The title of today’s blog comes from the Navy SEALs. From what I understand it’s their go-to maxim for trying times, no matter how trying. 

If you’re in a leadership role, the maxim applies double. It matters how our leaders come at problems. Their approach sets the tone for the rest of the interaction. 

Remember the post from earlier about not making things worse? Embracing an attitude of calm is a HUGE part of that practice. 

So, for today… remember to breathe, practice calm… 

… and infect as many other people as you can! 

(See y’all tomorrow)

​In my day-to-day life, I have the chance to talk with a lot of folx about various and sundry examples of human struggle and suffering. I’m blessed to hear each of their stories, and sit with them during their hard days, sometimes bearing witness so they are not alone, sometimes offering counsel if they ask. I get to hear about moments of mindfulness and many more of mindlessness. Really, in truth, what I get to do is share in the humanity of my community, and what I’ve learned in my work is this: privilege exists AND everyone struggles.

So many challenges befall us while we’re just minding our own business, tryin’ to get through life, tryin’ to get to tomorrow… shit, sometimes just tryin’ to get out of bed. The scope of life’s challenges can be overwhelming, and it becomes even worse when we can’t get out of our own heads, and after dwelling on it all, we find ourselves in the space of inaction, where we are trapped between past failures and a hopeless future. We’ve all been there, and we’ll all be there again. But remember, if you’re sitting here reading this, you made it through. 

OK… sure, we made it through. 

Looking back at those hard times, however, we often wonder how the heck we made it through. We wonder what miracle happened that we got from there to here. How did we survive the impossible odds, and antagonistic circumstances? Well, as usual, Rev. Badger is gonna burst the bubble of miracle and magic by giving you the answer: 

You were busier than a one-legged person in an ass-kickin’ contest, and didn’t even notice you were doing gettin’ through. 

You had your hands full being busy with THE PRESENT MOMENT, and likely didn’t have time to worry about the whole scope of a situation crushing down upon you. In that moment, you made it through by being present with what was in front of you. In the middle of the hurricane, you were at it’s eye. See, each moment, each blip of the present, is an opportunity for you to be completely present. In each moment, we won’t have the power to get rid of those greater circumstances beyond our control, but we do have the power to affect that which is right before our eyes. 

An incredible amount of stress comes from thinking we can control things that are, in reality, beyond our control. The answer to that is not to go deeper into plotting the past and scheming the future, but to simply do what’s in front of us. That’s it.

Keep your heads down, focus on the moment without worrying about past ones or future ones, do what’s in front of you, and gods be good, I’ll… 

(... see y’all tomorrow.) 

​Seneca said it best, really. Are you ready for today? How will Fate find you? Will you regret, and wish that you’d have done differently in the past? 

Wishing to go back in time is nothing but a waste of yours, and that wishing does nothing but increase desire to mourn, and decrease desire to get things done. 

The way of the Cosmos is what it is. You cannot remake the universe. Working within what’s there is a necessity. 

So, prepare… and get to it. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

​When going through life, we’re constantly faced with decisions and challenges. Sometimes, we’re compelled to engage in never-ending, resource-taxing, offense. Other times, we choose a defensive option that resembles the willow: flexible, yet resilient. 

Consider this: the more we offensively pursue fortune’s gifts, the more we’re susceptible to the delusions that often accompany fortune. 

Be mindful in our offense, and tempered in our defense. 

If our goals are to die happily in bed, surrounded by loved ones, we have to embrace religion’s or philosophy’s ability to tame the untrained, wild mind full of desire and hunger. 

Remember, when our drive to succeed is harmful to ourselves, others, and our relationships, can it really be a success? 

(See y’all tomorrow) 

I wonder how Epictetus’ example applies in today’s culture of throwing away friends and family for even the slightest social/interpersonal/political infraction. Would it hold up? Would we “modern sensibility” people of today be able to grab the handle of family or friendship instead of the handle of the “wronging”? Today, we’re supposed to be more advanced as a species, and know more than ever before about the rest of the world… shit, you’d think there would be MORE understanding instead of less. 

Maybe the above isn't the right thing to say. Maybe I'll end up losing members to my congregation 

Maybe… just maybe we can all try the other handle? Please?

(See y’all tomorrow)

Maybe you’ve read or heard the phrase Vivere militare est (Lat.: commonly understood as “to live is to fight”, but I’d argue that it could also mean “to live is to exist as a soldier”, that is to say, disciplined and expecting conflict). In case you were in doubt, let me assure you, it’s a true statement. 

Literally and figuratively, our bodies, impulses, our egos, others, gravity, disease, and so many more things on our planet are completely indifferent to our going on living. Unless you want to give in to those oppositional factors, you have to fight! Get scrappy, y’all. 

That being said, what does it take to win fights? 

Mindfulness, strength, discipline, selflessness, courage, and the ability to understand the nature of sacrifice (from Lat. sacra facere - “to make something sacred”). 

… and what loses fights? 

