Changes

As I have written about many times that change comes to us whether we want it or not and we need to flow with it. In my case my disability payments are running out and I cannot return to my previous work so I will need to adjust. I need to at this time find new work, a new place to live, and probably a home for my cat Cleo.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers and the friends that I have made through this blog for their participation in making writing this blog so enjoyable for me. I know that I have your best wishes and I have fond memories of our conversations.
I will return to writing if I have the opportunity and I wish you all the best for the future.

One Breath

 We are but one breath from death and so should seize life in both hands and live fully in the only moment we have for certain; right now.

How easy it is to get fixated on what are really inconveniences and so structure our lives around our problems. What a box to live in. Our walls are defined by our problems, our ceiling by our lack of perspective, and our floor by our depths of despair.

We can't escape our box unless we realize that our future is always a field of possibilities not certainties and is limited only by us. It is our courage and our hopes that are the driving force for change when we seize on what is possible rather than what we restrict our choices to.

Remember we are only one breath away so choose with courage.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: life, death, choice, hope

Choices Define Us

Definitely one of the focus points on this blog has been about choice. The reason the emphasis is placed on choice is because our choices define us.

Can you think of any result in our lives where our choices were not part of the factors that created that result?

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: choice, life, results

Approval Junkies

We all like to receive approval from others. We start with our parents as we grow up and then include friends, teachers, bosses, social groups, extended families and so on.

We can get so involved in the continual seeking of approval that we extend it from relationships to our choices. Choices such as food, clothing, entertainment, possessions, attitudes, philosophies, and the like.

Where does it stop?

For some people never. They can live their entire lives in the shadow of other people's approval without ever stopping and determining for themselves what is important and how do they want to conduct their lives. Is it any wonder that business thrives on our being approval junkies.

If we live our lives this way we can reach the point where we become afraid of thinking for ourselves. Why someone else may not like it and so we never speak out or create because we have lost our ability to do so. We don't know who we are anymore unless we check the opinion poll.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: purpose, life, vision

Followers

It is amazing to talk or read people who consider themselves to be independent thinkers to find that they are really parrots. Yes parrots. They simply repeat popular sayings, thoughts, and philosophies simply because they are the current trend.

When you discuss almost any key topic with them they flounder when challenged on why they think the way they do. They have no depth of thought, no personalization of the topic, and they produce arguments which are not thought out or do not support their contention.

In short they really don't think they just parrot what they read in the paper, watch on TV, or find on the Internet. They are not independent thinkers because they don't think about the topics they just digest what they are fed.

Thinking is a skill that needs to be practiced to become good at it. People who have thinking skills do not usually think that their viewpoint is necessarily the "truth" but an ongoing exploration open to question and revision. They are prepared to listen and discuss.

In boils down to the fact that the second you don't think then you follow. Something to think about.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: thinking skills, followers

Choices Choices

We often think that when we make choices that they apply only in the moment and we can when we find out that we don't like the old choice then we can just make a new one. True but a very narrow perspective on the implications of making choices.

Each choice we make is of course the best one we can see at the time of making it which means that we will end up living with that choice until such time as we see that the results are not to our expectations.

There is no such thing as no impact from making a choice. A choice is a commitment to action on our part even if only a mental one. There is no going back to the past to start over as if the choice had not been made.

Choice is a powerful tool and we might even say that there is no such thing as trivial choices as each one changes our possibilities for future choices.

Your thoughts?

Circumstances

We can complain about the circumstances that we find ourselves in but that would only be complaining about life itself. We don't have absolute control over our circumstances as we would know from what happens to us daily.

Even a very cursory examination shows that we can't choose our circumstances however we can delude ourselves into believing we can. Our circumstances are a combination of the results of our choices and what life throws at us without our input. Just try stopping the rain.

We can however choose what to do with our circumstances in our response to them in the choice of our actions. We need to remind ourselves from time to time that we end up living our choices which can expand us or contract us.

Our power lies in the ability to make choices with whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. We are never powerless through circumstances but only through our choices.

Choose wisely.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: circumstances, choice, managing change

Accountability

Some people have a tendency to seek to blame others for the results of the decisions they made. It is how they delude themselves into believing they are not responsible for their actions. They are also fond of holding people accountable for things beyond their control.

