After 38 years our original mission has been rediscovered

In the '70s we were very much awakening young adults with kids under 5. These married and single parents were the foundation of our work. They were the roots of the effort we launched into the Public High Schools.

Now with the support of PNC Bank we are rediscovering the power of these adults. They put their future in the context of what is best for their children's future. They want to pay attention to what they can do  so that they are ready to walk ahead of their children. We focused on 6 areas. We called the learning times a "circle" were all the elements would be considered in question form because the people ourselves contain the answers. We just need to be released.

• what we need so our children will have what they need?
• where do we live and sustain our home and health?
• how do we deal with obstacles and setbacks to turn them into opportunities?
• what do we do to strengthen our education to make college a viable option for the next generation?
• what do we see as the spiritual life that we want to pass on?
• who are the people with whom we want to relate to build a healthy way of life?

Join us in Detroit and Chicago. Connect by Facebook or call (Detroit 313.420.0310 & Chicago 773.265.5806- find out

• where we meet and learn together
• when we have growth moments to strengthen our inner self to grow strong in fidelity to our values.
• how to volunteer to share our talents with others.

This is the original mission ... it's needed more now than ever.

Palestine, Israel, Chicago's Northwest Suburbs and the West-side - July 20, 2011

The seventh annual "Seeds Of Peace" day is looking forward to building on the discoveries made last year. Over 100 young people from four different communities shared their efforts to understand violence and to encourage peacemaking in the face of what was happening.

Those who looked at violence among people of different cultural or economic backgrounds know they feel safer when they stay among themselves. Those who look at violence that is close to them want to move away from where they live. Both solutions avoid the issues that are causing violence.

To face into the cause of violence called for creative ways to channelling our energies.

• A garden of peace is an expression of people finding a common project to experience the talents of each other. The focus of the garden is to plant seeds that will bring life for others.
• A basketball court is a place to recreate on common ground where people agree to make it a neutral zone.

This year we will want to discover how we ready each other to want to create ways to work together and to encourage each others' talents. Connect with us, if you want to be part of this effort in Chicago. If you want to do a similar action within your community, connect with us as well.

Why is Graduation called a Commencement Exercise?

Why is the completion of grade school, high school and college called a commencement exercise?

It may seem like a simple answer. But it is far from that, when you reflect further.

When we graduate, we are beginning to step into our adult life, ready to take on the world.

But for so many "walking across the stage" is what matters more than seeing the life ahead as the stage that we are about to step onto. As Shakespeare put it, "Out, out brief candle. Life is but a poor player who struts and frets his life upon the stage of time ... full of sound and fury ... signifying nothing."

It doesn't have to be this way. Find a mentor, an elder with wisdom. That person will know you want to know the meaning of life and not such the means to making a living. You'll catch the value of balance with someone else being light for your dark side. You'll discover the value of diversity and see people different from you as a gift to be reverenced. And see the next generation as calling us to want to common good with as much value as our own.

Retreat Team Members for 2011 & Participants

To: All of you who have ever been on a Focus LIFE (AKA - Life Search) week-end retreat.
From: Fr. John
Re:  Team members for the week-end retreats in Detroit (June 24-26) and Chicago (TBD)
Date: May 20, 2011

• Do you want to be on team? It is great spiritually-centered leadership training.
• We are planning our week-ends beginning June 24-26 in Detroit.
• Do you want to send someone to the week-end in Detroit? It is great to awaken the talents of those who connect and synergize each other
• It will be held in Southwest Detroit at the Juan Diego Center on Fort Street.

1. To be on team means you have been on the retreat before.
2. Just e-mail me and I will pass your request on to the appropriate site.

We will be planning our Chicago Focus LIFE week-end for September.

My e-mail = jphelps@lifedirections.org

We do our best and God does the rest! Amazing to watch it all work together for the good of all.

Teachers are Key to Life Directions

We want to thank all the teachers with whom we work.

In May of each year we have our Awards' Ceremonies to recognize the achievements of the students who have motivated each other during the year.

We thank the teachers who do the selection of the young people. We are encouraged to facilitate young people challenging each other to make school work for them. We are grateful for working with their families in the neighborhoods.

The teachers show their gratitude to us as we add value to what they do in the classroom. We want to tell the teachers that we are grateful for what they do! The teachers with whom we work want to challenge the young people to be ready for college and a career. They want the young people to have a future for themselves and their children.

If you get a chance to thank a teacher, do it. It is long overdo for so many who have given so much. It is sad to see the "cuts". But it is good to know that no one can cut out what a teacher has put into the minds and hearts of their students.

Feel free to call us, if you're in town and want to come to our Awards' Ceremonies. In Detroit we are at Western International High School on May 17 in the afternoon. In Chicago we are at Farragut Career High School on May 31 in the morning. For information call (313.420.0310 - Detroit) & (773.265.5806 - Chicago).

Does Life Directions Have A Prayer? - YES, we are praying for the journey

The first Tuesday of each month, Life Directions will call all of us to pray for three different groups in two different settings. The three groups are (a) those who support the mission (b) those who receive the vision (c) those who give the values. The two different settings are (a) our Monthly Prayer Community (b) our network of prayer partners who sign up on facebook or who remember us.

We launch our Prayer for the Journey on April 5th in Detroit (5716 Michigan Avenue - Suite 2200 -313.420.0310) and in Chicago (414 S. Homan Avenue - 2nd floor - 773.265.5806).

You are one more reason we have a prayer to share for those at risk of dropping out of school (under 18) or of disconnecting from any faith-based community (over 18).

