mind…
A rebuke and the storm is peace made still…
A command and a mountain becomes barely a hill…
With a mustard seed of faith we are blessed with all that we lack…
And no matter the fight no matter the Giant, God has our back…
No need to fear the dark places, no need to cower and turn away…
Confidence can be our temperament, with sureness we can surely stay…
We are not scared of unseen challenges of the night…
We are children of the most high; the darkness is crushed by the Light!!!
Vernon Martin © 2009 August 13
Packing
I can’t find the words to say, my mouth open and my breath feels taken away…
Do you feel me?
Shaking up memories, I thought I would just be packing…
My body aches, my mind is clouded,
Can you feel me?
War raging within…
Fighting when it seems no way to win…
I would at times, consider not getting up…
Sometimes my quest is to find that someone…
The one that is greater in me, my refuge…
I thought I would simply pack her clothes…
The memory of my wife, her life and her passing on…
To live, I am humbled, broken and submitted…
My body aches and my eyes have flooded…
Do you feel me?
If one can chase a thousand…
How much stronger could WE be?
If you are a believer, then you feel me…
We can walk in one accord…
The gates of hell shall not prevail, together we stand, shield and sword…
By Vernon Martin © 2009 written August 29, 2009
Daily
I enter each day…reaching for the hope that will carry me through…
I will not pretend that answers flood my mind…
In fact there are times when I have searched a barren container for journey’s trail…
But somehow whether barren or full, I find at least a morsel and promise…
Some look at me and assume my battle and judge my strength…
Perhaps never knowing my foundation or the pillars set around me…
They will pull me to rise if I could not stand…
I enter each day…with a resolve; never the less, never, never the less…
I will not pretend that answers flood my mind or genius finds its way…
But if I wait and listen, wisdom will set the course…
If I give opportunity the moment; a chance to hear God’s voice…
I’ll be given clear vision and the ability for the right choice.
Vernon Martin ©2009 All rights Reserved
Report
First of all, thank you. All the support has been very encouraging. The hardest part of my recovery is the waiting. Fighting that inner motor that says, GO! It’s like waiting for the starting gun to shoot, the race to start, the doors to open, or the wall to fall. Feeling like there is something to be done and I have to do to it. But today I am listening to friends, family and doctors. Slowly making my re-entry and evaluating my work thus far. What exactly have I done…with all the work…just how effective has my life been and how if possible can I do more and be more. How can I live my purpose, the one God designated for me? For any one that wonders, I am a survivor, a fighter, and a leader, I have not given up. It is my fabric to go forward. I ended up in the hospital because I refused to let my physical feelings keep me from showing up for work. So now, I am faced with all sorts of challenges at this time, but I serve a God that is bigger than me and all my little problems and situations. Even when I forget where my help comes from, there are mighty soldiers placed around me that step in to remind me. So, today I wait, moving slowly as my strength is renewed. Impossible situations surround me and this too will pass. Beware; I will be a new man on the other side!!! I will not be the same! I will be better.
2008
When Flying Calls You
Your greatness may need to be discovered (uncovered, realized, found, or brought out). I think that it is the inner knocking that creates our restlessness. Waking up, looking around and seeing you out of place, out of step with your own cadence and missing your parade; a celebration awaiting you. In your vision, yet out of this time and space, it seems like a dream, but what you really see is your possible destiny. Fearfully and wonderfully made…you were made for greatness! “The reason that we’re here…” I remember that line from an Earth Wind and Fire song and I also remember its penetration into my psyche. I wanted to know my reason, the reason that I was here. Have you ever questioned your reason?
When I was in my late teens, I could not see myself succeeding. For some reason, I felt empty, alone, helpless and hopeless. I could not see my reason for being here...my reason for using this precious air. For years after that, though I continued to search, I thought I would never feel like that again. Sometimes, before we birth a new beginning, we must endure a painful season. Some years later, on a February 29th, I met that feeling again, but this time, I was not a teenager. We put our trust in many things. As an adult, I was shocked out of my denial. Denial is such a powerful foe. I have seen it on the lives of clients as something that seems so obvious is ignored as though it is non-existent and has been replaced by some thought or concept. It’s like living on the holodeck of Star Trek (a place of holographic images) and living my own fantasies. Just because I believed that I was giving valuable service, doesn’t mean that it is received as valuable or giving someone what I thought they needed instead of giving what they said they wanted, these things might not earn praise. On that day, my fantasy was demolished. I am thankful for the awakening, but on that day, I questioned my use of air. I considered an end…stopping the noise and relieving emptiness I questioned my sacrifices and the impact of my sacrifices on my family. I wondered what opportunities I ignored that left them without what could have been provided. I looked toward the future and saw the sky cleared and my path extended. How do we set our goals, so our loyalty is properly positioned? How do we look toward a future without the shades of limitation? After contemplating my life, even without clear direction or encouraging word, I knew that death was not an option.
One clear day, having coffee, listening to low international music and somewhat comfortable on a wooden chair; I experienced a meeting that I will always remember because of a friend that was excited about his life change. He described his chase for more as a self defeating existence. He noted that he was always able to get money and get more money, but he was left empty after the chase. I remember a person saying to a group, “I envy you because you can dream that your pursuit for wealth will satisfy your yearning, but I have wealth and I know it won’t. My friend looked off into the distance with this starry eyed expression and smile and says I have found my reason for being here. “I am here to help people!” He may have looked one step away starting a commune, but I knew what he was saying. He was acknowledging a change in direction that put material things in a lower priority than people. For some, that is a big revelation, but for others, it is simply the season that we are in.
