Sunday, November 30, 2008

Curiosity - A Good Thing



I am aggressively curious. I never know enough. I search for more and want to learn each and every moment of my life. I am not concerned with having to do it right or having done it wrong.


If something doesn't work, or doesn't accomplish the greatest amount of good, then it is discarded, rather than mulled over in regret. I am a truth seeker in the learning sense, always excited about learning more and never believing I am a finished product.


If I am around a barber, I want to learn about barbering. I learn from children, stockbrokers and animals. I want to know more about what it means to be a welder, a cook, a hooker, or a corporate vice-president. I am a learner not a teacher.


Every person, every object, every event represents an opportunity for knowing more. And I am aggressive in my interests, not waiting for information to come along, but going after it. I'm not afraid to talk to a waitress or ask a dentist what it feels like to have your hands in someone's mouth all day, or inquire of the poet what is meant by this or that.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Our Purpose


Here's a piece I edited from Elizabeth Kubler Ross some years ago.
It can stand as what I truly believe!


Our Purpose


Whether or not we understand fully who we are,
or what happens when we die;
It is our purpose as human beings
to look within ourselves,
to find and build our individual
strength and understanding.
And then reach out to others,
with love, acceptance, and patient guidance;
in hope of what we may become together.

And this one is from the oft quoted "Author Unknown"


May Evening Find me Gentle


Give me a few friends who will love me for who I am
or am not.
Keep ever burning before my wandering steps
the kindly light of hope.
And though age and infirmity overtake me
and I come not in sight of the castle of my dreams,
teach me still to be thankful for life
and time's old memories
that are good and sweet.
And may the evening twilight find me gentle still.

Relationship and Expectations


Continuing with the affirmations from Dr. Dyer's Erroneous Zones:


I value honesty. I am not evasive with my responses.

I know that I'm in charge of my own world, and others are in charge of their own as well.

I deal with what is, rather than what I would like it to be.

I don't blame. I don't spend a great deal of time talking about others and focussing on what someone else has done or failed to do. [ I need to read that one often]


I have little concern with order, organization or system in my life. I have self-discipline but have no need to have things and people fit into my own perceptions of how everything ought to be. I do not see the world as having to be a certain way. I have no preoccupation with cleanliness and orderliness. I exist in a functional way and if everything isn't fitting in as I would prefer, I find that all right too. Because of this I can be creative.


I attack any concern in my own way, be it making a bowl of soup, writing a report, or mowing the grass. I apply my own imagination to the act, and the result is a creative approach to everything. I don't have to do it a certain way. I simply attack a problem as I see fit. This is creativity and I have it.