Is it possible to change how full you perceive your cup to be? Is it half full, just the right amount of Kool-Aid or is it overflowing with coconut water? I feel our life experiences as well as our God-given personalities form our perspective or the lens through which we see, feel, act and generally live our lives.
I know a wonderful woman and mom. She's a dream realizer and positive-thought seeker and a beauty finder. She's unapologetic for her, what some feel is sort of a polly-anna-y, way of going about her wonderful and life-affirming business. She is thoughtful and intelligent and steadfast. I don't feel like she has to make regular treks to the beach to place her head in the sand, either. She is plugged in. This is her addressing happiness. I admire her. http://urbanblissdesign.com/life/positive-happiness-the-urban-bliss-life/
I wanna know how it's done. I damn well want to know. I am not kidding. I am ready to know. I want to know how to counteract, process or dismiss the emotional effects of Glenn Beck holding a rally for people who represent the worst of America on a hallowed day in a hallowed location. There are so many of these blows that offend my (embarrassingly) sensitive nature. War, intolerance, ignorance, molestation, earthquakes, poverty, illness, violence, oppression, depression. The unfairness and savagery of our world.
My cup of iced Americano is generally half empty to just right. It empties and refills and stays level for awhile and then empties again and so on. I sincerely would like to explore how to... more often than not, live in a state of gratitude. To be thankful for the beauty and abundance around me instead of worrying about Glenn Beck.
My mom would ask me to give to God. Well, God never said life would be easy (in fact, my life is very easy in comparison to most) or fun or full of happy moments. Clearly. Fine. Okay. I still don't know how to process a starving child. The boy is in the back of my mind asking me to deal with him and Katrina and the cabby who got shot for being Muslim. Maybe I need medicine to anesthetize my delicate constitution? I don't really want to color over it, though. I want to process it and deal with it and live with it while still seeking beauty, finding gratitude for my life's ease. Maybe I just need to come to terms with the fact that I got lucky on my tour here on Earth and I better live largely and generously while taking that big deep breath that hopefully releases the fear and worry.
How do you take off the clear, or on your worst days...dark, murky glasses and grope around for the rose-colored ones?
Oh Monica, I can so relate...especially these days. I've survived the last month by repeating a series of quotes that I have always identified with and reminding myself about the law of attraction: The more positive I send out into the world, the more I can open my heart and be ready to receive positive into my own world... Here are some of the "isms" that are working for me at the moment...
ReplyDelete-Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. (Arthur Ashe)
-Live Simply, Love Generously, Care Deeply, Speak Kindly (This one was attached to an auto-signature on an email that I received within hours of a devastating confrontation a few weeks ago. I thought the timing was serendipitous!)
-Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some sort of battle (this might be a FB group or something...I just like it)
-Be the change you wish to see in the world (I believe Ghandi is responsible for this one, right?)
It's a challenge sometimes, but I always try to see the positive in a given situation or when that's not possible, I try to remind myself that eventually something positive will arise from a situation and I make a little wish for patience. We've had some struggles this summer, but at the end of the day, life is good, I am blessed.
And when all else fails, "keep on keepin' on" also works!
OK, sorry for the loonnnggg comment!
Monica dear, I have the great good fortune to call you Daughter. Your pain is universal. You have the advantage and sometimes, it can be said, a great disadvantage, of a huge heart. Your deeply needed desire for balance in a world that consistently denies that balance is a quest that can take a toll. I have learned over my lifetime to crush the bad with the good that surrounds us. I have found this effective and realistic. I do not deny the existence of evil; I relegate it to a secondary position. This process takes time, training your mind, if you will, but you have all the tools to accomplish this process. Always share your humanity and strive to understand suffering in the large picture, In your process, allow yourself to bring in the good around you and in the world. That good will trimuph everytime. This will allow you to always keep your head above the good/evil interface.
ReplyDeleteI love you so much, Dad