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Today's
Meditation:
For
most of my years on this planet, I have not allowed myself
to hope and dream that my wants could be fulfilled.
I haven't even seriously considered my wants as important
because of disappointment in my past that told me that my
wants could not become reality. I'm slowly waking up
to see what a self-destructive tendency this has been for
me--after all, my wants are legitimate parts of who I am,
and as long as I don't hurt anyone else in trying to
fulfill those desires, then what's the problem?
I
think more people could benefit from focusing a bit more
(even quite a bit more) on fulfilling their own wants and
desires. Yes, it can be noble always to fulfill the
wants of others first, but we simply do not develop
ourselves as persons by neglecting ourselves. We
also don't develop our abilities to turn wants into
reality, and we deprive ourselves of a lot of
satisfaction. And it seems pretty obvious that we
can help others better when we're satisfied ourselves.
There
are those who suspend their wants, too. "I'll
go to Hawaii in ten years, when I've saved enough
money." Ten years later, though, many people
still haven't gone to Hawaii. Between expenses and
property taxes and children coming into the picture, the
money (or the time, or the vacation days, or the
baby-sitting) just isn't there any more.
Once
we commit ourselves to fulfilling a want, we automatically
put into place the forces necessary to make that want a
reality. And all wants aren't material,
either. We definitely should distinguish between
true wants and desires that we're using to avoid other
issues (buying that large-screen TV will make others
admire me), and we definitely should not put ourselves in
debt to fulfill most of our wants, but we must make
the effort to fulfill them if we're to become truly
fulfilled human beings.
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