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Today's
Meditation:
We have so few role models who act instead of
reacting. In my life I could count the people I've
known who are consistent actors as opposed to reactors on
relatively few fingers-- I think I'd need more than ten,
but not too many more. There just aren't enough
people out there who are able to teach us about the
importance of learning to overcome our propensity for
letting others determine our courses in life, letting
others determine our moods and our feelings, letting
others keep us down by keeping us thinking negative
thoughts that are the result of other people's actions and
words.
If you insult me and I feel down, that's my fault, for I'm
simply reacting to the words you've used, not acting to
maintain my dignity and character. If I feel crushed
because I've lost a job, then the feeling of being crushed
is my doing, as I react to a situation rather than
deciding on paths to follow now that there are more roads
open to me.
When we think seriously about what it means to react
instead of acting, we realize that there's something
fundamentally wrong with that approach. In reacting,
we're giving others the upper hand in our lives, giving
them the power to push us in directions in which we don't
even want to go-- and they probably don't even realize that
they have that power over us. When we're reacting,
our spirits can't soar, for we never know what others are
going to give us to react to. In my life, I really
want to be one who acts, who decides on a course of action
and then follows it. Only when I do so will I be
living what could be called an authentic life.
The people I know who react are buffeted by the winds of
chance, are tossed here and there by the circumstances of
life. I hope that my life won't fall into that
pattern, and that I'll always be able to take the steps
necessary to determine my own course, my own directions,
and my own actions.
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