Irresistible Spark

There is an irresistible spark that exists in all of us and makes us all explorers of our universe. We have a need to seek answers to our questions both large and small. We cannot help ourselves.

Deep within us is the spark that ignited Marco Polo, Magellan, Byrd, Glenn and others. Not the exclusive domain of the famous but common to ordinary people everywhere. We have a need to know why.

Science, beliefs and faith exist to answer our questions. Our progress is an answer to the question can we do this; whatever, it might be. We will always have explorers nibbling away at the edges of our known frontiers moving into new territory both externally and internally. 

Why?

Because we need to. The challenge is irresistible for some and they can often lead the way; however, discoveries made by us within ourselves can be our greatest triumphs. The internal looking search is difficult and torturous but infinitely worth the prize gained for ourselves.

It is only when we have dampened or eliminated our spark for discovery that we pay a heavy price in freedom and happiness. This spark can lie dormant and reawaken within us at any age and deliver untold treasures for our personal growth and sharing with others.

How strong does your spark glow?

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: questions, need to know, personal growth

Dreamscape

When we have lost everything that our peers and fellows deem to be important, when we live a life that is meaningless by the tenets of our upbringing, then all that is left are our dreams.

Dreams spring from hope, desire, and meaning in our life. They don't restrain themselves with what is but blossom in the what will be. They are made of fairy dust, hero's tales and adventures beyond our current circumstances.

To dream is to awaken our slumbering self into the realm of possibility. We put aside our normal restraints and imagine ourselves living freely in our potential. Our adventure awaits.

What are we capable of doing if we have first lived it in a dream?

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: dreams, potential, possibilities

Asking is not Begging

Some people find it very difficult to ask for things. Asking requires that we admit we need something and we can feel that it gives an advantage to the person we are asking.

We can sometimes think that asking is equivalent to begging. We will in that case try to manipulate others into giving us what we want or act as if it is of no importance or we will try to take it just to prove how strong we are.

When we do that and we don't get what we want we can feel vindictive and seek to find ways to pay them back. A lose- lose situation in all cases involving relationships.

When we have developed good relationships where we have mutual respect then asking is not presuming on the relationship it is simply recognizing that very little in life can get done without others.

Asking is the gateway to cooperation and reciprocation when the need is reversed. Asking is not a weakness as is perceived by many but an acknowledgement that we are not perfect. The human condition. 

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: issues, perspective, relationships

Avoiding Reality

We seem to live in and gotten accustomed to a world of trade and compromise even regarding our own lives. It is like living in a fantasy world where we have expectations that someone will come along and help us when we encounter unfortunate circumstances.

So rather than handle our unfortunate circumstances we avoid reality and choose to believe that somehow something will come along and get us out of our mess. it is a defeatist attitude in that we do not look for actions we can take but leave it up to fate, karma, goodwill or the like to do it for us.

There is no shinning knight is waiting in the wings to leap to our aid. It is totally up to us. No matter what the circumstances are there is no choice but for us to live through it by ourselves. Once we understand this point then we will know that nothing will change unless we make it change.

Action creates change and with change comes possibility and with possibility a new path can be chosen. All journeys start with the first step. We create our future through are actions and not through avoiding reality.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: reality, action, change

A Better Story

Remember when we were children how we used to write stories in our mind and then played at the roles we had designed. We would often write many stories in any given day. We might say that we were trying out the stories to see which one inspired us and stayed with us. The story that we redesigned and added to as we went along in life.

For some people that wrote a story in their minds that captured their heart made them start living that story. Ask a champion figure skater, Olympic athlete, or composer if they started by writing first in their minds before they started living it.

Some people have not found a story to write in their mind that inspired them and ended up drifting from one thing to another. They are waiting for a story some else has written that they could adopt as their own. Some are still waiting.

Others started living their stories and are unhappy as they have changed over the years and have yet to rewrite their story in their mind. They feel that they can't change it.

If we don't like our story then as the author of our lives we need to write ourselves a better story. After all the best authors go through many revisions and rewrites before finding the best story.