• Benefactors who want to awaken values for those under 18 in Public Schools and benefactors who want to re-awaken faith for those over 18 in Churches and other places of worship
• Young people and young adults from 13 to 39 years of age to connect with ways to ready them to be self-responsible and rooted in their values or in their faith
• Self-supported volunteers and staff who give values a chance to awaken and re-awaken those who do not know they are loved just the way they are.

Looking forward to hearing from and joining in with you.

Fr. John

Was St. Patrick English?

One important dimension of Life Directions is "embracing our roots".

Being an Irish American, I have take time to visit my roots. I went to 3 counties in Ireland - Down (in the North), Cork and Mayo (in the South). Then I went to England, since I have roots in Wales.

What I found what that Patrick was a slave and probably was born an Englishman. He studied in France and went to Ireland to ensure "idolatry" would not make its way into the Isle - thus he kept the snakes out.

Happy Celebration of such a hero. May it give us encouragement to live what we know of our roots or to take time to discover our past. It is part of ensuring we can "learn from yesterday", "listen to today" and "speak for tomorrow."

There is a time and place for everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1ff)!

Awakening Peacemakers through Peers

Focus LIFE is the name given to the development of peacemakers who grow to understand what will lessen violence and increase a compassionate way of life.

The week-end retreat is for young adults from 18 years of age and older. Adults and Elders join them. The key is to be open to the rootedness that sustains us as we absorb the "disrespect" and respond with "respect". The week-end has six distinct steps.

• Come to be aware how I want to be  remember
• Explore what it takes to build the trust that will bring about a way to be  remembered
• Face into the various obstacles that can break entrusting what we value and hold sacred
• Open up to what makes it possible to find the opportunity to deepen trust within the obstacle
• Discover ways to bring this way of trusting to others
• See ways to want to support each other as peers to sustain the trust.

To learn more about this process, give us a call at 773.265.5806 or respond to the blog.

Kevin Garnett & Hansen Clarke - Alumni of Life Directions

Recently Hansen Clarke from the East Side of Detroit was elected to the U.S. Congress. I was explaining what it means for peers to inspire peers and was using the example of Kevin Garnett, who has been playing for the Boston Celtics.

Both Hansen and Kevin are Alumni of Life Directions. They represent the vision of Life Directions - "as I inspire others, I myself will be excellent."

The career path of a politician and an athlete are different. But the core value of taking my talents, developing them to be my best and doing it for the sake of others is the same.

We look to the High School Peer Achievers challenging their peers to develop themselves in the face of all the distractions that come at them. We are grateful for two public role models that were Peer Achievers when they were in High School. It is good to hold up such people to share how effective Peers Inspiring Peers can be.

Whatever both men do in their profession is their responsibility. But the awareness of their being role models for others is inside of them. It is true for each of us. May we encourage each other to be positive role models in the face of the negative.

Merri Dee is role model to understand - so you can be your best

We see the importance for role models, like Merri Dee, for the young adults who want to succeed. There are people of excellence in many professions - media, like Merri Dee or math and science, business, ministry, financing, politics and so on.

In Black History Month, Merri Dee is an excellent person from whom to learn. She turned tragedy into triumph, near loss of life into the reason to be grateful for all of life. But she is the first to tell young people, as she has when she has been our Emcee at the Life Directions' Salute, know yourself and be the best you can be as you.

It good to study what went into their growth and maturity. The values they held. The teachings that fashioned their thinking. The people who went before them. The cause they claimed.

But when it all over, it is important to take equal time to find out what are your assets, your talents and skills and to find a way to do what can only be done by you.

EQ and SQ - equal to IQ - really?

Some focus on the intellectual readiness (Academic IQ) for young people to have college be a possibility. We have found two other equally important areas of readines.

Since 1973 we have engaged with over 160,000 young people and young adults (13 through their 30s) in Public Schools, Neighborhood Networking, retreats and workshops.

The two areas are Emotional IQ and Spiritual IQ. We have worked in Detroit MI, Chicago IL San Antonio TX, Tucson AZ, New Orleans LA and Marion County OR.

• Emotional IQ - awakened an awareness within 8th through 12th graders of the fact that the way they see people and challenges brings on to them a feeling they like or dislike. Left to itself, the feeling will lead them to do and say positive or negative actions and words. They will get what their actions and words trigger in others.
• Spiritual IQ - expands young adults from 18 through their 30s to embraces diversity among people, cultures, creeds, socio-educational-economic situations. Through ways of reflecting and acting ways of growing through the discipline of forgiving invites reconciliation. It confronts to the core the roots of any addictive way of life.

To know more about our ways of awakening and expanding, look us up on the web - http://www.lifedirections.org/ or e-mail me at jphelps@lifedirections.org

Fr. John Phelps, C.Ss.R. - President and CEO of Life Directions

Three Kings - a custom to encourage giving what we value

One aspect of the "Three-kings tradition" centers on children believing their talents are the gifts the Creator wants others to receive.

Young people have the talents that their peers need to become full people. Those who need their talents in turn need to receive talents from those to whom they give.

A simple example - people who are outgoing give to those who are hesitant the talent of courage. As they do so, the hesitant give the talent of thinking about consequences before jumping into things.

As we move toward the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr., we ask the question of the young people we serve - when Martin shared his talent to speak, what a gift he received from his partnership with people who listened to those who were poor. Which of the two talents come naturally to you and will you share what you have to give and will be willing to receive what others have to share with you?