People Ahead of Things
If you really want to study this season of change, just look around. Little by little the hustle and run is being replaced by people searching for the break in the day or even a break in the life where we can experience peace. This is the power behind the Starbucks and similar places. People don’t spend their money there just because of coffee, they also spend it because of atmosphere. People, executives and non executives will sit, sip, and even converse. We want to connect and in that connection, what can be more fulfilling than knowing that we touched a life and helped.
We don’t have to throw out the flat screen or give away the Bentley, but we do need to step out of our cubicle and touch the world. I am not sure what undercurrent is responsible for the slow wave of awareness. I thought that it might be all this talk about going green. The resurge of being conscious of nature almost gives me a flash back of the 70’s, where we passed flowers and free love. Maybe, it is the awakening of people in their various pursuits of happiness that become weary and realized that they are not on the path of their dream. Somehow, along the way they stepped into another path that almost resembles the mouse wheel, turning and turning and going no where fast. Look in that mirror and be honest with that reflection; is this where you really wanted to be in your life?
A while ago, I sat with a man every Saturday by a pool for three weeks. He was coming back from a long fight with alcohol abuse. His mind was foggy and now he was getting treatment. On the third Saturday, sitting in same spot as the previous meetings, he interrupted our session with a new revelation, “There’s a waterfall over there!” For three weeks he sat by this big loud waterfall and missed it! His mind was foggy because of alcohol, but some minds are foggy because of a wrong perspective. Our individual lives impact and are impacted by our world around us. Our world is being shaken by change. If we are going to survive the coming years as our country does some reorganizing, we are encouraged to look around and connect. In an earlier article I mentioned the post-hurricane fellowship where people got together and shared. Neighbors actually got to know each other’s name. We may not need a crisis but one is at hand. We have to get it together and save the world (don’t roll your eyes).
For many of us, the days of nonchalant living have slipped away. Maybe, it was that moment of adolescence that gave way to thoughts about life and future or maybe it was many years later when we paused to make sense of our existence, goals and meaning. Perhaps, it happened when someone challenged our direction, accomplishments or lack thereof. When it happened, we had to take a look at today and define our life.
Taking A Look At U.S.
There seems to be a national and possibly a global rumbling of discontent. It is becoming harder and harder to promote the settling attitudes of yesteryear, where people were managed to the benefit of the few while believing that they were helping the many. The rumbling has pushed forth the broad and sweeping embracing of the simple word, "Change!" The bottom line is, people are generally expressing such displeasure with the experience of today that they don't necessarily take time to define the difference desired as much as they promote the definite desire for something other than this! We are attempting the pursuit of happiness, striving for a very personal peace.
I remember a quick conversation with a friend. We looked over a parking lot and I pointed out a Mercedes. "I'd like to be digging the scene in that," I said, part joking and part teasing. "Well," he said, "In America, you can have anything you want, if you are willing to pay the price!" It was a light comment I think, but the words rang in my ears many hours later. Willing to pay the price? Howard Schultz, the ex-CEO of Starbucks, talks about the price his father paid for their family. He was working extremely hard, paying for it with his life, but not able to have decent insurance. He sacrificed more than the company gave to him in wages. What price did he need to pay for the insurance? You can have anything that you are willing to pay for. What price do we pay for the labeled items in our life? Sometimes the sticker price lacks the accurate price paid for its luxury. What price are you willing to pay, what price are you actually paying?
I can remember a time of contemplation. I remembered an earlier time, somewhere after my initial search for meaning. Events shifted things around and I found myself sitting next to an active national leader, I was eighteen years old. We spoke for almost twenty minutes and he finalized our discussion with a statement, “You will be a great national leader one day!” That quieted me and scared me. He made sure that I understood this statement as a sincere word rather than a flattering comment. I was quieted because it rang a sort of bell inside me which I thought was confirmation. It scared me because I feared the attached responsibility so I retreated. My wife is not very patient with me when I want to watch Akela and the Bee (again). But I watch it because I connect with Akela as she reads a quote that I have decided to read to myself at least once a week.
Many years ago, Nelson Mandela was speaking. During his speech he quoted this same writing, as provided below:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone.
And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
I think that it is the inner knocking that creates our restlessness. It is our true self that wants to come out. To come out through the instilled limitations that clutters our mind and memories. We hear the knocking, as we tremble and hesitate to open the door. We have accepted the conclusion that we can’t do it, can’t go there, or can’t be what we really want to be. We are trapped by a chain too weak to hold us if we just believe. I thought about a song that said, “I believe I can fly…” Well, I sang that song, but I was still walking. But one day I sat in front of a television, ready for the accepted end of a race to be president, but Obama won Iowa. What I witnessed made me think. What would make an African-American man think that he could actually win a race for the presidency? Why didn’t he see the barriers as I saw them, “impossible to penetrate,”? Can we really break through our own disbelief, our self made limits, or can we go forward despite the negative feedback of those around us? Can we really choose a path in life that is life, where we find satisfaction where we are and worth in our production? Can we extend our vision to embrace the world we live in, crossing races, creeds, or even nationalities? Could it be possible for choices to be made based on what’s good for me and good for us? The answer has been popularized,
“Yes we can.”
© 2008 Vernon Martin Coaching. All rights reserved.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZHou18Cdk