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June
24, 2008 |
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Make
the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Ralph
Waldo Emerson
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The
first question to be answered by any individual or any social
group facing a hazardous situation, is whether the crisis is to be
met as a challenge to strength or as an occasion for despair.
Harry
Emerson Fosdick
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Serenity
comes not alone by removing the outward causes and occasions of fear, but
by the discovery of inward reservoirs to draw upon.
Rufus M.
Jones
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eyes wide open
tom walsh
The Beauty of It All
One of the most fascinating aspects of life for me is the way
that beauty can sometimes be almost overwhelming. There are
times when a sunset or stormy sky or clear blue sky on a crisp,
cool day can be painful inside--a strange kind of pain that comes
from an overwhelming love for life and all that's in this life of
ours. I can't even describe it well--it's like something
inside recognizes my oneness with that beauty, yet isn't able to
connect with it in the way it would like to. Something
tightens inside, even in the midst of a feeling of exhilaration.
Culturally, we tend to define beauty in terms of the norms of
the day. We popularize forms while ignoring the intrinsic
forms of beauty. In mass media these days, it's still the
super-thin man or woman who bares as much as possible without
being pornographic. These are the people in the ads, on the
television programs, in the movies, even singing the music we
listen to. The men must have well defined muscles,
especially the abs, and the women must have well defined
breasts. Our focus is on the physical form--what the person
looks like rather than who the person is. Character is
irrelevant in most cases; it doesn't matter if the model is a
rude, obnoxious person, as long as he or she looks good.
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But there are other kinds of beauty that are much more
important. In people, I find that if I want to see the true
beauty of a person, I have to look in the person's eyes.
Yes, I appreciate physical beauty when I see it--in fact, I often
wonder why it's okay to stare at a beautiful painting for quite a
while, but if one's to stare at a picture of a beautiful woman or
man for a long while, other people think that our thoughts have to
be sexual. Sexuality is an important aspect of our lives,
but it's not until we're able to separate sexuality from many of
our relationships that we're able to move on and treat people as
people--it's not all about sex, is it?
But I digress. When I look into a person's eyes, I see
the beauty of life, the spark that says that this person is alive
and dynamic, full of energy and potential. I also hear it in
a person's voice, or see it in the way they walk or play.
The beauty of people lies in who they are, not in what they look
like.
Unfortunately, much of that beauty goes unnoticed as we focus
on the physical appearance. It goes unnoticed as we avoid
eye contact or wear shades to conceal our eyes from the gaze of
others. It goes unnoticed as we grow more and more isolated
from each other as technology takes over more and more of who we
are, defining our work and planning our time for us. We get
so used to the people we work with that we forget that they are
beautiful creations--wonderful bundles of flesh and bone and
nerves and heart and soul and energy and love and potential who
truly are walking miracles, each one of them.
And how much more beauty goes unnoticed as we hurry from place
to place during the course of our busy days? How many
flowers and trees do we go by without noticing their colors or
their marvelous complexity or their scents? How many
rainbows go unseen by how many people because we close ourselves
up indoors when it rains to "protect" ourselves from the
elements? How many snowfalls go unenjoyed because it's too
cold outside or we don't want to bother to put on our gloves and
coats and boots and hats to keep us warm and dry?
Even worse, how many of us are discouraged by those around us
who are so caught up in societal norms of beauty that they
criticize or ridicule others who love to enjoy beauty? I've
heard plenty of people ridicule the "nature lovers"
simply because they've mentioned how beautiful they find something
to be. I've seen children find beauty in a weed, only to be
told "That's not beautiful--it's a weed." In our
media, there are many who are trying to give beauty its due, using
beautiful images to create a mood or a feeling, but there are just
as many others who focus on the horrible and the ugly--murder,
crime, hatred, violence, you name it--in order to make money,
perpetuating some of the more ignorant and harmful parts of human
life while completely ignoring the beauty that we have in our
lives.
What's beautiful in your life? I can answer that in a
general way. There are beautiful people in your life, whom
you may or may not recognize as beautiful. There are
beautiful aspects of nature, even if you're in the middle of a
city--look around and notice the trees and flowers and birds and
insects; insects are among the most marvelously precise creatures
on this planet. There is beauty on the television and in the
movies, though we have to consciously search it out. There's
plenty of beauty online, too, but that, too has to be searched
for. There are also beautiful actions and deeds, beautiful
thoughts and ideas, and beautiful poems and stories. Most
importantly, there's a lot of beauty in you, which you may or may
not have recognized already.
