An ordinary can of spinach sits beside my computer. It serves as a reminder and prompts me to ask, “What is the source of my strength? What is the spinach in my life?”
A male friend once asked me if women dream of slaying dragons the way men do. I replied, "Yes! Of course, we do!" Both girls and boys dream of dragon-slaying heroes, fairy tale folk who are able to triumph over changes that challenge them.
My fantasy as a little girl was to have Popeye’s power! I wanted to be a sailor like him. Maybe that’s why I loved to sail as adult!
Popeye is just an ordinary guy who always seems to be in trouble. And who causes the most trouble? Bluto!! Then just when all seems to be lost, Popeye gets out his can of spinach. With one squeeze, he pops it open and eats it!
What happens next?
The muscles in Popeye's arms bulge, he gains a strength that enables him to conquer all odds, and the villain shrivels away. The results are overwhelming, but his triumphant moment finally arrives. Popeye has confronted his problems and prevailed.
We cheer and lustily sing along with him (remember the song?)
What is source of Popeye's strength? Is it simply the can of spinach? Or is it the confidence that the spinach gives him?
My question is this....What is the source of your strength? What is the spinach in your life?
Life is about change, confronting those changes, conquering the challenge. Who or what is the Bluto in your life?
At the age of 40, when life supposedly begins, I stepped out of the certainty of a "perfect" marriage. My husband was a physician, and we had just built our 4,000 square foot dream home. We had four bright, active children and three cars. But I felt restless and trapped, totally consumed by an unfulfilling marriage. I examined and debated it with a psychiatrist friend, my pastor, and other counselors, until I finally could open my can of spinach and squeeze out a smidgen of personal power.
Filled with terror and guilt, I walked away from it all to live my life as a single woman.
Soon after my divorce, working as a counselor in a California clinic, a woman I had been working with for several months said, "I can't stand to look at you. I can't stand what you are."
When I asked what that meant, she responded, "You've got it made! You do so well in life."
"Let me tell you a story," I said. I told her where I had been less than a year before. The road toward my imagined happiness had been strewn with fatigue, financial struggles, suicidal thoughts, discouragement. I had no job, no home, no car, no self-esteem, and my four children had decided to stay with their father.
I had nothing except a U-Haul truck full of old furniture and a cat with her fresh litter of kittens. I was free from but not yet free for. When I opened my can of spinach and began to trust my own power, my life story began to transform.
Within a year, I had enrolled as a doctoral student in psychology and had been hired as a psychological assistant in a clinic. I had bought a home and a car, and my children were with me, except for one daughter who had gotten married.
My feelings of inadequacy had begun to subside because of my spinach - an internal strength from a forgotten Source.
The ensuing two decades were packed with change. It is a story of how I lived through those changes. I sold my home to move onto a 37 foot sloop, and lived there for almost 5 years. I was able to complete two more graduate degrees, travel throughout the world, modify my career to include becoming ordained minister. I had my can of spinach, a circle of supporters and a strong faith in a higher power.
Twenty-one years later, in 1994, at the age of sixty, an age when I probably should be thinking about retiring to my rocking chair, I continued making major changes in my life.
I remarried, stepped off into another career with the corporate world, then became a campus minister at a major university, and started thinking about returning to school. It required an abundance of spinach.
My maternal grandfather used to say “I’ll never die until the day I finish all my woodworking projects.” One day, when he thought he had finished everything, he died! The afternoon of his funeral, a fresh load of lumber was delivered to his home, ready for his next project. My own projects and ventures continue, also.
I invite you to summarize your own life in terms of major changes. One way is to create a time line. Place all the major events in your life on a line like peaks and valleys. Then write a brief paragraph (leave out all the small details), make it into a summary story of your life, like I've just summarized my life.
How does your story turn out? How did you prevail?
Now consider the changes and challenges you anticipate throughout the coming year. Children will become young men and women, begin to date. We face the possible loss of friends. Some of you will leave home, get new jobs or start school, divorce or remarry.
How will you triumph? What is the source of strength you can use to help you face and overcome the challenge of change? What gives you strength when you face the shifts in your life?
Your spinach is not only valuable in major circumstances, but also in the smaller daily events - when you are getting the children out the door in the morning, or you need that extra burst of bounce, co-workers push your boundaries, or the battery dies. It’s also learning how to create a life that is more than ordinary!
Simply being human means there is a story to tell! It means taking risks, and facing our Blutos! Over the years, through several divorces and other traumatic events, my faith was the only spinach that sustained me.
Perhaps you are concluding one part of your life right now. You may be changing jobs, ending a relationship, you may have just gone into recovery from alcohol or other drugs, you may be healing from major surgery. You may be thinking about moving to a new house, town, state, country.
What's my spinach? It's sincere prayer and faith in a spirit-filled universe. It's sensitive companions who champion my tenacity. It's consultation with professional counselors who help provide tools for living. It's realizing I'm stronger than I think. It's sheer determination to show up for life, what is called grit. It’s going back to the Source of my existence for support. Each time a Bluto appears to challenge me, I have to remember to grab that can of spinach and squeeze, rather than believe I have to tough it out alone.
Is your spinach handy?
I suggest you buy a can of spinach, keep it sitting on your desk as a reminder of where you get your strength and confidence. Ask yourself: “What is the source of my strength? What's my spinach?” I invite you to risk, stretch, dare to be different, to go where it may not always be so safe.
Popeye faced the Blutos with faith in his spinach. And when all else fails, we can sing along with him…“I’m Popeye the sailor man...”