Is it time for a better story?

Technorati tags: our story, living fully, perspective

Flexibility

What is defined by borders, a distinct language, customs, and a structure. If we said a country we would be correct. However, it also applies to groups of people with a common purpose.

Our workplace for example is like a country. So is the gaming community, social groups, interest groups, scientific community, students, and so on. They all have their own language, customs, and structure.

With globalization; increasingly, our groups will span borders and continents and like traveling abroad we will get a temporary entry visa when we join a new group which we can lose if we don't adopt the culture and language of the group.

The willingness to learn new cultures, languages and customs is and will be key to making our way both in business and personally in the future. We will have to have greater flexibility to deal with new groups with the rate of change the future will bring.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: flexibility, groups, perspective

Love What You Do

Life is so precious yet for many of us we treat it as if we are doing hard time. Hard time is an expression that was used for convicts who were imprisoned and were given sentences to do hard labor such as road gangs or making small rocks out of big rocks.

It is very common to hear the remedy that we should find work that we love and the rest will take care of itself. I believe that could mislead some people as to what they need to do.

Why?

Because it assumes we work from the outside in which takes us on a journey of seeking something that we do not know what it is and therefore we will not know when we have found it. It will always something else that we haven't found yet.

Love works from the inside out where that love fills us up, defines us and compels us on in life. When we love what we do whether it is carrying out the garbage, doing the dishes, changing diapers or any of the many things that we do in a day; life changes. We love whatever we are doing simply because we are doing it. Without us it wouldn't happen. It is life in action; the ultimate creativity.

It is our life force that illuminates the tasks and elevates it into an expression of our creative force. What we do expresses the fundamental fact that we are alive. Everything we do is our external expression of our internal life.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: living fully, love, perspective

The Ordinary

We prize artists for their ability to express feelings and emotions through their art forms. We delegate the highest expression of our humanity to those artists we feel express it the best. In doing so we  delegate our own feelings and appreciation to enjoying life second hand.

Without a doubt some artists can have an exquisite viewpoint that most people have not taken the time to discover for themselves. However, is there art unexpressed in the ordinary that we ignore.

The sunlight shining on a plain brick wall framed by a wooden gate open to the skies and shifting shadows as clouds dance across the sky. A feeling of awe comes to us and we ignore the practical applications of what we are seeing and enjoy it as living art.

Art that touches a cord deep inside us and transforms the ordinary into a feeling; the basic definition of art. The eye of the beholder is the canvas of expression and gives us a new perception of everyday things. Where life is the canvas on which the art inherent in all things expresses itself.

Once transformed then we can appreciate the ordinary in new ways that lead us to a dance with life rather our usual feelings of separateness. Life gains a new depth through our opening up to that beauty and lingers with us as we walk through life.

Can we see the art of the ordinary?

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: transformation, beauty, life, perspective

What If Games

There are people who appear to be haunted by the words What if. What if I had done X instead of Y. What if I had got up the nerve to ask her out. What if I had made a different decision. What if I had paid more attention. The list can go on and on if we choose to let it.

But talk about a waste of time. We made decisions and took actions or failed to take action and decisions based on moments in our past. Those moments are written in stone and cannot be changed. Regretted or learnt from but unchanged forever.

To continue to play the What if game serves no purpose but to occupy our current moments in wishful thinking about some possibility for a more positive result. No matter what we think we cannot change the past it is beyond our ability.

We need to focus on creating our future with our actions right now. In the next moment it will be our past and so our future unrolls from a series of present moments. Don't waste them.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: focus, future, decisions

Faith in Ourselves

We create our own reality for us whenever we decide to take something on faith. It will be some immeasurable thing such as love, God, spirits, or the like that cannot be seen, heard, or physically felt. We can and do determine what is real for us and only we can make those decisions.

If we choose not to believe in something then it is simply not part of our reality. Such is our choice and our responsibility and cannot or should not be given away to anyone else. We have many things that we take on faith even including no faith. We can choose to believe that there is nothing after this life. Again it requires faith and our decision.

