Feeling quite serene and content after meeting up with my lady friends at lunch, I blithely hopped on the train that would take me home in just a little over an hour. From my vantage point at the tail end of the train, I watched the soft glow of sunset on the far horizon – almost gone but not quite. Then easily the same thoughts that worked our brains at that meeting glided back into my mind like it was not enough to have been talking about it with friends three hours ago.
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FAILURE IS ANOTHER WAY GOD IS TELLING US TO TAKE ANOTHER ROAD Yes, I know I’ve dealt with this subject or something similar to this in previous posts. It may be boring to you now, I guess. But wait! There’s so much more to learn about it. In fact, it’s the ‘negative issues’ which grip us tighter than the Pollyanna experiences of our lives. Why? Because anything that hurts us -- gets us. It may be a prick, a painful nudge, or something so big that you never know what hit you till you see your ‘heart bashed into pieces’. That’s a figure of speech, of course. Lolz But in anyway it comes to us --- it always hurts.
And nothing hits us so hard and so bad as failure. What’s failure? --- A disappointment, a letdown, a collapse, a breakdown. In short, it’s when something goes NOT by way of your expectations despite everything you’ve put into it. So then you think that you have failed and that the world stopped turning at this very point in your life. Hold it a minute there! Do you mean to say that this gigantic size of a world with zillions of people in it would all cease, halt, disappear, close down, and die just because you didn’t make it? Wow, where’d you get that?!
How about looking at it this way? Those things that come to you, those are not there just to decorate your tiny space. And it didn’t just appear out of nowhere. They come from something and will end somewhere. What goes in between is the process or journey of getting from here to there. Failure is part of that process. Since we know that nothing goes well 100% all of the time, then eventually something will go wrong and we will consequently not get what we want or plan for. Having understood that, what then do you do with failure? Firstly, if nothing else works and you have tried everything there is to try in your book of human survival – then tap into your spiritual source. Yes, spiritual source. Because above all this stuff we’re going through is a God who runs this whole thing or manages this whole store called life. And you know what-- He’s like a traffic cop at the intersection managing the flow of human and vehicle traffic. He signals you when it’s okay to pass or not. He motions to you when you should take another lane when the other lanes are stuck. When you are stuck in failure, take heed the signs when God is motioning you to get off that lane and try another. Be wise and take heed, otherwise you will --crash!
YOU ARE WHAT YOU BELIEVE So you say that you love guns, diamonds, honor and titles, war movies-- All well and good. And we do know that personal preferences reflect what or who you are in huge measure. Particularly do the things that you believe. I have a good friend who believes in commitment and another who believes in giving back ‘an eye for an eye’. The first one comes out as a solid no-nonsense serious individual who makes good his word in every encounter or turn in life. The second is one vengeful ruthless unforgiving person who thinks and behaves with his defenses on 24/7. The beliefs they have espoused in life does make them who they are --- good or bad. You cannot isolate beliefs from personality. People will see you as you project your thoughts. To them, accordingly you would appear as serious, flighty, nonsensical, frivolous, respectable, decent, perverted, tyrannical, good-for-nothing, straight, irresponsible, kindhearted, or wise. Your persona is the sum total of everything that goes into your head, processed, and lived. What you think or believe – is what truly you are. Careful what you think, be more careful what you believe. So what do you believe?
LEECHES ARE ATTACHED TO THINGS – PEOPLE SHOULDN’T What are you attached to? Did you know that your attachment or attachments have the potential to change you? An attachment, an intense liking, can transform or alter you. UNBRIDLED with good common sense and self-discipline, it can and will grow so big that it reaches a proportion that we no longer can control it. Instead having grown so strong it now has the strength or power to CONTROL us. In the same way leeches take away microscopic drops of your precious blood, ‘attachments’ can sap bits of you in often unobtrusive ways. Let's take one example....a person’s attachment to money among other things. Obviously this ‘energy’ directed to the wrong goals will grow invade pervade and finally will eat you up. You become a ‘transformed’ person in bits of your thinking, speech, and behaviour... but not in a pleasant way, to put it mildly. So what’s lost? ---Perspective, balance. Your effect on people will be that of a strong ‘dislike’ for the 'different' you and what you stand for --misguided passion and intensity and a character gone awry. How would you explain a person who goes to great lengths - steal, lie, deceive, manipulate, betray, or kill - all for the sake of 'money' or some other cause he believes to be 'worthy' though apparently isn't? Even weirder to know that it all started from a simple innocent attachment that uncontrollably grew - AND grew - and GREW! (I would be scared to see a small child get so attached to his toy gun.) Thus it may be wise, too, to choose your attachment. lolz Attachment of the wrong kind does no apparent good to a person's total well-being; it's no longer healthy. Some say that it is easier to pry free leeches attached to things with force --than trying to detach unfasten disengage a person from his ‘attachment’. Wonder now what causes relationship breakdowns, wars and revolutions? People or Leaders who attached themselves to the wrong causes or beliefs and fed these with the wrong means. On a higher spiritual plane, we have learned that if we are to grow in spirituality, we should free ourselves of 'attachments'. These are considered unnecessary baggage that would only serve to weigh us down or slow us in our spiritual journey. What applies to the spiritual plane can undoubtedly apply to life, too. One last word, there is one known 'antidote' that can detach or sever its grip on us-- though you may have known this already. That is -- LET GO your attachment. Let it go and you'll be a free man at last! No more need be said to that -- your relief is in letting go. If you're one who loves a challenge, let this be top on your list! And do be careful what you attach yourself to. lolz
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Well, the ladies and I had a lively exchange on these topics and this was one time that I let my cappuccino cool – unheard of! J Anyway I see my station coming up ahead and, too, the sun has practically gone now. So it’s Ciao! May the gentle hand of the Lord soothe your weary hearts and minds.
posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 10:04 PM
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