Love and Reality

January 30, 2011 at 1:23 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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“Art and morality are, with certain provisos…one. Their essence is the same. The essence of both of them is love. Love is the perception of individuals. Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality. (Iris Murdoch)

“What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…? (Friedrich Nietzsche)

Good advice

March 2, 2010 at 8:25 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
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The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change.. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don’t help you climb will want you to crawl.. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don’t increase you will eventually decrease you.

Consider this:
Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don’t follow anyone who’s not going anywhere.

With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it. Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life. Wise is the person who fortifies his life with the right friendships. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl. But, if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights.
“A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.”

The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate – for the good and the bad.

Note: Be not mistaken. This is applicable to family as well as friends. Yes…do love, appreciate and be thankful for your family, for they will always be your family no matter what. Just know that they are human first and though they are family to you, they may be a friend to someone else and will fit somewhere in the criteria above.

“In Prosperity Our Friends Know Us. In Adversity We Know Our friends.”

“Never make someone a priority when you are only an option for them..”
“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”.. ……………… …

Colin Powell

Do you have a “growth fostering” relationship?

January 20, 2010 at 12:05 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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There are as many relationship models as there are people. Nonetheless, these five characteristics of a “growth fostering” relationship, based on research undertaken by Jean Baker Miller, seem like a good evaluation tool, as well as an ideal to work towards:

  1.  Each person feels a greater sense of zest (vitality, energy)
  2. Each person feels more able to act and does act.
  3. Each person has a more accurate picture of herself or himself and the other person.
  4. Each person feels a greater sense of worth.
  5. Each person feels more connected to the other person and a greater motivation for connections with other people beyond those in the specific relationship.

Ok, now you’re done reading them, replace the “Each person” with “I” and see what thoughts/feeling arise from the exercise…

We are all raindrops making ripples in the sea of life.

November 4, 2009 at 3:05 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
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Yesterday it was raining hard, and I splashed in the puddles as I walked along. As the rain falls, it drops into the puddles and creates a ripple affect. Each one of us is like a raindrop too. When we drop into the world, into individual situations, we all make an impact – much of which will always be unknown to us. The things we say, our actions and thoughts all have an impact on other people: much more than we realise sometimes. Sometimes, one touch or smile can touch a person uniquely and eternally. It’s our choice what affect we have on the world. Will the ripples make the world a better place, or the opposite? Will they be in the flow of the eternal river of life, or pushing against the flow of goodness and love that is the ground of all being?

Carry your burdens, don’t let them carry you.

November 4, 2009 at 3:01 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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Sometimes my rucksack is really heavy, and I used to find myself being drawn back by it. Controlled. Since I’ve been studying the Alexander Technique, I’ve had this phrase going round my mind, “carry your back, don’t let it carry you.” By thinking this, I have been able to stop my bag controlling how I use my body; instead, my thoughts and use control the way I carry the bag.

In the same way, our burdens – as pilgrims on the path to enlightenment – can either carry us, or we can choose to carry them. We can be controlled by our troubles, or accept that they will not be more than we can bear, enabling us to keep walking instead of sinking down into the mire.

The deeper your roots go, the higher you can rise.

November 4, 2009 at 2:52 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
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I realised this in an Alexander Technique lesson.  When you imagine yourself become more grounded, roots pushing down into the floor, something very bizarre happens: you actually begin to grow.  I guess if you imagine a tree, they are identical beneath the ground to what you see above the ground.  Hence, the deeper down the roots go, the higher they can rise up.  I guess this solves once and for all the dichotomy between stable (ie rooted) and adaptable (ie braching out) people. Yes, we all have a tendency to one or the other.  However,  wherever our tendency lies, by being aware of both sides – and growing the one we have less tendency for – the other one will naturally grow too.  Interesting stuff!

Nonviolent Power

October 29, 2009 at 12:25 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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To have power is not the same as to abuse power. Take care not to misuse your power, nor limit it or give it away. We all have power and it can ALWAYS be used for the greater good.

“I do not ask you to believe in God…

October 8, 2009 at 10:15 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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I only ask you not to believe in every thing that is not God”

Simone Weil

“Our license and birthright . . .

September 18, 2009 at 9:19 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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. . . is to create and explore without compromise.” (Shahaf Ifhar)

What is Community?

September 14, 2009 at 7:49 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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I asked a girl from L’Arche – Jean Vanier’s vision of shared living with people with learning disabilities – what community meant to her. She said:

“Holding for one another the truth that hope exists.”

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