If we think about all of the different things that we do take on faith is there any wonder that the total of all our beliefs create an unique self. That uniqueness means that no one else can ever totally appreciate who we are and what we feel. How can they?

Yes we can approximate what others feel but not everything that they feel and the intensity of that feeling. When we offer advice is it really realistic. Perhaps for a particular segment of their lives but not overall. We should remember this when giving or receiving advice and suggestions.

In the end the responsibility for our actions is ours. We should always choose according to our own inner compass and accept the results as our responsibility. We need to have faith in ourselves before anything else.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: faith, perspective, choice

Something Sleeps

Some people are known to go to extreme lengths to keep their world unchanged. They may change friends when their friends change to improve their lives. They may live by a set of inviolate rules which no one may break. They may live a solitary existence with only acquaintances that never see the real person.

When we resist change to this degree then something sleeps within us. We might even restrict thinking about or paying attention to anything that might lead to change. We are frozen in our growth and all of the joy available in life is lost. We are in the twilight zone.

It is when we strive for things and embrace the change that creating anything gives to us are we truly living rather than just existing. In this view of life there are no failures just answers to what ever question we are asking of ourselves.

We can sleep while life passes us by or decide to accept change as an essential part of living. As always the choice is ours to make. Do we sleep or do we live.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: living fully, change

Inside Out

All change really works from the inside out. It starts with the statement I need to change not circumstances. Without this kind of emphatic ownership we will tend to look for or wait for external events that may or may not occur and are not within our control.

If what we have been doing is not getting what we want then we need to change our actions. Our actions will not change until we change how we feel about what we are currently doing.

To look outside of ourselves keeping the same perspective and attitude that have been unsuccessful to date is pointless. Granted we have to ensure that we have spent enough time using our current approach to have seen any results from our efforts. 

To change how we do things requires a new perspective in order to discover new approaches. Thus change occurs from the inside out.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: managing change, perspective

Weekend Off

Just a note to say I am off for the weekend. See you Monday.

What Are We Waiting For

 We sit patiently waiting for the perfect solution, the right event, the right person or the right time to take a step to accomplish our dream. We can and have waited years for the time to take action and it never comes.

Usually we have determined what we want to have happen and during that process we have evaluated what we fear could happen. We then decide what we have to have happen to eliminate that fear before it comes into existence. We are reacting to fear that does not exist.

When we are passive like that then others determine our future and we will never catch up. There is only one way to start. Do something.

By doing something we are actively creating our future. Each action is like throwing a stone into a still pond. Everything changes. With change new possibilities open up and another stone gets tossed.

In this way we create our future instead of waiting for it.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: creating change, possibilities, future

Intentions

We have all heard of the line "What are your intentions young man." asked by a forbidding father and laughed. But what are intentions? Someone might say that it is the action we intend to have happen more of a what we want to have happen.

It is one of those words that lack life; for example, we intend to be good or we intend to help. They are pretty vague phrases that have no heart, no passion.

Many self-help authors talk about intentions as being important for us to understand and be clear about but are in turn fail to get their message across clearly.

I would rather use the word wish. Why? Because a wish has passion attached. It can be negative such as we wish they would just drop dead or positive such as we wish them happiness.

So if wishes are intentions in action then we need to be careful of what we wish for. What we wish for if negative can rebound and we can become the recipient. Wishes are the heart and passion of intentions.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: wishes, intentions, heart

Blog Drive-Byes August 14/07

I will start with my funny reads by Sandee at Comedy Plus and Bee at Muffin53 who always lighten up my day.

For a different slant on things I can count on Ed at The Pisstakers with his quips and make sure you check out his Sunday MyBlogLog roundup.

Shine at Shine With Grace has a good post on Wealth, Success and Happiness.

RT at Untwisted Vortex who taught me about blog drive-byes and offers reviews and help for all bloggers. He is very generous with sharing information, tips, and links. Check him out.

Derrick at Sui Generis a 17 year old blogger who has many interesting posts.