Keep your eyes open for the beauty, and work to strengthen your
appreciation and gratitude for the beauty that makes this world
such a wonderful place to live in, if we let it be so.
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Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week. |
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The following
is the short introduction to Thich Nhat Hanh's book, Peace Is
Every Step. Taken on its own, this intro is a nice
reminder of what's possible to us each new day.
Twenty-Four
Brand-New Hours
Thich Nhat Hanh
Every
morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to
live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to
live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace,
joy, and happiness to ourselves and others.
Peace is
present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do
and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch
with it. We don't have to travel far away to enjoy the
blue sky. We don't have to leave our city or even our
neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. Even
the air we breathe can be a source of joy.
We can
smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us
to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is
available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not
very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years
for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a
job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty
remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only
moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take,
every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and
serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present
moment.
This small
book is offered as a bell of mindfulness, a reminder that
happiness is possible only in the present moment. Of
course, planning for the future is a part of life. But
even planning can only take place in the present moment.
This book is an invitation to come back to the present moment
and find peace and joy. . . . But please do not wait until
finishing this book to find peace. Peace and happiness are
available in every moment. Peace is every step. We
shall walk hand in hand.
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Listening
Wilferd A. Peterson
The key
to the art of listening is selectivity. You stand guard at
the ear-gateway to your mind, heart and spirit. You decide
what you will accept. . .
Listen to
the good. Tune your ears to love, hope and courage.
Tune out gossip, fear and resentment.
Listen to
the beautiful. Relax to the music of the masters; listen to
the symphony of nature -- hum of the wind in the treetops, bird
songs, thundering surf.
Listen
with your eyes. Imaginatively listen to the sounds in a
poem, a novel, a picture.
Listen
critically. Mentally challenge assertions, ideas,
philosophies. Seek the truth with an open mind.
Listen
with patience. Do not hurry other people. Show them
the courtesy of listening to what they have to say, no matter how
much you disagree. You may learn something.
Listen
with your heart. Practice empathy when you listen; put
yourself in the other person's place and try to hear his or her
problems in your heart.
Listen
for growth. Be an inquisitive listener. Ask
questions. Everyone has something to say that will help you
to grow.
Listen
creatively. Listen carefully for ideas or the germs of
ideas. Listen for hints or clues that will spark creative
projects.
Listen to
yourself. Listen to your deepest yearnings, your highest
aspirations, your noblest impulses. Listen to the better
person within you.
Listen
with depth. Be still and meditate. Listen with the ear
of intuition for the inspiration of the Infinite. |
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It is finally when you let go
of what people
expect you
to be
and people's perceptions
of you that you're
able to be
the version
of yourself that
you're supposed to
be-- like
in God's eyes. It doesn't matter
if you're
half crazy, or eccentric,
or whatever
it is-- that you have
to be true to who
you were born to be.
Gwyneth
Paltrow |
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Self-Improvement
As It Applies To You
Robert Taylor
How does self-improvement apply to each of us? There is no
one system or technique which applies equally across the board.
There are numerous books, articles, teachers, techniques and
schools of thought to guide us in our quest for self- improvement.
There are a number of common threads running throughout all of
these. Here are just a few of them:
* Treat others as you wish to be treated.
* You become what you constantly think about.
* You determine what you are and what you will be by the
choices you make.
* When you honestly and deeply believe something it will
become true.
* Eat, breathe and live as though you were wealthy and you
will become wealthy.
* When your main focus is on lack and poverty you will
continue to be poor and lacking.
* Visualize what you wish as though it were true right now
and not at some future date.
* Take action on your wishes (dreams, desires).
* Life is but a journey which is taken one step at a time.
All we ever have is the step we are currently taking.
* The Kingdom of Heaven is within (know thyself, go into
yourself to seek the truth, the inner journey is the most
important).
All of these and the other common threads will apply to and be
used by each of us in a different manner. What works for one
person may not necessarily hold true for another. While it
is true we can learn from others, we alone can make our journey.
Nobody can do it for us.
We must take these teachings and doctrines and adapt them to our
own unique needs, desires and wishes. We do this through
self-study and observation to find those areas in which we need
growth and development.
In conjunction with this, we need to research and study many
different doctrines and teachings. From these we can
determine those things that attract us and strike the note of
truth within. You will know when something has the ring of
truth to it.
A whole doctrine or line of teaching may only contain one or two
principles which will apply to you; however these may be critical
to your development. Try to be as open-minded as possible,
but always verify the truth of the principle for yourself.