Selfishness, anger, ignorance,  weakness, cowardice, and arrogance. 

If living itself is a battle, then for goodness sake: FIGHT TO WIN.

(See y’all tomorrow) 

“Iron Mike” said it best… and I have to tell y’all, he’s right. 

I used to tell my hapkido and aikido students that all the time they spend training in the dojang/dojo can only add up to between 50 and 66 percent of their training. The rest comes with contact sparring, where the moves are not pre-sorted and punches to the face are real, albeit not at full power… usually. In other words, the rest of the training comes when we remove the predictability and add in some randomness. You won’t know how you’ll react when you’re in duress unless you’re there.  

Life, like proper sparring (or an actual fight), doesn’t follow a script, and the only way to get through is to have the openness and flexibility needed to flow with what’s before us. We’ll all fall back to the level of our training when SHTF ($h!t hits the fan), and there’s no amount of convincing ourselves otherwise that will change that fact. It doesn’t matter what kind of training or situations we’re talking about either. If you’re a priest who claims to be the head-mofo-of-the-sector, trained in all the mysteries, complete with a long list of merit badges to confirm this “fact”, and someone in your community suddenly dies, and if you’ve got nothing except some platitudes, canned responses, and read-aloud verses… know that you could have done better. You didn’t train enough. Remember, the script is good, but sudden deaths and the like don’t go by the script. They’re off-script, and out of time and place. 

So, what do we need to see us through moments like this even if we haven’t trained for the specific example above? Well, a major component of our problem solving “engine” is a disciplined mind. Not the kind of mind that is developed by making excuses as to why you can’t practice… but the kind of mind that subjects itself to the difficult things, that it may be prepared when it is time. Even if we have no skills to help pastorally in the above-mentioned time of death, a disciplined mind is what will empower us to keep our mouths shut (since we’ll be aware we don’t know shit), and simply be comfortable being present and bearing witness to the unfathomable suffering you’re seeing without running away or babbling needlessly (since Courage is informed by a disciplined mind). 

We can’t have every minutiae of plans A, B, C, etc. etc. etc… all worked out and ready to execute at a moment’s notice, so we have to learn how to become strategic rather than tactical. 

Flexible rather than rigid. 

Ready for infinite possibility rather than forcing a single outcome. 

Training brings comfort and ease after a while, and when SHTF (see above), that’s the best (and only) peace-of-mind you can hope for. 

(See y’all tomorrow) 

Sometimes, we find ourselves in a situation that can’t be helped, and that we have no control over… standing in a cashier’s line at a grocery store during a pre-holiday period, for example, is a great way to gauge the kinds of people we are (and see the spectrum of people there are in our communities around us). 

So… *POOF!* (Pouf!), there you are, standing in line. The shopping carts in front of you, waiting to get their own treasures and treats upon the conveyor belt, are three deep. Ahead of them, the person at the register is finishing their purchase and the line will likely move… at some point… soon?  You look down at your own little, handheld basket, seemingly vacant with only these three containers of very necessary -whatever-, and a bar of that foul peppermint chocolate your partner loves, and you take a breath before turning around to see another three shopping carts behind you, “patiently” waiting their turn… and in every checkout line to your left and right, as far as you can see, the scene is shockingly the same. Then, amidst a sea of seasonal shopping, you sense the spark of annoyance flickering. 

Breathe… and don’t make it worse.

Don’t give in to snarkily commenting to one of your neighbors about the speed of things, or the fact that the odor-of-humanity is reaching a new level, or anything for that matter. 

Just breathe… and don’t make it worse.

Remember the Stoic wisdom custom-tailored for this very moment, passed down and battle-tested through the ages: it is what it is, and since it is just that, embrace the moment fully, because it’s not going to be anything else other than what it is. 

So, in this time of standing in line, when you accept the moment as something that is beyond your control, you can see things you didn’t before. Perhaps, you’ll see someone drop something and you can help them pick it up. Maybe you’ll have the chance to see someone leave something behind, and you can see that it gets returned to them. You cannot problem solve when you’re lost in the fog of your ongoing war with ego. If you’re not lost in your ego’s reactions to an unchangeable situation, you can be present that you may be of help to those around you. You can help or heal instead of hinder, harm, or harass.

Suddenly, you notice that in the time it took for you to reflect, recalibrate, ponder things both Hospitable and Stoic, and return to the moment, you’ve become the next person in line at the checkout. *gasp* The time seemed to fly by. You notice a small swell of pride, feeling grateful to your practice of detachment and acceptance for getting you through a tough moment. After a deep breath, you finally step toward the cashier, placing your humble purchases on the conveyor, and readying a pithy remark about how you’ll assure them your meager purchase won’t take but a moment… 

… and now the management has to swap cashiers, because people need regular breaks, and their tills, and you’re assured all of this employee-swappery should only be but a moment. 

*sigh*

Breathe… and don’t make it worse. 

(See y’all tomorrow)