Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Three Great Guides


Thinking. Piecing things together. Making sense of life.

It’s a search not an obsession. A gentle prodding of the mind to consider various ideas and how they fit with one another, whether there is a hidden connection that will revolutionize my thinking.

Do you do this sort of thing?  What are the thoughts that go through your mind when mindlessly driving hundreds of miles on a long distance road trip? When you are sitting in your favorite chair in the evening, relaxed, stomach full from dinner, no pressures immediately absorbing your attention. A time to relax. What do you think of in those quiet moments?

Wondering about life is something is a task I’ve never finished. It’s the nature of things. Stop wondering and you just might be dead!

Came up with three thoughts that seem to make basic sense to me.  See how they affect you:

First: 
“Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It’s not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make. Period.      ~Author Unknown

Second: 
“Never allow another to take the hopes from your heart, the dreams from your mind, or the goodness from your soul.”      ~Anthony Douglass Williams

Third: 
“When you try to control everything, you enjoy nothing. Sometimes you just need to relax, breathe, let go and just live in the moment.”`~rawforbeauty.com

Take responsibility for your own choices, your own actions. Circumstances may seem to force adaptations from you, and in many cases that is true. But basically life is lived by each one of us and we alone are responsible for how we react and adapt in every moment. Own that thought and make it an abiding principle in your life. Blame no one else. Adapt, ignore, or own. Each is ours to do.

Of similar values is not allowing others to take from you the most valuable elements of life, your life – hopes, dreams and goodness of soul. Those are uniquely yours. They are your ‘bank’ of good things to use, to savor, to build upon. No one else can take those from you unless you let them. Even a prisoner has these within the mind. No jailer or captor can get at these. He has your freedom of movement. You have freedom of the inner life. It moves in a much broader space than physical space.

It follows that if we don’t let another person control our life then we cannot control everything else, either.  To realize what’s important, to enjoy it and sense its fullness, we must let it be what it is. We can do that by resting, breathing in and out intentionally and sensing the moment. Ponder it. Taste it. Feel it. Let it be. The sunshine, the warmth, or cold. Snow and ice or green blades of grass. Birdsong. Fresh air. The view or vista. The components of the world are all around us. What do we do with them? Do we appreciate them and let them resonate with all of our senses?

Three guides in life to make it better. To make the best of whatever comes our way, good bad or pure ugly.

There are other words of wisdom to help us on our journey through life, but a lot of good begins with these three: take responsibility for your own choices and actions; do not allow others to strip you of your inner values; and likewise do not attempt to control other elements of life that are not yours.

Upon these building blocks much is possible.

March 11, 2014


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