Huh! A little corner for miscellaneous perspectives and insights.
|
|
Article Source: The Positive Observer
 December. A beautiful conclusion to an extraordinary year. What a year it has been! A year unlike any we have seen in quite some time. December represents so many things, as does every month in the year. December represents both a beginning and an end on how we sort time. December not only concludes yet another 31 day chapter in the story-book of life, but it also encompasses a 365 day cycle. The words, story lines and genres have been written. The contents are documented for future reference. But what about context of each page and chapter? Has that been documented yet or is it still to be written? So many learnings to reflect upon.
A new chapter is about to begin with the coming of the New Year. Then again, every minute of every day is a new chapter. Whether the past year, present time or tomorrow's wonder, determine what you believe in. What do you hold as valuable? Has your participation in previous chapters offered new-found clarity in what you hold firm and true? Has "life" become more present to you based upon the circumstances you have experienced or is "life" still distant in certain areas?
|
|
|
Article Source: The Positive Observer
 Consider all the things that you have lived this past year. All the things you have seen. All the things that you have known. All you have been and all you are now.
With pen in hand or fingers positioned over your keypad, reflect back over this past year. Consider past moments and the opportunities to find creative material to write a poem or song. The context of your choices will provide insight of where you were, where you are now and the journey between both points in time.
Find the words that best describe you and your experiences. Let your art be something that you will pass along to your children and their children. Let the words and lyrics reflect on what you have been and what you are now. What are the lessons and the learnings? Convey your new found messages on what you now know are important in your immediate life and the life around you.
Now consider composing another poem or song at the beginning of each year. That's right, the beginning. Find your heart song. Saturate the prose with imagination, intensity and focus. Recite or sing the words throughout the year as a reminder, but be open to add additional lines as new experiences and accomplishments reveal themselves.
Do this exercise for yourself. Do this for your children. Poetry and music, whether spoken or sung, represent our many worldly cultures. Both speak and contain our histories and choices over the millenniums. They speak of our individual souls as well as our collective experiences.
|
|
|
Article Source: The Positive Observer
 The past year has been a year of prayer. Prayers have been present in the home, throughout the country and across the world. The reasons for prayer have been based on both want and on need. Prayers have been directed towards religious sources as well as spiritual sources. Many were self initiated, while others were conducted in group settings. Regardless of the parameters surrounding each, consider the quality of each prayer. Ask yourself and ask others.
What degree of individual involvement occurred before, during and after each prayer? What part of the individual was expressed? Where did the words come from? Were the prayers based solely on reactions towards other people and entities or were they a means to unify with self, self connections and a higher source of power? These questions are not to criticize or congratulate the efforts made; rather, they are a means to determine substance and intent. Prayers are more than just pleading, begging, demanding, petitioning, appealing and requesting help. They are a sincere devotion between self, higher self and a higher power.
Prayer is a beautiful and powerful practice. It is important to be mindful of where you are in the prayer and what the outcome is to be. Where and how is prayer in your life? How have or do you act on your prayers? Will your actions be based around trying or actually doing? Changes do happen all the time, but have you positioned yourself to actually notice the changes and be a part of them? Are you truly ready to embrace them once they begin to reveal themselves? If prayer is truly from the heart, then the outcomes and opportunities that are a result of the prayer will be obvious.
Finally, consider what you will do with the resources and outcomes of the prayer once they are obtained? Will you exploit them, ignore them, hoard them, waste them or will you apply them towards your spiritual-evolutionary path or support others in their own endeavors?
"By having more resources, you can find out more about what kind of person you are." - Jose Luis Stevens
|
|
|
Article Source: The Positive Observer
 What promises or commitments have you made over the last 12 months? What are you promising to do tomorrow? Have you followed through on any of your childhood promises? Do you foresee yourself satisfying most of your life long promises by the time you reach the latter years of your physical life?
Regardless of where you currently are on your to-do list, determine where your focus is and what level of commitment you have at this point. Is your focus on you, on others or on the greater community? Is there actual substance within each promise or just a facade of confidence and determination? Simple affirmations are good to make, but are often short term fixes that can quickly fade away. Instead, consider establishing long-term objectives that lay the foundations for growth and beneficial change? Roots grow best when love and audacity flow through them.
Successful promises have intention behind them. Intention leaves little room for mere wishing or hope. Rather, intention is your choice to make something happen, no matter what. Know and have strong feelings blended in with your intentions. Feel good about the attention you are directing towards the promise. Here lies motivation.
Establish an element of certainty when embarking on a new promise. Start in the present tense (be present in your words). There is no trying, there is just doing! You have to want it; really want it. See it happening. You need to go beyond just the possibility that it will happen, that change will occur. You are the architect, builder and end user of a promise. People around you will benefit depending on how well you design, build and complete the promise.
|
|
|
 Article Source: The Positive Observer
PART II:
Being Human...Community
Back, by popular demand from our previous segment: Intro - PART I .
According to Virginia Satir, noted American author and psychotherapist, a human being's strongest instinct is To Make Things Familiar. "People will die before they'll face the unfamiliar. There is a tremendous instinct to make everything like everything else." Do you find yourself entrenched in routines of familiarity? To what extreme will you allow yourself to go? Have you noticed other individuals or groups in society campaigning to maintain habitual outcomes or beliefs?
What if there is change? What happens when diversity is allowed to happen and things do become less familiar? Is it the actual change that people fear or is it the idea of change that people fear? For a fundamentalist, the idea of change is the fear. They will act within and above their means to prevent the change from actually happening in the first place. Little to no effort is granted to be inquisitive or to experience what a change might have to offer, even when obvious benefits are presented. Keep in mind, a fundamentalist's fundamentalism is their primary concern. They place their agenda before anything else and leave little room for other considerations.
|
|
Read more... [Fundamentalism - PART II: Being Human - Community]
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 Next > End >>
|
| Results 9 - 16 of 32 |