# # #
A male friend once asked me if women dream of slaying dragons the way men do. I replied, "Yes! Of course, we do!" Both girls and boys dream of dragon-slaying heroes, fairy tale folk who are able to triumph over changes that challenge them.
My fantasy as a little girl was to have Popeye’s power! I wanted to be a sailor like him. Maybe that’s why I loved to sail as adult!
Popeye is just an ordinary guy who always seems to be in trouble. And who causes the most trouble? Bluto!! Then just when all seems to be lost, Popeye gets out his can of spinach. With one squeeze, he pops it open and eats it!
What happens next?
The muscles in Popeye's arms bulge, he gains a strength that enables him to conquer all odds, and the villain shrivels away. The results are overwhelming, but his triumphant moment finally arrives. Popeye has confronted his problems and prevailed.
We cheer and lustily sing along with him (remember the song?)
What is source of Popeye's strength? Is it simply the can of spinach? Or is it the confidence that the spinach gives him?
My question is this....What is the source of your strength? What is the spinach in your life?
Life is about change, confronting those changes, conquering the challenge. Who or what is the Bluto in your life?
At the age of 40, when life supposedly begins, I stepped out of the certainty of a "perfect" marriage. My husband was a physician, and we had just built our 4,000 square foot dream home. We had four bright, active children and three cars. But I felt restless and trapped, totally consumed by an unfulfilling marriage. I examined and debated it with a psychiatrist friend, my pastor, and other counselors, until I finally could open my can of spinach and squeeze out a smidgen of personal power.
Filled with terror and guilt, I walked away from it all to live my life as a single woman.
Soon after my divorce, working as a counselor in a California clinic, a woman I had been working with for several months said, "I can't stand to look at you. I can't stand what you are."
When I asked what that meant, she responded, "You've got it made! You do so well in life."
"Let me tell you a story," I said. I told her where I had been less than a year before. The road toward my imagined happiness had been strewn with fatigue, financial struggles, suicidal thoughts, discouragement. I had no job, no home, no car, no self-esteem, and my four children had decided to stay with their father.
I had nothing except a U-Haul truck full of old furniture and a cat with her fresh litter of kittens. I was free from but not yet free for. When I opened my can of spinach and began to trust my own power, my life story began to transform.
Within a year, I had enrolled as a doctoral student in psychology and had been hired as a psychological assistant in a clinic. I had bought a home and a car, and my children were with me, except for one daughter who had gotten married.
My feelings of inadequacy had begun to subside because of my spinach - an internal strength from a forgotten Source.
The ensuing two decades were packed with change. It is a story of how I lived through those changes. I sold my home to move onto a 37 foot sloop, and lived there for almost 5 years. I was able to complete two more graduate degrees, travel throughout the world, modify my career to include becoming ordained minister. I had my can of spinach, a circle of supporters and a strong faith in a higher power.
Twenty-one years later, in 1994, at the age of sixty, an age when I probably should be thinking about retiring to my rocking chair, I continued making major changes in my life.
I remarried, stepped off into another career with the corporate world, then became a campus minister at a major university, and started thinking about returning to school. It required an abundance of spinach.
My maternal grandfather used to say “I’ll never die until the day I finish all my woodworking projects.” One day, when he thought he had finished everything, he died! The afternoon of his funeral, a fresh load of lumber was delivered to his home, ready for his next project. My own projects and ventures continue, also.
I invite you to summarize your own life in terms of major changes. One way is to create a time line. Place all the major events in your life on a line like peaks and valleys. Then write a brief paragraph (leave out all the small details), make it into a summary story of your life, like I've just summarized my life.
How does your story turn out? How did you prevail?
Now consider the changes and challenges you anticipate throughout the coming year. Children will become young men and women, begin to date. We face the possible loss of friends. Some of you will leave home, get new jobs or start school, divorce or remarry.
How will you triumph? What is the source of strength you can use to help you face and overcome the challenge of change? What gives you strength when you face the shifts in your life?
Your spinach is not only valuable in major circumstances, but also in the smaller daily events - when you are getting the children out the door in the morning, or you need that extra burst of bounce, co-workers push your boundaries, or the battery dies. It’s also learning how to create a life that is more than ordinary!
Simply being human means there is a story to tell! It means taking risks, and facing our Blutos! Over the years, through several divorces and other traumatic events, my faith was the only spinach that sustained me.
Perhaps you are concluding one part of your life right now. You may be changing jobs, ending a relationship, you may have just gone into recovery from alcohol or other drugs, you may be healing from major surgery. You may be thinking about moving to a new house, town, state, country.
What's my spinach? It's sincere prayer and faith in a spirit-filled universe. It's sensitive companions who champion my tenacity. It's consultation with professional counselors who help provide tools for living. It's realizing I'm stronger than I think. It's sheer determination to show up for life, what is called grit. It’s going back to the Source of my existence for support. Each time a Bluto appears to challenge me, I have to remember to grab that can of spinach and squeeze, rather than believe I have to tough it out alone.
Is your spinach handy?
I suggest you buy a can of spinach, keep it sitting on your desk as a reminder of where you get your strength and confidence. Ask yourself: “What is the source of my strength? What's my spinach?” I invite you to risk, stretch, dare to be different, to go where it may not always be so safe.
Popeye faced the Blutos with faith in his spinach. And when all else fails, we can sing along with him…“I’m Popeye the sailor man...”
# # #
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