Mimi at Mimi Writes is the Queen of Memes and founder of the Peace Globe Movement. I have my globe in my sidebar and you should drop by and pick up yours.

Cleo loves reading Samantha and Tigger over at Life from a Cat's Perspective and Jaya at Cat on my Head

Carol at My View of It keeps me up to date with her slant on political issues in the United States.

Jennifer at Goodness Graciousness has a good post called Stronger than all the Armies of the World. 

Technorati tags: Blog Drive-Byes

He Who Laughs

We can be times in our life where nothing goes right. There doesn't appear to be any end to our condition. This is when it is so easy to give up. We are on the brink of depression or worse.

This is when there is only one hope to cling to. The knowledge that all things pass. Happiness, sadness, despair, joy and all emotions have been and will continue to rise and fall depending on conditions that are beyond our control.

In time conditions will change and bring new opportunities as it always has. Nothing is static in this world. Life by it's nature is dynamic and constantly adapting to change. That is why all things will pass.

When we have hit bottom and feel we are at the bottom of the well looking up and seeing no way out we face our greatest challenge. Accepting our reality as it is without apology or excuse we wait for the change we know will come and be ready.

We need to be a person who dares laugh. For to laugh is to dare, because laughter dares fate and sorrow and the weight of all injustices. When we laugh we change how we are dealing with our situation. We are now in charge rather than being a victim.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: laughter, perspective

The Price of Pain

Pain is a warning of something wrong whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. It is meant to make us pay attention to what is going on to prevent further damage. Pain however is also something we can twist into shackles.

We can use pain is a prison to be kept alive as a penance for a wrong we have done or believe we have done long after it should be over. We can dwell on it until it becomes our constant companion that we feel we deserve.

When we do this it is no longer a warning but a real danger in itself. It does and will continue to color our world through eyes of pain. No one can remove this from our lives but ourselves. It starts with the realization that everyone makes mistakes.

Some mistakes are created when the outcome we expected did not happen and we ended up with results we never anticipated and perhaps hurt someone we cared about. So we feel guilty as if we should have known better and decide we need to keep the pain alive to remind us. A heavy and sometimes lifetime sentence.

We need to acknowledge our mistakes, learn from them and above all forgive ourselves for being human. For some an impossible task.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: pain, mistakes, forgiveness

Being Honest With Ourselves

We all know people who constantly dramatize everything in their lives. Nothing happens to them that is not embellished to maximize how it sounds to other people. They are always on stage and they are the main player.

If we speak to them of a situation then they have one which is worse than or better than our situation. If it is a good story they are the hero and if it a bad story they are the victim. There is a term we could use and that is they are either Drama Queens or Kings.

Perhaps they believe that it gives them the attention they feel they deserve or to make us believe they have an exciting or better life they we have. It really doesn't matter which as they are only cheating themselves. They lie to themselves and others and it becomes a habit. A habit difficult to break.

Change starts by our being honest with ourselves about what is happening in our lives and how we truly feel about it. When we don't like how we feel about our life in some aspect and know it; then, we have the catalyst necessary to make changes.

Being honest with ourselves can be difficult at times especially when it involves highly charged emotional issues. I still struggle with this one just less frequently than in the past.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: honesty, managing change

Dream Big continued

To start it is one where after thinking about it we go; yeah right and a pig could fly and then we laugh at ourselves. But it is a dream that seizes hold of us and won't let go. It brings a smile to our face when we think of what it would mean to us and others. It is something worthwhile and worth doing. It makes a contribution to us and others.

A reader asked yesterday can a dream be too big. I answered:

No you can't magician. What is a lifetime if you are working to bring your dream into being and perhaps you will draw others to the dream. A dream doesn't know the how just the direction. It is the legacy you leave for others. Is there a better one?

A dream may take lifetimes to complete and we are the creator and we know we don't own it. We want others to contribute and share in it. Great things result from a simple idea and that simple idea creates the future.

If the dream is big enough and brings happiness to others as well as to ourselves then the how will take care of itself. Seems to be worth the risk of doubters and struggle.