This is the ultimate blindness as they have disconnected results from actions and entered a dream world. As long as they remain in that dream state nothing will change.

It takes great courage to examine ourselves and be honest in accepting responsibility for results. When we have done that then we can start to master change instead of being at the whim of change.

Knowing ourselves is our hero's quest and rising above our errors leads to wisdom. With wisdom we finally gain perspective.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: accountability, managing change

Peace

I don't pretend I know what it would take for peace in the world with so many different factions warring over so many different issues. Is peace even possible seems a more revelent question to ask. Regardless of what our concept of peace I think that at the bottom of it is the desire to create a better life for ourselves, our loved ones, and the need to leave them a better world when we have passed on.
The way things are going I just can't see it happening anytime in the near future and that is about the saddest statement I think I could make about the future. But I have hope and I have a desire to see peace for all. That is my starting point. I can't see it or know how it might happen or when but I have hope.
When we lose hope then the dream is really lost beyond 
redemption so I cling to that hope for myself and mankind and ask that others 
hold that hope alive so that we may create a better future.
The basic starting is our hope that will inspire us to seek ways, compromises, and actions that will eventually turn it into truth.

Blog Blast for Peace

Mimi from Mimi Writes is holding a blogblast for peace on November 7, 2007. All interested parties should go over and collect or create a peace globe for their post.

Ripples

We have a tendency to look at our present moment and the actions we take in that moment as a kind of direct cause and effect relationship. Do something and get a result.

Using a different perspective we could say that our action in the present moment is like tossing a pebble into water. The pebble causes ripples to spread out from the point of impact that are even until they encounter an obstacle such as a stick or wall and then the ripple changes not through our action but through interaction.

In life the interaction is caused by other people reacting to our actions who in turn toss their own pebble creating ripples that interact with ours. This then is the effect that is generated from our actions and it is definitely not a direct cause and effect.

We could then say that our present actions cause future possibilities that we could not of foreseen and therefore all our actions and expectations enter the realm of possibilities and not certainty.

In essence the expectations of the results from our actions are really much like throwing dice. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose and there is rarely any certainty in life.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: life, results, gambling, possibilities

Inconvenient

There are many ways to look at the word inconvenient. First is the conventional view of things that occur in a way that interferes with us reaching our goals or objectives. For some people kids are inconvenient, relationships are inconvenient, or any demand on their time not for their own purpose.

Perhaps there is a second way to use this term as it applies to life. If we were to start by saying that there is really only one true cast iron problem in life; that is death. Given that the only problem that can stop us is death then perhaps every other problem we have is merely inconvenient.

Yes it is inconvenient to be poor, disabled, homeless, uneducated, lacking skills, poor relationship skills, and a myriad of other issues that we may have to contend with just by living. Life is generally not a story book hero's quest that magically leads to the keys of the kingdom. Life is very inconvenient when it comes to our wishes and wants but it is only inconvenient and not a terminal condition.

However we can often treat inconveniences as if they spell an end to our dreams rather than showing us that we need to choose a different path to continue onwards. It is only a temporary setback unless we choose to make it permanent. It is a hurdle we need to jump rather than a wall we often make it.

Yes life is inconvenient but that is no excuse for us to stop striving.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: life, vision, managing change

Just Start

When we have big dreams and big hopes we have a tendency to spend time making sure we have the best possible odds in our favor. Nothing wrong with that desire but it can and does become a form of procrastination.

Every day that goes by usually gives us more problems to solve and more i's to dot and t's to cross. It will be never ending and usually leads to us to abandoning our dream till a better time arises which never comes.

What we need to remember is that even the most important matters have a unique and simple beginning although we usually do not recognize it to long after. Most of us meet our future significant other or start our career by chance not by design. We take advantage of an opportunity that later leads to great rewards by simple taking a action that is simple.

Sometimes we can accomplish more by just starting and then changing as our circumstances change and new opportunities that the results of our actions provide come up for us. Each in itself simple steps but lead us somewhere profound.

Your thoughts?

Technorati tags: start, simplicity, dreams