September 2011
Prescription For… The Heavyhearted
Sometimes we suffer the symptoms of diseases we don’t have. And sometimes we suffer the symptoms of unhappiness for insufficient reasons. Often unhappiness comes from overemphasizing the negative side of situations. This is easy to do, since time seems to move more swiftly when we are happy and more slowly when we are heavyhearted. And so we might suppose that we are unhappy more than we are.
On Belonging to a Family
One of the very wonderful things of life is a sense of belonging. And one of the most wonderful things to belong to is a loyal and affectionate family – a family who have each their own individual activities and interests but who feel a real oneness with one another. There is much that a family can do with oneness, and much that without it is missed. There are so many things to join, so many things to do, so many things to take us away, but a loving and loyal family is still one of the most wonderful things in the world to belong to.
Allow them to walk their own path…
I’m sure there are people in your life whom you see acting in ways that upsets you. Watching our loved ones, family or a good friend traverse a path littered with stumbling blocks can be immensely painful. We instinctively want to guide them toward a safer track and share with them the knowledge and wisdom we have acquired through experience. Yet all human beings have the right to carve their own paths without being unduly influenced by outside interference.
Practice what you Preach
There’s an old saying that goes…’we should practice what we preach’. It seems very profound, subtle and simple. But I wonder why for some reasons or another not all of us seem to know what it means. Or…(maybe) doesn’t want to know.
Here I am – this is me…
“Openly revealing our feelings establishes credibility”. Gerry Spence. I learned a long time ago that I try to use in my daily life. To resolve conflict creatively we need not only to speak the truth in love, but also to listen with our heart. We need to be honest and share our true feelings – not just our surface feelings.
I, I who have nothing…
These are all false standards and false dichotomies, but they are so common and so ingrained that we sometimes believe in them without even realizing it. And this leads to a mountain of insecurities, because nobody measures up to these crazy standards (and nobody should).
It Isn’t Fair to Expect Perfection…
We live in a world of imperfection, and certainly there are no perfect people. And one of the surest ways to break up a home, to break up a marriage, to break up a friendship, a business, or any relationship in life, is tooveremphasize faultfinding.