Do you have a big dream that guides your life?

Technorati tags: dreams, vision

Dream Big

We can have quite a problem creating the vision for our life that resonates with us and provides the drive to lead us to great accomplishments.

Why is it so hard?

We immediately look to our goals that we have decided we want to reach. But are they our dreams? Not usually. Our goals are most of the time things that we believe are within our reach and are based on our current capabilities. 

The problem is that we don't know what our capabilities are. We only know what we have done. We will never test our abilities unless we learn to fail. That is when we have stretched ourselves beyond what we have thought we could do to the point of failure. Is that the end of it? No.

Failure occurs when we are in new territory and we simply did not know all we needed to know to accomplish it on the first pass just like a pitcher failed to get a strike on the first throw. We need to try something different by learning from our failure and trying something new. Often like the pitcher it may take only a minor adjustment to be successful on the next attempt.

The more we fail the greater our ability will grow to accomplish new things.

 Make sense?

Continued with tomorrows post.

Technorati tags: dreams, vision, failure

Seeing

There are stories that natives who had never seen a sailing ship did not see the ship when it was approaching them. It was not until an elder of the tribe saw and pointed them out that the rest saw the ships.

There was a scientific expedition which presented photographs to a tribe that had never seen one before and they could not see the photo. To them it was just paper.

When we think about it we have a way of folding what we see into what we know or believe. However, we have also learned from science that our senses cannot see all that could be seen, hear all that could be heard, smell all that could be smelled, and so on.

The world is indeed a different place for the colorblind, the deaf and the handicapped. Perhaps we shouldn't be so certain that the way we see the world is the only way to see it.

Maybe we need to be more tolerant to someone else's viewpoint before dismissing it.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: perspective, viewpoint

Why Are We Here

A question that has existed through the ages. When we look into the question for ourselves we can find many and varied answers. Is it karma, reincarnation, lessons, a fluke of nature, or God in a myriad of forms? There is no definitive answer.

I believe the answer to the why question is whatever we choose for ourselves to believe. End of story. Hold on you say; what if you are wrong. What then? Then I will be wrong and no different to how I have had to live my life. That is, not knowing the future perfectly and living with my mistakes and learning from them.

Someone might say it will be too late to learn after you are dead and we could answer how do you know that. That is what you have chosen to believe. We could choose to believe that death is a door and we will find out for sure when we go through it and no sooner. That is why it is called faith and yes even an atheist has faith.

Instead I think the question we need to be answering is how do we want to live our life. Do we want it full of fear, anger, love, compassion, or living only for ourselves. This is a far more important question as we have control over how we live no matter what our circumstances.

This is our choice. This is right now.

Crazy?

Technorati tags: living fully, perspective

Disappointments

There was a time when we were young that disappointment was but a momentary blip in our enjoyment of the day. If we didn't get what we wanted it rarely lasted long enough to carry till the next day. There was simply too many other things we get on with.

It appears that the older we get the longer disappointment lasts turning into days, weeks, months and in some cases years. Dwelling on our disappointments does not leave us any time for changing them nor time to pursue our next action.

Disappointment will always be there no matter what we do if we consider ourselves infallible in forecasting the future and linger long after it should. Mistakes are to be learned from not enshrined.

As we get older there can be the feeling that we are running out of time and every disappointment gains more importance than it should because of the pressure we put on ourselves. Keeping alive the feeling of disappointment serves no useful purpose.

How do you shake off disappointment and get on with things?

Technorati tags: issues, perspective

Speaking to Quickly

We should be silent rather than speaking about other people when we are not certain of our facts. We should not act on flimsy assumptions about why people act the way they do.

When we act without knowledge we often end up regretting our speech or actions when the real facts come to light. The damage to relationships both current and possible has already been done.

There is an old Russian proverb that says this well:

Once a word is out of your mouth you can't swallow it again.

We would cause a lot less stress and problems for ourselves if we showed caution in speaking and acting when we do not have first-hand knowledge and we have not checked our information.

