On This Planet: Unlikely Teachers and Hidden Gifts
The game of “Let’s Pretend” is a game we probably all played as children. I think we continue to play as adults—we just forget we’re playing.
Support for life’s “key” moments.
The game of “Let’s Pretend” is a game we probably all played as children. I think we continue to play as adults—we just forget we’re playing.
A good friend gave me a book last week, thinking I might like it. The book is “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion” by Jesuit Priest Gregory Boyle about his work with gangs in Los Angeles, CA. Reading the first chapters in the early spring sun this morning at Beach Pea in Kittery, Maine, I feel calm and centered and blessed.
Until you notice you’ve been hooked, you can’t do anything about it. You will unconsciously act out the emotion the same way each time because you aren’t there. But! When you can see yourself, even after the fact …. Ah! Everything is different. Because now you have awareness.
When I choose a new emotional response and repeat it often enough — no, I won’t scream, I’ll breathe and center instead — I form a new habit. I move from impulsive to intelligent behavior.
When I begin something new—like a new project, a new creation, or a new year—I think about these things. What am I doing here? Why am I doing it? What impulse drives me forward? How will I find my way when (inevitably) I get lost, lose energy, or run up against a worthy obstacle?
In the coming weeks, as you seek to find the perfect gifts for those you love, consider that what they might really want from you are not presents, but Presence—the true gift of Christmas.
You sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with the best of intentions. You want to savor the stuffing and delight in the pumpkin pie. You know you have a long list of blessings to count. But then it happens . . . your mom treats you like a child, your uncle insults your political beliefs, and your brother, whom you haven’t seen in months, asks if you’ve put on a few pounds.
I am given many dance partners in life. Whether the dance is easy or difficult is influenced at least in part by me.
With awareness, I discover what causes me to act and what holds me back; I clarify choices, and I practice purposeful action.
My Happy Dollars article got so many responses last month, I thought I’d post a few here!