The more of my heart someone holds, the less able I am to hear them, when they are in a phase of not liking me so much.
If I listen long enough and well enough I will see you and love you.
If there are any lessons to be learned from the Ukraine situation, I hope one of them is that by seeing people’s suffering that we as Americans pause before we do something similar to another people. Whether those people manifest themselves in the form of a country, a race, an ethnicity, a religion, a social movement, or……..
And I know, I know, I’ve been told that this kind of hope is little more than a source of self-inflicted pain.
We are asked to be in the present. Anyone who has tried it will tell you how difficult that is. Science suggests our brain consistently operates on a 15-minute time delay. During that time, it is trying to figure out what it has experienced the previous 15 minutes. So, once again, it’s not my fault, “my brain made me do it.”
A teacher of mine told me “It is impossible to be unhappy and fully present in the same moment.” Given the aforementioned, no wonder there are times when I am unhappy.
Speaking of the meditative arts, it has been suggested that meditation can help us live longer and better lives. That is good, right? A recent study suggests that meditators also have the worst saving habits and are less likely to be able to take care of themselves later in life. My son coined a term, “automate before you meditate.” Which means set up your savings to happen automatically, then meditate and you’ll be more than fine.
If you live in Canada, you can get a doctors’ prescription to take a trip to a national forest. “Oh, Canada….”
There are no inconsistencies, another teacher once suggested, it is just that I have too small a perspective, of myself, of you, of our world.
How do I contribute to the destruction of my mother, the earth? I fly. I drive a car. I drink water out of plastic bottles, I eat meat…. Even though I recycle, the largest part of what I don’t need any more gets buried in a landfill. It is important for me to be aware of that. That awareness changes my behaviors. Not enough, but a little.
When I told a mentor of mine that I try to treat everyone equally, he said “Son, there is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of un-equals.”
Research suggests that actually physically making and crossing things of a list when finished is healthy for my psyche and good for the health of my brain.
Every decade after the age of 50, scientists suggest we lose 2% of our body weight, 20-50% of our frontal cortex neurons (the part that distinguishes us from other mammals), 50% of our visual capabilities and 50% of our physical/sensory capacity. The intellectual cell loss is much less. That sounds like bad news, but It is also suggested that short term memory loss makes room for more meaning capability, wisdom gathering, summary ability; all designed to capture and share the essence of our human experience. So, I can forget worrying about not being able to remember things, my brain is just doing its normal thing. Making room for passing on the wisdom I have collected over my lifetime. Now, if I can just find someone who cares to listen…… 😊
Kommentarer