Never accept anything as being the truth for you until you have
verified it for your own purposes. Another's truth may well
be the direct opposite of your truth.
So long as you seek self-improvement and development you cannot
fail. You will undoubtedly become discouraged at times
because of a lack of any perceived gains. Should you feel
you have hit a brick wall, simply regroup and try another
technique or strategy.
No matter what you do or what happens, just do not quit.
Those who continue to seek self-development and growth always win.
It is simply a matter of time.
I wish you great satisfaction in your journey through life.
Copyright Robert Taylor |
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The
Houdini Syndrome
Bob Welch
I am the poster boy
for overcommitment. And I'm not particularly proud of
that. We all have our weaknesses, and if I look at my life in
the last decade, running too fast has been mine. Oh, I could
justify that it's nearly all good stuff that I run toward--I'm not the
guy blowing two hours watching trash TV or playing two rounds of golf
a week while my sons wonder why Dad never shows up for their games.
I could match my
attendance at kids' games with nearly any parent and come out on
top. I could rationalize that I've never had a nervous breakdown
or resorted to any sort of illicit drug--pop isn't illegal, is it?--to
keep myself going.
Still, I have to
face the reality that I'm far busier than I should be.
The good news is,
I'm changing; the bad news is, that's like a 400-pound man saying he's
going on a diet.
At times, my weeks
have this Houdini quality about them: I bind myself in handcuffs
and crawl into a trunk. The trunk is wrapped with chains.
Then the trunk is dropped to the bottom of the East River to see if I
can break free and swim to the surface without drowning.
Thus far, I've
gotten out of the jam every time, broken the surface of the water just
before my lungs are about to burst.
But though that
might equate to success in the world's eyes, it does not in God's
eyes. Because enslaving ourselves like that asks a price, though
we're often so desperately trying to unshackle ourselves that we don't
take time to notice.
For me, that price
has been a number of things:
A subtle, but
real, loss of patience: When you're tired, anger more easily
gains a foothold on you. It may not be a four-letter-word,
dog-kicking, fist-slamming barrage of anger, but I know it's
there. And I know it sometimes gets used against the people I
love the most.
A subtle, but
real, loss of creativity: When you're tired, you're more apt to
settle for the ordinary when, somewhere deep inside, you might find
the extraordinary.
A subtle, but
real, loss of control over the more mundane aspects of life:
checking accounts that need more consistent pruning, financial matters
that need more plowing and planting, closets and dressers that need
more consistent weeding.
But the more
serious price has come in the areas that I'm called to make my
priorities: my relationship with God and my relationship with
others, in particular my wife.
I've given time to
both, but it hasn't been the quantity, or quality, they deserve.
Again, I look good on paper: I'm an elder at our church, I teach
Sunday school, I occasionally preach a sermon, I speak to men's
groups. But I know, deep down, that God doesn't want a resume from
me; He wants a relationship with me. And when you wedge
God into your daily planner as if He were just another line on the
To-Do List, that relationship suffers.
Likewise, I could
point out trips I've taken with my wife, presents I've given her,
dinners out we've shared. But I know, deep down, that she'd
trade such things for more consistent "ordinary" time with
me, time that might be nothing more than a walk around the block but
which is given with my full attention, not as some sort of
parenthetical phrase in the midst of a more significant sentence. . .
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I've come to learn
that you can't have it all. So you have to decide what you want
and what you're willing to give up. Some people decide what they
want more than anything is to be successful in business and thus are
willing to sacrifice their family to get there. I'm not among
them. . . .
I believe we're
called to give our best to God; our work should be done with gusto and
quality. But we're also called to lives of balance, and when we
get out of balance, our work becomes a legalistic
going-through-the-motions, not something filled with heart. Our
work becomes more important than the people who it's intended
for. Our lives are guided by our heads and not our hearts.
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In
this collection of heartwarming, introspective stories,
you'll find Welch's examinations of the things in life that
are truly important: the people you cherish, the
dreams you share, and the talents God has given exclusively
to you. You'll be reminded of the things that make
life so special: love, friendships, and building
relationships that last a lifetime. |
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Often,
we are harder on ourselves than others are. If we cannot
forgive ourselves, how can we forgive other people? Everyone's
lesson is
to forgive ourselves for our mistakes, even those things we feel ashamed
about, and learn to accept ourselves for who we are, knowing that
we can always gently work on making improvements. For me,
the true experience of inner peace began only once I was able
to forgive those around me, my parents, and myself.
Patrick
Wanis
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