We would not like anyone making inaccurate assumptions about ourselves and we should not do that to others. We can certainly be cautious until we determine for ourselves the validity of the information. Silence can be golden.

Your experiences?

Technorati tags: assumptions, relationships

Impatience

We seem to always be in such a hurry to get things done, make decisions, or take action. We often take the fastest route usually the first solution that offers itself and plunge ahead implementing it.

Then we end up kicking ourselves for not seeing the additional problems our solution creates. We have adopted the instant fix philosophy as if any delay is a reflection on our ability to think and appear in control and decisive.

We of course need to handle simple problems quickly such as what to have for supper, when to leave for work and the like. However, for important decisions we need to learn patience.

The first solution may not be the best solution. We need to give some time for other solutions to come to mind. Usually additional solutions come when we are not directly thinking about the problem.

When we have several solutions then we can sometimes combine them into a better plan for us to follow. At least coming back to a solution after some time has passed gives us a fresh perspective and a better handle on whether it is the right one or not.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: decisions, perspective

Magic Carpets

There is a unspoken belief generally held that when we are following our heart's desire that we will be swept away by rapture and all things will become enjoyable.

Nothing could be further from the truth. We will still need to take out the garbage, change the diapers, sit in the local parking lot called rush hour. pay bills and so on.

Life continues while we are fulfilling our quest and we must meet it's demands no matter how petty or time consuming they may be. It would be nice to have a magic carpet to whisk us away from the mundane and bestow the gift of success without dealing with what has to be done.

When we are looking for that magic carpet and ignoring all other opportunities that would involve doing some things we don't like doing then we will fail. Which may be why so many people never embark on the journey that would create the dream they have.

After a while we can get in the habit of only looking for the impossible and so end up at the end of our life not having tried anything.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: impossible quests

Unfinished Issues

We know of people that seem to always be moving from issue to issue and never resolving one. Sometimes it is the same issue over and over and sometimes it is one after another.

The problem with unresolved issue is that they are like scratches that get infected when untreated and end up being a serious mess with a long healing process.

There are issues which do not have a solution and should be dropped but instead we can often keep them on the back burner waiting for a solution to arrive. What a waste of time and effort. Generally by the time a solution arrives we are the only ones that remember it.

It is our choice of how we spend our time and what we focus on. Is it worthwhile gnawing on old bones or should we just resolve them even if that resolution is just our decision not to spend anymore time on it.

Is it time to clean out the file cabinet marked unresolved issues? 

Technorati tags: issues, wasted time

Happiness

I like to revisit what I believe to be our primary purpose in living our lives. I write about it in various ways to provide different perspectives in the hope that at some point it makes us think about it and consider it.

That our happiness is not a frivolous flyweight fantasy but is indeed a legitimate and satisfying purpose for our lives.

One must practice the things which produce happiness, since if that is present we have everything and if it is absent we do everything in order to have it. ~ Epicurus

Happiness seems to come in moments when we feel no internal conflicts and we feel at harmony with self and the world. We accept all that is and our place in the scheme of things including our desires and our judgements. Very much like children.

It does not mean that we have thrown away our responsibilities and are carefree in that sense but that we are not in conflict with those responsibilities and their demands. It also does not mean that we do not have external conflicts, issues, doubts, fears that arise from the shear fact of living.

We have fully accepted our human condition and found the  ability to love ourselves and forgive ourselves especially when we screw up. We have also learnt not to take ourselves too seriously and realize that both the highs and lows will indeed pass with time. We have learnt to extend that same love and forgiveness to others.

Happiness does not come automatically. It is not a gift that good fortune bestows on us and a reversal of fortune takes back. It depends on us alone. One does not become happy overnight, but with patient labor, day after day. Happiness is constructed, and that takes effort and time. In order to become happy, we have to learn how to change ourselves. ~ Luca and Francesco Cavalli-Sporza

 Your thoughts?

Related Posts:

Seeking Happiness

What is Happiness

Happiness and Goals

Happiness as a Purpose

Technorati tags: happiness