Past Ponders
“There’s a huge amount of suffering that is generated not by the actual challenges of life but by the fictitious problems that the mind creates.” –Eckhart Tolle
A mountain out of a molehill, speaks to the capabilities of my creative minds ability for fiction.
"No one is the worst thing they've ever done." -Oprah Winfrey
I've spent so much time pointing fingers at what others may or may not have done, have forgotten that I am no better nor worse than anyone else.
"If you do nothing unexpected, nothing unexpected happens." -Fay Weldon
Routines are great for my everyday redundancies but can potentially stifle growth if I have no room for unique activity.
"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." -Marcus Aurelius
I don't want to be told to; It is more comfortable to seek pity; It feels unimaginable; But every time I decide to say 'no' to suffering, its power over me dissipates.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” -Maya Angelou
Nothing resonates more to me than a story that offers possibility and gives hope. Much more powerful than advice so quickly administered it can create feelings of being less than.
"Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you figure out what you have to say." -Barbara Kingsolver
Once I chose to be true to myself—not the version I thought others needed me to be—that’s when the page turned, and I felt the release. No more pressure to perform for an unwitting audience.
"You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself." -John Steinbeck
Although I am magnificently unique from you, I've learned the internal struggles we face are not so different. The desire to be happy, joyous and free. I should honor that in you as well as myself, when I feel a judgment coming on.
"Expose yourself to your deepest fear. After that, fear has no power, and fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free." – Jim Morrison
The feelings and emotions in my life are present because I granted them permission to be there.
“You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place.” -Maya Angelou
Labeling, classifying and sorting appear to create comfort for me at the cost of some else. I learned this recipe for resentment and anger on the playground.
"The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic." -Kevin Kelly
My best creative work - passion, personal or vocation - comes when I take time to pause and stop thinking so hard about resolutions, solutions or reactions.
"Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is." -Saul Bellow
Is my laser focus on commerce so important that I summarily dismiss the inquisitive child tugging on my shirt...or the needy humbly asking for help?
"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right." -Robert Hunter
I can see quite a distance through a telescope, but while doing so, am blind to that inches away on the left or right.
"I have been bent and broken, but — I hope — into a better shape." -Charles Dickens
If I over invest in an outcome, I am likely to over respond when it is recognized. Give my best effort and hope for an expected outcome will reduce my suffering should it not be.